Strategy Game

A Strategy Game is a game genre encompassing Board Games, Tabletop Games, and Video Games in which the player or players' strategical and/or tactical thinking is required in order to achieve victory (in theory). The earliest strategy games are far Older Than Feudalism, including ancient games like Chess (invented in the 6th century) and Go (invented in the 4th century).

Strategy Games can roughly be broken into two sub-genres:

• Turn-Based Strategy
  • Turn Based Tactics
• Real Time Strategy

For tropes found in Strategy Games, see Strategy Game Tropes.

The basic archetypes of units in a typical RTS or TBS:

• The Worker Unit
  • Peon - A basic, cheap unit that can build any structure, gather resources, and/or repair structures (and often vehicles). It almost always has either a pathetic melee attack, often its repurposed Magic Tool, or has no combat ability at all.
  • Builder/Harvester - Some games have units entirely dedicated to gathering resources, while another unit handles construction. This is also used if one of those jobs is performed by a building instead, with the Peon handling the other.
  • Healer/Medic/Engineer - Their primary purpose is field repair of damaged units, and since this happens near the front line, they probably are less fragile than Peon. May also double as The Anti-Something unit (given ability like Turn Undead or Wall Breaching) or buff/debuff dispenser - if only to avoid keeping a pack of one-trick ponies that collect dust in a corner until their primary function is needed. Healer version may overlap with The Spellcaster, Engineer with specialized Builder.
  • The Militia - This is essentially the Peon with a big stick: better attack power than a Peon, but less than that of a normal basic ground unit. Useful en masse in resisting a rush.
• The Basic Melee Unit - In medieval fantasy games this is the first and most basic combat unit available, and most often has a sword and light armor. In more futuristic scenarios, melee units are much rarer.
• The Basic Ranged Unit - The first and most basic combat unit available in most modern, futuristic, and historical games set in the age of the gun, the second in medieval fantasy. Has a rifle or a bow or other basic ranged weapon, and pathetic armor.
  • The Anti-Something Infantry - Usually used in modern/futuristic games. About the same stats as basic units, but usually armed with a grenade or rocket launcher or other specialized weapon. Designed as a specific counter to some other type of unit (usually vehicles/buildings or air units), as opposed to the more versatile basic units.
• The Scout - A fast unit with limited combat capabilities and a wide sight range. Used to reduce the Fog of War, though it may also double up as a stealth/cloak detector, light combat unit, or target designator for artillery/superweapons/etc. Can be a light tank, jeep, or motorcycle in modern and future games, or cavalry in fantasy settings.
• The Siege Unit - A heavy, armored monster for taking down buildings and other siege units. Either vulnerable to masses of lighter enemy troops, specialized counters, or equivalent enemy siege units. Usually a heavy tank or mech in modern and future settings. Siege units are often slow-moving and expensive.
• The Anti-Something Vehicle - Like the infantry equivalent, only bigger, tougher, and can usually dish out more damage. These usually come in Anti-Infantry or Anti-Air.
• The Artillery - Long-range equivalent to the siege unit, the artillery unit can't hit anything too close to it, has splash damage, and is usually under-armored. Its disadvantages are often balanced out by its massive attack power and long range.
• The Elite Unit - A souped-up basic unit with a higher price tag, heavier armor, greater attack power, and/or higher speed for units of its type. These have a danger of getting spammed late in the game. Often more faction-specific than the others.
• The Naval Unit - Typically works like floating artillery, but is well-armored and has access to seas or other regions that standard ground units cannot go. May have a subset of the specialized units - available in Submarine, Anti-Submarine, Anti-Air, and sometimes Aircraft Carrier. In space settings where spaceships take the place of ground units, this archetype does not apply.
• The Air Unit - The air unit is often faster than ground units and mildly or not affected by terrain. In some cases it fights like an attack helicopter, hovering in one place to attack, even when it isn't one. In other cases, it has to return to a special building after every attack to rearm and/or repair. Good against anything that can't hit it back. Although, realistically, it shouldn't apply to spaceship-based games, this unit archetype is present anyway in the form of squadrons of small and maneuverable Space Fighters, Attack Drones and similar strike craft. May have a subset of the specialized units - scout, fighter, bomber, stealth bomber, torpedo (i.e. anti-Naval) plane, air transport.
• The Transport - Picks up other units and carries them around, and is almost always an air or sea unit, although modern/futuristic games will often have land-bound APCs as well. Useful for transporting ground units over long distances, around defenses, or across inaccessible regions. Is often moderately fast and has little or no combat ability in itself.
• The Spellcaster - A unit with little armor and/or normal attack power, but can use player-commanded abilities that inflict heavy damage over an area, or bestow status effects on friendly and enemy units. Its abilities often have areas-of-effect and time limits, cost Mana/energy points of some kind, and are micromanagement-heavy.
• The Hero Unit - A really powerful unit that more or less represents the player on the battlefield or a major character in the game's story. It usually has spells or abilities that can affect a small army at once. If nothing else has RPG Elements, it often will, with XP gain from kills and experience levels, and more abilities becoming available at higher levels.
• The Super Unit - A large superpowered unit almost capable of taking out an army or base all by itself. Often more faction-specific than the others. These are usually expensive as hell to build (and usually slow, too), so if you allow your opponent to build several of these, you probably deserve what's about to happen (some games limit the player to only building one at a time). Awesome but Impractical, bringing one of these into a fight often gets a satisfying Oh Crap from your opponent. Losing one of these returns the favor.

