Review: Elven Legacy & Elven Legacy: Ranger

November 2, 2:00 PMPC Game ExaminerBryan Edge-Salois

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Elven Legacy, and its recently launched expansion pack Elven Legacy: Ranger are a fantastic duo for any turn-based strategy wargaming fan. And if you haven't tried a turn-based war game for a while, Elven Legacy is an excellent -- albeit challenging -- point of entry.

In Elven Legacy , your job is to lead your army to victory on the battlefield. At your command are a large variety of fantasy war units, such as elven archers, infantry, mages, siege engines, war eagles, airships, and others.  Most of the unit types will be fairly familiar to war game players -- archers for ranged support, spearmen (or women in this case) for defense, knights and cavalry for offense, and a host of support troops like mages, siege engines, and of course, one or more heroes. 

Simple to learn...

The basic game mechanics in Elven Legacy are pretty easy to learn, which admittedly surprised me a little. Based on the typically complex titles that Paradox Interactive publishes,  I was expecting something a little more difficult to get a grasp on. Elven Legacy, fortunately, has a clean, intuitive interface, and it's relatively easy to learn.

I learned this because I initially  jumped straight into playing the game -- and actually figured out about 80% of it without using the tutorial. I decided to go through the tutorials after getting my tender elven butt handed to me several times, and found that most of what the tutorial teaches I had already figured out. Regardless, the tutorial still revealed tidbits of information that proved vital to improving my overall strategy. (On the down side, the voice-over in the tutorial is terribly bugged, and skips in and out a lot -- but it didn't stop me from getting what I needed to know.)

The complexity of the game is in the strategy, and the game is deep enough on a strategic level to make it anything but easy. Fortunately, you can select the difficulty level of each mission right before you play it. I'd recommend setting the first few missions to 'Easy' until you get a solid grasp of the game mechanics -- then turn it up to 'Normal' or 'Hard' depending on your taste.

...a lifetime to master

Although it takes some time to get a grasp of winning strategies in the game, getting there is (mostly) a big part of the fun. It may not take a lifetime to master, but it will definitely take an hour or two of play to get a feel for the game.

Fortunately, Elven Legacy allows you to save games in the middle of a mission as often as you like -- this certainly lessens the sting of restoring to an earlier point in a battle if it takes a bad turn for you. Even the early missions can take a fair bit of time (30 minutes or more) to play through to completion -- and this grows pretty quickly by the time you hit the third or fourth mission -- so being able to save mid-mission is hugely appreciated.

Most missions must be completed within a set number of turns for victory. Admittedly, I wish this feature could be disabled. While it does add strategic depth to the battles, it can also mean a complete mission failure that forces you to replay an entire mission, depending on how far back you need to go to change your strategy.

Mission objectives vary from map to map, but pretty much all involve tactical combat. In addition to moving your troops around the battlefield, you can use terrain to your advantage. High ground, forests, and fortified towns, for example, all have distinct characteristics that can affect the outcome of a battle. Morale is also a factor -- units that suffer enough damage may 'break' and retreat (in addition to suffering penalties).

As units win and gain experience on the battlefield, they will level up, at which point you can immediately purchase a new ability for them. The abilities are generally improvements to armor, attack, and movement, although they come in many varieties and add yet another layer of strategy to each mission. This is especially true for mages, who gain new and powerful spells that can summon additional units to aid you temporarily, or rain down area-of-effect blasts on the enemy in spectacular fashion.

In addition to the regular spoils of war (gold) you gain by taking control of towns on the battlefield, at the end of each mission you are rated on your play and given a bonus in gold. Gold is used to replenish existing units or purchase new units in each battle, and the fewer turns it takes you to finish a mission, the better your rating at the end (Gold, Silver, or Bronze). 

Because you can only have a certain number of units on the board at any one time, any units purchased with gold beyond the limit can only be deployed as reinforcements from a conquered town. Generally, it's cheaper and more effective to keep existing troops alive rather than replacing them constantly.

Multiplayer

While the computer will make you pay and pay dearly for your mistakes, human opponents can be even more devious. Elven Legacy supports Internet, LAN, and even direct IP connection for multiplayer. Direct connection lets you go to the Elven Legacy forums, talk smack, and throw down with someone directly without having to rely on matchmaking services or other 3rd parties.

Turn-based multiplayer is always tricky because games can take such a long time -- much of which is spent waiting for the other person to take a turn. Fortunately, Elven Legacy lets you set a timer in the game to limit the length of turn. You can even save the game and return to it later when you and your opponent can hook up again, which is nice.

Overall

Even as someone who hasn't been a regular, turn-based strategy gamer on the PC, I fell in love with Elven Legacy -- and I don't even like Elves much.) 

And with 18 missions to play in the main campaign -- not to mention a few unlockable missions if you kick sufficient butt --  and another 16 in Elven Legacy: Ranger -- you get loads of quality gaming hours for about $40 ($30 for Elven Legacy and $10 for Elven Legacy: Ranger). 

If you've ever been a fan of turn-based tabletop miniatures games, or if you just like turn-based strategy games in general, you're sure to love Elven Legacy -- it's an addictive, compelling strategy war game that will definitely keep you gaming into the wee hours of the morning.

 Elven Legacy System Requirements

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