Stellaris is a sci-fi space strategy game, its really good. But a lot of cool stuff is behind DLCs, you can enjoy it without DLCs for a long time. If you like the game so much then buy some DLCs. Right now you can try stellaris without buying, its free to try for 2 days so, nothing to lose.

CK3 is apparently the best medieval strategy game, i never played it though. You don't need to buy dlcs and the base game has huge content.

Civilization is beginner friendly. I recommend it.

Dawn of war 1 series.

XCOM 2. Glhf

A good gateway for strategy games is Civ. Like every other strategy game, they can all be daunting at first, but they're not as incredibly complex as paradox games. You can play Civ 4, 5 or 6, depending on which you get a good deal, I'd personally say, 6 is the easiest to get into, I always felt like it was a light version of 5, even though it's newer. Of course, Civ is not WW2

Dwarf fortress or rimworld

Star Wars Empire at War, Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion, and Stellaris.

All 3 of these games have huge modding communities.

Total War: Warhammer 2

Total War: Three Kingdoms

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (and 2, and 4...)

Age of Wonders 4

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

Gladius: Relicts of War

Songs of Conquest

It has around 1500 active players on Steam usually.

Xcom 2. Love it and hate it at the same time

Wargroove and Nebulous Fleet Command are both rad.

I absolutely cannot believe people are going back to play an 18 year old game because most modern game devs are run by clueless nepos who are out of touch with their fanbase and cannot develop a proper sequel to a beloved game. Come to think of it, I'm gonna hop back on Empire of War. One of the more memorable RTS games I've ever played.

Factorio might be interesting to you

Or Dyson Sphere Program

Anno 1800

The Tropico games match what you want

Frostpunk, rimworld, or timber born are all the big ones I've seen people fall in love with outside civ and cities

I would recommend Against The Storm. It's not turn based, but the ability to pause and queue up actions is present. There's a lot to learn, but the core loop of gameplay is fairly straightforward, and the main game is about applying what you've learned to optimize.

Each game is also fairly short. You have an objective, and when you accomplish it, you move on to a new settlement and new challenges. This also makes learning through failure a lot easier, because you don't sink ten hours into a city before learning you screwed up the sewer grid at the start and you've already irreparably failed.

What exactly is the game? Citybuilder with defense elements? Something like they are billions?

You made a tower defense game. In order to make a strategy game, you need to add the ability to build your own units and control their actions.

What type? Like is it a stage-to-stage strategy game which you will need to defense your base with a fixed number of troops and buildings, or is it a multiplayer game where you would need to defense from the enemy attacks and strike back to win without limits?

Btw love you simple design, sometimes a over-realistic looking character whould be bad with mobile games

Looks fun. DM if you need someone for trying it/ testing bugs or get ideas

Looks awesome so far!

Wasteland 3 is incredible but I would not classify it as a strategy game, unless you just consider all rpgs strategy games, but i don't think that's what OP was going for.

I hated strategy games, so when I got Gamepass I made it a goal to play games I would usually never play. So, played Desperados III and absolutely loved it; I could not put it down. It’s an RTS (real-time) cowboy simulator with good characters and a decent story.

It depends on if you’re looking for turn based or real time, but age of empires 4, company of heroes 2, gears tactics, phoenix point, x-com, the divinity original series, solasta crown of the magister.

I'm a big fan of Crusader Kings and the Total War series.

Gears tactics is great fun!

Stellaris and Eu4 are the best for beginners imo.

Stellaris is by far the easiest one to get a handle on and teaches you a lot of skills you can apply to the other games if you want to branch out.

Stellaris or Imperator.

Stellaris because it is the most like a traditional 4X strategy game, and has a fairly robust tutorial that explains things in detail (for a Paradox game). The role-playing aspect is also fun.

Imperator is relatively barebones at the moment, though from what I've heard it's improved significantly in the past year, so it doesn't have as many knobs and tricks you have to figure out.

