Strategy Games That Are Easy To Start But Hard To Master

Strategy games are known to often be lengthy, complex affairs, with a wealth of different mechanics to master for the most efficient play. The problem there is that they can sometimes seem unapproachable to beginners as a result. There's a balance to achieve between providing the depths that veterans demand and ensuring that it's not too difficult to learn the ropes.

Some grand strategy titles, for instance, have super steep learning curves. The road to mastery is a long one, then, even with some games that have nice, easy starts. These strategy titles range from roguelike deckbuilders to digital versions of beloved board games, but they're all great examples of this sort of title.

7 Slay the Spire

High Ascension Levels Can Be Absolutely Brutal

Once you've really got the hang of a roguelike title, happily winning runs armed with all the unlocks you need, you might start to feel as though you've seen everything there is to see. This is where a system like Balatro's Stakes or Slay the Spire's Ascensions comes in. These are increasingly difficult 'versions' of a run, adding additional parameters to keep you testing yourself.

Slay the Spire, on Ascension level 0, is often quite a comfortable ride. Yes, you'll need to take a few runs to adapt to a character's unique deck and mechanics (and unlock more their cards), but once you have, you should be familiar with the Elites and Bosses that emerge in each Act and how to take them down. The Ironclad, who heals a little at the end of each battle thanks to his starting Relic and has quite a straightforward 'warrior' approach to combat, is a perfect starter character. By the time you're several Ascensions in with The Watcher, with her complex stance-changing mechanic to get the most from her offense and defense, you really need to think several turns ahead to survive. Strategy-building and adapting on the fly with whatever the game deigns to give you ensures the game is very difficult to master.

6 Civilization 6

The Difference Between Surviving And Thriving

If there's one thing you can always count on some players to do, it's optimize their play in any game to the greatest extent possible. Civilization is a strategy series that begins in quite a player-friendly fashion, helpfully underlining exactly what the unique traits of a certain Civ/Leader are and what they do. Civilization 6 boasts a wealth of tool tips and the extensive Civilopedia, making it one of the most approachable games in the series. However, there's an enormous difference between playing, surviving and ultimately scoring your victory of choice and playing super optimally on higher difficulties.

Just about every action, from the order in which you construct things to the Wonders you choose to build, from the placement of each of your Districts to the exact hex you choose to settle on, has consequences that can affect the efficiency of your whole playthrough. As you gain experience, you'll learn more and more about effective choices, but there's a huge difference between earning yourself 'good enough' bonuses in Science, Production, and Culture yields and ensuring you get the very best. True experts have mastered things like the exact spot on which to found each of their cities as the Maya, in order to ensure they get the highest possible bonuses from being the exact distance from that Civ's capital. Each Civ requires a different approach in order to maximize its unique strengths, and learning how to do this requires an encyclopedic knowledge of the game and hundreds of hours' experience with it. And that's before even considering the likes of climate concerns and power levels that were introduced with the game's huge expansions.

5 Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Crafting The Best Army Takes A Lot Of Expertise

Byleth, on their arrival at Garreg Mach Monastery, has a relatively easy introduction to their new life as a professor. Plenty of time to prepare the students for a zero-stakes 'practice battle,' convenient and lengthy tutorials for the important mechanics, and a valuable Guide for the player to consult whenever they're unsure about a system they've already covered. There's ample time to explore and experiment during periods in the monastery, and the difficulty curve is gentle enough to allow the player time to acclimatize to the battle system and how to effectively damage different types of enemy units.

The teaching system allows Byleth to coach both the students of their chosen house and some faculty members too (depending on your house and path chosen through the game, various staff members and other characters can join your cause), providing direct boosts to specific stats. What really takes experience, though, is determining which training to apply and where. It's best to stick to specific skills depending on the class you ultimately want each character to develop into, and getting the very best from them in their final roles requires tailoring each unit's training precisely throughout the game. Similarly to Civilization 6, you're free to build as you wish and use mechanics such as reversing turns in order to rewind mistakes (there's no need to engage with the series' infamous permadeath mechanic if you don't want to either), but that's very different to the highly specialized play that considers every team member's personal abilities and precise square on the battlefield to effectively support each other. At the highest difficulties, it's often only a finely-played game of chess on the battlefield that'll see you through unscathed.

