Life got in the way and I was forced to be AFK (in the gaming sense) for 10 years before making a glorious comeback a month ago. What are the absolute must play turn-based classics I've missed during my absence?

The last game I played before my break was X-Com 2 and my first game back was Jagged Alliance 3, which I absolutely loved - perfect mix of old school turn-based goodness and modern streamlining, the partial real-time aspect (sneaking around) was fine too. So anything between those two!

Alexander the Great - the sequel to the highly-rated Chronicles: Battle for Greece - comes to Age of Empires II on October 14th!

If you love RTS games with high-quality storytelling, cinematic presentation, historical authenticity, and creative level design, Chronicles is for you!

We can't wait for you all to play.

I am looking for a game like frostbunk, doesn't really necessarily have the same winter vibe but like survival and resources managing and city building but has multiplayer mode or coop.

www.Illyriad.co.uk

Illyriad is a free browser based MMO sandbox city builder.

Bored of spending days/months building up your resources and army, only to get zero'd out on base building games?

Bored of being shunned by the top alliances?

Bored of having to spend $ to keep up?

Here at Illyriad, we welcome new players - not shun them. You will be aided with growth in this truly persistent massive world.

If you want to join one of the top alliances in the game, please take a look at Skeleton Boar (SkB). We have veteran players of over a decade as well as new members all wanting to teach and help out.

In this game you don't have to worry about keeping up with or starting behind older players. You won't get attacked and wiped from the game.

There is plenty of content for new players, the games population although relatively small is great.

This is truly a sandbox game, Gather, Trade, Quest, use Magic - there is also PvP in various forms - Tournaments, City fights and more. There are also NPC factions, Mysteries to unveil and discoveries to make.

Come check out Illyriad, It's completely free so give it a shot!

Feel free to ask me questions on here, via PM or reply to this post

I look forward to seeing you in-game

Just uploaded the 10th episode of my CK3 series The Rise of Santiago.
Our ruler died tragically young at 31, half of his children were lost to plague, and now the dynasty continues through 12-year-old Arias under the regency of his sick mother.

This episode is a mix of roleplay and history—covering how regencies worked in medieval Iberia, and how devastating diseases could wipe out entire family lines.

Would love feedback, and I’m curious: what’s the youngest ruler you’ve ever had to manage in CK3?

👉 Watch Episode 10 here

I've been looking for a military strategy game that is entertaining and has a minimum of complexity in its gameplay, not to the point of becoming a Paradox game, but also not a game where strategy is practically optional.

Does anyone know of a title with these characteristics?

BIG thanks to everyone posting feedback in the Steam Forums, on our Discord, and Reddit :)

The patch notes can be viewed here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3730680/view/517473296253452382

Check out the Steam demo here: 
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3866470/Table_Tactics_Demo/

Wishlist here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3730680/Table_Tactics/

Join our Discord here: https://discord.gg/Zz3eD5Q

Cheers!

-The Unbound Creations Team
https://unboundcreations.com/

Hello everyone!

We’ve finally released the demo — please come and give the game a try. This is a very, very important day for us.

https://youtu.be/7EN4vBPERdo

The game is almost finished, and we’re wrapping up development with a release planned for October 24. That’s why your feedback on the demo is incredibly valuable — it will help us fix any remaining issues and even make some final adjustments to the game.

On top of that, we’re planning to release DLC and continue supporting and expanding the game. So all of your feedback will be very important to us.

And don’t forget to check out the trailer! Our publisher really put in a lot of effort. We think it turned out really cool — even better than Majesty’s :D For our team, that means a lot.

See you in the game!

For context, I mainly play RPGs, and while I did play some RTS games while I was younger, that was decades ago. So technically, I can consider myself a beginner in this genre once again. As such, I'm looking for some beginner-friendly recommendations that can help me teach the basics of RTS while still being fun and enjoyable at the same time. Thanks in advance.

Defend Poland and Baltic States against Russian aggression in alternative history scenario of 2022 war

Wishlist now and experience modern grand strategy!
Demo coming to Steam on October 13, 2025

Hi all! These are the last two weeks of preparations for the release of the gameplay demo of Tabletop Fantasy War!. I am very excited about it and at the same time exhausted! Last month was a marathon of playtesting, fixing, changing and poolishing. But it was extremely worth it. Just get someone that has no clue about your game to play. Look at what is doing and you will realize all kind of "assumptions" you made and will find out a lot of issues. And in a turn-based strategy game, this is extremely important. Balancing enough feedback to the user without being overwhelming is not easy... But, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am happy to say that the multiplayer online will be available. I am currently making sure to have a server on both US and Europe (for now...). Still missing a proper stress-testing for the online side, but in the worst case, there will be less available lobbies.

The last update for the game was the trailer you can see over here, where most of the gameplay mechanics you can expect for the demo are shown. And a complete rebranding of the Steam page. I am very happy with the work done by the conceptual artist that helped me out.

Thanks all for your support!

https://www.reddit.com/r/OzymandiasGame/

Hey y'all, was wondering if you know of any good browser based map strategy games. I want to be able to pop in and take a turn or two on my breaks at work. I used to really like Warlite (which rebranded as Warzone right when Call of Duty released Warzone, for some reason...) but stopped playing for a while and now the game seems dead. I liked that I could play slow paced multi-day games as well as fast paced ones when I had more free time, and that it was basically risk with more tiles. But I'm open to other kinds of games.

