Dark Fantasy Strategy Games, from Mercenary Camps to Hell
The short answer
The best dark fantasy strategy game if you want strategy first is Battle Brothers, because it has the most layers: a world map, contracts, hiring and pay, then turn-based battles against undead and Greenskin raids. It holds 88.0% positive across 28,941 Steam reviews (as of October 2026). If you want the darkest setting, play Solium Infernum, which is set in Hell. On a Mac, play Darkest Dungeon II or Iratus: Lord of the Dead.
I kept this list to fantasy games that fight in turns, and I ordered the nine below by where the darkness comes from, from the mud and coin of a mercenary camp to the throne of Hell.
Updated October 2026.
What counts as a dark fantasy strategy game?
A dark fantasy strategy game is a strategy or tactics game set in a fantasy world gone wrong through war, undead or Hell, where the units you lead can be wounded, broken or lost.
That definition leaves out two things most “dark fantasy” lists drift into. Action RPGs and soulslikes have the setting, but you play them with your reflexes. Sci-fi grimdark such as Warhammer 40,000 has the mood, but it is science fiction. Eight of the nine have you command a party, a company, an army or a legion (Stoneshard gives you a single mercenary), and every one fights in turns.
Eight of the nine have Dark Fantasy among the top 20 tags on their Steam store pages (as of October 2026). Battle Brothers is the exception. It is here anyway because its store page sets it in a world where “the dead rise from their crypts”, and a bad contract can cost you the men you started with.
Which dark fantasy strategy games are on Steam?
The “Where the dark comes from” column is my reading of each store page, and the order runs from human-sized cruelty to the supernatural. It is not a measured scale, and within a group the order is not a ranking.
| Game | Where the dark comes from | How it plays | Mac | Regular price (as of October 2026) | Steam reviews, % positive (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battle Brothers | Mercenary war: nobles, bandits, undead | Turn-based battles, real-time world map | No | $29.99 | 28,941 (88.0%) |
| Stoneshard | A war-torn kingdom, wounds and sanity | Turn-based, one character | No | $24.99 | 35,753 (74.7%) |
| Banners of Ruin | A blood feud between beastfolk houses | Turn-based card battles | No | $19.99 | 3,242 (78.8%) |
| King Arthur: Knight’s Tale | Arthurian myth turned nightmare | Turn-based tactics | No | $44.99 | 7,565 (83.6%) |
| Disciples: Liberation | A war-torn realm: zealots and an undead queen | Turn-based battles, open world, base building | No | $39.99 | 3,992 (72.6%) |
| The Last Spell | A magic apocalypse and nightly mutant hordes | Turn-based tactics and base defence | No | $24.99 | 13,767 (91.4%) |
| Darkest Dungeon II | Cosmic horror and stress | Turn-based party combat | Yes | $39.99 | 27,075 (74.6%) |
| Iratus: Lord of the Dead | You are the necromancer | Turn-based party combat | Yes | $29.99 | 8,274 (85.5%) |
| Solium Infernum | Hell, with the throne empty | Turn-based grand strategy | No | $39.99 | 1,728 (88.2%) |
| Hellmate (ours · unreleased) | Hell, one floor per deadly sin | Turn-based roguelike deckbuilder | Yes | Not set | None yet |
Prices are Steam’s regular prices in US dollars. Most of these were discounted on the day I checked, so the price you see may be lower.
Which ones keep the darkness human-sized?
Battle Brothers
Battle Brothers is the pick for anyone who wants strategy first and story second. You run a mercenary company in a procedurally generated world: you choose contracts, hire and equip men, travel the map in real time, then fight on terrain where height and obstacles matter. Crises reshape the campaign as it runs, from noble wars to undead risings and Greenskin invasions. The darkness is economic. Taking a hard contract early pays more, at “the risk of losing your starting sellswords”, in the developers’ words. I would send anyone who likes running a business under pressure here before anywhere else on the list.
Stoneshard
Stoneshard is the closest thing to a survival game here and the least like a strategy game, because you control one mercenary rather than an army. It is a turn-based RPG in a war-torn open world, where you cauterize bleeding wounds, treat pain with alcohol, and watch low sanity turn into panic attacks and paranoia. You can save only at certain spots, and an optional Ironman mode makes death final. It has the most reviews of the nine, 35,753 (as of October 2026), but it has been in Steam Early Access since February 2020 (as of October 2026), and its main story is still listed as a planned update. It runs on Windows and Linux, not Mac.
Banners of Ruin
Banners of Ruin is for players who want a deckbuilder with a dark war story. House Blackfoot has been dealt a blow by House Ender, and you fight through the city of Dawn’s Point with a party of up to six beastfolk, beavers, bears and wolves among them, each adding cards to one shared deck. Your party may fall, “but there will always be others to carry the torch”, and every run, won or lost, earns tokens that unlock new cards for the next one. It is the cheapest game on the list at a regular $19.99 (as of October 2026). If the card combat is the draw, our post on games like Monster Train has more roguelike deckbuilders.
Which ones turn myth and magic sour?
