strategy video game part of a series onstrategy video games subgenres 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy time management tower defense realtime tactics tactical roleplaying game turnbased strategy turnbased tactics artillery game wargame history chronology of 4x video games chronology of artillery video games chronology of grand strategy video games chronology of massively multiplayer online strategy video games chronology of multiplayer online battle arena video games chronology of realtime strategy video games chronology of realtime tactics video games chronology of tactical roleplaying video games chronology of turnbased strategy video games chronology of turnbased tactics video games more info portalstrategy games vte strategy video game is a video game that focuses on skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory it emphasizes strategic tactical and sometimes logistical challenges many games also offer economic challenges and exploration they are generally categorized into four subtypes depending on whether the game is turnbased or realtime and whether the game focuses on strategy or tactics definition strategy video games are a genre of video game that emphasize skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory relationship to other genres even though there are many action games that involve strategic thinking they are seldom classified as strategy games although strategy games involve strategic tactical and sometimes logistical challenges they are distinct from puzzle games a strategy game calls for planning around a conflict between players whereas puzzle games call for planning in isolation strategy games are also distinct from construction and management simulations which include economic challenges without any fighting these games may incorporate some amount of conflict but are different from strategy games because they do not emphasize the need for direct action upon an opponent although strategy games are similar to roleplaying video games in that the player must manage units with a variety of numeric attributes rpgs tend to be about a smaller number of unique characters while strategy games focus on larger numbers of fairly similar units game design units and conflict strategy games give players indirect control over many units in a battlefield many games for example globulation 2 include other challenges such as building construction the player commands their forces by selecting a unit usually by clicking it with the mouse and issuing an order from a menu keyboard shortcuts become important for advanced players as speed is often an important factor units can typically move attack stop hold a position although other strategy games offer more complex orders units may even have specialized abilities such as the ability to become invisible to other units usually balanced with abilities that detect otherwise invisible things some strategy games even offer special leader units that provide a bonus to other units units may also have the ability to sail or fly over otherwise impassable terrain or provide transport for other units noncombat abilities often include the ability to repair or construct other units or buildings even in imaginary or fantastic conflicts strategy games try to reproduce important tactical situations throughout history techniques such as flanking making diversions or cutting supply lines may become integral parts of managing combat terrain becomes an important part of strategy since units may gain or lose advantages based on the landscape some strategy games such as civilization iii and medieval 2 total war involve other forms of conflict such as diplomacy and espionage however warfare is the most common form of conflict as game designers have found it difficult to make nonviolent forms of conflict as appealing economy resources and upgrades strategy games often involve other economic challenges most strategy games allow players to accumulate resources which can be converted to units or converted to buildings such as factories that produce more units the quantity and types of resources vary from game to game some games will emphasize resource acquisition by scattering large quantities throughout the map while other games will put more emphasis on how resources are managed and applied by balancing the availability of resources between players to a lesser extent some strategy games give players a fixed quantity of units at the start of the game strategy games often allow the player to spend resources on upgrades or research some of these upgrades enhance the players entire economy other upgrades apply to a unit or class of units and unlock or enhance certain combat abilities a build order is a linear pattern of production research and resource management aimed at achieving a specific and specialized goal they are analogous to chess openings in that a player will have a specific order of play in mind however the amount the build order the strategy around which the build order is built or even which build order is then used varies on the skill ability and other factors such as how aggressive or defensive each player is map and exploration early strategy games featured a topdown perspective similar in nature to a board game or paper map many later games adopted an isometric perspective even with the rise of 3d graphics and the potential to manipulate the camera games usually feature some kind of aerial view very rarely do strategy games show the world from the perspective from an avatar on the ground this is to provide the player with a big picture view of the game world and form more effective strategies exploration is a key element in most strategy games the landscape is often shrouded in darkness and this darkness is lifted as a players units enters the area the ability to explore may be inhibited by different kinds of terrain such as hills water or other obstructions even after an area is explored that area may become dim if the player does not patrol it this design technique is called the fog of war where the player can see the terrain but not the units within the explored area this makes it possible for enemies to attack unexpectedly from otherwise explored areas realtime versus turnbased bos wars is a realtime strategy game where events unfold continuously strategy video games are categorized based on whether they offer the continuous gameplay of realtime strategy or the discrete phases of turnbased strategy the relative popularity of realtime strategy has led some critics to conclude that more gamers prefer actionoriented games strategy versus tactics most strategy video games involve a mix of