# Mother Of All Battles — user reviews > 109 indexed App Store user reviews of Mother Of All Battles by Sean O'Connor, rated 4.40/5 from 129 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mother-of-all-battles/id425160860/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mother-of-all-battles/id425160860.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 90 · 4★ 18 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 7 · 1★ 6 ## What do users think of Mother Of All Battles? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🎮 Highly addictive and engaging gameplay - 🕰️ Nostalgic recreation of classic Strategic Conquest - 🗺️ Large variety of maps available - 🤖 Competent AI opponents - ⚓ Naval combat and diverse unit types - 🌫️ Fog of war feature adds strategy - 💰 Free-to-play with optional purchases - 📱 Well-suited for mobile/iPad play - 🎯 Simple yet strategic mechanics - 🔄 Frequent developer updates **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues - 🎮 AI cheats by ganging up on human player - 💸 Pay-to-win mechanics and expensive map packs - 🎮 Tedious unit movement and micromanagement - 🗺️ Limited map selection without purchases - 📊 No production or unit inventory lists - 🎮 Inconsistent AI behavior and difficulty - 🔊 Annoying music that cannot be disabled - 📱 Small UI elements difficult to use on phones - 🎮 Unfair fog of war implementation **Commonly reported bugs** - Game crashes when accessing Map of the Day - Cities unable to produce units in custom maps - Progress lost after updates - Incompatibility with newer iOS versions - In-app purchases not working or loading - Enemy units skipping turns - Ungarrisoned enemy cities - Tanks crossing water incorrectly - Fighters unable to fly over mountains - Game unplayable after recent updates - App crashes on iPhone 6+ with iOS 8.1.2 - Instant crash on app launch after updates **Most requested features** - Multiplayer support (local or online) - Auto-pathing for units across multiple turns - City production destination routing - Random map generator - Production queue/inventory management - Ability to set unit patrol routes - Game replay or playback feature - Save/load game functionality - Measurement tool for distance calculation - Multi-human player support - Ability to choose number of opponents - Grid overlay option - Landscape mode support - End turn button for unmoved pieces - Unit status and hit points display - Ability to attack own units - Bomber fuel indicator - Map selection preference - Difficulty level customization - Game completion time tracking ## Newest reviews (17 of 109) ### 3/5 — Gang up on the human *2026-02-21* In my very first game, I encountered all of the other AI opponents quickly in the game and I was thinking, "Wow, this must be a really small map!" But it wasn't the map. Even though fog of war was on, all of the AI opponents threw their forces directly at me - even empires from all the way across the map! At first I thought I was just imagining things but the quick playback at the end of the game clearly showed all of the AI opponents making a beeline for me. It seems unfair to me that I can't see them but they can see me and they all gang up on me. It also seems like a lazy way of increasing the challenge of the game without having to program a better AI. I mean, it seems like the higher difficulty levels merely means the AI opponents cheat more. How is that fun? ### 3/5 — Promising, but missing some Freatures *2025-07-24* Generally I really like this game, as it remembers me of the good old EMPIRES for AMIGA. What I am currently missing: a list of all units and the possibility, to see how damaged hostile units are. A list of all cities would be very helpful as well! ### 2/5 — WHY IS EVERYTHING PAY TO WIN???? *2025-05-05, version 3.8.1* If this game is still being worked on please make everything free except the custom maps, If not then ill uninstall this game FOREVER. Great game btw ### 3/5 — From Ross and Hank *2023-12-04* Hello, I am disappointed that you can’t choose to have more than one human player in a game. My son Hank and I would like to play a game where we each control our own armies, etc. And the computer play the remaining armies. I purchased for $10 your special generated game which showed a tile for selecting up to 6 players only to find out that was only for the number of computer generated players. I feel like I got ripped off and Hank is bummed. It sure would be cool and I think good for your sales to introduce a multi-human player option. Thanks for your consideration. Ross And Hank ### 4/5 — Great. But crashed. *2023-07-14* Super game. Played many games. But I click on a screen of map of the day and the game crashed and cannot restart. Help ### 5/5 — Simpel gehalten, aber einfach großartig *2023-06-20* Irgendwie perfekt ### 5/5 — I love it but multi-player would be so much better *2022-12-23, version 3.8.1* This is a great re-creation of the early Macintosh classic “strategic conquest“. ***However, it would be SO MUCH better if Sean O’Conner introduced a multi-player feature. *** Ideally that would allow you to find opponents on the Internet, but even allowing opponents on a local Wi-Fi would be a huge improvement. I’ve played more hours than I would care to admit, but the artificial intelligence is just not as good or creative as a human player would be. ### 4/5 — Missing useful features *2022-12-12, version 