Last updated on December 8th, 2025 at 11:35 pm
Back Wars – Strategy Game Review
Back Wars is a Strategy/Action game from MDickie Limited, first launched in 24th April 2019.
It’s rated 17+ and currently has 746+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Back Wars Stand Out
When an army travels back in time to rule the world 1,000 years in advance, they get more than they bargained for from their primitive counterparts! Lead the resistance with hundreds of warriors from different cultures all over the world. Focus on one individual or step back to command an entire army at your fingertips. Combining world-dominating strategy with fully interactive battles, this game offers the best of both worlds! And just when you think it's over, history might just repeat itself…
UPGRADES
The game is mostly free to play, but you can upgrade to take control of your experience – choosing which side and how much territory to start with. You can also blow off steam with fantasy battles between any 2 cultures – and as many warriors as your device can handle! For what it's worth, you can also edit every character in the world – but please note that this game uses up to 1,000 of them that are regularly replaced.
CONTROLS
When controlling a specific character, this game offers either the "Classic" 1-handed control system or "Dual Wield" where each hand is controlled separately. If you are not already familiar with these from previous games in the series, you can pause the action at any time by hitting the dateline and then study the "Controls" guide. Also look out for in-game hints from scrolls or books that you can read.
In this game, you can change which member of the team you are controlling at any time by either tapping the health meter or literally pointing to them on the battlefield. By tapping the arrows at the bottom of the screen, you can also activate "Commander" mode where you step back and direct any active member of your team by simply swiping from their location to another. Whether you intend them to relocate, fight an enemy, or pick up an object, they will try to make sense of your instructions. But please bear in mind that they can only do so at their convenience and may have other priorities!
Whatever device or control method you are using, you can always zoom in or out by pinching at the centre of the screen.
MAP
The main "Campaign" game mode requires you to increase your territory by moving units from one area to any connected one. You can either "fortify" an existing territory or attempt to seize a rival territory. Note that only 50% of the units in a territory will be available to travel – which necessarily makes it harder to invade than it is to defend.
The population of any inhabited territory may grow after each round, so it is important to control as many as possible. Notice that units will also gradually heal over time, so it is a good idea to work with different locations each turn.
PERFORMANCE
Please note that this is the largest scale game I have made yet, and may require a high-end device to run at 100%. Consider keeping the "Population" low to reduce the number of characters on screen, or tone down other features in the "Display" options.
I regret there is more to this game than I could ever explain here, so I hope you enjoy figuring some things out for yourself!
This Strategy game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Back Wars is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 20th May 2020
Recent improvements include:
Enhanced compatibility with modern devices, making full use of notched screens in either landscape orientation.
Download & Availability
Back Wars is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This game needs to be 3d or realistic like wrestling empire.
This is the best because you get to be the past and fight the Present and future and then fight zombie versions of themselves to proof that none can never change the past :D.
We have restrictions which we're unable to play because we have 12+ games only. We hope your creating good things and making updates.
Ok Matt now this is a problem now now now this game is not full zoomed to screen for iPhone 13 now. Please fix.
Hella cool game, finally beat it.
Theyre not even important. Get rid of them.
This takes the throne for the GOAT of all mdickie games, the comically stupid dialogue and frustratingly annoying animals randomly attacking you are the icing on the cake Absolute legendary game probably our top 3 mobile games all time forsure. Please bring this to console n pc.
This game is super unfair. We managed to beat the present, but the future came and we cant take a single country even if we put number them. Its not fair that they have those weapons and we have sticks with stone on them.
All of your games are so fun you put nice time in them and so many cool games that you made its awesome its impossible for your games to be boring.
This game is amazing. We love the idea of leading the resistance. The battles were intense and amazing. And when the future comes along. Man was that tough to win. But we destroyed them. And then the zombies. This game provided us hours of enjoyment and makes us want to replay just to go through that action again. Definitely the best game from this creator.
Please o please you guys have the talent, please make a medieval game it would be amazing.
But can someone tell us what we do after were done battling everybody.
So this game can get us really mad. But we just wanted to say about the hostile animals they get super annoying and they kill us for no reason causing us to lose. We think they're annoying so can you please change them a bit. Other then that it's an awesome game.