4 Risk

A Classic Board Game, Adapted For Gaming Systems

When it comes to strategic board games, fans of tabletop titles are often spoiled for choice. From simpler titles to those that are deeper and more complex, there's a wealth of options. Risk, however, has strategy and complexity to its play without being too overwhelming for a first-time player. It's one of those titles that, if you click with it, is a pleasure to learn over repeated sessions and gradually delve into some more advanced tactics.

There are some titles that you might really take to even if you think you suck at strategy games, and Risk could be considered another. Moving your troops and mounting attacks is a dice-rolling breeze, but mastering the game is all about reacting to what your opponents are doing in a way that doesn't compromise your own overarching strategy. It can take an awful lot of practice to become adept at doing this effectively, which is what the enduring appeal of the game is all about.

3 Wingspan

A Very Different Type Of Strategy Game, But No Less Satisfying

At first glance, Wingspan seems like a title far removed from Risk. After all, it was designed around the entirely non-violent concept of populating three different nature reserves (Wetlands, Grasslands, and Forest) with a range of species of bird. Even with its relaxing atmosphere and casual imparting of bird knowledge, though, there's a lot of strategy to Wingspan.

Players need to accrue points not only by placing birds in different habitats, but by laying eggs, making use of conditions from specific cards, and making strategic use of each bird's unique effect. Turns are strictly limited, so you've got to get the best from each move you make.The digital edition of Wingspan provides a charming and characterful tutorial that runs through all the core mechanics, but it's only with lots and lots of games that you'll settle on your favorite birds and the effective combos you can pull off using them. Practising against the Automata is an excellent way to improve, because in each weekly challenge, you'll have the same cards available to you, meaning that you'll learn to maximize the assets you have.

2 Pokemon Champions

Never Underestimate How Competitive Pokemon Can Be

Pokemon Champions undoubtedly had a rocky launch. What with the numerous odd bugs and the strictly limited roster of Pokemon, battle formats, and held items available at launch, there's a lot more to be coaxed from the title yet. Nonetheless, with this model, it's a game that will grow and be steadily added to and tweaked over time (it's slated to be the home of competitive Pokemon for the foreseeable future, after all). Those who are sticking with it at this early stage, some of whom are brand new to competitive Pokemon battling, are finding that climbing the ladder, experimenting with the new Mega Evolutions and so on can still be incredibly engaging.

While the tutorial system isn't exactly the most comprehensive, it builds from demonstrating that Grass-types don't like Fire moves to showing some of the finer points, like the differences between contact and non-contact moves. From there, you recruit your first Pokemon, who joins you long with the rest of a full 'starter team' of six. Champions, in its way, does a lot to help you build teams, with dramatically simplified training to fix stat distributions, movesets, and natures immediately via a menu if you have enough of the appropriate resource. The gacha nature of recruiting is a pain if you don't use Pokemon Home to transfer your critters, but if you're looking for a stripped-down format and a place to simply battle, this is where you'll find it.

Often, though, players are swiftly humbled in their first attempts on the ladder. Great competitive players can devise all manner of brilliant strategies, and in best-of-one matches, there's really no way to know what's coming when you face something unusual. Pokemon battles can be far more strategic than those unfamiliar with VGC expect, and you'll need to invest a lot of time in learning team building (including using powerful archetypes like rain teams), predictions, what's best to bring to the battle based on your opponent's lineup, and all the other minutiae.

1 Advance Wars 1 + 2: Reboot Camp

Turn-Based Strategy Royalty Returns

This Nintendo Switch release is comprised of the original Advance Wars and Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. Both are highlights of the Game Boy Advance's catalog, and indeed some of the greatest turn-based strategy games of the 2000s. The tale of the Black Hole Army's nefarious invasion of Macro Land, defeat at the hands of an alliance of nations, and their inevitable return and renewed assault, is told across both games. Ultimately, it just provides context for the action, the battles themselves.

Reboot Camp adds an Easy mode for both games, and it's highly recommended at certain points. Both titles do an excellent job of easing the player in, with smaller scale skirmishes in battles that are designed to teach new mechanics, such as capturing bases and combining units that have taken damage. We're also briefly shown the capabilities of new units. In short order, though, you'll be on a map with a factory and an airport, having to make swift decisions about which units to build and where to deploy them. The Commanding Officers you play as each have their own strengths, weaknesses, and special powers, each of which can have a dramatic impact on how a map plays out. In later levels, you may fail several times, forced to adapt your strategy on the fly or start from the beginning and attempt something new entirely. Just as with Pokemon, it's an experience much deeper and more challenging than it may appear.