Atwar
AtWar, known as "Afterwind" prior to 2013, is an in-browser turn based strategy computer game. AtWar resembles the board game"risk". All players complete their moves simultaneously within turns that can last from 1 minute to 48 hours, depending on settings. It features free movement unlike its risk counterpart, in which players typically strive to achieve a preset goal, such as conquering an opponents capital city, capturing all of an opponents cities, or capturing a neutral country. Players compete in order to earn SP(Strategy Points) which allows them to rank up and buy upgrades to empower units they already have unlocked, or unlock new ones. AtWar is not a pay to win game, but there are privileges for premium members such as the ability to host custom games and the ability to form a coalition. Also with Premium you are permitted to create maps, have a custom logo/user picture.[1]
| Publisher(s) | ProtoBytes Company |
|---|---|
| Publication date | May 19, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Strategy |
| Language(s) | English |
| Players | 1-10 without premium and 1-20 with premium |
| Playing time | Quick games vary from 1-12 minutes per turn. Casual games vary from 12-48 hours per turn. |
| 🌐 Website | atwar-game |
Search Atwar on Amazon.
The game features a free unit movement without grids or predetermined paths, and allows up to 20 players per game. Turns are simultaneous, with each move taking effect at the end of the turn. Another feature is the map editor which allows players to create their own maps and units, giving players the chance to enact any battle on any plane, real or imagined. There are variety of maps; including a standard atlas style world map. Sub parts of the world map can also be played, such as "Europe", the "Mediterranean", "Oceania" and "Latin America". There is also a custom map editor for players to construct their own maps and scenarios, with the freedom to make custom units.[2][3] Popular maps include "Ancient World", "The Rise of Rome Series", "A song of Ice and Fire" and "Destoria", while popular scenarios include "The War To End All Wars", "Game of thrones political","Endsieg", and there are many more scenarios that were not listed. There is a very unique gaming community featuring players from around the world interacting in a very prosperous in-game forum which features many categories, including; tutorials, strategy proposals, news from the admins, a showcase of maps and scenarios, and an off-topic section usually discussing politics and history. So this games differentiates from other online strategy games; as it can be used in many different ways and is more open to a variety of players.[4]
The game allows its users to form coalitions, or "clans" with their friends, helping them arrange games. Clans are also able to compete with one another in "clan wars". These games allow users to earn double their SP (strategy points) and earn their clan ELO, the three clans with the highest ELO at the end of a competitive season (lasting 3 months) then earn trophies which are displayed on their clan page. These clans are a way to connect with other players and enriches this game.
Game Mechanics[edit]
There are two basic mechanics in AtWar that limit your army size, Reinforcement and Money. Determining the best balance between the two depends on your experience in the game and strategy.
Reinforcements[edit]
Reinforcements are the amount of troops that a particular city can buy. This number is determined based on population in real life, and is indicated on cities by the number of starting units they have when neutral. For example, Warsaw (Poland's capital) has 5 milita in it by default, so if you take it over, you will gain 5 reinforcements. This is only a rule of thumb, since as the game progresses the neutral armies grow, so a city could have 7 militia in it on Week 7, but only give you 5 reinforcements.
Once you spend the reinforcements on buying troops, they are depleted and that city can no longer make new troops for 3 more turns. Every four weeks (four in-game turns), the reinforcements in a given city are replenished, and that city can make more troops. For this reason, most combat occurs on these fourth turns, or reinforcement week, when the conquered cities can produce spawn right away. In order for a city to produce spawn, the capital must also be owned.
Other factors that effect reinforcement gain is if the territory was contested by an opponent or not. If you and another player had to fight for a territory, its population will decrease, which causes the country to give less reinforcements. Over time the reinforcements given will return to the normal amount, and will increase if left unconquered. Another factor is the starting reinforcement bonus. If your opponent's starting countries on average have more reinforcements than you do, then you will be given extra reinforcements in your starting city. For example, If player A starts in Albania (2 reinforcements by default), and player B starts in Turkey (39 reinforcements with extra cities), when the game actually starts player A will have 20 reinforcements.
