Critical Moves - Strategy Gaming

Does balance kill fun in strategy games? Al, Drexy and new co-host Rob, the former founder of eXplorminate, try to settle it. It starts with William Harms, who wrote the story for Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance, explaining why the factions’ lore differences never made it into the gameplay. From there the conversation takes in single player versus multiplayer, patch culture, comeback mechani...

For our two year anniversary and 104th episode, Nuno, Adam, Drexy and Al look at Steam NextFest and ask whether it has become Steam SlopFest. With over seven thousand demos, unreliable tags and a lot of obviously AI generated filler, we ask whether last week’s democratisation verdict still holds. We talk about Greenlight, entry fees, verification and Valve’s AI disclosure rules, and why they are s...

Anyone can now build and release a strategy game, but is that good for the genre? Al is joined by Jack, Adam and Drexy to debate whether free engines, asset packs and crowdfunding are producing the next Manor Lords or just a flood of forgettable releases. Along the way they ask what “indie” actually means, why Civ clones keep flopping while a ten person studio can thrive on a million sales, how pu...

Drexy is joined by Dastactic to talk to Elliot Gibbs of Code Force, the designer and programmer of Distant Worlds. They cover how the series began as a side project, the thinking behind its detailed resource and logistics simulation, and the rocky launch and long road of Distant Worlds 2. The conversation then turns to the Shadows Rising expansion, including shadow ports, Lone Pirate play, cockpit...

Al and Drexy talk to Dan, solo developer of Imperium, a spiritual successor to the 1995 cult classic Ascendancy. They cover the game's modular ship design, hybrid real-time/turn-based combat, 21 alien species, a rebuilt diplomacy system, and an honest look at how AI tools made a six-and-a-half-month solo passion project possible. More from Critical Moves Podcast: Web: https://criticalmovespodcast....

Critical Moves hits episode 100. To mark the milestone, Al is joined by regular co-hosts Drexy and Jack for a big debate on generative AI in game development, plus a special guest: Ben, known to many as Battlemode. The panel gets into whether AI is good or bad for the games industry, why developers at GDC are growing more worried about it every year, whether players actually notice or care if a ga...

Jack hosts this week with Drexy and Joe as they run through a stack of strategy adjacent announcements from Gamescom and BlizzCon. Topics include Lego Skylines, Paradox's new post apocalyptic title Afterworld, the surprise reveal of Humankind 2 and its civilization switching mechanic compared to Civilization VII's recent anniversary update, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Tactics (aka SixCom), Ubisoft's...

Alejandro Nunez is building The Last General entirely alone: a massive scale RTS where you command thousands of troops with high level strategic orders, then jump into any tank, plane or drone in first or third person whenever you want. We sat down with him to talk about the game's rapid rise to 158,000 wishlists, the FPV and kamikaze drones inspired by the war in Ukraine, why early access has sli...

RTS isn't the genre it once was. Al is joined by Jack and Nuno to work through why real-time strategy fell off the map - the shift from PC to console, the rise of FPS, mobile and MOBAs, and the loss of Westwood and Blizzard's hold on the genre - and whether the games on the horizon can bring it back. Along the way: the multiplayer-versus-single-player question, why so many well-funded RTS projects...

New face on the pod. Drexy joins us for the first proper sit-down — where he came from, how he got into strategy games, and why he reckons 4X is quietly dying on its feet. We get into what actually makes a 4X a 4X, whether genre-blending is the only way forward, Civ 7's troubles, the rise of the solo dev, AI in game development, and the mechanics the genre keeps getting wrong. Drexy's been playing...

Jack and Adam dig into how strategy games model their economies — from Victoria 3's fully simulated supply and demand to Stellaris treating resources as a means to an end. Along the way they cover limited versus unlimited resources, why money can feel like a cheap way out of a tight spot, the wildly different scales games use for wealth, and whether they'd rather play scarce or swimming in surplus...

Al is joined by Adam and Jack to work out how to build a strategy library on a budget, or for nothing at all. This one came straight from the Critical Moves Discord: community member Cooper asked us to revisit the cheaper alternatives after Episode 89, so here it is. We get into price tracking with GG.deals and whether the cheap key sites can be trusted, the best free games led by Beyond All Reaso...

Jack, Adam and Nuno get into strategy simulations and war games: what separates a war game from an RTS or a turn-based strategy title, why so many people love the idea of them but bounce off the reality, and how to find a stepping stone over the barrier to entry. They work through Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Combat Mission, Men of War and Call to Arms, the abstraction problem, and whether Stella...

