Critical Moves Podcast - Strategy Videogames

The Critical Moves team reviews our first full year covering strategy gaming and explains why "the gaming industry is dying" headlines miss the point completely. We interviewed developers from Luke Hughes (Burden of Command) to Brandon Castile (Tempest Rising) to Thomas Vandenberg (Kingdom series). Covered games from solo developers and Xbox Game Studios teams. Went from zero listeners to half a million YouTube views in 14 months without spending money on advertising. The discussion covers why AAA layoffs do not equal industry collapse. How 100,000 copies sold can sustain an indie strategy studio. Why we rejected review codes for poor games instead of lying to our audience. What makes strategy gaming coverage different when you answer to listeners instead of publishers. Strategy gamers, indie developers, and anyone tired of gaming journalism that inflates scores and avoids criticism will find this conversation relevant. We turned down opportunities to compromise. We will continue doing that in 2026.

Our best games of 2025 are a DLC for a 2023 game, a DLC for a 2022 game, and a remaster of a 2004 game. That tells you everything about the state of strategy gaming this year. Adam picked Spell Force Conquest of Eo's Children of Norn expansion because the developers keep supporting a game that deserves more players. The complexity puts it somewhere between Heroes of Might and Magic and Age of Wonders 4, with combat that stays interesting instead of devolving into auto-resolve spam. Tim went with Victoria 3's Charter of Commerce, the mechanics pack that fixed the global economy and turned trade from a micromanagement nightmare into something that works. Al chose Dawn of War Definitive Edition, which proves a 21-year-old RTS still plays better than most modern releases when you update the graphics and preserve mod support. Civilization 7 was up for Game Awards strategy game of the year despite being a cash grab that copied Humankind's worst ideas. They've already patched in the ability to keep the same leader across ages because the backlash was immediate. Tempest Rising almost made Al's top pick but lacks the campiness that made Command and Conquer memorable. Broken Arrow exists but you still can't save during campaign missions. Final Fantasy Tactics Reborn won the Game Awards, which is fine, but it's another remaster. The podcast covers why Spell Force's combat stays fresh, how Victoria 3's economy finally works, what Relic got right with the Dawn of War remaster, and why 2026 looks significantly better with Total War 40K, Dawn of War 4, and other releases on the horizon.

Creative Assembly announced Medieval 3 and Total War Warhammer 40K within two weeks. We break down what we know, what's missing, and whether the new Warcore engine can handle what these games need to deliver.Medieval 3 won't arrive until 2027 at the earliest, possibly 2028. The game promises more than just map painting with systems borrowed from Crusader Kings territory, but the challenge is finding the middle ground between Medieval 2 Definitive Edition and overcomplicated mechanics that alienate the core audience.Total War Warhammer 40K launches in 2026 with four factions at release. The excitement is real, but so are the concerns. The lack of confirmed player-controlled space combat is a problem when Battlefleet Gothic Armada managed proper naval warfare a decade ago. Creative Assembly has talked about fleets moving between planets, but they haven't said the words that matter: you will control ships in battle.The simultaneous PC and console release raises questions about complexity being sacrificed for accessibility. The DLC model from Warhammer Fantasy could get expensive fast when you're dealing with a galaxy worth of factions. Chaos Space Marines missing at launch signals what's coming.We cover the new Warcore engine, whether Creative Assembly learned from the Rome 2 disaster, and what needs to happen for these games to work. The potential is there. The execution remains to be seen.

City builders split into subgenres that barely resemble each other. Cities Skylines focuses on traffic optimization and aesthetic building. Anno centres on island logistics and production chains. Banished and Frostpunk push survival mechanics. Tropico simulates dictatorships. Soviet Republic recreates command economy management. Each game builds around different core systems despite sharing the city builder label.SimCity created the genre in 1989 and dominated until SimCity 4. The series died when it failed to evolve. Cities Skylines launched in 2015 and replaced it by combining Sim City's zoning systems with granular detail and robust modding support through Steam Workshop. Traffic Manager Presidential Edition and thousands of custom assets transformed the base game. Players spent 8,000+ hours building and optimizing cities. Nothing has matched this combination since.Cities Skylines 2 launched broken in 2023. Paradox removed Colossal Order from development in November 2025 and moved the game to Iceflake Studios, an internal team with no franchise experience. The problems started before launch. Paradox forced the game onto their mod platform instead of Steam Workshop, rushed development, and expected Colossal Order to recreate a heavily modded ecosystem from scratch. The game ran poorly and offered less than the original. After three years of fixes failed to salvage it, Paradox blamed the developer. This decision looks like scapegoating and positions Iceflake to focus on DLC revenue recovery.Anno succeeds across six entries because each game iterates on proven systems. The island mechanics, production chains, and optimization loops remain consistent while graphics and features improve. Paradox achieved this with Europa Universalis and Victoria but failed with Cities Skylines 2 by attempting replication instead of innovation.The episode covers Pharaoh, the Settlers series crossing into RTS territory, Dwarf Fortress difficulty scaling, and Citystate Metropolis attempting gridless zoning as a solo development project.

In this episode of Critical Moves, we sit down with Ben Angel, narrative lead and designer on the Age of Empires 2: Chronicles DLC campaigns. Ben shares fascinating insights into creating compelling narratives within the constraints of RTS gameplay, where players experience stories from a distant, zoomed-out perspective.We discuss how Chronicles tackles the inherent challenges of storytelling in strategy games—turning abstract barracks and identical units into specific, memorable moments through careful writing and design. Ben explains how dialogue can function like a "radio play" running in the background while players manage their armies, and how writers must give specificity to generic gameplay elements.The conversation explores how the team designed varied campaign scenarios that break away from the repetitive "build base, create army, destroy enemy" formula. We learn about their approach to difficulty scaling, historical authenticity versus accuracy, and why the silent majority of RTS players—those who prefer single-player campaigns—deserve more attention from the industry.Ben also reflects on the state of narrative-driven RTS games, the lessons from classics like Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, and what the future might hold for story-focused strategy content. Whether you're an Age of Empires veteran or simply interested in game narrative design, this episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at creating meaningful stories in the strategy genre.https://criticalmovespodcast.com