HeyJaredCritical Moves - Strategy Gaming
Critical Moves is a strategy games podcast that takes RTS, 4X, and tactics seriously. Most gaming podcasts don’t even bother with strategy games. We do.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 18, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
Gamescom & BlizzCon Roundup, Humankind 2, Rainbow Six Tactics, Warcraft 3 Reforged & More (Ep.99) (opens the original)
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Jack hosts this week with Drexy and Joe as they run through a stack of strategy adjacent announcements from Gamescom and BlizzCon. Topics include Lego Skylines, Paradox's new post apocalyptic title Afterworld, the surprise reveal of Humankind 2 and its civilization switching mechanic compared to Civilization VII's recent anniversary update, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Tactics (aka SixCom), Ubisoft's Heroes of Might and Magic III remake, Warcraft III Reforged's new campaign, a wave of Blizzcon revea
The Last General Dev on Drones, Delays and Doing It All Alone (Ep.98) (opens the original)
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Alejandro Nunez is building The Last General entirely alone: a massive scale RTS where you command thousands of troops with high level strategic orders, then jump into any tank, plane or drone in first or third person whenever you want. We sat down with him to talk about the game's rapid rise to 158,000 wishlists, the FPV and kamikaze drones inspired by the war in Ukraine, why early access has slipped from 2025 to May 2027, and what's eaten up that extra time. We also get into the twelve fiction
Can RTS Be Saved? (Ep.97) (opens the original)
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RTS isn't the genre it once was. Al is joined by Jack and Nuno to work through why real-time strategy fell off the map - the shift from PC to console, the rise of FPS, mobile and MOBAs, and the loss of Westwood and Blizzard's hold on the genre - and whether the games on the horizon can bring it back. Along the way: the multiplayer-versus-single-player question, why so many well-funded RTS projects keep failing, and the upcoming titles worth watching, from Total War: Warhammer 40,000 and Game of
What Even is a Drexy? | The Death of 4X (Ep.96) (opens the original)
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New face on the pod. Drexy joins us for the first proper sit-down — where he came from, how he got into strategy games, and why he reckons 4X is quietly dying on its feet. We get into what actually makes a 4X a 4X, whether genre-blending is the only way forward, Civ 7's troubles, the rise of the solo dev, AI in game development, and the mechanics the genre keeps getting wrong. Drexy's been playing and thinking about strategy games for longer than he'd care to admit, and knows the genre inside ou
Virtual Economies in Strategy Games (Ep.95) (opens the original)
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Jack and Adam dig into how strategy games model their economies — from Victoria 3's fully simulated supply and demand to Stellaris treating resources as a means to an end. Along the way they cover limited versus unlimited resources, why money can feel like a cheap way out of a tight spot, the wildly different scales games use for wealth, and whether they'd rather play scarce or swimming in surplus. Games discussed include Victoria 3, Stellaris, Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron 4, Anno, Tropico, Ci
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