Comparison

Command Chain vs Anthaul

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

Head to head
About

Command Chain

Engage in a strategic card battler on a 3x3 grid, triggering massive chain reactions with hero placements. Explore diverse worlds, face unique bosses, and build powerful decks in this offline roguelike experience.

Highlights
  • Chain-reaction combat on a 3x3 grid
  • 100+ hero cards across 18 classes
  • Merge duplicates to level up heroes
  • 11 unique worlds with distinct enemies
  • Challenging boss fights with unique mechanics
  • Roguelike runs with deck building and upgrades
  • Offline play with adjustable battle speed
Features
Read full description

Command Chain is a card battler on a 3x3 grid. Place your heroes, line up your strikers, and set off chain reactions where one shot triggers the next. Stack multipliers down a lane and a single turn can go from dozens of damage into the millions. FEATURES - Chain-reaction combat. One trigger cascades across the grid, and position decides everything. - 100+ hero cards across 18 classes. Draft a hand and build a deck that fits how you play. - Merge duplicates to level heroes from Tier 1 to Tier 5 during a run. - 11 worlds, each with its own enemies, hazards, and art, from the Hollowfrost Reach to the Sunken Mire to the Dragon's Temple. - Boss fights that break the rules. The Hydra regrows severed heads. The Twin Wardens revive each other. The Fateweaver loads the dice. The Saboteur Queen swaps your units mid-fight. Read the pattern, then counter it. - Roguelike runs. Draft, upgrade, carry veterans forward, push deeper. - Endless Mode and New Game+ unlock after you clear the campaign. - Portrait or landscape, with 1x, 3x, and 5x battle speed. - Free to play and fully offline. No wifi, no forced timers. HOW IT PLAYS Strikers fire in straight lines, so where you place a card matters. A Sorcerer next to a Mage boosts the whole lane. A Tactician bends a beam around a corner into new targets. A Necromancer poisons through armor. Rangers and Gunslingers pierce dodge and shield. Every board is a new setup, so you read what is in front of you and build the biggest chain you can. CLASSES Mage, Alchemist, Sorcerer, Warlord, Cleric, Shadowknight, Mirror Knight, Bard, Monk, Ranger, Gunslinger, Pyromancer, Stormcaller, Tactician, Necromancer, Tinkerer, Martyr, Quartermaster. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Anthaul

Build and manage an ant colony deckbuilder. Strategically tap ants into trails to forage for food, clear targets, and upgrade your colony. Unlock new queens, mutations, and face challenging bosses across five unique colonies.

Highlights
  • Ant colony deckbuilding gameplay
  • Strategic ant placement and foraging
  • Unlock and crown powerful queens
  • Mutate ants for unique abilities
  • Five distinct colonies with difficulty levels
  • Daily runs and endless mode
Read full description

Your deck is an ant colony. Tap up to five ants into a trail and send it out to forage. Every ant adds its carry, patterns multiply it with pheromone, and the food pours into the round's target. Clear the target within four trails, spend your pay in the Nest, and keep your colony fed through a season of eight rounds. EVERY ANT IS A CARD Workers carry the most. Scouts add pheromone. Nurses recount the ant tapped just before them. Soldiers keep the Anteater, the Rival Colony and Pesticide at bay. Winged ants are wild. Line them up into Pairs, Squads, Convoys, Columns and three more patterns, then choose: FORAGE with the trail you have, or SWAP ants back for new ones. The COLONY screen shows exactly what's left to draw, so every swap is an informed choice. CROWN QUEENS, BREAK THE MATH The Nest is your shop between rounds. Crown up to four queens from the 21 who turn up on its shelf: some boost a caste, some grow stronger every round, and the good ones feed each other. After round two the Royal Cell opens, offering one of seven red queens at a time, and red queens multiply instead of add, in crown order. Line up the right ones and a single trail can haul ten times the target. That's an OVERHAUL! SHAPE YOUR COLONY Stamp Marks to level up a pattern. Send the Colony Doctor to retire the ants you don't need or clone the ones you do. Tear open an egg sac and pick a hatchling, hire Workers, or mutate a Worker at random: Gold ants bring food every time they haul, Armored ants can't be eaten, Glass ants carry double until they shatter, and Pheromone-soaked ants add pheromone every play. FIVE COLONIES, SIX DIFFICULTIES Garden, Leafcutter, Fire, Army and Honeypot each want a different trail, from Fire's Soldier-heavy ranks to Army's sixty ants. Start with Garden or Fire and open the rest as you clear rounds and win. Win with a colony to open its next difficulty, from Fair Weather to Long Winter, each one adding a new hardship. BOSSES The Anteater eats your highest-carry ant. Rain shrinks your hand. The Rival Colony halves your pheromone. Pesticide grounds your Winged and quiets your Scouts. The Flood raises the final target. A DAILY RUN Every day brings a new daily run: the same colony and the same opening hand for everyone who plays it. Come back tomorrow for another. KEEP HAULING Win the season and play on. Targets climb faster every round, a boss comes every third round, and the first miss ends it. How big can your biggest haul get? FEATURES - A roguelike deckbuilder where your deck is a living colony: 5 castes, 7 patterns, 4 mutations - 28 queens to crown, including 7 red queens that multiply - 5 colonies, each with 6 difficulty levels - 5 season bosses, plus the Mudslide in Keep Hauling - A new daily run every day, the same opening hand for everyone - Endless Keep Hauling after a won season - Cute chibi ants on cel-shaded foil trading cards - Every trail's math on screen, and a log of the run - Sound on every pick, pattern and total, and haptics on iPhone - Normal, Fast or Instant scoring; tap to skip - Saves after every move: quit anytime and continue later - Plays fully offline, in portrait, on iPhone and iPad - No account, no ads, no in-app purchases, no tracking

Screenshots

Command Chain4 screens
Anthaul4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Command Chain at Free against Anthaul's $2.99. Command Chain also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1). Anthaul's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, device support and iOS requirement 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

Command Chain is free to download; Anthaul costs $2.99 up front. Command Chain sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Anthaul asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Command Chain against 5.0 for Anthaul. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Command Chain versus Anthaul: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCommand ChainAnthaul
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size235 MB74 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperBrian SolomonAnthony Craig

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Command Chain

Subscriptions1
  • Gatekeeper's Pact$1.991 Month
One-time9
  • Pouch of Aether$0.99
  • Remove Ads$2.99
  • Chest of Aether$4.99
Show 6 more
  • Starter Bundle$4.99
  • Commander's Edition$9.99
  • Vault of Aether$9.99
  • Hoard of Aether$19.99
  • Trove of Aether$49.99
  • Dragon's Hoard$99.99
None

Anthaul

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Command Chain free?
Command Chain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Anthaul free?
Anthaul costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Command Chain or Anthaul?
Command Chain and Anthaul are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Command Chain or Anthaul have ads?
Command Chain shows ads; Anthaul does not.

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