Strategery vs Deep Green
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Strategery
Engage in a rapid world domination game on your iOS device. Compete against AI or friends in strategic battles with customizable options and randomly generated maps for endless replayability.
- Offensive and defensive strategy gameplay
- Play for short or long sessions
- Four difficulty settings
- Online battles with matchmaking
- Pass-and-play multiplayer
- Automatically saves games
- Randomly generated maps
- Customizable gameplay options
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Dominate the world. One blob at a time. World domination isn't a very fashionable ambition these days, but that doesn't mean you can't pretend. Strategery is a battle between your pegs and the green, orange, blue, and red blobs that dare to stand in your way. It's also a little bit of App Store history. Strategery first launched in 2008, back when the App Store was barely a few months old. Macworld named it the Best Strategy Game of 2009. Slate called it their latest iPhone gaming habit. Daring Fireball said the gameplay had a great feel. And a Macworld reviewer named Lex Friedman wrote that there was no game he played on his iPhone more. That reviewer now makes Strategery. Life is funny. HOW IT'S PLAYED The world is made of blobs. Every blob holds pegs — your pegs, ideally. Pick a blob you own, point at a neighboring blob you don't, and roll. More pegs, better odds. Win the roll and the blob changes color. Lose it and, well, you still have your other blobs. Keep going until the whole map is your color and everyone else is looking for the rematch button. Your turn, your dice, your questionable decisions Bigger stacks of pegs win more rolls. Usually. Every blob you hold earns you more pegs Last color standing dominates the world. Politely. THREE WAYS TO CONQUER Solo: Play against the computer. It has no friends, no feelings, and no plans this evening. It will happily lose to you all night. (Or not. You choose how clever it gets to be.) Online: Play against your friends. Take turns from wherever you are. A push notification lets you know when it's your move, or when someone has done something regrettable to your blobs. Pass and play: One phone, one couch, several rivals. Hand it over, let them try, and try not to gloat. CLASSIC OR CHAOS Classic is the game you remember: dice, blobs, and your own poor judgment. Chaos adds starred blobs. Capture one and the wheel spins. Your conquest has consequences. Either way, you pick how much world there is to dominate. A WAR WITH NO CASUALTIES Blobs don't bleed. Pegs don't feel pain. Nothing explodes, nobody gets hurt, and the only thing that ever gets conquered is a colorful shape on a map. Somebody's pride may be wounded when you take their last blob, but that's between the two of you. For iPhone and iPad. Contains no violence, several dice, a healthy number of blobs, and a reasonable amount of whimsy. Strategery was originally designed by Sumul Shah, Courtland Idstrom, and Peter Ju. This version comes from Lex Friedman, who is one person and would be delighted by a rating or review. It's not strategy. It's Strategery.
Deep Green
This app provides a classical chess experience with a clean, native interface and customizable piece designs. It supports open game formats, offers a unique chess engine with adjustable strength, and features a private, ad-free environment.
- Clean, native user interface
- Customizable chess piece designs
- Open game format (PGN/FEN)
- Adjustable strength chess engine
- Private and ad-free experience
- System-level integration
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A no-nonsense classical chess app. - CLEAN UI: Deep Green offers a distraction-free experience in a clean, native user interface – now with the Liquid Glass design on iOS 26. - CUSTOM PIECE DESIGN: Beautiful chess set designed specifically for Deep Green and rendered at high resolution in both outline and 3D throughout the app. - MADE FOR IPAD: Dedicated menu bar, multiple windows, and refined trackpad, mouse, and Apple Pencil support. Squares highlight as you hover over the board. - TIGHT SYSTEM INTEGRATION: System-level sharing, drag and drop, AirDrop, undo/redo, contextual menus, Quick Look previews of chess files, Dark Mode, high contrast support and more. - OPEN GAME FORMAT: Games can be shared, saved, copied, pasted, imported, exported in the ubiquitous, open source PGN and FEN formats. Deep Green can open chess files straight from the Files app. - UNIQUE CHESS ENGINE: Enjoyable opponent with adjustable strength, praised for its humane gameplay, developed for Deep Green on the Apple Newton more than 25 years ago. - TWEAKABLE APPEARANCE: Engage the knights in the game by having them turn towards the center of the board, apply a humane, slightly random placement of the pieces. - IN YOUR LANGUAGE: Available in English, German, and Danish. - MODERN ARCHITECTURE: Written in Swift as a fully native app – modern, maintainable, and prepared for the future. - PRIVATE, AD-FREE: No ads, no tracking, no analytics, no nonsense. If you like Deep Green, please rate it favorably on the App Store.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Deep Green at Free against Strategery's $4.99. Deep Green also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). Strategery's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 4 months) and chart position (#27 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, ads and monetization model 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
Deep Green is free to download; Strategery costs $4.99 up front. Strategery sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Deep Green asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Strategery against 3.9 for Deep Green. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 334 and 75 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 69% of Strategery's written reviews are positive against 66% of Deep Green's.
Strategery ships an update daily, Deep Green every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Strategery | Deep Green |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.9 (334 ratings) | 3.9 (75 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 68.8% of reviews — better | 66.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 334 — better | 75 |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #27 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lex Friedman | Cocoa Stuff |
Customer experience
Strategery
Deep Green
User reviews
Strategery
From 334 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Online play
- 💡 Challenging gameplay
- 👍 Simple and addictive
- 👍 Great strategy game
- 👍 Excellent game
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
- 🔋 Battery draining
- 🔒 Online play issues
- 🔒 Cannot create account
- 🔒 Multiplayer not working
Deep Green
From 75 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🌟 Elegant and polished design
- 🤖 Strong chess engine
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 🎨 Beautiful graphics and animations
- 🕹️ Smooth gameplay and controls
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- ⚠️ Lack of features (e.g. game saving, online play)
- 🔍 Difficulty settings too challenging for some users
- 🔕 Missing audio/sound effects
- 📏 Board/pieces not optimized for larger screens
Bugs and requests
Strategery
Reported bugs
4 issues- Game freezes when opponent is eliminated
- Armies disappear after switching apps
- Cannot log in or create account
- Game crashes on newer iOS versions
Requested features
8 requests- Pinch to zoom for maps
- More map options and sizes
- Ability to redeploy armies
- Online multiplayer with random opponents
- Ability to play more than 2 players online
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- Stats and leaderboards
- Automatic army placement option
- Ability to skip replay at end of game
Deep Green
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when promoting pawns
- Board orientation issues when rotating device
- Unresponsive UI elements
- Compatibility problems with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Game saving and loading functionality
- Online/multiplayer mode
- Customizable board/piece themes
- Difficulty settings for beginners
- Indicators for check, checkmate, and draw
In-app purchases
Strategery
- $3 tip$2.99
- War Chest$9.99
Deep Green
No in-app purchases









