Comparison

Slay vs Subterfuge

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Slay

Engage in a turn-based strategy game set in medieval times. Conquer enemy territories, expand your own, and strategically upgrade your units from peasants to powerful barons. Balance resource management to avoid bankruptcy and achieve victory.

Highlights
  • Territory capture and expansion
  • Unit upgrades (Peasants to Barons)
  • Strategic combat and castle sieges
  • Resource management and bankruptcy risk
  • Turn-based multiplayer
  • AI opponents
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Slay is a simple to learn game of strategy and cunning set in medieval times. The island is divided up between the six players, and you must try to capture your enemies' land and link up your own territories to create larger and stronger ones. You begin capturing land by attacking with your peasants. Once your territories become richer you can combine peasants to make stronger and stronger people (Spearmen, Knights and then Barons) who can kill weaker enemy troops, or knock down their castles. Just be careful that you don't create too many expensive men or the territory will go bankrupt! "This game is pure strategy! It's a work of genius. Brilliant AI. Engaging turn-based multiplayer strategy. Sid Meier, eat your heart out!" - GameSpy.com "I love this game! I play it all the time, and when I'm not, I think about wanting to play it." - PocketNow.com "At first glance, Slay looks elementary, but hidden beneath are cunning strategy elements that must be finely balanced for success" - PC Magazine "Deceptively delightful. The graphics are simple, but the strategy is complex." - Download.com For the latest news on all my games follow @SeansGames on Twitter!

About

Subterfuge

Engage in a week-long real-time strategy and diplomacy game. Gather intelligence, coordinate with others, and issue orders to influence the game's outcome. Master both strategic planning and player negotiation to achieve victory.

Highlights
  • Week-long real-time gameplay
  • Strategy and diplomacy mechanics
  • Intelligence gathering
  • Order issuance
  • Player coordination
  • Unlimited scheduled orders (with IAP)
  • Private game creation (with IAP)
Features
Read full description

• Multiplayer Game of the Year 2015 by Pocket Tactics * • Best Mobile Games of 2015 by CNET * Subterfuge is a week-long multiplayer game of strategy, diplomacy, and betrayal that plays out in real time. Check in for ten minutes, a few times a day: read the sonar, schedule your orders, and reply to the ally who insists the fleet massing on your border is "purely defensive." Then close the game and get on with your day while your plans execute. BUY ONCE, PLAY ANYWHERE Buying the game on mobile gives you full access to the Steam version. DRIVE THE TIME MACHINE Drag the Time Machine forward and watch tomorrow unfold. See where every visible sub will be, how combat resolves, and what your factories will have produced by Thursday. Then, schedule your own orders to execute at any moment, hours or days ahead. Launch the invasion at 4:12 a.m. without setting an alarm but remember everyone else has a Time Machine too. DEPTH THAT FITS AROUND YOUR LIFE A game of Subterfuge lasts a week or more, but a session lasts minutes. It was designed by two new parents who wanted Diplomacy-grade scheming without giving up their evenings. The strategy happens in your head and on your schedule. THE REAL MAP IS THE OTHER PLAYERS Every alliance, border pact, joint strike, and deception in Subterfuge happens in chat. None of it is enforced by the game. A treaty is worth exactly as much as the person who signed it, intel is worth exactly as much as its source, and the player feeding you sonar reports may be feeding your rival the same. Winning means reading people as sharply as you read the map. NO DICE. NO LUCK. ONLY PEOPLE. The Time Machine can show you tomorrow because there is no randomness. Every battle can be forecast down to the last driller before it happens. Recruit powerful specialists to tilt the math and bend the rules. The only truly unknowable variable in Subterfuge is human intention. COMMUNITY CROSSPLAY SINCE 2015 Join a cross-platform player pool that has kept Subterfuge alive and updated for over a decade. Play the same game from your desk and your phone. Open the war room on a second monitor at work, then answer a treacherous counter-offer from the school pickup line. A TYPICAL WEEK • Day 1: Nine polite introductions. Four proposed alliances. One of them is sincere. • Day 2: You and your neighbor agree to keep borders demilitarized. You both start counting drillers. • Day 4: Your ally proposes a joint strike on the olive. Olive has just proposed the same about your ally. • Day 5: Drill a mine. Sonar picks up a "defensive" fleet drifting towards it, thirty hours out. Plenty of time. You schedule your counter, draft two very different messages, and head to lunch. • Day 6: The trap you scheduled yesterday ago springs mid-meeting, exactly as planned. You watch it from your desk and say nothing. • Day 7: Trap closed. Olive's mine captured. • Day 8: Victory. Your former ally sends a simple message: "Well played. Rematch?"

