Battalion Wars

Battalion Wars (Japanese: 突撃!!ファミコンウォーズ Totsugeki! Famicom Wars), part of the Nintendo Wars series, is a real-time strategy game for the Nintendo GameCube. It was released on September 19, 2005.

Gameplay

Battalion Wars contains the elements of both a third-person shooter and a real-time strategy game. In the midst of battle, the player will have control over a variety of units, including infantry, tanks, and air units. The player also controls an individual unit himself. Separate units, unit groups, or the entire battalion can be given commands. Units can be commanded to follow the player, hold their positions, man gun turrets, or attack certain targets. At any time, the player may "control-transfer" from one unit to another and take control of that new unit.

Unit types

Infantry

Rifle grunts: These basic soldiers make up the bulk of the armies. They posses assault rifles and are only suitable for eliminating opposing infantry.
Bazooka veterans: Bazooka-wielding infantry. Their missiles can take down tanks and other vehicles easily, although the slow speed of the rockets make them easy to dodge for other infantry. Rockets can be charged before they're fired to increase the speed and damage of them.
Missile veterans: Infantry that carry guided missiles. Their missiles home in on air units, but are barely accurate when aimed against land units.
Flame veterans: Infantry with flamethrowers; they're most effective against other infantry.
Assault veterans: Assault veterans are essentially more powerful Rifle grunts; they carry heavy machine guns capable of massive damage against infantry. Accuracy is lost with the gun over long distances however. The HMG is also capable of dealing damage to lightly armored vehicles and air units.
Mortar veterans: Mortar veterans, as the name implies, fire mortars. Mortars travel in an arc pattern through the air, allowing them to be shot over walls or behind enemy cover.

Land vehicles

Tanks: Tanks have cannons and machine guns. The cannon can be aimed and fired by the player (usually at vehicles, but still effective against ground troops), and the machine gun is automatically fired at infantry. There are Light and Heavy tanks, the Heavy Tanks possessing more power than the Light Tank.
Recons: Light and Heavy Recons are jeeps with rear-mounted machine guns. They are much faster moving than tanks, but are only effective against infantry.
Anti-air: An anti-air tank. Its missiles (which are fired eight at a time) seek enemy planes, but are inaccurate at close ranges. This makes their weapons ineffective against land units.
Artillery: A tank with a long range of fire. It also has a mounted machine gun, but it is still very vulnerable to other vehicles due to its lack of close-range weapons.
Battlestation: The ultimate ground-based vehicle. It has a double-barreled cannon in front, two side-mounted gun turrets and three rear-mounted heavy machine guns. The only thing it doesn't have is anti-air capabilities.

Air vehicles

Gunship: A helicopter with missiles for use against ground units and other air units. However, it can't fire on Fighters (see below).
Fighters: Jet fighters with missiles effective against other air units, but not against ground units (due to the units lack of radar coverage on the ground).
Bombers: Bomber planes can drop bombs on ground units, and have a heavy machine gun for defense against other air units (although the gun is limited in power against them).
Transport Copter: Transport planes can transport infantry and vehicles to various spots on the battlefield. They lack any weapons, but have very thick armor to protect them against enemy planes and copters. Transport copters cannot be controlled by the player.
Strato Destroyer: The ultimate air unit, with powerful air-to-air missiles and bombs to drop on ground units.

Storyline

The game is set at the end of the 20th century. A border quarrel between the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories eventually grows into a large scale conflict between the two powers, after Tsar Gorgi uses his own personal army to instigate a conflict between the two forces. The constant warfare that erupts as a result places a strain on both countries. The Tundrans, however, are defeated in battle after battle.

The leader of Xylvania, Kaiser Vlad, had territory taken from him during the conflict and seeks revenge, by building his own army. Unfortunately, this has come at a cost of their own country's remaining vitality, and so, a deal is struck with the Tsar Gorgi, frustrated with his constant flaunting of Tundran traditions of leadership.. During the conclusion of the skirmishes between Tundran and Frontier troops, a task force led by Countess Ingrid apparently carpet bombs both armies, bringing forth destruction unto each. As a result, the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories must join forces to overcome the new threat.

The first target by the Western Frontier and the Tundran Terrotories was to weaken the Xlvanian forces at the Dune Sea. The Dune Sea had a element named "neorocite," which fueled vehices. Xlvania was being defeated in battle after battle which soon ended the campaign. However during one of the last battles, Tsar Gorgi helps the Western Frontier by commanding his fighters to protect the Western Frontier Bombers that will about to be crushed. In the process, he returned from his exile. But after the battle Commander Ubel murdered him. After his father's murder, Marshall Nova became upset and wanted revenge on his father's death

The end of the war was getting close. But Countess Ingrid of Xlyvania did something terrible, she reborned the Iron Legion; a powerful army that conquered over half the countries in the world during ancient times. By doing this she betrayed Xlyvania and had a new goal : to conquer the world. The Western Frontier and its allies began to see these new units and did not understand what they were for the Solar Empire. Not long after the Western Frontier and its allies landed on Xlyvanian soil, the Iron Legion was defeated. Now Kaiser Vlad had nowhere to run and was defeated by Western Frontier and Tundran forces at the Vlastag. But at the end, Kaiser Vlad escaped capture which may lead to a sequel...

