Nanuleu is an area control real-time strategy game where we expand our territory, accumulate resources, and place defenses to repel the enemy onslaught until we can launch an effective counterattack.

We play on a randomly generated square grid where certain tiles contain valuable resource deposits such as minerals and water. Starting at the center, we spend resources to build various nodes adjacent to the tiles we already occupy.

Cheap root nodes serve as roads that expand our network, while more expensive extractors can only be placed on deposit tiles to increase resource production. Our objective is to reach several distant tiles on the map and build special nodes there.

As time goes by, enemy camps start to appear in the corners of the map. These spawn troops that attack our nodes, and to oppose them, we must place defense towers that fire projectiles. Once we occupy all the special tiles, we get access to our own troop factories so we can produce units that destroy the enemy spawns. Getting rid of all the enemies is the ultimate goal of the game.

The strategy revolves around carefully balancing our expansion and resource production while racing against the ever-growing enemy forces. If we fail to occupy the deposits, we may not be able to produce enough towers in time, but a larger territory is also harder to control and requires more resources for towers. I found this balancing to be quite challenging and unforgiving, which highly contrasts the game's seemingly casual art style.

Nanuleu is a $2.99 premium game without ads or iAPs. Despite being rather simple and repetitive, it still provides an entertaining and unique experience for fans of real-time strategy and tower defense games.