This is a fun, fresh take on classic JRPG tropes and modern roguelike design, but its in danger of running out of steam too quickly.

Necromunda: Underhive Wars works and that's just about all that it does. The frustrating lack of color and speed does not do it any favors.

A really solid strategy-RPG, and an excellent sequel to Wasteland's 2. A bit rough around the edges, but still worth playing.

All in all, Total War: Three Kingdoms - The Furious Wild expansion was a better experiment than I expected it to be. I am never particularly excited about animal or nature-focused factions -- Air Force boy here -- but this DLC features such an interesting mix of units and mechanics that washed the bad taste of Troy away from my most recent TW palate. From angry kings with axes and fire-wielding melee units to giant elephants and devastating shock-heavy tiger units, The Furious Wild brings the full breadth of nature to bear on the Three Kingdoms period -- and China is better for it.

CK3 is a worthy successor that delivers a powerful mix of grand strategy and RPG gameplay. This is possibly the most polished a mainline Paradox title has ever been at launch.

I can’t recommend Fae Tactics enough to those of you out there waiting for Square to take another longform stab at FFT. It may lack the abundance of micro managing you're used to, but the more straight on approach really puts the combat front and center, and I never missed upgrading menial unit equipment or cross classing or the like. Whether the trend catches or not, I can’t say, but don’t miss the truly fresh take on the classic formula.

Greek Wars nails that addictive 4X loop and it does so in an often-overlooked setting. One of the key issues with this genre is that fall-off point (typically around the late-mid-game) when you stop doing those titular 4Xs and start waiting for some turn counter to tick down while mindlessly mashing the end turn button. While there were certainly some down-time beats, all that layered complexity of diplomacy, economics, and trade means that there is almost always something to do and idle turns are relatively few and far between. If you’re interested in either the period or the 4X genre more broadly, Greek Wars is worth picking up.

Ultimately, Othercide is a unique entry into the genre that is definitely worth your time. It’s pacing issues and ramping difficulty might be the stuff of nightmares for some, but when it comes together, the clever timeline mechanics and risk-based troop management can be the stuff of sweet tactical dreams.

Total War Saga: Troy captures Ancient Greece, and smartly rationalizes mythology, but smart isn’t always the most fun

One of the best real-time strategy releases of the year, despite a rather lack-lustre story. Mimimi does it again.

Some neat ideas and a decent enough 40K romp, but as a complete package it leaves some to be desired.

If you can get passed some clunky performance, this is an excellent turn-based tactics game to add to the Switch's growing roster.

Anno History Collection does precisely what it says on the tin - but it needs just that little bit more to justify its price.

An additive DLC that adds a new overpowered race, endgame crisis, and a new game mode, but doesn't affect the actual underlying gameplay flow in any meaningful way.

It’s been a while since we felt we could say this, but if you buy Emperor on day one you (probably) won’t be disappointed. Obviously if you don’t usually play HRE YMMV but for those that do enjoy mucking around in central Europe, it’s been given a breath of new life and well worth your money.

It's not an especially pretty game - this is kind of 'indie' project that old-timer wargame studios tend to put out. You'll have to get past the aged graphics and masses of UI menus and tiny buttons, but for those that try, a rewarding world of wonder awaits you.

Gears is right at home in the Turn-based genre. A truly excellent tactical experience watered down slightly with mandatory side-quests and a lack of any strategic dimension.

As a whole, The Warden & The Paunch is another sizable DLC that should please if you are interested in the general theme, even if the execution is a bit lopsided. While I loved the High Elves part, honestly, I don’t get why people like Greenskins -- they are base creatures governed only by impulse, whose sole interest rests in anarchy and food. Compared to Yvresse’s military and cultural upgrades, done by the development of the region and the increase of its magical power, Grom’s faction is boosted by a simple food crafting menu, which is vastly less interesting than the already basic Athel Tamarha interface. Still, if you like at least one of the factions in the Lord Pack and want to give the (awesomely voiced) Warden of Tor Yvresse or the Paunch of Badlads a go, you surely won’t be disappointed.

