25 Best Strategy Games on Nintendo Switch: Top Real-Time, Turn-Based, and More Strategy Games on Switch

If you love giving your brain a workout while you chill and play games, strategy games are the choice for you. Fortunately for you, there are a wealth of options on Nintendo Switch, and we’re going to list our 25 …

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If you love giving your brain a workout while you chill and play games, strategy games are the choice for you. Fortunately for you, there are a wealth of options on Nintendo Switch, and we’re going to list our 25 favourites below.

25 Best Strategy Games on Nintendo Switch

Bad North

Bad North is a strategy game perfectly designed for Nintendo’s Switch. You recruit and send a variety of units to defend miniature islands from viking invaders, earning gold to increase their power.

Get it on the eShop.

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines doesn’t run all too well on Switch, but it’s still the best city building simulator you’ll find on the platform. If you like the busy work of ensuring a city has enough water and electricity supply, amenities, and a solid income, this is the strategy game for you.

Darkest Dungeon

Darkest Dungeon is a strategic RPG that challenges you to delve deep underground with a series of adventurers to find valuable loot. The deeper you go, the more it will affect your adventurer’s sanity though, so you’ll have to be careful.

Disgaea 5

Disgaea 5 is all about building huge teams of heroes and sending them into strategic battles that are reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem. They’re known for having literally hundreds of hours worth of content.

Element

Much like Bad North, Element was designed with the smaller screen of the Switch in mind. You have to travel from planet to planet, mining them for resources so you can escape a solar system that’s on its last legs.

Get it on the eShop.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

If you truly love strategy games, you’ve probably already got Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s an awesome entry that includes elements from Persona, with you developing relationships with your students before sending them into battle.

Into the Breach

Into the Breach is like an indie Advance Wars by the makers of Faster Than Light. It presents randomly-generated challenges in which you have to try and defend cities using mechs, countering your enemy’s upcoming attacks.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle is actually a brilliant take on XCOM by Ubisoft. You’ll recruit Mario and friends and a bunch of Rabbids and shoot down naughty Rabbids that are invading the Mushroom Kingdom.

Mercenaries Saga Chronicles

If Into the Breach is like an indie Advance Wars, Mercenaries Saga Chronicles is like an indie Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. It actually features a trilogy of releases, with 82 campaign chapters to beat, free battles, and more.

Mini Metro

Mini Metro is strategy on a miniature scale. You have to create a city-wide transport system, ensuring that all citizens can get around with ease and there’s no congestion. It’s a lot more challenging than it looks.

Get it on the eShop.

Mushroom Wars 2

Mushroom Wars 2 is a cutesy strategy game that will appeal to a younger audience too. There are over 100 campaign missions to beat, each of which involves sending enormous hordes of warriors against your opposition on small-scale maps.

Get it on the eShop.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden is a strategic adventure game that challenges you to explore a post-apocalyptic world and participate in turn-based battles. If you like post-apocalyptic wastelands, this is the one for you.

Northgard

Northgard is one of the finest strategy games on console, which is typically a difficult feat to pull off. You’ll help a bunch of Vikings explore an untouched northland full of riches and dangers.

Overland

Overland is a post apocalyptic survival strategy game that challenges you to avoid aliens that are destroying earth, loot vital survival resources, and band together with a team of fellow survivors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvAzyeKrA0u0026t=6s

Get it on the eShop.

Prison Architect

Prison Architect does what it says on the tin, providing you with a fun strategy game about designing the perfect prison. The idea of a perfect prison is entirely on you. Do you rule it with an iron fist? Or do you create a peaceful utopia?

Get it on the eShop.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is the ultimate strategy game going at the moment. It lets you build up any civilization from the ground up, literally from the Bronze Age up to the modern age of science.

Slay the Spire

Slay the Spire is an incredibly addictive roguelike card battler that challenges you to build a deck of cards each time you play from cards that you collect on your adventure.

SteamWorld Heist

SteamWorld Heist is a turn-based strategy game with gorgeous 2D visuals that challenges you to participate in tactical shootouts with robots. You can pull off crazy bullet moves that make The Matrix look boring.

The Banner Saga

The Banner Saga is a dark strategy series that challenges you to survive a harsh and rugged land where it feels like everyone is out to get you. With Fire Emblem-style combat and gorgeous visuals, it’s well worth checking out for fans of strategy.

The Escapists 2

While Prison Architect has you building a maximum security prison, The Escapists 2 is all about escaping one. It’s a sandbox strategy experience in which there are numerous different ways to escape, which leads to near endless replayability.

This is the Police

This is the Police challenges you to run your own police station as soon-to-be retiree Police Chief Jack Boyd. You’ll have to manage your police station effectively while trying to create a nice retirement package for yourself.

Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble

Tiny Metal: Full Metal Rumble is a turn-based strategy game that challenges you to take on the role of Commander Wolfram, leader of the White Fangs. You’ll search for her brother in a variety of Advance Wars-like turn-based strategy missions.

Get it on the eShop.

Two Point Hospital

Remember Theme Hospital? Two Point Hospital is a spiritual successor. You’ll build your own hospital that can treat some very zany illnesses, ensuring it runs smoothly with a profit.

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the latest entry in the long-running strategy JRPG franchise. It draws influence from World War 2 and takes place during the same time-frame as the first game in the series, just with a different squad.

Wargroove

It’s a wonder Nintendo doesn’t just create a new entry in the Advance Wars franchise, given the enormous demand for the myriad entries by indie developers. Wargroove is one of the latest, and possibly the best, on Switch.

Head of Editorial
Glen has over a decade's worth of experience in gaming journalism, writing for Pocket Gamer, Pocket Tactics, Nintendo Life, and Gfinity. When he's not badgering everyone about the dangers of passive text, you can probably find him playing Wild Rift.