Tim and Adam step away from the screen this week to talk about strategy on the tabletop. It turns out board gaming and strategy gaming sit right next to each other, and the two get into what the medium does better than a PC ever could. They make the case for Eclipse: Second Dawn as the finest strategy board game ever made, argue over whether Twilight Imperium is worth an eight hour commitment, and...

Jack and Drexy are joined by nine2 and FoneE from Enhearten Media, the team behind Sanctuary: Shattered Sun, on the day their Kickstarter and free demo finally go live. This is a proper deep dive: five years of development, the technical architecture that took most of that time to get right, and the three hero features that make this RTS stand out, a Dyson sphere battlefield you can physically sha...

Marking episode 90 with the only decade fitting for the number, Al is joined by Joe, Adam and Drexy to work through the strategy games of the 1990s and the genres they created. The conversation covers Sierra's city builders including Caesar 3 and Pharaoh, the birth of the RTS through Dune 2 and the Westwood versus Blizzard debate, the rise and eventual oversaturation of Command and Conquer clones,...

Al, Drexy, and Joe tackle a question hitting every strategy gamer's wallet: is modern gaming too expensive? From the RAM price surge and the Steam Machine's launch price to Civ 7's $70 tag and Football Manager delisting its own back catalogue, the panel breaks down where the real cost pressure is coming from, and argues the case for mods, indie studios, and simply not buying on day one. Topics cov...

Drexy hosts this week, joined by Adam and an early-rising Joe (5am and counting). The trio raid each other's Steam libraries for a "Pile of Shame" challenge, picking games none of them have played and forcing each other to give them a proper go (2-5 hours minimum) before reporting back. Adam gets handed Warhammer 40K: Gladius – Relics of War by Drexy and Terra Invicta by Joe, complete with a rundo...

It's Steam Summer Sale time, and the Critical Moves crew has recommendations. Al, Jack, and Drexy each bring one game they'd recommend to listeners and one they're taking the plunge on themselves this sale. From alien plant invasions to pirate city building, classic RTS nostalgia to gridless town builders, there's something here for every corner of the strategy gaming world. Also: a quick word on...

Adam, Jack, and Drexy run through the strategy and tactics releases worth watching in 2026 — from Star Wars Zero Company to Stronghold 4, a pirate city builder from the Tropico team, two suspiciously similar space 4X games, and a medieval combat game that might finally give Mount & Blade some competition. Games covered: Stronghold 4, Star Wars Zero Company, Corsair Cove, Company of Heroes Anni...

This week on the Critical Moves Podcast, Al, Joe, Nuno, and Drexy dig into everything revealed so far about Total War: Warhammer 40,000. Fresh from the PC Gaming Show 2026 gameplay reveal, the team covers the new Warcore engine, the solar system campaign map, faction design, the glaring absence of ship combat, and whether Creative Assembly can pull off something truly worthy of the 40k universe. C...

This week on Critical Moves, we welcome back co-founder Nuno — and introduce brand new host Drexy — for a deep dive into one of strategy gaming's biggest stories: Civilization 7 and the state of Firaxis. Jack defends the game he genuinely loves, the rest of us are less convinced, and we dig into what the numbers actually say about Civ 7's launch, the Test of Time update, Take-Two's financial crisi...

This week Jack and Al sit down with Matt, Creative Director at Saigon Dragon Studios, to talk about Space Tales — an early access RTS inspired by StarCraft, built by a Vietnamese studio with 11 years of outsourcing experience and a whole lot of passion for the genre. They get into the game's retro-cartoonish art style versus its surprisingly dark Lovecraftian themes, the failed Kickstarter that be...

Jack and Adam dive into Crusader Kings 3 — where it stands six years after release, what the DLCs have added, and whether it's worth picking up if you've never played a Paradox game before. Adam comes in as a CK2 veteran with zero CK3 experience, which makes for a genuinely useful breakdown of what's changed, what's new, and what's coming. They cover the adventurer mode, the stress and traits syst...

Al, Jack, and Joe dig into the Stellaris Season 10 announcement: the Nomads expansion arriving 15 June, the Willpower ethics rework coming Q4, four new scenario packs introducing standalone game modes, and a rebrand of ascension perks to ambitions. They also weigh in on the Beyond All Reason commercialisation controversy, what it means for a game built by volunteers over two decades, and why the b...