Subset Games created two amazing games: FTL & Into The Breach
I'm not sure if this counts as a "patient gamer" because I played them to death years ago...but I've been playing both again recently and they're just perfect little games with a ton of replayability. They're not retro (FTL 2012, ITB 2018) but they're old enough to regularly go on sale which is great!
Highly recommended if you like roguelite strategy games.
If you have any similar games to suggest, please leave a comment. I'm sure there's tons of great strategy games I've missed over the years
It definitely is, but yeah you'll die a lot at first. Once you know your squad's (and the enemies') abilities it becomes like chess, where you spend a lot of time thinking about the consequences of a single move.