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

Despite its charms, Railway Empire jumps the tracks with its dull tech trees, dated looks, and hobbled competitive modes.

Bad North strips away just the right amount of complexity and headache that real-time strategy games tend to have, resulting in a core experience that is challenging, rewarding, and very replayable.

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

This charming, clever and addictive historical sailing sim is marred only by some rather Dull combat mechanics.

A rich, detailed and highly replayable espionage adventure, touting the right mix of strategic and tactical choices within its entertaining fiction.

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.

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

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.

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 the developers move quickly, Space Hulk: Tactics might yet be the best strategy game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. For now, the grim darkness of the far future is still grim and dark -- and not in a good way.

Super-weapons are hella fun, but this expansion is oddly skippable if you're not sold by its lean feature-set.

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.

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

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

All Walls Must Fall uses familiar tactical concepts, but introduces some new ideas, a fresh setting, and its own intense sense of cool to create an original and compelling experience.

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

Gladius’s attention to combat goes beyond most 4X games, and it works. In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

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.

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.

Despite its short-comings, Sanctus Reach is one of the best turn-based strategy games around.

Evolution will amuse movie fans and infrequent sim hands, but linearity and lack of meaningful decision-making undermines its lavish production values.

Empires Apart is both a good spiritual successor to Microsoft’s classic and a good game in its own right, delivering a very capable experience that successfully brings most of Age of Empires mechanics into the modern age. If you liked Ensemble’s iconic series then you should definitely take a look at this game.

A fun and well made TBS title held back by lackluster plot and mission design.

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”.

All in all, Port Royale 4 is a surprisingly good game. It has a very broad scope, and its large management tools are benefited from an expansive map full of cities as a playground. In an era desperately short of good management games, this colonial Caribbean title is a breath of fresh air.

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.

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.