Gameloft's iPhone adaptation of The Settlers has already appeared in the App Store. The $4.99 real time strategy simulation game started out as an Amiga game back in 1993 and has since evolved through multiple iterations.

You’ve arrived in a wondrous place populated by Romans, Vikings and Mayans competing or cooperating to reach a variety of goals. These goals include occupying land, ensuring the supply of raw materials, or simply trying to create the most beautiful settlement. There is more than one path which leads to success – you can engage in trade, forge alliances, or lead your army into battle.

Gameplay is described by Gameloft:

• Gather resources and build a lively and bustling town in an ancient world. Your decisions and skill in managing and protecting your settlement will determine its fate.
• The strength of your units depends on how effectively you have built up your settlement and paid attention to the economic relationships within it.
• Three nations to govern: Conquer new territories, defeat rival armies, and establish an empire with your warriors that encompasses lands and continents.
• A huge number of parameters to manage: Dozens of building’s types, settlements, soldiers, raw materials, and much more.
• An accessible game for everybody, thanks to extensive tutorial missions and multi-touch gameplay, ideal for strategy games.

Early impressions are starting to trickle into the discussion thread on our forums with some positive first impressions. One forum member mrbass posted an extensive gallery of screenshots of the gameplay and tutorial screens. We'll provide a more in depth look of the game in time.

App Store Link: The Settlers, $4.99

As is the case with most Gameloft games, very little is known about these two games short of the contents of their trailers. Thankfully, there is quite a bit of gameplay shown in both of them so it's not very hard to get a feel for each game.

The Settlers – The last in a long line of Settlers games starting with the original that was released on the Amiga all the way back in 1993. The Settlers is a real time strategy simulation game that historically has had a fairly relaxed gameplay pace which should translate well to the iPhone. The amount of units moving on screen at once is fairly impressive, and with how few of the games there are of this genre on the App Store, The Settlers should easily stand out from the pack.

Castle Frenzy – Castle defense games have seen a remarkable amount of success on the App Store, from the numerous games with simple stick figures to highly detailed games like Knights Onrush that all share the same basic gameplay elements. Castle Frenzy seems to have the same array of defense upgrades and abilities seen in most similar games, with the most notable difference being its colorful 3D graphics. It's hard to say what if any effect this will have on gameplay, but from the trailer alone Castle Frenzy seems to be one of the coolest looking castle defense games if nothing else.

Agharta Studios' Rogue Planet was the surprise of WWDC this year for me. I had a last minute meeting with CEO Aurelien Kerbeci where he pulled his iPhone out of his pocket and proceeded to blow me away with a game that was so far above and beyond my expectations that I was nearly speechless.

During this meeting, Kebeci mentioned that the game was still in development, but at the time only had two weeks to go before submitting their game to Apple for approval. We posted this in our exclusive preview, the forums caught wind, and then Rogue Planet vanished without a trace. Emails to Agharta Studios were met with cryptic responses about a mysterious "big name" publisher and a September release date.

Needless to say, we were left scratching out heads, and nothing came of Rogue Planet aside from forum members randomly bumping the thread asking if anyone had any new information every once in a while. That is, until today, when the following video appeared on Gameloft's YouTube channel:

As you can see from the trailer, Rogue Planet is a turn based strategy game with the same amazing art style seen in Agharta's other game,1112 [$4.99 / Free]. We posted other details in our preview along with a gameplay video, but it has been so long since we last saw the game that it's hard to say how much of it is still the same from what was shown at WWDC.

Per the video, Rogue Planet is going to be released on the 24th, and assuming they can stick with that date I have a pretty good idea of what I will be spending my Thanksgiving holiday weekend playing. Needless to say, as soon as we get more information about this game we will post it, and hopefully will have a better preview very soon.

Agharta Studios' partnership with Gameloft as a publisher is a very interesting one. While Gameloft seems to have dabbled in publishing other titles in the past, for the most part has done much of their iPhone game development in house.

If you were a PC gamer in the mid 90's, the very mention of Command & Conquer likely brings back memories of massive battles, elaborate bases, the cumbersome Westwood Online multiplayer, and best of all- The game coming with two discs to give one to a friend to play against without having to buy a second copy of the game. Westwood was eventually acquired by EA, and through numerous sequels and spin-offs there have been over 30 million copies sold across the franchise.

