Overview

Ancient Beast is a free, open-source turn-based strategy game played in the browser against bots or other people. You assemble an army of creatures — each with its own abilities and stats — and fight 1v1 or 2v2 battles on a hex-grid arena. It is designed to be easy to learn but hard to master: there is no luck or dice involved, only positioning and unit synergy.

Key Features

• Turn-based tactical combat — command a squad of creatures on a hex grid with no random dice rolls; outmanoeuvre your opponent rather than out-roll them.
• Runs in the browser — no installer, no account and no storefront: the HTML5 canvas build loads from the website on desktop and mobile.
• 1v1 and 2v2 matches — play solo against adjustable AI bots or online against other players.
• Deep unit roster — dozens of creatures, each with unique abilities, stats and upgrades, so army composition matters as much as tactics.
• Alternate game modes — extra rulesets and arena layouts mix up how matches play out.
• Seven factions — the dystopian setting is split into factions named after the seven deadly sins, each with its own flavour.
• Lightweight and cross-platform — optimised to run on modest hardware, with mouse, keyboard or touchscreen input.
• Open development — AGPL-licensed TypeScript/Phaser codebase with an active community (latest release v0.5, 2026).

Why Use It

It is a zero-install, zero-cost alternative to commercial turn-based tactics games — open the page and play. Because the whole game is open source, it is also one of the few polished browser strategy titles that can be built and run on your own hardware, with no ads, accounts or in-game purchases in the way.

Use Cases

• Quick tactical matches in the browser during a break.
• Solo play against AI bots to learn unit combinations and counter-picks.
• Online 1v1 or 2v2 matches with friends through a shared match link.
• Playing on low-spec hardware or a locked-down device where installing games is not an option.

Platforms

Any modern web browser — Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. The source can also be built and self-hosted.

Licence

Free and open source — AGPL-3.0. No price tag, no advertising and no in-game purchases.

Website

ancientbeast.com

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