Kriegspiel vs Ancient Games
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.
Ancient Games
Explore and play a collection of ancient board games brought back to life with modern app design. Enjoy offline and online play, collect customizable game pieces, and tackle fun challenges. Save progress across all games with cloud saves.
- Play multiple ancient games in one app
- Offline and online multiplayer
- AI, friend, and random player matches
- Collectible game pieces and boards
- Challenges with rule variants
- Free cloud saves across games
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/!\ If you play more than one of my Ancient Games, I suggest you delete the individual apps and install this one. It will allow you to play them all and save disk storage. /!\ -Languages : English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, German, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Turkish. The past is full of fascinating games that haves been mostly forgotten. The Ancient Games collection aims to resurrect them as a meticulously crafted mix between what a player wants from an historical game and what he/she expects of a modern application. Features : -Play against the IA, friends and random players from around the world (Coming back soon) -Play Online & Offline. -Multiple collectibles : boards, game pieces, dice, nameplates, etc. -Challenges (Fun rule variants) -Free cloudsave across the collection : your progress in one game is available in all the others. -Much more features to come! Currently, the collection is comprised of four games : the Royal Game of Ur, Senet, XII Scripta and Puluc, but 40 games are in the works! You can see the roadmap here : https://trello.com/b/QYtOXwJi/ancient-games-roadmap Each game will be added to the Ancient Games app and will have its own individual app as well. The privacy policy has been updated in accordance to the latest data protection laws.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Kriegspiel at none against Ancient Games's 10. Kriegspiel also leads on ads (none vs shown). Ancient Games's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (287 vs 66). On price, rating, review sentiment and device support 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. Ancient Games sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Kriegspiel asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Kriegspiel against 4.6 for Ancient Games. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 66 and 287 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of Kriegspiel's written reviews are positive against 78% of Ancient Games's.
Kriegspiel ships an update every 6 months, Ancient Games every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Kriegspiel | Ancient Games |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (66 ratings) | 4.6 (287 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 74.2% of reviews | 78.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 66 | 287 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| 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 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 212 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alexander Galloway | Sullivan Bousiniere |
Customer experience
Kriegspiel
Ancient Games
Bugs and requests
Kriegspiel
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Ancient Games
Reported bugs
11 issues- Game freezes after match completion
- Screen goes dark and becomes unresponsive post-game
- Ad removal purchase only lasts one game
- Paid ad removal still shows advertisements
- Game continues playing after player wins
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- Cannot make legal moves despite availability
- XII Scripta piece stacking rules not enforced correctly
- Purchased board content inaccessible due to subscription requirement
- Report button links to Mail app instead of App Store
- Text rendering issues making content hard to read
- Online play frequently unavailable or non-functional
Requested features
10 requests- Two-player local multiplayer mode
- Friends list and challenge system
- Leaderboards and ranking system
- Win/loss statistics and game history tracking
- Ability to play offline while waiting for online opponents
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- Permanent one-time purchase option instead of subscription
- More ancient games added to collection
- Harder difficulty levels beyond current maximum
- Better XP progression for unlocking boards
- Improved customer support contact options
In-app purchases
Kriegspiel
No in-app purchases
Ancient Games
- AG+$3.991 Month
- Ancient Artifact$0.99
- Purchase Game Edition2 variants$1.99
- Dawn of Civilization DLC$2.99
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- Purchase Game Edition$2.99
- Skeleton Key$2.99
- Purchase Game Edition$3.99
- Purchase Game Edition$10.99
- Royal Pass$12.99
Questions
Is Kriegspiel free?
Is Ancient Games free?
Which has better reviews, Kriegspiel or Ancient Games?
Do Kriegspiel or Ancient Games have ads?
Which is updated more often, Kriegspiel or Ancient Games?
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