I would suggest trying to force your way through CK2 - it took me about 10 hours before it clicked. It's relatively intuitive compared to the other games, in the sense that, say, you may not know what tools you have at your disposal, but you know you have to deal with your asshole younger brother who's scheming to take your throne. It's also more forgiving in the sense that since the game revolves around characters and not nations, it's okay if you don't own a lot of land. You can think of CK2 as the Sims with murder and incest.

Stellaris. It definitely has the best tutorial.

I feel like it doesn't really matter where you start. Even hoi3 could be a decent first game.

The trick is figuring out the meta of the game; what to focus on and what to ignore and so on, and that can be done by watching yt videos and asking on the subreddit or forum.

Europa Universalis 4 is a good game to start, I guess

What's the definition of.grand strategy?

The campaign is GOAT and I'd definitely recommend the Campaign to a new player. but Warcraft 3 online multiplayer is noooo place for someone new to RTS. Let me explain before you downvote!

I mean it's a good game but you think this is good for first rts? The multiplayer is excessively micro heavy and filled only with veterans. upkeep is dumb system for a new RTS player to worry about. Certain heroes and items are still very imbalanced and require extensive game knowledge. Gold is very limited and must be spent wisely. Many units have spells and abilities, as do heroes, meaning there is way more micro and APM required. There is also a major lack of quality of life features.

An invisible hero can shadow gank your workers long before you ever have a chance to even get detection or stop them? The pros online that know how to use a divine shield spell, then potion, then spell again for like a full minute of invulnerability?

TLDR: WC3 campaign is amazing for new players, but online multiplayer DEFINITELY isn't.

Age of Empires 4. Start with Campaign or art of war, then go to multiplayer.

Huge RTS fan here, played just about all of them. AOE4 has the best QOL, Ease of play, sound and animation design, diversity among civs and maps, plenty of special Civ dependent upgrades and special units. The Meta and economy makes sense. Art of War scenarios teach you how to play very well. It's just the best overall, especially if you want online multiplayer play, as AOE4 has one of the highest player counts for any RTS.

You need to add a little more information. Do you like fantasy? Sci-fi? Medieval?

Depending on that, I would go either Warcraft/Starcraft, Command&conquer (Generals or RedAlert2) or Age of Empires.

Starcraft 2 has great campaigns, coop, custom games and multiplayer of all difficulties and is good fun

Age of Empires IV, really good for begginers interested in multiplayer

I picked up the game at launch way before it was free. It's nice that they made it free for people to try.

I played Mario rabbiids. It’s cheap now a days and a good starter turn based strategy game IMO. I had never played one and had a good time with it .

Slay. The. Spire.

Mario rabbits is absolutely fantastic for what you described. I would also reccomended the card game slay the spire.. just remember that if your playing it it's often better not to pick a card after every fight.

Into the Breach. It can be played in short bursts, has various objectives to complete, and has all the gooey strategy of chess. It's definitely a game that's straight forward, easy to pick up (and put down), but difficult to master.

> if you start as an adult you will simply never rise above an intermediate level of skill compared to people who learned at like 5 years old.

That's true for 99% of hobbies, doesn't mean it should stop you from trying, especially for something like chess.

I recommend EU4, it seems very intimidating but once you learn the basics of diplomacy and running a war you're pretty much good to play. The rest can be learned on your own time as you go. I'm more than happy to help as well.

Sins of the Solar Empire and Age of Wonders 3 are like 'lite' versions of grand strategy. Not as a much diplomacy, kinda of combat focused, but still with the need to explore, expand, and exploit.

Sins also have insane Star Trek and Star Wars total conversion mods.

Does civ count? Civ is pretty good.

Stellaris is probably the best into to Grand strategy, then Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV

is stellaris grand strategy?

King of Dragon's Pass is suited for beginners. Less to deal with and pretty forgiving.

Get used to the spreadsheet style interface and you'll be able to adapt.