To me this is an incongruent vision of the series where you have snake squadmates and meaningless banter instead of worldbuilding and replayability. It’s fine as a one-off, slightly fun but buggy (hopefully non-canon) entry, but if this signifies the future of the franchise, I am worried.

All things considered, Iron Danger is a great game. It may lack the sweeping epic scope of others and the marketing budget of a AAA game, but it lacks none of the quality. It’s a fun romp in fantasy Finland, setting stuff on fire and slinging spells left and right. It’s like 2001’s Achron that actually works!

If you liked Panzer General and the original Panzer Corps, then PC2 is a must buy. The “more so” comes into play as regards gamers who may have bypassed these games in the past, considering them more beer and pretzels or generic mainstream strategy fare. PC2 has added just enough modifications to push the realism level into the wargaming proper category, giving a distinct WWII feel without sacrificing the elegant simplicity that made its ancestors famous.

Despite the negative aspects described, there is something genuinely fun about playing Yes, Your Grace. It’s perfect for some casual, beer and pretzels gaming. But you are playing for the narrative not the gameplay mechanics. You will get at least two playthroughs out of the game, which amounts to approximately 10 to 20 hours of gameplay (the playtime on various Steam reviews seems to confirm this). If this was in a Humble Bundle or on sale, I would think you would be happy with your purchase. At full price, I would probably feel as though I could have spent my money on something better. With that said, the game feels like a labour of love, not some lazy cash grab. Just don’t expect particularly deep gameplay.

An excellent new addition to Three Kingdoms DLC roster, and a great way to skip the early game if you want to get stuck in to something meatier.

Federations is one of the best expansions for Stellaris that we’ve seen and the impact is going to be felt for the rest of the life of the game, which being supported by Paradox means many years to come.

Aside from the bad gun aim mechanics sapping most of the moment-to-moment enjoyment, Taur is actually a very competent game. Its long list of research options and gun upgrades are enough to keep you interested, while the visuals make every second rather visually pleasing. If you’re on the lookout for a fun, casual tower defense game, definitely give Taur (the game, not the tower) a shot.

Overall, The Spire Rises is a very solid expansion for an excellent game if a very difficult, surprisingly intellectual strategy game is what you're looking for.

Some strategy gamers will find this kind of forced immersion awful, others will lap it up. Fans of the original will already be familiar with it. They'll discover a smoother interface and a new setting in a new culture. Forgoing the traditional control and power fantasies of strategic empire-building is a hard habit to give up. But for those that can make the sacrifice, Six Ages holds a wealth of wonders few other games can match.

All things considered, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius’ T’au DLC is a must for anyone who plays Gladius in TYOOL 2020. If you dislike the race (you should), you will at least appreciate them as enemies and find use of their various racial abilities for modding. The question now remains if we’re going to get the rest of important races - like both flavors of Eldar - in the DLC cycle, or will they be saved for a sequel?

Corruption 2029 holds its own. It is difficult to make a game like XCOM, as dozens of failed titles have proved, and this is the first one I played that manages to accurately reproduce Firaxis’ formula while adding its own share of interesting mechanics to it. Behind the pretty exterior and the amazing tactical gameplay, you’ll find a gem that’s definitely worth experiencing -- if you can stomach the relatively small scope and repeated maps. That really shouldn’t be a problem, though. After all, war never changes.

Hilariously funny, ridiculously cute, and generally well put together, it only suffers a bit from an increasing reliance on RNG over strategy as the game wears on.

An excellent new addition, but one that doesn't shake things up massively. The New story campaign is great and the new ships are a nice addition to the main campaign.

For all its comparatively minor flaws and one major issue that will most likely get patched by the time it releases, Broken Lines is a great strategy game that takes the usual tactical thinking and bends it just enough to feel fresh. Without the safety net of unmoving opponents or the ability to react on the fly, you have to consider what the AI might do more carefully and really utilise your powers and squad composition to get through a fight unscathed. So even with the occasional gruelling travel section, Broken Lines is still a pretty enjoyable ride. Kind of like that one war movie you love but no-one else gets.

This version of Warcraft III has welcome graphical updates to a great game, but it's not reforged enough to justify its price.

Aside from the graphics that give a quality-of-life boon on modern rigs, there's little else about this remaster that excites or even excels.

