While ultimately divisive among fans of the original, Blizzard’s space RTS sequel and its two expansions feature some of the most high production value storytelling and entertaining, creatively-designed campaign missions in any RTS. Get your hotkeys and your End Turn button ready. An effort was also made not to include too many games from the same series or developer, so you can consider, for example, the Total War entries selected to speak to the position the series has as a whole in strategy gaming, even though it wasn’t possible to include all of the greatest hits. While some consideration was given to historical importance, the main factor was how enticing each game would be to pick up and play irresponsibly into the wee hours of the morning, right here and now. This list also favors games that still hold up and are fun to play today over those that are considered definitive, innovative, or trend-setting.

Effort was taken to include a variety of subgenres of strategy as well, even though those can sometimes be difficult to compare to one another. As Sid Meier would say, these games present a series of interesting choices that can lead you to defeat or triumph.

In terms of classification, this list contains games in which strategy is the primary concern - or at least one of a handful of primary concerns. After much consideration, they’ve been narrowed down to the best of the best. Even if we’re just limiting ourselves to the digital variety, there are dozens and dozens of RTSes, 4Xes, wargames, and grand strategy paragons worthy of high praise. What are the best strategy games? It’s a daunting question to answer, with the genre spanning back almost as long as humans have been playing games.

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