A critical part of all RTS games is the base-building and Resource Gathering element, which is also conducted very rapidly. TBS often puts most building inside "town" and leaves the rest pre-placed, but not always. The basic archetypes of a base are:

• The Command/Construction Center - Either constructs buildings itself (especially if in the Command & Conquer series) or builds Peon units.
• The Resource Building - A building that stores or generates resources, and creates/accepts Peons, Workers, or Harvesters.
  • The Resource Conversion Building - Specifically for Refining Resources. Sometimes the produced resource can be gathered anyway; it's more expensive than gathering, but allows to have more on resource-poor maps,.
• The Barracks - Builds the basic infantry units and sometimes handles unit-specific upgrades.
• The Wall - Fortification passive on its own, but blocking enemy passage and usually protecting other buildings and/or units from ranged attacks - until broken.
• Depot/Inn/Hospital - Buildings that don't create units, but maintain existing ones and may also repair them, especially if the unit-producing buildings don't.
• The Tech Building - A building whose main purpose is to advance the Tech Tree and upgrade units. Usually has to be built before you can build any of the following buildings:
  • The Advanced Tech Building - Like the first one, but comes later in the game, or is expanded from the original. Needed for accessing even more advanced stuff.
• The Stable/Vehicle Factory - Builds scout, siege, and artillery units.
• The Naval Building - Builds and repairs (and upgrades, if allowed) naval units.
• The Aircraft Factory - Builds and repairs (and upgrades, if allowed) air units.
• Defense Turrets - A small building with a mounted weapon. Usually varies between anti-infanty, anti-armor, and anti-air.
• Radar / Watchtower - Stationary, but more far-sighted and somewhat tougher equivalent of Scout: keeps the Fog of War at bay, allows to use more efficiently artillery units and turrets with range longer than their own vision, and maybe counters stealth.
• The Ultimate Building - Something very expensive that appears in the endgame to break ties and/or make the final showdown more awesome. Often more faction-specific than the others.
  • The Superweapon - A building that generates an unlimited-range attack that can blow large holes in a base. Typically, only one can be built at a time. If not, expect the game to become a Turtle-fest as players hide behind their defenses, build a dozen or so Superweapons, and try to wipe out the enemy base in a cataclysmic orgy of Nuke fire, Kill Sat Beam Spam, Negative Space Wedgies, or whatever is available to that side. More common in RTS, where its purpose is to break turtle stalemates - by using it if the game ran long enough, or by the threat of possibility that the enemy may finish building it.
  • Super Unit Factory - Allows to build The Super Unit. More common in TBS.

Refinements of the genre formula over the years:

• Terrain bonuses, such as cover and concealment.
  • Mobility bonuses and maluses - roads and swamps.
  • High ground bonuses for range and vision.
• Bonus damage for flanking or ganging up on enemy troops.
• Organization of small units, like infantry and fighter craft, into squads or wings that act as one unit.
• Aircraft that act like aircraft, i.e. take off, perform mission, land again. In RTS aircraft may be completely AI-controlled, rather than directly like slower ground units, which also enforces maximum range.
• Elements from Real Time Tactics / Turn Based Tactics games, in which there is no base building or unit construction and scale is strictly squad-level, units are acquired at the start of each level.
• Units with limited supplies, who can expend all their supplies if left in the lurch. Resupply units, whether transport or mobile bases.
• Persistent troops that are retained throughout a campaign, introducing RPG Elements.
• A blurring of the distinction between buildings and units. After all, there already are turrets and repair units, now add Mobile Factory, whether for units or Refining Resources.

Also, see: Strategy RPG and Simulation Game for business sims and similar games often lumped together with Strategy Games.

Examples of Strategy Game include:

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