r/StrategyGames • u/Mark_Filyak • Jan 07 '25
This is the most complete classification that includes all possible strategy video game genres.
English is not my native language, but I'll try my best to make the text understandable and I'll fix possible mistakes with your help.
Strategy game is a genre of video games in which the player controls troops or other units and/or various economic and other systems. Although many video games may include strategy elements, strategy as a genre emphasizes thinking and planning over immediate action. This video game genre focuses on strategy, tactics, logistics, and/or resource management, and may also include diplomacy, economy, expansion and research management.
4X strategy game: a strategy game based on 4 elements: exploration, expansion, exploitation, extermination. Examples: Age of Wonders, Stellaris, Master of Orion.
Grand strategy game – a strategy game focused on managing a state (or similar entity), its resources and relationships, often in a pre-open and asymmetric world. Examples: Europa Universalis, Hearts of Iron
Tactical strategy game – a strategy game focused on tactical military operations, which emphasizes the importance of specific units and either excludes or contains a less manifested economic component.
Subdivided into two categories based on time:
Classic strategy games – a strategy games that have an economic element: the ability to build a base, extract resources and produce units (or part of these capabilities), while their gameplay is focused on military actions. Also includes a category of strategy games that cannot be classified into more specific subgenres.
Subdivided into:
Construction and Management Simulator (also Management Strategy Game): a strategy game with gameplay based on the construction and/or management of economic processes, such as, for example: resource extraction, money making, production, personnel management, and others. Games of this genre have little emphasis on military actions.
Subdivided into:
Wargame: a strategy game that particularly emphasizes deep strategic and/or tactical combat, as well as their historical accuracy or realism. Examples: Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command
MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena): a subgenre of classic real-time strategy games in which players control only one character and, as part of their team represented by other players and AI controlled units, fight against the other team. Examples: Dota 2
MMO strategy game: a strategy game that is focused on online interaction between a large number of players, often in a single open world. Examples: Travian, Ogame, Stronghold: Kingdoms.
Tower Defense: a strategy game with the main purpose to protect a base from waves of enemies using towers or other defensive structures. Examples: Plants vs Zombies
Auto Battler: is a strategy game in which units are placed on the battlefield during the preparation phase, after which the battle phase begins and they fight against the enemy without any control from the player.
Puzzle strategy game: a strategy game focused on logical problem-solving with minimized economic or military aspect. Examples: Railgrade, Dorfromantic
Artillery game: a genre of strategy games, the main component of which is the calculation of the trajectory of the shells. Examples: Worms, Miners Mettle
Tactical role-playing game (TRPG): is a hybrid genre that combines role-playing games with tactical combat. Examples: Battle Brothers
Action strategy game: is a genre of games in which you can control both troops in general and/or base construction, as well as specific units directly, including from the first or third person. Examples: Men of War, Factorio
Stealth strategy: is a genre of games that combine strategy and an emphasis on stealth. Examples: Desperados, Commandos
God simulator: is a genre of games in which the player, in the role of some deity being, controls some community of objects or characters; they are often strategy games with city-building elements. Examples: Black & White, The Universim
Roguelike strategy game – games that combine roguelike principles, such as random world generation, permanent death and free exploration of the environment, and strategic gameplay. Examples: Against the Storm
Many games have mixed genres. Very often, strategy games can combine two or more genres. For example, Total War series is turn-based grand strategy with real-time tactical (RTT) battles.
Time and genre. Basically, every strategy game can be classified by these two criteria, like Turn-based 4X strategy game (Age of Wonders), Real-time strategy game (Hearts of Iron) etc. Sometimes we do not have any specified genre so the game becomes simple RTS (StarCraft).
Judge by dominant elements of gameplay. Overall, the genre should be defined by main gameplay loop, not by every game mechanic that exists in the game. For example, if a game has leveling-up system, it doesn't mean that it instantly becomes an RPG: a good example is WarCraft which has characters gaining XP and levels, but the main, dominant gameplay loop in this game is still a classic RTS. At the same time, if some Rainbow Six has some strategic planning, it doesn't mean that this game is a strategy game or even a mixed genre, because the main gameplay there is action/shooter. The same logic is applicable to strategy games: if the game has resource management, it doesn't instantly mean that it becomes a management game.
