Turn-Based strategy games are a subgenre of strategy games which are generally wholly abstract, or a kind of military simulator. The players take command of a number of pieces or units, and then take turns manipulating them over a playing area usually marked with a rectangular or hexagonal grid. In each turn, player actions typically consist of some combination of moving a unit, attacking an enemy unit, or exploiting natural resources, most often by recruiting more units or building more fixed facilities. Typically, each unit can move, then undergo one other action per turn. Play typically concludes when some specific objective has been reached, especially the destruction of all enemy units (or all enemy structures,) though timed games are also common.
TBS games derive from traditional board games, tabletop wargames like Warhammer and BattleTech, and the miniature tabletop battles used by real generals and historians to practice and conduct actual wars for millennia. Many computer TBS titles use similar grid maps, hit and damage systems, and unit balance concepts to their earlier dice-and-paper equivalents. Recreational miniature wargaming is, however, Older Than They Think, with an early set of rules invented by H. G. Wells for tin soldiers in 1900! Many ancient boardgames, including Chess and Go, are predecessors of this genre, making it at least Older Than Feudalism, possibly Older Than Dirt.
Today, TBS has lost popularity to Real-Time Strategy, which is essentially the same style of play without the turn structure, its main advantage being the ability to handle larger number of players and units without increasing the duration of any given match. Nonetheless, some players still prefer the turn-based structure (even if only for single-player games) because of its greater allowance for long-term strategizing and precise execution. A huge difference between the style of play in a Real-Time Strategy is that you have to think on your feet as much as you have to think ahead. In a Turn-Based Strategy, more emphasis is on thinking ahead and taking time to plot your moves and consider other possibilities.
One compromise between TBS and RTS games is Pausable Realtime, although it's still impractical in multiplayer. Another compromise is Simultaneous Turn Resolution, aka "WEGO"note , in which players formulate and submit their orders for the turn at the same time, then all are resolved (executed) at the same time — this gives more or less Real-Time with Pause where pauses are fixed. Another compromise is Turn-Based Strategy, Real Time Combat, where strategic gameplay is turn-based, but tactical engagements take place in Real Time.
TBS games are also more common on handhelds than on set-tops. In fact, some normally realtime series have been converted to this genre for handheld installments. Turn based strategy stands up especially well to the limited computational muscle and controls of handhelds, not to mention that turns are suitable to spurts of frequently interrupted casual play.
The major variation between sub-genres in TBS is the scale of its action, which spans everything from squad-level individual combat (which, owing to the lack or greatly simplified resource management and production, is known as Turn-Based Tactics) through international conflicts all the way up to controlling whole worlds or galaxies. Larger-scale games often devolve from violent conflict into general competitive empire-building simulations with the possibility for non-violent victory, at which point they become so-called "4X" (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) or “Grand Strategy” games.
For tropes common to all strategy genres as a whole, see Strategy Game Tropes.
Compare Strategy RPG, which is this genre crossed with the Eastern RPG.
Eastern-style
- Adventures to Go!
- Against The Moon
- Alchemist Code
- Ancient Empires
- Anti-Hero
- Atlas Reactor (of the WEGO variety)
- Battle for Wesnoth (An open source PC game loosely inspired by the Master of Monsters
series and Langrisser)
- Battle Moon Wars
- Berwick Saga (A sequel to TearRing Saga but with a gameplay that borrows less from Fire Emblem)
- Brave Frontier
- Crystal Warriors
- Dark Deity
- Dawn of Heroes
- Drone Tactics
- Feda: The Emblem of Justice
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Fire Emblem (one of the codifiers for the eastern side of the genre; also a Long Runner)
- Front Mission
- Front Mission 2
- Front Mission 3
- Front Mission 4
- Front Mission 5
- Gadget Trial
- Gate Keepers
- Gemfire
- Genesis 2009
- Genjuu Ryodan
- Gihren's Greed
- Gladius (an occidental example)
- Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!
- Heroes Phantasia
- Heroic Armies Marching
- Highborn
- Kessen II
- The Last Remnant
- Len'en Cafe ~ Book of the Cafe
- Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven (but with elements of a Beat 'em Up)
- Magi
- Majin Tensei
- Moe Moe Niji Taisen
- Monster Lab
- Namco × Capcom
- Natural Doctrine
- Nectaris
- Nintendo Wars
- Nobunaga's Ambition
- Operation Darkness
- Piece of Wonder (also a Visual Novel, and the last game translated by Hirameki International)
- Pit People
- Power Dolls
- R-Type Command
- Rime Berta
- Ring of Red
- SD Gundam G Generation
- Shining Force
- Shining Force II
- Spectral Force:
- Super Robot Wars
- Tactics Ogre (Part of the Ogre Battle franchise)
- TearRing Saga (a spiritual successor to Fire Emblem)
- Tears to Tiara, the PS3 version.
