What is the Steam Easter Sale?
This is an article for the uninitiated! For the strategy game soon-to-be. Veterans that know the differences between an Ausf. A and Ausf. G, won’t be surprised and much less entertained. However, if you can’t spot a Dyrenkov from a Sherman in a crowded museum, this article is for you. Take full advantage of the Steam Easter Sale in order to pack your library full of games. There has never been a better time to get some of the greatest strategy titles ever made.
The Steam Easter Sale is an annual event hosted by Steam, a popular online gaming platform. During the sale, people can purchase games at discounted prices, including strategy games. This is a great opportunity for gamers to expand their game collection and try out new titles. In this article, I’ll provide you with 25 strategy video game recommendations that you can purchase during the Steam Easter Sale.
If you’re looking for more in-depth and strategy-focused recommendations, make sure you look here:
Why?
To create this list of recommendations, I looked at a variety of factors, including gameplay mechanics (and how different they might be from one another), graphics, positive reviews, and popularity. The goal was to provide you with a diverse selection of strategy games that appeal to different types of people.
My Top 25 Recommendations
Civilization VI
Civilization VI is the latest iteration of the famous turn-based strategy series that allows players to build and expand their own civilization while competing against other nations. The game offers a vast amount of content, including multiple game modes, different civilizations to play as, and unique victory conditions. The game is starting to show its age, but a substantial amount of DLC rolling out frequently manages to keep things fresh. For first-timers, the gameplay is both challenging and rewarding. If you never played Civilization in your life, this is the game where you should start.
XCOM
XCOM is a turn-based tactics game where players lead a squad of soldiers to fight against an alien invasion. The game offers a good enough narrative story, with a challenging campaign that will keep you engaged for dozens of hours. XCOM’s graphics still hold up pretty well, more than a decade later, and the tactical battles are still absolutely fantastic. Permanently losing an invaluable team member never loses its punch. If you’re looking for a turn-based tactical game, you cannot go wrong with this reboot of the 90’s original.
Stellaris
Paradox titles will feature prominently here. Stellaris is a grand strategy game set in space where players can explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate their way to galactic dominance. The game offers a massive amount of customization, with players able to evolve their own species throughout time, build massive fleets, research technology, and explore new, unfound worlds. The gameplay is both complex and engaging, and this first foray into the beyond from Paradox was a massive success. There are 17 DLC packs, so don’t expect a content drought anytime soon.
Crusader Kings 3
My favorite Paradox title, Crusader Kings III is a grand strategy game set in the medieval world, where players can control a dynasty and rule over their lands. The game offers a deep and immersive story, with a complex web of relationships and politics to navigate.
Total War: Three Kingdoms
In all honesty, Three Kingdoms is Creative Assembly’s attempt at trying to snag some Yuans, but it’s still a cool entry. What Total War: Three Kingdoms is, is a real-time tactics game set in ancient China where players can lead armies in epic battles and grand campaigns led by famous characters of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The game offers a unique blend of real-time tactics and turn-based strategy, with a deep and engaging campaign mode. The graphics are fantastic, and the gameplay is run-of-the-mill Total War. The development of the game has ceased, but there’s still a lot to enjoy here.
Hearts of Iron IV
Hearts of Iron IV is a grand strategy game (from Paradox) set during World War II, where players can lead any nation in the world to victory or defeat. The game offers a massive amount of content, with different scenarios, and multiple factions, each with its own unique paths. It’s a sandbox game, where you set your very own victory conditions and explore alternative paths to real-life History. It isn’t a hardcore military simulator, but it does a great job of easing you into the dark times of the Second World War.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
Every single time anyone mentions the Real-Time-Strategy genre, it’s inevitable that Age of Empires II is the game that instantly comes to mind. The seminal RTS was released way back in 1999 and it still remains one of the most-played games in the genre. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is a real-time strategy game that allows players to build and manage their civilization while battling against other nations.
Europa Universalis IV
Europa Universalis IV is a grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. The game is set in the early modern period, from 1444 to 1821, and allows players to control a nation and guide it through history. The game includes a large map of the world with over 4,000 provinces, each with its own unique characteristics such as terrain, climate, and resources. It’s a deep and complex strategy game that will challenge you. See it as another of Paradox’s offerings if you don’t like World War 2 or the Medieval times.
