iPad Apps Buzz

Strategery for iPad: Have little dot men fight wars for you

Posted by James Eunson | May 17, 2010

UPDATE: A commenter below has revealed that this is in fact a shameless ripoff of Dice Wars from the Flash games site http://www.gamedesign.jp/. Seriously, even the board layout is identical. I guess this is a lesson in whatever you can get away with. For shame Affogato LLC!

Strategery is a Risk-like strategy game that offers you the chance to partake in some (not so) friendly world-domination and send tiny dot men to their deaths, all from the comfort of your iPad.

The name is derived from one of the 3 funny sketches from Saturday Night Live and the game has virtually nothing to do with it, other than it’s a strategy game.

The premise is pretty simple – you command the blue armies and AI players of various colours command other armies.

At the start of a game, a map is generated. You get a handful of countries while the AI players get an equal amount. Each country borders others and these are the countries you can engage in mortal combat for territory with.

Your ultimate goal is that of world domination and the game doesn’t end until you’ve painted the world map with entrails of your enemies.

Ok, it’s not quite like that (at all really), but you don’t win until the map completely belongs to you.

My country can beat up your country

At the start of each turn you select countries you’d like to attack with and the countries you want to attack. On each ‘attacking event’ your little dot armies turn into dices (die?) and display a value from 1-6. The total of the dices corresponds to how many of the dot armies live and how many die and most importantly whether you manage to annex the territory you’re invading!

Even if you succeed, you can lose army dot men leaving your country vulnerable. And this is where it gets deep.

The “faceroll” strategy is to attack every turn, perhaps thinking you might back the AI into a corner.

However, any player not playing on easy difficulty will be swiftly punished for not moving more strategically. Only by using equal measures of attack and defense can you win. Similar to chess, choosing not moving certain armies is just as important as moving.

Different horses for different iPad owners (and other such mixed metaphors)

Of course, if your bag is action and instant gratification, look elsewhere. Strategery is only good if you have the patience which admittedly I do not, but then strategy games have never appealed to me. If you’re looking for something to challenge your wits instead of just your patience though, Strategery delivers.

Included is a “Pass and Play” multiplayer mode for up to four players. I didn’t test this but it seems like it could extend the longevity of the app for quite sometime, if you’ve at least one tweaking strategy-fiend for a friend. Also included is a handful of difficulty options and customisation to the nth degree.

Fast forward? More like slow forward.

You can also fast forward while computer players are taking their turns. If you haven’t played this yet, you might not realise how bigger deal this is. If this wasn’t included, this game probably would have been a dead-app-walking. Put simply, watching mindless AI gain and lose territory is NOT FUN. Even with fast forward you could argue it’s still excessive.

The gameplay is not for everyone but solid if you’re a fan of the genre. Combined with a memorable visual style and a bargain basement price tag, Strategy-fans should at least give the lite version a try.