What is with those Orcs? Throughout videogaming history, we humans have been fighting them on every format across a wide variety of genres, and they still keep appearing at an alarming rate. Perhaps it's a sign of a high birth rate amongst our green nemesis, or perhaps it's a sign of an ever-increasing lack of originality in our games. Regardless, here we are faced with another game that essentially features a whole new set of ways to beat up some orcs. Oh, and some elves.

The plot initially involves the Orc Chieftain 'Ugraum Grableg' invading the land of the humans, while the overstretched but noble human army try to fight back against the invaders under overwhelming odds. In case you're already wondering, no, the story doesn't really get any better as you play. Fantasy Wars takes an incredibly overused idea and transplants it into a genre that hasn't seen much love since the advent of 3D graphics: the turn-based strategy. We've seen somewhat of a resurgence in the 4X genre in the last few years, but Fantasy Wars falls closer to console 'strategy RPGs' like Final Fantasy Origins or Disgaea than epic strategy games like Civilization. It's strictly a battle simulation and, when you break it down to its most basic inspirations, it's more chess than Lord of the Rings.

Fantasy Wars takes place on a hexagonal grid that should be instantly recognisable to anyone who has played a turn-based tactical game before, or indeed anyone who has had a go at the Settlers of Catan board game. Scenarios change on each map, though a common theme is wiping out the enemy or capturing a heavily defended town or fortress. There are minor sub-quests available in the majority levels, which grant you special artefacts or units when completed. Combat takes place using melee, ranged and air units, and whatever powerful but fragile heroes you're offered, and winning a victory involves using a mix of the usual 'rock-paper-scissors' style unit strategy, the terrain and the skills and experience of your units to defeat the enemy.

Such a matter of fact explanation of how the game works is probably enough to send even diehard fans of turn-based games to sleep, but thankfully everything works very well in practice; as turn-based strategy games go, Fantasy Wars is fast-paced and accessible - you could certainly do worse if you're looking for an entry into the genre that you can jump right in and play without fear of being drowned in statistics or lengthy tutorials. Contrary to many games of the genre, you'll actually spend the vast majority of your game on the battlefield, instead of navigating endless menus trying to figure out exactly what it is that a "Goblin Battlescreecher" actually does.

Each unit has a strength, defence and movement rating and reacts differently to the various terrain types on the map. Most maps have towns dotted around, and if you capture these you'll earn a certain amount of gold, plus you can deploy troops on the towns' adjacent squares. You can buy new units at any time, providing you have the money to do so; however, once you've captured a town there is very little long term benefit from keeping control of it, and because you always need more cash you are always on the offensive. This mechanic, combined with an overall 'turn limit' preventing players from hanging back and amassing huge amounts of units to overwhelm the enemy, feels like an artificial limit to the strategy.

Every unit in the game gains experience as it fights and when a unit levels up you can pick from a choice of three new skills that enhance the unit's stats. You keep old units as you progress through the game, so building up these veteran high level units as quickly as possible is very important, and losing them can be devastating. Hero levelling is common in turn-based games, but to be able to enhance the stats of every single unit adds some considerable depth and a real feeling that your units are worth something beyond their weight in gold.

Fantasy Wars' graphics can best be described as 'functional'. They look a little dated, but for a game that could quite happily be ported to 2D and lose none of its gameplay, they work well enough. The overall style falls more towards the cartoon side, with some of the heroes and the architecture of the buildings looking distinctly like Warcraft in style. The camera is very easy to use, although I found myself often having to readjust it to find the best view of an impending battle. Game units appear as one big individual character model while zoomed out, but if you zoom in far enough you'll see each individual unit in your army. This is a nice touch and the animations are quite impressive, especially the attacks of the flying units. It may not be practical to play constantly at the level of zoom required to view these animations, but the game will automatically play animations from different angles as you attack. If that sounds like a bad idea for you then everything is skippable with a mouse button and you can even set their speed. The game misses the mark on the sound however, which is instantly forgettable and at times even detracts from the experience by playing entirely relaxing Celtic-style tunes during the middle of a battle, or starting dramatic music up when there is absolutely nothing going on.

Fantasy Wars is an involving and satisfying game. Each side feels balanced if not dramatically different, the levelling system for every unit makes the game more addictive than it has any right to be and it hits the difficulty curve perfectly, being very easy to learn and incredibly difficult to master, especially at higher levels. It's only the lack of a good plot to bring all these individual aspects together that stops Fantasy Wars just a little short of being a true classic. If you like your turn-based games to involve diplomacy, management and story, then stick to Heroes of Might & Magic, but if you care more about accessibility and tactical combat without all the fuss then you're in for a solid and thoroughly addictive Orc-bashing experience with Fantasy Wars.

Reviewed by Francis Clarke for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).