Battalion Wars

Battalion Wars, released as Assault!! Famicom Wars in Japan, is a 2005 real-time tactics game developed by Kuju London and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The player controls a vast array of units ranging from infantry, armoured divisions and aircraft, completing missions through a mixture of unit management and strategic planning. In the game's story, the player operates as a commander of a battalion, who initially take part in a conflict between two nations that culminates in an eventual alliance between them, in response to a surprise attack by a third nation.

The game received generally favourable reviews upon release, and led to the creation of a sequel, entitled Battalion Wars 2, for the Wii in 2007.

The game features only a single-player campaign, played from a third-person perspective, in which players take control of a variety of units that form a battalion, to complete a series of missions. Gameplay features a mixture of elements from both third-person shooters and real-time tactics games. In each mission, players complete a series of objectives, both primary and secondary, earning a rank depending on the final score they achieve, much like in Advance Wars, determined in three categories - Power is determined by how many enemy units were destroyed in the mission; Technique is determined by how many of the player's units survived; and Speed is determined by how long it took the player to complete a mission, against the mission's Par time. While the campaign's missions focus primarily on controlling forces from one of the game's four factions, bonus missions are unlocked if the player achieves an average score for a set of missions, allowing them to take control of troops from one of the other four factions.

For each mission, the player is given a variety of units to utilise, including infantry, armoured vehicles, and aircraft (with the exception of Air Transports), in which the number and types that can be used vary between missions; more troops can be earned as reinforcements depending on the player's progress in a mission or from capturing POW camps and helipads. While one single unit is controlled fully by the player, whom the camera focuses primarily on, the rest are given orders by the player that range from following them, moving to a location, holding ground, or guarding another unit, to attacking enemy units and structures. Players can give orders to the whole battalion, a company of the same units, or individual units, allowing for flexibility and strategic planning for upcoming engagements, depending on a given situation (i.e. defending a location). While the camera is focused on the player's unit, it can be freely switched between an over-the-shoulder viewpoint, to a battlefield overview viewpoint. The in-game HUD comprises a mini-radar that denotes the location of objectives, and units - friendly, allies, and hostile - along with the battalion bar at the bottom, which lists the units and the number in a company that the player has. In addition to the HUD, the player can also pause the game to review Mission Logs, Objectives, and view the map of the mission's battlefield, allowing them to locate the position of units and current objectives.

Units featured in the game are based on those from the Advance Wars series, though Battalion Wars features unique units, including: light and heavy recon units; a wider variety of infantry units that cover basic riflemen, to units specialised against particular units (i.e. anti-air), and long-range mortar companies; "battlestation" tanks; and "stratodestroyer" aircraft. Units function similarly to their counterparts in Advance Wars, though with some differences. Infantry units can use cover to reduce the threat of enemy fire, can man mounted gun emplacements, and can be healed individually by collecting first aid kits dropped by eliminated enemy infantry. Furthermore, some objectives require players to take control of certain points (represented as flags), which only infantry can capture. Vehicle and air units, along with their primary weapons and abilities, have manned machine guns that work autonomously against enemy units, and can be repaired by picking up jerry cans dropped by destroyed enemy vehicles. With the exception of ground vehicles, players gain additional controls when taking full control of an infantry unit, allowing them to jump over obstacles and dodge enemy fire by rolling to the side, while taking control of an air unit allows them to adjust its altitude in order to avoid enemy fire.

The game's world consists of five nations, spread across two large continents and a series of islands and archipelagos. The western continent consists of a mixture of rugged canyons in the west and wide plains and forests, to frozen tundra and snowy mountains and forested valleys in the east. The continent is shared between the Western Frontier in the west, based upon the United States and whom the player controls throughout the campaign, and the Tundran Territories in the east, based upon Russia. The eastern continent consists of a desert province in the west, called the Dune Sea, and a large gothic-themed landscape in the east, which is home to the nation of Xylvania, a country based on a mixture of pre-World War I Germany, modern Romania, vampires, and Gothic themes. The southern seas consist of several islands, including a large archipelago to the south of the western continent, which is home to the Solar Empire, a nation based upon Japan with a mixture of traditional Japanese and high-tech futuristic themes.

The game's main protagonists are the commanding officers of the Western Frontier - General Herman, the leader of the Frontier forces; Colonel Austin, a resourceful officer; and Brigadier Betty, a young, energetic woman, whose uniform is based on a cheerleaders outfit. Leading the Tundran Territories are its officers - Tsar Gorgi, the country's former ruler who believes in strength; Marshall Nova, Gorgi's son and successor, devoted to modern progress and peace; and Major Nelly, an experienced female officer. Leading the Solar Empire is its ruler, Empress Lei-Qo - a wise woman with mystical powers. Their main antagonists are the commanding officers of Xylvania - Kaiser Vlad, the country's ruler; Kommandant Ubel, a hulking monster of a man; and Countess Ingrid, a devoted female pilot veteran.

Following a previous war between the Western Frontier and Tundran Territories, both sides maintain an uneasy truce with each other, while maintaining a constant vigil of each other's forces at the demilitarized zone along their borders. General Herman, head of the Frontier's armies, agrees to a suggestion made by his subordinate, Brigadier Betty, to hold a military exercise for their troops to ensure they remain fit for duty. During the exercise, a recon scout spots several Tundran armored divisions invading their territories at the command of Tsar Gorgi. Having recently been succeeded by his son Marshal Nova as the country's new political and military leader, Gorgi despised the promise of peace between the two nations and decided to strengthen his nation's might by secretly invading and defeating the Frontier, effectively ending the truce between the two nations. Learning of his father's actions, Nova forbids Gorgi from participating further in the war he started, determined to end the conflict himself with his second-in-command, Major Nelly, leading Tundran forces.