I can second Through the Ages, the phone port is reasonably good. I used to play mobile games quite often, but it's been getting harder and harder to find game

I can second Through the Ages, the phone port is reasonably good. I used to play mobile games quite often, but it's been getting harder and harder to find games that don't require an insane amount of grinding or a pay to win model. I like strategy games, but when looking for games on the genre, I keptwszz finding recommendations for games like Clash of Clans, and that's precisely the opposite of what I want (it looks relevant, and the intro feels like what I want, but after a couple of hours of playing, I realize it's a waste of time). Unfortunately, it seems games for desktop are also trying to go that direction, but with DLC and cosmetics instead of more direct pay to win. I really don't understand why people stand for this crap, but the fact that it's becoming more popular means that it works. I miss the days when buying a game meant you got a good experience out of the box and you weren't hassled to pay more for the same game. Companies would sometimes sell an expansion or two, but those were almost like sequels, not missing features from the base game.