both strategy and tactics tactics usually refer how troops are utilized in a given battle whereas strategy describes the mix of troops the location of the battle and the commanders larger goals or military doctrine settings and themes strategy games can take place in a number of settings depending on the theatre of warfare releases may be noted as naval strategy games some strategy games are abstract and do not try to represent a world with high fidelity although many of these may still involve combat in the sense that units can capture or destroy each other these games sometimes offer noncombat challenges such as arranging units in specific patterns however the vast majority of computerized strategy games are representational with more complex game mechanics single player multiplayer and massively multiplayer strategy games include singleplayer gameplay multiplayer gameplay or both more recently massively multiplayer online strategy games have appeared such as shattered galaxy from 2001 history the origin of strategy video games is rooted in traditional tabletop strategy games like chess and go as well as board and miniature wargaming 1989s herzog zwei is often considered the first realtime strategy game in 1983 d h lawson and john gibsons stonkers and steven fabers epidemic in 1983 and evrywares the ancient art of war in 1984 the genre was popularized by dune ii three years later in 1992 since its first title was released in 2000 the total war series by the creative assembly has become the most successful series of strategy games of all time with sales of copies of empire total war numbering in the millions subgenres 4x 4x game freeciv is an open source implementation of the civilization series 4x games are a genre of strategy video game in which players control an empire and explore expand exploit and exterminate the term was first coined by alan emrich in his september 1993 preview of master of orion for computer gaming world since then others have adopted the term to describe games of similar scope and design 4x games are noted for their deep complex gameplay emphasis is placed upon economic and technological development as well as a range of nonmilitary routes to supremacy many 4x games also fit into the category of grand strategy games can take a long time to complete since the amount of micromanagement needed to sustain an empire scales as the empire grows 4x games are sometimes criticized for becoming tedious for these reasons and several games have attempted to address these concerns by limiting micromanagement the earliest 4x games borrowed ideas from board games and 1970s textbased computer games the first 4x games were turnbased but realtime 4x games are also not uncommon many 4x games were published in the mid1990s but were later outsold by other types of strategy games sid meiers civilization and the total war series are important examples from this formative era and popularized the level of detail that would later become a staple of the genre in the new 2000 millennium several 4x releases have become critically and commercially successful artillery artillery game scorched 3d is an artillery game artillery is the generic name for either early two or threeplayer usually turnbased computer games involving tanks fighting each other in combat or similar derivative games artillery games are among the earliest computer games developed the theme of such games is an extension of the original uses of computer themselves which were once used to calculate the trajectories of rockets and other related militarybased calculations artillery games have been typically described as a type of turnbased strategy game though they have also been described as a type of shooting game examples of this genre are pocket tanks hogs of war scorched 3d and the worms series early precursors to the modern artillerytype games were textonly games that simulated artillery entirely with input data values a basic game known simply as artillery was written by mike forman and was published in creative computing magazine in 1976 these early versions of turnbased tank combat games interpreted humanentered data such as the distance between the tanks the velocity or power of the shot fired and the angle of the tanks turrets realtime strategy rts realtime strategy usually applied only to certain computer strategy games the moniker realtime strategy rts indicates that the action in the game is continuous and players will have to make their decisions and actions within the backdrop of a constantly changing game state and computer realtime strategy gameplay is characterised by obtaining resources building bases researching technologies and producing units very few noncomputer strategy games are realtime one example is icehouse some players dispute the importance of strategy in realtime strategy games as skill and manual dexterity are often seen as the deciding factor in this genre of game according to troy dunniway a player controls hundreds of units dozens of buildings and many different events that are all happening simultaneously there is only one player and he can only pay attention to one thing at a time expert players can quickly flip between many different tasks while casual gamers have more problems with this many strategy players claim that many rts games really should be labeled as realtime tactical rtt games since the game play revolves entirely around tactics with little or even no strategy involved massively multiplayer online games mmog or mmo in particular have had a difficult time implementing strategy since having strategy implies some mechanism for winning mmo games by their nature are typically designed to be neverending nevertheless some games are attempting to crack the code sotospeak of the true realtime strategy mmog one method by which they are doing so is by making defenses stronger than the weapons thereby slowing down combat considerably and making it possible for players to more carefully consider their actions during a confrontation customizable units are another way of adding strategic elements as long as players are truly able to influence the capabilities of their units the industry is seeking to present new candidates worthy of being known for thought strategy rather than dexterity strategy while herzog zwei is regarded as the first true rts game in addition online games such as nukezone can be considered belonging in this genre as well realtime tactics rtt realtime tactics realtime tactics abbreviated rtt and a focus on complex battlefield tactics example titles include warhammer dark omen world in conflict the close combat series and early tactical roleplaying games