Can real strategy work on a phone?

Strategy games and phones have a rocky relationship. The depth fans love often clashes with a small screen and chunky fingers. But a few recent games have made me believe it can absolutely work.

Iron Dominion was the one that convinced me. It keeps its unit roster small and its icons huge, so you never fumble a critical order. The AI is aggressive enough that you have to think, but the controls never get in the way of thinking.

The key seems to be designing for the screen from the start rather than porting a PC layout down. When developers commit to that, you get something that feels native, not compromised.

If you've written off mobile strategy after one bad port, it might be time to give the genre another look. The good ones are quietly excellent.