Our strategy gaming veterans dive into 2025’s most promising strategy titles, covering everything from ultra-realistic naval combat simulators and innovative RTS design to Hollywood tycoon games and alternative history scenarios, examining what could make next year a comeback year for the genre.

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This episode provides a comprehensive preview of 2025’s most anticipated strategy games, featuring detailed discussions of titles ranging from ultra-realistic World War II naval combat in Task Force Admiral to the spiritual successor to Supreme Commander in Sanctuary Shattered Son. The hosts explore innovative gameplay mechanics, examine how indie developers are pushing genre boundaries, and analyze whether the upcoming releases represent a renaissance for strategy gaming. The conversation covers naval simulators, colony builders, RTS innovations, alternative history scenarios, and Hollywood tycoon games while discussing the challenges facing strategy game development.

Critical Moves Podcast – Episode 9 Show Notes

Episode Title: Is 2025 the Comeback Year for Strategy Games?
Hosts: Al, Joe, Nuno
Episode Length: ~62 minutes

Episode Summary

The ninth episode of Critical Moves examines the strategy gaming landscape heading into 2025, with the hosts sharing their most anticipated upcoming titles across various subgenres. From Nuno’s excitement about ultra-realistic World War II naval combat in Task Force Admiral to Al’s enthusiasm for Sanctuary Shattered Son as a spiritual successor to Supreme Commander, the discussion reveals a diverse ecosystem of innovative strategy games. The conversation explores how indie developers are pushing genre boundaries, examines the role of publishers like Microprose in supporting niche titles, and analyzes whether 2025 could represent a turning point for strategy gaming’s commercial and creative prospects.

Naval Combat Revolution: Task Force Admiral

Ultra-Realistic World War II Simulation

Nuno leads with Task Force Admiral, positioning it as potentially the most detailed naval combat simulation ever created. Developed by a small but passionate team and published by Microprose, the game promises unprecedented attention to World War II Pacific theater carrier battles. The developer’s dedication extends to selling personal property to fund development, illustrating the commitment level behind this ambitious project.

The game’s appeal lies in its simulation depth rather than arcade accessibility. Unlike most naval strategy games that abstract complex systems into simplified mechanics, Task Force Admiral aims to simulate every aspect of naval warfare with scientific precision. This approach targets a specific audience seeking authentic historical experiences rather than casual entertainment.

Small Team, Big Ambitions

The development story reveals both the potential and challenges facing ambitious indie projects. Years of active development by a tiny team, supported by Microprose’s publishing resources, demonstrates how passionate developers can tackle complex subjects that major studios might avoid due to commercial uncertainty.

The game’s extended development timeline reflects the complexity of accurately simulating naval combat systems. Unlike fantasy or science fiction games where developers can create arbitrary rules, historical simulations must adhere to documented realities while remaining engaging as interactive entertainment.

Colony Building Evolution: Ascent of Ashes

Rim World Meets Tactical Combat

Joe’s enthusiasm for Ascent of Ashes centers on its combination of familiar colony building mechanics with innovative tactical combat systems. Developed by experienced Rim World modders, the game represents how community expertise can evolve into professional development, bringing deep understanding of what players actually want from colony simulation experiences.

The game’s procedural generation promises significant replayability, with each playthrough offering different scenarios, survivor encounters, and base-building challenges. This approach addresses a common limitation in story-driven strategy games where replay value diminishes once players know the predetermined outcomes.

Post-Apocalyptic Survival Strategy

The post-apocalyptic setting provides narrative justification for the challenging survival mechanics while enabling diverse gameplay scenarios. Players must balance resource management, base construction, survivor recruitment, and tactical combat while navigating procedurally generated threats and opportunities.

The combination of Door Kickers-style tactical combat with Rim World’s colony management creates a unique hybrid that could appeal to multiple strategy gaming audiences. This genre blending represents a trend toward more complex, multi-layered strategy experiences.

RTS Innovation: The Last General

Macro-Scale Command Philosophy

Al’s selection of The Last General highlights a fundamentally different approach to real-time strategy gaming. Instead of the micro-management focus that dominates modern RTS design, the game emphasizes strategic decision-making over actions-per-minute execution. Players direct combined arms groups using strategic arrows rather than controlling individual units.

