Tidewatch Command

Tidewatch Command drops you in charge of a stretch of coastline and asks you to hold it against waves of pressure. You build, you scout, you decide what to sacrifice when everything can't be defended. It rewards planning over panic, and the campaign teaches its systems at a fair pace.

The touch controls surprised me. Pinch to zoom, tap to place, drag to reroute, and it mostly stays out of your way. The pause-and-plan option means you're never fumbling under a timer, which makes it work on a smaller screen where fast RTS controls usually fall apart.

Sessions run long if you let them, so keep an eye on the clock and the battery. I found the sweet spot around one mission at a time. The interface can get cramped on very small phones, but on anything mid-sized it reads cleanly.

What we liked

• Pause-and-plan suits mobile perfectly
• Genuine strategic trade-offs
• Clean interface on mid-size screens