Can real strategy work on a touchscreen?

For years my answer to 'is there good strategy on mobile?' was a polite no. Touch controls seemed fundamentally at odds with the precision strategy games need. Ironhold Command made me reconsider.

The trick, it turns out, is designing for the thumb instead of pretending the mouse is still there. Big, clear tap targets. Pausable action. Units that don't require pixel-perfect placement. When developers respect the format, it works.

That said, the genre still asks more patience than most. Menus get busy, and a small screen can only show so much of a battlefield. If you're prone to squinting, play these on a tablet.

My tip: don't skip the tutorials in strategy games, even when they're tedious. These games hide their best mechanics behind the boring intro, and skipping it usually means losing badly and blaming the game.