Ah yes, the ol' tactical / real-time / turn-based / combat / management / strategy game hybrid. What tangled skein of genre-crossing tapestry is this? It's less complicated than it sounds, actually, and Battle Isle: The Andosia War sounds more complicated than it is. Go figure.

In fact Battle Isle: The Andosia War is, all told, just the fourth in a series of solid turn-based strategy games with a flowing economic element and all puffed up in modern graphic delight. It's rare to see a game's 4th iteration do much more than drop a numeric appendage in favour of a new subtitle, and this one does nothing for that law of average rarity.

Still, Battle Isle: The Andosia War can stand on its own if you're new to the series; impressive in its own right if you aren't familiar with the earlier same-old-same-olds.

With an archipelago for a setting, playing fields are divided into islands of battle and islands of economy. Resources (energy, water, "aldinium," ore, etc) are horded and units (cool techno-tanks, infantry, etc) are amassed in the traditional style of RTS management, then deployed to the battleground where the turn-based pain-trading occurs at an egg-timer/chess-tournament pace.

It's pretty easy, all told, and beating the computer enemies is made all the less troublesome thanks to a good interface, albeit offset by wonky perspective control which has all those detailed graphics plus elevation changes actually getting in the way while the egg-timer ticks on relentlessly...

Battle Isle: The Andosia War probably shines brightest as a multiplayer game which is not only good, but best suited to a pair or team of die hard strategy buffs who have nothing better to do that bang out troops for several hours at a time in the first place. Go nuts.