Looking for Turn Based Strategy games I should play

After hearing so much about XCOM Enemy Unknown on the last cast, and playing so much Hero Acadmy, I noticed I haven't played that many turn based games outside of the Civ series.

I am looking for a military/combat focused turn based game (i.e. not city building, ideally), any system, and it'd be awesome if it had an MP base, but doesn't need to.

I've been looking at FF tactics, the might n magic series, and Jagged Alliance.

Any suggestions WILL BE PLAYED, good or bad!

I don't have much experience with the genre, though I really loved the Advance Wars games (that's turn-based strategy, right?)

I really liked Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. Advance Wars Dual Strike was good too.

The Hunters games on iOS are great sci-fi turn based strategy games. Not quite as good as Hero Academy but definitely worth checking out. I think there's two of them now.

Final Fantasy Tactics
Advance Wars
Fire Emblem
Valkyria Chronicles

I wish I could recommend more but it's a pretty sparse genre. There's a game in development called The Banner Saga that was kickstarted and looks fucking amazing. I'd recommend checking it out and possibly picking it up when it comes out.

Make sure not to confuse Might and Magic with Heroes of Might and Magic. Heroes is the TBS spinoff to Might and Magic's first person party-based RPG. Also I recommend those (not that I don't recommend the RPG series as well if you were in the market for that kind of game). However, you seem to be looking for more tactical PC type stuff, and in that regard there is stuff like Jagged Alliance, X-COM (the original. The rest are of questionable merit), and S2 Silent Storm. If you want more RPG-type stuff, there's always Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre.

@TooWalrus said:

I don't have much experience with the genre, though I really loved the Advance Wars games (that's turn-based strategy, right?)

Yes. That counts. And I also recommend it, because Advance Wars is pretty dope.

Final Fantasy: War of the Lions

the Tactics Ogre remake on the PSP is really good.

There have been some good suggestions already. I'm going to recommend Super Robot Wars Original Generation 1 and 2 for the GBA. Make sure you get the ones on the GBA and not the DS. Not that the DS game is bad or anything it is just different, a little more traditional JRPG than a strategy/tactics game.

You could try Heroes of Might and Magic. I heard it was kind of broken, but I think there is still a MP community for the latest one. Don't hold me to it though.

In my opinion, the best turn-based strategy game is Jagged Alliance 2. It has strategic overworld, RPG elements and great squad-based combat. It's slow to start, but once it gets going it's fantastic.

Avoid the 3D remake!

As far as modern console releases go, there are very few turn-based strategy games out there, but I highly recommend Valkyria Chronicles. It's one of the best games the PS3 has to offer.

As for PC titles, I haven't seen anyone mention the King's Bounty series yet. I'd probably classify it primarily as an RPG, but there's turn-based combat on a hex grid, so I'm throwing it out there. Under that same loose definition, I guess I could also recommend the first two Fallout games along with the more traditional turn-based strategy followup to those, Fallout Tactics.

Final Fantasy Tactics.

I haven't played many military based ones so most of what I suggest is fantasy themed

Fire Emblem and Advance wars are great series, hard to go wrong with any game in those serieses

I enjoyed the old Vandal Hearts games for PS1 , the new one is meh

FF tactics is a very solid game, The advance sequels are noticeably less good and more kid oriented.

tactics Ogre is fairly passive compared to other games in the genre these days, but it does have a strong following. Personally I find them boring. But I might not have played enough. Cling togethr I've been meaning to play for a long time.

If you enjoy grindfests the Disgaea series is your new favorite series. Any of the Nippon Ichi games (La Pucelle,Phantom Brave etc) are pretty good SRPGs. too grindy for my tastes but there are hundred s of hours of play in each one.

Jeanne D'arc has a decent rep if you have a PSP

I picked up Valkyria Chronicles, FFT, Dling the demo for King's Bounty, and I found out I have JA1 on GoG, so I'ma try all these out.

I found RuneSpell: OverTure, I've been trying that out.

I noticed I want to play anything with turns that isn't a city builder.

This includes Ascension on iOS, and any card games.

I'm gonna grab X-Com and Syndicate at the end of the week.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Advance Wars

Rebelstar

XCOM

I know it has been said, but I must wholeheartedly recommend Advance Wars. The fist and second in particular. Nice and accessible, and moves along at a good clip for a TBS game. The cartoon characters are a riot. The first one I played almost exclusively until I beat the game.

I of course would recommend the original Xcom. Man is that a deep rabbit hole. STEEP learning curve. Beware. You can mess your self up with your choices and make it impossible for you to win the game. It is my favorite TBS game, so you can imagine how pumped I am for the Firaxis Xcom.

Final Fantasy Tactics is up there too. The job system is brilliant, and the strategy can be quite deep. Of course, being a Final Fantasy game, you can also just kind of grind to win where the random encounters become tougher than the story encounters. Of course that would take you a ton of hours to beat it. If you play with skill, you can finish a lot faster.

Those are my top 3. I got a kick out of Front Mission 4 as giant robots were a refreshing change in the genre for me. I played Daisenryaku VII for some dark reason. Crap graphics, bad presentation, and all that jazz but I liked the complexities of the units. Having to move tanks with supply trucks, pick terrain for your launchers and set up a turn ahead. Just like Advance Wars with a lot more nuance but poor pacing and crap presentation.

It's not out yet, but Skulls of the Shogun looks really good and is one of two TBS games I will be buying this fall (the other being XCOM: Enemy Unknown).