Comparison

Subterfuge vs Proelium

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

Head to head
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?"

About

Proelium

Features
Read full description

The most minimalist strategy game (with the permission of go). Proelium is a turn-based tactical game inspired by classic board games like checkers, go, and mainly the almost forgotten latrones, played in the Roman Empire. A minimalist gameplay system with very few rules to memorize, yet it offers depth and room to develop your own play style. Arrange your pieces, block your opponent’s pieces, and eliminate them to claim victory. Challenge a friend on the same device (the iPad version is optimal for this mode, but it’s also avalaible on iPhone), play against a friend or stranger over the Internet, or try to defeat the AI at three different difficulty levels. In Proelium, there’s only one type of piece, and it can perform only two actions: move and attack. The key is to position your pieces to flank the enemy from at least two sides, blocking them (while avoiding the same fate). Only blocked pieces can be attacked and removed. The interplay of blocks and counterblocks makes Proelium a game of emergent complexity ―easy to learn, but challenging to master. The rules of Proelium symbolize, in an abstact way, the combat between phalanxes in ancient Greece. The result is a dynamic reminiscent of hoplite warfare ―fundamentally positional and defensive.

Screenshots

Subterfuge4 screens
Proelium4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Proelium at none against Subterfuge's 5. Subterfuge's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months). On price, ads, 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

Both are free to download. Subterfuge sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Proelium asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Subterfuge ships an update every 10 days, Proelium every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Subterfuge versus Proelium: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSubterfugeProelium
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (586 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews87.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings586 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSecret Plan LLCSERGIO COPETE GARCIA

Bugs and requests

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

Proelium

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

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
None

Proelium

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Subterfuge free?
Subterfuge is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Proelium free?
Proelium is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Subterfuge or Proelium have ads?
Neither Subterfuge nor Proelium shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Subterfuge or Proelium?
Subterfuge ships an update every 10 days, and Proelium every 2 months. Most recently, Subterfuge was updated on October 22, 2026 and Proelium on October 20, 2026.

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