Critical Moves - Strategy Gaming

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. Games discussed include Victoria 3, Stellaris, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron 4, Anno, Tropico, Civ 6 and 7, Offworld Trading Company, City Skylines and more.

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 Reason, free-to-play routes into Crusader Kings and the wider Paradox catalogue, and whether Xbox Game Pass and Prime Gaming earn their keep. From there it is the case for playing older titles, GOG and its preservation work, the games that never seem to leave the sale page, and the modding scenes that turn a cheap base game into hundreds of hours. Got an episode idea? Come and suggest one in the Discord.
Beyond All Reason — https://www.beyondallreason.info/
0 A.D. — https://play0ad.com/
OpenTTD — https://www.openttd.org/
OpenRCT2 — https://openrct2.io/
Unciv — https://yairm210.github.io/Unciv/
FreeCiv — https://www.freeciv.org/
OpenRA — https://www.openra.net/
OpenXCOM — https://openxcom.org/
Mindustry — https://mindustrygame.github.io/

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 Stellaris even counts as a simulation. It winds up in X4, War Thunder and mil sims like Squad, Hell Let Loose and Arma, and whether those belong under the war gaming umbrella at all.

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 marvel at the Europa Universalis board game that ate a whole weekend and still only reached the halfway point. Along the way they dig into the real divide in board gaming, victory point optimisation versus everything else, and why direct conflict at the table can end friendships in a way a stranger on the internet never could.
There's plenty on the crossover too: how deck builders like Dune: Imperium shaped Hearthstone and Balatro, why Tabletop Simulator captures the social side more than the play, and where the Civilization adaptations get it right and where they fall flat. The 1979 Dune gets its due as a masterclass in asymmetry, and the episode closes with first game recommendations and a handful of honourable mentions.

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 shatter, a freeze mechanic that turns oceans to ice, and the colossal T5 titan units built to end stalemated games outright.
The conversation covers the studio's Patreon-to-Kickstarter transition, why they chose to launch with a working demo rather than a wish and a trailer, how the stretch goals are structured from finishing land combat through to air units, campaign missions and beyond, and the team's philosophy on balance, community modding and keeping a game alive for decades without relying on live servers. There is also a candid section on why communication has been patchy for years, and what changes now that the big Kickstarter reveal is behind them.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1699050/Sanctuary_Shattered_Sun/ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enhearten-media/sanctuary-shattered-sun
If you back one strategy Kickstarter this year, this episode makes the case for why it should be this one.