21 New Best Upcoming Strategy Games of 2023

While at one time we may not have been able to craft them to the best of our ability, strategy games have long since become a key part of the gaming realm. As such, players have a lot to look forward to through it. Including these games right here.

#21 Stronghold: Definitive Edition

Platform: PC
Release Date: November 07, 2023

Steam

Strategy games have been around for far longer than you might think, and Stronghold: Definitive Edition will bring a classic game back to modern times and show you how improved things can be with the right stuff behind it.

The game features a 14-mission campaign that’ll have you seeking out traitors to a throne! You’ll need to defeat their forces and build castles and fortresses for when they come after you! Strategy will be key, and you’ll need to think long-term about how you construct your castle homes.

With upgraded visuals and new things to do outside of the campaign, you’ll be busy with this title.

#20 MARVEL SNAP

Platform: PC
Release Date: August 22, 2023

Steam

Do you feel up to the task of playing a very different kind of card game? Marvel Snap isn’t just a card game set in the Marvel universe. It dares you to play the game on multiple levels of a battlefield to get the victory! You’ll build your deck from cards focused on characters, items, famous Marvel locations, and more! Then, once you have your deck ready, you’ll battle players online to see who can get the battlefield to do what they want. Utilize special abilities and effects to power up your characters while hindering your foe! Then, if you feel confident, make bets about how confident you are in victory! Just remember, if you go too far, you’ll “SNAP!”

#19 Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

Platform: Switch
Release Date: April 21, 2023

Nintendo

Nintendo has multiple franchises that embody the “art of strategy,” and with Advance Wars: 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, you’ll get to return to the origins of one such franchise!

In the game, you’ll be put onto maps against an enemy force and tasked with defeating them! But not all victories are meant to be had via brute force! Sometimes you’ll need to outlast your opponent until reinforcements arrive. Other times you’ll need to take out a specific target!

Whatever the objective, you must strategize and use your units as best you can to succeed! Every unit has advantages and disadvantages, as do the commanders you control!

If you plan properly and execute well, victory will be yours!

#18 Pikmin 4

Platform: Switch
Release Date: July 21, 2023

Nintendo

Many Nintendo franchises utilize strategy in certain ways, but in Pikmin 4, you’ll be diving back into a strange new world to use your flowery friends like never before!

That’s right. It’s time to pull out an army of Pikmin and send them to battle against the various creatures of a strange world. There will be some familiar faces to battle against, but new foes will also test your abilities!

So how will you use the Pikmin? Will you simply throw them at foes and attempt to overwhelm them before all the Pikmin die? Will you enhance your new pal Oatchi so they can do what the Pikmin don’t? Or will you do something else? Jump in and find out!

#17 Persona 5 Tactica

Platform: PC Xbox One XSX|S Switch
Release Date: November 17, 2023

It’s time to steal some hearts! That’s right! The Phantom Thieves are back for yet another all-new adventure that will push your team and strategic mind to the limit! In Persona 5 Tactica, you’ll play as Joker and crew after they’re trapped in a mysterious world that is ruled by a group known as the Legionnaires!

Thankfully, you have an ally in this world named Erina, who promises to help you if you help her stop this group.

Battles will play much differently than in the main titles, as you’ll need to place your Phantom Thieves across the field for devastating attacks and combos! Think you can save the day once again?

#16 Age of Wonders 4

Platform: PC XSX|S PS5
Release: May 02, 2023

The Age of Wonders franchise is finally out of its hiatus with Age of Wonders 4. Players are getting a 4X strategy title, with developers focusing on players having even more choices and customization options than ever before. Players create their own fantasy realm in the game and attempt to make their little empire thrive. Decide on your followers’ societal trains and arcane powers. Even tweak the bodily forms and watch as they continue to evolve depending on your choices, alliances, and outright wars with opposing forces. This world will shift and change as you progress, adding some replay value here. 

#15 The Settlers: New Allies

Platform: PC
Release: February 17, 2023

The Settlers: New Allies is an expansion update that greatly expands the main title and gives you a new campaign. In it, you play the Elari Tribe, a group trying to escape from civil war and rebuild their lives. As you travel with them, you’ll help them set up new homes and meet various people and factions along the way!

With 13 missions to do as the tribe and others tribes to eventually play as, you’ll have plenty to do.

Another mode you can have in the expansion is the Skirmish Mode. You’ll have new maps to play on with various options on how big the battles can be.

