FanBoy TechWeb

I. Introduction

_{Dowload: The Battle for Wesnoth}

When was the last time you play a game, in almost epic proportion, that is free, legal, full featured, highly enjoyable, offers hours of re-playability, simple to play yet complex in strategy, and open source? I honestly can not remember playing any such game. Sure, there are many freeware games found on the web, and they abound. But most of them really suffers in various terms of shortcomings. A game could be free, yet it has limited features i.e. demo. Some offers great graphics, but has poor gameplay. A game can be full featured, yet could be too easy to beat and story-line is too short.

While there are indeed games that are exempted from these shortcomings, oftentimes, a premium is paid just to enjoy such games. And let's face it, sometimes, even pricey games never really offers good gameplay and all it offered are eye candy. Truly, with the relentless offering of games from many developers, some of the more important aspects of a game are sometimes left off. If you're not convinced with what I mentioned, just take a quick look at your favorite retail game software store the next time you're looking for title. Oftentimes, you'll see many titles that has gathered dust in the shelf, their price went down (but still for sale), and you can not even recall ever seeing them on the net for any great reviews.

And this game is definitely not a resource hog. While the developer never really gave an exact system specifications, as per their FAQ, the game can run even on PC with a measly 600Mhz processor power and 128MB of RAM. So if think you're Pentium !!! 600Mhz is done for, well, this is one reason to keep it in tiptop shape.

II. So, what is Battle of Wesnoth

In a nutshell, Battle of Wesnoth is a game that I just described in the first paragraph of the Introduction. And before I forgot to mention, it's tons of fun to play as well. Battle of Wesnoth is a turn-based game strategy game, with a theme based on fantasy. Players controls different units with different traits, and have various abilities that makes the game very challenging and rich in great gameplay. The game also offered "experience" system for the units, where players can muster up, and use in the succeeding scenarios and missions.

The game is initially designed to be played in a "scenario". The player will be assigned to use a character in the storyline, with the mission to regain the throne of Wesnoth. Thus the player should muster a powerful army, with which to crush the opposition and march on to victory.

III. Features

Below is the official features of the game:

• Build up a formidable fighting force, starting from a single leader and a small amount of gold.
• Over 200 unit types in six major factions, all with distinctive abilities, weapons and spells.
• Experienced units gain powerful new abilities as they advance.
• Several multi-player options available, including internet play.
• Scores of different custom-designed maps, and unlimited random maps.
• Hundreds of campaign scenarios available for download via a simple in-game procedure.
• 'Fog of war' feature available for a true test of generalship.
• Sophisticated mark-up language lets advanced users make their own maps, factions or campaigns.
• Excellent language support – 20 different languages currently available.
• GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOSX, BeOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD compatible.

I have discussed some of the listed features earlier, and then there's more which are very crucial and enhances the game's gameplay, and I'll go discuss those items more.

* Build up a formidable fighting force, starting from a single leader and a small amount of gold.

While it is true that you can start the game with a meager amount of gold, it never stops anyone from making modifications to the settings of the game on how much gold you can have at the start of the game. This is also true on scenarios, where scenario creator can assign a startup amount of gold. Normally, you will have a single leader, which has the capability to recruit and recall armies, and have powerful abilities. But again, depending on map settings, you can have several powerful characters that aren't normal units, but key character for the game. By playing thru the series of scenarios, characters and units gain experience, can be recalled in the succeeding series of scenarios.

* Over 200 unit types in six major factions, all with distinctive abilities, weapons and spells.
* Experienced units gain powerful new abilities as they advance

The game currently offers six(6) major factions. Each have their own strong and weak points, which adds more spice and flavor to the game. They are as follows: Loyalists (Humans), Rebels (Elves), Northeners (Orcs), Undead (Undead), Knalgan Alliance (Dwarves), and Drakes (Dragons). The units can become veteran units by leveling up, and they acquire more powerful and unique abilities as they progress thru the game. Some units tech-tree can branch into two options, while others have a fix linear tech tree. The units also have different sets of weapons and spells, as well as ability to have more "moves per turn" based on their abilities.

* Several multi-player options available, including internet play.

The game has a great offering for multiplayer options. On top of the common online or so called Internet multiplayer game, there's also hotseat option.

* Scores of different custom-designed maps, and unlimited random maps.
* Hundreds of campaign scenarios available for download via a simple in-game procedure.
* 'Fog of war' feature available for a true test of generalship.

Well, the maps are pretty much self explanatory, but I just wanted to point out that the maps are great and very well made. I specially like the map graphics and designs on the scenario campaign about the Battle for Westnoth. I also downloaded many campaigns, which can easily be done via the menu. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out to download new scenarios. I also specially like the ability to generate random maps, and the option to turn off/on the fog of war. I personally prefer playing with the FoW options ON, just to increase difficulty and better use of scout units.

* Sophisticated mark-up language lets advanced users make their own maps, factions or campaigns.
* Excellent language support ? 20 different languages currently available.
* GNU/Linux, Windows, MacOSX, BeOS, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD compatible.

I can not comment much about the mark-up language since I haven't dabbled with it due to my lack of skills in making one. Anyway, I've downloaded several scenarios already and if that's enough to judge the powerful capability of the language, then I can say is that it is superb. I have play tested this game with Microsoft* Windows* XP* with full stability. And oh, this game has so many supported languages, the power of fans and supporters really shines in this aspect. Below is the currenly supported list of languages:

• Afrikaans-South Africa
• Català-Spain
• ?eština-Czech Republic
• Deutsch-German
• Español-Spain
• Français-France
• Italiano-Italian
• Latina-Vatican
• Magyar-Hungary
• Nederlands-Netherlands
• Nihongo-Japan
• Polski-Poland
• ???????-Russia
• Sloven?ina-Slovenia
• Suomi-Finland
• Svenska-Sweden
• Türkçe-Turkey