Screenshots

Slay4 screens
Subterfuge4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Subterfuge at Free against Slay's $4.99. Subterfuge also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 3 months) and review sentiment (87% vs 74%). Slay's advantage is chart position (#175 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On rating, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Subterfuge is free to download; Slay costs $4.99 up front. Slay sells 12 one-off in-app purchases and Subterfuge sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Slay against 4.7 for Subterfuge. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 266 and 585 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 74% of Slay's written reviews are positive against 87% of Subterfuge's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Slay ships an update every 3 months, Subterfuge every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Slay versus Subterfuge: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSlaySubterfuge
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (266 ratings)4.7 (585 ratings) — better
Positive reviews74.5% of reviews87.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings266585 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#175 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB47 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperSean O'ConnorSecret Plan LLC

Customer experience

Slay

All ratings266 ratings
Positive90.6%
Neutral2.3%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews537 reviews
Positive74.5%
Neutral6.7%
Negative18.8%

Subterfuge

All ratings585 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral1.2%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews300 reviews
Positive87.0%
Neutral3.3%
Negative9.7%

User reviews

Slay

From 266 App Store ratings

What we love

  • ⭐ Classic and timeless game
  • 🕹️ Simple yet engaging gameplay
  • 🧠 Challenging and strategic
  • ⏱️ Great for quick play sessions
  • 🔁 High replayability with many maps

Room to improve

  • 🎨 Dislike for recent graphical updates
  • 🔍 Difficulty distinguishing territories
  • 🔊 Annoying sound effects
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and bugs

Subterfuge

From 585 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great game
  • 👍 Awesome strategy game
  • 👍 Brilliant game
  • 👍 Fantastic game
  • 👍 Best strategy game

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy
  • 🐛 Crashes too much
  • 🐛 Unplayable
  • 🐛 Crashes
  • 🐛 Chat freezes

Bugs and requests

Slay

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Multiplayer not working
  • Progress not saving in custom levels
  • Graphical issues on newer devices

Requested features

6 requests
  • Option to revert to classic graphics
  • Ability to choose starting color
  • Larger/randomized map sizes
  • Online/multiplayer mode
  • Level editor or custom map creation
Show 1 more
  • Stats tracking and achievements

Subterfuge

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Queen randomly loses hire points
  • Win conditions don't trigger
  • Login screen freezes
  • Game crashes on launch
  • Notifications arrive late
Show 2 more
  • Unable to delete subs on iOS
  • Touchscreen issues (not centered, wrong button presses)

Requested features

13 requests
  • Accelerated gameplay
  • Shorter game modes
  • Alliance feature
  • More specialists
  • New game modes
Show 8 more
  • Ability to view player profiles during game
  • Option to privately tag players
  • Refresh button
  • Ability to delete subs on iOS
  • NAP Breaker medal
  • Customizable backgrounds and items
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Slay

One-time12
  • Snowflakes$0.99
  • Countries 1$0.99
  • Countries 2$0.99
Show 9 more
  • Patterns 1$0.99
  • Patterns 2$0.99
  • Patterns 3$0.99
  • Patterns 4$0.99
  • US States$0.99
  • Mythical Creatures$0.99
  • Whole row of 18 pages$9.99
  • Whole 3rd row$9.99
  • Whole 4th row$9.99
4 purchases

Subterfuge

Subscriptions1
  • Patron (L3)$4.991 Month
One-time3
  • Medal$0.99
  • Pack of 5 Medals$4.99
  • Level 2 Security Clearance2 variants$9.99

Questions

Is Slay free?
Slay costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Subterfuge free?
Subterfuge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Slay or Subterfuge?
Subterfuge is rated higher. Slay averages 4.6 out of 5 from 266 ratings, while Subterfuge averages 4.7 from 585 ratings.
Do Slay or Subterfuge have ads?
Neither Slay nor Subterfuge shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Slay or Subterfuge?
Slay ships an update every 3 months, and Subterfuge every 10 days. Most recently, Slay was updated on October 18, 2026 and Subterfuge on October 16, 2026.

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