Re-fight the Battle of Peleliu on Your Cell Phone! Android Game Review
The Battle of Peleliu 1944 for Android Operating System
Game Review. Publisher and Designer: Joni Nuutinen Price $5.99
Passed Inspection: detailed play, nice graphics, great AI, fantastic value for the price, informational texts tell you about the battle
Failed Basic: too easy to move a unit by mistake and no option to take back a move, solo play only
Joni Nuutinen is a Finnish developer of strategy games for the Android system. An overview of his games for the Android Operating System was published back in 2015.
Peleliu 1944 is a strategic look at this most horrible of World War 2 Pacific battles. Each turn is approximately 3 hours long and each unit is a regiment. At the bottom of the screen is a status line showing the turn number and month, day and year. Also on the status line are indicators for the victory points earned, temporary movement points and rail movement points.
{default}You are playing from the American perspective. Each unit is a regiment of marines or regular army. There are tank battalions as well. You can have your engineers build hospitals, bunkers or minefields. You also have access to limited airstrikes from Corsairs which launch from nearby aircraft carriers.
Each unit is rated for damage points, movement points and fatigue. In addition, each unit has a tactics menu which allows the player to customize the units attack strategies and defensive strategies. For example, a unit can be ordered to maintain a breakthrough attack strategy which makes it very aggressive at the risk of losing damage points by being overly concerned with taking ground over defense. For defensive strategies, a unit can be ordered to offer a stiff, normal or flexible defensive posture.
Ships provide much needed supplies and reinforcements.
When two opposing units are adjacent to each other, they can engage in combat. Combat can result in the unit being destroyed, being damaged, retreating or no effect.
Terrain includes mountains, swamps, forests, etc. The terrain of the island is pretty unforgiving and the hills and swamps make for slow going but plenty of defensive bonuses for the combatants. Handy buttons allow you to zoom in and out of the map.
The graphics are very attractive for a strategic level game but there are no sounds effects. The menus and main screen are laid out well with everything big enough to see even on a smaller cell phone screen.
The game is turn based. You move and attack with your units and then end the turn. At the end of each turn, the results are displayed along with a list of additional resources that you gain for the next turn. In addition, factoids about the battle are displayed. So you learn as well as have fun!
During each turn, resources become available which allow you to augment your forces with heavy weapons, give them extra movement or heal them as well as other options.
The game autosaves so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to save your game. Only one game can be saved at a time as the new save overwrites the old save file.
The game is solo only; there are no two player options.
The game accommodates touch screen technology for picking up units, scrolling the maps, etc.
My only real complaint is that there is no way to take back a move. Sometimes ship convoys seem to move even when you don’t want them to – this appears to be a result of trying to scroll the map and accidently picking up a ship convoy with your finger.
This game is very fun and demonstrates the challenges of fighting in the Pacific. The AI is very aggressive and the Japanese forces seem to act very intelligently.
If you want a fun and addictive strategy game to add to your Android device, try Peleliu 1944 – you can find it in your Android App Store.
Armchair General Rating: 94 %
Solitaire Rating: 5 (1 to 5 with 1 being Poor and 5 being Perfect for Solo)
About the Author
A college film instructor and small business owner, Richard Martin has also worked in the legal and real estate professions, is involved in video production, film criticism, sports shooting and is an avid World War I and II gamer who can remember war games which came in plastic bags and cost $2.99 (he’s really that old)! Rick is also the designer of Tiger Leader, The Tiger Leader Upgrade Kit and Sherman Leader.
