What is the Steam Summer Sale?
The Steam Summer 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 an article for the uninitiated! For the strategy game enjoyers soon-to-be. Veterans that know the differences between an Ausf. A and Ausf. G won’t be surprised, and much less entertained by some of the video games mentioned here. 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 Summer Sale and pack your library full of great games. There has never been a better time to get some of the greatest strategy titles ever made. The sale is running until the 13th of July.
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 50 video game recommendations that you can purchase during the Steam Summer Sale.
My Top 25 Must-Have Recommendations
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, from a beginner just getting started, to a scar-ridden veteran. These are in the order I would prioritize getting. If you’re on a limited budget, the last 5 offer the best bang for your buck.
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25 – 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.
24 – 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.
I’ll also create another list with a more diverse selection of games from other genres like Tycoon and Management, and another one with other ad-hoc recommendations. This is mainly focused on combat-oriented strategy games.
23 – 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.
22 – Graviteam Tactics: Mius-Front
This is the ultimate World War II tactical experience with a 1:1 scale. No game does it better, not even Combat Mission. It’s hard to get into and it’s going to require some tutorial watching and manual reading but there’s nothing quite like it. Before playing this better learn how units will spend some time laying wires on the field, which squads are in shouting range, and which ones need radio contact to do their job. No line of communication? How will your artillery commander know when and where to fire? It’s that kind of game. And it’s better to go in with some understanding of WWII tactics and unit organization. Graviteam Tactics: Mius Front pulls no punches but it’s marvelous.
21 – 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.
20 – 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.
19 – 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
18 – 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 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. For the low price of a dollar, what more can you ask?
17 – 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.
16 – Cauldrons of War
Cauldrons of War are weird and delightful games. On one hand, it’s a really different kind of game from what I’m used to and if something is new, it usually excites me. On the other hand, it’s so fast-paced and so simple I tend to lose interest in the campaign I’m playing currently, and every time I boot the game up I start a new one. The game even describes itself as a “turn-based strategic wargame you will launch whenever you want your WW2 shot but don’t have time for a monster strategy game”. It’s a nice mix between a choose-your-own misadventure World War 2 game paired up with a turn-based, grand strategy with some superficial management when it comes to battles. It gives you the feeling of being in Berlin or Moscow making high-level, strategic decisions without all the fluff and micromanagement games like Hearts of Iron entail.
15 – 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.
14 – Decisive Campaigns Ardennes Offensive
Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive is the best operational-level wargame I’ve ever played, period. The decision to stay away from the more abstract aspects of other operational-level wargames and to bravely implement novel features should serve as a textbook example of how a genre, considered by many to be stale and long past its prime can be propelled to new heights with the right knowledge, passion, and inspiration. For going above and beyond the call of duty, Decisive Campaigns was granted the first Golden Strategy and Wargaming Seal of Approval in 2021.
13 – 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.
12 – 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. The reason I’m advising you to pick up Shadow Tactics instead of Desperados 3 is simply because of the price. if you have the budget and can get Desperados you won’t go wrong either, if you don’t, then Shadow Tactics is just excellent in its own right. Also, if you’re uncertain if this is the right genre for you, Shadow Tactics.
11 – Stronghold Crusader
Given how cheap this game always is, there’s no way I wouldn’t place it near my personal top 10. 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.
Strategy Games | Strategy and Wargaming 
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