The Rogueies: Best Strategy Game nominees

Strategy games are another broad and hard-to-define genre. They're puzzle-y, think-y, strategery-laden games. Some are more RTS-like, while others are more puzzle-based. And we got some great ones this year.

9 Kings

9 Kings is kind of a hard game to pitch. It’s a lo-fi, roguelike, deck- and base-builder that’s all about finding synergies and strategies to deal massive amounts of damage. On paper, it sounds overly complex and overwrought. But playing 9 Kings makes perfect sense. Sure, it takes a few runs to really grasp the nuances, but the most remarkable thing about 9 Kings is just how easily everything clicks.

Ryan and I found 9 Kings a little before Rogue started and it’s a game that both of us just keep going back to. It’s honestly amazing to see how much Sad Socket has been able to do within the rules of their simple little game (that is not actually simple or little).

— JP

The Bazaar

The Bazaar is what the dev team calls a "hero builder autobattler," which are a bunch of words that mean nothing to most people. The idea is that you have a board you can fill with items, a hero that has a unique pool of items, and a bunch of shops you can purchase items from. Your goal is to fill your board with items that synergize together so you can win fights against monsters in the middle of the in-game day before taking the fight to the asynchronous ghosts of actual players at night.

Unfortunately, that barely does justice describing how the game works. And I've been trying to refine that pitch for friends all year. So that's the best I've come up with.

The reason The Bazaar is one of the best strategy games of the year is because of how effectively it awards three of the major pillars of the genre: knowledge, creativity, and flexibility. The more you know about each hero and their items, the more you can predict the kind of board you'll be able to build out. But without the ability to be flexible and creative, you'll miss out on some incredible opportunities that you can shift into absolutely broken combos.

The highs in The Bazaar are unlike anything I've felt this year, and it got its hooks in me good. If you can get past that initial stage of getting your ass kicked and having no idea what's going on, I guarantee it'll be one of the most rewarding strategy games you ever play.

— RG 

Cataclismo

One of the most original strategy titles I’ve played in years, and a wild confluence of ideas that somehow works, Cataclismo is an apocalyptic, medieval, tower-defense RTS title from the studio that brought us Moonlighter. Gather resources during the day to build up your defenses to withstand the onslaught of fleshy horrors that come after you when night falls.

However, in place of automated gun turrets or high-tech deterrents, Cataclismo forces you to build defensible structures made of wood and stone, piece by piece. In something like Warcraft meets Lego, you’ll use a catalog of different bits to assemble a freeform structure that’ll hopefully give your limited numbers a fighting chance.

While build order and micro-management are still important, Cataclismo rewards creative thinking and sound structural planning, making it a worthy consideration for our strategy game of the year..    

— AJ

Star Birds

It’s not just that Star Birds is a solid strategy (slash-automation-slash-colony builder) game. It’s also that it’s a Kurzgesagt — In A Nutshell game using the trademark birds and everything.

Star Birds is a cozy and cute (and a little silly) automation game set on a series of asteroids. It never gets so complex as to overstay its welcome. Turns out, there’s a lot of joy to be gained from the strategy side of games without all the time pressure and failure conditions the genre has traditionally emphasized (see Plan B: Terraform from our Best Cozy Game award).

— JP

Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Definitive Edition

Listen, 2025 was rough for all of us. There were small moments of levity sprinkled in there, but the current state of the world, paired with losing your job, is a pretty brutal combo. Getting out of that funk isn’t easy, but this year, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War Definitive Edition helped. 

Dawn of War was my introduction to the grimdark future of 40K, and it remains an excellent example of RTS game design nearly two decades after its release. Many of the same principles that Relic Entertainment established in Dawn of War, like worker-free resource management and territory control, have become staples of the genre.

The Definitive Edition eliminates the compatibility issues with the aged title, expands mod support, and offers drastically improved visuals in addition to a massive collection of single-player content. Its the best way to experience one of the best RTS titles ever made, and a strategy game of the year contender in my book.        

— AJ