Interesting Turn Based Strategy games

Games focused on players taking turns to acquire, manage and use resources on a strategic map.

Age of Wonders III (link)

Map has surface and underground layer. You can take over and settle new cities that produce resources and build units and buildings. Locations in city’s influence produce resources and give bonuses. You start with leader hero and more heroes can join later. Depending on chosen class and specializations of the leader you can research different buildings, units, spells and upgrades. Cities belong to various races, class units have variations for each race. Independent cities and minor race dwellings can join without a fight, they like you more if you change alignment to match theirs and do quests for them. You can change terrain to improve city happiness. If you have enough cities of one race you get bonuses. There are dungeons that can be cleared for resources and items.
Combat happens on tactical map. City sieges have map with walls. Units on adjacent hexes join in. Units have three actions per turn, have attacks of opportunity, can flank, can guard, never miss but deal reduced damage instead, fight poorly when unhappy, have abilities and get better with experience. Heroes have equipment, gain experience too and on level up gain skill points to buy abilities.

Armageddon Empires (link)

You create a deck of cards for your chosen faction. Game has hex map where you can put down your units and buildings from your hand in exchange for resources. Hexes on our starting location are replaced with tiles chosen in your deck. If you have the right hero, you can spend resources and roll dice to get additional technology and tactics cards. Units suffer when not in supply range of buildings and can be upgraded with researched cards. Aircraft can strike targets in range of buildings and will return to hand if not destroyed.
Every round players roll dice who goes first. Depending on play order, players get action points which are required to place cards, move units and other actions. In battle units are divided into frontline and backline and roll attack dice against enemy defense dice. Heroes and tactic cards can be used to improve or reroll dice.

Cell War (link)

The players are trying to fill up the grid with as many of their cells as possible. Each turn players can place a new cell and all the cells on the grid are updated according to following rules. Cell dies if it is surrounded by 4 friendly cells or surrounded by 3 enemy cells. A new cell is created in a square surrounded by 2 or 3 friendly cells.

Champion of the Raj (link)

Players control territory, which they can improve and use to support army. Territories can be conquered or acquired through diplomacy. Diplomacy requires player to play minigames, like hunting or racing.

Color Wars (link)

The game space consists of a grid of vertical poles on which players can place balls of their color. The first ball is placed on the bottom, the next one will sit on top of the previous one and so on. When a ball is placed, all balls between this ball and other ball of the same color will switch to this color. The goal is to make sure most of the balls have your color.

Disciples II: Dark Prophecy (link)

Each player starts with main city that they must not lose and that has powerful guardian unit. In the city heroes and units can be purchased. Heroes lead party of up to 5 units. Units and heroes level up. If you have the right buildings in main city, units can be upgraded when leveled up but only basic level 1 units can be purchased. For some units multiple upgrade buildings exist but only one can be built. Neutral cities can be captured, they give bonuses to garrisoned party and units can be purchased there. Controlled cities and rods planted by scout heroes spread terrain type of your faction. Resource nodes that are on your terrain give you resources. There are multiple types of mana resource to cast spells with.

Heroes of Might and Magic V (link)

Cities can build unit dwellings in them that will generate a number of units every week that can be then purchased into army. Army is lead by a hero, the hero levels up to gain skills and attributes and has equipment but can’t be attacked in battle. Units of the same type combine into single stack and can choose one of two upgrades. Spells cost hero’s mana which regenerates.
In battle the hero can cast spells or attack any unit. Hero attributes and skills make units stronger. Units move on a grid and attack each other, losing members in the stack as they receive damage. Units take turns based on initiative, it is possible for high initiative unit to move more than once.

Icewar: The Battle of the Lake (link)

The game takes place on a lake. Players can buy units only on ice they control. They have ice machines that spread ice around them every turn, miners that harvest the ice so it can be used to buy more units, artillery that bombards places on the map and armies that can kill units directly. When armies meet they fight on a separate screen. Moving an army on top of enemy army will destroy it. Armies also spread ice around them. The one who covered most area with their ice wins the fight.

