5 Strategy Games That Are Still the Toughest You Can Play Today

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Many strategy games are demanding, pushing players to carefully plan and execute actions. The toughest ones challenge not just quick thinking, but also stamina over extended gameplay. These unforgiving games often remove helpful features and severely punish errors, creating lasting repercussions for mistakes.

As a strategy game fan, it’s tough to talk about how hard a game really is. Sometimes a brutal boss fight feels as draining as a super long, intense match of something like Starcraft. When I think about challenging strategy games for this list, I’m focusing on the ones that really push you – games that don’t hold your hand, or have unique rules that make things way harder than usual. I’m talking about stuff like losing key characters for good, having super limited ways to win, or just generally making it tough to plan ahead. It’s that extra layer of difficulty that sets them apart from other strategy games.

5. XCOM: Enemy Within

The original XCOM is a brilliant strategy game known for its challenging gameplay that can even intimidate seasoned players. Features like permanent character death and unpredictable random events, combined with time pressure, create a demanding experience that can quickly feel overwhelming. The Enemy Within expansion takes these already difficult elements and ramps them up even further, adding new layers of challenge for players.

This expansion features significantly tougher enemies with smarter AI, completely changing how you usually play XCOM. It’s much more difficult, demanding that you master new strategies and adapt quickly. Upgrading your soldiers with cybernetics becomes essential, pushing you to develop and invest in individual units to make them stronger. This makes losing a soldier particularly painful, as it can easily ruin a campaign, even after many hours of progress.

4. They Are Billions

Many games attempt to depict the vastness of a zombie apocalypse, but They Are Billions uniquely captures the sheer terror of overwhelming numbers. Unlike typical turn-based strategy games, They Are Billions plays more like Balloon Tower Defense or Civilization, challenging you with relentless waves of enemies that require careful planning. While most games ease players in, this one throws you directly into a chaotic and intense situation from the start.

As a huge fan of They Are Billions, I can tell you it doesn’t really hold your hand. It gives you the basic setup, but figuring out how to survive the massive zombie waves is all up to you! You’re completely in charge of building up your base, deciding what technologies to research, and taking the risks needed to keep everyone alive. It’s a tough game to master, and it really keeps you on your toes because you can’t pause – it’s an ‘Ironman’ style, meaning one mistake could be your last!

If you’re not ready for a zombie attack, you could lose hours of work. The game requires you to manage resources, build a base, and defend against waves of zombies all at once. A single mistake or relying too much on luck can be devastating, and the game strongly penalizes players who struggle with its challenging content.

3. Mordheim: City of the Damned

Mordheim: City of the Damned is a strategy game where characters can permanently die, making you truly care about your team and feel the impact of losses. What sets it apart is how brutal and unpredictable this permadeath is – there aren’t many safety nets. Anyone, even your main leader who drives the story forward, can fall in battle. Like the dice rolls in Baldur’s Gate 3, luck isn’t on your side, meaning a single strong enemy can quickly bring a promising storyline to an abrupt end.

Even if your characters make it through a fight, Mordheim: City of the Damned really challenges you with its injury system. When characters get hurt, they can suffer lasting penalties and become weaker, forcing you to adapt your plans. Healing them is difficult because resources are limited, so you’ll need to carefully manage your warband’s strength as your strategic options become more limited with each mission.

2. Europa Universalis 4

With frequent downloadable content and expansions, Europa Universalis 4 can be really difficult for new players to pick up. The game is known for being complex, demanding that you manage things like warfare, trade, and your economy all at once over long gameplay sessions. While Civilization eases players in with helpful guidance, Europa Universalis 4 encourages you to discover effective strategies through experimentation and learning on your own.

In Europa Universalis 4, failure is part of the learning process, especially since the game doesn’t offer much in-game guidance. To truly understand how the game works – and it’s become quite complex with all the updates over the years – you’ll likely need to consult guides online. While this makes the game initially challenging, overcoming those hurdles and figuring things out is incredibly rewarding.

1. Darkest Dungeon 2

Darkest Dungeon 2 is a challenging deck-building roguelike that requires complete focus. Losing hours of progress because of a single mistake is incredibly frustrating, making every decision crucial. The game’s intense strategic depth comes from its detailed characters and mechanics. While luck plays a significant role, unexpected events can quickly derail your plans, forcing you to adapt and improvise.

In this game, how well your characters get along matters a lot. Strong relationships make your team more powerful, while bad ones can hold them back. You’ll need to manage your team’s emotions alongside their usual stats, because their stress levels are just as crucial as understanding what enemies you’ll face. Every playthrough is different, so staying alive is more important than sticking to a perfect strategy. Be prepared to make difficult decisions and accept that sacrifices will be necessary.

The choices you make determine your group’s journey, adding a unique strategic element that most similar games don’t have. This freedom makes Darkest Dungeon 2 a particularly challenging strategy game, much like the toughest games that constantly surprise you with new ways to test your skills.

What strategy games do you find the most challenging? Share your thoughts in the comments or discuss them on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-02-06 00:42