Top new strategy games

That doesn't mean they can't involve those elements: diplomacy is often an important element in asymmetric wargames; subtle forms of bluffing can dramatically change the outcomes of card-playing games; understanding or even controlling the pace of a game can be crucial to winning victory points when it matters most. But in all of these instances, strategic understanding and optimization of the game's central mechanics come first.

Some great strategy games can come down to a die roll, but if they do, it probably means you haven't played as well as you could've. In short, it is possible to win strategy games through pure strategy; it is not so through full dependence on the social or chance-based elements of the game.

The games I've chosen to focus on in this article are board games as opposed to war or card games , and they tend to center strategy. That means narrative-heavy legacy games like Gloomhaven don't make the cut. Like chess or Go, these are games you can play a hundred times and always enjoy, even though the mechanics stay the same each time.

They also aren't cooperative, as playing against an automated foe almost never will develop strategy like human opponents co-op games, like Pandemic or Dead of Winter , usually have an "ideal" way to play them, and the strategy largely drops off once you've gained more experience with them.

In Gaia Project, players seek to expand their alien race's control over a galaxy, making planets habitable to their race, building structures on them, gaining knowledge and furthering research. This strategic board game has a fairly steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with Eurogames, but once you get into your first game, you'll understand the basics within a round or two.

But the strategy is deep: you can play as a dozen different races, with unique abilities and research bonuses; the modular board means the galaxy you're colonizing never looks the same; and many of the scoring and construction bonuses are randomized each game, so the same strategy won't win every time. Gaia Project is a masterclass in game design, and a complete joy to play. Conquest games have come a long way since Risk, and one of the best is Rising Sun -- a game in which players vie for control over the various regions of feudal Japan, using their samurai and other miniatures to spread.

What makes the game interesting is the untraditional means and ends of conflict: alliances lend opponents more power, but betrayals can damage your honor; points can be won by winning in battle, but committing ritual suicide, taking hostages and employing historians to write of your warrior's honor can actually net you a larger victory.

What could be a straightforward game about conquering regions becomes about development of your clan, preservation of their honor and strategic partnerships with your enemies. If you want a game with tons of conflict -- but where that conflict is rarely straightforward or obvious -- Rising Sun is a perfect game for you.

Small World is one of my favorites, simply because this conquest game feels so different every time you play it. Essentially, players are vying for control of a Risk-like board with too few spaces to accommodate everyone: hence the name.

You bid for one of dozens of fantastical creatures, each randomly paired with an additional special ability -- which can lead to hilarious combinations like Were-Will-o'-the-Wisps or Peace-loving Homunculi. Then you spread using your special abilities, collect coins based on the territory you control and leave that race behind for a new one. It's an addictive gameplay loop, often equal parts funny and competitive, and you can learn and play it in under two hours.

Twilight Struggle, set during the Cold War, balances the strategic complexity of a "big" game with the simple mechanics of a traditional conquest game like Risk. One player takes the role of the United States, and the other plays as the USSR as you struggle for presence, domination or complete control of various battleground regions around the world. It reminds me of an old paper RPG both in gameplay and visuals.

Players take control of a team of heroes and level them up through a series of adventures. Meanwhile, the game will set up players with different campaign storylines to complete. Sometimes those goals are not necessarily made by the development team. Instead, this game offers procedurally generated content. It can give players more unique moments in the game, and suddenly your choices could have some unexpected or crucial consequences.

If you enjoy tactical RPG gameplay with some creative storytelling, it is worth checking out. It might not appeal to everyone, but so far, feedback to this title has been solid since it was released back in June. If you enjoyed Lobotomy Corporation, then you might have been waiting on the sequel Library of Ruina.

Defeated guests become books, and the library expands. Those books are essentially a means to bringing out new cards or attributes. Defeating an enemy with more unique abilities could later be equipped, giving you access to those advantages. This can get a bit more complex as you add more books into the mix, and the difficulty curve will make players strive to perfect their builds.

While this game has been in early access, players can now experience the full game right now. With that said, you might want to dive into Lobotomy Corporation first. What might have caught the attention of some players about this title is that it comes from the lead designer of past strategy game hits like Offworld Trading Company, Soren Johnson. In this title, players are ruling a nation and attempting to prosper in the coming years.

Several unique events will pop up, diplomacy to deal with, and a limited amount of moves available before you find your leader moving aside for the next heir. It has the usual tropes that come with a turn-based 4X game, but the studio Mohawk Games does offer some automation for specific tasks leaving the more critical aspects in your turn on the forefront. Each turn has a set of moves players can make, which can increase depending on how well you progress.

Best of all, if you find that games like Civilization are too long, then Old World was developed with you in mind. The Total War franchise has been around for ages now. After initially releasing in , focusing on Shoguns, the series continued to span across multiple different eras. One of the earlier titles had players going through Rome, and it was such a beloved installment that now, in , we have a remastered edition available.

The fourth installment in the Age of Empires real-time strategy game series, developed by Relic Entertainment, focused on historic events set in the Middle Ages. Release Date. What to Expect From Marvel in Presented by truth. IGN Logo Recommends. The Last of Us Matt Purslow Ryan Leston Scream Ending Explained 12h ago - The Ghostface killer is back.