This macro-focused design philosophy addresses criticisms that modern RTS games reward mechanical skill over strategic thinking. By removing micro-management requirements, the game potentially opens RTS gaming to players who prefer strategic planning to rapid clicking.

Procedural Battlefield Generation

The game’s procedural generation system promises billions of potential battlefields, some reportedly the size of small countries. This ambitious scope raises questions about quality versus quantity – whether algorithmically generated maps can provide the strategic depth and balance that carefully designed scenarios offer.

The three-layer AI system – general, tactical, and individual unit AI – represents a significant technical challenge. Success depends entirely on AI quality, since players cannot micro-manage when strategic decisions don’t translate effectively to tactical execution.

Strategic Arrows and Football Manager Parallels

Al’s comparison to Football Manager reveals the conceptual appeal – making strategic decisions and watching AI execute them competently. This approach could attract players who enjoy strategic planning but find traditional RTS micro-management tedious or overwhelming.

The emphasis on logistics and supply lines reflects modern military realities where tactical success depends heavily on strategic preparation and resource allocation. This design choice could provide educational value alongside entertainment.

Alternative History: KaiserPunk

Endless World War I Setting

Kaiser Punk’s premise of World War I never ending creates an intriguing alternative history framework for combining city building with grand strategy elements. The setting justifies technological stagnation while enabling familiar military units and tactics from the Great War period.

The seamless integration of city building and military strategy addresses a common problem in grand strategy games where economic and military gameplay feel disconnected. Players must build infrastructure capable of supporting extended military campaigns, creating meaningful strategic choices between immediate military needs and long-term economic development.

City Builder Meets Grand Strategy

The game’s hybrid approach requires cities to supply armies effectively, making urban planning a crucial military consideration. This integration could create more engaging economic gameplay than typical Paradox-style grand strategy games where economic mechanics often feel abstract or disconnected from military outcomes.

Naval battles and combined arms operations promise strategic diversity beyond typical city builders’ economic focus. The inclusion of period-appropriate technology like Zeppelins and early aircraft adds atmospheric authenticity to the alternative history setting.

Modern Military Simulation: Broken Arrow

Infantry-Focused Urban Combat

Nuno’s most anticipated title, Broken Arrow, represents evolution in the Wargame/WARNO formula by emphasizing infantry combat in detailed urban environments. Unlike previous titles where infantry served primarily as garrison units, Broken Arrow makes them central to tactical success through granular control systems and realistic urban warfare mechanics.

The game’s approach reflects lessons from contemporary conflicts where urban combat dominates military operations. By focusing on house-to-house fighting, street-level tactics, and infantry-armor cooperation, the game promises more authentic modern warfare simulation.

Technical Innovation in RTS Design

The detailed urban environments represent significant technical advancement, with individual buildings and streets mattering strategically rather than serving as abstract terrain features. This granularity enables more realistic tactical decision-making where terrain knowledge and urban warfare principles determine success.

The expanded infantry control systems, including weapon selection and tactical deployment options, provide the micromanagement depth that warfare simulation enthusiasts demand while maintaining strategic-level campaign progression.

Entertainment Industry Simulation: Hollywood Animal

Movie Industry Meets Mafia Mechanics

Joe’s inclusion of Hollywood Animal demonstrates strategy gaming’s expansion into diverse subject matter. The combination of movie studio management with gangster-style moral dilemmas creates a unique gameplay experience that reflects Hollywood’s historical connections to organized crime.

The game’s approach to moral choice differs from typical strategy games by focusing on business ethics and personal corruption rather than military or political decisions. This civilian setting enables different types of strategic thinking while maintaining the tension and consequences that make choice-driven gameplay engaging.

Tycoon Games Evolution

Hollywood Animal’s similarity to classic titles like The Movies but with added moral complexity shows how tycoon games can evolve beyond simple economic optimization. The introduction of blackmail, violence, and corruption as gameplay mechanics reflects mature themes while maintaining strategic depth.

The absence of custom movie creation features, if confirmed, represents a significant limitation compared to The Movies’ lasting appeal. User-generated content often provides the longevity that keeps tycoon games relevant years after release.

