The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

Sean O’ Connor has been developing games for a long time – back when the indie game scene mainly comprised games distributed on the shareware model. I downloaded the demo for version 2.0 of Firefight, his WWII real time tactics game some ten years ago and now it’s at version 4.1. And yes, this game is one of my recommendations for my Indie Games Worth Buying (IGWB) series.

If you’ve played any of Atomic Games’ Close Combat series, you find the gameplay very similiar, the only major difference being that the later Close Combat games have a strategic layer to tie the tactical battles together with troops that stay with you for an entire operation or campaign. In Firefight however, you purchase the troops you require for a mission and the survivors return to wherever they’re coming from after the mission ends.

Battles occur as an engagement of two infantry companies – you’ll control a mix of infantry sections, mortar and machinegun teams, anti-tank-guns and individual tanks attached to your company.

Troop deployment

Both sides start at opposing ends of each randomly-generated map and attempt to attack or defend the mission objective (signified by the flag). Since Firefight is primarily an infantry-based skirmish, tactical movement, overwatch and mutual support are very important since the enemy AI will often open fire at close short range and pin down the leading sections. Without suppressive fire from supporting sections, isolated sections are quickly and easily suppressed and defeated in detail.

Contact!

Individual tanks, while expensive at the cost of three (or four) infantry sections, do provide an interesting addition to your tactical options since they are almost invulnerable to small arms fire at medium to long range and provide a mobile source of heavy firepower to extricate troops in trouble or support infantry assaulting enemy strongpoints in villages. Just watch out for enemy tanks, anti-tank guns and lucky direct hits from offmap artillery. They’re not invincible though – panzerfausts and their equivalents or a sufficient quantity of hand grenades will quickly disable any tank unsupported by infantry in the built-up areas.

Calling for a fire mission on a 88mm which has just destroyed two of my tanks.

Friendly AI is excellent – soldiers will automatically fire on enemies in range and use grenades in close combat and tanks will turn and back away when fired upon by other tanks and anti-tank guns. Tank crews will escape and attempt to crawl away to safety when their tanks are disabled. Mortar teams act with equal initiative and will provide supporting fires on enemy positions. You rarely have have to issue fire orders and can concentrate on manuevering sections around the enemy flanks or calling for artillery support.

In a nod to realism, off-map artillery has to adjust fire when calls for artillery are requested. Since this takes time to prepare, commanders must plan ahead and cannot simply request for fire support and expect an instant barrage of deadly firepower on top of their enemies’ heads. Adjusting shots that land near the targeted area are a warning that an enemy artillery strike is impending so wise commanders will move their troops out of range or hunker down in cover.

To simulate WWII technology, your HQ section’s radios work to a limited range only so moving your infantry too far outside the radio range will render them unable to receive orders until your HQ section advances into range.

The butcher’s bill

Morale is an essential part of any realistic tactical game and Firefight does it very well. Suppressed troops take potshots before returning to cover while pinned or badly mauled squads cower, hug the ground and refuse unachievable orders or evensurrender when they had enough. Likewise, the enemy break and surrender when their casualties reach unacceptable levels.

All in all, a very enjoyable and well-executed tactical game with infinite replayability thanks to the randomly generated battles.

Download the demo for Firefight (full game costs 20 USD) or check out Sean O’ Connor’s other games.

Other IGWB selections:
IGWB (I) – Mount & Blade
IGWB (II) – Battle of Tiles

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Iron Grip : Warlord Demo Impressions
Retro Tactical Warfare in Nectaris for Windows
Autumn War – Zombie Killfest
Modern Tactics 3 – Call of Duty 4 in 2D?
The Complete Wargames Handbook PDF

The second game for the new IGWB series, Battle of Tiles is an extremely addictive (and very attractively priced) game by Bimboosoft. Battle of Tiles was originally featured as a Indie Game Pick by the awesome IndieGames blog back in June 2008.

© Bimboosoft

As its title implies, it’s a game of tactical tile-based combat where you lead a formation composed of square tiles which represent the different soldiers in your army. Your objective is to defeat the enemy troops blocking your advance by continually manuevering your tiles (oops, I mean units) into the most advantageous formations (e.g melee in front, archers, wizards and healer units at the back) and converting enemy troops to your side (with the proper monetary incentive, of course) to maximize your army’s killing power.

© Bimboosoft

It’s very easy game to learn especially with the comprehensive interactive tutorial included.

Priced at 4.95 USDor < 8 SGD (less than the price of a weekend cinema ticket!), Battle of Tiles is definitely worth buying if you enjoyed the demo. Bigger armies, 25+ extra units and more tactical challenges await you in the full version.