At first glance it might seem a bit too familiar, but an even greater focus on roleplaying and simulating the lifestyles of medieval nobles, along with a big bag of new and reconsidered features, makes it well worth jumping ship to the latest iteration.

It's only going to get larger and more ambitious as the inevitable DLC piles up, but even in its vanilla form CK3 is a ceaseless storyteller supported by countless complex systems that demand to be mucked around with and tweaked.

Getting to grips with it is thankfully considerably easier this time around, thanks to a helpful nested tooltip system and plenty of guidance. And all this soapy dynastic drama just has a brilliant flow to it, carrying you along with it. You can meander through life without any great plan and still find yourself embroiled in countless intrigues, wars and trysts. Total War: Three Kingdoms , the latest historical entry in the series, takes a few nods from Warhammer, which you'll find elsewhere in this list, giving us a sprawling Chinese civil war that's fuelled by its distinct characters, both off and on the battlefield.

Each is part of a complicated web of relationships that affects everything from diplomacy to performance in battle, and like their Warhammer counterparts they're all superhuman warriors. It feels like a leap for the series in the same way the first Rome did, bringing with it some fundemental changes to how diplomacy, trade and combat works. The fight over China also makes for a compelling campaign, blessed with a kind of dynamism that we've not seen in a Total War before.

Since launch, it's also benefited from some great DLC, including a new format that introduces historical bookmarks that expand on different events from the era. The first Total War: Warhammer showed that Games Workshop's fantasy universe was a perfect match for Creative Assembly's massive battles and impressively detailed units.

Total War: Warhammer 2 makes a whole host of improvements, in interface, tweaks to heroes, rogue armies that mix factions together and more. The game's four factions, Skaven, High Elves, Dark Elves and Lizardmen are all meaningfully different from one another, delving deeper into the odd corners of old Warhammer fantasy lore.

If you're looking for a starting point with CA's Warhammer games, this is now the game to get—and if you already own the excellent original, too, the mortal empires campaign will unite both games into one giant map. Paradox's long-running, flagship strategy romp is the ultimate grand strategy game, putting you in charge of a nation from the end of the Middle Ages all the way up to the s.

As head honcho, you determine its political strategy, meddle with its economy, command its armies and craft an empire. Right from the get-go, Europa Universalis 4 lets you start changing history. Maybe England crushes France in the Years War and builds a massive continental empire. Maybe the Iroquois defeat European colonists, build ships and invade the Old World. It's huge, complex, and through years of expansions has just kept growing. The simulation can sometimes be tough to wrap one's head around, but it's worth diving in and just seeing where alt-history takes you.

Few 4X games try to challenge Civ, but Old World already had a leg up thanks designer Soren Johnson's previous relationship with the series. He was the lead designer on Civ 4, and that legacy is very apparent. But Old World is more than another take on Civ. For one, it's set exclusively in antiquity rather than charting the course of human history, but that change in scope also allows it to focus on people as well as empires. Instead of playing an immortal ruler, you play one who really lives, getting married, having kids and eventually dying.

Then you play their heir. You have courtiers, spouses, children and rivals to worry about, and with this exploration of the human side of empire-building also comes a bounty of events, plots and surprises. You might even find yourself assassinated by a family member. There's more than a hint of Crusader Kings here. You can't have a best strategy games list without a bit of Civ.

Civilization 6 is our game of choice in the series right now, especially now that it's seen a couple of expansions. The biggest change this time around is the district system, which unstacks cities in the way that its predecessor unstacked armies.

Cities are now these sprawling things full of specialised areas that force you to really think about the future when you developing tiles. The expansions added some more novel wrinkles that are very welcome but do stop short of revolutionising the venerable series. They introduce the concept of Golden Ages and Dark Ages, giving you bonuses and debuffs depending on your civilisation's development across the years, as well as climate change and environmental disasters.

It's a forward-thinking, modern Civ. This is a game about star-spanning empires that rise, stabilise and fall in the space of an afternoon: and, particularly, about the moment when the vast capital ships of those empires emerge from hyperspace above half-burning worlds.

Diplomacy is an option too, of course, but also: giant spaceships. Play the Rebellion expansion to enlarge said spaceships to ridiculous proportions. Stellaris takes an 'everything and the kicthen sink' approach to the space 4X.

It's got a dose of EU4, Paradox's grand strategy game, but applied to a sci-fi game that contains everything from robotic uprisings to aliens living in black holes. It arguably tries to do to much and lacks the focus of some of the other genre greats, but as a celebration of interstellar sci-fi there are none that come close.

It's a liberating sandbox designed to generate a cavalcade of stories as you guide your species and empire through the stars, meddling with their genetic code, enslaving aliens, or consuming the galaxy as a ravenous hive of cunning insects.

Fantasy 4X Endless Legend is proof that you don't need to sacrifice story to make a compelling 4X game. Each of its asymmetrical factions sports all sorts of unique and unusual traits, elevated by story quests featuring some of the best writing in any strategy game.

The Broken Lords, for instance, are vampiric ghosts living in suits of armour, wrestling with their dangerous nature; while the necrophage is a relentless force of nature that just wants to consume, ignoring diplomacy in favour of complete conquest.