iOS Time Wasters - 3 of the Best Strategy Titles

"Taking a photo of Christmas tree" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Takashi(aes256)

Real-time strategy (RTS) is one of the most overlooked genres on mobile, perhaps because games in the niche can have steep learning curves and the commitment in time and energy they require doesn’t really sit well with the pick-up-and-play ethos of mobile gaming. Of course, at Christmas, when you’re waiting for relatives to arrive, food to cook, and presents to wrap themselves, they’re the perfect waste of time. And for those of you who haven't played the genre yet, it may be the beginning of a new passion. That’s not to say that the bit hit games like the big hit games like Pokémon Go - especially now that Ditto has been released - or even mobile slot machines won’t get any attention.

Christmas is one of the few opportunities gamers get to indulge their hobby at length and incentives to play are everywhere. William Hill, for example, offers up to a 200% welcome bonus on their slots games and the company’s 5-reel, 25-payline Iron Man slot provides the perfect escape from a busy day. Games like poker, roulette, and Mayfair Blackjack are also available to play on the William Hill website. Still, there are so many Gaming apps for iOS that sometimes we spend more time on the App Store trying to find the one we'd enjoy rather than playing it. It's good to read about the games first, to avoid wasting our time. 

With that in mind, here are just three of the best strategy games available on iOS this December.

Hoplite ($2.86)

Hoplite, like Dark Souls, is a game you’ll keep playing long after your fifth or eighteenth death in a row just so you don’t have to accept that it has beaten you. Favoring a chess-style approach to movement and combat, Hoplite falls somewhere between RTS and puzzle, requiring the player to memorize the range of enemies’ bows (for example) to move safely across a map. 

  

The turn-based gameplay is reminiscent of the early Ultima games, before the series made the leap to 3D. However, Hoplite cleary owes its existence to text-based adventure Rogue. The game’s primary goal – finding the Fleece of Yendor – is a nod to the Amulet of Yendor featured in the 1980 classic, as are the frequent deaths of your poor Greek hoplite.

Rymdkapsel ($3.74)

Rymdkapsel looks like isometric Tetris. However, it’s actually a game about building a space station. What separates this app from so many other strategy titles is that you don’t have to send your units out into the universe to destroy things or collect resources. It’s just you, your base, and your tiny astronauts in your own corner of the galaxy.

That’s not to say that something isn’t coming for you. While you never have to move far from your base, you’ll still have to defend it from enemies that appear every few minutes. It’s far too slow to be anything other than a relaxing experience though - just make sure you keep your kitchens supplied with enough "sludge" to keep your characters going.

Strategery ($1.99)

A very old (2009) but timeless app, Strategery is a classic game of world domination in the style of the famous board game Risk. The object of the game is to conquer territory by waging battles with your neighbors’ armies. It’s very easy to pick up but the overall challenge is steep, making it ideal for both short bursts and long gameplay sessions alike.

It’s not the prettiest game, consisting of little more than rough colored hexagons with blobs inside, and there’s not much in the way of sound or music. However, a range of options for map size, difficulty, and number of opponents ensures that each gameplay session is unique. It doesn’t get much more addictive than Strategery in the RTS genre. So, there you have it; your mobile Christmas entertainment sorted for another year.