Strategy Games

The strategy game genre focuses on skilful resource management and careful planning in order to achieve success, and is therefore classified as a 'thinking game'. These games may be turn-based or realtime (see below), although there are some, such as X-Com, that blend the two types of play.

The majority of strategy titles tend to be wargames, featuring simulations of historical or hypothetical military battles, campaigns or entire wars. However, many other types exist that do not focus on battle, but rather on building civilisations or managing large-scale affairs. (See also Economic Simulation Games).

Turn Based Strategy (TBS) Games

This form of strategy game divides the game flow into well-defined and visible parts, called rounds or turns, with divisions often representing units of time, such as years, months, weeks or days. The player is typically allowed a period of time (in some cases this may be unlimited) to analyse the situation before committing to a particular game action. This form of strategy game was most commonly used in the early days of computer games when computers were too slow for real-time interaction. However, examples of this genre still exist, such as Heroes of Might and Magic, Civilization, Jagged Alliance and Master of Orion.

Web Based TBS Games

In this sub-genre, players do not need to install software, but instead access the game through the Internet. Orders given in-game usually take a set number of ticks (or hours) to complete, so that attacking another player may give them a lengthy window of time to make preparations for defending themselves. Examples of web based strategy games are Planetarion, Terra Incognita and Dawn of Myth.

Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Games

In this form of strategy game, the player must make decisions and actions within real time, so that commands may be given at any time. In wargames, this means that players focus on simplified and stylised military battle tactics such as reconnaissance, flanking and massed rushes.

Players must also spend time focusing on logistics and production, and often spend up to 80% of their time in non-combat gameplay aspects. This is in comparison to Real-Time Tactical (RTT) games (see below).

Examples of games in the real-time strategy genre include Command and Conquer, Dune II, StarCraft, Warcraft (not to be confused with World of Warcraft, a MMORPG) and Age of Empires. There are also a number of massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games (MMORTS), such as Shattered Galaxy and Mankind.

Real-Time Tactical (RTT) Games

Unlike real time strategy games, in which the player often spends most of their time micro-managing a range of non-combat gameplay aspects, real time tactical games focus on operational and tactical aspects of warfare such as the exploitation of terrain for tactical advantage or the formation of units. Examples include the Total War series, featuring titles such as Shogun, Rome and Medieval; the futuristic Ground Control; and the Close Combat series, where the player controls units in the Second World War.