Officer profiles

Western Frontier

Brigadier Betty: Athletic, vivacious, and energetic. She likes to win, and win hard. Her sunny outlook boosts morale and she is keen that all the soldiers are happy and well looked after. She can be impatient with her other COs, but when they ruffle each others feathers, Betty straightens them out.

General Herman: General Herman is such a bundle of aggressive energy that two generations of Frontier tanks were named after him. His immense drive keeps the Frontier forces on the ball. Herman is gruff but playful, with a fascination for all things tactical. Herman is affectionately known as "Coach" by the troops.

Colonel Austin: Distinguished and statesmanlike. Austin can sometimes become overconcerned with details and planning, and the army would grind to a perfectly organized halt if he weren't paired with Herman. Strategic thinking is Austin's strongest suit.

Tundran Territories

Tsar Gorgi: Years of responsibility have left him with difficulties in expressing emotion. The head of a noble family, Gorgi is imperious and chauvinistic. He is skeptical of Nova's new approach to government though he is very attached to his son.

Marshal Nova: Proud and stern. A champion boxer at the academy, he feels the need for progress. Unlike his father, he has been exposed to worldwide culture since his birth, and he is a great modernizer. His support for Nelly exemplifies this.

Major Nelly: An excellent CO due to her robust methods and sense of justice. She is a broad, warm woman who cares deeply for her soldiers. Nelly can cut through any unnecessary machismo. She tolerates Gorgi's attitude toward her due to her respect for his achievements.

Xylvania

Kommander Ubel: A loyal incompetent, who is very good at following orders. However, his lack of imagination and love of brute force can be surprisingly effective in battle. If Vlad is the brains of the operation, Ubel provides the muscle. He aspires to be just like Vlad, respecting his superior's power and lack of emotion.

Kaiser Vlad: Since his rise to power, he has been intent upon reclaiming Xylvania's historical legacy. To this end the Xylvanians have been working to create a worthy army. The small portion of land they still claim as their own has been polluted and destroyed by this effort. For Xylvania, war must come now.

Countess Ingrid: Manipulative and kittenish, but not as smart as she thinks. She suffers from terrible curiosity and has always been fascinated by Xylvania's dark past. Her fearsome reputation as an air ace has lent her reputation as "The Red Countess." She teases Ubel in malicious games of power.

Solar Empire

Empress Lei-Qo: The direct descendant of the ancestral Solar Leader who destroyed the Iron Legion. Supremely elegant, yet ruthless, the Empress is able to presage events. She has been brought up, as was her mother and mother's mother, to be ready to stop the Xylvanian evil should it arise again.

Iron Legion

Posessed Ingrid: During the campaign to defeat Kaiser Vlad, Countess Ingrid, desperate from the continuous losses of the conventional military, steals an artifact from Vlad that enables the user to awaken the Iron Legion of Old Xylvania, an army stopped only by the use of a Doomsday device that devastated both the Xylvania and Solar Empire. During their awakening, the power of the Legion overwhelms Ingrid and subverts her to their army, providing them with both a means of reclaiming the world and a competent leader in one stroke. Possessed, Ingrid is transformed from a kittenish, egomaniacal, sociopathic narcissist to the war hungry, fanatical, sadistic leader of the Legion. Her speech changes as well, with the appearance that she is speaking with several voices. Instead of taunting her foes in this incarnation, she berates them with threats of utter destruction, demands of unconditional submission, and prophecies of the Iron Legions dominion over the entire world.

Reaction

Critically, Battalion Wars received mainly positive reviews. However, the game has sold relatively poorly since release. Many fans and critics feel that the game did not live up to the potential of its gameplay ideas. For example, it only had one mode: Campaign. The Campaign itself can be completed in a maximum of 8 hours, although scoring the highest ratings (100% in three distinct categories) would take much longer. It lacked a multiplayer mode and a mapmaker/free mode, plus Naval units as well as factories, airports, and shipyards to deploy more units. This, however, has led fans of the game to believe that a sequel will be available for Nintendo's next-gen console, Wii, which would take advantage of Wii's online capabilities.

Advance Wars series parallels

Battalion Wars was originally entitled Advance Wars: Under Fire, but the name was dropped after E3 2004. This would have put it in the Advance Wars series of video games, as well as the Nintendo Wars series of games. However, all of these games are turn-based, as opposed to real-time strategy games, and none contain third-person shooter elements.

