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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.

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  • 20 episodes
  • monthly
  • Avg 1 hr 13 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • August 1 · 1 hr 5 min

    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

  • July 17 · 1 hr 13 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 pl

  • June 12 · 1 hr

    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 tourna

  • May 10 · 1 hr 9 min

    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.

  • April 23 · 1 hr 13 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, Fal

  • March 28 · 1 hr 10 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.

  • February 22 · 1 hr 10 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.

  • February 6 · 1 hr 19 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

  • January 24 · 1 hr 4 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!

  • January 1 · 1 hr 49 min

    Three Moves Ahead 644: 2025 Strategy Games of the Year

    Len, Mike, and Luke pop the champagne and discuss the Strategy Games of the Year for 2025. And we can't really talk about the year in strategy without dwelling on the big theme of Disappointment. But all is not woe, because we played plenty of stuff we lo

  • Dec 13, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min

    Three Moves Ahead 643: 2025 Catch-Up

    Len, Nerium, and Mike kick back to highlight some of our favorite strategy and non-strategy games of 2025 that didn't make it to a full episode. There were how many Roman city-builders this year? And yes, sports management games do count as strategy. Even

  • Nov 22, 2025 · 1 hr 12 min

    Three Moves Ahead 642: Anno 117: Pax Romana

    Len and Jon are joined by But Why Tho?'s Kate Sánchez and CGMagazine's Dayna Eileen to build Rome in a day with Anno 117: Pax Romana. We discuss the series history and our jumping-on points with it, what's different about this one, and how it serves as a

  • Nov 1, 2025 · 1 hr 32 min

    Three Moves Ahead 641: Europa Universalis 5

    Len, Rowan, and Jon are at last granted the liberty to speak on their experiences with Europa Universalis 5, Paradox's latest and most ambitious grand strategy game. Is it actually good? Is it even possible to evaluate it in a that straightforward of a wa

  • Oct 9, 2025 · 59 min

    Three Moves Ahead 640: Endless Legend 2 & Friends

    Len and Mike are joined by Ruth Cassidy and Sin Vega to give some early impressions of Endless Legend 2's Early Access launch, as well as a whole bunch of other stuff we've been playing, in this chill variety chat.

  • Sep 20, 2025 · 1 hr 4 min

    Three Moves Ahead 639: The Past and Future Dawn of War

    Len, Ian, and Fraser are placed onto the battlefield from strategic reserves to talk about the past and future of Dawn of War. The past: the recent Dawn of War: Definitive Edition and how well it holds up for a 20-plus-year-old game. The future: Dawn of W

  • Aug 16, 2025 · 1 hr 5 min

    Three Moves Ahead 638: Timberborn

    Timberborn is one of those Early Access games that we missed covering at its original launch, and we're not sure when it's going to be actually done... so what better time to talk about it than now, honestly? Len, Ian, Mike, and Sin sink their oversized i

  • Aug 5, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min

    Three Moves Ahead 637: Stormgate: Ashes of Earth Interview

    With Stormgate leaving Early Access alongside the release of its first full single-player campaign, Ashes of Earth, Len chatted with Frost Giant's Top Tims, Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, about what has changed in the last year and what this new chapter mea

  • Jul 31, 2025 · 1 hr 51 min

    Three Moves Ahead 636: Civil War Midlife Crisis

    Aftermath's Riley MacLeod has developed a sudden interest in the American Civil War, and we've assembled a 3MA all-star team featuring Rob Zacny, Rowan Kaiser, Len Hafer, and Luke Plunkett to walk him through this difficult and confusing time. We use Ulti

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes