Shortish and sweet
None of us have any bloody time any more, do we? The economy being in the toilet is obviously part of that, but the other part is that we're all adults and now we have to do responsible adult things like our laundry, and buying toilet paper, and buying toilet paper again because it simply never ends. It all makes playing games just that little bit trickier, especially when it comes to lengthy strategy game runs. If you're longing for a quick dose of some 4X strategy, though, Monarchs at Play, a turn-based city-builder that only takes an hour, might be the thing you're after.
I know that a simple hour of your time might actually be quite a lot in the greater scheme of things, but for something like a 4X strategy game, that sounds pretty reasonable to me. In Monarchs at Play, you choose from one of several monarchs, each of which has their own unique abilities and buildings. In a run, like most other city-builders, you start out small by placing what little buildings you have available to you, the ultimate goal being to place different kinds of tiles next to one another to build up combos.
Different buildings allow you to rack up resources, which in turn lets you place new buildings; you get how this works! You aren't doing this alone, however, as you have rivals to compete against, where you'll have to destroy the buildings they place to continue growing your own empire. These rivals can just be simple NPCs, but they can also be real-life players, so if you've only got an hour to spare but want to play something online, Monarchs at Play seems like it'll be a good fit.
There's a demo you can currently check out and try for yourself on Steam too. No release date attached just yet, so you'll have to keep your eyes peeled.