Homeworld: Remastered Collection
Homeworld: Remastered Collection is a real-time strategy game set in space where players can lead fleets of spaceships to battle against enemies. The game offers stunning graphics and an immersive storyline, with a campaign that spans both Homeworld and Homeworld 2. The gameplay is both strategic and intense, and controlling your units in real 3D space is a unique experience I don’t recall being replicated anywhere else.
Total War: Warhammer II
It’s the best Total War game from the last 10 years. If you don’t have money to buy anything else, buy Total War: Warhammer II. Call it peculiar, unusual, captivating, engaging, or compelling. But the battles of Warhammer II are so much more interesting than those boring and pesky humans poking holes in each other. Dragons, zombie pirates, ghosts, elves, giant trees, lizards, Skaven, and chaos thingies all face one another with the most absurd army combinations available. Are Centaurs getting peppered by warp fire? Check. The wrecked hull of a ship with two legs firing hand cannons at lines of high elves? Check. Are feral manticores and witches tearing each other apart? Check.
Bad North: Jotunn Edition
Bad North: Jotunn Edition is a real-time strategy game with a rogue-lite meta-layer where players take the role of a tribe chieftain and are forced to defend their multi-island Kingdom from Viking invaders. A pretty neat concept, that brilliantly executes its minimalist real-time tactics by limiting the gameplay loop by having the player is always on the defensive and the objective is to always prevent the Vikings from setting fire to the buildings on each island.
Endless Legend
Endless Legend is a turn-based 4X strategy video game developed by Amplitude Studios and released in 2014. The game is set in the fantasy world of Auriga, a mysterious and beautiful land that is full of ancient ruins and secrets waiting to be discovered. One of the unique features of Endless Legend is the inclusion of minor factions, independent groups that can be befriended or conquered. These factions can provide unique bonuses and units, making them valuable allies or dangerous enemies. Endless Legend is a highly strategic 4X that offers a unique blend of exploration, diplomacy, and combat
Battle Academy
Never played a wargame before but getting ready to jump into the grog-bitat? Have a go with Battle Academy, the friendliest of wargames. Battle Academy deserves a spot in every beginners’ library and for less than a cheap, unhealthy breakfast, there’s really no excuse. The game offers a diverse range of units, including infantry, tanks, artillery, and aircraft, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the key features of Battle Academy is its innovative control system, which allows players to easily select units, move them around the battlefield, and engage in combat. The game’s interface is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly, allowing players to focus on strategy and tactics rather than wrestling with complicated controls
Darkest Dungeon
The pioneer of the PTSD-RPG genre, Early Access sweetheart, and one of the best RPGs/ Turn-based strategy games ever made, Darkest Dungeon will take you exploring the darkest corners of the deepest caves. Sending other human beings deeper and deeper into the wells of madness as they venture forth, hopeless and scared against the ancient creatures of eons past. All while trying to unravel what happened that lead your family estate into ruin. The striking aesthetic, the unusual character classes, the punishing combat, the management aspect, and the idea that your heroes are nothing more than frail-minded humans that can, in one second. deliver a critical strike that wins the day and, in the next dungeon run they can encounter a short near-death experience that will send them down into an unsavory mental breakdown. This focus on the mental health of your characters and the real impact it has on gameplay help carry on the idea that madness and death play along, hand in hand, in the Darkest of Dungeons.
FTL
THE Kickstarter success story, FTL is a rogue-like experience that puts the players in the shoes of a ship captain and tasks them with managing its various crew members and modules, choosing weapon targets, managing power distribution, fending off boarding parties, keeping fires under control and, above anything else- avoid dying at all costs. It has the best video game soundtrack of all time. It’s just glorious to listen to and never fails to make me smile while writing at the sound of it.
Starship Troopers: Terran Command
Starship Troopers: Terran Command is a videogame that screams homage and exudes reverence for the films of the franchise. A stellar presentation in combination with an expansive campaign that’s going to last you a good dozen hours before you’re done with it, allied with a fantastic friendly and enemy unit variety that is both movie-accurate and interesting to play with, plus the tactical conundrums present that are sure to stir some of your brain cells to make Starship Troopers an obvious purchase. If you’re either a fan of the franchise or want to play one of the best real-time strategy campaigns since the release of the first Company of Heroes and Starcraft II, Starship Troopers don’t fret.
“Despite some of the bugs and lighter criticism, I can’t help myself and must award Terran Command a Strategy and Wargaming Golden Seal of Approval. Starship Troopers: Terran Comand is what happens when the theme meets the mechanics with exquisite care. You made the Federation proud!”
