Iron Tide Command

Iron Tide Command drops you onto a chain of islands with barely enough supplies and a lot of incoming trouble. It's real-time but never frantic — you can pause to issue orders, which turns each skirmish into a small puzzle about where to place your defenders and when to counterattack.

The campaign slowly hands you new unit types, and figuring out their counters is half the fun. I lost a couple of missions badly before I understood how to use scouts to spot raids early. Once it clicks, there's a great feeling of holding a shoreline against odds you had no business surviving.

The touch controls are tidy, though large battles can get a little cramped on a small screen. On a tablet it shines. If you like thinking before you act, this one rewards patience.

What we liked

• Pause-and-plan combat that stays thoughtful
• Satisfying unit counters to master
• Great on a tablet