Battle Towers on Android: These wars are won with strategy and patience

Earlier this month, we brought you a preview of Battle Towers on Android, Game Insight's latest real time strategy game that sees noble warriors pitted against evil creatures in a never-ending battle to the death. Now that we've had a chance to go hands-on with the final version of the free-to-play offering, we've found that, like most games in the genre, this one is best enjoyed with a large helping of patience.

Battle Towers is a level-based experience, with each level coming with the same overall goal of destroying your opponent's castle, but secondary goals that make each stage unique. These goals may see you recruiting a certain number of soldiers, casting spells, and much more, but many of these are locked behind in-app purchases. That is, a level may ask you to build a Temple, but Temples cost either tons of in-game coins or lots of premium currency to unlock. The incentive to build these items is two-fold. Not only do these locked units and buildings tend to be stronger than anything given to you "for free," but completing the associated quests gives you Stars that are useful later on.

There's a method for unlocking most items with coins, but of course, the more valuable an upgrade is, the longer it takes to unlock. At the beginning, that means you'll be left with a very cheap, but weak soldier and a very expensive brute to do all of your dirty work. Food resources are earned automatically over time by both the Cottages you can build in each stage and by your Castle itself.

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Food is used to purchase units, new Guard Towers and other structures, so it's obviously one of the most important items in the entire game. Your enemies tend to know this, as they'll attack not only Guard Towers and your Castle, but also the Cottages that produce food. Thankfully, the game's day and night cycle offers something resembling a turn-based battle layout, as the opposition will attack at night, when it's strongest, and your units can attack during the day, when they're strongest. This is an interesting layout, as it gives you time to catch your breath after a heated battle, but it also makes some moments of gameplay rather boring, as you may find yourself in a defensive position, unable to attack even if it is daytime. That leaves you to simply stare at the screen and wait for your opponents to make a move.

There are a ton of upgrades available to purchase in Battle Towers that makes your time in the game easier, and thankfully, these come with coin purchase options. Each individual unit or building can be upgraded, whether it be increasing the strength of your warriors or decreasing the cost to building Guard Towers, as just two examples. Again though, some of these upgrades are locked, leaving you to purchase them with real money if you're impatient, until you've earned enough Stars to unlock the free option.

While these upgrades can permanently increase your strength and ability to dominate in each stage, this still doesn't entirely eliminate the waiting game in some levels, especially as the levels themselves become harder. It would have been nice to see additional gameplay included during these waiting times, so that battles don't become boring - perhaps the ability to manually boost production of an item for a short period of time by repeatedly tapping on a building.

Even though Battle Tower's day and night cycle lends itself to moments of tedium as you simply wait for the clock to tick back around to daylight so that you can attack, the game's wide variety of units, boosts, and power-ups allow for a ton of strategy and a real sense of satisfaction after you've survived long enough to actually tear down the enemy Castle. If you're ready to try your hand at Battle Towers, you can now download the game for free on Android.

Download Battle Towers on Android >

Have you tried Battle Towers? What do you think of the game so far? Sound off in the comments!