Spartan Wars
Spartan Wars was a free-to-play mobile MMORTS that dropped players into a myth-tinged version of ancient Greece, where city management and server politics mattered as much as raw troop counts. You started with a modest headquarters and worked upward by training units, upgrading infrastructure, and leaning heavily on alliances for protection and coordinated conquest. Its signature hook was the inclusion of collectible Gods, giving the familiar base-building and raiding loop a card-style layer of powers and progression.
 | Publisher: Tap4Fun Type: Mobile Strategy Release Date: December 5, 2012 Shut Down: December 31, 2016 Pros: +Strong visuals for its era. +20+ Gods to level and upgrade. Cons: -Heavy pay-to-win pressure. -Cluttered, hard-to-read interface. -PvP often feels punishing and uneven. |
Spartan Wars Shut Down on December 31, 2016
Spartan Wars Overview
Spartan Wars is a free-to-play MMORTS for iOS and Android, developed by Tap4Fun, the studio behind Galaxy Empire and Invasion: World War 3. At its core, it plays like many mobile war strategy titles of its time, you expand a city, protect your stores, and raid others for what you lack. Where it tried to stand apart was by pairing that loop with a collection-driven “Gods” system that affected both battles and long-term development.
Players could collect and summon more than 20 Gods, each bringing access to a large pool of abilities (over 150 skills in total). In fights, these powers functioned as impactful tools: direct damage, temporary buffs, and control effects that could swing an engagement when timed well. Outside of combat, Gods were also tied into progression through worship, offering boosts such as improved production or stronger defenses, and they could be strengthened further by spending Faith.
Beyond your main headquarters, the game encouraged territorial play and alliance-focused expansion. You could push outward, establish additional cities, and coordinate with your Alliance to capture points on the map, including systems that allowed taxation of controlled citizens. For players who preferred something more structured than constant raiding, there was also PvE content against NPC enemies such as bandits and barbarians, providing rewards and experience to support growth.
Spartan Wars Key Features
- Build and Improve Your City – Develop and upgrade buildings staffed by slaves, improving core functions like recovery and overall happiness to keep your war machine running.
- Summon and Train 20+ Gods – Invest Faith to level and upgrade Gods, increasing the strength of their blessings and combat influence.
- Varied Troop Types – Unlock more capable units as your headquarters levels up, letting you field stronger armies against tougher targets.
- Alliance Warfare and Support – Team up with other players to share resources, coordinate attacks, and survive server conflicts, especially when targeted by stronger rivals.
- Raid for Resources – Attack other cities to steal the supplies needed for troop upkeep and the Faith required to enhance Gods.
- PvE Battles – Take on NPC threats around your territory for progression rewards and combat practice.
Spartan Wars Screenshots
Spartan Wars Featured Video
Spartan Wars Review
Spartan Wars followed the familiar mobile MMORTS blueprint, but with a mythological twist that genuinely changed how fights played out. The moment-to-moment routine was built around upgrades, timers, and resource pipelines, yet the Gods system added a second track of progression that could feel meaningful, especially early on. When battles weren’t decided purely by power gaps, using the right abilities at the right time could create the sense that planning mattered.
City building was straightforward and focused on scaling. As you upgraded your headquarters, you opened up access to stronger troops and more development options, which is where the game’s long-term pull came from. Like most server-based strategy games, the real “content” was the community layer: alliances forming, rivals clashing, and territory becoming a shared objective rather than a personal checklist. Capturing points with an Alliance and leveraging taxation mechanics gave groups reasons to cooperate beyond simply pooling help requests.
Combat was designed to be brutal, and that was both its appeal and its biggest problem. Raiding and counter-raiding kept servers active, but the environment could turn hostile fast for smaller players. The game rewarded aggression and organization, which is good for competitive players, yet it also made the experience unforgiving if you fell behind or ended up on the wrong side of an alliance conflict.
The Gods and skill system was the most distinctive feature, and it also fed into the game’s monetization pressure. Collecting and upgrading powerful Gods could make an army feel unique, but it also reinforced the advantage of players willing to spend. That imbalance was most visible in PvP, where fights could feel less like tactical contests and more like demonstrations of account investment. Combined with a UI that could be difficult to parse, especially as more menus and systems unlocked, the game sometimes asked for more patience than it gave back.
For PvE-focused players, the bandit and barbarian encounters provided a steadier pace and a clearer reward loop. Still, Spartan Wars was ultimately built around server politics and player conflict, so the best experience came from joining an active Alliance and treating the game as a social strategy title first, and a solo city-builder second.
Spartan Wars Links
Spartan Wars Official Site
Spartan Wars iOS
Spartan Wars Google Play
Spartan Wars Wikia (Database / Guides)
Spartan Wars Facebook
Spartan Wars Requirements
Operating System: Android 2.3 or later, iOS 5.1.1 or later
Spartan Wars Additional Info
Developer: Tap4Fun
Platforms: iOS, Android
Release date: December 5, 2012
Release date (Open Beta): November 9, 2012
Shut Down: December 31, 2016
Spartan Wars was both published and developed by Tap4Fun, a game developer based in Chengdu, China, founded in 2011. The company has released a range of iOS and Android titles, including Galaxy Legend and Island Empire. While many of its games were designed with a primarily Chinese audience in mind, Tap4Fun also found notable traction in Western markets, with titles like Galactic Empire and Spartan War performing well in North America and Europe.
Spartan War first appeared as a limited open beta on November 9, 2012, intended as a short test period to identify issues and stabilize the game. Its official launch followed on December 5, 2012, releasing in both North America and Europe. The developer’s last official announcement arrived on September 29, 2016, and the game ultimately shut down at the end of that year on December 31, 2016.