3.8.1* Wish it can let me save maps (eg maps I lost in) that I can replay again later. Also wish I can watch how I won/lost at the end of a game ... ### 2/5 — A few flaws *2022-09-29* As a great fan of the original “Empire”, it took a little bit to get used to some of the differences most notably a fighter’s turn ends even if the attacked unit is destroyed. The lack of a production list and the a inability to give units “marching orders” also creates a lot of mental overhead. The main issue I have is that periodically the AI goes into “crush the human” mode. Opponents ignore each other and focus on you exclusively. their attacks destroy you in a single engagement while yours do minimal damage. Could be a great game, but instead it’s a swing and a miss. ### 5/5 — Map of the day *2022-04-23* I love this game. Bought every update. Map of the day? Any diff from the map generator/customization update I purchased last year? Why would I pay you to generate a map for me while I can use the map making feature I a,ready paid for? Am I missing something? Oh can you increase the difficulty level. I’ll definitely buy that update. Great job Sean! ### 4/5 — A good old game but it has a bug recently *2022-01-24* I played this game for many years when it only had pc version. I am still playing it now but in iPad. However recently I found a bug which some cities are not able to produce army ( tanks) in custom map. Hope this defect is resolved. ### 5/5 — Strategic Conquest *2022-01-03* If you like 4x games, this is for you. It's exceptional. I finally deleted it from my devices yesterday because I had spent hundreds of hours playing it over the past few months. It had taken over my life. But that's my addictive personality and it's not your problem. :) Frankly, I had the same problem with the original Strategic Conquest when I was a 23 y/o. I did all-nighters playing the game in 1989 and suffered the next day at work. My only quibble is that there's no auto-forwarding of units, so it can be a little tedius moving every piece near the end of the game when you have a lot of them. Doesn't matter. The game is immersive and takes over your life. You dream about it and think about it when other people are speaking. Food becomes optional. 33 years later, and it still caused me to play all night and suffer at work the next day. ### 5/5 — Great game *2021-12-27, version 3.5.3* Love the game- reminiscent of “strategic conquest” on old Mac, but better. Would be better if there was a 2 player (human vs human) version. ### 5/5 — I love it *2021-08-27* This is my solitaire. I have played hundreds of hours on this ### 3/5 — v3.5 broken? *2021-08-22, version 3.5.0* Love the new features, in theory. But game unplayable at present. Enemy units seem to skip moves. Enemy cities are ungarrisoned. Can't even get the upsell to work: can see the screen to purchase custom maps option, but unable to buy it. Any, glad the game is still being maintained/updated: great fun! ### 3/5 — New update *2021-08-22* Great game, similar to old Mac game, but new update won’t let me purchase the randomly generated maps, and £8.99 for this style of map seems excessive. ### 5/5 — More games needed *2021-08-09* Hi Sean, great addictive game, I’ve completed all maps on the hardest level, could you please add more maps!? Thanks… ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — They ruined the game *2026-03-29, version 4.0.0* This was a great game to play. Now they have it where you do not select the map that you want to play. All in all bad decision on the change. ### 1/5 — LOST ALL MY PROGRESS WITH UPDATE!!!! *2021-10-18, version 3.5.3* Seriously!!!! I was redoing all my maps on the next difficulty up. I was almost done and the new update erased all my progress and the current map I was playing!! And it’s not restoring all my maps!!!! ### 1/5 — Annoying Music *2021-09-25* Annoying music that you can’t switch off. ### 1/5 — Over zealous AIs *2020-06-28, version 2.3* The first two maps were fun, the third map was on very easy, I was placed on the upper left corner of the map and all the AIs attacked me instead of each other. The second go round on the same map, I started on an island middle left with only one factory, and all the AIs ganged up on me again. Is this part of the programing that the human player is the prime target for the AIs? Maybe the game designer should play Deluxe Empire (the game this one is very similar to) to understand how to make a game that is fun to play! ### 1/5 — Perdu tous les map que j'avais acheter dans ce jeu *2016-08-27* Le jeu est bien mais repayer pour les maps me degoute. D'ou la note. ### 1/5 — This version crashes on iPhone 6+ 8.1.2 *2015-02-17* Keep to the old version if you still have it. Otherwise a great port of Strategic Conquest on the Mac. ### 1/5 — Thanks! *2015-02-10, version 2.0* This is a great game for killing time. Always loved the old Strategic Conquest, and this carries on a great tradition. If it ever becomes possible...more maps. I have become so familiar with the many maps already included. Just a 5 star game. Update: I just found out that I lose if one of the enemies takes 1/2 cities now! Since when? At that point in the game I am just getting rolling with reserved fighters paving the way for my paras! I should just be ASKED to surrender then...not Forced!!! 