Cities: Skylines
If any city builder has the claim to be the spiritual successor to Sim City 4 it’s this one. Bringing the formula back to its roots Cities: Skylines keeps it simple to play at first but grows incredibly complex the longer you play. Build roads, and zone areas by painting and keep plopping down utility buildings. Paradox has steadily been adding content for years and you won’t find a better game in this genre. Though the base game seems very bare when you start looking at all the cool stuff available in the expansion packs. Paradox will Paradox.
Stronghold Crusader
Stronghold Crusader was a definitive improvement over the first installment, by taking the game into the middle east during the crusades. Its respectful recreation of the ambiance of the Holy Land is just fantastic. The new mechanics give the game a sense of place and make it feel distinct from its predecessor: new units, farmable land, mercenaries, new defenses, and a swift shift in in-game aesthetic, Stronghold Crusader marks the pinnacle of the series. The Muslim rulers are a fun change of pace from their European counterparts, with Salahadin betting his luck on his medium-armored Arabian swordsmen and bowmen. The Caliph, under his keffiyeh, uses slaves to harass and weaken the player’s economies before striking. The Sultan serves as the comic relief of the bunch (similar to how the Rat was in the first). The Christians also get Richard The Lionheart and The Emperor.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
If there’s anything I learned from playing both Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados 3 is that Mimimi Games are masters at their craft and that they have perfected the Stealth-Strategy genre, reviving a bracket in gaming that had long perished.
Gears Tactics
Gears Tactics is a solid game, with a below-average storyline and an excellent visual presentation. It adds a lot of what makes Gears of War so recognizable into a fantastic and fun 3D tactics game that gets dragged down by the lack of options, replayability, and player agency. It’s a wasted opportunity that could have been one of the most entertaining games of the genre, only if it had been able to nail the management layer as well as it did the tactical one.
Door Kickers 2: Task Force North
Door Kickers 2: Task Force North is a great game and a considerable improvement on what was the tried and true formula of the original. Is it worth your time and money? Of course, if you enjoy free-flow, top-down tactical engagements with somewhat realistic and brutal combat. If you’re looking for an in-depth, military-grade simulation of desert warfare then Door Kickers 2 is not the game for that and some would be better served looking into Combat Mission: Shock Force 2.
They Are Billions
They Are Billions is a real-time strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic world infested by zombies, where players can build and defend their own colonies against the hordes of the undead. The game has cool isometric graphics and a decent enough storyline for its world. It also has a challenging campaign that even on the easiest difficult can be a tough nut to crack.
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector is a great game in its own right. Packing smart tactical decision-making with meaty Marines sporting astronomically (and disproportionately) large weapons splattering tyranid matter to kingdom come. It is not only a very good turn-based tactical game but also the best turn-based strategy game to ever come out for the Warhammer franchise.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Launched when Relic was scoring hit after hit, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II distanced itself from its predecessor by focusing on smaller-scale tactics, with every unit having several skills and requiring a fair bit of micromanaging. It ditched the base building aspect and focused a lot on the four F’s that made Company of Heroes so beloved: fire, fix, flank, and finish
Atlantic Fleet
Fancy a chance at sinking the Bismark? Think your HMS Hood might not end up breaking in half? Atlantic Fleet is the cheapest way to put those armchair skills to the test. Killerfish Games first hit, Atlantic Fleet is a turn-based tactical and strategic naval combat, and players can lead both the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine across the Atlantic Campaign. It’s a simple game, that doesn’t do much in the way of realism but if you’re a landlubber and never stepped inside a battlecruiser then there are worst places to start. Atlantic Fleet comes equipped with an excellent set of tutorials that do their very best to navigate players across the ocean’s tricky currents. It also has about three dozen historical missions, a large dynamic campaign mode, and a custom battle editor. It’s loved by many for its simplicity and how easy it is to engage with its systems, putting the players in charge of both steering the ships and firing its main guns.
Go have fun!
These 25 strategy video game recommendations offer something for every type of person, from classic favorites like Age of Empires to new and exciting titles like Northgard and Doors Kickers 2. Whether you’re a fan of real-time strategy, turn-based combat, or empire-building games, there’s something on this list for you. And with the Steam Easter Sale offering discounts on these and many other games, there’s never been a better time to expand your game collection and try out something new. Cheers!
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