Iron Tide Command

Iron Tide Command drops you in charge of a ragtag fleet defending a coastline from raiders. It's real-time but pauseable, so you can breathe and plan instead of frantically tapping. You manage a handful of ships, upgrade their crews, and decide which town to protect when you can't save them all.

What I like is that losses stick. A sunk ship stays sunk, so you feel every gamble. Between missions you rebuild and choose upgrades, and the map slowly opens as you push the raiders back. It's meatier than most mobile strategy games I've tried.

The camera can get busy in big fights, and I sometimes wished for a clearer overview. Still, it's one of the few strategy games I finished on the phone without wishing I had a mouse.

What we liked

• Pauseable real-time battles
• Permanent ship losses raise the stakes
• Satisfying between-mission rebuilding