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Best Turn-Based Play Games

Some games are played without being able to stop. The action continues with or without you. Turn-Based games wait for your next action before the proceed. This not only slows things down and reduces pressure, but also opens the possibility for more strategy and decision based play.

Although most sites will consider Turn-Based a genre. We include it in the collection of Styles of Play as it's one way that people can play games (rather than a play mechanic that we identify in each of our Genres.

Turn-Based play styles are often combined with specific genres. Turn-Based Strategy games are a classic combination where you control units and resources in a turn-taking challenge like Chess.

List Details

Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Dexterity, Fighting, Narrative, Physically Active, Platform, Point-and-Click, Push-Your-Luck, Puzzle, Race, Rhythm, Role-Play, Roll-And-Write, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Era: 1935 - 2024
Total Games: 393
Total Likes: 2,440

Rainbow Billy

Release Date: 05/10/2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan is a role-play adventure where you save the world from colourless darkness. Unusually, battles are won through listening and conversation rather than traditional attacks. It combines the excitement and strategy...

Pokémon

PEGI 7 Video Game Age Rating for Pokmon in UK and Europe

Pokémon (Series)

Release Date: 27/02/1996, updated in 2019

Out Now: 3DS and 2DS, DS, GBA, Game Boy and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Pokémon Sword and Shield are role-playing games where you explore a fictional world and collect different creatures called Pokémon. You progress through the game by exploring the world, talking to characters and winning turn-based battles with the...

Bury Me My Love

Release Date: 26/10/2017, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Text

Bury Me My Love is a narrative adventure game where you play the husband of a Syrian woman, Nour, travelling to Europe. Play involves receiving and sending simple messages where Nout tells you how she is getting on and you influence her choices. It...

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Release Date: 17/11/2011, updated in 2022

Out Now: DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a role-play game and an expanded version of the DS game Ni no Kuni: Dominion of the Dark Djinn. In it, you play a young boy who travels between worlds and battles enemies in an attempt to save his mother. It...

80 Days

Release Date: 31/07/2014, updated in 2019

Out Now: Amazon Fire, Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Day and Night

80 Days is a travel and culture discovery game set in 1872, where decisions about your journey around the world impact the course of the story and characters. You play be deciding where to go next and talking to the people you meet to find the right...

Carcassonne

Release Date: 27/06/2007

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: Bag, Figures, Placeables and Tokens

Carcassonne is a strategy game where you lay tiles to create a medieval landscape of farms, rivers and cities. Each new tile must match the roads, rivers, farms and cities of those around it. As you place it you can claim one of these elements that...

Wildermyth

Release Date: 15/06/2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Grid and Hand-Made

Wildermyth is a medieval role-playing game about diverse heroes and themes. You take on evil in a number of stories, each with different heroes and settings. The focus is on the characters as much as their adventures, who are believable, diverse and...

Baba is You

Release Date: 13/03/2019

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Baba is You requires some lateral thinking. Each level is controlled by rules written on the screen, such as ‘Lava is Hot’, ‘Wall is Stop’ and ‘Flag is Move’. By moving the words around with your pixelated character, you subvert the...

Ancestree

Release Date: 01/01/2017

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: Placeables, Score Board and Tokens

Ancestree is a collecting and sequencing game where you compete to build the strongest family tree. You select and link tiles, building your family person by person, scoring points for marriages, wealth and continuous generations. It is a strategic game...

Deep Sea Adventure

Release Date: 01/01/2014

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Dice and Placeables

Deep Sea Adventure is a pocket-sized strategy game where you dive into the sea to bring back treasure. It’s unusual because although you compete with other players for treasure you share the same limited air supply.

Sea of Stars

Release Date: 29/08/2023

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Open World and Pixels

Sea of Stars is an adventure role-play game about two children of the solstice. It combines turn-based combat, storytelling, exploration and interactions with the environment all in a pixel art style. Unusually for a role-play game, Sea of Stars also...

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Release Date: 21/03/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: Android, PC, PS Vita, PS4, PSP, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D First-Person, 3D Third-Person, Grid, Hand-Made and Weather

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a turn-based strategy game where you take command of a squad of soldiers and use your wits and tactics to plan and lead them to battle. You play as Commander Claude Wallace and the soldiers of Squad E and experience a gripping...

