Best Strategy Games: Plans That Survive Contact

Anyone can publish a strategy game; making the decisions hurt is the hard part. We went through Lootara's 29 strategy titles looking for the ones where losing tells you something — where you can point at the exact choice, twenty minutes later, that cost you the kingdom. Those are the games worth your evenings.

Expect castle walls that must hold, towers built floor by fighting floor, and simulators that hand you an army and a map and wish you luck. Ordered by quality, with the fairest and deepest at the top. Bring a plan; expect to revise it.