Three Moves Ahead
Three Moves Ahead
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Three Moves Ahead is the leading strategy game themed podcast on the internet. Every week a panel of knowledgeable gamers with strong opinions meets to talk about the strategy and war games of the day, design issues and games in the wider world.
Three Moves Ahead 653: Corsair Cove
Len, Jon, and Fraser set sail with Corsair Cove, a pirate city-builder with a reckless disregard for building codes. We discuss our different buccaneer building styles, the card- and dice-based ship combat, and try to answer the eternal question: what DO you do with a drunken sailor?
Aug 1
1 hr 5 min
Three Moves Ahead 652: ZeroSpace Early Access Interview
Len sits down with Game Director Marv Gouw and Consulting Art Director (and Relic co-founder) J. Aaron Kambeitz to talk about ZeroSpace, a new RTS inspired by the greats of the genre with BioWare-style cutscenes and story decisions. We dig into the odd place RTSes find themselves in the industry right now, how the "Homeworld look" relates to typefaces, and how the changes in the games industry today echo those the film industry went through decades ago.
Jul 17
1 hr 13 min
Three Moves Ahead 651: Age of Empires II in 2026 feat. Hera
Len and DM are joined by the current Age of Empires II world champion, Hera, to discuss the state of the game in 2026. We try to explain its longevity, examine what it takes to be a top-level esports player, and discuss Hera's streamer invitational tournament, The King's Gauntlet.
Jun 12
1 hr
Three Moves Ahead 650: Slay the Spire 2
Len and Jon are joined by PC Gamer's Evan Lahti to Slay the Spire once again in the roguelike deckbuilder sequel. We discuss why our intrepid host is so bad at this game, if she can even be helped, and what the wackiest combos we've seen so far look like.
May 10
1 hr 9 min
Three Moves Ahead 649: Xenonauts 2
Len, Jon, and Sin gear up and get ready to die on the first turn to some BS in Xenonauts 2, a sequel to a throwback to a classic tactics game. We discuss how it stacks up to the old school UFO Defense, the Firaxis reboots, and the best Noah Wyle show, Falling Skies.
Apr 23
1 hr 13 min
Three Moves Ahead 648: Heart of the Machine
3MA is finally embracing AI! Okay, not really. But Len and Jon do have many thoughts about Heart of the Machine, a fascinating, story-driven strategy RPG about becoming the world's first sentient computer.
Mar 28
1 hr 10 min
Three Moves Ahead 647.5: Len and D.M. Join the Yakuza (WtHTI Patreon Preview)
Len is joined by long-time friend and collaborator, real life video game lawyer D.M. Schmeyer, to reconnect over tales of nearly 30 years nerding out together and discuss what we're currently in to and up to. Games Discussed: The Necromancer's Tale Amorantus Esoteric Ebb
Mar 14
1 hr 2 min
Three Moves Ahead 647: Menace Early Access
Len and Jon get tactical with the squad-based space marine (in the classical sense) platoon simulator, Menace. Because war is actually about Family.
Feb 22
1 hr 10 min
Three Moves Ahead 646: Whiskerwood
This week, Rowan and Luke contemplate the inherent class struggle implied by feline-rodent relations in another delightful, furry-adjacent city builder with Whiskerwood. In this world, the cat tax doesn't simply mean posting a pet pic to thank people for reading your wall of text modding tutorial. It's wealth extracted from the whiskered workers by feline overlords in a distant land. The solution, once again, might be trains.
Feb 6
1 hr 19 min
Three Moves Ahead 645: 2026 Look Ahead
Len and Brian "Chef Lu Bu" Smawley are joined by friend of the show Diana to peek into the near distance at the strategy games we're interested in that have announced or probable release dates in 2026. It's going to be another big year for city-builders! Also, is Total War 40K even a good idea? Games discussed: Total War: Warhamer 40,000, Dawn of War 4, Menace, Slay the Spire 2, Nova Roma, Norse: Oath of Blood, DarkSwitch, Battlestar Galactica: Shattered Hopes, Beyond These Stars, SkyRig, SpaceCraft, Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, Star Wars: Zero Company
Jan 24
1 hr 4 min
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