Personal ranking of 35 years of tactical games

[grimdarkness]

All following titles are turn-based, and some of them are a mix of genres.

1. JAGGED ALLIANCE 2 (1999)
2. XCOM UFO DEFENSE (1994)

These two immortal masterpieces are tied : I know nothing will better them. Never.

3. SILENT STORM (2003) (best destructible environment tied with XCOM2)

In any ranking without the first two legends, SS would be king for me.

4. BATTLE BROTHERS (2017) (hardest game for me)
5. XCOM 2 (2016) (best graphics and char customization)
6. INCUBATION aka BATTLE ISLE PHASE FOUR (1997) (best soundtrack tied with JA2)
7. W40K CHAOS GATE (1998)
8. EXPEDITIONS ROME (2022)
9. FALLOUT TACTICS (2001)
10. PHANTOM DOCTRINE (2018)

Honorable mention : LASER SQUAD, released in 1988, this ancient venerable game was designed by Julian Gollop, and it inspired the whole XCOM franchise.

[tuckus2003]

Nice list. I’d actually put BALDURS GATE 2 on there, definitely scratched the itch for me.

Oh, and REMOVE XCOM2. I don’t like firaxis xcoms.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Veering off into "quite a bit different" territory but HBS Battletech is worth a look, especially with the major modpacks like BTA3062 or Roguetech if you want to manage a larger force with combined arms tactics.

[MinenSpecht]

7.62 Hard Life anyone?

[grimdarkness]

Originally posted by tuckus2003:

Nice list. I’d actually put BALDURS GATE 2 on there, definitely scratched the itch for me.

We all agree that BG2 is a masterpiece. I didn't put it for 2 reasons.
First, because even it has tactical combat, it's a RPG. In fact, I almost cut out Rome for the same reason, but then I decided it was 33%RPG, 33%tactical, 33%strategy, while BG2 it's more 70%RPG, 30%tactics.
The second reason is, this a list of turn-based tactical games, and BG2 combat is real time with active pause.

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

Veering off into "quite a bit different" territory but HBS Battletech is worth a look, especially with the major modpacks like BTA3062 or Roguetech if you want to manage a larger force with combined arms tactics.

Never played it, although I read a lot of good things about it. My problem with games like BT is that I prefer to play with soldiers rather than mechs, because for me it's easier to form a bond with them, and to appreciate their differencies.

Originally posted by Javahate:

Where is JA1?

Somewhere between 11th and 15th, probably in the same ballpark with a relatively unknown rough gem called Shadow Watch.

Originally posted by MinenSpecht:

7.62 Hard Life anyone?

Heard of it, but it's real time with active pause, not turn based.
Still ... looks very interesting! I'm gonna try it sooner or later.

[Ziggurt]

Agree with good chunk of the list but to me any such list over tactical games without Steel Panthers series of games from SSI is bit...incomplete. Battletech definitely should be up there especially with Battletech Extended 3025 or BTA3062 mods.
Xenonauts is another game I would perhaps put there - technically it is not innovative AT ALL but it brings old school X-COM feeling to modern times.
Maybe, in my case, I would also change original XCOM2 with XCOM1.

Originally posted by grimdarkness:

Never played it, although I read a lot of good things about it. My problem with games like BT is that I prefer to play with soldiers rather than mechs, because for me it's easier to form a bond with them, and to appreciate their differencies.

That is bit odd, since individual soldiers (mechwarriors) pilot the mechs. Decker (a mechwarrior piloting a light mech in campaing) dying on people is almost meme in that community. He is like Kenny from South Park. But each to his own as they say.

Silent Storm - undeniably good technically but I could never get into it. When I tried to play it, sci fi elements kinda ruined it for me.

[Kordanor]

While DOS2 is primarily an RPG, imho its also offering pristine turn based tactics.

Phoenix Point and Xenonauts are also turn based tactics games I'd consider some of the best.

Also I am missing JA1 ;)

[Stoibs]

Is this a PC only list?
No Final Fantasy Tactics, no Fire Emblems, no Vandal Hearts :/
More recently last year I had incredible fun with Triangle Strategy and Sparks of Hope too.

Where are my oldschool Heroes of Might and Magic peeps at also!

[uncle nick]

1. JA2
2. JA2 1.13
3. Battlefield 4
4. World in Conflict
5. Grand Theft Auto 4
6. Grand Theft Auto 3
7. Test Drive Unlimited 2
8. Battlefield 3
9. Command & Conquer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggjtBkN2sis
10. Mercenaries 2 (PC) World in Flames

[Ragnar Caesar]

Best WW II tactical games are the "Combat Mission"-series from Battlefront. Especially the we-go system.

[SmokeyTheGoat]

Nice list. Personally I preferred Expeditions Vikings over Rome.

[mmenolas]

Originally posted by SmokeyTheGoat:

Nice list. Personally I preferred Expeditions Viking over Rome.

That was my thought as well. Vikings is my favorite of the series. And I think Conquistador is the more of a tactics game than the other two, both Viking and Rome were much more RPG than pure tactics games.

[Kunic]

Nice list, I would actually add Xcom Apocalypse - switiching between real time and turn based works really well there also you could destroy much more than in Silent Storm. (I know it´s heresy but Somehow I like it much more than every other xcom title before and since...)

Just discovered BB recently absolut gem that game and I guess I´ll need to check out number 8 and 10 since I don´t know them yet.

Also I think Silent storm was really nice technical but story wise I can´t recall a single thing from the game while I could recount JA2 front to back and might even recall the city names with a bit thinking even after 20 years... (guess JA2 either had much more replayability or there wherent as many games around back then )

There was a demo for JA2 (with a junkyard and Ivan) after playing that I had to get that game directly at release and it was a bit of buggy mess but I loved it anyway.