Strategy on iPad

If you have an iPad, and you’re a fan of strategy titles, you have probably noticed something strange — even though iPad seems quite well suited to strategy games, there is somewhat of a dearth of them available on the platform.

Part of the problem is that iOS is somewhat flooded with Farmville-esque tap and collect titles. These masquerade as strategy, but in truth they’re just time wasters. On a scale with RTS titles like Rise of Nations or Age of Empires (both PC classics), they don’t even register.

There are some real time strategy titles, of course. The one that seems closest to being decent is Settlers HD, currently $4.99. The price is alright, for a complete game, but alas, there’s no real sandbox mode. Thus, the game ends up being too story driven. There is Sim City, an RTS title of sorts, but the iPad version is buggy and annoying.

So, what is a strategy lover to do? At this point, I’d say give up the RTS and go turn-based. A game called Conquist will run you just 99¢, and it will provide hours of enjoyment.

It’s clearly a Risk clone, but it’s better than EA’s Risk branded title on iPhone. Conquist is smooth, reliable, and fun. The rules are fair, and above all the AI is challenging. It’s even got multiple game modes including Castle mode, to keep it from getting too repetitive.

Sure, it’s not RTS, but it’s the first truly decent strategy title of any kind I’ve seen in AppStore. It’s also 99¢ well spent, which is always better than $4.99 wasted.

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