Nob War: The Elves
[a href='http://www.nobstudio.com/games/play/nob-war-elves']
The appeal of this game relates to how many gamers enjoy games - pure animalistic dominance.
The core aspects of this game, from the soundtrack, the sparse mission hub and fight screen, the grunts and shouts of soldiers as they enter the battlefield, the drumroll as you call reinforcements, all speak to the primitive side of us that enjoys seeing an army crushed and fleeing before us. The controls are basic enough to allow the user to enjoy the core gameplay, but allow enough mobility to change the gameplay style to your preferences.
You control a group of Elven archers, the only battalion of the pointy-eared bowmen in your army. Elves being highly valued, you are given control of the entire army. You call in assistance from two other types of unit, who after entering the battlefield in you cannot control. The overall objective is to reach the enemy fort, but you cannot do this without killing the entire enemy army. Fine by me, where are they?
Being the only archer group, if you die, the enemy archers presumably wipe out the remains of your embittered army. However, there is another element to defeat - flag bearers. These slow, heavy troopers destroy any enemy they encounter easily, with minimal casualties. However, if they are wiped out, game over.
Some parts of the game feel perhaps unfinished. Despite both sides having access to three types of unit, there is no rock-paper-scissors aspect. Centaur cavalry can be called in quick succession, stun any unit and can throw javelins, but are generally weak in individual strength. Human swordsmen move slowly and take longer to call in but have high strength and can raise shields to take less damage. Both melee units very soon feel like mere stop gaps between groups of archers. Archers also seem to be the only unit I feared directly facing, and I would still kill more of them then I lost, as they are ineffectual at melee range. Troop numbers stack on top of each other, so it is hard to see if you are winning till the fight is over. I guess you could say it adds to immersion, but I just find it annoying.
Another problem is difficulty, as it seems to be skewed heavily towards the player. With the right upgrades, I never had to call in a second battalion of humans, and never lost my flag bearers. I rarely had to an attempt a mission more than once, and easily won the second time around. There seems to be no disadvantage or limit to simply calling in reinforcements at the earliest opportunity, and losing just adds a number of days to the time it takes to win the campaign, with no penalty, and allows you continue at the fight you just left. The inability to repeat previous levels means you can only ever play the final level, and throughout the campaign the game very soon drops down to "shoot arrows at targets/call in reinforcements" with very little variation.
However, the appeal of this game can also be placed not just in its animalistic feel, but also in its story, as it has none. You can be elves at Helms Deep in Lord of the Rings, or a group of longbowmen at Agincourt. Any period in history that required archers, cavalry and swordsmen, and you can be there.
And there is no greater joy to be seen then seeing your outnumbered cavalry force charge to their glorious deaths. Laugh all you like, my foes, for there is more where that came from.