Money Management[edit]
Money is one of the most important aspects in the game that players have to control. Money (or gold) is the resource in AtWar that allows players to buy troops with reinforcements. The more money a player has, the more troops they can buy. The type of troop a player buys is usually determined by how much money they have. For example, infantry cost $70 and tanks (which have better attack) cost 130$; If a player has a lot of money and they are going to attack, they will most likely buy tanks. Money accumulates turn after turn via income. Money can also be sent to allies, by using the Diplomacy panel.
Income[edit]
For every country that is captured, the player receives an income boost. This boost varies from country to country, but it always adds some income to the players economy. Getting the full country bonus, by capturing the capital (marked by a star) and all the cities of a country, gives that country a 20% income bonus. The longer a country is held, the more money it a player receives, as it does not give its full income as soon as the player takes it. After these bonuses are added to a player's income, their troop's upkeep is deducted, which is determined by how big an army is. The more expensive the player's units are, the more the troop upkeep hurts their income. Income is collected at the end of every week and added to the spendable money total.
Strategies[edit]
[5] Another feature unique to atWar is the ability to enhance certain combat units in their performance, while nerfing others through the use of different strategies.
This is used to create a more diverse battlefield with more strategic thinking, as player's won't know which strategy other players are using.
Standard Strategies[edit]
No Strategy
No boosts or drawbacks, units stay constant
Relentless Attack
better Attack Units / weaker Defense Units
Perfect Defense
better Defense power against Attack Units from Defense Units / weaker Attack Units
Naval Commander
better Naval Units / weaker Ground Units
Upgradable Strategies[edit]
Imperialist
cheaper units (-30gold) / weaker Attack (-1) for all units
Sky Menace
better Air Units / weaker Ground Units
Master Of Stealth
Stealth Ground Units cheaper (-40gold) / weaker Attack Units
Blitzkrieg
better Range (+3) / better view range (+2) / weaker Defense (-1) for all units
Based on the German strategy of the same name, Blitzkrieg ("lightning war" in English) is a strategy that is effective in moving troops across the map very quickly. Blitzkrieg is useful for having the ability to quickly expand territory, however this does decrease defense of the troops. Blitzkrieg is famous for its use during the Second World War in which Germany rapidly invaded Poland in time to move its troops to the western front to deal with France's forces.
Guerrilla Warfare
better Defense on Secondary Ground Units / Stealth Ground Units cheaper / weaker Main Defense and Attack Units
Premium Strategies[edit]
Lucky Bastard
better chance of critical hits (+10%) / better view range (+4) / higher cost (+10) for all units
Great Combinator
Small changes with Ground Main Attack and Ground Main Defense units to enhance certain performances while nerving others
Iron Fist
better hit-points (+2) / weaker view range (-4) / weaker Range (-2) for all units
Desert Storm
better Air Special Attack units (helicopters) / better Ground Secondary Defense / better Ground Stealth / weaker Air Main Attack / weaker Ground Main Attack / weaker Ground Main Defense
Hybrid Warfare
A mix between irregular and conventional warfare
Game Play[edit]
Coalition Wars[edit]
Coalition wars are played by clans against other clans to gain coalition points and elo. One clan's elo is compared to another clan's elo to determine which clan is the best every three months, or season. Every Clan War, a clan gains an amount of elo, and the other clan loses an amount. After the season is complete, all the different elo's reset, the top three clans are rewarded with trophies, and the next season begins. Clan wars themselves can be played on any map, but the 3v3 Europe+ format is by far the most popular.
3v3 Europe+[edit]
The current 3v3 scene is set on the default world map in the "Europe+" zone, which includes everything in Europe from Iceland to Azerbaijan. The actual game settings are 4 minute turns, 10,000 starting funds, two teams, no rejoining allowed, and extra cities. The current format of these games are 3v3, a team game with two players in the east (typically Turkey and Ukraine) and 4 players in the west (typically Germany, England, France and Spain).
