Toy Soldiers

Overview A zoomed-out view of a battlefield diorama Toy Soldiers is Signal Studios' first developed video game released exclusively to Xbox Live Arcade's 2010 spring program, the Block Party. It is a tower defense style game that takes place in multiple World War I-themed dioramas inside a bedroom. Each set has British and German armies battling against each other for supremacy. Each force has a set of tanks, machine guns, planes, and explosives that can be used to defend attacking forces or remove opposing weapons. In both single player and multiplayer, the player must fend off enemies who seek to invade the toy box. After a set number of units invade the box, the battle is lost and the player is forced to restart that particular mission. GameplayThe player can build, upgrade, repair, or most of the time control units. As with most strategy games, building, upgrading, and repairing each cost money. However, controlling weaponry and destroying enemy units awards you money, and killing many enemies quickly will award you even more money.   The multiplayer skirmishes are playable by two people in either split screen or over Xbox Live. The players are able to create attack plans while simultaneously defending their own toy box from the opponent. Certain battlefields are more unit-focused, where the gameplay centers on movable units like tanks rather than the immobile turrets. Five maps are available to play on.   The gameplay only offers the possibility to change the controls to inverted inside tanks, planes and the gun placements leaving the general camera and sniper tower to normal controls only.    CampaignThis mode generally follows a tower defense approach, with access to playable units such as planes and tanks later on in the campaign. The campaign follows different scenarios named after real life World War I battles. Such as the Battle of Polygon Woods, or the Battle of Ancre. The campaign offers the perspective of the British army and later the Germans. The campaign levels consist mostly of holding off various enemy waves and sometimes resolving in a boss fight. The bosses include the Tsar Tank,  a zeppelin, an "Uber Tank" and a giant rail-gun. Bosses can destroy the toy box regardless of enemies invaded. Four levels of difficulty are available, from casual to elite. The hardest difficulty forces the player to directly control their units one at a time, but with more lenient victory conditions.   Players are awarded ration ticket items such as cigarettes and coffee for completing bonus objectives in each level. These items are displayed in the menus, but do not give in-game bonuses.  Bosses: Tsar Tank: A Russian prototype tank, which is well known for its unique shape and design. It is encountered in the trial game as a 'game-ending boss' (ie. you cannot defeat it, and it is intended to end the demo), and at the Nonne Bosschen woods, during the game. It is easily defeated by the Howitzer guns, and is extremely slow moving. Zeppelin: The Zeppelin was used as a bomber in WWI and is fought in Fort Douaumont in the campaign. It slowly drifts towards the players base while dropping bombs. It is defeated using anti-air guns such as the Old Quick Flak, and the planes the player has access to. Unsurprisingly, crashing planes into the Zeppelin is effective, but due to the 'cooldown' period on planes, it is not necessary the best tactic. Uber Tank: The Uber Tank is a fictional German-made tank, and resembles mobile artillery employed by the Nazis during World War II. It makes several laps of the battlefield, and should reach your toy box, it simply ploughs through and continues moving. It runs over player emplacements, meaning that tanks and artillery are good methods of destroying it. Along the flanks, the word 'Wotan!' can be seen. Rail Gun: The final boss, which represents the giant railway siege guns the Germans were noted for in WWI and WWII. It is undoubtedly the hardest boss of the game, and is similar to the real life 'Big Bertha' siege gun that the Germans used during WWI. Units A full list of buildable units and their descriptions can be found here.  Units are upgraded during gameplay, and the upgraded models of units are earned through completing missions.  Historical InaccuraciesToy Soldiers does not seek to be an incredibly accurate replication of actual battles from World War I, and as such, there are some anachronisms present. Vehicles employed in the battlefield are occasionally fictitious, and in some cases, are employed by the wrong European power. For example, the Tsar Tank is used by the Germans (and if Campaign is completed, the British will also use it), though the tank was only ever used by the Russians. The 'Little Willie' tank also appears in the game, despite the fact only one of these vehicles was ever made, and the 'Big Willie' also appears in use by the Germans, despite being a British design. Avatar Awards Toy Soldiers has the following avatar awards.  M 1917 Gas Mask - Play the game. Pickelhaube - (Achievement:  Coffin Nails) Beat the campaign. Facebook IntegrationThe main menu of Toy Soldiers contains a map of contributors to the Facebook-powered Toy Soldiers application, a Bejeweled-like game where users can play as either the Allies or the Central Powers.