Iron Dominion

Iron Dominion asks you to carve out a settlement on a contested map and slowly expand it while fending off raids. What makes it click is that rushing rarely works. You have to read the terrain, place your defenses carefully, and plan a couple of moves ahead.

The interface is tidy for a strategy game on a phone. Everything scales with a pinch, orders queue nicely, and the tutorial doesn't drown you. I spent my first hour just arranging walls and lost track of time.

It can get slow in the mid-game, and I wished the research tree was a little deeper. Still, as a thinking-person's mobile strategy game, it held my attention for a solid week.

What we liked

• Defense-first design that rewards planning
• Clean, pinch-to-zoom controls
• Satisfying slow-burn progression