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Gallic Wars: Battle Simulator:
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Let's say that Vercingetorix did manage to unite all tribes in Gaul, which is now France and Belgium. And make his way up to Rome, defeating Caesar and his Roman legions. After all, what did the Romans gave us, apart from conquering Europe, North Africa and the Middle East? People would say, Pizza! Well, pizza was originally a modest type of food in Ancient Egypt and Greece before hitting the strips of Rome. And pasta actually comes from China back in 3000 BC. However, they did invent some pretty amazing things, such as underfloor heating, concrete and the calendar. And of course, the Romans were really good at conquering and slaving. Here is your chance to change history by playing the Gallic Wars: Battle Simulator!
Gallic Wars: Battle Simulator is a casual strategy game developed by MadGamesmith and published by Gaming Factory S.A. on the 30 of October 2020 on the Steam platform. The game was also released for the Nintendo Switch on the 28 of March 2021.
As you land on the game menu, you'll see a wooden table with a grid map (8X6) on it. Next to the right, you'll be able to launch a campaign, watch the tutorial, change a few options or exit the game. Before launching your first campaign, I would recommend playing the short tutorial.
You'll start your first campaign with 15 swordsmen. Then, you'll have to choose which of the two available squares (locations) on the first horizontal row of the grid (map) you want to fight. Both of these squares will tell you how many Roman forces you'll have to beat and what rewards (army units) you'll receive if you win each of the battles. Now you can choose to go the quick way, which is to move up the grid vertically after winning a battle. If you decide to do that, you'll be in Rome on your eight fights. Or you can try to conquer the additional two locations on each of the horizontal rows before moving up the grid vertically. So, let's take as an example the first horizontal row. One square might have seven, and the other eight Roman forces, and your forces consist of 15 swordsmen. You decide to engage the lower number of Roman forces to start with.
A map will appear with a red and a green rectangle. It's the deployment phase before the battle. The green rectangle is where you deploy your units, which you can do in four groups. And the red is where the Roman forces will appear. At this point, you don't know where within the red rectangle they will be starting from. You can choose to deploy any number of units; let's say you place six out of your 15 swordsmen on this battlefield and keep the remaining nine to fight the other battle on the next horizontal square. After selecting the number of units and groups (up to four), you'll need to plan where each of the groups will move on the battlefield. When you have done that and are ready, you'll press the spear button to start the fight. On the left side of your screen, you'll have a wooden plank with ten holes on it. That's where you can access your perks, but you'll have none of them on your first battle unless you unlock a specific character card, which will give you four perks on your first battle. Most of these perks can be used on the planning phases and one during the battle.
There is a time limit per battle, but don't worry too much about it as all battles are very short anyway. The interesting point to acknowledge is that it will be at this point that you'll know where the Romans will be starting from; and whether or not your planning is adequate to win the fight.
As the fight starts, you'll have a couple of options available for moving your groups. Each group will have a coloured flag, and underneath it you'll see a fighting symbol and a retreat symbol. By pressing on the flag, the group will move towards its first destination that you planned prior to the battle. If you have more than one destination, press on the flag again, and the group will move to the next point and so on and so forth. If you press on the battle symbol (the swords), that group will now move toward the enemy units and engage them. If you fear that your army is on the brink of defeat, you can press the retreat button (white flag) to save your men. This is a good option to use if you have already won a battle on that specific horizontal line of the grid. Otherwise, it’s game over. You'll receive your rewards and one or two perks to use towards your next battles by winning the upcoming encounter.
You'll command only three types of unit in this game: Swordsmen, Spearmen, and Archers. Concerning the perks, there are a few, but most them, like of the catapults, traps, barriers, explosive heart, and bunches need to be used during the planning phase, while the fireballs are only useable during the fighting phase.
At the end of each campaign, you'll receive points that will allow you to unlock character cards which you can then use to help you on your next campaign. There are 16 characters to unlock, and each has specific abilities. Unfortunately, you can only use 4 at the start of each campaign.
Strategy games are one of the genres of games that I enjoy the most, and Gallic Wars is pretty much a casual strategy game, but it has flaws. The first thing is that you don't have any levels of difficulty to choose from. The element of planning without knowing where the enemies' groups will start is fun at first, but it becomes repetitive and easy to win a battle. All the maps (squares on the grid) are very similar and therefore limit the game's replay-ability. The tutorial is short and to the point, and the cartoony graphics are great. It is a fun casual strategy game if you have 15 minutes to spare during the day. It's definitely not for hardcore gamers, but it’s a good start for someone who might be thinking of giving the genre a go.
Positives:
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+ Nice cartoony graphics
+ Quick tutorial
+ Easy to play each phase
+ 16-character cards to unlock
+ Casual strategy game with short battles; good for a newcomer to the genre
+ Achievements
Negatives:
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- Not able to choose a level of difficulty
- Not many varieties in terms of battlefield
- Repetitive and easy to master
- No trading cards
March all the way to Rome with the grand army of Gaul, in Gallic Wars: Battle Simulator!
6/10
Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!
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