Ice Cool

Ice Cool (Series)

Release Date: 30/05/2016

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: Board, Cards and Figures

Ice Cool, and the follow-up Ice Cool 2, is an action game where you flick plastic Penguins around cardboard school rooms to collect points and avoid the Catcher. Like a cross between Subbuteo and Cluedo, you slide, jump and barrel your penguin through...

Santorini

Release Date: 01/01/2003, updated in 2020

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Board, Cards and Placeables

Santorini is a strategy game where you place buildings on a Greek island in an effort to get your character to the top. This creates a chess-like three-dimensional competitive puzzle that changes as each player adds pieces to the village. It's unusual...

Splendor

Release Date: 01/01/2014

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Cards and Tokens

Splendor is a trading-up strategy game where you play a global trader during the European Renaissance. Nobles once content with large castles and fur robes, now seek dark sapphires and glittering diamonds. You must balance accruing currency or investing...

Iris and the Giant

Release Date: 27/02/2020, updated in 2023

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cards and Cartoon

Iris and the Giant is a narrative strategy card game about a young girl named Iris who braves an imaginary world to tackle her inner demons and face her fears. It's a game about depression and anxiety where Iris uses escapism to cope with her life. More...

Steamworld Heist

Release Date: 16/11/2015, updated in 2016

Out Now: 3DS and 2DS, PS Vita, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Hand-Made and Pixels

Steamworld Heist is a platform shooting game where steam-powered robots fight for space supremacy. It sounds like the script for a 1950s B-movie but as in those matinee hits, the point here isn’t realism but interesting characters. Like the related...

Sushi Go!

Release Date: 01/09/2014

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: Cards

Sushi Go! is a sushi-themed card game where you collect combinations of cards to complete sushi dishes and score points. The different dishes require a varying number of cards and related scores based on the complexity of the recipe. But there's a...

Ticket To Ride

Ticket To Ride (Series)

Release Date: 01/01/2004, updated in 2020

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Board, Cards and Figures

Ticket to Ride is a railway-themed strategy board game where players compete to earn the most points by collecting cards, placing trains and completing journeys. It is an easy-to-learn game that can be gently competitive and has become a popular classic.

Colt Express

Release Date: 01/01/2014, updated in 2019

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Cards, Figures and Tokens

Colt Express is a traversal game where you move a bandit along an express train in the Old West to collect the most loot. Each player pre-selects moves, attacks and pick-ups that then play out together. Unusually, play becomes about planning, predicting...

Bang!

Release Date: 01/01/2002, updated in 2017

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cards and Tokens

Bang! is a card game set in the wild west where you take on different missions with a range of characters. You try and keep your target secret while building your weapon and defence cards. It's a game of bluffing where it's easier to shoot your...

Advance Wars

Advance Wars (Series)

Release Date: 10/09/2001, updated in 2023

Out Now: 3DS and 2DS, DS, GBA, Switch, Wii and Wii U

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Grid

Advance Wars is a classic turn-based strategy game re-released as Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp on Nintendo Switch. You take charge of an army in strategic, turn-based combat. With land, air, and naval units across the battlefield, you work to take...

Citizen Sleeper

Release Date: 05/05/2022

Out Now: PC, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox X|S

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon, Dice, Grid and Text

Citizen Sleeper is a role-play game set in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism. You are an escaped worker exploring a lawless space station, making friends, and (ultimately) trying to escape your past. Each cycle you roll dice and decide how to spend...

Saboteur

Release Date: 01/01/2004

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Cards

Saboteur is a path-laying strategy game where the cards are your resource in a team effort to get the dwarves to their gold. However, one player is a secret traitor who must try and foil the dwarves without them realising it. It is a game about working...

Codenames

Release Date: 01/01/2015

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cards

Codenames is a team communication game where you play two competing spy networks. One player in each team gives clues to help them find the cards that are their agents without hitting the assassin. It's a novel combination of push-your-luck, clue-giving...

Perudo

Release Date: 01/01/1989, updated in 1992

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Dice

Perudo (Liars Dice) is a dice game of pushing your luck and communication. Each player rolls five dice under a cup but can only see their own before making a bid on how many dice of a certain number there are in total. It's clever because you can't...

