Ironvale Siege

Ironvale Siege is the kind of strategy game I end up thinking about on the walk home. You manage a small border fortress, balance three resource lanes, and decide whether to turtle up or push out to grab a mine before the next wave rolls in. The tension comes from never having quite enough of everything.

The map readability is excellent, which matters a lot on a small screen. Unit types counter each other in sensible ways, and the AI commits to real pushes instead of dribbling troops at you. There's a satisfying rhythm once you learn to pre-build defences a wave early.

My one gripe is the mid-game grind for a couple of upgrades, but the campaign missions are varied enough that I never felt stuck doing the same thing twice.

What we liked

• Clean map design that reads instantly
• Meaningful unit counters
• Campaign with genuine difficulty curve