Sometimes twitchy video game genres, such as fighting games and shmups, don’t provide the kind of challenge you crave. Fast-paced, action-focused titles have their place, but now and then you need the exhilaration and accomplishment that comes from conquering foes with impeccable planning. That’s when strategy and tactics games prove appealing.
There’s a fine line between the strategy and tactics genres. Strategy games typically task you with managing all battle aspects, such as harvesting energy sources and building bases or troops. The StarCraft games are excellent examples. Tactics games, on the other hand, typically focus on maneuvering troops and other combat elements. Gears Tactics represents the category well. Games in either category can operate in a turn-based or real-time fashion.
But enough talk—it’s time to play some games. These are the best strategy and tactics titles on PC.
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Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock
For decades, the Battlestar Galactica property has thrilled sci-fi nerds, with both the original 1978 series and the 2004 reboot achieving cult classic status. The Black Lab Games-developed Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock sets itself on ground left relatively untouched by either series, inserting you into the throes of the first Cylon war.
The turn-based tactics game puts you in command of the entire colonial fleet and the disposition of its forces. Though some tactical elements occasionally feel unbalanced, Deadlock does justice to the franchise by delivering incredible space battles and intriguing lore.
Battletech is a pure adaptation of the classic board game that was first published in 1984 by FASA Corporation. Jordan Weisman, one of the board game’s creators, played an executive role in this modern take. As a result, the PC game’s universe is rich and storied, with the setting echoing a strangely effective combination of giant robots and medieval feudalism. In Battletech, noble houses project their battlefield influences using Battlemechs, or ‘Mechs, piloted by knights or sellswords called Mechwarriors. This means lots of action as you position units, launch attacks, and try to outsmart your opponent. That said, Battletech has a level of randomness that feels unfair at times.
Mainline Gears of War games are cover-based shooters that put you in the boots of muscled soldiers who defend humanity from the mutant horde called the Locust. Miraculously, Xbox Game Studios’ Gears Tactics—the franchise’s first venture into the turn-based, tactics genre—preserves many series hallmarks, including wild melee executions, cover-heavy environments, and waves of overaggressive enemies.
Action points, travel lines, range cones, and the ability to recruit new troops give the game its tactical elements. Cheap enemy spawning leads to frustrating moments, though.
Halo Wars 2 is a real-time strategy game set within Xbox Game Studios’ popular Halo universe. Utilizing a rock-paper-scissors-styled combat system, Halo Wars 2 tasks you with developing bases and armies to combat hostile alien forces.
Once you familiarize yourself with your units and resource production, it’s just a matter of building the right troops for the job at hand, whether that means capturing enemy bases, defending your own base, or surviving the enemy waves. Halo Wars 2’s simple design makes the RTS experience accessible for both newcomers and veterans, but the game doesn’t do much to invigorate the genre besides adding the esports-friendly Blitz mode.
StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void
The third and final StarCraft II expansion is a fantastic conclusion to Blizzard’s real-time strategy saga and a great entry point into one of the most complex, but satisfying games ever made.
Unlike the previous StarCraft II expansion, Legacy of the Void doesn’t require you to buy any previous versions of the game to play this package. It’s completely standalone. Factor in a varied single-player campaign, gorgeous cinematics, and new noob-friendly co-op modes, and you’ll see that Legacy of the Void is one of the best PC games of all time.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is a sci-fi real-time strategy game in which you build structures and gather resources to build an army and defeat your opponent through cunning tactics and sheer firepower. Nothing could quite live up to the hype surrounding the real-time strategy game’s release, but, even so, this is a wonderful title. The story is well-paced, and the strategy and resource-management missions will lock you into finishing the game.
Gas Powered Games’ Supreme Commander 2 probably doesn’t deserve the word “supreme” in its title, but then changing the title would defeat the purpose of making a sequel. Not that this game isn’t a fine follow-up to the 2007 original, but it’s definitely aimed at a broader (and less patient) audience.
With much of the micromanagement minutiae reduced or removed entirely, Supreme Commander 2 is more of a garden-variety real-time strategy title than a proud member of a distinctive series. Still, it’s a lot of fun if you can accept the gameplay changes.
The XCOM games aren’t for the impatient or faint of heart. The brutal, turn-based tactic gameplay relies heavily on random chance, permanent unit death, and an overarching campaign that takes many hours of careful resource management. Unfortunately, casual strategy fans may find the experience daunting. The Firaxis-developed XCOM: Chimera Squad, on the other hand, is a friendlier, more accessible XCOM game.
This spin-off game keeps the setting and general feel of the XCOM series, but reduces the stakes by offering a single city to protect, a modest squad of diverse (and pre-created) units, and a more forgiving combat system. XCOM: Chimera Squad lacks the general brutality of the mainline PC games, but it still scratches that strategy itch.
Firaxis succeeded in rekindling a long-dead franchise with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This turn-based tactics game reimagines 1994’s X-COM: UFO Defense, a long-beloved game that last saw a sequel in 2001 with the ill-received shooter X-COM: Enforcer.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown feels like a straight remake of the original, bringing almost everything gamers loved about it to the PC (tactical gameplay, permadeath, resource management), along with updated graphics, streamlined gameplay, and plenty of challenge.
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