We are living in the golden age of strategy games in 2026. Just this year alone, we saw the release of MENACE, a turn-based strategy game from the team of Battle Brothers; Task Force Admiral came out after a decade in development and impressed everyone; and Slay the Spire 2 slayed expectations by being more and better than the first game. With such a strong first trimester, it’s time to look at the remaining year and see what lies ahead, and I’m glad to say, 2026 is far from over, and some of the best games are still to come.
Join me as I take a look at the most exciting strategy games coming in 2026, from traditional real-time strategy games to innovative grand-strategy titles. The best is yet to come!
15 – Gilded Destiny
If you’ve ever felt like the grand strategy genre needed a fresh injection of industrial-era ambition, and Victoria 3 didn’t quite stick the landing, I think that Gilded Destiny might be the answer we have all been looking for, especially now that they have Hooded Horse backing it, so the game has got to be high-quality. Set during the transformative 19th century, it’s a grand strategy title that asks the player to reshape a nation through the lens of the Industrial Revolution into modernity. What caught my eye is the deep focus on economic simulation, and that the game isn’t going to shy away from military operations, as Victoria did.
14 – Zero Space
Zero Space is aiming for the throat of the cinematic RTS crown. It’s a sci-fi epic that blends high-stakes storytelling with the kind of tight, competitive tactical play we haven’t seen since the heyday of StarCraft II. What sets it apart for me is the “Hero” system and the way your choices in the RPG-like dialogue segments actually ripple out into the galactic map. It’s ambitious, gorgeous to look at, and the fact that it’s being built with input from professional RTS players means the balance should be spot-on from day one. I just hope the game does a lot better than Stormgate, which recently attempted to do the same, but fell completely flat.
13 – Mars Tactics
I don’t know what it is, but there’s something so satisfying about the art style of Mars Tactics, and I think it’s because it reminds me of the PS1 era of low-fi aesthetics, very similar to Kriegsfront Tactics. It’s a squad-based tactical game that feels like a love letter to the original X-COM but with a physics-based destruction system that actually matters. You can choose to lead the labor-led uprising or the corporate security forces, and the way the battlefield evolves, literally crumbling under fire, makes every encounter feel unique. It’s lo-fi, high-depth, and exactly the kind of indie gem that 2026 needs after the massive success of MENACE.
12 – The Last General
From the looks of it, The Last General is shaping up to be a lot of things! It’s going to be a real-time tactics game with grand-strategic elements like logistics, resource-gathering, infrastructure building, and massive operations with thousands of units. Now, the game is also going to allow players to control units directly, from a first-person perspective. The Last General is starting to look more like the Zeus map editor from Arma 3 than a traditional strategy game, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’m very curious to see a full playthrough of a mission to see how the whole thing flows together. I have very high hopes for this one!
11 – Sudden Strike 5
Look, it’s no secret that, at the moment, I prefer complex strategy games, but Sudden Strike 5 is starting to convince me that there might be space in my gaming life for a World War 2 RTS that’s a bit more traditional. The formula looks like it’s going to be to follow what SD4 did, but just with more content and better looks. As always, what separates Sudden Strike games from their competition is their sheer amount of single-player content, with hundreds of units and dozens of missions. A great throwback-like title for those of us who want to go back and play an early 2000s RTS formula that has the looks and polish of a 2026 videogame.
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