These stages can tip the battle in the player's favor. What usually follows is the action phase, which asks the player to defeat as many opponents possible within 60 seconds.

Terrain affects how the player can act during this stage. During the first stage, the map is separated into colored squares and the player is asked to move their character in a turn-based fashion. The gameflow is mainly separated into two stages: the Strategy phase and the Action phase. Samurai Warriors: State of War is a portable version of Samurai Warriors, however, it is not a straight conversion and is made to more resemble Dynasty Warriors, giving it an 'Samurai Warriors Empires' style of playing.