Critical Moves - Strategy Gaming

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 keep failing, and the upcoming titles worth watching, from Total War: Warhammer 40,000 and Game of Thrones: War for Westeros to Dawn of War 4, Stronghold 4, Zero Space and a wave of indie and double-A releases.
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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 and thinking about strategy games for longer than he'd care to admit, and knows the genre inside out.

More from Critical Moves Podcast:
Web: https://criticalmovespodcast.com
Forum: https://criticalmovesforum.com
Newsletter: https://criticalmoves.beehiiv.com
Spotify: https://criticalmovespodcast.com/spotify
Apple: https://criticalmovespodcast.com/apple
Amazon: https://criticalmovespodcast.com/amazon
Discord: https://criticalmovespodcast.com/discord
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/criticalmovespodcast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CriticalMoves_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/criticalmovespodcast
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CriticalMoves
Critical Moves examines strategy games through weekly Friday episodes and Monday news updates. Six hosts across multiple continents analyze recent releases, forgotten classics, and industry developments without the typical podcast theatrics. We cover real-time strategy, 4X civilization builders, turn-based tactics, and hybrid games that blur genre boundaries.

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.