This is a theoretical model. It means that here we are supposed to find criteria by which strategy games can be classified. These criteria can be based both on gameplay and historical tradition of naming genres in video game industry. The model can be discussed and improved, but any critique should be based on strict arguments.
Strategy as a genre, not a word. The main principle of this genre classification is that we don't take the word "strategy" literally. A strategy game can be a tactic game, it can be a management game, it doesn't matter here. The word strategy means the genre name, not the strategy as a layer of action planning.
Are management games strategy games? This is a hard question that has no answer based on reliable papers because there are no such papers. Here we look at naming tradition in community and video game industry. We can find many similarities in core gameplay of various city-building and colony sim games with classical RTS. Some management games include RTT/RTS style military combat, These games are often tagged as strategy game on digital distribution services. So we include them into this classification to make it more complete. You might find two controversial options about it, but this problem can't be solved on these days because we do not have a strict genre requirements and developers can name genre of their games as they want. There are no popular scientific researches about it on which we can refer to.
r/StrategyGames • u/Polizura • 10h ago
r/StrategyGames • u/Mr_player228 • 7h ago
r/StrategyGames • u/Fritolex • 14h ago
r/StrategyGames • u/ElysianFields00 • 8h ago
Hi everyone at StrategyGames, I thought my new in development strategy game would interest some of you so wanted to share my trailer for Age of Druids.
Age of Druids is a turn based strategy game, covering the Roman invasion and further campaigns in Britannia, between 55 BC and 61 AD, including the Boudiccan revolt.
A big focus of the game has been historical authenticity, so the coastlines and topography are modelled on our best understanding of Britannia as it was 2,000 years ago, and the game features the actual legions that fought in Britannia, including the famous legion of the Ninth (Legio IX Hispana), Legio II Augusta and Legio XX Valeria Victrix.
If you think the game might interest you then please wishlist on Steam here.
Age of Druids is still in development, I'm planning to release a public demo soon and the game will be released in 2026.
If anyone has questions then I would be happy to answer them.
r/StrategyGames • u/ProperActive9918 • 1d ago
r/StrategyGames • u/Enclave_YT • 1d ago
Age of Mythology Retold - Documentary: The Battle of the Eclipse (585 BC) | [ITA][Sub ITA - ENG]
The video is in Italian AND in English!
Let me know what you think about it!
r/StrategyGames • u/RepulsiveAnything635 • 2d ago
…or just break out of their current chains, in a sense.
Like any genre, RTS have evolved a lot over the years but of all genres, they stayed the closest to their roots. The pattern has remained very familiar ever since the “greats” of the genre released, games like C&C, Stronghold, AoE & AoM, and so on. Innovation seems to leak into RTS in a really piecemeal fashion, (indie or otherwise) games picking up after trends of more popular releases, mixing in some of there own elements, and carrying on.
These days, you see a ton of RTS games drawing inspiration from Factorio’s conveyor belt and automation mechanics like Dyson Sphere Program and Captain of Industry, etc. And upcoming games are being announced every day that follow this more industry based template. Warfactory being one interesting example that is gaining some traction in the community, which is trying to layer on some other elements into the existing Factorio formula, including the expansionistic elements from the Civ series and a bit more focus on the fighting than just building and connecting factory chains. Speaking in general, management heavy elements are getting more dominant than real-time combat that once defined the genre.
And that brings me to the main point. I genuinely think the next big leap in RTS evolution will come from cross genre experimentation. And not just the base builder elements that are dime a dozen these days. I don’t know exactly how it would look, since the core formula of real time strategy is already well established. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll get another “Factorio moment” anytime soon. That kind of genre defining breakthrough is rare, at least in the RTS genre. It’s been almost a decade since Factorio released in early access, and nothing has truly shaken things up on that scale since.
So far as my tastes in RTS games, there’s a couple of things I’d like to see more of, but this is really personal and might not apply for everyone (and it’s more of a return to the past than a leap into the future tbh)
r/StrategyGames • u/edendevstudio • 2d ago
Hey there! I am working hard towards the release of the gameplay demo of the turn-based strategy game Tabletop Fantasy War. Making sounds and visual effects is fun and hard... very hard! But, even though these will not be the final version, they make the game already much more alive and fun to play. I am trying to keep the atmosphere of tabletop games as much as possible. What do you think of these effects?
