Weewar is a game that bored office workers have been waiting for. Strategy on a minute scale in the style of Advance Wars. The good news is that there is no client. Weewar is a game played in your browser. It's also turn-based, so you can actually get work done between the 30 seconds you spend on your turn, and to top it all off ... it's in beta and FREE TO PLAY!
The game is played on a hex-piece board. There are no animations or sounds. It feels like a strategy board game. You begin by choosing a map from a current list of 23 and inviting your opponents. Once everyone has agreed to play, the game starts.
Typically, each player begins with one base hex and one light trooper unit. Bases are the name of this game, as they are both your unit producers and your resource generators. You use these resources to create your units.
In basic play, there are seven unit types, including light and heavy troopers — raiders (a jeep with a machine gun), tank and heavy tank, and light and heavy artillery. All units are affected differently by the different types of terrain and have their own specialties. A big part of learning Weewar is learning which of your units stack up best against your opponents. You wouldn't want to send your light infantry after a raider, for example.
Learning all of this, fortunately, doesn't have to be trial and error. Weewar has a very active community that maintains a comprehensive wiki, so new players have a resource to learn from. This is an invaluable help when you're wondering how many "sand" hexes your opponent can cross with that tank.
Finding players has yet to be a problem for me, even when I don't have a friend to start a game with. In my experience, there have always been at least 30 active people online and waiting to start a game. Beginning play is as easy as picking random names out of a list and clicking "invite."
As I said before, it's a turn-based game, so it's entirely dependent upon the players as to how quickly the game moves. I've played four-player games that lasted less than an hour, and I've played two-player games that have spanned three to four days. BUT if you're the impatient type, you can set a time limit to turns. If a player goes over his limit, he can be kicked from the match, giving you the victory and the rank increase.
What ... I didn't mention that? There IS a ranking system. That's right: You're not slaughtering the opposition for nothing; there are POINTS involved! The higher your rank, well ... nothing really, but it's all about showing off how good you are, right?
Another up-side to this game is that you don't even have to be watching the game when it's not your turn. Feel free to close the browser or navigate away to other sites. The game will e-mail you when it's your turn if you have that feature activated.
Overall, Weewar is a very well-done strategy game. It has completely grabbed me and lots of my friends who will remain unnamed as to save them from getting questioning looks during the 9-5. The game's still in beta, so things are being polished, and the server goes down once a day for an hour or so, but that's what a beta is for. This one looks great so far, simple on the outside with a rich, gooey metagame for those who like to look a little deeper. I'm excited to see how it turns out!
