Kriegspiel vs Cipher Challenge
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.
Cipher Challenge
Engage your mind with a variety of cipher decoding challenges. Practice different cipher types, track your progress, and compete with friends. Unlock quotes and sync your achievements across devices.
- Multiple cipher modes
- Letter frequency analysis
- Multiplayer competition
- Unlocked quote gallery
- Score history tracking
- iCloud sync across devices
- Hard mode challenge
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A cipher decoding game. Cipher modes: Aristocrat, Patristocrat, Caesar, Random substitution cipher, K1 cipher, K2 cipher Additional features: - See letter frequency table and cipher letter -> original letter mapping table - Share link or game id to friends and compete on the same puzzle - View all the unlocked quotes - See score history - Unlocked quotes and scores are sync'ed across iPhone, iPad and Mac computers through iCloud - Enable hard mode for a special challenge Also perfect for Science Olympiad (SciOly) Codebusters practice.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cipher Challenge at 5.0 against Kriegspiel's 4.5. Cipher Challenge also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months). Kriegspiel's advantage is ratings volume (60 vs 4) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Cipher Challenge holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Kriegspiel has 60 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 74% of Kriegspiel's written reviews are positive against 67% of Cipher Challenge's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Kriegspiel ships an update every 6 months, Cipher Challenge every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and June 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Kriegspiel | Cipher Challenge |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (60 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 74.2% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 60 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alexander Galloway | Bao Lei |
Customer experience
Kriegspiel
Cipher Challenge
In-app purchases
Kriegspiel
No in-app purchases
Cipher Challenge
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Kriegspiel free?
Is Cipher Challenge free?
Which has better reviews, Kriegspiel or Cipher Challenge?
Do Kriegspiel or Cipher Challenge have ads?
Which is updated more often, Kriegspiel or Cipher Challenge?
Other comparisons