Medieval Kingdom Management: Noble Life and King Makers

Decision-Driven Kingdom Building

Joe’s additional picks reveal interest in kingdom management games that emphasize narrative choice over direct control. Noble Life Kingdom Reborn’s focus on issuing orders and dealing with consequences rather than hands-on management creates a different type of strategic engagement.

This hands-off approach could appeal to players who prefer strategic thinking to tactical execution. The comparison to mobile decision games like Reigns suggests accessible mechanics that focus on consequence management rather than complex system mastery.

Time Travel Military Fantasy

King Makers’ premise of modern soldiers fighting medieval battles represents the kind of ridiculous concept that can succeed through pure entertainment value. The combination of Bannerlord-style medieval combat with modern weapons creates inherently absurd but potentially enjoyable gameplay scenarios.

The concept’s success will depend entirely on execution quality and whether the developers can maintain tonal consistency between serious medieval strategy and modern military elements. The comparison to Evil Dead suggests embracing absurdity rather than attempting realistic justification.

Supreme Commander Spiritual Successor: Sanctuary Shattered Sun

Chris Taylor’s Endorsement

Al’s final selection carries significant weight through Chris Taylor’s endorsement as a spiritual successor to Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation. This professional validation suggests the game successfully captures the design philosophy that made those titles beloved among RTS enthusiasts.

The 18-year gap since Supreme Commander’s release demonstrates the niche nature of large-scale RTS gaming and the challenges facing developers attempting to serve this specialized audience. Sanctuary Shattered Sun’s emergence suggests renewed interest in epic-scale strategic combat.

Dyson Sphere Setting and Environmental Destruction

The Dyson Sphere setting enables unprecedented environmental destruction mechanics where super weapons can create holes in the map itself, with water, units, and buildings falling into the sun below. This level of environmental manipulation exceeds even Planetary Annihilation’s planet destruction mechanics.

The ability to freeze oceans, creating new tactical opportunities as naval vessels become stranded while tanks cross frozen seas, demonstrates innovative thinking about how environmental effects can alter battlefield dynamics mid-game.

Strategic Zoom and Scale Innovation

The return of Supreme Commander’s strategic zoom system enables the godlike battlefield perspective that distinguished those games from conventional RTS titles. This feature, combined with enhanced destruction mechanics, promises the scale and spectacle that made the original games memorable.

The comprehensive campaign mode following three factions with interconnected storylines suggests significant single-player content alongside multiplayer experiences. This approach addresses criticisms that modern RTS games often sacrifice campaign quality for multiplayer focus.

Publisher Landscape and Industry Trends

Microprose’s Renaissance

The discussion reveals Microprose’s significant role in supporting niche strategy titles, from Task Force Admiral to numerous other upcoming projects. This publisher renaissance suggests renewed commercial interest in sophisticated strategy games that major publishers might consider too risky.

Microprose’s strategy of supporting passionate indie developers with proven expertise enables projects that might otherwise lack sufficient resources for completion. This approach could prove crucial for strategy gaming’s creative diversity.

Hooded Horse Competition

The mention of Hooded Horse alongside Microprose indicates healthy competition in strategy game publishing, with multiple companies willing to invest in sophisticated titles for dedicated audiences. This competition benefits developers and players by providing alternative funding and distribution paths.

The success of these specialized publishers suggests that strategy gaming’s audience, while niche, remains commercially viable when properly targeted and supported.

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Episode Verdict

This episode successfully captures the optimism and diversity characterizing strategy gaming’s upcoming releases in 2025. The hosts demonstrate genuine enthusiasm for titles spanning multiple subgenres, from ultra-realistic military simulations to absurd time-travel scenarios, suggesting a healthy ecosystem that serves diverse player preferences. Their discussions reveal how indie developers are pushing creative boundaries while established concepts like Supreme Commander find new expression through passionate development teams. The conversation’s strength lies in balancing technical analysis with personal enthusiasm, helping listeners understand both what makes these games potentially special and why strategy gaming might indeed experience a renaissance in 2025. The variety of titles discussed suggests that rather than any single game defining the year, 2025’s appeal may come from the breadth of quality options serving different strategic gaming interests.

Next Episode: War Stories: Why Narrative Matters in Strategy Games