Strategy Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Daily iPhone App: Starbase Orion

by Mike Schramm (Oct 14th, 2011)

iOS doesn't really have much in the way of original 4X (so called due to the second letter in the "explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate" gameplay) games. Yes, Civ Revolution is on the platform, but that's not original (and to be honest, it's not the best port). Ascendancy is a quality ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Two Worlds II Castle Defense

by Mike Schramm (Jul 7th, 2011)

Two Worlds is an RPG series for consoles that's had a few releases already, but this game for iOS only uses the same setting and assets as those titles. As you can tell from the title itself, it plays very differently from the third-person RPG. It's a castle defense game of a sort, but rather ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Battle Slugs

by Mike Schramm (Jul 6th, 2011)

Battle Slugs is essentially a stylized version of the old Chinese game Go. You start with two different colors of playing pieces which jump around the board in different ways. Jump one space to produce a cloned slug or two spaces to move the slug you're controlling. When you land next to a ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Titus

by Mike Schramm (Jun 15th, 2011)

Titus is a game that calls itself a "political simulator," featuring an agoraphobic watchmaker who decides to run for president in the crazy world of Wealland. If that description and the game's Tim Burton-esque aesthetic haven't won you over already, then you and I have very different tastes ...

TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Parking Dash

by Mike Schramm (May 26th, 2011)

I've posted about the "Dash" time management games before -- traditionally, they're just basically tap-and-wait titles that have you managing a diner or a spa. But Parking Dash, out today on iPhone, is the most involved one I've seen. The app still has a plucky female heroine (these apps tend ...

Anomaly: Warzone Earth out now

by Mike Schramm (Apr 8th, 2011)

I first previewed Anomaly: Warzone Earth back in January, and then saw the iOS version at GDC. It's an excellent real-time strategy game, kind of a reverse tower defense, where you need to escort a military convoy through an area full of enemy towers. I enjoyed the game when previewing it, and ...

TUAW's Daily App: Knights vs. Aliens

by Mike Schramm (Apr 7th, 2011)

Knights vs. Aliens is a brand new title to the App Store that serves as an interesting update to one of my early App Store favorites, Galcon. Instead of sending triangles around between planets, though, you're pointing squads of knights around the world, trying to take over castles from aliens, ...

Anomaly: Warzone Earth coming to Mac, iPhone and iPad

by Mike Schramm (Jan 18th, 2011)

Anomaly: Warzone Earth is a tower defense game with a twist -- instead of placing towers to take down attackers, you actually control attackers, trying to navigate a convoy in between alien defenses. Through both a 14-mission story/campaign mode and a few endless options, you command your squad ...

TUAW's Daily App: Neo Defender 2

by Mike Schramm (Dec 13th, 2010)

Neo Defender 2 is another title from the good folks at Appular, who we've talked about here on TUAW before. Neo Defender 2 is an Asteroids-style shooter, but the twist is that instead of moving around the screen, your ship stays firmly in the middle, leaving you to watch all sides and protect ...

App Review: Tantrix Strategy connects luck and strategy

by Sebastian Blanco (Oct 31st, 2010)

The beautiful Tantrix Strategy game app [US$2.99] is an example of why it's sometimes good to wait for the second or third version of an iPad app before plunking down your money in the App Store. We're reviewing Version 1.1 here, and it improves on the original with an AI opponent (three ...

Apple's segmentation strategy and why it works

by Mike Schramm (Oct 2nd, 2010)

Here's a little interesting weekend reading from Mark Sigal on O'Reilly about "Apple's segmentation strategy." Sigal does a huge overview of Apple's direction over the last ten years, and in the end, argues that Apple has shirked the conventional wisdom of marketing products horizontally (making a ...

TUAW's Daily App: Battle for Wesnoth

by Mike Schramm (Jun 14th, 2010)

Just the other day I mentioned Battle for Wesnoth in this very space, and then right after that, the game releases its 5th major update. If you like turn-based strategy games, this one is a must-have. It was originally an open source title, and fans have added so much to the game that there are ...

TUAW's Daily App: Highborn

by Mike Schramm (Jun 7th, 2010)

Highborn is an interesting little App Store title. It won't be for everyone -- it's a turn-based strategy game that has a pretty steep learning curve, and while the actual game itself is pretty casual as games like this go, players unfamiliar with of moving troops around could find it confusing. ...

Battle of Puppets brings the fight to the marionette stage

by Mike Schramm (Feb 24th, 2010)

Battle of Puppets fell through the cracks here when it was first released, and that was unfortunate -- it's a 2D real-time strategy game for the iPhone with a distinctive art style and a plethora of cool features that definitely deserves a look. The team has been updating the app often, and the ...

First Look: NinjaBee's Kaloki Adventure for iPhone

by Mike Schramm (May 28th, 2009)

I first came across developer NinjaBee by playing their XBLA platfomer Cloning Clyde -- it was a game that seemed pretty genre, until you started playing it and discovered a unique charm and depth. Since then, they've brought that flair to a few other types of games, including the turn-based ...