Praetorians HD Remaster brings the game into the 2020s; but is ill-equipped to compete with the almost two decades of progress since.

In the end, Astra Exodus is a capable 4X game. It is much better than other similar titles out there and it is definitely worth a shot if you want something more straightforward than Stellaris or GalCiv. It as a very well-executed game, so if you are not put out by the 2D graphics and the cartoony, anime-like illustrations then give it a try.

The Last Autumn is as uncompromising and atmospheric as Frostpunk, but its real trick lies in making players relearn the game, and punishing them for underestimating it.

A great expansion that enriches the main campaign while also being interesting to play in its own right. Some excellent new units, characters and mechanics.

With everything from a Daemon-possessed Dreadlord to a Regiment of Renown mortar that has airburst poison shells, this DLC is surprisingly interesting. I'm definitely not a Dark Elf nor Skaven fan, but the new mechanics are good enough to keep me engaged for the duration and make me seriously consider a replay. Warhammer 2's latest DLCs have often been way more 'hit' than 'miss', and The Shadow & The Blade is no exception.

A challenging, visually vibrant sci-fi rogue-like following in the fine tradition of FTL et al - definitely worth checking out.

A very capable game that excels at the strategy layer, but the tactical sphere is a bit sterile and leaves you feeling cold.

In the end, Revelations is a fairly modest DLC. It’s no small thing to add in an entire new race and units to go by, but you also wouldn’t be completely wrong in thinking it was a fairly light expansion. Still, it’s purpose is to flesh out existing game content in ways that are meaningful and worthwhile, and in that sense it succeeds pretty well without over-complicating the scope. A quick shout out must also go towards the free patch that came with the game, which included a lot of quality of life features including ways to make navigating around large empires much easier. All in all, a pretty decent first DLC outing, and one that should be seriously considered for anyone who’s been enjoying Planetfall up till now.

I've played a good number of video game adaptations of tabletop games over the years. I don't think I've ever played one that fully understands what its source material is fundamentally about better than BattleTech does. Heavy Metal is the extra push it needed to become the living vision of what I daydreamed about while playing with tiny plastic robots, hex maps, and firing tables decades ago.

In the end, Narcos: Rise of the Cartels is a game with good production values, let down by a tactical layer that doesn’t seem to have been fully thought-through. There are impressively few flaws here, but the ones it does have are so key to the nature of the game that they end up dragging down the whole experience. Like Pablo Escobar’s intrinsic arrogance which led to his downfall, so does Narcos’ rather basic assumptions ruin what could have been a very exciting tie-in game.

Sadly, not nearly mechanically sound enough. This is no way to run a railroad.

The basic controls are simple that this still serves as an excellent gateway experience to more complex wargames, but it also contains within it deep mechanics that require mastering and that can transform the game into a more complex experience. If you were a fan of the first game, you'll definitely like this one.

An unforgiving AI enemy, high game configurability, and satisfying interaction makes AI War 2 a worthy inheritor of the mantle.

An excellent & innovative strategy game, and the best John Wick Simulator you're ever likely to experience.

While The Bloody First is a decent start to the new era of Close Combat, it still needs a bit of TLC, and we hope some dedicated post-release support and future DLC will iron out the game and make it a title worthy of the legacy.

This game needs a lot of work, and so far only goes to highlight how better other contenders in this genre are.

Deadlock was already one of Slitherine’s best games -- if not the best one -- boasting a more interesting gameplay and beautiful space engagements and replays that are quite welcoming to newcomers and have the potential to appeal to a slightly less niche market. With Resurrection -- a DLC that adds a new campaign, new ships, and further capitalises on Battlestar Galactica’s signature ship -- Deadlock just became even better.

Personal bias aside, with all the influence coming from The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game and the fact that the cards are essentially permanent, you would be as well just buying a deck and playing at your friendly local game store. The only real advantage to the video game version is the story and the ability to change card art by unlocking it with points - which is a nice change from paying for it though the groundwork is there for microtransactions to seep in eventually. However, if you want more stories about Middle Earth, then I guess it’s worth it for that. Just, maybe mute the game whenever Smeagol is involved.