#14 Terra Nil

Platform: PC
Release: March 28, 2023

When you play a city-building or world-building game, you typically play from the perspective of humanity trying to expand across the world or across the stars to expand their reach. But in Terra Nil, the opposite is happening. Instead, you’re trying to save a planet inhabited by humans and turn it into a place where animals can live peacefully once again without interference.

You’ll carefully go through the world’s regions and clean up the mess that civilization has left behind. Clean up pollution, recycle metals from buildings and other constructs, and morph the plant back into one with vegetation and growth.

Each time you play, you’ll get a new world to fix. So jump in and see how many you can save!

#13 For The King II

Platform: PC
Release: Nov 2, 2023

In a land where a beloved king has fallen and his ruthless queen has taken his throne, you must rise up to save the land no matter the cost!

For The King II will put you in the role of an adventurer who seeks to free the realm from the queens’ oppression. But how you take on this journey is up to you. You can attempt to do everything alone or team up with friends to share the load and take on greater odds!

The battles ahead will be tough; you’ll need to use your wits and strategy to overcome them! With each fight you do, build up your team and ensure they’re ready to do what’s necessary to save the land!

#12 Company of Heroes 3

• Developer: Relic Entertainment
• Publisher: SEGA
• Release date: February 23, 2023
• Platform: Microsoft Windows

There are some franchises that are known for their quality. So much so that when you hear their names, you know something good is about to come out. Company of Heroes 3 is the latest entry from one such franchise.

The title gives you some of the most realistic and strategic wartime experiences. Work with your soldiers and guide them perfectly on the battlefield so they can take out enemy troops and encampments.

There are four factions in the game to play as, and you’ll need strong tactics to get through the missions that lie ahead.

#11 Minecraft Legends

• Release date: 2023
• Mode: Multiplayer video game
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
• Developers: Blackbird Interactive, Mojang Studios

Minecraft has expanded with Minecraft Legends, though many of its “feel” if you will is going to be familiar.

In it, you’ll create your character and go across massive lands to try and explore and adventure. You’ll meet friends along the way, and get to fight monsters, and build various items. It’s very much an adventure mode for Minecraft as a whole.

So if you wanted your main game to be more adventurous, this will be the one to try out.

#10 Jagged Alliance 3

• Developer: Haemimont Games
• Publisher: THQ Nordic
• Release date: July 14, 2023
• Platform: Microsoft Windows

In Jagged Alliance 3, you’ll be part of a nation that is full of resources…as it is political issues. But peace is maintained, that is, until the President goes mysteriously missing and things go south from there. You are part of the President’s family, who have made an alliance with a group of mercenaries via the Adonis Corporation and as a result, you’re on a mission to take everything back.

You’ll get to pick and choose which mercenaries to use, and then, and go out on an expansive campaign to find the truth about the President, what happened to him, and how to get the country back to the peace it once had.

#9 Gord

• Release date: August 17, 2023
• Developer: Covenant.dev
• Publisher: Team17
• Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

No, not “gourd” as in the food, “gord” as in a small community!

Based on Slavic mythology, the video game Gord will have you leading and guiding a small settlement of people known as the “Tribe of the Dawn” as they enter the forbidden lands of the world and try to grow from it.

You’ll shape your people, help them grow in various ways to survive the lands they are on, inspire their personalities to setup a culture for them, and more.

Just remember, these are people, and you need to keep them healthy, happy, and sane. Because you’ll learn really quick whether you’re doing right by them or not.

#8 Warno

• Release date: January 20, 2022 Early Access, Full Launch 2023 Expected
• Developer: Eugen Systems
• Publisher: Eugen Systems
• Platform: Microsoft Windows

In the real world, the Cold War was just that, cold. It was a time of fear, but those fears honestly amounted to nothing more than that, and the world benefitted from it.

But in the game Warno, things didn’t go that direction. Instead, the nation of Russian went back to Communism, and started World War III. Now, the order has been given to combat the threat, and it’s up to you to use the NATO alliance or the Warsaw Pact to great effect and achieve dominance for your side.

This game was meticulously researched in order to be authentic to what was going on at the time, and the powers that were there. So pick your side, and see what history would’ve been like with you at the helm.

#7 The Valiant

• Developer: Kite Games
• Publisher: THQ Nordic
• Release date: October 19, 2023
• Platforms: Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5

The Valiant is definitely a game you wouldn’t expect in certain ways. Because the focus is very much on one man. A man who was a crusader in times long gone, and become embittered by the violence that was around him in the wars that he fought.

