The beauty ofturn-basedstrategy lies in how it forces players to stop, think and adjust. Every action carries consequence. Every turn is a test of foresight and restraint. While some games focus on grand military campaigns, others shrink the battlefield to a handful of units and a few tiles, pushing tactical planning over raw power.
10 Best Strategy Games You Can Play on PS5
Whether you’re building empires or surviving deadly environments, these strategy games will reward your clever thinking and careful preparation.
Whether set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland or a colorful kingdom of pixelated soldiers, the best games in this genre don’t just ask players to win. They demand that each decision feel earned. Every victory, no matter how small, always has a cost.
8Chess Ultra
If You Can Beat the AI Here, You’re Probably Not Human
Chess Ultra
There’s nothing flashy about Chess Ultra, and that’s exactly the point. This game is a polished love letter to one of the oldest strategy games in existence. Developed by Ripstone, it offers sleek visual settings like candlelit libraries and stone temples, but the real focus is on the AI itself, which adapts to players across 10 difficulty levels.
At the higher end, it’s based on actual Grandmaster logic. There’s no RNG, no surprise mechanics. Just cold, calculated moves. Playing on the hardest difficulty is less about fun and moreabout survivinglong enough to lose with dignity.
7Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
War in the Far Future Still Comes Down to Turns and Timing
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Set in the grimdark future of Warhammer 40,000, Battlesector pits players against swarms of Tyranids in brutaltactical combat. This isn’t a flashy, cinematic RTS. It’s slow, methodical and deeply focused on spacing, unit synergy and overwatch traps.
Players command squads of Blood Angels, each customizable with gear and upgrades. Positioning a unit just one tile off can mean exposing it to instant death. Every ability has a cooldown. Every turn is loaded with pressure. The game doesn’t just demand good decisions. It demands flawless ones.
6Panzer Corps 2
Panzer Corps 2
Set during World War II, Panzer Corps 2 dives headfirstinto historicalwargaming without holding the player’s hand. It focuses on hex-grid combat where unit placement, terrain cover and supply lines matter more than firepower alone. Every decision, from flanking a tank to managing artillery range, feels weighty and permanent.
The game includes over 1,000 units from across the war, including infantry, bombers and naval fleets. But what really makes it stand out is its emphasis on planning over luck. Players who rush in usually end up paying for it by turn three.
5Wargroove
War Has Never Looked So Adorable or Hurt So Much
Developed by Chucklefish, Wargroove channels the spirit of Advance Wars while creating something that feels completely its own. Every unit type, from knights to giant golems. has specific counterplay and unique positioning mechanics. And unlike other games in the genre, commanders here can fight on the battlefield themselves, adding risk to every offensive push.
It also supports full modding tools and a custom campaign creator, which means there’s a near-endless stream of fan-made content. Behind the charming pixel art and bright colors lies a deeply strategic game where every unit lost feels like a personal failure.
4Into the Breach
Saving the World Three Turns at a Time
Into the Breach
Made by the developers of FTL, Into the Breach doesn’t look like much at first glance. Maps are tiny, objectives are tight and there are rarely more than a few units on the screen. But what makes it brilliant is the predictability. The game always shows what enemies will do next. The challenge is figuring out how to survive anyway.
Instead of trying to kill everything, players often find themselves pushing enemies into water or blocking their attacks with sacrificial mechs. The randomness isn’t in what the enemies do, but in how little room there is to stop them.
3Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
Nostalgia Hits Harder When Missiles are Involved
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
This remaster of the first two Advance Wars games is more than just a visual upgrade. It refines the pacing, updates the animations and improves quality-of-life features like the rewind function and save states. But the core remains the same: tile-based combat where players juggle infantry, tanks and air units under the leadership of quirky Commanding Officers with unique passive bonuses.
10 Strategy Games with the Best Graphics
In some cases, you can judge a book by its cover. Or a game by its graphics.
The charm of Advance Wars lies in how simple it looks and how brutal it can be underneath. One wrong move can create a chain reaction that loses the whole front line. Even now, few games in the genre match its balance of fun and frustration.
2Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Where Permadeath Teaches You the Cost of Every Choice
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Three Houses does more than deliver tight, grid-based combat. It gives players the power to teach, nurture and command their students, knowing full well some of them may not survive the war ahead. Between battles, players manage schedules at Garreg Mach Monastery, building bonds through tea sessions and lectures.
But when the war arc begins, those bonds are put to the test. Every move made on the battlefield has the potential to send a named student to an early grave. The game doesn’t always let players fix their mistakes, and that’s what makes its victories feel so human.
The World’s Already Lost. That Doesn’t Mean the Fight’s Over
Following the events of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, this sequel drops players into a world where Earth has already been conquered. The XCOM project operates in secret now, striking back from the shadows. Squad members are fully customizable, but once they die, they’re gone for good.
What makes XCOM 2 unforgettable is the tension. Every turn is a gamble. Soldiers miss high-percentage shots. Enemies flank out of nowhere. Maps are procedurally generated, meaning players rarely see the same battlefield twice. And if the war isn’t going well, it’s not unusual for the game to punish failure with more failure.
7 Best Strategy Games by EA
From base-building classics to twisted hospital sims, these are EA’s best strategy games that defined genres and left lasting legacies.
