Board 8 > another recommend bolo games based on very vague ideas topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

I am having trouble describing the itch I'm having, but it's like, making the best of the options you have whether or not you have the options you want. Like halfway between puzzle and strategy. I suspect the answer is going to be a mobile or cheap indy game, as all the examples I can think of are parts of a bigger whole.

Examples:
-What I REALLY want to play (but not for AAA prices at the level it's been fleshed out) is WWE 2k22's GM mode, where optimizing your turn wouldn't be hard by itself, but there are always different challenges and objectives complicating things (HHH wants you to do something for a bonus, you promised one guy a title shot, the other brand attacked you, gotta time your rivalries just right, you have a neat powerup you could try to minmax, etc)

-Roguelike/lite upgrade systems (in the "choose from three random things" style). Like, just the upgrade part, give me autobattle in Hades and I'd probably be set. Roguelite deckbuilders are probably the best answer but I have played 23904830 of them and would like to mix it up a bit.

-Dynasty Warriors Empires (5 I think?) but just the turn-based part. IIRC you got like three actions a turn. You could be safe and do something basic, or you could have a meeting, and if you had a meeting, you'd do TWO things with your action, but you'd have to give up some control over what two things those were. Lead to a lot of situations where you'd have to pick between "Decent and Decent" and "Great and Bad," and where you'd already had to give up on "Good and Nothing" to get there.

-A lotta board games

-PowerPro Baseball had a VN kinda mode where you had a hand of cards that was your possible responses to questions. "Yes" was usually the right answer, meaning you needed to find the least bad times to get rid of your "No" cards. There were weirder cards in there too.

Into the Breach?

That's the one where nothing's random right? I think I want rng but I'll give it another look

I was thinking itb too.

Itb has tons of rng, but it's like slay the spire in that it just tells you what the enemies are going to do for their next turn.

Yeah, most of that post is describing Into the Breach.

It seems I had the wrong idea about it so thanks!

I don't know why Chroma Squad was the first game that came to mind. I don't think it checks off many boxes, but check it out anyway to see if it is something that you are interested in.

Chroma Squad is great!

Have you played Darkest Dungeon?

A bit! I kinda sucked at it but that's a good thing to remind me of thanks