Fantasy General II brings some modern additions to a tried and true formula in an engaging and challenging campaign. Overall - a great success.

Planetfall sets some new standards for 4X games that would be wise not to ignore, and is an excellent start of a new strategy journey.

All in all, Eight Princes is a surprisingly sizeable expansion, especially given CA’s penchant for releasing faction packs this close to release. It packs enough changes and new mechanics and feels novel enough for another playthrough, while keeping mechanics and the basics as feasibly close to the original as possible. If you can’t get enough of Three Kingdoms and just wants a bit more of almost the same, Eight Princes is the right expansion for you.

I love the music, the electro-Indian soundtrack is so wonderfully unique and gives the journey such a magnificent texturing. The various factions with their distinctive styles, like the Blue Devils that voluntarily allow themselves to become infected and die young in order to become more powerful. Sharkbomb Studios have done fantastically to create a gameworld that feels unique to the point that I, even more than usual, want more games based on cultures outside the usual UK, US, Japan influence. And while I have harked on the gameplay, I actually really enjoy it up until the inevitable unfair fight that brings me to my old friend, the Game Over screen. It’s much like FTL. Yay, yay, yay, ooh close one, yay, no, what, stop it, bugger off, f*** this game, repeat.

Interstellar Space: Genesis is a modest and conservative return to a genre classic with meticulous attention to what fans of 4X Space empire builders crave.

In summary, Warriors of the North is a successful expansion to Battle Brothers in that it is strictly adding on additional options without disrupting the core gameplay in a significant way. Personal taste aside, it’s hard to argue that isn’t what an expansion should be doing at a base level. Just note that outside of some unique Barbarian flavor or Cultists shenanigans, this isn’t offering any fundamental changes to how you are going to play Battle Brothers once the reality of the scenario’s difficulty sets in. For you diehards out there, rejoice in your newfound glory! For those looking to see a little more variance, your mileage may vary depending on what starting scenarios pique your interest.

The digital adaptation of Raiders of the North Sea was created by Dire Wolf Digital, and they've done an excellent job creating the game on PC and Mobile. Garphill Games, the creators of the North Sea Trilogy (of which Raiders is the second entry) hired a fantastic artist to bring the game world to life, and this has been carried through to the digital version. Animation has been added to give everything that extra touch, and modest use of 3D animations have enhanced the look and feel of the board as you move your pieces around and raid areas on the board.

A decent, if short, reason to jump back into the world of MYZ with new faces, new enemies and new weapons.

A fine-tuned game with some absolutely gorgeous visuals. Despite some minor hiccups, it’s an experience well worth the low price of entry.

All in all, Chaos Space Marines is a good DLC for *inhales* Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War. It provides a good roster of units, a bunch of fitting mechanics and abilities, as well as some flavorful writing. Heck, the buildings that fill the CSM cities are carbon copies of the structures you built in Dawn of War 1! Aside from the Slaaneshi descriptions and the bug I mentioned, it has no other flaws and is well worth your time. Now, if only they fixed the AI that likes to spawn Imperial Guard Hydras almost to the exclusion of anything else…

There is something special about magic. The idea that one could easily lift a whole building with their powers and fling it across an incoming army is the kind of power fantasy games are apparently born to fulfil, yet one that rarely -- if ever -- happens. That is especially true of strategy games about magic, where their mystical, boundless capabilities more often than not are reduced to gimmicks and meaningless buffs but luckily, Driftland bucks that trend; not in a flashy way, but by making magic an everyday part of the gameplay. If you are looking for a polished, novel strategy game involving magic, look no further.

Empires lacks the breadth Imperator has striven for and is a few years behind what Total War is doing these days, but it's a smartly made game and gives a deeper military experience for those who prefer those aspects. It's definitely one to consider and an excellent new contender in the grand strategy space.

Urban Warfare has been a welcome opportunity for me to fire BattleTech back up, and I've been generally delighted to see how far the game has come over the past year. It's a game that I liked quite a bit off the bat, and now a good number of the rough edges have been sanded off, or at least been supplemented with ways around them. My recommendation, then, is to fire up a new campaign and see what's new. Knock the rust off those gargantuan metal legs and get a feeling of whether a stroll through the city would do you some good.

