Last Updated on June 3, 2024 by Jhonni Jets

Strategy games are a fun and engaging way to exercise your tactical and problem-solving skills. These types of games require careful planning, resource management, and adapting to changing circumstances – all while outmaneuvering an opponent or overcome challenging scenarios. In this article, we will explore 9 of the best strategy games that can help sharpen your tactical mind and improve strategic decision making.

Civilization VI

Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy game where you lead a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age. You explore the world, research technologies, develop cities, wage war or make diplomatic alliances with other leaders. Success requires strategic thinking as you decide how to best develop your civilization to gain military, economic and scientific advantages over opponents. You must effectively manage expanding cities, allocate resources and infrastructure projects, conduct trade and diplomacy, and carry out battles and campaigns to triumph over other civilizations in this epic 4X game.

Civilization VI offers a deep level of replayability, with numerous civilizations to lead, game modes to play and map types to explore. Each game plays out differently based on the leader you choose, starting location, city placement decisions and interactions with AI opponents. Mastering Civ VI demands carefully weighing short and long-term consequences of every action. It is one of the best games for learning strategic patience, flexibility and adaptation based on shifting dynamics.

Hearts of Iron IV

Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy wargame set during the 1930s-1940s period spanning the rise of fascism and World War 2. Players take control of one of many countries and guide their political, economic and military development through complex branching scenarios and alliance systems. Success requires making insightful long-term plans while also responding nimbly to unexpected world events. Players must manage extensive research trees, production queues, military divisions, political ideologies, resource needs and more.

Diplomacy, espionage and war all play a huge role, demanding tactical thinking around military doctrine, battle plans, troop movements, supply lines and coordination across multiple fronts as giant world conflicts unfold. Hearts of Iron IV is excellent for developing abilities like assessing strategic priorities and trade-offs, adapting to changing situations, finding advantages through diverse means like espionage/propaganda in addition to outright military force. Each country offers distinct challenges to overcome through shrewd leadership.

StarCraft II

StarCraft II is a science fiction real-time strategy esport that tasks players with gathering resources, building armies and destroying opponents. Players can choose from three distinct factions – the Terran, Zerg, or Protoss – each with their own units, technologies and playstyles. Tactics revolve around balancing economic development with aggressive military pushes and defense. Players must outmaneuver opponents on multiple fronts across land, air and sea in pitched high-stakes battles.

StarCraft II demands lightning-fast multitasking, precise timings, and ability to adapt builds on the fly to changing enemy strategies. Not only does it enhance basic RTS skills like resource management and timing attacks, it also develops rapid cognition, problem solving under pressure and flexibility and improvisation when facing unknown factors. The skill ceiling is immense, making StarCraft II one of the most challenging games for honing tactical reflexes, capacity for multiple concurrent strategic decisions and the ability to outthink crafty opponents. It remains the gold standard for competitive RTS.

Mordhau

Mordhau is a first-person medieval multiplayer combat game where players engage in player-vs-player battles. Players must choose from a varied arsenal of melee and ranged weapons then work cooperatively in teams or go head-to-head in duels. Success requires fast reactions, precise aim and clever tactical use of terrain, faints, blocks, parries and footwork to gain the advantage in chaotic skirmishes.

A key aspect of Mordhau is its high technical skill floor – players must learn to read subtle tells from enemies, time strikes and handle their chosen weapon with fluid mastery. Developing tactical acumen means not just mindless fighting but understanding wider battlefield movements, when to advance or retreat, anticipating enemy behaviors, capitalizing on distractions and working cooperatively. It trains focus under stress, split-second risk/reward assessment, and the ability to outmaneuver opponents through subtle tricks or sheer martial prowess.

Mordhau rewards those who can stay hyper-aware amid confusing melees and turn the tables through cunning application of their arsenal. It’s a unique arena for honing reflexes, mastery of complex controls and tactical adaptability through experience.”

XCOM 2

XCOM 2 is a turn-based tactical game that tasks players with organizing a resistance force to battle an occupying alien empire. Players research technologies, manage resources, develop custom soldiers with varied abilities and gear, then lead squads on risky guerrilla missions across procedurally generated maps. Success demands splitting your team’s attention across multiple objectives, anticipating enemy movements and using environmental cover to your advantage.

XCOM 2 is brutal and unforgiving – one mistake can result in permanent soldier deaths. This compels careful strategic thinking turns in advance, weighing risk versus reward. Players must learn to adapt plans on the fly based on inevitable surprises, from ambushes to missed shots. Overcoming each campaign necessitates developing an deep understanding of unit synergies, strengths of various weapons and abilities, and how to maneuver between objectives while minimizing exposure. Mastering all this while making crucial life-or-death calls every turn is immensely satisfying.