Command & Conquer Red Alert [App Store] like the other games in the Red Alert family takes place in an alternate universe where World War II never occurred thanks to some time traveling trickery by Albert Einstein which resulted in the Soviet Union rising to power due to the Allies never developing nuclear weaponry. Unfortunately, the iPhone game doesn't do much to convey this fascinating game setting, but other games in the series that do a better job of this are worth checking out if you're an alternate history fiction fan.

The controls in Command & Conquer Red Alert work shockingly well. I consider myself real time strategy fan, but there are not only few of these games on the App Store, but even fewer that have controls that make for fun gameplay. The user interface has remained constant since the preview we did early last month:

The screen is framed with all kinds of interface elements, and while seeming slightly cluttered, everything works well enough and I never felt like the controls were getting in the way of what I wanted to do in the game. The battlefield can be zoomed using standard pinching gestures, and to change your field of view you can either swipe your finger around the screen or touch the mini map in the top right corner.

Lining the right side of the screen are all the buttons and menus for building your base as well as training units. Just like the PC version, units can be queued up to train multiples at once. Placing a new building in your base is as simple as tapping it from the "build" menu, at which point a grid appears on top of the terrain and your building can be placed with familiar green and red highlighting indicating valid placement.

Once you've got your army built, you can organize units in to three squads assigned to the three buttons on the left hand side of the screen. To select units, you can either tap them to select individual units, or by tapping a button on the bottom left corner of the screen you can drag a selection box around units on the battlefield. From there, another button on the bottom of the screen allows you to assign your current selection of units to one of the three buttons on the left side of the screen.

The graphics and sound in Command & Conquer Red Alert are absolutely phenomenal. Everything is rendered in beautiful 3D graphics, and some of my favorite tracks from other Red Alert games have made their way in to the iPhone version. In these two categories, the game excels.

However, like most games from long-standing franchises that wind up on the iPhone, Command & Conquer Red Alert is substantially trimmed down. On one hand, this is without a doubt among the best RTS games available on the platform, but on the other, the game is very minimal and when I step back from my incredibly fond nostalgia of the Red Alert series, it seems like a $9.99 vessel to sell downloadable content packs.

The amount of content the game itself comes with is disappointing, to the point that I didn't mention it in the preview as I was fairly certain they were going to add more in to the game when it was finally released. Unfortunately, it has remained the same. Without looking to the in-game store, the content in Command & Conquer Red Alert is limited to two brief campaigns which feel more like tutorials and two skirmish maps you can play against an AI opponent.

The single $0.99 DLC pack which is available with the launch of the game offers six additional skirmish maps and a couple extra units. In the future EA plans on releasing a free update to add local multiplayer via WiFi or bluetooth, but currently you're stuck playing these maps against an AI controlled army that has no difficulty adjustment– likely creating gameplay that will be boring to veterans of the genre and frustrating to newcomers.

So in the end, how much you enjoy Command & Conquer Red Alert will largely depend on what you expect out of the game. For an iPhone game, EA does a great job with the controls and stellar music and graphics make watching and listening to the game much more fun. Unfortunately, the game does feel remarkably bite sized, with neither very much content nor much replay value without buying more maps via DLC. And launching a $9.99 game with a $0.99 DLC just doesn't sit well, especially when the downloadable packs don't feel as optional as they should be.

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We generally try to avoid discussing game pricing, as everyone feels differently on what is and isn't an acceptable price for a game. It just seems to me, that if you're launching your game at the top-end of the App Store pricing spectrum, it shouldn't require an additional DLC pack for gamers to feel like they're experiencing a more complete game– especially in a Command & Conquer game which historically have come with an unbelievable amount of maps.

If you can get around feeling nickel and dimed buying what seems like something that should have been included in the initial version of the game, Command & Conquer Red Alert is great. Unfortunately, with how little content is included, I'd suggest waiting to see how the multiplayer updates pan out.

App Store Link: Command & Conquer Red Alert, $9.99

Craneballs Studios, who brought us the unique iPhone shooter Blimp – The Flying Adventures, has just released 33rd Division [App Store], a combat-themed tactical line-draw game in the ilk of Flight Control.

Set in World War II, 33rd Division offers gameplay across four different European battlefields.  The goal is to guide soldiers, medics and sergeants entering the battlefield to each of their designated destinations without being seen (shot and killed).  This is done by drawing a course across the battlefield (Flight Control style) in and among obstacles and roving patrols.

