That stalemate sounds more interesting than it first appears: the winning move was opening the position on purpose, not simply building a stronger army. Does the game show enough about income and upkeep to plan that deliberately, or do you mostly learn the starvation thresholds by losing? On a phone, that clarity seems like the difference between a clever puzzle and trial and error.

These answers point to a useful pattern: good mobile strategy doesn’t have to be simple, but it does need to tolerate interruption. Unciv removes real-time pressure, Into the Breach preserves a run cleanly, Landrule compresses a full match, and Arknights keeps stages short. So the better test may be: how quickly can you return to one meaningful decision after unlocking your phone? That seems more useful than judging by genre alone.