Iron Meridian

Iron Meridian asks you to think like a logistics officer, not a warlord. You're carving out territory across a fractured map, and the twist is that armies are useless without fuel and food flowing to the front. Overextend and watch your advance grind to a halt.

The interface took me an evening to get comfortable with — there's a lot of information on a small screen — but once it clicked, I was hooked. Planning a pincer movement around a mountain range while keeping two supply depots stocked is genuinely tense.

It plays well in both quick skirmishes and longer campaign saves. I lost a whole Sunday afternoon to a single campaign map, which is the highest compliment I can give a strategy game.

What we liked

• Supply lines that actually matter
• Tense, thoughtful map control
• Scales from short skirmishes to long campaigns