Saturday, May 1, 2004

Take out your Aggression on your Palm

PRODUCT REVIEW

By James Booth

Are you the leader of an evil organization with aspirations of world domination? [Yes. Oh, so yes. --Ed.] Do inept henchmen and allegedly British super spies continually thwart your plans? BLiT Games is here to help, with Aggression for the Palm.

Aggression, from BLiT Games (see http://www.blitgames.com/), is a Palm clone of Risk, the popular board game of strategy and world conquest. Choose your countries, mass your armies, and conquer your neighbors until you rule the world or are yourself defeated.

Pre-war jitters

Your purpose in Aggression is, of course, to conquer the world. The world is divided into six continents comprised of 42 territories. With each player having their own color, the map of the world game screen strongly resembles the original Risk board.

When you start a new game, you'll enter the game setup that will allow you to choose the player colors and decide which will be human and which will be computer opponents. The computer opponents can be Neutral participants, who are merely defensive players, or enemy foes with Beginner, Medium, or Advanced AI.

The Setup screen also allows you to choose a Random Start and Quick Populate that make the start faster and more random, which will make for a more challenging game. You can also set limits on some game aspects, such as the number of Undos allowed and the maximum number of men in a territory. Figure A shows the game's Setup screen.

FIGURE A

The Setup screen allows you to choose enemies and set options. (click for larger image)

Battle is joined

Once the territories are divvied up and the combatants spread around, it's time for world domination. To make war, you select which of your territories will be doing the attacking by Tapping on it, then select any adjacent enemy or Neutral territory to initiate the attack.

Obviously, it is wisest to select a territory with fewer men. You can continue tapping the target territory to attack unit it is defeated and your men take possession, or until you no longer have enough men to continue the assault. An alternative is to use the Juggernaut mode of attack, which will continue attacking your target until it's beaten or you don't have enough men to keep up the fight.

After you've finished making all your attacks and seizing those territories that were ripe for the picking, you'll have the opportunity to shift men from one territory to another in order to bolster your defenses. Figure B shows the game screen in action.

FIGURE B

Early in the game, the territories are evenly distributed. (click for larger image)

Hold that line

Now it's the computer player's turn. There really isn't anything you can do at this point other than wait for the computer to finish and pray the enemy doesn't pick your bones clean.