As with all things, I’m back playing another fantasy strategy game, Only this time it’s a freeware game called Battle for Wesnoth. I am usually leery of freeware stuff since no matter how good someone says a program is, it normally doesn’t meet my expectations. The same went for this one as well when I first looked at the graphics. As I got into the core playing, I had a change of heart. It turned out that behind the simple look was a pretty decent game-playing experience.
I did say it’s free, and the whole thing is less then 50 megabytes in size, so you’re getting some enjoyable strategy play time in return. Keep in mind that this is nothing deep like some of the commercial games, but more like a “bread and butter relaxing in the evening” type of game. Yes, it’s fantasy-type with the usual elves and orcs, and it’s a turn-based game which means you RTS players might shudder at the thought of moving units one at a time instead.
The premise of the story line has you, a young prince, escaping from an enemy bent on killing off the entire family line. You must escape and then build up an army to retake back what is rightfully yours. The basic objective in the campaign game is to wipe out the enemy or capture objectives. You’ll need to use the tutorial since combat is a bit different from the usual type of game you may be used to. In this respect, it really didn’t take long to figure out most of the moves needed to play the game.
The map layout is hexagonal in nature with zones of control and villages spaced out over a general area. The villages are your source of gold so they are fought over quite a bit. There are castles where you can recruit new units or recall units left over from the previous scenario. Only the prince can do this, so it’s vital to keep him alive throughout the campaign. You will have computer controlled allies to assist you when called on as well.
Movement is simple and hex based with the system showing you how far you can travel. You can exceed the limitations, but that means the computer will finish out the rest of the movement turn before allowing you control over that unit again. If you move to control a town, your move ends after the capture, so wisely plan your movement around the map. Zones of control apply so a surrounded unit is in danger of elimination if you can’t break free. There is no stacking, thus you will have to ensure not to over extend yourself and get picked off unit by unit.
Combat is a one on one affair with units gaining levels from experience. That’s harder then you may think since the computer senses which unit has a bit of experience and zeros in on them to wipe out the poor guys. When the fighting begins you’ll get a little pop-up box giving you a choice of what you want to do and shows the odds depending on what choice you did make. The second number is how many times a unit can attack in the phase of combat. The same applies to defense as well. This means in a full turn you can attack as much as eight times depending on the type of unit.
You might think that this is too simple, but I found out that you just can’t go rushing off to capture everything in sight since you’re asking the computer to wipe your units out one by one. This can be deadly especially if the money situation is very lean. I had to reload saved games and rethink my strategy a few times to make the most of what I had in the initial rounds. Keep that in mind when you try for a village thirty movement points away from the castle and you’ve got a number of enemy units within range of it.
You can create your own scenarios and play them or even submit them for uploading for other players to enjoy. The same applies to downloading other players’ scenarios as well. Multiplayer is allowed so you can create those types of maps for your playing enjoyment. All in all, I quite enjoyed this bit of diversion as I’m sure you will too. For the price you really can’t go wrong.
Father of two, now grown children.What are my kind of games? Strategy, RTS, RPG, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and online games such as Dark Age of Camelot and Asheron's Call. Of my dislikes I would say puzzle games such as Myth, FPS type games such as Doom. Also simulation type games, and games that are just plain bad.
My knowledge of the industry mostly evolves around beta testing games, such as Earth & Beyond from EA, Saga of Ryzom, and companies like MSN and Acolade. Self taught web design is another interest I have. Family life is entertaining at times. It also can get weird as well, after you have been married 31 years.