Moonbase Commander (link)

Players start with a hub building that can create more buildings and units by launching them with power and direction specified by the player. New buildings are connected to the one which created them by a power cord. Launching things costs energy, which is generated every turn by the main hub and energy collectors that players launched into energy pools on the map. During single turn, players can launch as many things as their energy reserves allow and unspent energy is saved for the next turn. Players launch sensors to expand their view, weapons to damage enemy buildings and defenses from enemy weapons. Destroying a building will destroy everything launched from it, so destroying the original hub will eliminate the player. Map wraps around at the edges, has wind and varying height which affects launching of units.

Niche (link)

You have a pack of animals, each can make up to three actions per turn. You move them around to gather food and nesting material. Other animals can be brought into the pack by offering food or can be fought. Animals don’t have life, instead they have limited lifespan and getting damaged will reduce it so they die sooner. Animals have different attributes and skills which determine actions they can do. These are determined by genes. Genes are unlocked by doing an action enough times. When you mate two animals, the offspring will get combination of parent’s genes. New genes can be add using mutation. Some genes are detrimental and mating close relatives can result in genetic sickness halving the lifespan. Animals can be ranked as alpha, beta and omega which determines feeding order and allows banishing from pack.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (link)

Player leads group of colonists. Settles bases that control tiles around it. Base grows population that works in tiles and buildings to get resources. Base can have units assigned to them, which they support with their population. Sea bases are possible. Bases further away from main base are less efficient. Apart from bases, satellites can be launched to orbit.
Units can be designed by combining components obtained with research. The research is partially random. Units gain experience and are capable of conventional combat and psi combat. Psi strength depends only on unit’s experience. Units can capture cities, destroy tile improvements and some can shoot down satellites.
The planet can be changed by player - changing tile elevation, creating rivers and forests which has effect on produced resources and combat bonuses. Polar caps can be melted to raise ocean level, flooding coastal tiles. There are aliens on the planet that are aggressive towards environment changing players but can be tamed and used in combat.
Players can do diplomacy with each other, trading and forming treaties. Multiple victories are possible – conquest, diplomatic, economic and research.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI (link)

Player leads a nation. Settles cities that control tiles around it. City grows population that works in tiles and buildings to get resources. There are many resource types that are discovered as game progresses. City can place districts on tiles to build more buildings. Buildings and units unlock with technology research. Wonder buildings can exist only once, first nation that builds it will have it. City can be conquered, razed and pressure of nearby cities can make it become independent. Conquered cities can be liberated which returns them to original owner.
Outside of cities, player can select government type and combine it with policy cards from civic research. Religion can be created and customized, then spread to other cities. Strong industry contributes to climate change, causing stronger disasters, flooding of coast tiles and desertification. Nations can trade most things, make demands, alliances and go to war. Attacking without good reason and breaking pacts worsens nation’s relationship with the other ones. Later in the game nations establish world congress where they vote on resolutions that affect everyone. These can be simple bonuses or competitions which give rewards for participation. More votes can be bought with favor obtained from diplomacy.
Cities contribute points to get great people which are special noncombat unit with powerful abilities. Player has limited amount of governors which boost cities to which they are assigned and spies that can hurt enemy cities or protect allied cities. Cities produce combat units that can have ranged attack, gain bonuses from terrain and adjacent units, gain experience and can capture cities or pillage tiles. They also cost gold and resources to upkeep.
Apart from nations, there are aggressive barbarians and neutral city states. City state can be allied with using diplomacy and finishing quests to obtain bonuses.
Multiple victories are possible – military defeat of everyone else, researching and building certain late game projects, achieving cultural or religious dominance, or becoming the world leader through diplomacy.

Songs of Conquest (link)

Cities have limited spots that can hold any kind of building. Some buildings are unit dwellings that will generate a number of units every day that can be then purchased into army. Army is lead by a hero, the hero levels up to gain skills and attributes and has equipment but can’t be attacked in battle. Units of the same type combine into single stack with a maximum size depending on unit type and can be upgraded. Heroes can take different amount of unit stacks based on their skills.
In battle the hero can cast spells for essence generated by units every turn. Any number of spells can be cast in a single turn. Many spells are stackable. Hero attributes and skills make units stronger. Units move on a grid and attack each other, losing members in the stack as they receive damage. Units get attack of opportunity when enemy enters their zone of control. Killing enemy stack gives bonus to your units. Map contains high ground tiles which gives bonuses to ranged troops.

Honorable mentions

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