Battle Isle

Battle Isle
developer	Blue Byte (Parts 1-3), Cauldron (Part 4)
Publisher	Blue byte
First title	Battle Isle (1991)
Last title	Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict (2000)
Platform (s)	Amiga , MS-DOS , Microsoft Windows
Genre (s)	Turn-based strategy game

Battle Isle is a series of turn-based strategy games from the German computer game developer Blue Byte . The first three titles have a bird's eye view of the playing field and the division into hexagonal fields . All games in the series together sold around 650,000 times worldwide. The first three parts were made executable for modern MS Windows PCs by Good Old Games in 2009 and re-released as a package together with Historyline: 1914–1918 and Incubation as a download .

Battle Isle

Battle Isle 1 logo

Studio

Blue byte

Publisher

Blue Byte , Ubisoft

Erstveröffent-
lichung

1991

platform

Amiga , PC ( MS-DOS )

genre

Turn-based strategy game

Subject

Science fiction

Game mode

Single player , two player (split screen)

control

keyboard

medium

Floppy disk , download

language

German English

Age rating

USK

The first part of the series appeared in 1991 for the Amiga and was later also available on the PC . Battle Isle was Blue Bytes' first big success in Germany and Europe, and was inspired by the Japanese game Nectaris for the PC engine .

The game was developed - so the storyline - as a test for strategists by the Drulls, the inhabitants of the planet Chromos. A "great strategist" is to be found to support the Drulls in their fight against the TitanNet military computer they built. The game is acquired by the Earthling Walter Harris , who - as a player - is found suitable and kidnapped from Earth.

The story is told in novels from the perspective of Drulls. These novels were included with the base game and the two expansion disks.

The game is divided into a fight and a movement mode. Alternately, two players (human or computer) pull their units or attack. With each battle, the units gain experience, which increases their fighting power considerably. Depots and factories that can be captured by foot troops are distributed on the maps. There is an impressive number of naval, land and ground forces. A mission is won by destroying all enemy units or conquering the enemy headquarters.

Two data disks were released for Battle Isle, the second of which moved the battle to the Moon of Chromos, due to the energy resources available there (Aldinium). There is also a third, non-commercial data disk: Battle Isle - Scenario Disk Volume 3 . Extensive novels were supplied with the main game and the data disks , which describe the background story from the point of view of higher-ranking members of the Drullian army.

The game principle is kept very simple - few but clear units - which can be used against each other in a similar way to scissors, stone and paper .

The game Historyline: 1914-1918 is based on the Battle Isle 1 engine.

Battle Isle 2

Battle Isle 2 from 1994 increases the complexity and quality of its predecessor considerably. The game's storyline is further driven by mission briefings, cutscenes, and messages. Units must now be refueled and ammunitioned, and the card must be revealed by means of scouts facing jamming vehicles. The landscape of the pitch is more varied and can experience different weather conditions. There are also four different height levels for units (submerged submarines , ground troops and ships, low-flying aircraft, high-flying aircraft ).

The second part supplements the unit list with many new unit types, such as trains for a wide range of applications and tankers and repair vehicles. There are also a number of new buildings, such as shipyards , airports , static coastal batteries , radar stations, etc. Thanks to a more flexible resource system (energy and raw materials), new units can be constantly produced. The mission objectives have also become more flexible - certain units must be protected, certain points must be captured.

The expansion The Legacy of Titan appeared later for Battle Isle 2 , in which the plot of Battle Isle 2 is continued - in the time after the fall of TitanNet, the corrupt minister Argok Kraal is overthrown. Six new units are also available in the new maps.

The game includes a server CD-ROM for the Novell network server, which allows you to play on the LAN . Play-by-e-mail is the other alternative for playing with fellow players.

Both the base game and the expansion again contained novels that describe some background to the game. Based on the first two parts of the Battle Isle series, two novels were also published (see section Novels ).

Battle Isle 3

In Battle Isle 3: Shadow of the Emperor (1995) little changes to the basic game, except that the plot is told with real film sequences. The game is running for the first time under Windows and with high resolution for the playing field. The most important innovation is that the experience of units is taken over directly in subsequent missions, so that the player, if he is careful with his units, has an experience advantage at the beginning of a mission. Battle Isle 3 is the second part of the series that supports playing between human opponents by exchanging files via network or email.

Incubation

Incubation: Battle Isle Phase Four , released in 1997, is also set in the Battle Isle universe, but differs considerably from the gameplay. The Chromians founded the colony Scay'Hallwa on the planet Scayra. After a power plant accident, the energy barrier collapses and the indigenous people, Scay'ger, mutate due to the viruses brought in by humans. The main character in the game is Sergeant Bratt. The player leads him and up to eight other infantrymen through turn-based missions in a three-dimensionally modeled game world with the aim of saving Scay'Hallwa. The game is particularly characterized by the micromanagement of the individual soldiers. Most weapons have two modes of fire, and soldiers can learn other skills such as medic.

In 1998 the Incubation Missionpack , which is demanding in terms of difficulty, came onto the market. It included three new weapons, numerous enemies, pieces of equipment, new maps, a single player campaign and an editor.

Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict

The fourth part, Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict , from 2000 breaks with the tradition of the series, as the playing field is now displayed completely three-dimensional. What is new is that the economy has been expanded and runs in real time . So you can work on the economy all the time, but the fight is still turn-based.

Supplying the battlefield with energy and new units is an integral part. Sophisticated waypoint methods are available for this purpose, with the help of which one can determine transport and marching routes. Due to the partially real-time events, Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict is very well suited for games in multiplayer mode. In campaign mode, however, it's a rather lengthy game.

Although it was published by Blue Byte, it was developed by the Slovak developer Cauldron .

Followers and remakes

The open source project Advanced Strategic Command has taken Battle Isle as a model and copied the game mechanics of the game and can therefore be considered a remake . It is played by the Project Battle Planets community via the PBEM server in a universe with many players at the same time and is further developed with the help of a forum.

The free strategy game Battle-Planet (founded in May 2002) is programmatically based on the Advanced Strategic Command project . It is a free endless game, but also with numerous single cards, mission cards and duels.

The Crimson Fields project is also based on the idea of Battle Isle.

In April 2013, the German developer studio has King Art one on Kickstarter.com scale crowdfunding project for Battle Worlds: Kronos completed, which will be based on the game design of Battle Isle. The retail version was released at the end of 2013.

In May 2013, former Blue Byte founder Thomas Hertzler announced that he was working on a new part of Battle Isle for iOS, which will be subtitled Threshold Run . The financing was supposed to be initiated with the help of a crowdfunding campaign, but was canceled again due to foreseeable failure. A year later the reference to Battle Isle was removed from the project title.

The UniWar , originally developed by Javaground , has been successfully sold for mobile platforms (including Android and iOS) since 2009. It combines a simple implementation of the game principle with the network capability of a smartphone.

Novels

In 1994 and 1995 the two novels Battle Isle Saga were published by Bastei Lübbe . A world on the move. ( ISBN 3-404-13591-1 ) and Aristos Diener. Battle Isle Saga 02. ( ISBN 3-404-13756-6 ) by author Stefan Piasecki. The plot is based on the first two parts of the series. Of Battle Isle 2 , a special edition was published, which contained the first novel.