But then, a young monk approaches him and notes that a fellow Crusader that he knew has gone on a journey to find the remaining parts to a rod that is going to summon a great evil if they’re all collected!

Now, you must seek out the pieces first, and ensure that more bloodshed is not spilled on this day!

#6 Pharaoh: A New Era

• Developer: Triskell Interactive
• Publisher: Dotemu
• Release date: Feb 15, 2023
• Platform: Microsoft Windows

Behold, a franchise reborn! Or in this case, remade. Pharaoh: A New Era is a remake of the original game that helped create a franchise.

You’ll be put in ancient Egypt, and have access to 4000 years of recorded history as you will build up Egypt from the sands and make it one of the greatest nations this world has ever known. All the while, you’ll build up your relationship with the people. Make various monuments to the gods and ensure that your culture is as mighty as your pyramids.

The story mode alone has 50 missions and promises over 100 hours of gameplay. A mighty boon for a new pharoah.

#5 Stargate: Timekeepers

• Release date: December 12, 2023
• Publisher: Slitherine Software
• Platform: Microsoft Windows
• Developers: CreativeForge Games, Creative Forge

You’re going to notice a lot of “tie-in” games on the top half of this list, and that’s good because if you’re a fan of these universes, you’ll have a lot to be grateful and thankful for.

In this case, we’re going to the universe of Stargate SG-1. Where you’ll be put with a unique team and have to use the Stargates to figure out a timeloop mystery of all things in this original narrative.

As this is a game in the SG-1 universe, you’ll see many familiar things, including many familiar enemies. However, there will be some original ones here too, further guaranteeing a fun experience for all fans. So command your team, stop your enemies, and save time itself in Stargate: Timekeepers!

#4 Fire Emblem Engage

• Developer: Intelligent Systems
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Platforms: Nintendo Switch
• Release date: January 20, 2023

Fire Emblem Engage focuses on the main character which is a dragon from a royal family. Awesome. But also, through the power of certain rings, you’ll be able to summon the power of past Fire Emblem Heroes like Marth, Celica, Sigurd and more in order to boost yourself in combat.

The turn-based tactics has returned earlier this year and the graphics look pretty great! If you’re a Fire Emblem fan then you’ll want to…Engage…get it?

#3 Dune: Spice Wars

• Release date: Sep 14, 2023
• Developer: Shiro Games
• Platform: Microsoft Windows
• Publishers: Shiro Games, Funcom

Dune is by and large one of the most groundbreaking stories ever written, and with the movie that finally came out recently and brought the story to the modern age, people are wanting more content from it.

Enter Dune: Spice Wars, a 4X strategy game that you’ll be able to play in real-time as you pick one of four factions that you will govern and rise to power on the desert spice planet of Arrakis.

But it’s not just about military might. You must use cunning, subterfuge, make alliances, and more, all so you can have the spice of the planet, and reap its rewards.

#2 Spellforce: Conquest of Eo

• Publisher: THQ Nordic
• Release date: Feb 3, 2023
• Developers: Owned by Gravity, Owned by Gravity GmbH
• Platform: Microsoft Windows

So, you want to become the greatest mage of all time, right? Ok, we can help with that, but are you willing to put in the work to do it?

In Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, you’ll start out as a small-time mage with big aspirations. You also have some forces to go and command. Thus, you’ll begin a quest to conquer, get new magicks to command, and more! You’ll be able to learn spells, craft magical ruins, find magical artifacts, and do a variety of things with them, including raise the dead!

By the time you’re done, you’ll have the biggest tower in the land and the kingdom to look down upon from it!

#1 Baldur’s Gate 3

Platform: PC – August 3, 2023
Release Date: PS5 – September 6, 2023

Steam | Playstation

Plenty of games out there want nothing more than to say your choices matter. But in Baldur’s Gate 3, your choices will affect everything around you, including who you are at the beginning of the title!

You have been infected with a parasite that is giving you great power. How you choose to wield or forsake that power will drive the key narrative of the title. Plus, who you choose to work with, fall in love with, betray, and everything in between will be entirely up to you!

That means the game has plenty of ways it can go based on your choices. So choose wisely!

Disclaimer: This article was updated on 11/6/23 as we continue to adjust this list with new entries or remove games due to delays or failure to captivate audiences.