Can strategy games actually work on touch?

For years I assumed real-time strategy on a phone was a lost cause. Every attempt felt like fighting the interface more than the enemy. Selecting the right unit at the right moment seemed impossible on a surface that can't tell your thumb from your palm.

Ironline Command changed my mind. The difference is that it was designed for touch from the start, not ported down from a mouse. Radial menus, generous tap targets, and smart grouping mean you spend your attention on tactics instead of wrestling with selection.

It's not perfect. In heated moments I still mistapped and sent a unit charging into disaster. But those moments got rarer as I learned the layout, and crucially they stopped feeling like the game's fault.

The lesson for the whole genre is that touch strategy lives or dies on interface design. Get that right and the format is viable. Get it wrong and it doesn't matter how good the underlying game is.