Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes

Building an army is the goal in most strategy games, but it is obviously not much good to have a lot of units if you are not able to use them to their potential. As such, there are always new things to learn that make you a better commander, at least if the game in question features interesting mechanics. You can usually get better units later on in the game as well.

Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes is a turn-based strategy game with 3D graphics, in which your role is to grow an empire and use it to defeat the other factions that try to do the same. The game features multiple fantasy races to choose from, including humans, dwarves and orcs, and they all have somewhat different abilities as well, although they usually boil down to the same mechanics.

Since this is a TBS, every action you take is important, because you only get to do a certain number of things each turn. Hence, your units can only move and attack once per turn, which means that positioning is important. If you are defending a base, it’s wise to fortify your positions by placing archers in the towers, although that obviously limits their mobility for a while.

Besides archers and the usual infantry units, there are many others that can be part of your army, but they only become available later on in the campaign. This allows you to learn every unit over the course of a few missions before you are able to acquire new ones. Naturally, better units also come with special abilities, such as the fact that cavalry is able to charge if they attack in a straight line.

In terms of graphics and the interface, Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes is about as simple as it can get, which is not a bad thing. You can easily select units and move them around, and the camera allows you to zoom in and pan around in order to get the best view. Not much can be said about the quality of the 3D models or the textures, but then again the game was designed to run on slower machines as well.

Even if you are not able to use complex strategies during the battles, Hex Commander: Fantasy Heroes is enjoyable enough to keep you invested throughout the main campaign. Every battles can be approached in many different ways, at least if you are inventive enough.