Yes, read the manual first. In fact reading the manual is what got me interested in playing KoDP. It was quite low on my backlog before that.

I'll be pedantic and say that the Advanced War games are more about tactics than strategies. I love both but I am a way better tactician than a strategist which is why I suck at Chess. AW is why I bought my first hand held console.

Another vote for Battle Isles, the interface of the first one is horrible but the game is worth playing anyway. Incubation included witch it is fantastic, I played it way back then but the physical stores here never sold the expansion which is one of the reason why I bought the game here. You might want to skip on Battle Isle 2 as there is a bug that make going to the next mission impossible or very hard (I think you have to not capture any enemy base if I remember correctly).

Master of Orion 2 is a Strategy game but there are tactical choices to be made in the design of ships and in combat in it, I never played the first one so I cannot comment on it. MOO2 has been installed of every computer I've owned since I bought it in a package deal (with all the original XCOMs and Master of Magic) in or before 1995.

Turn based strategy is well represented here 8).

I suggest reading through TotalBiscuit's strategy games GOGmix, but be aware that it also includes RTS games. I find myself agreeing with Gede's recommendations, although I would probably add Alpha Centauri to the list.

i gotta recommend one of my all time favorites, Sid Meier's Colonization .... its more than just turn based strategy combat, but a great game, check it out