Strategy games that don't waste your time

The worst mobile strategy games bury a decent idea under menus and timers. The good ones cut straight to the tension of making hard choices with too little to work with.

Iron Tide Command is my current favorite for this. It's tight, it's fast, and every mission is a small puzzle you can lose in a satisfying way. There's no waiting around for timers to tick down.

What separates the good from the bad is respect for your attention. A strategy game should ask you to think, not to wait. If the core challenge is patience rather than planning, I'm out.

Play the early missions carefully and resist the urge to rush. Strategy games reward the players who slow down enough to read the board.