Review - Elven Legacy

Paradox Interactive’s vibrant turn-based strategy is fun, accessible and fiendishly addictive.
When reviewing videogames a regular basis, it becomes increasingly rare that you get to try a new product with no prior knowledge or preconception attached to it. There’s something to be said for going into unfamiliar territory and (if you‘re lucky) coming away pleasantly surprised. Elven Legacy is one such gem, a neat turn-based strategy that were you to glance over a few screenshots you’d be forgiven for dismissing it as a Warcraft derivative. The sequel to 2007’s Fantasy Wars, a game which escaped my radar entirely, Paradox Interactive’s Elven Legacy offers a level of hex-grid strategy that, despite some technical issues and a difficult single player campaign, is both accessible and deep.
For those unsure what a hex-grid is all about: essentially your units move across hexagonal spaces on a superimposed board, with each side taking it in turns to spend their pieces movement and combat points. Not unlike the boardgame Risk, then, but with all the visual bells and whistles that PC gamers have come to expect. Thankfully, Elven Legacy is hospitable to those new to this genre; right clicking any unit brings up their perks and abilities, and the HUD is especially straightforward. It’s also a lot of fun, with appealing units, great presentation and an involving story mode.
Elven Legacy has over 100 distinct units in 5 armies, including powerful hero units. All have their unique quirks; knights are especially impetuous, attacking adjacent enemy even when not directed, while archers add support to any close combat units they are adjacent to. The game flaunts some superb fantasy designs, with the detailed character pieces changing size depending on how far the camera is panned out – squads of ten men are suddenly represented by one giant playing piece. I initially found this offputting, but once you get used to it, Elven Legacy does a near perfect job of balancing a (relatively) realistically scaled environment with the representative pieces that reveal its tabletop wargame origins. The smaller models attack their enemies with some entertaining combat animations, and while these are initially fun to watch you’ll need to lose this intimacy with your units as the scope of each progressive battle expands.
The premise behind Elven Legacy’s campaign, as told via an animated storybook intro, is that the shadows of destruction have been unleashed by an intrusive human mage. The ever secretive (i.e. haughty) Elves are forced to enter the lands of man for the first time in countless years to reverse this dark tide and ensure that such knowledge does not make it into the wrong hands again. The campaign mode’s narrative isn’t exactly Lord of the Rings, but it effectively moves you from mission to mission. There are also some motivating dilemmas thrown into the plot as secondary objectives, such as whether or not to raid the villages in certain regions. Frequent conflicts of interest threaten to test your principal characters; the benevolent ranger-lord Seagate, who wishes to avert combat wherever possible, and sorceress Gilwen, who is intent on pillaging indiscriminately. Add a branching mission structure and multiple endings, and there’s a lot to bring you back to Elven Legacy’s single campaign a second time, though it would have been nice to be able to play as Orcs or Humans as well.
The experience your units collect provides increasingly powerful perks, allowing you to customise your troops to any partic