We love this game. Its like a violent Risk with a cool plot. We dont like that we take a long time to get up and sometimes when Im about to kill someone and we have the upper hand some hotshot, rocket launcher carrying, teammate launches it at our enemy and blasts us and the other team ends up winning.
Hi mdickie we just played your newest games . And we want you to bring back one of your old game popcorn and maybe more.
We love the game and its creator. But we just hate it when we are fighting then one of our people say Ill help then our opponent with no hands kills us… Could you make time freeze when they talk.
We love this game but the animals like the tigers and horses just make the game way to difficult like we cant even play this game without an animal attacking us and giving the opponent the upper had pls fix that.
How to tune this game in Chinese.
Campaign is good its just this 1 thing where the game chooses for us and we cant do nothing. We would have no problem with if if it just didnt set us up for the worst. It doesnt let us play the game & its just annoying bc we cant do nothing. Other then that its good.
So about a few days ago we installed this game and we accidentally uninstalled it and now when we went to reinstall it we lost our premium, so could you possibly get it back for us? Thanks.
Ok so we got this game and it is fun we like it but the problem is when we use editor it is just random, can you just fix this Matt.we really want to Customize our character so we can play with it pls fix this,Otherwise this game is cool so bye.
To many ads. Every time a country wins, its always an ad. However this game is good.
It start off the game is excellent with the past present and even zombies theres a great variety this game hold which is great, To begin with the problems the animals such as the tiger and bear randomly attack you which can be quite annoying, second the time it takes for the past characters to understand the present weapons this can be quite difficult when your playing the game, third there should be a option to change the map without costing money, we believe this used to be a option before, fourth the past should be able to ride tanks.
We enjoy playing this game sooo much, but this happened 2 times to mefirst time we almost defeated the present and when we finnished one of the battles, IT STARTED PLAYING BY ITS OWN. The computer is playing for both sides and we cant do anything! We restarted our phone but bothing happens! So we needed to start new. Now we almost defeated the HOLE STUPID GAME BUT IT HAPPENED AGAIN AND we DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO. If this cant be fixed ill delete the game. We VERY disapointed.
We really like this game and extra lives but theres still a couple of problems that would make the game better if fixed like the grabbing, someones begging for their life after being shot 5 times with a rifle and you try to save him by grabbing him and you end up grabbing the enemy right next to him or just grabbing the air and boom your comrade died. One of the other problems is the animals, the animals are fine except when theyre constantly walking on you and moving you or just trying to block you as if theyre secretly a part of the other side. Aside from that the games pretty good wish there was an update with more sides and weapons tho.
Back Wars is a fun game and we enjoyed playing the campaign. Fighting against the present, future, and zombies was fun with good variety. There are ads but only after you beat a level. The weapons are good. But theres also problems. As the past, you cant learn to drive a tank like you can learn other weapons. The animals are really annoying because they randomly attack you. In the other games you could ride deer and tigers, its impossible in this game. Also, theres dialogue in this game. That would be fine, but you cant move while theres dialogue on the screen. The enemies can! And you cant defend yourself while someone is talking. When someone is dying, youre supposed to be able to grab them to save your life. Half the time it doesnt even grab them and grabs in the air instead.
We love the game but have only one problem, you dont get reinforcements. Ill take over a country and have one guy left in that area, and later down the game it just gets crushed because well, theres one vs many more. We know u can move troops from one country to another, but then it leaves that country with few troops. Its frustrating when its near the end and you only have like one troop in each country and get swept over.
We bought the extended version and we didnt like it as much as we thought but its a great game though.
This game is so good, we play it everyday and love playing with the past, but Everytime the AI throws our character, they throw us into the border of the game and it makes us flee, and this time it makes us mad because we had 8 and there was 1 person and then it made us flee.
Why do the past people do a little animation for so long after they pick up a present weapon??????? It drives us crazy lol. Other than that, great game.
Hey mdickie make a update if the other team cry they will attack their own team.
A story mode of like of an action movie or something or like different settings of events.
