Best Turn-Based Strategy Games on Steam
Strategy games where turns structure movement, economy, combat, and planning.
Browse all Turn-Based Strategy →
1Sid Meier's Civilization® V - Create, discover, and download new player-created maps, scenarios, interfaces, and more!
Sep 21, 2010
In this game, you can…
- open your borders to Gandhi, then watch him pillage your land, annex cities, denounce you, and launch nukes anyway.
- send a nuclear fleet across the world, punch through a submarine blockade, fire the warheads, then drop XCOM squads to seize the top superpower's capital before the space race ends.
- absorb a nearby city-state instantly, then trigger a chain-reaction war where your allies help wipe out an empire.
- start in 4000 BC with one settler and build a world empire.
- win wars by pure positioning, using terrain choke points while cities shoot enemies from two tiles away.
- bribe leaders and city-states into alliances until a few denouncements turn into a globe-spanning world war.
- fight late-game resource wars where uranium decides everything, nuclear subs blockade coasts, cruisers break through, and XCOM drops capture capitals.
- race two victories at once, then lose one turn before winning because another nation hits a different win condition first.
- build famous wonders in completely wrong places, like the Great Pyramids in Honolulu or the Great Wall of Portugal.
2Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition - The critically acclaimed RPG that raised the bar, from the creators of Baldur's Gate 3. Gather your party. Master deep, tactical combat. Venture as a party of up to four - but know that only one of you will have the chance to become a God.
Sep 14, 2017
In this game, you can…
- teleport 30 corpses into a boss room, then detonate them all at once to erase the boss.
- eat body parts as an elf to gain the dead person's memories and quest-changing visions.
- rip someone's face off, then wear it to use their identity.
- throw death fog barrels at living enemies to kill them instantly, while undead allies can stand in it safely.
- turn water into an electrified stun pool, or freeze wet ground so enemies slip and get knocked down.
- teleport enemies into hazards, drag archers into melee, or fling someone far away to break an encounter.
- talk to animals and get full conversations, like a chicken insisting he's a mighty wizard.
- set up ambushes by keeping some party members out of combat while others start the fight, then spring the trap.
3Balatro - The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.
Feb 20, 2024
In this game, you can…
- reshape your deck until it's 20 Aces or a single suit.
- turn a normal poker hand into an impossible one, like five of a kind.
- stack two effects so one adds a new card every round and the other immediately buffs it, creating a self-feeding deck growth loop.
- make a straight or flush using only four cards.
- reroll the shop until you find the exact upgrade you're missing, burning all your cash to do it.
- start from a basic deck, buy wild upgrades between rounds, and watch one tiny combo turn into billions of points.
- skip early rounds for cash, ride interest, then pivot your whole deck plan and crush a 1M+ blind later.
- keep playing after you "win" in Endless mode, turning runs into a high-score lab for crazier combos.
4Persona 5 Royal - Lead the Phantom Thieves of Hearts in this award winning, stylish turn-based RPG filled with dungeon crawling, party customization, strategic combat, and Persona fusion. Explore Tokyo, build relationships, battle Shadows, and infiltrate the minds of the corrupt to make them change their ways!
Oct 20, 2022
In this game, you can…
- get framed for assault, moved to Tokyo, then dragged into a parallel world by a talking cat to commit heists.
- send a calling card, break into someone's mind, and steal their "heart" to change how they act in real life.
- talk enemies into joining you mid-fight, then fuse them into new monsters to build custom battle strategies.
- spend a full in-game year budgeting every day between school, jobs, friends, workouts, and night-time dungeon raids.
- hide behind cover, grapple to hidden routes, and ambush guards in themed dungeons that play like stealth heists.
- trigger a critical hit, chain teammate follow-ups, and end the turn with a screen-filling group finisher.
- build friendships that unlock concrete combat perks and special moves, not just extra dialogue.
5Total War: WARHAMMER II - The forces of Lustria await your command. Choose your Legendary Lord, expand your armies, forge alliances in a strategic turn-based campaign, and unleash the might of your monstrous forces in fast-paced real-time battles.
Sep 28, 2017
In this game, you can…
- get ambushed, eat a tactical nuke minutes into the fight, then rebuild your entire battle line mid-chaos and still win.
- lead an army of thousands of rats with poison bombs, lightning cannons, and rapid-fire guns that can erase units fast.
- play on a stitched-together mega-map where every race from both games is in one campaign with wildly different starting situations.
- race other empires to complete world-shaking rituals, then hold off enemy counterattacks long enough to finish yours.
- set up a chokepoint defense where one perfect position and timed spells lets you beat multiple elite armies at once.
- send a single hero into the front line to fight whole groups alone, then swing the battle with healing or devastating magic.
- slam cavalry into a line hard enough to rip it open, then follow up with hydras, dragons, and phoenixes to finish the collapse.
- pull 10,000 gold from a shipwreck, drop it straight into new buildings, then use the upgrade to launch your next conquest.