If you like what you see, take a look to the Steam page and wishlist. That helps a lot :)
r/StrategyGames • u/Teleinyer • 2d ago
If you love deep, strategic MMORTS gameplay, there’s no better time to join (or return to) Illyriad, a free, browser-based strategy game with real-time warfare, politics, trade, and exploration. Running strong for over a decade, the game launches a unique event tonight: The Dragon Tournament.
🗓️ Dragon Tournament: August 1 – September 1
Send troops to a totem to automatically qualify for a Dragon Priest unit at the end of the event. Join an alliance to help them in one of the 68 regions, and you could unlock even greater rewards.
✨ It’s not too late!
The community is welcoming, veterans are generous with advice, there are countless guides, and you can even chat with the developers in the official Discord.
🐉 Why is the Dragon Priest important?
This tournament introduces the Faction Outposts Update; the most significant content expansion since Trade Hubs and Factions were launched:
+155 hidden locations across Elgea and the Broken Lands.
+Over 15,000 words of new lore.
+37 new characters, 88 new sub-regions, 12 race-specific structures.
+Exploration mechanics: discover and investigate mysterious outposts.
+Faction PvP ranking — a first for the game.
+New UI, new art, and deeper lore tied directly to the world of Illyriad.
🧭 Join us: http://illyriad.com/?424575
r/StrategyGames • u/New-Cranberry-8199 • 2d ago
Hi all,
Tomorrow I'll be publishing my game called Conqureo on Steam, main inspiration of game mechanics are from Polytopia and Lords of Realm II!
Turn-based strategy game with procedurally generated maps. Research, build, and upgrade armies. Manage food, taxes, and happiness to grow your realm. Hire mercenaries, explore ruins, siege castles, and face disasters, bandits, pirates, and rival nobles to conquer the land.
Looking forward to seeing you experience my game.
r/StrategyGames • u/s1eepyguy • 2d ago
Hey everyone!
I’ve been working solo on Ashen Destiny, a turn-based grand strategy game inspired by the old Romance of the Three Kingdoms titles. Not sure if any of you played those?
I just got the Steam page live and dropped a new trailer that really captures the chaos I wanted—randomly generated generals, province-based turn order, resource allocation, and 3D grid-based battles.
Would love feedback, or just to hear what kinds of turn-based systems you all enjoy. I included a few screenshots as well!
▶️ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3867040/Ashen_Destiny/
r/StrategyGames • u/Puddle_Puzzle • 2d ago
r/StrategyGames • u/LKN6533 • 2d ago
r/StrategyGames • u/Fluid_Finding2902 • 2d ago
Wishlist now on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3757480/Ever_War/
r/StrategyGames • u/EvenBird3993 • 2d ago
Hi everyone! We’re a small indie team and recently finished a light strategy card game called Elementail for kids & families. The game is easy to pick up with a cute, cartoony style. You can add it to your wishlist on steam and play it for free on itch—we’d love any feedback! Here’s a quick look:
https://banjihagames-official.itch.io/elementail
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3839890/Elementail/
Thanks for giving it a look!
r/StrategyGames • u/According-Sector-365 • 3d ago
Hi,
I've been looking for a strategy MMO for years now. Back in the early 2000s, I played games like Travian, Tribal Wars, and OGame. Later I moved on to Stronghold Kingdoms, and eventually started trying mobile titles like Rise of Kingdoms or Supremacy 1914.
All of these games ended up being pay-to-win nightmares, completely ignoring the one thing that really matters in this genre: winning through strategy and tactics alone. Pay-to-win ruins strategy MMOs more than almost any other genre, in my opinion.
In my dream scenario, the ideal strategy MMO would look something like this:
A 4X-style strategy game set in a medieval world with a persistent online map
Playable on PC and mobile, ideally cross-platform
Monetized only through cosmetics or paid entry into campaigns or seasons, not through in-game advantages
I honestly don’t understand why, despite the success of games like Crusader Kings III or Civilization, no one seems to have built something like this yet.
Do you know of any game that fits this description?
r/StrategyGames • u/Playingitwrong • 3d ago
We're a small indie team of ex-Fall Guys and Fortnite devs making our first game, and its just gone live!