- Tears to Tiara 2
- Terra Battle
- Tokyo Majin Gakuen
- Trapper Knight, Sharpshooter Princess
- The Unholy War (mixes this with the Mascot Fighter [without the mascots])
- Utawarerumono (also mixes this with a Visual Novel)
- Vandal Hearts
- Vanguard Bandits
- Vantage Master
- Wanna Survive
- Wrath Unleashed
- The War of Eustrath
- Yggdra Union
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule Breed and Battle
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Capsule Monster Coliseum
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule GB
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Dungeon Dice Monsters
- Zoids Assault
Western-style:
- Advanced Strategic Command
- Afghanistan '11
- Age of Empires on the Nintendo DS, unlike the main RTS series on PC.
- Age of Wonders (1, 2, and Shadow Magic)
- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
- Archon has its turn-based portion serve as the frame to a series of arcade-style battles.
- Atlas Reactor (a MOBA based around Simultaneous Turn Resolution gameplay)
- Battle Chess
- Battle for Wesnoth
- Battle Isle
- Battlefleet Gothic: Leviathan
- Battles of Prince of Persia
- Battlestar Galactica Deadlock
- Bionic Dues
- Block Five
- Buzz Aldrin Race Into Space.
- Civilization
- Call to Power
- Civilization: Beyond Earth
- Civil War Generals
- Colonization
- Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator
- Conquest of Elysium
- Crush, Crumble, and Chomp!
- CyberStorm
- Delve Deeper
- Diplomacy
- Disciples
- Dominions
- Eador
- Elemental — War of Magic (intended partially as a Spiritual Successor to Master of Magic)
- Walter Bright's 1978 Empire (quite possibly the first TBS game, influencing the entire genre)
- Endless Legend
- Endless Space
- Endless Space 2
- EndWar (on handhelds, unlike its Console/PC counterpart)
- Fallen Haven
- Fate of the World
- Fire And Maneuver (both in terms of its combat system and campaign maps)
- Galactic Civilizations
- GhostControl Inc.
- Graviteam Tactics
- Hero Hours Contract
- Heroes of Might and Magic
- Heroic Armies Marching
- Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes
- Humankind
- Ironcast, both in terms of its combat system and the overworld map.
- Jones in the Fast Lane
- Kaiju Wars
- King Arthur The Roleplaying Wargame (has a World Map where manual combat is realtime)
- King's Bounty
- The Last Federation (its combat is turn based and the real time portion works like a turn based one)
- The Last Spell
- League Of Angels
- Leylines
- Library of Ruina
- Limbus Company
- Lords of Magic
- The Lords of Midnight (first two games only)
- Lost Frontier
- Making History (which combines this with Grand Strategy)
- March of War
- Massive Chalice
- Master of Magic (spinoff of the 4X Master of Orion series)
- Master Of Monsters
- M.A.X.: Mechanized Assault & Exploration
- MoonBase Commander
- Mordheim: City of the Damned
- Mother Of All Battles
- M.U.L.E.
- No Greater Glory
- Oasis
- The Perfect General series
- The Panzer General series (plus spinoffs like Allied, Star, etc…)
- Fantasy General
- SSI's first and third Warhammer 40,000 games (Final Liberation & Rites of War), made using the same engines as the Panzer General series.
- Prismata
- Ravenmark
- Redshirt
- Rise of Nations (the campaign mode's "Risk"-Style Map works this way, switching to Real-Time Strategy when battle is joined)
- Rise Of The White Sun
- Roadwar 2000
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Koei)
- Shadow Empire
- Shardpunk: Verminfall
- Shattered Union
- Sid Meier's Starships
- Slay
- Solium Infernum
- Songs of Conquest
- Space Empires
- Spaceward Ho!
- Spell Force Conquest Of Eo
- Star Control (the first game's Full Game mode)
- Star Dynasties
- Stars! (1995)
- The Star Trek Text Game (possibly the first, from 1971)
- Sword of the Stars
- Taipan!
- Ten Minute Space Strategy
- That Which Sleeps
- Thea: The Awakening
- Total War (An interesting hybrid, with a continent-scale strategic turn-based game that jumps to Plausible Realtime battles for resolving conflicts between opposing armies)
- Shogun: Total War
- Medieval: Total War
- Rome: Total War
- The Fourth Age: Total War (a mod set in Middle-earth)
- Medieval II: Total War
- Divide and Conquer (an extensive Third Age: Total War sub-mod)
- Thera (a campaign and conversion mod)
- Third Age: Total War (a total conversion mod set in Middle-earth)
- Empire: Total War
- Napoleon: Total War
- Total War: Shogun 2
- Total War: Rome II
- Total War: Attila
- Total War: Warhammer
- Total War: Warhammer II
- Thrones of Britannia: A Total War Saga
- Total War: Three Kingdoms
- Total War: Warhammer III
- UFO Afterblank
- Unity Of Command
- VGA Planets
- Wargroove
- Warlords
- Warzone (formerly known as Warlight)
- Wing Commander Armada (which combined this with simulated space combat)
- Wizards And Warlords
- Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars