Strategy games

Strategy games

The word strategy makes people picture a game you can pause and think through a move at a time. Almost all nine titles here run in real time instead — the enemy does not wait for you to finish thinking. The core is deciding where to place your forces first and then living with that decision at once, so this shelf measures ordering under pressure more than slow deliberation.

The core: real-time defence

Most of the shelf is base defence. Tank Defender and Tank Wars have you place tanks against incoming waves; Kingdom Defense has you fire a bow to hold a castle gate from skeletons; Air Warfare and Great Air Battles handle aeroplanes coming in; and Sahara Invasion is a desert stand. What these share is that the order you place your forces matters more than people expect — a bad early position is hard to fix once the wave arrives.

Titles tagged strategy that play as something else

Two here borrow the label. Traffic Command plays as a traffic-light game where you release cars through junctions, and Grand Commander is really a sideways shooter running across Martian ground. Both involve some decision-making, which earned them the strategy label, but if you came for true defence, skip these two for the base-defence group.

A tip that works on every defence game

Do not pour everything into one entrance, because enemies usually arrive from several directions in the later waves. Keep some force back to reinforce the point that starts to break. Spreading out early tends to survive longer than stacking one spot.

Common questions about the strategy shelf

Are these turn-based games?

No. All nine run in real time; the enemy does not wait for you to finish thinking. That is why placement order matters more than expected — there is no pause to reorganise once the wave hits.

Is there a way to play against other people?

No. Every game is single-player against units the game generates. The site has no player matchmaking and no cross-device scoring.

If I want true defence, which should I start with?

Start with the base-defence group like Tank Defender or Kingdom Defense, which are defence by definition. The traffic-control and shooter titles on this shelf play as different genres.