New military strategy games?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

With winter coming up I'll be tempted to dig out Fighting Steel and Panzer Strike.

So I can get something new in my life, what are your favorite new military strategy games out there? Not shooters, but at least as strategy based as the C64's Red Storm Rising.

[Zombimode]

"Military strategy games" could be understood as a very broad category. Like every strategy game that features some kind of armed conflict.
Which is to say, almost every single one :smalltongue:

Maybe you have something more specific in mind?
Time period/setting?
Scale?
Grand Strategy or individual battles?

There are many variables that could narrow down what you are after.


Personally I currently play Field of Glory II: Medieval which I like quite a bit :-)
It's a good turn-based mediaval battle simulator that manages to capture the chaos and loss of control of such a scenario - much more than you would expect from a game like this.

[Radar]

Depending really, what makes the strategic (or tactical inferring from the example titles given) fun for you, you might try different things. Some things to at least look at:

Into the Breach: it is about time-travelling mech squad saving the Earth from some mega-insect invasion one timeline at a time. Deceptively simple, very intricate tactical puzzle game. Can be played casually on easy difficulty, or it can push your brain to the limits if you want to. Heavily rewards coordinated use of your units and setting up the enemies against each other. On harder difficulties clever use of your moves, enemies and the environment is the only way to survive. Perfect victory is not always an option and often you have to make tough decision like either your unit takes a hit, or some civilians will die and while it may not bare some outright consequences (aside from short-term tactical ones), the game uses narrative means to make you engaged in the world and really go out of your way to save as many people as you can. One of the really cool examples of how it is done, is that if a given playthrough is not going your way, you can obviously always quit, but the button for this is called "abandon the timeline" - so this is not a blank sheet do-over, you abandon those people forever and try again with a different timeline as if nothing happened. No gameplay penalty for this, but...

X-Com series: did not have time to try those yet, but I really liked the old UFO: Enemy Unknown and Terror from the Deep. The new installments are supposedly good on their own and if the tactical framework of the missions is half as good as in the original, those should be great. There was few things keeping me more on the edge than trying to pinpoint some lone alien in a cornfield in the night that was spraying heavy fire over my squad. Or going through narrow corridors with multiple doors and no maneuvering space just hoping you will not come face-to-face with a chryssalid.

The Battle for Wesnoth: an open-source fantasy turn-based strategy somewhat similar in gameplay to such classics as Panzer General. In a typical campaign you start with some basic squad of units and over time, they gain experience, you pick their upgrades and recruit more of them with what limited resources you have. So on one hand you have the tactical aspect of winning the current battles and on the other you have to carefully shape your army to be as effective as you can make it. Since you start the new missions with what was left of your forces in the last one and training a recruit soldier into a high quality elite unit takes a lot of time, you can fall into a compulsive mindset of not letting any of your people die, which becomes really challenging at times - pretty rewarding though.

From older but still available games, I'd recommend Incubation: small squad of soldiers tries to contain an alien invasion on a human colony and mostly just trying to survive. This one was really challenging, forcing you to be really quick with mission objectives as the ammo is limited but new enemies come all the time while punishing you for rushing in carelessly. It was not a brave march forward - more often than not it was a coordinated retreat. Between missions you get some limited resupply options, your team members get experience points, which are needed to learn how to operate new weapons and equipment, which also leads to another aspect of the game: it is very unforgiving and you might need several playthroughs to properly plan development paths for your soldiers that will allow you to survive till the end. At the same time very rewarding.

I am personally a big fan of 4X games, but those are probably a different thing than what you are looking for.

[GloatingSwine]

"Military strategy games" could be understood as a very broad category. Like every strategy game that features some kind of armed conflict.


From the examples given I'm assuming grognardy real world wargames.

Which have been a bit of a fallow period recently, at least on land.

For the wet stuff though: Atlantic Fleet, War on the Sea, and Cold Waters might suffice. All by the same people.

Atlantic Fleet is turn based ship to ship combat based on the ships and engagements in the Atlantic in WW2.

War on the Sea is real time ship and air combat based on the pacific.

Cold Waters is a cold war sub sim not strictly a strategy game, but sub sims are slow and strategic by nature and it has an emergent campaign based on your performance.

If you're patient and can wait until next year for land based shenanigans then Company of Heroes 3 is coming out, maybe this one will be good again? As is Men of War 2.

[Gnoman]

Repeating what others have said in that this is an incredibly broad category. There have been a fair number of games of this sort released in recent years, but they're niche. For Steam, your best bet is probably Armored Brigade, though a number of the Combat Mission games (which are fundamentally a simultaneous turn-based version of the old Steel Panthers games) are now being ported to Steam. These are not new, but may be new to you. Rule The Waves 3 is supposed to launch on Steam sometime between now and the heat death of the universe, but probably early next year. There's also Panzer Corps 2, a fairly recent game along the lines of the old Panzer General/People's General/Allied General line. Naturally, you have the option of Gary Grigsby's War in The Pacific/West/East, which aren't bad but suffer from poor AI. I've heard goof things about the Order Of Battle series, but haven't played it. I'd suggest you check the Matrix and Slihterine websites, but those appear to be down at this moment for no apparent reason.


If you're looking for something like the old Harpoon games, you want Command: Modern Operations. There's really no wiggle room there.

For better recommendations, maybe you should list some more of the older games you like, and I could fine-tune the lists.

[Cespenar]

The new Starship Troopers title is a pretty good take on a military real time tactical game, if that fits the bill.

The whole game revolves around line of sights and the "killzone" strategy that you did in games like Company of Heroes, but taken up to 11.

[KineticDiplomat]

Hmm. Some are a little older, but you might take a crack:

Combat Mission: The gold standard in battalion and below simulation for WW2 and modern day. Made by battlefront games, but some of the titles are in steam now.

War in The East 2: A GG monster, but one of the most detailed games about the east front out there. Comes with some AI assistance, complexity choices and improved UI to keep the worst excesses of management toned down.

Field of Glory: Kingdoms. Coming soon, you get an AGEOD strategy layer that use the Field of Glory II: medieval engine for tactical battles.

Flashpoint Southern Storm. Another matrix offering. Promises to revamp the beer & pretzels Flashpoint: Red Storm classic. Brigade to division size battles quick and easy with an asymmetric turn process. One to watch.

Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes. I maintain that DC: Barbarossa was the high point of the series, but if you're hankering for some Bulge action, this is a well crafted recent release.

I was underwhelmed by Grand Tactician: Civil War, but it is out there and some people really like it. Similarly while I find UA:Dreadnought really hasn't caught up to RTW2, it is pretty and some people like it.