Duels[edit]
Another aspect of the competitive scene is duels, or player vs player. In these games, two players face off on a map (usually EU+ with extra cities), each with the goal of killing the other. The winner gets an amount of ELO, and the loser loses an amount of ELO. At the end of the season, trophies are given out to the top three duelists, and the ELO is reset. Winning these types of games is considered a effective way to get recognized for your individual skills, along with bragging rights.
Although the Europe+ setting is considered standard competitive, several other maps have the characteristics of being fair, fun, and battle-filled maps. Some of these maps include: Destoria, Dreamworld, True Competition, EU++, Mediterranean, and Ancient World.
Scenarios[edit]
Scenarios make up a large part of the maps played. Unlike world map these maps have been made by independent map makers and not by Ivan and Amok (Game creators). These maps can depict Historical events such as The World To End All Wars which is based off of World War 1 or maps such as Game of Thrones or Dreamworld (also competitive) that are Ficton or Science Fiction. Scenarios can be team based and can allow players to have multiple countries at once. An example would be in Ultimate World War 2 where Great Britain has the Isles, British Africa and British India on turn 1 which can make for intense battles but can make them harder considering they are more time consuming. Scenarios also have the ability to add in no-gos (places unable to cross) which is good for creating strategic ways to maneuver around. These maps can also create custom units and allow starting nations to have different starting cash between them, allowing for unique maps to be made and also realistic maps if the map is going for a historical approach.
Map Making[6][edit]
Map making is a unique part of AtWar which is only available if you buy the premium features pack. Map making consists of creating borders, countries, income and units. This allows for creators to create scenarios based on historical events and make them as realistic as possible or creatively make a fictional map. The ability to edit these 4 things (along with teams, no-gos and other scenario related features) allows for artistic creativity. So far, there are over thousands of maps made and are still being made till this day.
SP "Strategy Points"[7][edit]
SP is an abbreviation for Strategy Points. These are used to rank up, buy upgrades, and reset your name. These are obtainable through purchase from the game store and you can win these in game simply from playing, more for actually killing large sums of opponents units, and thirdly from game challenges, which are usually based around killing opponents units.
Elo Calculator[edit]
The amount of elo gained and lost is relative to the elo of your opponent. For example, if clan A has an elo of 1200, and clan B has an elo of 900 (lower elo is worse), clan B would gain more elo for winning than clan A. In this case, clan B would take 22.1 elo from clan A if they win, and Clan A would only take 2.9 elo from clan B. To figure out the exact number of elo gained/lost from any given clan war, AtWar has an elo calculator for cws, which you can use around the top of the main clan page. For duels there is not currently a known formula for the elo gained or lost, but as a rule of thumb the bigger the gap between elo's, the bigger the elo gap between a win and a loss.
Silverlight to HTML 5[edit]
AtWar was forced to switch to an HTML 5 platform on October 7, 2015 [8] after Microsoft announced it will only support Silverlight until 2021[9] and Google Chrome version 45.0.2454 stopped support for NAPI plugins completely. The change enhanced the interface, making it smoother than previous versions. AtWar can theoretically run on any device that features an HTML5 compatible browser, though computers tend to yield the best and most convenient playing performance.
References[edit]
- ↑ "atWar Windows game". Desura. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ↑ "atWar, Free online Multiplayer Strategy War Games. Play More than Risk Online". atwar-game.com. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ↑ "Afterwind - Free Multiplayer War Game". www.vectorlight.net. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ↑ "Reviews - atWar". Desura. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
- ↑ http://www.giantbomb.com/atwar/3030-44764/
- ↑ "atWar: How to Make a Custom Map, Borders video". Mod DB. Retrieved 2015-12-19.
- ↑ "Reviews - atWar". Indie DB. Retrieved 2015-12-19.
- ↑ http://atwar-game.com/news/news.php?news_id=158
- ↑ https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle?C2=12905
This article "Atwar" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