2 star deduction unless I can change this...what a disappointment!latest update crashes immediately open opening.. ### 1/5 — In App Käufe ein Witz *2013-07-24* Das Spiel macht, wie auf dem Amiga früher, wirklich Spaß und ist einer meiner Top Pausenfüller. Aber es gibt keinen Mapeditor und keinen Mehrspielermodus obwohl das Spiel dazu prädestiniert ist! Am Schlimmsten: die Preise für die Mappacks sind zwar okay, aber man kann diese bei einer Neuinstallation nicht restoren! Ich fühle mich betrogen! ### 1/5 — Horrible *2013-04-28* Very bad game, it has no good actually fun parts considering you can't even figure out how to play!!! ### 1/5 — Finger weg!!! *2011-04-02* Als riesen Fan dieses Spiels, noch aus Amiga Zeiten, habe ich förmlich auf eine iPhone/iPad Version gewartet. Diese Umsetzung ist leider eine reine Enttäuschung. Angefangen von der Steuerung der Einheiten. Jeder einzelne Bewegungs-Schritt, jeder einzelnen Einheit kann nur durch betätigen der Richtung um ein Feld ausgeführt werden. Es gibt KEINE Wegpunkte o. z.B. Patrouillen-Routen für Flugzeuge. Damit wird das Spielen sehr Aufwendig. Es gibt KEINE Einstellungsmöglichkeiten! KEIN Menü für z.B. Spielerzahl, Spielerfarbe, KI-Stärke, Kartengröße o. Auswahl der im Spiel eingesetzten Einheiten. Standardfunktionen der Hardware wie zoomen, Drehen des Bildschirm etc. wird nicht unterstützt. Es gibt KEINE Übersichtskarte. KEINE Möglichkeit den Spiel-bzw. Zwischenstand zu speichern. Folgende Beschreibung aus App-Store "for every Game the Maps are randomly generated" konnte ich bis jetzt nicht erkennen. Es gibt 20 Karten diese scheinen immer gleich zu sein. In jedem Fall ist die Startposition stets die Selbe. Fazit: Bei diesem lange bekannten und durch diverse Clone bessere umgesetzten Spielprinzip habe ich bei einem Preis von 2,99 € sehr viel mehr erwartet. In jedem Fall wenigsten eine Mehrspieleroption. Ich werde es nicht spielen!!! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — An excellent, straightforward 4x game *2026-07-01* An easy to use implementation of a straightforward 4x game (explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate), similar to the old Empire game. The maps are fixed, not generated, but there are many of them (dozens), with the affordable map packs adding dozens more. The number of opponents are fixed at 5, regardless of map size. One of the add-ons lets you adjust the speed and production costs of units. You can double tap the map to give a non-air unit a multi-turn path, but otherwise you move every unit individually every turn. This can make the late game on larger maps a little tedious, but that’s because I usually like playing past the first couple times the computer offers to surrender. I’ve been playing for decades, and still enjoy it. ### 5/5 — Great Game *2026-06-09* Another person who started playing Empire years ago and this is every bit as engaging and better in some ways. I strongly recommend purchasing the “Custom Maps” pack. It lets you set size and density of maps, number of computer players, alter production and movement specs of pieces etc. it is also reassuring that the developer continues to update and improve this 14 year old game. Try his Firefight for the graphics, you will be impressed, but MOB is still my go to. ### 5/5 — Great game *2026-05-27, version 4.1.0* I just say the new update and love it, I hope in the future we can see all the items you make vs your competitors and how many of each item you killed! Thank you for such a great game ### 5/5 — Endless playability *2026-05-26* Absolutely love this game and this developer. Started with Slay wayyyyyy back in the year 2000 on an HP jornada pocket PC. Switched to MoAB, and play it again and again to this day. Great update with the Best Piece summary! Would love to see a similar “stats summary” page that shows how many total units lost, total units created, total enemy units destroyed, cities captured, cities lost, cities nuked, etc. at end of game. ### 5/5 — Nostalgia favorite *2026-04-05* As someone who spent many hours playing Strategic Conquest, this is a nice nostalgic play. The map of the day feature is a nice add. It would very nice if there were a couple more feature adds. 1. Remember the destination of a piece across multiple turns. When trying to cross a big map, it is annoying to every turn have to move a piece. 2. Be able to setup a destination for a city production so that every piece spawned in that city automatically moves to the destination location. This would be great for armies on big islands or fighters crossing a large game board. ### 5/5 — Perfect game *2026-04-02, version 4.0.1* Endlessly engaging, with just the right amount of complexity. One of my all-time favorites. ### 5/5 — Can’t stop playing *2025-07-09, version 3.8.1* Just like slay been playin for 25 years ### 5/5 — Pure Nostalgia *2025-07-06, version 3.8.1* I loved this game when it was called Strategic Conquest. Played it incessantly back in the day. So glad I found this game for Mac iOS. ### 5/5 — Blast from the past *2025-06-12, version 3.8.1* I’m an old time Empire player starting around 1976 on a Vax at RIT. Later I enjoyed the DOS versions. Now I’m enjoying it on my phone. This game has staying power and satisfies all my strategy game cravings. ### 5/5 — Needed for MacOS *2024-06-21, version 3.8.1* I'm hoping the developer recompiles this app for the MacOS and adds support for widescreen. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*