The most exciting strategy games to be released in 2023

Strategy games were also affected by many postponements in 2022, but 2023 now looks all the more glorious for it. In this list you will find the most important candidates of the year.

The new year has dawned and once again we strategy gamers are making ourselves comfortable in our commander”s chair. While others get their hands dirty themselves in action adventures or role-playing games, we usually command a host of henchmen who obey our every command and build cities, fight battles or trade for us.

We will be able to command all these things again in 2023, because a whole series of really promising strategy games is already waiting for us. Among them are real highlights like Company of Heroes 3 or Homeworld 3, but also a few insider tips like Ara: History Untold and The Great War: Western Front.

We only include global, real-time and turn-based strategy games in this list. For construction games like Manor Lords or Park Beyond we will soon create a separate list.

The Settlers: New Alliances

Good first entry. I”ve probably lost half of you to the comments section now, where you get all worked up about The Settlers. And you guys have every reason to be. But then why is this game in the list at all? Well, because it”s still the most exciting strategy games of the year – not necessarily the likely best.

Of course, we don”t yet know if The Settlers: New Alliances will be truly awful. The first preview suggests it will be, but on the other hand, Ubisoft has also had another 12 months to turn this total failure into a slightly better game. However, Settlers fans will probably still not be happy, as they would have preferred a building game. But now Ubisoft is sticking to the idea that the new Settlers clearly tends more towards real-time strategy. Let”s see if it can at least provide entertainment in this area. In any case, this release will be exciting.

Company of Heroes 3

Company of Heroes 3 is very likely to be the most important strategy game in 2023. Admittedly, the competition is rather thin without a new Total War or even a new Civilization in the mainstream, but you should not underestimate CoH at all. After all, the predecessors are among the best real-time strategy games of all time.

Company of Heroes 3 wants to continue this trend and relies on both classic strengths and a few innovative ideas. The series remains very classic in World War II, but with North Africa and Italy it illuminates an environment that has rarely been used so far.

Completely new is the turn-based strategy map, which has a touch of Total War about it. In multiplayer, however, much remains the same. It remains to be seen whether CoH 3 can actually live up to the great expectations.

Tortuga: A Pirate”s Tale

2021 Gaming Minds Studios released Port Royale 4, a suitably modernised version of the time-honoured trading series. The biggest innovation here, however, was the turn-based naval battles. With Tortuga: A Pirate”s Tale these battles become the main mast that drives the whole game. Because, of course, as a pirate in the Caribbean, you are much more interested in getting your prey ships involved in battles as well.

Here the cannonballs fly through the area, but round by round. But even as a pirate you don”t always sink other ships, you also have to divide the booty fairly among your crew, expand your fleet and can even build your own pirate nests all over the Caribbean. Sounds exciting? Read more about it (here):

Spellforce: Conquest of Eo

Beware, Spellforce: Conquest of Eo is neither a classic sequel nor a standalone add-on. Apart from the game world and the story (it is a prequel to the very first Spellforce), this part does not have much in common with the previous installments of the series. These were actually very entertaining hybrids with elements of real-time strategy and classic role-playing games. Conquest of Eo, however, is much more reminiscent of Heroes of Might and Magic or even Civilization.

So you try to subjugate a procedurally generated fantasy map. But not by simply conquering region after region or city after city militarily. Instead, you send out your troops from your mage tower to perform tasks for the cities and thus win their favour. The battles against armies of competing wizards are then fought on a rather small scale and are also turn-based. This may all seem strange to fans of the predecessors, but fans of classic turn-based strategy can be pleased with a new option

Great Houses of Calderia

Game of Thrones fans are generally left out in the cold when it comes to video games. Yet there are game concepts out there that are fantastically suited to Westeros. One of the best is undoubtedly Crusader Kings, where intrigue and betrayal are similarly present as in the game for the Iron Throne.

The development studio behind Great Houses of Calderia has also recognised this and is now trying to transport the concept of Crusader Kings into a fantasy world that is very similar to Westeros. Here too, powerful noble houses are at the helm and it is up to you to lead your own house to glory and honour. But in the process, exciting events can always occur that stand in the way of your plans or make for curious stories. Unlike the medieval Crusader Kings, magical phenomena can also occur in this world.

