Main game
3.81 average rating based on 36 ratings
A free game that is genuinely free. You don't pay to unlock gameplay, no lootboxes, no pay-to-win, no waiting times and no need to be online to play (it's become my game of choice for travelling the London Underground). The only thing you can (optionally) pay for is more civilisations, which is not necessary to fully enjoy the game, but some of them are quite fun so I would recommend trying it if you've played and enjoyed the game.
The gameplay is very accessible, and the option of higher difficulty levels makes it fun to try and master. Anyone familiar with Civilization will find this a very familiar, albeit stripped down, version of the turn-based strategy game.
A well-made, fun, accessible, and genuinely free mobile game that strategy fans will love.
Playtime: 2,5 hours
Played: 2026
Context: Turn-based strategy is one of my favourite types of gameplay.
Review
The Battle of Many Places is a stripped down version of Civilization for mobile. There are only 25 techs, about 10 units and 2 non-resource locations on the map. Buildings only give currency, population or score. It's all very simple, explicitly aimed at games that last 30 turns. As a PC game this holds no value, but i guess on mobile this is about as good as it gets.
I admitedly didn't play a ton of this. Maybe only two or three hours.
In my short time, it has a lot of the bones of early Civilization, but more cutesy low-poly aesthetics.
I'm not the biggest Civ fan, so, it's not surprising that I didn't love this one either.
~David.
Free @ Epic this week (mobile too):
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/the-battle-of-polytopia-12fed6