What makes a mobile strategy game worth your time

A real strategy game gives you meaningful choices, and those choices should have consequences. If the optimal move is always obvious, there's no strategy, just busywork.

On mobile there's an extra test: does it respect your time? The best ones let you make decisions in short bursts without punishing you for putting the phone down.

I also look for depth that reveals itself slowly. A good game teaches you one system, then shows how it connects to another. That's where the satisfaction lives.

When a game hits all three, it can be better than a lot of console strategy. The touchscreen is closer to a board than people give it credit for.