Ironroot Vanguard

Ironroot Vanguard is the kind of tower defence that respects planning. Each map forces you to rethink your loadout, and the enemy waves are clearly authored rather than randomly thrown at you. You feel the designer's hand in every choke point.

The upgrade tree is generous but not overwhelming. I liked that you can respec between missions, which encouraged me to experiment instead of hoarding one build. Some later maps are genuinely brutal, so bring patience.

Performance was smooth even on my older phone, and there is a proper offline mode. If you want a strategy game that treats you like an adult, start here.

What we liked

• Hand-crafted maps, not random spawns
• Flexible respec between missions
• Runs well offline on older devices