Tideborne Command

Tideborne Command puts you in charge of a stretch of coastline where you build harbors, plan trade routes, and defend against storms and rival fleets. It's slower and more considered than most mobile strategy, closer to a chess puzzle than a tap-fest.

The clever bit is weather: tides and storms shift which routes are safe, so a plan that worked last turn can fall apart. You learn to keep backups, and that forward-thinking is where the fun lives. Missions are bite-sized enough to do one on a break.

Menus can get busy, and the tutorial undersells how deep the economy goes. But once it clicks, there's a lot here. We'd recommend it to anyone who likes to pause and actually think between moves.

What we liked

• Weather that changes your plans
• Real strategic depth
• Short, self-contained missions