Three Moves Ahead

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 is a games podcast hosted by Idle Thumbs, with 656 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Idle Thumbs hosts Three Moves Ahead, a games show with 656 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Three Moves Ahead

  Three Moves Ahead 654: Summer Catch-Up 2026

  Aug 29, 20261h 7m

  Len and Nerium are joined once again by special guest Diana to discuss a lot of the smaller games we played this summer that didn't make it into a full episode, our varying levels of EU5 addiction, and mechsploitation. Games Discussed: Sovereign Tower Dispatch Suzerain EU5 Civ 7 Test of Time Mortal Shell II Elden Ring: The Convergence Big Walk The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily Twisted Tower Endacopia Openfront.io

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  Three Moves Ahead

  Three Moves Ahead 653: Corsair Cove

  Jul 31, 20261h 6m

  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?

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  Three Moves Ahead

  Three Moves Ahead 652: ZeroSpace Early Access Interview

  Jul 17, 20261h 14m

  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.

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  Three Moves Ahead

  Three Moves Ahead 651: Age of Empires II in 2026 feat. Hera

  Jun 12, 20261h 1m

  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.

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  Three Moves Ahead

  Three Moves Ahead 650: Slay the Spire 2

  May 9, 20261h 10mS0

  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.

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