It's a rainbow-colored arms race in a hexagonal world.

Fans of the board game Risk will feel right at home in Strategery. In each turn-based match you battle four opponents (any mix of computer-controlled players and nearby humans you pass your device to) to control a hexagonal map.

The five countries start with an equal number of “armies” (little dots) occupying “countries” on the map. To attack, you tap one of your countries with at least two armies, then tap an adjacent country belonging to an opponent. A die is rolled for each army in both countries, so try to attack countries with fewer armies than yours. If you win the roll, you take over the country. If you lose, your total number of armies takes a hit.

One die is rolled for each army in the attacking and defending countries.

When you’re done attacking, you click the End Turn button, and get a bonus army for every country in your “empire.” (If you have five countries that border each other, and a sixth country on the other side of the map, you get five bonus armies.) The game’s settings let you choose how those are placed (on the borders, randomly, or wherever you choose), but we preferred the strategy of placing them manually. Then the other countries take their turns while you watch, hoping your armies aren’t all wiped out before it’s your turn again. Take over the whole map to win.

Strategery has four difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard, and the aptly named Brutal), three map sizes, and hundreds of maps. Plus, “Land Grab” and “Winner Keeps All” modes change the rules just a little to keep things interesting. In Land Grab, each player starts with one country and races to take over unclaimed countries and build their empires. And Winner Keeps All prevents the winner of a battle from losing any armies.

 
When you win, the game replays all the moves so you can watch yourself take over the world.