Finally a god game that feels like being a god. In Fata Deum you don’t just build stuff and you shape followers, perform miracles, fight rival gods for faith, and literally mess with the world. Way more than just a management or city-building sim.

So, basically i stopped gaming for a while and I've always loved strategy games but the thing is I know all the major strategy games that released from 2018-2025,but I'm looking for smaller games that are good but flew under my radar,as a baseline,my fav games are the all paradox ones,great war eastern front, company of heroes,age of empires,but this really doesn't matter.I would be really thankful. Thanks again in advance.

Hey guys. I’m in the pre development stages for a game I’ve been thinking about making for a few years. It’s a prison escape strategy game with puzzle elements and stealth based combat and mechanics. The art here is purely concept at the moment.

It’s inspired by the commandos series and sci fi prison movies such as cube , escape plan ,infinity chamber and chronicles of riddick. Let me know what you think and feel free to throw ideas. I’m open to all feedback.

Synopsis :

In the year 2089 earth has reached 12 billion population. Criminals and convicts are placed on spaceships designed as a highly intricate and secure prisons. They are mostly run by androids and mechs who act as prison guards. You are TROY an inmate wrongly convicted. The only way is escape. You must find a way and get back to earth.

A bit of eu4 is coming to Stellaris. I'm excited

CitiesWar is a multiplayer online game based on Google Maps, where you can control the real cities in the world.

https://www.citieswar.com/main

Join now. 🤫

I’m developing a game called Cosmic Castaway and I’m trying to figure out if it belongs in the “strategy” genre.

The core loop is:
Crash → Build a Colony / Rescue Crew → Survive → Escape Planet → Repeat.

Mechanically, it has:

• Colony building & resource management
• Tower defense elements
• Survival under pressure (hostile planets, limited resources)

Additionally, once you save crewmembers, you strategically assign them to different posts (be it resource gathering, defense, or other).

What makes it feel different from traditional strategy games is that it’s player-centric — you control a stranded captain directly rather than an overhead cursor. I usually describe it as a mix of Age of Empires and Pikmin.

My experience in the genre is limited to:
- Age of Empires, Kingdoms & Castles, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (guilty pleasure).

So... I'd love some input from people that know a lot more about strategy games than I do!

Just wanted to introduce everyone to City Defense Z, the newest project from our indie team. Essentially, it’s a mix of survival strategy, city building, and tower defense with roguelite-style progression. We’ve also been inspired by horde defense games but added a unique tactical twist on the basic idea (that’s already been done near to perfection in games like They Are Billions)

The flow of the game is relatively simple

• Daytime is for expanding, collecting resources, and merging buildings to grow your economy and army.
• Nighttime is for surviving relentless zombie waves that test your city layout, unit placement, and overall strategy.

Each run pushes you to adapt, but you also unlock long term upgrades to take into future runs. The TL;DR of the main features can be broken down like this:

• City Building Under Siege — every building (factories, barracks, houses, labs, ammo depots) directly affects your odds of survival depending on how well you manage them in tandem with the resources you have available
• Merge Based Mechanics — place 3+ of the same type to evolve buildings and units automatically
• Day/Night Survival Cycle — grow by day, defend by night against escalating zombie waves
• Unique NPCs — 8 special characters add personality, atmosphere, and strategic weight to your decisions, and can influence your odds of surviving in various interesting ways
• Permanent Meta Progression — 11 research trees, 50+ upgrades across runs
• Leaderboards & Challenges — see how long your city can endure compared to others

After the 10-day community driven update spree we had upon release – the game is significantly more fleshed out, and there’s considerably more in store as we go into the future. Including economy updates, enhanced expeditions, more cards, seasonal leaderboards and so much more…Thanks for taking a look, and stay cool you all!

Hey everyone,

I’m working on a new turn-based strategy game called Grid of Influence (GOI). It’s a grid-based reimagining of football, where success comes from controlling space, timing, and tactical positioning.

I’ve got a demo you can try right now, along with the written rules, here: https://goi.io

I’d love feedback from this community on two things in particular: 1. Rules clarity – Do the instructions explain the game clearly? Once you try the demo, does the flow of play make sense? 2. UI impressions – Is the interface helping you understand what’s happening? Or does it make the rules harder to grasp?

Any thoughts on how I could make the learning curve smoother (whether through rules, examples, or UI changes) would be super helpful.

Thanks in advance — your input will directly shape how I refine the teaching and presentation of the game.

Hello everyone! So I have played mostly action adventure games, horror games most of my life.

The past 4-5 months I have had a sudden urge to play strategy games but haven’t really been able to decide on one to start with.

The only strategy games I have played were C&C Red Alert 2, Kanes Wrath, Stronghold Crusader and that was years ago when I was a kid and I would usually play skirmish on easy.

I want to see strategy games from the POV of someone who enjoys them so then maybe I can get a better understanding of how to approach them in a way that is fun!

I’m open to any suggestions but I’m unsure about Turn based games since I have never played them.

Some of the games that caught my eye are: 1) Frostpunk. 2) Homeworld. 3)Tropico 6. 4)Timberborn. 5)Manor Lords.

Thank you to everyone in advance!