Best Turn-Based Strategy Games That Require Deep Thinking, Ranked

Back in the good old days, strategy games were played on tabletops where players had time to take their time with each turn. The turn-based model encouraged game design with lots of options, choices, and of course, immense pitfalls to fall into. That means that the turn-based strategy games demand deep thinking.

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Whether it’s trying to calculate the best solution out of hundreds, or trying to plan out a series of events turns in advance, there are plenty of turn-based strategy games that require a player to think deeply before they make a move.

8

The Banner Saga

The Great Journey

Released

January 14, 2014

Developer(s)

Stoic Studio

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

The strategy game is beloved by many gamers for its cerebral qualities, but it’s less well known for its storytelling abilities, particularly on the granular scale of individual characters. Luckily, Stoic Studio’s 2014 hit Banner Saga showed that deep thinking and great stories can co-exist.

In Banner Saga and its brilliant sequels, players are put in charge of pilgrimage across a Norse world that is on the brink of collapse. Battles require a thorough understanding of character roles and thinking ahead, while decisions made out in the story can affect the success of the whole pilgrimage.

7

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Back To School

Systems

Released

July 26, 2019

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

While Western games tend to have more of a long-lasting history in strategy games, Japanese game devs have carved out a dedicated fanbase of their own, partially due to the immense success of the Fire Emblem series that iterated on the XCOM formula by making permadeath a key part of the experience.

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, players not only need to think ahead on the battlefield (and even their love life), but also consider how the choices made in the visual novel school sections of the game impact the battles. The game’s interlocking systems require deep thinking to make sure that the optimum result is discovered, particularly on the game’s brutal harder difficulties.

6

Age of Wonders 4

Your Own Worst Enemy

Released

May 2, 2023

Developer(s)

Triumph Studios

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

Despite being venerable and veteran franchise, the Age of Wonders games have never quite permeated the mainstream, particularly the 4X Civilization crowd that it’s aiming for. However, it’s still well worth trying, particularly for gamers who want a step up in strategic complexity from the Civilization games.

Unlike Civilization, the actual battles of Age of Wonders 4 are intricate grid-based challenges where preparation, unit composition, unique culture units, and a long list of abilities and buffs define the optimum play style. Even better, if your society succeeds, it’s possible to stumble into the future again as a rival AI in another game.

5

Triangle Strategy

The Old Style Reborn

Systems

Released

March 4, 2022

OpenCritic Rating

Strong

In the wake of the totemic Final Fantasy Tactics, perhaps one of the greatest strategy games ever made, gamers had been clamoring for a sequel from Square Enix on modern consoles, but that request was met with deafening silence for the longest time until Triangle Strategy.

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Taking strong inspiration from Final Fantasy Tactics and bringing into the modern day, Triangle Strategy is a demanding strategy game that requires players to engage with all of its unique combat systems to succeed on the turn-based battlefield. For fans of old-school strategy, Triangle Strategy is a must-play.

Resisting the Alien Force

Released

February 5, 2016

OpenCritic Rating

Mighty

If Final Fantasy Tactics is on the Mount Rushmore of strategy games, then the XCOM series is surely right beside it as a pioneer of the genre in digital form, telling the compelling story of fighting an alien invasion on a global scale with intricate team compositions and infamous percentage change of hits and misses.

While the game is complex enough on its own, it turns into a sinister puzzle when the player realizes that if their soldier dies, they’re gone forever, ruining meticulous squad compositions and being genuinely sad at the same time. That means taking their time during the turn, making sure that each move is as good as it can possibly be, or else face dire consequences.

3

Into The Breach

Chess for the Modern Age

Released

February 27, 2018

Simply put, Into the Breach is the sequel to FTL: Faster than Light that no one expected, but every gamer needed. The game seems simple enough on the surface as a grid-based battle game, but the intense difficulty and ability to see what an enemy is about to do turns a simple game into a competitor with the complexity of chess.

With only three mechs on the battlefield, the player is forced to make tough decisions, forecasting out into the future, neutralizing enemies while deflecting the attacks of others, using abilities, and positioning them to make the AI’s job harder. It’s a devious puzzle-box of a game that requires deep thinking to fully comprehend its simple but great combat system.

2

Civilization 5

The Best It Ever Was (Debatably)

Platform(s)

Microsoft Windows, macOS

Released

September 21, 2010

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

ESRB

e

While it’s difficult to choose on Civilization game above any other, as everyone has their personal favorite, consensus is increasingly growing that Civilization 5, with all its DLCs and expansions, is the platonic ideal of a modern 4X strategy game that delivers on most every front, with fans still playing to this day cycling through its brilliant roster of leaders.

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The classic city-building tile-manipulation unit-creation engine-building goodness of the Civilization games remains strong, but the complexity of city placement, forging allies, prioritizing resources, and picking the best time to fight takes a relatively simplistic 4X into one that requires constant re-evaluation and deep thinking.

1

Final Fantasy Tactics

The Stone-Cold Classic

Systems

Released

June 20, 1997

Developer(s)

Square

ESRB

t

In a list of strategy games that require deep thinking, it’s hard to think of any other game that supersedes the sheer majesty of Final Fantasy Tactics, the PS1 game that introduced countless gamers to the strategy genre and in large part remains unsurpassed to this day.

The game is infamous for its incredible difficulty, its great story, and a series of perfectly designed interlocking game systems that require players to think of their turns well in advance if they have any chance of succeeding. It’s unrelenting, but incredibly rewarding, setting out the path down which all other strategy games walk ever since.

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