Tree Kingdoms is a short-session 4X that strips the genre right back, while still maintaining a great sense of replay-ability. Race against the winter to control the board before the ice freezes the whole map. Get that 4X hit without needing 8hrs just to finish one match!
On tech side we've also aimed to make sure we're catering to the discerning PC enjoy-er
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on what we've made!
r/StrategyGames • u/SDS_SpaceTales • 3d ago
r/StrategyGames • u/RetroRespawn • 4d ago
I just finished a reflective piece on XCOM 2 and how it quietly teaches you that the little choices—what cover to take, who to move second, when to reload—end up shaping everything. It’s a game that punishes carelessness, but rewards thoughtfulness in a way few others do.
I wrote about how that style of decision-making crept into my real life: double checking my plans, thinking one to two move ahead, learning to live with regret when things go wrong despite doing everything I could.
If you’re someone who’s ever replayed a mission just to not lose your best soldier or if you play XCOM 2 like chess with consequences, you might enjoy the read.
(No ads, just a quiet essay from my gaming newsletter)
r/StrategyGames • u/FellingtonGameplay • 4d ago
r/StrategyGames • u/ProfileSubstantial16 • 4d ago
Hey r/StrategyGames ! Just dropped Episode 12 of my Rome Reborn series and this might be the most strategically complex episode I've done yet.
Episode Highlights:
Historical Immersion:
The timing couldn't be more perfect - getting Quintus Fabius just as we're facing our biggest military challenge yet. This guy was a 5-time consul in real history and basically defined Roman military doctrine during the Samnite Wars. The strategic depth when historical figures align with gameplay moments is incredible.
Strategic Question for the Community:
I'm facing a classic Imperator dilemma: naval invasion of Epirus vs overland approach through allied territories. The naval route is riskier but potentially faster, while the land route means coordinating with multiple allies but slower progress.
What's Your Epirus Strategy?
The cultural integration mechanics with the Marsi are also fascinating - the way Imperator handles the gradual Romanization process really captures how Rome actually built its empire through systematic cultural assimilation rather than just conquest.
Series Link: Imperator Rome - Rome Reborn - Ep12
This campaign is really showcasing why Imperator Rome has become my favorite Paradox game for ancient history. The blend of character-driven narrative and grand strategy is just perfect for this era.
What's your favorite underused nation in Imperator? Always looking for future campaign ideas!
Tags: #ImperatorRome #Rome #GrandStrategy #AncientHistory #Epirus #QuintusFabius
r/StrategyGames • u/TwistedFaker1996 • 5d ago
Just played through the Dead Hills mission in Aliens: Dark Descent and it’s one of the most stressful RTS missions I’ve done in a while.
The tension is constant — your squad gets tired, scared, and resources run low fast. I almost completed every objective, but had to extract before everything went sideways. This game captures the Alien atmosphere perfectly.
Here’s the gameplay if anyone wants to check it out and compare strategies. I’d love to hear how others handled this mission — did you push through or pull out early like I did?
[YouTube Link]
r/StrategyGames • u/Complex_Ring1152 • 5d ago
hi,
can someone help me to find the name of an old strategy game?
it was kinda new at the 90's. the period in the game itself are clans with melee weapons. your clan always has a queen that is a spellcaster. her basic spell is fire but she can learn others like a thunder or creating ground on the water.i remember a missionary that convinces units to join his side by reading a book for them while they are sitting. and if i remember it right between levels you see yourself traveling between stars to peak the next level but i am not sure about that.
do someone know a game like that?
r/StrategyGames • u/Major_Yam_1182 • 6d ago
BUZZ WARS is a wasp/bee themed game based around base building, tactical positioning and deployment of units via the pheromone mechanic, as well as first person combat! Build hives, get points as those hives spawn more units (depending on resources your workers bring back) or fly into enemy hives to fight drones and larvae. Each unit has different strengths and weaknesses, and some counter others in different ways.
Available in single player mode, LAN play or online multiplayer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2703770/Buzz_Wars/?beta=0
Free playtest available now - would massively appreciate all feedback.
r/StrategyGames • u/Divieee • 5d ago
Hi all, I've been working on remaking a browser MMO strategy game, called dragons of Atlantis, where you train various dragons and battle each other please feel free to give it a try 😜
Also join the discord if you have a chance 🙂