6Persona 4 Golden - A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders.
Jun 13, 2020
In this game, you can…
- step into your TV on a rainy night.
- build friendships — even with a shrine fox — that directly power up your combat fusions.
- fight someone's "other self" so their Persona can awaken and join your team afterward.
- live a full school year where every day is two choices.
- capture Personas, then fuse them into custom builds with the exact skills and resistances you want.
- dive into a foggy TV-world dungeon of random floors, hunt the staircase, and push deeper for treasure and rare fights.
- investigate a string of disappearances by chasing clues across town, watching the Midnight Channel, then entering the next victim's TV world before the deadline hits.
- bounce from goofy school trips and club hangouts to life-or-death boss fights as your classmates become a full detective squad.
7South Park™: The Stick of Truth™ - From the perilous battlefields of the fourth-grade playground, a young hero will rise, destined to be South Park’s savior. From the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, comes an epic quest to become… cool. Introducing South Park™: The Stick of Truth™.For a thousand years, the battle has been waged.
Mar 3, 2014
In this game, you can…
- summon Jesus from heaven to mow down Nazi zombies with an M16
- shrink down, crawl through Mr. Slave's rectum as a gnome, disable a WMD, dodge bodily fluids, and turn on vibrators to progress
- walk into Canada and suddenly play through an 8-bit RPG-style section
- use fart magic as a combat spell and an overworld tool for puzzles and secrets
- get abducted and probed by aliens, then gain teleporting you can use to explore and bypass fights
- time button presses for perfect hits and blocks instead of just picking an attack and watching
- pick a class like Fighter, Mage, Thief, or Jew, and get a noticeably different playstyle and reactions
- walk through a fully recreated South Park, entering houses, rooms, and closets while characters keep treating you as the silent new kid
8Total War: SHOGUN 2 - Total War: SHOGUN 2 is the perfect mix of real-time and turn-based strategy gaming for newcomers and veterans alike.
Mar 15, 2011
In this game, you can…
- import British marines through a single foreign-trade port, buy an ironclad, and mow down elite samurai with Gatling guns and cannons.
- grow powerful enough that allies and vassals flip on you, then fight off a coordinated dogpile ordered by the Shogun himself.
- recruit a new general from the rank and file when leaderless troops win battles, promoting a regular soldier into command.
- pivot your clan from sword charges to rifles, factories, and a new emperor after getting shredded by modern gun lines.
- bait an army into a trap with one division, encircle it with gun units, wipe it out in volleys, then upgrade to bigger guns when armored samurai appear.
- watch a trained ninja assassination play out as a cutscene gamble that can succeed cleanly or fail in a spectacular botch.
- climb castle walls with any unit, push through multiple inner tiers, and turn a siege into a chaotic all-hands fortress storm.
- fight battles where weather, thunder, petals, and war drums all keep going while armies clash and enemies try to sneak through forests.
9Persona 3 Reload - Dive into the Dark Hour and awaken the depths of your heart. Persona 3 Reload is a captivating reimagining of the genre-defining RPG, reborn for the modern era with cutting-edge graphics and gameplay.
Feb 1, 2024
In this game, you can…
- step into a secret 25th hour at midnight, when everyone turns into coffins and your school becomes a monster-filled tower.
- climb a 264-floor tower during the hidden hour, clearing shifting layouts, looting chests, and pushing deeper one floor at a time.
- open a random door in the tower for a risky detour that can drop you into a hard fight, rare treasure, and even a full floor map.
- hit a weakness to knock enemies down, hand off extra turns across the team, then finish with a group attack once they're all floored.
- charge character-specific super moves in different ways, save them up, and unload them on bosses when you decide it matters most.
- play out extra mini-story arcs with party members, get new scenes, and unlock a new fusion reward when the episode wraps.
- spend late nights in the dorm cooking, gardening, watching DVDs, or reading with friends, then wake up with useful items and stronger bonds.
- plan your year day by day, choosing between school, friendships, side episodes, dorm life, and dungeon runs with limited time windows.
10XCOM: Enemy Unknown - The XCOM: Enemy Unknown - Slingshot Pack is Now Available!
Oct 8, 2012
In this game, you can…
- capture aliens alive, interrogate them, autopsy them, and turn their bodies into new weapons and armor.
- infect civilians into zombies that burst into new aliens, spreading the outbreak across the map.
- blow holes through walls and erase enemy cover with rockets and grenades.
- name and customize soldiers, then watch them survive promotions, injuries, and impossible missions for dozens of battles.
- shoot down a UFO, then storm the crash site and clear out whatever survived.
- run a whole war from a base: scan for threats, launch satellites, choose research, and decide which countries get saved.
- deploy late-game soldiers in MEC suits, psionic powers, and flight armor that let them fight like sci-fi monsters.
- juggle multiple high-stakes operations so you can't always rely on one "A team," forcing you to spread veterans across missions.
