Strategery is a simple strategy game. It has many of the elements that make more complex strategy games interesting, but reduced to the core gameplay, and with a scope that lets you jump in and play a full game in a few minutes instead of a few hours.
The map is a hex grid, divided up into segments. Each region has a number of peg slots, and can belong to one player. Each turn, you select a segment that has pegs on it, and select an adjacent segment to attack. Depending on game settings and the number of pegs you and your opponent have, you’ll either win the attack and capture the segment, or lose the attack and possibly lose some of the pegs you attacked with.
And that’s about it. Gameplay continues until one player has knocked out all the others.
One thing I don’t like about Strategery is that after playing it many, many (many) times, I’ve noticed that starting position and turn order has a huge effect on the outcome. In a nutshell, you can almost predict at the start of the game who is going to win. So, for me, having a fun game involves generating random starting maps until I see one where I can’t guess with certainty who is going to win. Those are the fun ones.
Strategery is universal, although I enjoy it much more on the iPad than on the iPhone.
Strategery is one of the first games I bought for my original iPhone, and it’s one I still pick up. I don’t think there’s any game I’ve gotten more play value out of, so this is an easy recommendation for me.
App Store link: Strategery