Despite its apparent lack of relation to Advance Wars, the game contains many references to the series, particularly in units (see Units in Advance Wars for more info on Advance Wars units).

'''Infantry

Rifle grunt = Infantry
Bazooka veteran = Mech Infantry

Tanks and vehicles

Light tank = Tank
Heavy tank = Md. Tank
Battlestation = Megatank
Light recon = Recon

Indirect units

Artillery = Artillery/Rockets
AA vehicle = Missiles/Anti-air unit

Air units

Gunship = Battle Copter
Fighter = Fighter
Bomber = Bomber
Transport = T. Copter
Strato Destroyer = Stealth Fighter

Real life parallels

Armies

Each Army in Battalion Wars is modeled after the armed forces of real world nations.

Western Frontier: U.S. Army, Cold War era
Tundran Territories: Soviet Army, Cold War era
Solar Empire: Chinese/Japanese armies, Various eras/futuristic
Xylvania: German Army, World War 1 (Xylvania's situation is much like Germany's after WWI - rejected and weak)
Iron Legion: Various Thule Society, World War II Germany(The Iron Legion's goals and statements of reducing the known world to slaves are remarkably familiar to Nazist theology, which underscored the domination of Europe by the Aryan(German) race. Also, their appearance and weaponry seems to be a reference to what the Thule Society pictured as the technology and appearance of people from the "Lost City" of Atlantis)

Units

Some of the Frontier unit names closely imitate real-life U.S. weapons, such as:

"Herman" light tank (nod to the M4 Sherman WWII tank)
M1A5 Battle Tank "Hermanator" (Double-Barrelled variant of the M1A1 Abrams)
"Duey" gunship (blatant aside to the Huey helicopters) and its "Heckfire" missiles (kid-friendly name for its Hellfire real-life counterparts)
"M17" assault rifle that looks like the American AR-15, also known as M16
"M70" machine gun, the name'd suggest M60 machine gun
"Humbug" heavy recon jeep that looks much like HUMVEE
"Preacher" mobile artillery, whose name and role resemble the M7 Priest and also mounts an 88 mm gun that undoubtedly has something to do with FlaK 88.
The Anti-Aircraft vehicle carries a weapon system that looks like a Crotale
"F-19 Poltergeist" fighter that shares a similar designation to the F/A-18 Hornet, looks with A-7 Corsair II, the rear end (tail fins and engines) of an F-14 Tomcat, nickname of the F-4 Phantom, and the jump-jet function like the Harrier II
"Valentine B-58" bomber that shares quite a common name with B-58 Hustler and a bit looks with De Havilland Venom
"Strato Destroyer", a heavy flying wing aircraft, that has a name in common with Stratofortress (it could also be the combination of Stratofortress and Star Destroyer) and looks of a B2 Spirit

Also, the fighters used by the Solar Empire share looks with the fighters from the anime Sentou Yousei Yukikaze.

Campaign Levels

There is a level called Bridge on the River Styx, referencing the film The Bridge on the River Kwai as well as the mythical River Styx. There is also a level called Herman's Heroes which contains three POW camps which could be a reference to the sitcom Hogan's Heroes, or the movie Kelly's Heroes.

There are two levels called Beachhead (Fort Omaha), and X-Day. The latter is an obvious reference to the concieved yet never carried out invasion of Japan during World War II X-Day, the former the Battle of Omaha Beach. This could be disputed as being likened moreso to D-day, since both are fought between the American-like Western Frontier and the German-like Xylvanian armies, just like D-Day was fought between the Allies and Germany. Though, it does take place in an area similar to Asia. Also, on the Beachhead level, the Western Frontier must defend a fort called Fort Omaha from the Xylvanians. This is a reference to Omaha Beach on D-Day.

The level "Black Gold" is just like Operation Desert Storm where the U.S. destroyed enemy supply bases in the desert.

Commanding Officers

Empress Lei-Qo constantly spouts proverbs from Sun Tzu's The Art of War, changing the gender whenever she refers to herself.
Marshal Nova was obviously based on Ivan Drago from Rocky IV.
As a nod to the nickname given to Arnold Schwarzenegger during his gubernatorial campaign, the equally muscular Kommander Ubel of the Xylvanian Army is promised to become "Governator" of any lands he is able to capture.
The possessed Ingrid's battle cries and rants sound similar to those of Adolf Hitler, or more specifically, Dietrich Eckart.
In the early stages of the Game's development, the character that was going to be Colonel Austin was originally white. In the final stages, he was changed to be black.
Countess Ingrid's reputation as "The Red Countess" for being an ace fighter pilot is a reference to the Red Baron of World War I.

External links

2005 computer and video games | GameCube-only games | Nintendo Wars

Battalion Wars | Battalion Wars

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