16 – Fights in Tight Spaces
Personal enjoyment of games like Fights in Tight Spaces will inevitably come down to whether or not the mix between fighting in a 3D space with cards is a concept that’s interesting to you.
This sub-genre has its tradeoffs, as expected. XCOM and Xenonauts can go fully in-depth into their combat mechanics with things like flanking, cover, hit percentages, equipment, and weapons. Slay the Spire needs only to focus on the interactions and synergies cards have with each. There are some variations on this, of course, like Hearthstone, Gwent, and to some extent Marvel Snap, where placement is often as important as the relations established between the cards themselves. What I’m trying to say, is that this weird niche (that I very much enjoy) of turn-based-tactical card games is yet another example of how two things can come together and churn out something greater than the sum of its parts.
15 – Battle Brothers
Battle Brothers is set in a gritty, low-fantasy medieval world where you’ll lead a ragtag band of mercenaries through challenging (very challenging) battles and perilous quests. You’ll recruit, equip and manage this diverse roster of warriors, bandits and overall ne’er-do-dwellers, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, and quirks. What sets it apart is the sheer brutality of its combat: units can have broken bones, gashing wounds, head traumas and everything in between, each of which affects how they react in different ways. Battle Brothers set you in a world of endless opportunities, and it’s a sublime experience like no other on this list, but be prepared to suffer along the way.
14 – Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector‘s strengths lie in the fact that it’s a weird mix between that familiar feeling of X-COM turn-based combat, mixed with beautifully realized 3D models and production values that are rarely seen in other Warhammer titles and a brutality so over the top it can only make sense within the grim darkness of the far future.
Warhammer: Battlesector packs smart tactical decision-making, with meaty Marines sporting astronomically (and disproportionately) large weapons splattering tyranid matter to kingdom come (and more recently Necrons, Khornite Demons, and Orks). It stands not only as a very good turn-based tactical game but also the best turn-based strategy game to ever come out for the Warhammer franchise, and also one of the best to play in 2026.
Warhammer 40,000 Battlesector got a Strategy and Wargaming Seal of Approval when I first reviewed it.
13 – Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive
Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive is my favourite operational-level wargame of all time, and I don’t even like operational-level counter-pushing.
You see, inventorying my army’s water reservoir, food stockpiles, and ammunition caches while moving around abstract squares isn’t my definition of fun. On the surface, DC: AO appears to be a very classic hex and counter game that doesn’t stray too far from the beaten path, but once the misty morning fog of the Ardennes starts to dwindle and the small details and changes to the hex and counter formula become more apparent, you’ll soon realize that Ardennes Offensive offers a much different experience than genre staples. The base units in the Ardennes Offensive are now modelled per squad, with vehicles (and guns) being simulated by single units instead. These changes instil a level of granularity and detail not yet seen in the franchise and rarely seen in games touching on the operational level.
Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive got the first Golden Seal of Approval from Strategy and Wargaming when it came out, in 2021.
12 – The Troop
Probably, the game that most surprised me in 2023: The Troop is an approachable wargame and acts almost as a direct successor of Battle Academy, or at least, it would be if Battle Academy was ported over to the 2020s by a team of people who really love the Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. The Troop had big shoes to fill and mostly managed to. I would go as far as to call it one of the best World War II from the last decade.
The sheer amount of content (36 hand-crafted missions playable by either side), 4 dynamic campaigns consisting of 7 missions each, and a unit pool that probably surpasses the 100-unit mark is a lot of D-Day for just 40 dollars is great value. Add to that that the game features one of the most impressive AI I’ve seen in any game, ever, and a couple of great twists in traditional wargame mechanics that do the game’s realism a ton of favour, while at the same time streamlining the gameplay (movement and shooting, especially), and it’s not hard to see why it became a beloved game by fans of the genre.
Have a look at finagames.
11 – X-COM: Chimera Squad
XCOM: Chimera Squad is exactly what a spin-off should be: It keeps the XCOM base gameplay nearly intact while shaking things here and there to provide a fundamentally different experience that feels familiar and welcome to fans of the series/ genre. Cast aside those preconceived ideas of it being a vertical slice of what a “usual” X-COM experience would be like based on its 9,99 price tag. I can safely say- after having played through and through- that this is a very good tactical game, and even more so an excellent sneak-peak into the world beyond the battlefields of X-COM, by letting us know how each race of the XCOM universe is learning how to co-exist with one another on Earth. The excellent SWAT-like turn-based battles are just an extra bonus.
Leave a Reply