Strategy games

Everything on this shelf is turn-based or close to it. You are given time to think, and a loss is usually traceable to one specific decision rather than a slow hand.

Solitaire accounts for a good part of it. FreeCell shows every card from the start, so a lost deal is genuinely your fault; Spider Solitaire hides more and scales from one suit to four. Traditional board games sit alongside, including Backgammon Duel and English Checkers.

The other strand is defence. Ultimate Tower Defense and Monkey Bubble Defense put the thinking into the build order — what you place before a wave arrives, and what you sell once it turns out wrong.

Our own Link Lab is filed here too, on the grounds that grouping tiles correctly is mostly about what you decline to commit to.