Once you played the game however you also became aware of how rich the mix was with some quite innovative fast paced gameplay. Rather than the usual resource race and the building of game ending armies players were forced into building small raiding parties of quality units. In playing the game you soon learned that this was no easy beat game and that a lot of the old rules no longer applied.

The game had the usual resource gathering although in an Asian context with Rice and Water being the staple of your 'clan'. You needed water for both unit building and the growing of rice and like most of the game you needed to choose carefully how you balanced economy. Units are created by training your peasants into warriors and in this there was also a neat little twist where you could train units in multiple professions and in so doing create super units that had unique abilities. All and all this game proved to be very popular so it was with no little enthusiasm that we snatched up the recently released expansion pack for the game called Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf.

This add on pack (you need the original game to play it) is set seven years prior to the events in the original game. The campaign portion of the game centres around the exploits of the Wolf Clan (tree huggers and animal activists with attitude) as they try to escape the evil clutches of the Lotus Clan who have enslaved them in the shale mines. The campaign puts you in the role of Grayback, the last surviving prince of the Wolf Clan, and his struggle to free his people. It's a neat little campaign that introduces the player to some of the new units and training options available in the expansion pack.

Our favourite new unit out of the 12 new ones would have to be the Wolf Clan Digger who has the ability to dig down under the earth and pop up some distance away. This gives you the ability to sneak under obstructions and across terrain features. As they can also pack a reasonable punch they can quickly eliminate guards as well. What makes them truly special though is the great animation. When commanded to dig they quite happily get down on all fours and proceed to furiously dig with their front paws with soil flying all about. Once completed they do a wonderful springboard dive into the hole they have just made. This little sequence very much sums up the flavour of the Battle Realms world, with little touches of tongue in cheek humour spiced up with fast and furious combat.