A turn-based strategy (TBS) game is a

strategy game A strategy game or strategic game is a game (e.g. a board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous, decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decisio ...

(usually some type of

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

, especially a strategic-level wargame) where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real-time strategy (RTS), in which all players play simultaneously.

Examples

Board games

Many

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

s are turn based, such as

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

Reversi Reversi is a strategy board game for two players, played on an 8×8 uncheckered board. It was invented in 1883. Othello, a variant with a fixed initial setup of the board, was patented in 1971. Basics There are sixty-four identical game pieces ...

checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

Hare games Hare games are two-player abstract strategy board games that were popular in medieval northern Europe up until the 19th century. In this game, a hare is trying to get past three dogs who are trying to surround it and trap it. The three dogs are re ...

, and Go, as well as many modern board games.

Turn-based tactics

Turn-based tactical game-play is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks by using the combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations.

Tactical role-playing game Tactical role-playing games (abbreviated TRPGs), also known as strategy role-playing games and in Japan as (both abbreviated SRPGs), are a video game genre that combines core elements of role-playing video games with those of tactical (turn-bas ...

s are a part of this genre. Examples include ''

Fire Emblem is a fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Famicom in 1990, the series currently consists of sixteen core entries and five spinoffs. Game ...

'', ''

The Battle for Wesnoth ''The Battle for Wesnoth'' is a free and open-source turn-based strategy video game with a high fantasy setting, designed by Australian-American developer David White and first released in June 2003. In ''Wesnoth'', the player attempts to build ...

'', ''

Poxnora ''PoxNora: Battlefield of the Immortals'' is a multiplayer online game that combines a digital collectible card game with a turn-based strategy game in a fantasy setting. ''PoxNora'' was originally launched via Java Web Start through a browser an ...

'', '' Silent Storm'', '' Steel Panthers: World at War!'', ''

King's Bounty ''King's Bounty'' is a turn-based fantasy video game designed by Jon Van Caneghem and published by New World Computing in 1990. The game follows the player's character, a hero of King Maximus, appointed with the job of retrieving the Sceptre of ...

'', ''

Great Big War Game ''Great Big War Game'' (commonly abbreviated to ''GBWG'') is a modern military 3D turn-based strategy video game developed by British studio Rubicon Development. It has been released on iOS, Android and Microsoft Windows. The game is a sequel ...

'', ''

Nintendo Wars The ''Wars'' series, also known as and is a series of military-themed turn-based strategy video games, usually developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. The series debuted in Japan in August of 1988 with the original '' Famico ...

'', ''

UniWar ''UniWar'' is a video game for mobile devices, initially released in April 2009 for Android and iOS and then released to other platforms such as Ovi (Nokia) and BlackBerry App World. It is a turn-based strategy game with multiplayer online gamepl ...

'', ''

XCOM 2 ''XCOM 2'' is a 2016 turn-based tactics video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K Games. It is the sequel to 2012's reboot of the series, '' XCOM: Enemy Unknown''; it takes place 20 years after the events of ''Enemy Unknown''. ...

'' and '' Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure''.

Mainstream computer games

After a period of converting board and historic TBS games to computer games, companies began basing computer turn-based strategy games on completely original properties or concepts. The presence of a computer to calculate and arbitrate allows game complexity which is not feasible in a traditional board game. Some well known turn-based strategy games are

Sid Meier Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...

's ''

Civilization A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system). Ci ...

'' series, ''

Heroes of Might and Magic ''Heroes of Might and Magic'', known as ''Might & Magic Heroes'' since 2011, is a series of video games originally created and developed by Jon Van Caneghem through New World Computing. As part of the ''Might and Magic'' franchise, the series ...

'' series, ''

Panzer General ''Panzer General'' is a 1994 computer wargame developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). It simulates conflict during World War II. The designers of ''Panzer General'' were heavily influenced by the Japanese wargame series '' ...

'' series, ''

Warlords A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...

'' series, and ''

Age of Wonders ''Age of Wonders'' is a 1999 turn-based strategy game co-developed by Triumph Studios and Epic MegaGames, and published by Gathering of Developers. ''Age of Wonders'' underwent a long production cycle, and was originally developed under the n ...

'' series.

Indie games

A further market trend is the rise of "Indie" TBS games (games produced by small groups, independent or only somewhat affiliated with the major elements in the computer games industry). These games often extend or refine already existing TBS games. Examples include

Freeciv ''Freeciv'' is a single- and multiplayer turn-based strategy game for workstations and personal computers inspired by the proprietary ''Sid Meier's Civilization'' series. It is available for most desktop computer operating systems and available ...

Golden Age of Civilizations Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall * Golden Cap, Dorset *Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershi ...

Open-source games

Since turn-based strategy games do not typically require vast amounts of art or modeling, developers willing to volunteer their time can focus on gameplay. Directories like

Freecode Freecode, formerly Freshmeat, is a website owned by BIZX, Inc., hosting mainly open-source software for programmers and developers. Among other things, the site also hosted user reviews and discussions. While a majority of the software covered is ...

provide large lists of

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

, turn-based strategy projects.

Browser-based games

Online browser-based games do not require users to install files and are often free. The Hex Empire set of games is a good example of browser-based games in this genre.

References

{{VideoGameGenre Video game genres Video game terminology

Examples

Board games

Turn-based tactics

Mainstream computer games

Indie games

Open-source games

Browser-based games

See also

References