So with my friend Ian’s encouragement I picked up this game Thursday when it came out. It is definitely a different kind of game. There are kind of 2 levels of strategy: 1. the overall planet maps and 2. The individual space and land battles. So, there is a lot to think about.

As for game play, you can only build a limited number of things on each planet which include barracks, factories and most importantly mining facilities for resources. Also you can build space stations in space above planets to produce space units. Now building units is done on the planet scale. You click on a planet and select what you want to build/queue and you get the units and can move them from planet to planet. This includes space units. However, if one of your planets gets invaded you get periodic spurts of units from your barracks so you get a bonus for being on the defensive.

The units are much like they are in Battle for Middle Earth. Some units like large ships are single units while others are 1 unit but are comprised of several individual ships or people. This way it looks really cool to have your squad of x-wings, or laser troopers running around and fighting.

Battles can be fun, but in my opinion are really not the strength of the game. Due to the fact that you are bringing in units for attacks and cannot really make any more in battle there are definite limitations to what you can do. This means that a lot of battles are predetermined to a degree. In addition to this strategic maneuvers are also limited. In space battles your forces usually rely on several large ships with a few fighters or anti-fighter units. BIG SHIPS ARE SLOW. So, that said the main elements of strategy come simply from what to target first and when to use the very few special abilities that some units have. As for targeting units, small units will usually just be one target while larger units such as a star destroyer will have several individual systems you can target such as shields, a hanger, and various weapons.

The real fun of this game is trying to build up your forces and defend yourself. On the large scale you must try to take over and defend planets in order to be able to get more resources and acquire special abilities such as reduced build costs for certain units. The trick is that planets can be hard to defend and unit movements can be slow if the planets are not connected via a hyperspace route. This said, there is still a lot of room for strategy, just not at the battle level. In fact what struck me about this game is how it is seemingly a perfect blend between traditional turn-based strategy games and real-time strategy games.

Although I have yet to try it out there are a few things I am pretty sure you are able to do with multiplayer. The full galaxy map will be able to be used, meaning one multiplayer game could involve any number of planets and individual skirmishes… this could lead to some incredibly long games although limited to 2 players. Now if you are pretty sure that you would be using an ice pick on yourself before you could force yourself to play for that long there are other options. You can also do individual land and space skirmishes where you must capture control points in order to gain resources. These will allow 4 vs. 4 matches more suitable for general multiplayer play.

All in all, I must say that while there are some shortcomings I still really enjoy the game. I have yet to see the longevity of the games appeal but will update here and tell you if you are bound to eventually get bored. So, I think I would actually suggest buying this game, if nothing else but to give you something to do while waiting for Battle for Middle-Earth II.

Pros:
-rts & tbs elements
-squads as units with individuals inside
-large scale strategy
-unique units
-battles on various levels e.g. land and space.

Cons:
-skirmishes have limited strategic capability.
-graphics are not extremely glorious.
-price with it being $50
-In AI campaigns once you reach a certain point you end up simply playing a lot of end game. It can’t really overturn any momentum you get going.