Strategy on touch: when it clicks and when it doesn't

Strategy is maybe the hardest genre to move to touch. You are used to a mouse for precise clicks, and a fingertip covers three units at once. Getting this right takes real design work.

The games that succeed shrink the scale on purpose. Fewer units, bigger buttons, cleaner maps. A tight unit cap, like the one in Ironline Command, turns a limitation into a design feature.

Pausing helps too. A good mobile strategy game either slows down or lets you queue orders, so you are not panicking with both thumbs during a fight.

When it clicks, phone strategy is fantastic for a lunch break. When it doesn't, you spend the whole match apologising to your own army. Choose carefully.