Truthfully, I was pleasantly surprised by Ancient Relics. It adds a noticeable amount of content especially to the late-early and mid-game, building up on Distant Stars’ ridiculous number of scientific events to prevent the game from drying up. If you like the idea of uncovering alien mysteries or just wants more story things to do in Stellaris, Ancient Relics is definitely worth a look.

The DLC promises six hours-ish of gameplay, and my experience matches that comfortably. If you’re a multiplayer gamer, I’d probably pass, but that’s not the fault of the DLC. If you are looking for a decent story, reminiscent of the good old days of narrative campaigns in the style of Age of Empires II, I think it’s worth your time – just try not to think too deeply – lest you begin to spot some gaps.

In the end, Green Planet and Project Laika are interesting DLCs. Taken together, they add several gameplay and cosmetic features, and the former significantly alter playstyles if you decide to go for the terraforming. While Project Laika is cute and fits the game’s overall “feel good” vibe, I do feel Surviving Mars is consistently stripping away its identity with each of its main DLCs. Regardless, if you enjoy or the game or want to try turning a barren planet into a giant planet-wide forest, give Green Planet a shot.

A clever jack-of-all games that tries to give players history and strategy in an accessible package and mostly succeeds.

I am extremely impressed with this little indie gem, and wholeheartedly recommend it to fans of strategy JRPGs. Especially, dare I say, to those of you who are looking for a true successor to Final Fantasy: Tactics. I am well aware of how ostentatious that may sound, but the praise is well earned here. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark has earned my respect and admiration, and it deserves your time and attention. Go purchase this game, and support an indie developer who has seemingly done the impossible.

A worthy entry in the Total War franchise, Three Kingdoms gets a lot more right than it does wrong.

An excellent Cold War strategy game that cuts to the heart of the political and ideological struggle while still offering a fun strategic experience.

Big, busy and pretty, you can be confident of a good management game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, so long as they can get past some certain disheartening design choices.

Imperator: Rome has its moments, and some excellent foundations. But while there’s always the promise of what’s to come, right here and now there’s plenty to be found wanting.

Somehow, Creative Assembly managed to completely understand and encapsulate what each race is, and add interesting and fitting game mechanics that reward you for playing as they should. The Prophet and The Warlock is a surprising addition to anyone interested in the Skaven or Lizardmen, and it should definitely be given a shot.

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is a great game that I will always recommend to anyone. It’s a novel spin on the whole tactical RPG genre, and it’s a breath of fresh air as far as 40K games are concerned. Now, if only the studio got to remake Chaos Gate…

I can’t find many faults with Pathway beyond the occasional bit of bad luck with the map generation that puts camps and traders too far off-track to be worth going to or throws a particularly tough combat at you straight away. Apart from that small issue, this game is frankly amazing and it kept me up until dawn trying to find out what the Wrath of God was and I am so distraught that I died just before the finale. Let’s just say “I chose… poorly”.

A fun, functional but ultimately forgettable RTS in the style of Warcraft or Age of Empires.

Some technical stumbling blocks muddy what is otherwise another decent entry in a a beloved franchise.

This is C & C with a deep tech tree, modern graphics, and custom armies. It fails only because it was too ambitious.

A valiant effort but ultimately unrewarding, especially given the competition.

After Anabasis cleverly effected the Second Cylon War via the original's setting, Sin & Sacrifice might seem somewhat conservative. However, Black Lab Games continue their tradition of tight, tactical mission design, and as a farewell to this chapter of the First Cylon War, it's a solid one.

Overall, Retribution is a capable expansion for fans of the franchise, bringing in new gameplay options and two specialist races to round off an already well-developed roster. The expansion will not change the mind of anyone who already likes or dislikes the series, but it’s worth a shot if you like the game. GalCiv III might not have taken off the way Stardock intended, but the company’s decision to stick with it turned the game into a tailored experience virtually unmatched by any other sci-fi 4X on the market.

And if you’re a fan of APM based RTS and other acronyms, then Bannermen might provide some enjoyment. Bizarrely, if it was early access, I would recommend it as the developers have been releasing patches every other day. But for £25, I don’t see enough here to recommend in its current state.

