Kriegspiel vs Vactics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Kriegspiel
Engage in a strategic board game inspired by Napoleonic warfare. The objective is to capture enemy arsenals by deploying lines of communication and blocking enemy movements on a large game board. Offers online and local multiplayer, as well as AI practice.
- 20x25 game board
- Capture enemy arsenals to win
- Deploy lines of communication
- Block enemy lines
- Online multiplayer
- Local multiplayer
- AI practice mode
- Level editor
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Inspired by the military theory of Carl von Clausewitz and the European war campaigns of Napoleon, Kriegspiel is a chess-variant played by two opposing players on a 20 x 25 game board. Capture the enemy's Arsenals to win. Deploy your Lines of Communication to keep friendly units in contact. Block enemy lines for strategic advantage. "The surprises of this Kriegspiel seem to be inexhaustible," wrote French Situationist Guy Debord. In Debord's view the game represents the totality of factors at play in wartime maneuvers, what he called "the dialectic of all conflicts." -- Play 2P online against another player -- Play 2P in person on the same device -- Practice against the computer -- Level editor for customizing formations -- Language support for French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and English Kriegspiel is produced and maintained by Alexander R. Galloway. The game is noncommercial. There are no in-app purchases. No advertisements. No Patreon. No GoFundMe. No monetization of player data. There is literally no possible way to take your money.
Vactics
Engage in tactical, chess-like combat by building powerful mechs to battle robotic enemies. Face randomly generated challenges and fight for a better future in this strategic warfare game.
- Mech building
- Tactical chess-like combat
- Randomly generated challenges
- Mech and tech upgrades
- Extended campaign
- Leaderboard competition
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Build the mech to fight against robotic Vactics in tactical chess-like combat. The war is already over and the heroes of the city have fallen. Take on a new randomly generated challenge every time you play and join with the citizens to fight for a better future. Vactics is designed to let you play as much as you like and upgrade to the full version at any time. Unlocking the pro version of the game provides: • Access to all 18 mech types and dozens of additional tech modifiers. • Access to the full 24 colour palettes to choose from with custom app icons each. • An extended campaign with additional enemy types and areas to fight through. • An additional phase to the campaign with the true ending and all the co-pilots. • The daily district challenge where you can compete with others on the leaderboards. • Much more to discover.... -- Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Kriegspiel at 4.6 against Vactics's 4.0. Kriegspiel also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2). Vactics's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Vactics sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 3 months. Kriegspiel asks for nothing beyond the download.
Kriegspiel holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 66 and 56 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of Kriegspiel's written reviews are positive against 71% of Vactics's.
Kriegspiel ships an update every 6 months, Vactics every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Kriegspiel | Vactics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (66 ratings) — better | 4.0 (56 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 74.2% of reviews — better | 70.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 66 — better | 56 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 309 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Alexander Galloway | Gerard Delaney |
Customer experience
Kriegspiel
Vactics
Bugs and requests
Kriegspiel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Vactics
Reported bugs
6 issues- Combo attack bonus cancelled by heavy landing
- "Restore purchases" not working after update
- Cannot equip more than one ability
- Inconsistent combat: adjacent Vactic not hitting
- Cannot mount one tech in Chassis and one in Engine
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- Line-of-sight for ranged enemies unclear
Requested features
20 requests- Add more upgrades
- Add more game modes
- Add online co-op
- Add infinite wave competition
- Add diverging paths on map like FTL
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- Add small story elements at decisions
- Add new enemies and technologies
- Add a big boss
- Add Russian language support
- Improve tutorial clarity
- Faster restart function
- Option to confirm selection before moving
- More customization options for mechs
- Unlock more mechs for free
- Add wallpapers in the art style
- Support for lowercase game text
- Option to change palettes easily
- Save progress on runs
- Adjustable difficulty settings
- Add more content
In-app purchases
Kriegspiel
No in-app purchases
Vactics
- Subscribe to Vactics Pro$2.993 Months
- Vactics Pro$8.99