The Mind

Release Date: 01/01/2018

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cards

The Mind is a cooperative sequence card game with a telepathic twist. Each card has a single number on it. Your task is to play them in order, the lowest first. However, you are not allowed to communicate physically or verbally to coordinate who plays...

Baldur's Gate 3

Release Date: 21/12/1998, updated in 2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and PS5

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Dice and Open World

Baldur's Gate 3 is a role-playing game that recreates the Dungeons & Dragons experience in a digital world. You explore the world and fight enemies by rolling dice and weighing up your stats to see what happens. But...

Blokus

Release Date: 01/01/2000

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: Placeables

Blokus is a strategy game where you compete to have the fewest unplayed tiles. You add Tetris-shaped tiles to a shared board that is split into 400 small squares. It is a game about choosing to play the right tile at the right moment, be too slow to get...

Cockroach Poker Royal

Release Date: 01/01/2012

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: Cards

Cockroach Poker Royal is a bluffing, push-your-luck card game where you try and avoid ending up with a set of four matching animal cards. You pass cards to other players and tell them what it is, they guess if you are telling the truth and have to keep...

Coup

Release Date: 01/01/2012

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cards and Tokens

Coup is a communication game where you fight to become the only player left with political influence. You play by taking on the roles of five different powerful (uniquely skilled) government officials to become the last politician standing. It is a game...

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

Release Date: 01/12/2009, updated in 2011

Out Now: DS, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Grid and Pixels

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a strategic battle puzzle where you position units to form patterns that determine how they behave. The play combines the simple matching of Candy Crush with the complex strategy of Advance Wars or Fire Emblem. It...

Rhino Hero

Release Date: 01/01/2012, updated in 2018

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

Components: Cards, Figures, Placeables and Tokens

Rhino Hero is an action game where players use cards to build a vertical tower. The aim is to place all your cards without knocking the tower down. What starts as a fun and tactile challenge quickly turns into a battle of nerves, as you place cards that...

The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine

Release Date: 13/03/2020

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: Cards, Score Board and Tokens

The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine is a cooperative trick-making card game. You play as a set of astronauts completing missions in a space adventure. Unlike competitive trick-making games like Bridge, Euchre or Hearts, here you work together to ensure...

Azul

Release Date: 01/01/2017

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Azul is a tile-laying collection and sequencing game where you help the king decorate their palace with Portuguese tiles. You aim to gain tiles on your game card that form patterns to score the most points. What makes it unique is its balance between...

Dig Dig Boom

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Dig Dig Boom is a puzzle game about traversing a mine with explosives to recover buried treasure. The turn-based play means you can take your time with each move, placement of dynamite and gem collecting. It stands out for the kinetic strategy where...

Hey, That's My Fish!

Release Date: 01/01/2003

Skill Rating: 4+ year-olds

Components: Figures and Tokens

Hey, That's My Fish! is a traversal game where you are penguins racing to catch the most fish. You move around the board of hexagons in straight lines, but as you pick up your fish you also destroy the ice. As the board deteriorates you fight to get the...

Qwirkle

Release Date: 01/01/2006

Skill Rating: 5+ year-olds

Components: Placeables

Qwirkle is an abstract sequencing puzzle game where you compete to create rows of matching (or series of) colours and shapes. You score more points by matching multiple directions but need to be careful not to leave points for other players to...

Tsuro

Release Date: 01/01/2005

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: Board, Figures and Placeables

Tsuro is a strategic tile-laying traversal game where the goal is to keep your piece on the board longer than anyone else. You play by adding intricate winding Path tiles to a board to move pieces along the path that you create. It is a game of cat and...

Dixit

Release Date: 01/01/2008

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: Board, Cards, Figures and Tokens

Dixit is a communication game where you guess which Picture cards are related to someone's clue. Each round you each pick a card to match the Storyteller player's clue and then try and guess which one was the Storyteller's. It's clever because of the...

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Accessibility features:	Yes

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User-generated content:	No

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
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	Motion Sickness Friendly
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Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
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Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

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Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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Best Turn-Based Play Games

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