Homeworld 3

2023 the time has finally come. Then we in the editorial team will breathe a collective sigh of relief because Michael Graf will no longer have to spend hours telling us that Homeworld 2 absolutely needs a sequel. Well, maybe Homeworld 3 will be so good that he will spend hours telling us about it instead. But that”s still up in the air.

By the way, the chances of success are currently pretty good, because Homeworld 3 has understood exactly what fans of the predecessors were actually hoping for. Once again, it”s off to huge space battles in a three-dimensional space, where all kinds of vehicles, from huge flagships to tiny interceptors, can be controlled directly.

New in Homeworld 3 are first and foremost the battlefields, which are airless but not completely empty. Instead, there are always partly enormous structures floating around, such as huge chunks of ice or ancient shipwrecks. These look imposing, but also provide cover for our little ships and can even be suitable for sneaking up on enemies.

Stargate: Timekeepers

If you”re old Stargate fans, you”ll probably finally get the game you”ve been waiting for for years in 2023. And if you also have a weakness for games like Desperados or Shadow Tactics, you will soon be in seventh heaven. Because Stargate: Timekeepers is supposed to take up exactly the gameplay of these strategic sneak games and transport them into the world of Stargate.

You command a team of completely new characters who get caught in a time loop and now try to get out of this misery in 14 story missions. The time loop in particular is supposed to ensure that you keep revisiting missions you have already completed and now encounter new challenges with different abilities or characters. However, wildly hopping through time can also have an impact on the end of the story.

The Great War: Western Front

The First World War is a difficult subject, especially for video games. Not only because this war is one of the most brutal and inhumane ever – but because its nature makes a strategic game concept very complicated. How do you make a war entertaining that was all about wear and tear and more about stasis than movement?

The RTS experts at Petroglyph want to take on this challenge and are planning The Great War: Western Front a true strategy game in which you fight out the infamous trench warfare in real time. However, it does not stop at coordinating the advance of the soldiers including artillery strikes.

In addition to the real-time battles, the team relies on a turn-based campaign in Eastern France, where you move troops and accumulate material. The battlefields are supposed to be persistent, so that the destruction of previous battles remains visible and a once green field is transformed further and further into a crater field.

Sins of a Solar Empire 2

Sins of a Solar Empire 2 has quite surprised and then disappointed fans of its rather niche predecessor. On the one hand, the sequel was supposed to retain the basic concept and offer a large universe that you manage in 4X style, but in which there can also be massive real-time battles with numerous spaceships.

But when the game was launched in Early Access, there was hardly anything to see of it for a lot of money. The first version came onto the market extremely gutted and offered little more scope than a demo. In 2023, however, the full version will finally be released, and at least graphically the game was already convincing in EA. If the scope finally fits as well, space strategists could definitely risk a look here. Tester Reiner Hauser sees good approaches, but criticises the current state, which does not offer enough even for an Early Access title:

Age of Mythology Retold

Whether Age of Mythology Retold will actually still be released in 2023 is extremely unclear. We”re optimistic about that. So far, nothing is known about the remaster of this classic, except that it is being developed. Compared to the Definitive Editions of Age of Empires, however, you should be dealing with a version that has been lovingly reworked. So expect nicer graphics, lots of quality-of-life improvements and possibly even a few new missions.

In terms of content, the remaster will remain very faithful to the original for the most part. So you get the opportunity to immerse yourself in a mythological world again. The choice of factions in AoM is much smaller than in AoE, but each side has much greater differences. It makes a noticeable difference whether you go into battle with the Egyptians or the Greeks. Each nation can also draw on the work of different gods and, unlike in the historical Age of Empires, even lead monsters into battle.

Ara: History Untold

While we continue to wait for Civilization 7 to be announced, new competing products keep popping up. After Old World and Humankind, Ara: History Untold is also due to be released soon. This will even be the responsibility of many former Civ developers. Not much is known about the project yet, but it will clearly be a turn-based global strategy game in which you lead a nation through human history.

