Strategery vs Ozymandias
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.
Ozymandias
Experience the thrill of building a Bronze Age empire in a streamlined 4X strategy game. Expand your territory, develop cities, and raise armies. Unique victory conditions and abstracted combat ensure fast-paced, strategic gameplay.
- Streamlined 4X gameplay
- Abstracted combat system
- Hand-painted historical maps
- Random and custom victory conditions
- AI that doesn't cheat
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Build an empire in a single sitting. All the strategy of a classic 4X in a faster format. At the dawn of history, Bronze Age kings built the first empires. Strategize their rise to power in a uniquely streamlined 4X. Expand your borders, build cities in tactical locations then raise armies to defend them. Each turn, you receive opportunities but must choose only one. Random victory conditions make every game different; custom victory conditions support different styles of play. DISTILLED DESIGN - Focus on strategy over tactics, we’ve stripped the busywork out of 4X gameplay. - Combat abstracted into an innovative Power system, you only move armies and fleets. HISTORICAL MAPS - Hand-painted maps charting Bronze Ages around the world. - Each empire's trait and start location bring a unique set of challenges. EASY TO LEARN - The tutorial is a short story campaign about explorer, Gertrude Bell. - Climb the difficulty ladder against our AI, which never cheats to compete.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Strategery at daily against Ozymandias's every 2 weeks. Strategery also leads on ratings volume (334 vs 23) and chart position (#27 vs #99). Ozymandias's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 3.9) and price ($3.99 vs $4.99). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases 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
Strategery costs $4.99 and Ozymandias $3.99 up front. Strategery sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Ozymandias sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Ozymandias holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Strategery has 334 ratings behind it against 23, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 69% of Strategery's written reviews are positive against 62% of Ozymandias's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Strategery ships an update daily, Ozymandias every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on September 29, 2026.
| Parameter | Strategery | Ozymandias |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $3.99 — better |
| Rating | 3.9 (334 ratings) | 4.3 (23 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.8% of reviews — better | 61.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 334 — better | 23 |
| Update frequency | Daily — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #27 — better | #99 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 493 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lex Friedman | Goblinz Studio SAS |
Customer experience
Strategery
Ozymandias
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
Ozymandias
From 23 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and engaging 4X gameplay
- 🚀 Quick and efficient game sessions
- 💎 Great value for the price
- 💡 Well-balanced strategy mechanics
- 📱 Excellent port for mobile devices
Room to improve
- 📱 UI too small for iPhone
- 🧐 Font size difficult to read
- 🔄 Game can become repetitive
- 📉 Steep learning curve for new players
- 📱 Unplayable on smaller iPhones
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
Ozymandias
Reported bugs
10 issues- Crashes frequently, especially late game
- Save progress lost after crashes
- Game crashes when saving
- Game restarts to beginning after crash
- UI elements too small
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- Font unadjustable and unreadable
- Does not support both landscape orientations
- iPad orientation issues
- Screen does not rotate
- Crashes randomly, progress lost
Requested features
10 requests- More objective cards
- More maps
- PvP mode on mobile
- Cloud Saves / iCloud saves
- Multiplayer option
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- Fix iPad orientation / autorotate
- Support both landscape orientations
- Zoom feature for map
- Tooltip for combat strength
- Demo with actual gameplay
In-app purchases
Strategery
- $3 tip$2.99
- War Chest$9.99
Ozymandias
- The World$0.99
- The Andes$0.99
- Sahara Desert$0.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Indonesia$0.99
- Mesoamerica$0.99
- Aegean Sea$0.99
- Indus Valley$0.99
- Near East$0.99
- All Maps$3.99