King Arthur: Knight’s Tale
Knight’s Tale is the gentlest way into this list, because it lets you choose how much you suffer. You play Mordred, brought back to kill an Arthur who has become an “undying mad king” in Avalon. Between turn-based missions you rebuild Camelot, treat injuries, curses and diseases, and manage knights who can leave and turn against you if their loyalty drops. It offers four difficulty modes, “from laid-back storytelling to the most grueling battles”, plus an optional Roguelite Mode with no reloads. It is also the most expensive pick at a regular $44.99 (as of October 2026).
Disciples: Liberation
If you typed this exact phrase into Steam, Disciples: Liberation is the game that answers to it: its store page calls it “a mature, dark fantasy strategy RPG with turn-based combat”. You travel Nevendaar, a war-torn realm where a human empire tinged by religious extremism and the undead forces of a mad queen are among the factions you can side with. You can recruit more than 50 units, build a base, and steer a single-player campaign of three acts toward one of five endings. It suits players who want their battles tied to choices, and it has the lowest share of positive reviews on the list, 72.6% across 3,992 reviews (as of October 2026).
The Last Spell
The Last Spell has the highest share of positive reviews on the list, 91.4% across 13,767 reviews (as of October 2026), and it suits players who like tower defence. Mages caused a Cataclysm, and you guard them while they cast the spell that will banish magic. By day you rebuild your Haven and place walls, traps and catapults. By night mutant hordes come at the walls and you fight them in turn-based tactics, where every Action Point counts. The developers say plainly that the game is meant to be hard and “you will fail… A lot”, with six levels of Apocalypse difficulty on top.
Which ones lean into horror?
Darkest Dungeon II
Play Darkest Dungeon II if what you want is dread more than conquest. Its store page calls it “a roguelike road trip of the damned”: four heroes and a stagecoach cross a decaying land toward the Mountain, and stress and bad relationships between heroes can end a run as surely as a monster can. Each expedition lasts from 30 minutes to several hours. Strategy players should look at its Kingdoms mode, a separate campaign where you defend a crumbling realm with a persistent roster of heroes; all three of its adventure modules are out. It runs on Windows and macOS.
Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Iratus is the pick for anyone who wants to play the villain. You are a necromancer freed after millennia in prison, building an army of zombies, banshees and skeletons from the body parts of the enemies you kill. There are 19 servant types, you can kill enemies by draining their sanity, and minions who die are gone for good and the game saves automatically. Of the two picks with a Mac build, it is the cheaper one at a regular $29.99 (as of October 2026), and it also runs on Linux.
Which dark fantasy strategy game is set in Hell?
Solium Infernum
Solium Infernum is the darkest setting on this list and the most political game in it. The Prince of Darkness has vanished, and you play one of eight Archfiends fighting for the empty throne: you command legions, cast rituals, and trade insults and demands on the floor of Hell’s parliament. It is a turn-based grand strategy game, a re-imagining of Vic Davis’s 2009 original, inspired by Milton’s Paradise Lost. It is built for two to six players, live or asynchronous, though you can play it alone. Its 1,728 reviews (as of October 2026) are the fewest here. For more games that build Hell out of the deadly sins, see our roundup of the seven deadly sins in video games.
Where our game fits
Our own game, Hellmate, is the last row of the table but not one of the picks. It is set in Hell like Solium Infernum, and Steam tags it Dark Fantasy, Turn-Based Strategy and Demons (as of October 2026). Where Solium Infernum is a war for one throne, Hellmate is a run with one deck: roguelike deckbuilding chess across the seven floors of Hell, where each floor belongs to a deadly sin and you summon pieces, cast spells and brand your army with sigils to bring down that sin’s king before your turns run out. It is unreleased, due on Steam on 19 January 2027 (as of October 2026), so there are no reviews to point at, but the Hellmate demo is playable now on Windows and macOS. The main Hellmate Steam page is where the full game will be.
If the chessboard part is what you want to understand first, our explainer on what a chess deckbuilder is covers it, and our list of roguelike demos on Steam has more runs you can try before buying.
Quick answers
Are there dark fantasy strategy games on Mac? Yes, two: Darkest Dungeon II and Iratus: Lord of the Dead both have macOS builds on Steam (as of October 2026). Linux players get Iratus and Stoneshard. For more run-based games that work on a Mac, see our list of roguelike games for Mac.
Is there a dark fantasy strategy game that is not too hard? Yes, King Arthur: Knight’s Tale. Its lowest difficulty is pitched at “laid-back storytelling”, and the no-reload Roguelite Mode is something you opt into. The Last Spell says it is meant to be hard, and Stoneshard says it will punish your mistakes.
Are any of these real-time strategy games? No. All nine resolve fights in turns. Battle Brothers comes closest, since you move your company across the world map in real time and only switch to turns when a battle starts. For turn-based tactics without the gloom, see games like Into the Breach.
Can you play Solium Infernum alone? Yes. Besides online games for two to six players, Steam lists eight single-player Chronicles, a Skirmish mode and a tutorial scenario called Revelations.