The game has a lot of potential, but there are a few areas that could be improved. First, we find the past side to be somewhat disadvantaged compared to the other sides. It might be interesting to give the past an advantage, such as the ability to ride other animals. This wouldnt be too overpowered since players can be knocked off a horse with just two hits, and it would add a unique element that the other sides dont have. Secondly, we've noticed that players on the opposing side can steal weapons during dialogue moments, which can be really annoying. For example, when we're a character from the opposing side in a fight and am close to defeating a enemy, it can be frustrating when an ally on our side begins a dialogue, allowing the enemy to recover and steal our weapon while we're momentarily frozen. A solution could be allowing players to move during dialogue moments, similar to mechanics like Wrestling Revolution, or perhaps ensuring that all characters freeze during these interactions. Additionally, Ive experienced delays when picking up advanced items, as characters tend to observe the item for about three seconds. This delay, along with being surrounded by enemies IMMEDIATELY, often leads to unfortunate outcomes. Overall, we would rate the game 3/5. The story is engaging, but we believe that addressing these gameplay mechanics would greatly enhance the overall experience.
This Game is fun but gets really annoying when the enemies get to use vehicles constantly and all they do is just ride in a car and run you over, theyre are also very op for no reason.
The ai took over for us and we couldnt do anything.
- It looks bad 2. Quality is bad 3. Every bot is really good for some random reason and keeps killing everybody 4. Every time Im in a fight they get reinforcements and it went from 3v1 to a 3v5.
As if defeating the present was hard enough, the future pops up out of no where and its completely unfair because they have these overpowered weapons.
Its a good game, but waiting for the opponent team which is a AI to pick a state, is kind of ridiculous.
The landscape of the game is completely different from when we first got it. We got it when it came out and the hardest ones to beat were the future. But now the Zombies are beefed up and are nearly impossible to beat. We struck on with an Axe Exactly 13 times (yes we counted) before it died. Nerf the Zombies.
Celebrating world peace Finished the game.
WHY DO THEY RANDOMLY ATTACK YOU.
This game is so fun but the amount of time we takes to get up is insanely high it really annoys us.
We like the idea, we like the game, but oh our god how unfair it is. The weapons that you get are nothing compared to the enemys. You get sticks and small knives while the other team gets rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and TANKS. And if you dare try to get one of the better weapons that the enemies have you get swarmed and immediately killed. It doesnt help that when you grab weapons from the enemies you have to stand there for like 3 seconds observing the weapon because your character is from the past and is intrigued at the futuristic weapon. But thats unfair because by the time Im done observing the weapon, enemies blew us up with a rocket launcher, shot us twice, stomped and punched us so that we cant get up, and died. We gave this game 3 stars instead of 1 or 2 because we still think this game is fun when it isnt constantly making you rage and we believe that we would give this a better rating if it were more balanced. Other than the unfair advantages to the enemies, its a solid game.
Come on Can you create Mercy in this game.
Its really fun to fight the different factions but it is impossible to progress because of friendly fire. This is a 2d game so shooting your teammates is impossible to avoid and we question why its even a feature because your own team will kill more of you then your opponent. We think Im gonna hop off this game until theres either a patch that removes it or an option in the menus is added to remove it.
Every time we play the game the next second we end up deleting it. First sometimes they constantly hit us not allowing us to get up thus making us lose. Second when the future future comes its very hard because there more advanced mean we cant defend ourselves even though we attempt to pick up a weapon from the future future they and up attacking us then they steady hit us not allowing us to get up once again. Its a great game and has a great lore but the thing is that its very complicated we think you should make a 3d version of this game. Thank you for your time.
Why do we have to start as the past.
We have a lot of people to defeat 13 people and we have 20 and they dont get equal teams.
Im not sure if this is a glitch or a new update but when we got to a certain point in the game with like 2 more states to conquer the game took over and chose what we decided to take over on the map like the ai enemys but it wouldnt let us watch or even play it just simulated the battles and we couldnt play when the past won (us) it constantly flipped through the the states until we closed app and when we reopened there was red back on the map.
Controls on game are really bad and the layout of the game isnt the best either. Too hard to know if your lined up for a shot. But other than that is a alright game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.7
- Size: 79.81 MB
- iOS: 10.0 or later
- Languages: CS, DA, NL, EN, FI, FR, DE, EL, HE, ID, IT, JA, KO, MS, NB, PL, PT, RU, ZH, ES, SV, TH, ZH, TR, VI
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Frequent/Intense Realistic Violence
- Developer: [MDickie Limited]()
Last updated: 20th May 2020 | Genre: Strategy, Action | Developer: MDickie Limited