Jan 01, 2018  The first entrant on best Turn-based Strategy games for PC niche is the remarkable Total War: Warhammer. This particular Turn based Strategy title offers a brilliant combination of TBS and Real-time tactics elements. Developed by Creative Assembly, Total War: Warhammer offers a similar gameplay to the other games in Total War series. Best Turn-Based Strategy Games for MAC 2017 Turn-Based Strategy Games: The gaming world is sophisticated and matured to an unimaginable level of accuracy. Enacting real-life like figures, characters and stories which even if set in bizarre background stories, has gaming lovers going ga-ga over them.

25 essential games to have in your iOS collection

Updated February 03, 2020: Post entry tweaks

Most people would probably associate the strategy game genre with the PC. They might well conclude that the sheer complexity of these hardcore games requires a mouse, keyboard, and monitor set-up.

But that's a load of outdated piffle. Strategy games can be as intuitive, streamlined, and accessible to a mainstream audience as they please. Just look at a list of the most popular mobile games of the past decade (by any metric) for confirmation of that fact. The iPhone and iPad stores are rife with great strategy games.

The likes of Clash of Clans, Mobile Strike, Summoners War, Boom Beach and Game of War: Fire Age have all raked in more than $1 billion in their lifetimes.

This doesn't mean that mobile strategy games need necessarily be flimsy, shallow or overtly casual affairs though. It's possible to wring real depth out of a modern touchscreen device.

The following list of mobile strategy games covers the entire gamut, from casual city builders to hardcore turn-based tactics. That's the beauty of the mobile strategy game scene - its sheer variety.

We haven't even included tower defence in our deliberations, as that's a thriving sub-genre that deserves (and indeed has received) its own separate list.

Here, then, is a list of our favourite mobile strategy games for iPhone and iPad. We're quite aware that there are loads of stone-cold classics and popular favourites that we've left off. We only had 25 slots to fill, after all, and we always try to reflect what's current.

If there's a mobile strategy game you think should be on this list, let us know in the comments section below.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI

It's Civilization VI on your iPad. Like, the actual Civilization VI, not some streamlined approximation. It's nothing less than one of the best and deepest strategy games on any platform.

XCOM: Enemy Within

XCOM has a reputation for being one of the finest squad-based strategy games around, with tense turn-based battles rendered in glorious 3D. This iOS conversion brings it to mobile without compromise.

FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL tasks you with running your very own spaceship, allocating resources to the departments that need it most. But the real thrill is that you have to do this while fleeing through a hostile star system.

Iron Marines

The maker of the peerless Kingdom Rush series proves that it can do classic RTS as well as its does tower defence. Iron Marines is brilliantly balanced, great to look at, and generally quite special.

Bad North

Bad North is a uniquely brilliant mish-mash of RTS, tower defence and roguelike elements as you defend your island communities from Viking attack.

SteamWorld Heist

SteamWorld Heist demonstrates that strategy games can be a zoomed-in, action-packed and even funny. This brilliant 2D squad-based game as you taking on robotic pirates with expertly placed ricochet shots.

Invisible, Inc.

Klei combines turn-based strategy with high-tech stealth in this beautiful isometric cyber-punk adventure.

ROME: Total War

One of the greatest and deepest real time strategy games ever made makes its way onto iPad, and it works shockingly well. ROME: Total War is the real deal.

Warbits

It doesn't look like we'll ever get Advance Wars on mobile, but Warbits is as close as it gets. This is colourful, intuitive turn-based strategy with a surprising amount of tactical depth.

Dungeon Warfare 2

You could well make the argument that Dungeon Warfare 2 is a tower defence game. But constructing the ultimate death-filled dungeon here proves to be so much more strategic and nuanced than your average lane runner.

Chaos Reborn: Adventures

A dauntingly deep and involving strategy game that punishes mistakes and rewards smart thinking. Its hex-based 3D battles have an impressive amount of tactical scope.

Tropico

Easily the best city builder on the market, Tropico is a richly detailed, responsive, engaging, and fun PC port that feels perfectly at home on iPad. It looks and sounds beautiful, too.

Tharsis

Strategy games don't need to be ponderous and small scale. First Strike concerns a global nuclear conflict, and each battle can be swept through in frighteningly quick time.

Pocket City

Though it's less viscerally impressive than Tropico, Pocket City remains an absolute treat of a premium city builder. In particular, it manages to combine intuitiveness with strategic depth better than most.

Sid Meier's Starships

Sci-fi strategy on a grand scale, Sid Meier's Starships has got interplanetary diplomacy, deep space exploration, and plenty of pew pew laser battles.

Clash of Clans

Oooh, controversial pick. But there's no denying that Clash has done something super interesting with the strategy genre, making it truly social and accessible, and making defence as important as all-out attack.

Crush Your Enemies

Pocket real time strategy in its purest form, Crush Your Enemies whittles things down to a series of feisty minutes-long battles. It's just not a sharply-made RTS, but a funny game filled with foul-mouthed, half-drunk barbarians.

Hero Academy 2

Hero Academy 2 starts slow, but blossoms into a brilliantly tactical turn-based experience. It's also an extremely polished, layered affair.

Plague Inc.

We're all used to defending life in our strategy games - Plague Inc. tasks you with destroying as much of it as possible by spreading and mutating a horrible virus. It's dark, man.

Frozen Synapse

Some strategy games simulate the big, the epic, the expansive. Frozen Synapse goes in tight, letting you plan the individual seconds of a frantic gunfight between computer simulated warriors.

Egypt: Old Kingdom

Star Trek: Fleet Command is a slick 4X mobile strategy game with sympathetic monetisation and a flexible mission-based progression system. It uses its license well too.

Battleplans

Battleplans is a thoroughly modern mobile strategy game hybrid, blending RTS, MOBA and base defence elements into a gloriously colourful whole.

Wild Beyond

What initially appears to be another Clash Royale clone soon reveals itself to be a lot deeper. It's got an engrossing single player campaign, and there's a real flow to its steadily branching battles.

The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands

An engaging and intuitive strategy game that offers genuine consequences for your decisions as you strive to keep your village alive and thriving. It's also beautiful, in its own sparse way.

Xenowerk Tactics

A brilliant turn-based strategy game set within Pixelbite's tense sci-fi Xenowerk universe. There's more than a hint of XCOM to its tight squad manoeuvring, but with a slightly more arcadey edge.

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A turn-based game is a strategy game where two or more players take turns to play a game. More often than not, it’s the board games that come to our minds first. But despite that, some of the most popular turn-based games, or turn-based strategy games as others call it, are actually war games where the gameplay heavily relies on strategy.

Typically, players of turn-based strategy games are given time to complete a certain task by making use of their forces. Once done, the opponent takes his/her turn to complete the same task as yours.

A few popular turn-based games are the XCOM and Sid Meier’s Civilization series. These mainstream titles have become household names in this category, thus making it to this list. But there are also loads of other top-rated games that deserve your attention.

Check out these 10 of the best turn-based games to download on your iPhone:

1. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Price: Free [Download]

Galaxy of Heroes is a 3D sci-fi strategy role-playing video game based on the Star Wars universe. You have more than 100 Star Wars characters to collect from different campaigns, including Light and Dark Side, filled with hundreds of stages where you get to experience unique opponents, bosses, and environments. Characters include Han Solo, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and more. Galaxy of Heroes starts by assembling a team of heroes and villains. Go through each stage of the campaigns and take down your enemies in a turn-based combat system. Not to mention, this mobile game has impressive graphics for you to enjoy.

2. Naval Warfare

Price: Free [Download]

Naval Warfare is a classic strategy turn-based multiplayer board game that you can play with friends or random opponents. It works pretty straightforward. All you have to do is to sink your enemy’s ships. The more ships you wreck, the more points you get, so of course, you win. Once you have made your attack, your opponent will be notified to take his/her turn. You can replay your opponent’s attack if you want. Beat as many opponents as possible to see yourself in the leaderboard.

3. Warlords of Aternum

Price: Free [Download]

Warlords of Aternum is a 3D strategy role-playing game where you conquer new territories. To play Warlords of Aternum, you need to recruit, train, and build your army for turn-based battles. Before conquering new territories, equip your army with legendary weapons and armor, hone their special skills, or customize their abilities. Whether it is fighting against real opponents or computer enemies, ensure your victory to secure your spot on the leaderboard.

See Also:14 Best Card Games for iPhone & iPad

4. XCOM: Enemy Within

Price: $9.99 [Download]

XCOM: Enemy Within is a standalone expansion to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the first XCOM title made available for mobile platforms. Enemy Within continues Enemy Unknown’s gameplay, with more exciting features, new missions, soldiers, abilities, enemies, and maps. With the multiplayer mode, you can create your own squad of up to 6 units and play on 1 of the 5 maps on a one-one turn-based battle against another squad. On your matches, you can customize the points, turn time, and whether you want to play in public or private.

5. The Battle of Polytopia

Price: Free [Download]

The Battle of Polytopia is a world-building strategy game. Its gameplay primarily involves leading 1 of the 13 tribes to conquering a square-shaped world by taking captive of cities. These cities gain resources that you can use to research technologies, train units for battles, and develop nearby territories for expansion. But note that running more cities takes more research, and the bigger territory you have means more units to protect it from other tribes. On the single-player campaign, your goal is to achieve the highest possible score in 30 turns or to annihilate your opponent’s tribe.

Free mahjong games for mac. However, the tiles for the “bots” are way too small, especially the cracks.

6. Great Little War Game

Price: $1.99 [Download]

Great Little War Game is a 3D strategy game where you will engage in wars. Your goal is simple — to take over your opponent’s headquarters. How? Summon your army (called units) and launch an attack. There are 20 different units (infantry, land vehicles, air vehicles, and marine vehicles) and 20 different maps to choose from. The Pass and Play mode allows you to play with your friends. The Campaign mode has 35 missions to take on. Lastly, the Skirmish mode has 20 maps to explore.

See Also:10 Best Two-Player Games for iPhone

7. Questland

Price: Free [Download]

Turn Based Strategy Games Mac Os X

Questland is a role-playing action game based upon the traditional dungeon crawl computer RPGs. In the land of Valia, your task is to conquer the evil by using the power of Orbs. Start off by creating a character and customizing your hero, fight, loot, swords, and armor. Once you’re ready to go, face monsters in the single-player campaign, or fight against other players in a turn-based battle system. To increase your chances, make sure to upgrade your gear, and be sure to choose the right weapon to use during combats.

8. Angry Birds Epic

Price: Free [Download]

Angry Birds Epic is the 9th installment to the most popular pig-popping series Angry Bird. On Piggy Island, you’ll take on more than 100 challenging levels, and you have the opportunity to collect weapons, magic, and minions to help you defeat the boss. Angry Birds Epic allows you to choose up to 3 birds on certain levels. However, this isn’t your usual Angry Birds game where you just throw bombs at the pigs. The battle could involve multiple waves of enemies or boss fights. You can use a bird’s rage ability once the Rage Chilli indicator is full. Make sure to win as many stars as possible during battles.

9. Steven Universe: Attack the Light

Price: $2.99 [Download]

Based on the award-winning Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe, Attack the Light is a role-playing game where you bring 4 heroes — Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst, and Steven — to team up for a mystical adventure. Your ultimate goal is to stop a massively destructive gem weapon attack. Challenge your team to a whole new difficulty level in Diamond Mode. Collect all 4 gems with unique attacks and upgrades. Or, release the 3-gem fusion Alexandrite to obliterate the Light. Attack the Light also features the original voiceover from the Steven Universe cast.

Games For Mac

10. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Price: Free [Download]

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a record-breaking strategy game that was originally released for gaming consoles in 2016. It was made available to mobile devices a year after due to its crazy popularity. Civ VI for iOS gives you your first 60 turns without a cost, and choose from 20 historical figures from America and England. Your goal here is to gain ground on other territories on the map and beat history’s legendary leaders by building a civilization that will stand the test of time.

Free Games To Play On Mac

Conclusion

That’s all for the best turn-based games for your iPhone. Do you have a personal favorite that made it on the list? Share it in the comments section below!

Best Turn Based Games Ever

Dan is a web developer, a digital nomad, and a lifelong Apple fan. At iPhonebyte, his job is to help you get the most out of your iOS and Mac devices. Read the story about him and the website here.