Battalion Wars box art.
Battalion Wars, originally to be titled Advance Wars: Under Fire, is a real-time tactics game for the Nintendo GameCube. A sequel, Battalion Wars 2, for the Wii, has also been released.
Gameplay
Battalion Wars contains the elements of both a third-person shooter and a real-time tactics game. In the midst of battle, the player will have control over a variety of units, including infantry, ground vehicles, and aircraft. Separate units or unit groups 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 transfer control from one unit to another.
Storyline
The demilitarized zone on the border of the Western Frontier and Tundran Territories has been the sight of an uneasy truce between two powerful armies for many months with both nations ready to retaliate in the event of a pre-emptive strike. Meanwhile, the control of the Tundran Empire passes from the iron grip of Tsar Gorgi to the more progressive hands of Marshall Nova. With Nova in charge some hope that peace may prevail but on the other side of the DMZ, General Herman of the Western Frontier is annoyed due to how a lack of combat has made the Frontier Troops out of shape. However, Brigadier Betty has come up with a way to get the troops in shape and spy on the Tundrans. During the patrol, Frontier forces come across a Tundran armored division under the command of Tsar Gorgi. The Tsar has secretly invaded the Frontier because he wants a conflict. Marshal Nova learns of Tsar Gorgi's invasion of the Frontier and in rage forbids Gorgi from participating in the conflict and instead puts Major Nelly in control of Tundran forces. After defending the radar array at Windbreak Ridge, freeing the Frontier spies, capturing Castle Potempkin, destroying Marshal Nova's iron eight tanks, the Frontier began an attack on the last Tundran stronghold. However during the conflict, Tsar Gorgi had traveled into Xylvania, a country ravaged by the Frontier/Tundran rivalry, to meet with its leader Kaiser Vlad. Vlad made a pact with Gorgi in which Xlyvanian forces would assist the Tundran forces to repel the Frontier. Unfortunately, Vlad lied and had actually sent his bomber squadron commanded by Countess Ingrid to bomb both armies. After the Xylvanian assault, Frontier and Tundran forces joined together to form the Alliance of Nations in a bid to stop the Xylvanian threat.
The first target of the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories was to weaken the Xylvanian forces at the Dune Sea. The essential resource of this region was an element called Nerocite, an efficient vehicle fuel. Xylvania was defeated in battle after battle which soon ended the campaign. In the final battle for the region, in which Frontier forces were deployed to bomb Xylvania's Primary Nerocite Mining Facility, Kaiser Vlad deployed his elite Fighter squadron to take out the Frontier Bombers. Luckily for the Frontier and Tundran forces, Tsar Gorgi dispatched his own personal Fighter team to take out this threat, and in the process, he returned from his exile. But just as the battle had ended, Kommandant Ubel found him at a bridge by his personal Light Recon and personally dealt with him by throwing him off the side. Mortally wounded from the fall, Tsar Gorgi told his son in his last words that he was only trying to act in the best interests of the Tundran Empire when he started the war with the Western Frontier and then tried to form a secret pact out of desperation with the Xylvanians. After his Father's murder, Marshall Nova became furious and wanted revenge for his Father's death.
Though the war was coming to a close, Xylvania was far from defeated. However, in the foolishness of her desperation and chronic curiosity, Countess Ingrid awakens the ancient armies of the Iron Legion, buried deep under the grounds of the Crater of the Sun. This dangerous new threat consumes Xylvania into fighting on two fronts, battling both the Frontier and the new Legion forces, and its military begins to lose ground. Though Kaiser Vlad attempts to reason with the now demented Ingrid, he is met only with constant talk of Legion control, and assumes she has become fully overtaken by the power of the Iron Legion. The Frontier forces eventually cut a swathe through both forces, quickly finding the Cenotaph, and destroying it. The Solar Empire is quick to intervene in the battle, sending support fighters, and as the Cenotaph is finally destroyed, Empress Lei-Qo is quick to arrive and kill Ingrid.
In the final battle of the war, a combined force of Frontier and Tundran troops arrive at The Vladstag to commence a siege operation where they struggled through its three layers of static defenses and against two Battlestations until they finally captured the massive building. In its finale, the Frontier COs, as well as Marshall Nova, arrive to find Kommandant Ubel and Kaiser Vlad prepping to escape, but Ubel is taken down by Nova in an act of vengeance, though Vlad escapes during the fight, and takes off in a helicopter.
Reception
Battalion Wars has a Game Rankings percentage of 76.[1]
IGN.com gave it a 8.8
Xplay gave it a 4 out of 5 stars
Advance Wars series
Battalion Wars was originally entitled Advance Wars: Under Fire, but the name was dropped after E3 2003. 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 those games are turn-based, whereas this game is a real-time strategy game.