A quick look at one of the small Android apps I'm building solo, with .NET MAUI, under Horizon Software.
Theatre Command is a turn-based hex wargame with one rule that changes everything: every side writes its orders at the same time. You command one nation, the AI commands the rest, you press Submit, and every order resolves at once. Your attack can land on a hex the enemy has just left. Their armour can drive into the gap you opened a moment earlier. It is free on Android, runs entirely on your phone, and is the first title from RetroVent, our label for old-school games rebuilt for the phone.
How a turn works
Give as many orders as you like, then submit. The turn plays back in order: air first, then movement, then fighting. You watch what your orders actually met, which is not always what you aimed at.
Five theatres, four ways to win
Coastal Urban, Arid Highland, River Delta, Mountain Frontier and Arctic Tundra, plus River Crossing, a twenty-turn skirmish. Each theatre is decided on its own terms: hold most of the map for several turns running, break the enemy by attrition, take and keep three named objectives, or be ahead when the turns run out.
Ten units on NATO-style counters
Infantry, mechanised infantry, armour, anti-tank infantry, artillery, reconnaissance, combat engineers, anti-air, attack helicopters and strike aircraft. The bar under a counter is what is left of the unit, and the chevrons beside it are experience: veterans hit harder and hold longer. Units can share a hex and move together at the pace of the slowest. Terrain matters more than numbers. Attacking into forest or built-up ground is expensive, catching something in the open is not, and a unit that has just moved has not dug in.
Supply decides campaigns
Every unit needs a line of your own ground back to your capital or one of your works. Cut off, it fights and moves at about two-thirds strength and stops healing. A deep advance down a thin corridor is the classic way to lose an army without fighting a battle.
Fog of war that remembers
You see what your units can see. An enemy you spotted once and cannot see now stays on the map as a hollow ghost, drawn where it was rather than where it is.
Air power
Squadrons are based at airfields, one of each type. Strike any hex in range, seen or not, and the sortie comes back with a look at what is there. Ferry a squadron to another of your airfields. A squadron with nothing to do goes up on patrol by itself.
The nuclear option
The strategic weapons programme costs a hundred points, paid at fifteen a turn and no faster, and nothing launches before the theatre’s own unlock turn. Aiming takes three deliberate steps, the last of which is typing LAUNCH. The target hex is destroyed, everything beside it is badly hurt, and fallout keeps killing there for ten turns. First use is condemned: thirty per cent off your production for ten turns, and any rival holding warheads of its own answers with one aimed at your capital. Guaranteed, not likely.
Campaign or Sandbox
Campaign plays the authored map with its own victory condition and turn limit. Sandbox deals fresh ground every game and never ends.
The look is a late-1980s strategy game at modern resolution: flat colour, hard edges and chunky counters. War is abstract here, symbols on a hex grid with no people and no blood.
Free, with ads that wait their turn
A banner sits at the bottom during play. Full-screen ads appear at deliberate breaks, such as the end of a battle or changing theatre, and after every third purchase on the Command screen. They never appear while a turn is resolving. One optional video makes the rest of the session ad-free, banner included. There are no in-app purchases and nothing is locked behind an ad.
What you get
- Simultaneous turns: every side orders at once, then it all resolves
- Five theatres plus a twenty-turn skirmish, each with its own way to win
- Ten unit types with strength bars and veteran experience
- Supply lines, terrain and dug-in defenders that matter more than numbers
- Fog of war with ghosts of enemies you saw last turn
- Airfields, strikes, ferries and automatic patrols
- A strategic weapons programme with consequences
- Campaign and a never-ending Sandbox
- Plays offline, with no account and no sign-up
- Free to download
Get it on Google Play
Want the quick tour first? See the Theatre Command app page.
Frequently asked questions
Is Theatre Command free?
Yes. It is free to download and supported by ads, with no in-app purchases. Nothing in the game is locked behind an ad.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. It plays entirely offline, with no account and no online play. Ads are the only thing that use the network.
Is there multiplayer?
No. You command one nation and the AI commands every other side.
How long is a game?
River Crossing is a twenty-turn skirmish. Each campaign theatre has its own turn limit, and Sandbox never ends.
Is it graphic?
No. War is shown as symbols on a hex grid, with no people and no blood.
Built with .NET MAUI by Horizon Software. A small indie studio making simple, focused Android apps.
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