Bastion
LQ: 9.15
Recommended Age: 10+
Skills Used: Planning, Working Memory, Mathematics, Reading
Empires and Allies is a war strategy game that has the player restoring a destroyed empire to its former glory. Starting with the basics, the player lays out the land and places new housing, military, industry, and government buildings. As things get moving, she must begin building an army of land, air, and sea units for war. With this army, she must go up against Kaptain Kunsch and other sinister forces, and can even invade neighbors in order to acquire additional resources. Empires and Allies contains mild cartoon violence and some crude humor, and as a Facebook game, is only recommended to players 12 and older.
As would be excepted in a military strategy game, there is a substantial amount of planning involved in rebuilding an empire. Marching into battle without any knowledge of the opponent's forces is a recipe for disaster. In that situation, only luck at having bigger and stronger units than the opponent would result in victory. But if the player chooses her forces directly as a response to the units the opponent brings to the fight, the chance of a win greatly improves. As they say, know your enemy. In Empires and Allies, it is no different. Failure to appropriately strategize military units prior to battle is a grave mistake that can result in unevenly matched battles and downright obliteration by the enemy.
In Empires and Allies the player cannot move up very far in the game without making game friends quickly and steadily. The primary method that player employs to expand her empire and unlock new buildings and upgrades is through population increases. However, she must open new government buildings in order to increase the population. Government and other special buildings require friends to take up employment positions in them before they can be completed. Also, friends can help send necessary items that cannot otherwise be obtained, and they even help to repel invading forces. This can save the player a lot of resources like coins, military units, and time. These kind neighbors will only be so helpful if their generosity is reciprocated. The player will need to think socially to acknowledge the needs of her neighbors and respond to them, so she may be helped in return.
Organization skills will greatly help the player logically arrange her empire and build battle forces. When engaging in battles, the player will permanently lose her units if they are destroyed, so its beneficial to do everything possible to protect these units when not in battle. This involves arranging units about the empire so important buildings and resources are protected. This may involve different combinations of military units guarding different areas. If not organized well, the player will leave areas unguarded and lose military units, resources, and coins, if defeated in an invasion.
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