XCOM 2 promotes learning from failures, developing flexible tactics, keeping a cool head under pressure and strategic foresight complemented by snap decision making. Its permadeath system trains taking responsibility for risks while pursuing long-term success through prudence, preparation and deep tactical comprehension.

Crusader Kings II

Crusader Kings II casts players as medieval nobles seeking to build dynastic legacies across centuries of European and Middle Eastern history. Players must manage internal politics, dynastic intrigues, religious conflicts, succession crises and external threats across a vast, moddable sandbox. The game emphasizes long-term strategic planning around marriage alliances, inheritance, factional balancing, and guiding heirs from birth through their reigns.

Success requires tactical flexibility in responding to ever-shifting relationships, rivalries and random world events. Players have to constantly recalibrate priorities based on unfolding consequences from their own actions and those of uncontrollable outside forces like the plague. Crusader Kings II fosters an exceptionally deep appreciation for political subtlety, context and the unpredictable human factors that can undermine the loftiest schemes. It trains systems thinking, contingency planning and ability to think generations ahead to consolidate long-term Dynasty power.

Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II is the gold standard real-time strategy game that defined the genre. Players manage resources, build bases and develop advanced civilizations across four epochs – from the Dark Ages through to Imperial Age. Success hinges on mastery of core RTS fundamentals like steady economic booming alongside flexible, precise application of various unit types across dynamic multiplayer maps and campaign scenarios.

The game demands constant balancing of near-term needs like army comps and tech progress versus long-term strategies like expansion, relic/wonder construction and tech switching. Players must devise varied builds for different maps/opponents, effectively multitask worker/army production with upgrades and respond nimbly to diverse enemy strategies. AoE2 is tried-and-true training for juggling concurrent macro and micro priorities under time pressure against thinking opponents.

After decades, Age of Empires II retains a dedicated esports scene for good reason. Beyond its accessibility and depth, it cultivates flexible strategic planning, patience, diligent execution and ability to swiftly recalibrate tactics based on scouting and early engagements.

Hearthstone

Hearthstone is Blizzard’s wildly popular digital card game that transports Warcraft lore and characters into fast-paced 1v1 duels. Players build decks from different classes and go head-to-head, playing minions, casting spells and endeavoring to reduce the opponent’s health to zero before they do the same. On surface it seems simple, but Hearthstone rewards significant strategic nuance.

Excelling demands deep understanding of all classes’ unique mechanics and potential synergies within deck archetypes given random card draws. Winning hinges on shrewdly balanced aggression, resource accrual, board control and anticipation of opponent win conditions and counterplay. It trains probability assessment, adaptation between games by tweaking incomplete information, and ability to optimize resources amid chaos.

Hearthstone cultivates quick cognition under uncertainty, mastery of hidden information and psychology to bait opponents into misplays. Its accessible gameplay belies immense strategic depth for pressuring foes and squeezing out victories through nuanced play, careful planning amid randomness.

League of Legends

League of Legends is the most popular game in the world and dominant esport, and for good reason. As a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, it demands continuous dynamic decision making while coordinating with teammates. Players must select champions to fulfill tactical roles, fighting other players while leveling up and acquiring gear, with the ultimate goal of destroying the enemy base.

To reach the highest ranks necessitates perfecting core skills like last-hitting, positioning, combo execution and map awareness. But true mastery lies in flexible adaptation between evolving 5v5 teamfights, gauging power spikes, shot-calling objectives and understanding diverse champions’ strengths at each stage. Success hinges on split-second risk assessments, precise execution amid chaos and leveraging momentary advantages to systematically dismantle fortifications.

League cultivates extraordinary capacity for processing continuous information flows, maintaining focus under heavy multitasking demands while decisively leading pub squads to victory through strategic guidance and tactical savvy. Few games rival its training for rapid yet rigorous strategic thinking in collaborative, fluid contexts.

Conclusion

Strategy games represent some of the most engaging and mentally stimulating entertainment available. Beyond fun, many offer deep training in flexible and nuanced strategic thinking, from assessing long term plans to responding nimbly to surprises. They cultivate diverse skills like economic management, unit coordination, map awareness, psychological cunning, endurance and much more.

The 9 games covered here only scratch the surface of excellent options across genres. However, they typify gaming experiences that challenge players to steadily outthink opponents and overcome scenarios through prudent leadership, adaptable tactics and mastery of subtle strategic nuance. For anyone seeking to sharpen their problem solving or enjoy interactive tests of cognitive skill, the world of strategy gaming has immense rewarding options to offer.