Sounds just like all the other line-draw games, right?  Well, 33rd Division has some interesting variations up its sleeve.  The aforementioned roving patrols have a limited field of vision, indicated by a highlighted sight cone that moves as they turn about the battlefield.  As long as you stay out of their sight area, you're fine, but enter that cone and, well, let's just call it the cone of death.  What's more, if you're trapped and about to be seen, you can lie down, rendering you invisible…unless the patrols walk right up to you, in which case they render you full of lead.

The game offers two playmodes, Life, in which it's game over after you lose all your lives, and Time, where it's an all out race against the clock. Helping you out along the way are eight different power-ups that can be collected on the battlefield, including invincibility, bonus life, extra time, double speed, and frozen enemies. The WWII-era menu music, complete with crackles and pops, adds nicely to the effect, as does the ambient battlefield sound during gameplay.  OpenFeint leaderboards provide incentive to hone your skill.

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There are a number of line-draw games of this general sort in the App Store.  I do have my favorites.  And as it turns out, 33rd Division is among them.  The temptation to shortcut your way across the battlefield, cutting dangerously close to the patrols and dropping to the ground at the right moment, adds a great sense of danger and exhilaration to the gameplay.  But, be careful, you don't want to get stepped on!

App Store Link: 33rd Division, $0.99

KOEI's Romance of the Three Kingdoms Touch [App Store] is a strategy game that takes place in China during the second and third centuries. The iPhone version is the latest in a long line of ports, sequels, and remakes starting with the original PC release in Japan in 1985.

In a nutshell, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is pretty much the dream come true of an App Store gamer that have found the current offering of strategy games not detailed enough, or lacking depth. The game is split between managing your forces on a map of china broken in to smaller areas where you build up your armies or weaken the resolve of others and a sequence of turn-based battles when push comes to shove. The amount of choices you have in game is mind boggling, and even with the in-depth tutorial system I've felt slightly overwhelmed trying to get a grip on this game not having experienced any of the other entries in the series.

AppBank shot a brief video of the game in action, and while they're not playing the English version of the game, you can at least get an idea of how the game looks and feels in motion:

It's hard to say how much appeal Romance of the Three Kingdoms Touch will have on the App Store. Currently we have a thread on our forums with a few very enthusiastic members posting how much they love the game, but if you weren't around for previous iterations of the series or don't enjoy extremely involved strategy games, it not going to be for you.

App Store Link: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, $9.99

Following Kolonists' apparent removal from the App Store, Catan [App Store] fans were left without an outlet for their need to build roads and settlements along with gathering various resources on the go– That is, until USM and Exozet Games' recently released official Catan hit the App Store.

Catan for the iPhone is a faithful reproduction of the board game, which was first published in Germany in 1995 and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide since. The game is played with up to four players (or more with expansions not present in the iPhone game) on a board game with 19 hex tiles that randomly go together to create a different layout for each game played.

Players then build settlements, cities, and roads as they gather resources and settle the island. To win the game, you need to have a certain number of victory points on your turn which are earned by meeting various goals within the game. In the iPhone version, victory points are configurable from 8 to 12 along with a few other options to customize gameplay to both make it harder for veteran players and easier for new players.

If this is the first you've heard of Catan, you will be happy to find out that the game has a remarkably full featured tutorial included that covers nearly every aspect of the game. Catan, like most strategic board games can be somewhat intimidating to new players, but the tutorial does an excellent job of starting with the basics and teaching you everything you need to know to be a proficient settler of Catan.

The thread on our forums about the game is filled with great feedback and reviews. INCyr, a fan of the board game, posted a review and thinks its a great game with a few issues keeping it from being perfect. Forum member Farnsworthiness had never played Catan before posted his thoughts and agrees with me on the strengths of the game's tutorials but mentions that the game is a bit of a battery hog.

I've been having a great time with Catan, although I was disappointed with the lack of anything other than hot seat multiplayer. Having spent so much time playing Words With Friends [$2.99 / Free] lately, I really wish more turn-based games adopted a similar push-alert powered asynchronous multiplayer mode.

App Store Link: Catan, $4.99

Last weekend we took a look at a preview release of React Games' Archon Conquest and, as fans of the 25 year old EA original, we liked what we saw.  The game has since gone live in the App Store [link] and we've spent a bit more time with this variation on the studio's remake of the chess-like action strategy game.