such as bokosuka wars silver ghost and first queen mmorts massively multiplayer online realtime strategy game massively multiplayer online realtime strategy games also known as mmorts combine realtime strategy rts with a persistent world players often assume the role of a general king or other type of figurehead leading an army into battle while maintaining the resources needed for such warfare the titles are often based in a scifi or fantasy universe and are distinguished from single or smallscale multiplayer rts games by the number of players and common use of a persistent world generally hosted by the games publisher which continues to evolve even when the player is offline multiplayer online battle arena moba multiplayer online battle arena vainglory is a multiplayer online battle arena game designed for smartphones and tablets multiplayer online battle arena moba also known as action realtime strategy arts is a genre of strategy video games that originated as a subgenre of realtime strategy in which a player controls a single character in one of two teams the objective is to destroy the opposing teams main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computercontrolled units that march forward along set paths player characters typically have various abilities and advantages that improve over the course of a game and that contribute to a teams overall strategy a fusion of action games roleplaying games and realtime strategy games players usually do not construct either buildings or units the genre gained popularity in the 2010s as a form of electronic sports encompassing games such as the defense of the ancients mod for warcraft iii its valvedeveloped sequel dota 2 league of legends heroes of the storm and smite tower defense tower defense tower defense games have a very simple layout usually computercontrolled monsters called creeps move along a set path and the player must place or build towers along this path to kill the creeps in some games towers are placed along a set path for creeps while in others towers can interrupt creep movement and change their path in most tower defense games different towers have different abilities such as poisoning enemies or slowing them down the player is awarded money for killing creeps and this money can be used to buy more towers or buy upgrades for a tower such as increased power or range turnbased strategy tbs turnbased strategy the battle for wesnoth is a turnbased strategy game the term turnbased strategy tbs is usually reserved for certain computer strategy games to distinguish them from realtime computer strategy games a player of a turnbased game is allowed a period of analysis before committing to a game action examples of this genre are the civilization heroes of might and magic making history advance wars master of orion and atwar tbs games come in two flavors differentiated by whether players make their plays simultaneously or take turns the former types of games are called simultaneously executed tbs games with diplomacy a notable example the latter games fall into the playeralternated tbs games category and are subsequently subdivided into a ranked b roundrobin start and c random the difference being the order under which players take their turns with a ranked the players take their turns in the same order every time with b the first player is selected according to a roundrobin policy with c random the first player is of course randomly selected almost all noncomputer strategy games are turnbased however the personal computer game market trend has lately inclined more towards realtime games some recent games feature a mix of both realtime and turnbased elements thrown together turnbased tactics tbt turnbased tactics turnbased tactics ttb is a genre of strategy video games that through stopaction simulates the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics in generally smallscale confrontations as opposed to more strategic considerations of turnbased strategy tbs games turnbased tactical gameplay is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks using only the combat forces provided to them and usually by the provision of a realistic or at least believable representation of military tactics and operations examples of this genre include the wars and xcom series as well as tactical roleplaying games such as the jagged alliance series fire emblem series and final fantasy tactics wargames wargame video games wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tactical warfare on a map as well as historical or nearhistorical accuracy the primary gameplay mode in a wargame is usually tactical fighting battles wargames sometimes have a strategic mode where players may plan their battle or choose an area to conquer but players typically spend much less time in this mode and more time actually fighting examples of wargames include koeis nobunagas ambition and romance of the three kingdoms series and several titles by strategic simulations inc ssi and strategic studies group ssg list of realtime strategy video games build order micromanagement computer gaming rush computer and video games technology tree turtle game term media related to strategy video games at wikimedia commons vtevideo game genres listaction beat em up hack and slash fighting maze pacman clone platform shooter firstperson thirdperson light gun shoot em up tactical survival battle royale actionadventure grand theft auto clone immersive sim metroidvania stealth survival horror psychological horror adventure escape the room interactive fiction interactive movie visual novel mmo mmofps mmorpg mmorts mud roleplaying action roleplaying dungeon crawl roguelike tactical roleplaying simulation construction and management business city government life simulation dating sim digital pet god social simulation sports strategy 4x multiplayer online battle arena realtime strategy tower defense time management realtime tactics turnbased strategy turnbased tactics wargame vehicle simulation flight simulator amateur combat space racing kart racing sim racing submarine simulator train simulator vehicular combat other genres artillery breakout clone digital collectible card game eroge exergame incremental music rhythm nongame party programming puzzle sokoban tilematching related concepts aaa game advertising arcade game art game audio game casual game christian game crossover game educational game fmv gamification indie game multiplayer video game nonlinear gameplay open world nonviolent video game online game browser game multiplayer online game online gambling socialnetwork game pervasive game serious game toystolife twitch gameplay video game clone 