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Battle Isle |
Battle Isle is a series of turn-based tacticscomputer games developed and published by Blue Byte Software, released through the nineties for Windows and Amiga. The original game was a single-player game but the latest versions had also a multiplayer mode.
The game was a big success in Europe and mainly in Germany, inspired by the Japanese game Nectaris. The original was followed by plenty of sequels and imitations. This series even became a cult game.
The Battle Isle storyline is set on a fictional planet called Chromos, whose society is technologically more advanced than the technology of contemporary Earth, indeed it has the knowledge of advanced robotics (robots), computers (AIs) and limited spaceflight (enough to set up space colonies on the moon of Chromos). The individual games represent various wars that took place on the planet Chromos.
The first three games are played on a hexagonal grid for a map. Players not only control the combat units (ranging from infantry and tanks to helicopters, fighters and bombers, armored trains, surface warships and submarines, stationary gun turrets), but (especially in the later games) also many support logistics units (ammo and fuel transports, scout and radar units, road and trench construction vehicles, and others).
Units have various weapons and experience. Players also control military factories, where new units can be produced. From Battle Isle 2, weather conditions change, affecting unit movements (for example, a sea or river can freeze, immobilizing ships but allowing light units to move through it).
Fog of war is prevalent and players have to use scouting units to gain information about the battlefield. Some of those options were not available in first games and were added in expansions or sequels.
Players have various tasks, ranging from destroying all opponent forces to capturing special objectives or escaping from the map.
Some missions give a limited number of turns to achieve the objective, while in others events from outside the battlefield can suddenly change the situation, giving players new objectives, reinforcements or enemies. In some battles there are more than two sides, each with their own objectives, not all of them directly involved in hostilities.
Battle Isle one had the screen divided into two parts, one for each player. The turns were also divided into move and attack phases. While one player moved his units, the other commanded his own troops to carry out his actions.
Battle Isle 2 gave the player the entire screen, and merged move and attack phases, and introduced the 3-D display of combat. Battle Isle 3 was very similar to Battle Isle 2, with improved graphics, more units and a new storyline. Battle Isle: The Andosian War was entirely set in the 3-D environment and combined elements of real-time and turn-based strategies.
The AI is relatively weak, relying on mass frontal assaults. After the player survives the first few turns and the AI?s overwhelming numbers, the computer usually is unable to mount a proper defense.