Back in June, React brought a revamped take on EA's 1983 classic Archon [App Store] to the iPhone. Archon is an action / strategy game set on a 9×9 chess-like board arrayed with a variety of Light and Dark game pieces, each with its own set of battle attributes.  When two pieces come face-to-face on the same board square, action turns to the battle arena where the enemies do battle, arcade style.  The winner takes the square.

Archon Conquest stays close to the original formula, but in place of the chess board setting is a variety of different environments in which to play — four maps or campaigns with 60 different quests or puzzles to complete in all.  As mentioned in our preview, Archon Conquest looks visually closer to EA's 1984 sequel, Archon II: Adpet, but the similarity ends there.  It's still a matter of controlling power squares or wiping out the enemy wholesale, but in new, obstacle-laden environments.

Archon Conquest allows the player to earn medals on each quest, depending on overall success and tracks skill through (Plus+) online leaderboards.  Power characters can cast spells, including new spells as compared to the original, and characters can level up and collect various power-ups in the combat arena.

The differing available characters through the game's various quests, along with the need to negotiate the new board environments, mixes the game up tangibly from the more ordered gameplay of the original.  It feels very much like the new take on Archon that it is, and as a big fan of the original, I find it pleasantly refreshing.  There's definitely more long-term playability here than in the classic title. In fact, the full play time is estimated at 16 hours to complete all four maps.

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Those familiar and fond of the original should find the variety that Archon Conquest brings a welcome twist on a solid formula.  And, thanks to the variation that the game brings (not to mention a lower cost of entry), those who've never commanded the Light or the Dark before might just find React's latest to be more appealing than classic Archon. 

Wherever you fall, if a well-balanced fusion of action and strategy sounds appealing, you'd do well to give Archon Conquest a try.

App Store Link: Archon Conquest, $0.99

Luc Bernard's long awaited online multiplayer update for Mecho Wars [App Store] is finally available this afternoon. If you've been waiting to get the game until the online component has been added, now is your chance to join in on some OpenFeint-powered turn based multiplayer action.

Mecho Wars is a turn-based strategy game that plays very similar to the Advance Wars games on the Nintendo DS and Gameboy Advance. Since our review of the initial release, Oyaji Games has also added a second single player campaign and even more challenge maps to conquer.

The online component features a ranking system with an insignia that changes as you defeat more opponents, along with twenty different slots that concurrent multiplayer games can be played in very similar to UniWar [99¢]. There are 20 different maps to play on along with four different objectives that range from capturing all buildings, killing a specific target, killing all enemy units, and reaching a certain gold total. There are also options for turn time limits ranging from 5 minutes to 24 hours.

The online multiplayer seems to work equally well both over WiFi and 3G, although it would be nice if there was an even shorter turn limit to make games feel a little bit more real time.

If you have questions for the developers about the game, Luc Bernard started a thread in our forums.

App Store Link: Mecho Wars, $4.99

There's a lot going right now over at React Games, and it's not just to do with the iPhone.

The studio that brought a revamp of Free Fall Associates' classic '80s strategy / arcade game Archon [App Store] to the iPhone is about to release a separate single-player spin-off title that should give fans of the game much to enjoy.

Upcoming Archon Conquest features four maps to play, 60 different quests or puzzles to complete, and a storyline that ties it all together.  Fans of the series may note that some of the maps are reminiscent of the layout of Archon II: Adept, but the similarity ends at the visual level.  Still, it's a nice expansion of an already great game.

We've captured some early gameplay from the pre-release, preview build of the game that React was kind enough to send us.  Have a look at the action.

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Archon Conquest will appear in the App Store shortly at a price of $0.99.

React is also putting the finishing touches on the v1.9 update to classic Archon for the iPhone, which should hit the App Store about the same time as Conquest.  This update will bring a complete re-work of the touch control system as well as various AI enhancements.  And the further-out v2.0 update of Archon will add multiplayer to the mix.  Stay tuned.

Both Archon v1.9 and Archon Conquest now feature Plus+ leaderboards and award systems.

Another piece of news for fans of the game is that React is bringing a four-player adaptation of classic Archon to the PC, featuring multiplayer support as well as a choice of classic 8-bit or redesigned artwork. After 25 years, the game returns to the desktop.  Pre-orders for the PC version start on October 15th at React's website.