When it comes to worth, Gathering Storm is fun, but hard to justify its full paying price of nearly £35. Unlike Rise and Fall’s multiple game changes involving timelines, eras, and mandates -- which effectively turn the game from a “live in the moment” endeavour to a proper long-term tailoring experience -- this new expansions mostly gives you more things to react to. Truth is, without Rise and Fall, Civ VI is still a worse game than Civ V, and with Gathering Storm alone, it’s not even in the same league at all.

Warhammer 40K Gladius’ Tyranids DLC is the best piece of game content concerning my least favorite race I’ve seen in a while. They play well and feel authentic, which I imagine was no easy feat, and they slot into the overall narrative and structure of the game more seamlessly than I was expecting. They could have been a bit more creative, perhaps, with the use of instinctual behaviors, but it’s a great effort, none the less.

Chucklefish have a proven record of publishing great games and making great games and Wargroove is no exception. If the modding community takes hold then I can see this becoming one of my new favourite tactics games. And if you’re a fan of Advance Wars, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

It’s a solid but not exceptional middle-of-the-road game with some UI hang-ups but a wide variety of factions and a solid amount of the old 40K charm.

A solid foundation for a unique 4X experience – it just needs fleshing out a bit more before it can really shine.

Jagged Alliance: Rage! Is the closest thing we have to the greatness of Jagged Alliance 2. It's a very trimmed game, delivering the experience rather than a carbon copy of the series. You still have to care for your mercs' health and gear, as well as carrying capacity, but at a much less grognardy level. I dunno if 1.13 mod fanatics will be pleased, but for the others, it's a good introduction to what Jagged Alliance used to represent.

We find it hard to recommend Mutant Year Zero as the frustrating combat, occasional bugs, slow movement, and awkward camera make us quit to desktop more often than not. But at the same time, the story and the world keeps dragging us back for more. And though it has aged us considerably, if you’re a fan of the source material, then it’s worth it to stick it through just to experience the story. Especially if you’re like the rest of us and can’t get a group together anyway.

If you enjoy playing in the Iberian Peninsula and you can overlook a few historical irregularities, then it would be very hard to pass up on Golden Century. If you're obsessed by pirates and can't fight off the desire to pretend to be Jack Sparrow, then this is going to be your best bet within EU4. If you're literally anyone else: While it's only $10 USD, it's not really vital to your experience and doesn't actually bring that much to the table. You might just want to wait until the next actual expansion and pick this one up on sale.

For me, there's really no question on whether to buy this or not. Doing a complete overhaul of the population mechanics, adding in trade as an important system, allowing you access to being megacorporations or mega-cults, throwing in a little slave trade while you're at it? For $20 US, it's a solid purchase.

Flashpoint doesn’t offer anything transformative, the way XCOM 2’s War of the Chosen expansion did. Dedicated BattleTech players will want to give this a look, but with as many options as we have now for interesting strategy experiences, everyone else can consider this addition as highly optional.

Space Race as an expansion is worth checking out at some point, but I wouldn’t be in any hurry. It ultimately does little to solve many of the deep-rooted problems the game still has at the mid-to-late stages. It does make the early-game a little easier, or at the very least more varied (depends on your settings), and there’s definitely some interesting stuff there. Surviving Mars still has a fair ways to go though, and it’s going to take more than small injections of personality to carry it over that hump.

In a situation where you have all of it, HF is going to truly shine, pulling together parts from four or five different DLC and using them together. If you don't have at least one of Sword of Islam or Rajas of India (and preferably both), you are going to run into a significant amount of frustration, especially in randomized worlds.

All in all, Curse of the Vampire Coast is yet another great DLC, worth the admission price to any fans of the factions. It is not as good as Rise of the Tomb Kings, as the lack of ship to ship battles and the boring, constant loop of field and siege battles that Warhammer II constantly devolves to doesn’t really lend itself to a pirate experience, but given what Creative Assembly was working with, Vampire Coast is surprisingly thorough.

Terraforming Mars is a great strategy challenge with huge replay value. But, while pretty and convenient, this adaptation currently has too many rough edges to recommend.