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Best strategy games we reviewed

Games that ask you to plan before you tap: squad tactics, roguelike tower defense and autobattlers on PC and mobile.

What strategy games are

Strategy games ask you to plan: where to place a unit, what to build first, which fight to take and which to walk away from. Turn-based tactics give you all the time you want to think. Tower defense and real-time games make you decide under pressure. Autobattlers sit between the two, with all the planning done before a fight that runs itself.

On PC the genre is deep and mostly paid, with free demos during Steam fests. On mobile it is mostly free, and it often starts as strategy before turning into a timer and a shop. Sorting the one from the other is what this page is for.

Our top 5

  1. Menace

    A brutal turn-based tactics game where you command whole squads and armed vehicles instead of single soldiers, and any squad you leave in the open at the end of a turn can be wiped out before it moves again.

    PC · Play it

  2. Deified

    A really challenging tactical roguelite where every choice can change the course of a run, and the same relics that carry you to a win can just as quickly end 40 minutes of progress.

    PC · Play it

  3. Galaxy Defense: Fortress TD

    A genuinely fun roguelike tower defense for mobile, as long as you accept some grinding for gold in the later stages.

    Android · iOS · Play it

  4. Wittle Defender

    A polished, genuinely fun dungeon defense roguelike that respects your time more than almost anything else in the genre.

    Android · iOS · Play it

  5. Guildrun

    Terrible lore, great autobattler: the free Guildrun demo is worth two hours of anyone's time who likes idle battlers.

    PC · Play it

How we judge strategy games

Strategy on this site means the game asks you to plan before it asks you to tap. That covers squad tactics like Menace and Deified on PC, roguelike tower defense like Galaxy Defense and Wittle Defender on mobile, and the autobattlers in between, where the planning happens before the fight and the fight runs itself.

Mobile strategy games have a specific problem we check for every time. The strategy is real for the first few hours, then a timer or a gem wall arrives and the decision becomes whether to pay. Whiteout Survival and Palmon Survival are on this page as examples of that. Both look like city builders and play like shops.

The PC entries are mostly free demos from Steam fests, reviewed because the demo already shows the whole loop. The verdict on those is about whether the full game is worth watching for, and the review says what the demo leaves out.

What we check

  • The decisions stay real after the first hours
  • No timer or gem wall replaces the strategy
  • A demo shows enough to judge the full game

Worth playing

7

Worth a look

1

Skip these

2

Roundups and Indie Pulse

Kingdom Rush 6 Looks Mixed on Steam. English Reviews Tell a Different Story

Indie Pulse. Players: Very Positive · 85% in English. Kingdom Rush 6: Genesis TD: towers defending the paths around a giant wizard tower in the forest

Kingdom Rush 6 shows Mixed on Steam, but its English reviews sit at 85% positive. Why the score looks off, what changed, and who should buy it now.

GS · New release ·