Blood Wars

Title		Blood Wars
Game Type	Strategy
Players		1-2
Compatibility	All
Available	Aminet game/think/BloodWars-265.lha  311K
Add-ons		Aminet game/think/BWMapMaker-111.lha  89k
Submission	Steven Pearson PG221902@stmail.staffs.ac.uk

Review
This game is a tragedy. Not because it's rubbish the opposite it could quite
possibly be brilliant if it were ever finished the Author left the Amiga and
released this as a final Beta, It is buggy, it's not complete but it is
playable and that's an important ingredient in any game.

Althought it is a one player game the Computer opponents sometimes go a little
mental so it's best to play with friends.

You each start the game with a castle. Every turn you can purchase new troops
using the taxes you take from your castles and move around the map. You move
around the map to conquer other castles and villages whether they be neutral
(not owned by an opponent) or an enemy castle. The more castles you take the
more money you earn and the more troops you can buy. You can only buy troops
your castle offers and in order to take a castle you will have to have beaten
these troops with your often weaker troops, so be sure to build up a large army
before taking a castle, and pull out if you take too heavy losses early in the
game. Money can get very tight and you can be so weak that your opponents can
wipe the floor with you.

If you don't like the idea of waiting while your taxes roll in slowly you can
seek your fortune by performing "quests" this involves taking your "King" (you
have only one and replacements appear randomly later in the game) and an army to
a special landmark, Here you will either gain a Magic Item, cash, troops or
perhaps death. Magic Items can bestow your army with new abilities, like flight,
extra defence and speed.

The game is turn based and it's best not to seen your opponents turns that way
you have no idea of the strength of his attacking army. Although you can see his
armies approach.

There are several maps provided with the game and a Map editor is available.
There are even some maps fans of the game have designed and uploaded to the
Aminet. (Simple search for BloodWars)

This game feels complete but it's obvious the author had more plans. There is a
mysterious Sentry Mode that turns your Army into a tent and you spend a while
trying to get them back.

There are loads of fantastic races ranging from simple peasants to Mighty
dragons. You may even turn to the overwhelming power of the Undead to aid your
cause.

Like all strategey games being turn based it can get boring waiting for your
turn, just so you can click end to save your taxes, while your opponent is
obviously planning some massive assault. And it is often apparent long before
then end that the game is over for you. If your opponent gets lucky and manages
to get a castle with incredibly powerful inhabitants that happened to be guarded
by very weak ones it's game over for you. I've defeated an army of skeletons and
gotten a castle that can "produce" Grim Reapers. You can trash all the nearby
castles gets massive amounts of taxes and build a formidable army.

I'm in two minds on this game, it should be fun it has all the right
ingredients, War, multi-players and strategy but it feels a little lop-sided to
me. Sometimes the starting castles seem a little unfair I have started with
Wolf-Men and my friend gets Cavalry. This is easily fixed in the map-editor.
It's just the long windedness and the fact that I've never managed to complete a
full game because me and my friends just fall out before we finish, so it's best
to just switch off the machine and mellow out, but then that's war for you.

Alphabetical list.