Battle Isle: The Andosia War

If you think real-time strategy is too fast-paced and turn-based strategy is too ponderous, maybe you should be thinking about a game that combines the two. TheAndosia War from Blue Byte aims to do just that and seeing as it's the fourth in the ever-popular Battle Isle series, you can pretty much assume it'll do it well.

Released in 1991, Battle Isle single-handedly made turn-based strategy acceptable. Previously the choice for balding tabletop wargamers, strategy games on computer-generated maps made of hexes were at best incomprehensible to the general populous and in the main still are.

For sure they offered depth, but it wasn't until Battle Isle came along that people took any notice.

Battle Isle 2 took the concept even further, incorporating 3D in-game cut-scenes that played out each battle. Don't tell my mum, but Battle Isle 2 was the reason I bought a PC (as well as for word processing, of course). Chronicling a war on a distant planet, the series is now set for its fourth episode, and like so many other strategy game serials, is about to take the plunge into 3D. As is the current trend for 3D strategy, Battle Isle 4 will sport cutting edge 3D visuals, all set on a new planet where a breakaway sect has declared war on Chromos - the setting for the previous three Battle Isle games. Where Battle Isle 4 differs from the current crop of 3D strategy games is that the base-building, research and supply will be in realtime while the battles will be played out over a series of turns.

While Blue Byte is developing the storyline and holding the press at bay, Slovenian developer Cauldron is doing all the donkey work: threading together lines of code with an impressive 3D engine that they came up with well before Blue Byte became involved.

At E3, where the game was on show, we were treated to some superb environmental effects, with true day/night cycles and weather that can have disastrous effects on armoured units. Another feature that seems to have fallen out of favour with many developers recently is naval strategy and on this point Battle Isle 4 doesn't disappoint, the sense of scale in this respect is spot on.

As with previous games in the series, players will be able to choose either of the two sides throughout 20 missions and Blue Byte is planning to support the multiplayer side of the game with new updates and units via its website. For now, however, we'll be content to get our hands on the single-player game.