by J. Andrew Carmody

Created on: June 16, 2008   Last Updated: November 17, 2010

Warbands Review

Warbands, by Stimulus Response Games is a turn-based strategy game in which the peaceful citizens of Wardonia suddenly find themselves under attack by the forces of the evil Baron Muntu. Muntu's forces immediately overrun the Wardonians, and the only hope they have to rid their land of Muntu and his armies are a group of rebels, scattered across the land in war bands, from which the game gets its name.

Warbands is a very simple game in its mechanics. You play as a commander of the Wardonian rebel forces under the command of the Chief and his second inn command, Sgt. Pepper. The game is broken up into a series of campaigns, and in each one, your goal is to clear out the enemy units using the units that you have at your disposal. These units include things like tanks, heavy infantry, light infantry, and medics. The secret to succeeding at Warbands is to figure out how to balance your units' strengths and weaknesses against the enemy units, also taking the terrain into account. For example, certain types of terrain may encumber your troops' movements, but the trade-off is increased damage when you attack an enemy. At the beginning of each turn you move your troops into position against Baron Muntu's troops, attacking when you can. After you've moved all of the troops you want, you click on "End Turn", and then it's the computer's turn to move and attack. Play continues like this until one side is wiped out.

The graphics for Warbands are simple and cartoony. There isn't any blood or gore in the game. The most you will see is a unit exploding when all of its hit points have been exhausted, and even then, the explosion is nothing more graphic than you'd see in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, so there would be no problems with letting your children play the game. The sound is also quite well done. The sounds of weapons and troop movements are handled very competently, and while the background music really doesn't add much to the game, it doesn't take anything away either, since you'll be too busy trying to figure out where to move your troops next to pay much attention to it.

All in all, the game is well done. The only problem is, that this has been done before in Advance Wars on the Nintendo Gameboy Advance. If you've already played Advance Wars, you're not going to find anything new here. However, if you're new to this form of cartoony turn-based strategy, or just a casual gamer who wants to play office chair general, Warbands would be a fine addition to your collection of games.

Score: 3 out of 5.

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