WE ARE CRITICAL MOVES

A Strategy Gaming Podcast

Strategy Games 2026 Preview: Dawn of War 4, Total War 40K, Space Sims, and Indies (Ep.63)

The Critical Moves team previews 2026’s most anticipated strategy releases after 2025’s disappointing output, examining everything from grand-scale RTS spiritual successors and Warhammer 40K’s dual strategy offerings to ambitious space sims and indie passion projects—balancing excitement with cautious reservations about scope creep, limited launch rosters, and missing features like fleet combat. https://criticalmovespodcast.com/listen This episode provides comprehensive 2026 strategy gaming previews through host selections revealing their priorities and concerns. Al champions Sanctuary Shattered Sun as Supreme Commander’s spiritual successor alongside Dawn...
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Strategy Gaming in 2026: What the Media Gets Wrong. Critical Moves Year in Review (Ep.62)

The Critical Moves team delivers their first internal retrospective, examining their breakthrough year through favourite guest interviews, debating whether they qualify as journalists, and confronting the misleading “gaming industry in decline” narrative while explaining why their independence from publishers enables brutal honesty about strategy games. https://criticalmovespodcast.com/listen This episode provides unfiltered team reflections on Critical Moves’ first full year, where Jack and Adam discuss how joining the podcast became career highlights while Al confronts the stress of managing a multinational volunteer...
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Our Best Strategy Games of 2025 Are a DLC, Another DLC, and a 21-Year-Old Remaster (Ep.61)

Our strategy gaming veterans review 2025’s releases and discover that DLCs and definitive editions outperformed new titles, with picks including a 21-year-old RTS remaster, expansions for niche 4X games, and grand strategy economic overhauls—revealing a year where passion projects trumped major studio releases. https://criticalmovespodcast.com/listen This episode provides an unfiltered assessment of strategy gaming’s 2025 output, where established titles and their expansions delivered better experiences than new releases. The hosts discuss Spell Force Conquest of Eo’s sustained development despite modest sales,...
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Total War: Medieval 3 and Warhammer 40K – What Creative Assembly Got Right (and Wrong) (Ep.60)

Al and Tim examine Creative Assembly’s December announcements of Medieval 3 and Total War Warhammer 40K, exploring whether the new Warcore engine justifies 16 years of waiting, why the studio’s deafening silence on player-controlled space combat suggests auto-resolve fleet battles rather than Battlefleet Gothic-style naval warfare, and whether simultaneous PC and console release will compromise the complexity that defines Total War’s identity, while questioning if Creative Assembly can regain community trust after Warhammer 3’s disastrous AI updates and whether their...
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