In this episode, Soren interviews veteran game designer Patrice Desilets, best known for his work on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Assassin’s Creed series, and Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey. They discuss why they couldn’t put rewind into Assassin’s Creed, the problem with designing for a meeting, and why he needed to have players beat up the pope. This episode was recorded on April 15, 2025.

Games discussed: Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Civilization series, Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, 1666 Amsterdam, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey

Designer Notes 90: Patrice Desilets - Part 2

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 Ultimate General: Civil War as a launching pad to discuss the conflict itself, the games based on it, as well as the tricky elements of adapting it for an entertainment product through the wonder-filled eyes of a strategy newbie.

Inspired by the article, "Bad News, I’m A 43-Year-Old Man And I’ve Recently Taken An Interest In The Civil War," https://aftermath.site/civil-war-middle-age

Games Discussed: Ultimate General: Civil War, Hearts of Iron IV, Panzer Corps, Panzer General, Panzer General 2, Grand Tactician: The Civil War, Total War: Napoleon

Three Moves Ahead 636 - Civil War Midlife Crisis

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 means for the RTS.

Check out this wild custom map made without triggers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSjGR4HGuiU

Three Moves Ahead 637 - Stormgate: Ashes of Earth Interview

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 incisors into the beaver city builder to discuss its ecological themes, potential for hydrological urbanism, and where it's at in its development journey.

Three Moves Ahead 638 - Bobr

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 War 4, which Len and Fraser both got some hands-on time with.

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

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.

Games discussed in order of mention: Endless Legend 2, Zephon, Feastopia, The Alters, Against the Storm, Hades 2, The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily, Town to City, Rise of the White Sun, Tempest Rising, Victoria 3, Silent Hill f, Super Robot Wars Y

Three Moves Ahead 640 - Endless Legend 2 & Friends

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 way at this point? And why has it turned Rowan into The Joker?

Three Moves Ahead 641 - Europa Universalis 5

In this episode, Soren interviews Tomislav Uzelac, best known for his work on the Unity of Command series. They discuss how he taped his first games from a radio station, building the MP3 encoder for Winamp, and whether there is a solution to snowballing in campaign modes. This episode was recorded on April 15, 2025.

Games discussed: Sid Meier’s Pirates!, Centurion: Defender of Rome, the Panzer General series, the Unity of Command series, Old World

Designer Notes 91: Tomislav Uzelac

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 an interesting lens through which to view the height of the Imperial Era.

Three Moves Ahead 642 - Anno 117: Pax Romana

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 that one.

Games discussed: Nova Roma
Look Outside
Lisa the Painful
Total War Warhammer: Tides of Torment
Skin Deep
Ambrosia Sky
Demonschool
Phantom Brigade
Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream
Crusader Kings 3: All Under Heaven
Mount & Blade 2: War Sails
Cities Skylines 2
Victoria 3: Iberian Twilight
Death Howl
Heroes of Might & Magic: The Olden Era
The Case of the Golden Idol
Enigma Trilogy

Three Moves Ahead 643 - 2025 Catch-Up

Some questions are like an itch you can't scratch, or worse, an itch you can scratch as much as you'd like, but the itch doesn't go away. Today we indulge our compulsions and scratch away at the unscrachable, like: When did George Clooney start showing so much skin? Why does the flu virus really want you to party? And what drew three painters of video game box art to the same back-alley brawl, in the same town, on the same night? We will tread these paths again and again until we discover the truth, or are tricked by our own minds into believing we have. Plus, thanks to a helpful reader, major steps are taken to record for all time the 45 brains that control existence. 

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Important Reference Material: self-driving car, self-driving flying car, robots wearing skin, The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, flu-prompted sociability, Streets of Rage cover art, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Steven Spielberg's early career, 45brains.online

Important If True

Important If True 5: The Convergence Compulsion

Idle Thumbs is an independent podcast network whose podcasts span comedy, pop culture and entertainment, video games, and TV.