Best Turn-Based Tactics Games on Steam
Small-scale tactical games where turns govern positioning, abilities, and encounters.
Browse all Turn-Based Tactics →
1Total 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.
2XCOM: 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.
3Mewgenics - Build the ultimate cat army through tactical breeding and send them into deep, challenging turn-based adventures. Draft abilities, collect items, and manipulate genetics across generations in this roguelike tactics game from the creators of The Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh.
Feb 10, 2026
In this game, you can…
- eat a fetus in an alley to instantly heal your entire party.
- loop a cat's concussions into power by repeatedly killing and resurrecting it, until it becomes an absurdly armored, brainless wall that crosses the whole board.
- resurrect enemies as zombies that join your party, as long as they die first.
- watch a so-called healer trait make your tank eat every corpse, including teammates, until it's alone and dies from exhaustion.
- breed cats until one ends up casting fireball for -2 mana, then keep it anyway despite permanent osteoporosis.
- stack a bug-host trait with bug gear and duplicate bug affixes until one cat becomes a walking infestation that can nearly solo a run.
- pair "spawn 1HP flies when hit" with "allies taking damage deal 10 back" and turn getting punched into a chain-reaction kill engine.
- kill a bird and randomly get a bazooka as loot.
4Wandering Sword - Wandering Sword is a Chinese martial-arts RPG where you play a young swordsman caught up in a feud and nearly dies. Escaping the event puts you on the path of pursuing the highest form of martial arts and exploring the pugilistic world to become the great hero you are always destined to be.
Sep 14, 2023
In this game, you can…
- beat up someone you just befriended until they cough up your gifts.
- make one dialogue choice or travel to the wrong place and unknowingly lock out whole questlines hours later.
- recruit up to 14 unique martial artists and learn new techniques by raising friendship with the right masters.
- roam a huge chunk of the world early, poking into towns, mountains, rivers, lairs, and hidden corners for secrets.
- track down side stories that only continue if you investigate, leave, and come back later at the right time.
- switch between turn-based fights and real-time combat, then swap back in for the battles that matter.
- hunt techniques, weapons, recipes, pills, and books, then pivot your main character from fists to sword to staff builds.
- carry power forward into a new run, start stronger, and reroute your choices to uncover different recruits and endings.
5Your Only Move Is HUSTLE - Master your technique, execute flashy combos, and outsmart opponents across the world, frame-by-frame. Slow down the clock to fine-tune your fighting style in this innovative, turn-based combat simulator. Pulverize your friends and choreograph spectacular fight scenes. No training mode required.
Feb 2, 2023
In this game, you can…
- slow down time and plan a fight frame by frame.
- control both fighters in single-player, script every action, then watch it play back as a real-time replay.
- turn a match into turn-based bullet hell when a wizard fills the screen with traps and projectiles.
- perfect-block every projectile in a barrage until the other player runs out of options.
- get grabbed, thrown into a corner, set on fire, grabbed again, launched skyward, then piledriven into the ground until you die.
- chain the same move four times to dribble someone on the ground like a basketball.
- both pick the exact same opening moves and mirror each other's first turns, then diverge the instant someone flinches.
- spend days solving one fight's sequence, then hit play and watch the whole thing run like a choreographed anime scene.
6Metaphor: ReFantazio - After his assassination, the will of the late king decrees the next monarch to be elected by the people. Forge bonds and win over a kingdom divided in this award-winning fantasy RPG with turn-based and action combat, party customization with powerful Archetypes, and hours of exploration.
Oct 10, 2024
In this game, you can…
- awaken job-like powers, swap classes, and inherit skills across them until your party roles stop resembling their original archetypes.
- start fights in real time on the field, instantly delete weaker enemies, or get clipped first and stumble into an ambush.
- ride a gauntlet runner across an entire continent and have travel time actually eat up days on your calendar.
- run a months-long royal election campaign where every alliance, betrayal, and big story beat feeds into a public tournament for the throne.
- dive into dungeons by day, then use the night to cook, bond with companions, and raise virtues before looming deadlines hit.
- buy intel from informants about a dungeon or boss ahead of time so you can plan around weaknesses and affinities before you go in.
- push deep into a dungeon until your resources break, retreat to safety, then come back the next day and keep the expedition going.
- clear a whole dungeon in a single in-game day, then spend the extra time you earned powering up bonds and stats instead of grinding.
7Total War: EMPIRE – Definitive Edition - Command the seas, control the land, forge a new nation, and conquer the globe.
Mar 4, 2009
In this game, you can…
- march an army from India to Northern Europe while fighting across three continents and multiple oceans.
- get steamrolled in Europe, evacuate half your empire by ship to the New World, seize a South American foothold, rebuild, then sail back for revenge.
- trigger colonial uprisings so early the United States can form in 1710, then land troops and erase it in 1711.
- command a fleet in real time, turn into the wind, fire broadsides, then grapple and board enemy ships.
- use chain shot to shred masts, cripple a warship's movement, then close in for a boarding takeover.
- start a world war in the 1720s as alliances cascade, then bombard capitals like Moscow with cannons and mortars.
- invade England as Sweden after surviving naval attacks, take the whole island, then pivot east and siege Moscow.
- build a trade-and-colony money engine by seizing overseas trade theaters and escorting fleets to keep them alive.
8Loop Hero - The Lich has thrown the world into a timeless loop and plunged its inhabitants into never ending chaos. Wield an expanding deck of mystical cards to place enemies, buildings, and terrain along each unique expedition loop for the brave hero.
Mar 4, 2021
In this game, you can…
- design the world with cards while your hero walks the loop on autopilot.
- fight enemies that leave behind follow-up fights, like killing a wolf and then fighting its ghost, then its ghost's ghost.
- beat a chapter boss and keep looping anyway, turning the map into a high-risk resource harvest instead of an endpoint.
- combine nine mountains into one giant peak that changes what you get from it.
- set up tile combos where placing one thing next to another creates entirely new effects, enemies, or rewards.
- push your luck each loop: bank everything at camp, bail early and lose some, or keep going until death takes more.
- swap gear mid-expedition to reshape your build while combat plays itself.
- turn your camp into a growing upgrade engine that unlocks new cards, classes, perks, and permanent buffs.
- build an intentional monster farm by packing the loop with spawners you can barely survive for better payouts.
9Dorfromantik - Dorfromantik is a peaceful building strategy and puzzle game where you create a beautiful and ever-growing village landscape by placing tiles. Explore a variety of colorful biomes, discover and unlock new tiles and complete quests to fill your world with life!
Apr 28, 2022
In this game, you can…
- land a perfect tile where all six edges match, earn bonus points and extra tiles, and chain those perfect fits to keep the run going.
- build long stretches of track or water until tiny trains and boats start moving across your map.
- switch into creative mode and build an unlimited landscape with no pressure, then keep shaping it after a normal run ends.
- rotate hex tiles to find the single best slot, then watch forests, villages, rivers, rails, and fields fuse into one continuous map.
- finish quests like a windmill needing 6 grain fields or a locomotive needing 10 tracks, then get rewarded with more tiles to expand the world.
- close off regions on purpose so you don't block future growth, planning several placements ahead to preserve both points and tile supply.
10Total War: NAPOLEON – Definitive Edition - Complete your Total War collection with this Definitive Edition of Total War: NAPOLEON, which includes all DLC and feature updates since the game’s release
Feb 25, 2010
In this game, you can…
- deploy guerrilla troops outside your normal starting area, so your infantry and cavalry can begin the battle already in ambush positions.
- fight a whole mini-war across 32 regions in the Spanish Peninsula, flipping provinces politically while guerrillas keep popping up behind your lines.
- fight fleet battles that decide whether an invasion happens at all, intercepting armies at sea before they ever reach your shores.
- play famous set-piece battles like Austerlitz, Borodino, and Waterloo from either side and change what history says should happen.
- steamroll into enemy capitals for quick peace deals, then watch your entire invasion collapse when Russia declares war and winter eats your army.
- get a battle-saving comeback when hidden rifle units finally reveal themselves, shred a cavalry charge, then rush exhausted grenadiers to win.
- accidentally blast your own line to pieces by firing cannons through friendly troops, then watch morale collapse as your army retreats.
- negotiate military access as part of a backdoor plan, then have that same faction declare war next turn and force an emergency march back to your capital.
