A strategy game is a game (e.g. computer, video or board game) in which the players' decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Many games include this element to a greater or lesser degree, making demarcation difficult. It is therefore more accurate to describe a particular game as having a certain degree of strategic elements, as in being mainly based around strategic principles. The crucial factor that separates this type of game from all others is that there is relatively little chance involved. All players have equal degree of knowledge of the elements of the game. There is no physical skill required other than that necessary to interact with the game pieces. Its benefit is the open interaction with other people. The game partners have similar starting points and evaluate how other humans may react under same conditions. So game strategies evolve with more or less spirit involved to get advantages and/or protect artfully.
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Strategy (and tactics) are usually contrasted with luck, the outcome of luck-based games relying on probability. Games exist on a continuum from pure skill to pure chance, with strategic games usually towards the skill end of the spectrum. The word "strategy" is borrowed from a military jargon. It originally refers to a planning at a very high level and often strategy games deal rather planning in smaller scale for which a word "tactics" is used in military context.
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Types
Abstract strategy
In abstract strategy games, the game is only loosely tied to a real-world theme, if at all. The mechanics do not attempt to simulate reality, but rather serve the internal logic of the game. To win, the player must think about the problem, rather than the graphical representation of the situation. Chess, Checkers and Go are excellent examples.
Simulation
This type of game is an attempt to capture the decisions and processes inherent to some real-world situation. Most of the mechanics are chosen to reflect what the real-world consequences would be of each player action and decision. Abstract games cannot be cleanly divided from simulations and so games can be thought of as existing on a continuum of almost pure abstraction (like Abalone) to almost pure simulation (like Strat-o-Matic Baseball).
Wargame
Wargames are simulations of historical or hypothetical military battles, campaigns or entire wars. Players will have to consider situations that are analogous to the situations faced by leaders of historical battles. As such, war games are usually heavy on simulation elements, and while they are all 'strategy games', they can also be 'strategic' or 'tactical' in the military jargon sense. Traditionally, wargames have been played either with miniatures, using physical models of detailed terrain and miniature representations of people and equipment to depict the game state; or on a board, which commonly uses cardboard counters on a hex map. Currently, the most popular miniature wargame would probably be Warhammer 40,000. A popular strategic board wargame would be Axis and Allies, and Diplomacy has been a successful one for decades. Advanced Squad Leader is a successful tactical scale wargame. A successful translation of the traditional genre into a computer game would be SSI's Panzer General series.
Computer strategy games
Wargames instantiated on computers generally take one of four archetypal forms, depending on whether the game is turn-based or real-time and whether the game's focus is upon military strategy or tactics.
Turn-based strategy
The term "turn-based strategy" (TBS) is usually reserved for certain computer strategy games, to distinguish them from real-time strategy games. A player of a turn-based game is allowed a period of analysis before committing to a game action. Almost all non-computer strategy games are turn-based; however, the video game market trend has lately inclined more towards real-time games. Examples of this genre are the Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic and Master of Orion series. Online, browser-based games often mix real-time and turn-based elements together. For instance, players may be given 100 moves a day that can be taken regardless of whether other players have taken theirs. Games of this type are called tick-based games.
Turn-based tactics
- Main article Turn-based tactics
Turn-based tactical gameplay is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks using only the combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations. Examples of this genre are the Jagged Alliance and X-COM series, as well as tactical role-playing games such as the Final Fantasy Tactics series and Nippon Ichi games.
Real-time strategy
Usually applied only to certain computer strategy games, the moniker "real-time strategy" (RTS) indicates that the action in the game is continuous, and players will have to make their decisions and actions within the backdrop of a constantly changing game state, and computer real-time strategy gameplay is characterised by obtaining resources, building bases, researching technologies and producing units. Very few non-computer strategy games are real-time; one example is Icehouse. Some players dispute the importance of strategy in real-time strategy games, as skill and manual dexterity are often seen as the deciding factor in this genre of game. According to Troy Dunniway, former developer and author on video game design, "A player controls hundreds of units, dozens of buildings and many different events that are all happening simultaneously. There is only one player, and he can only pay attention to one thing at a time. Expert players can quickly flip between many different tasks, while casual gamers have more problems with this."[1] The game considered the father of RTS games is Dune II, by Westwood Studios, and was followed by their seminal Command & Conquer. Cavedog's Total Annihilation (1997), Blizzard's Warcraft (1994) series and StarCraft (1998), and Ensemble Studios' Age of Empires (1997) series and Age of Mythology (2002) are some of the most popular RTS games, also online games as NukeZone can be considered belonging in this genre.
Real-time tactics
Sharing feature of the simulation and war game categories, real-time tactical computer game titles focus on operational aspects and control of warfare. Unlike in real-time strategy games, resource and economical management and building plays no part of the battle gameplay. Example titles include Warhammer: Dark Omen, the Close Combat series, and the Total War series.
Grand strategy
- Main article: Grand strategy game
A grand strategy game, is a wargame that places focus on a war or series of wars, often over a long period of time. Individual units, even armies, may not be represented; instead, attention is given to theaters of operation. All of the resources of the nations involved may be mobilized as part of a long-term struggle. The simulation typically involves political and economic as well as military conflict. At the most extreme end of this is the branch of strategy games in which the player assumes the role of the government of an entire nation-state and in which not conducting war is a possibility. Due to its complexity, this is rarely seen outside of computer games. Some of the best examples of grand strategy games are Europa Universalis, Victoria: An Empire Under the Sun, and Hearts of Iron by Paradox Entertainment.
4X
4X games are a genre of strategy game, usually a personal computer game, with four primary goals: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate. A 4X game can be turn-based or real-time. The best known example of this genre is Sid Meier's Civilization series.
Artillery
Artillery is the generic name for either early two or three-player (usually turn-based) computer games involving tanks fighting each other in combat or similar derivative games. Artillery games are among the earliest computer games developed; the theme of such games is an extension of the original uses of computer themselves, which were once used to calculate the trajectories of rockets and other related military-based calculations. Artillery games are a type of strategy game, though they have also been described as shooter games. Some examples include Gunbound, Scorched Earth, and Tanarus.