You know you’re seriously addicted when you continually see this screen while playing the demo

Download the demo at the official Battle of Tiles website. You can also purchase the game on the same page.

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IGWB (I) – Mount & Blade
Modern Tactics 3
DoomRL Revisited
Aliens – The Board Game (Flash Version)

The first in a brand new subseries for Games Thursday – Indie Games Worth Buying or IGWB for short – yes, I know I suck at creating acroymns IGWB will showcase those independently developed games which I have already bought or intend to buy in the near future

It’s not going to be a weekly feature since I don’t have that much money to buy games on such a regular basis but I’ll try my best to feature games that I think are worth their price in terms of replayability.

The first game to kick off this series is Mount & Blade by Turkish indie developers Taleworlds Entertainment. If you’ve always wanted to wondered what it’s like being part in one of those cavalry charges in movies (albeit in a smaller scale), this is the game for you

As a leader of a freewheeling band of mercenaries, you are given free rein to decide which missions to participate and which kingdom(s) to side with among the five in the fictional realm of Calradia.

Calradia resembles Earth during the middle ages and thus each kingdom is loosely based on the actual powers during the medieval ages – e.g Nords will remind of the Norsemen with their distinctive helmets and axes and the steppe nomads of the Khergit Khanate look and dress like the Golden Horde. Although you’re free to hire mercenaries from any of the five kingdoms (each with their distinct strengths and weaknesses) for your party, you’ll probably hire those warriors that match your playing style.

A Nord Veteran with the Viking-style helm and armed with a axe.

The main draw of Mount & Blade is the real-time combat which kicks in when you encounter an enemy party e.g roving bandits or warriors of a rival kingdom. As the leader of your company, you’re always mounted (although you can always dismount and fight on foot). A lot of practice is required to fight effectively atop a horse, but nothing beats that exhilarating feeling of charging straight into the midst of a rowdy gang of bandits together with your mounted companions.

Melee combat is effected using the left mouse button to attack and right mouse button to block with a shield or parry with a melee weapon. Fighting isn’t a point-and-click affair ala Diablo-style but a fluid system of feints, strikes and parries which rewards players who can fight with finesse by properly timing your attacks and defences correctly to exploit your opponents’ mistakes. You might get away by hammering away at ill-disciplined and unarmoured opponents like looters and bandits but heavily armoured horsemen and foot infantry will quickly cut you down.

Aspiring archers and crossbowmen are not left out in Mount & Blade since there’s a rather realistic archery system incorporated in the combat engine (try out the archery range at 70 yards – you’ll see what I mean ).

The archery range at 70 yards (default view) and (zoomed view). The targets are hardly visible at that distance even when zoomed in.

Ranged weapons are realistically represented as with their historical counterparts in this game : crossbows are far more accurate and easier to use than bows at close range at the expense of a longer reloading time.

Now every mercenary leader knows it’s important to amass enough wealth to ensure that your men receive their weekly wages as well as a plentiful supply of food to keep them in high spirits since well-fed men march faster and fight harder. Money also buys you upgrades to your personal equipment and allows the addition of more raw recruits from the villages or experienced mercenaries from the taverns to bolster your warband.

By completing quests or from selling slaves and other spoils of war, you’ll slowly gather enough resources to outfit yourself and form a sizeable company of veterans (troops can be upgraded and equipped with better armour and weapons for free once they collect enough experience – the only cost is increased weekly wages for their improved fighting abilities). Quests can be issued by kings and lords and even village elders and may include typical delivery quests to assassination of fugitives to collection of taxes and even requests to liberate bandit-infested villages.

You can also join tournaments in the larger towns to raise more funds, but you’ll need at least basic proficiency in most weapons since the weapon assignments are random – finding yourself equipped as an archer and staring at a knight charging you with a couched lance is not very fun Last man standing type melee fights are also available at the arena and pay well for fighters who can defeat 20 or more opponents.

Some keys to get you started:

Third-Person View (in Towns, Combat)

• W,S,A,D – Move
• Tab – Return to World Map
• Left Click – Attack
• Right Click – Defend
• F – interact with NPCs

World Map

• Left Click – Move
• P – Party
• Q – Quests
• I – Inventory
• C – Character

The demo for Mount & Blade allows you to play until your character reaches level 6 or 30 game days have elapsed. The full game can be bought for 35 USD / 53.25 SGD (free upgrades for life! Yay!)

Try out the Mount & Blade demo (153 MB), buy the game or read a rather comprehensive unofficial manual for Mount & Blade.

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