Strategy games that don't punish you for taking a break

I have a grudge against energy timers, and mobile strategy games are where I feel it most. Too many good ideas got buried under systems designed to nag you back.

Tide of Empires is a refreshing example of the opposite. Nothing decays while you're gone. You can plan a huge campaign over a week of commutes and pick it up exactly where you left it.

Turn-based design suits offline play naturally. There's no real-time pressure, so a lost connection doesn't matter and neither does putting the phone down mid-thought.

If you've been burned by predatory strategy games before, give the offline turn-based ones a try. They remember what made the genre fun in the first place.