So it starts simply, with founding the first cities and researching basic technologies. But at some point, you control entire continents and build tanks or planes. It is not yet clear in detail what distinguishes Ara from other games of this kind. But it is supposed to offer a much more dynamic world, and the lives of the inhabitants of our empire also play a much more important role than usual. It will be interesting to see how Ara holds its own next to the competition.

Minecraft: Legends

The world of Minecraft is actually not the reason why this game became so successful. Nevertheless, Microsoft has now moved on to try out new game concepts in the world of bricks. Minecraft: Legends is supposed to be the first real strategy game that combines classic real-time strategy with an open game world. The result is something a little reminiscent of the battles in Mount & Blade. So you command a band of faithful that you send into a fierce battle against the evil pig conquerors.

Of course, building also plays a certain role in all of this, so you can collect resources and assemble useful buildings from them. For example, the attack on a pig fortress can be supported with a gun turret. This all remains rather shallow and relies on the traction of the popular brand, but Minecraft Dungeons has already shown how much fun it can all be anyway.

Stormgate

Real-time strategy is apparently no longer of much interest to Blizzard itself. At least Starcraft is on ice and after Warcraft 3 Reforged some fans wish the studio would better leave its old strategy series alone completely. It is not without reason that many former RTS developers have broken away from Blizzard and founded their own development studio, Frost Giant Studios. The first project of this studio will now be Stormgate.

But those expecting a classic RTS might be disappointed by this game. Although Stormgate is supposed to have a lot of what once made the genre great, at the same time many new-fangled elements make their way in. In addition to a classic story campaign, Stormgate is supposed to be a Free2Play RTS that places a lot of emphasis on multiplayer, co-op, e-sports and social features. Whether this calculation will work out in the end remains to be seen, we were still sceptical at the first presentation.

Jagged Alliance 3

Jagged Alliance is actually a beleaguered series that has had a lot of shenanigans done to it in the years since Part 2. Now, however, a full-fledged sequel is finally to be released and it takes its legacy quite seriously. So all the things that fans of the series loved 20 years ago are back – only with much better graphics.

As before, you”ll assemble a group of hardcore mercenaries, each with their own skills and personalities. The battles are then turn-based and are basically controlled chaos. Of course, as the commander in Jagged Alliance 3, you can plan the actions of your mercenaries exactly, but the effects are sometimes hard to predict.

Finally, it”s not just calculated here whether your sniper”s bullet will hit the villain or not. It can also ricochet, hit a gas cylinder and suddenly do a lot more damage than planned. This clever mix of tactics and anarchy finally makes Jagged Alliance 3 as entertaining as it used to be!

Men of War 2

Men of War 2 will be Company of Heroes 3”s closest competitor in 2023. The game relies on a very similar gameplay concept, where you command a variety of units in World War II and let infantry take cover or make your way with tanks. The big difference to CoH, however, is that Men of War relies on a somewhat more realistic staging. Fields of view are much larger, weapons have a longer range, and in general, there are far fewer mechanics in Men of War 2 that are typical for games, such as an elaborate progression and base-building system.
Instead, the focus is on strategy and you have to be careful with your units or call for the right reinforcements at the right time. A new mechanic this time is the front line, which can be moved dynamically and allows different actions. Depending on whether you are acting in front of or behind the line. Like Company of Heroes, Men of War 2 relies on a lively multiplayer, but also wants to offer single players a fully-fledged campaign. 

Tempest Rising

Command & Conquer is another one of those once glorious strategy series that has faded into obscurity these days. At least EA has left this noble RTS largely to the left for years. The only ray of hope was the remaster from 2020, but in 2023 Command & Conquer will return. Under a different name and by a completely different team – but Tempest Rising is so influenced by the series, even without a C&C licence, that it almost feels a little stolen.

Here you will really find everything that has existed since the first C&C. Harvesters, sandbags, hand-shaped barracks – it makes your mouse finger tingle. But not everything is just like before. Graphically, Tempest Rising is anything but dusty. So it actually feels like a genuine remake of Command & Conquer!

Which strategy games do you have at the top of your wish list for 2023? Are you hoping for an unexpected sequel or is there an insider tip that doesn”t get enough attention? Write us your opinion in the comments!