Video Game / Battalion Wars

A series of Spin-Off games within the Nintendo Wars series, with the first entry releasing on the Nintendo GameCube in 2005. Unlike the main series, Battalion Wars eschews Turn-Based Strategy for a mixture of Real-Time Strategy and Third-Person Shooter, reminiscent of games such as Hogs of War. In addition to commanding your forces in real time, all gameplay is from the point of view of any individual unit on the field, which that the player can switch between and control at any time.

The series involves a world with surprisingly trigger-happy nations. The two largest, the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories, are in a state of cease-fire after a long war, and things seem to be heating up between them yet again. As the bullets and bombs fly, all countries involved get embroiled with the Iron Legion, the former army of Xylvania that nearly conquered the world centuries ago, is more than willing to give it another shot, and isn't about to let a little thing like being dead stop them.

A sequel, Battalion Wars II, was released on the Wii in 2008. In BWii, the Anglo Isles, who managed to stay out of the previous conflict, invade the Solar Empire on rumors that they were building a superweapon to use against them (Given that they built the superweapon that stopped the Iron Legion, this wasn't too hard to believe). Eventually, the Frontier and Tundra get involved in the action as well.

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The series provide examples of:

• Ace Pilot:
  • Pierce, the Anglo fighter pilot and air force commander, a position he couldn't have earned if he wasn't skilled at piloting.
  • The occasionally mentioned "Violet Baron" of the Iron Legion.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: "Barricade Busting Bombadiers away!", in the Tundran campaign of Battalion Wars 2.
• Advertised Extra: Despite being prominently featured on the cover of the sequel, the Tundran Dreadnought appears exactly once in the main campaign.
• A.K.A.-47: Most of the weapons and vehicles in this game.
  • Western Frontier
    • H-16 = M-16
    • H1-A1 = M9 Super Bazooka
    • H-70 = HK MG 4
    • IS-III Silverfish launcher = the SMAW + the AT-4 + RPG-7 ^note Only slightly
    • Herman Mk 5 = M4 Sherman
    • Herman M1A5 = M1A1 Abrams + BMPT tank ^note  One of the only Dual cannon tanks in existence
    • Prometheus AIM-9RR = M113 APC + Crotale Missile + AIM-9 Sidewinder
    • Samson Type C = CH-47 Chinook
    • AH-86 Duey Gunship = UH-1 Huey + AH-64 Apache
    • F-19 Poltergeist = F-4 Phantom + A-7 Corsair II
    • Frontier Frigate = Seems to be based on a modern day Corvette. (Not the car)
  • Tundran Territories
    • KA-57 = AK-47
    • RPG-1 = RPG-7 (obviously)
    • Spodnik Tracking Unit = Sputnik
    • Kasparov KA-600 = RPK + Garry Kasparov
    • Transport Copter = CH-54 Skycrane / Mi-10
    • Fighter = KS-1 / F-104 "Missile with a Man in it"
  • Anglo Isles
    • Rifle Grunts wield an FN FAL+Lee-Enfield hybrid.
    • M25 Launcher = PIAT
    • Sputterflare = Supermarine Spitfire
    • .44 Grump Gun = BREN Light Machine Gun
    • Swish Rolls T-1 "Tommy" = Rolls-Royce Armored Car
  • Xylvania
    • Rifle Grunts use the MP 40.
    • Spanzow Minigun = MG 08 and MG 42. It's also named after the Spandau Arsenal in Berlin, which developed, along with the MG 08 on which it's styled, the legendary Gewehr 98 rifle and Luger P08 pistol.
    • Schreckenfaust = Panzerfaust+Panzerschreck
    • Vokker Vr.1 = Fokker Dr.1
    • Zornier Z-1 = Dornier Do. 217
    • Ubelmeister III "Drakul" = Backwards Mark I with a Turret.
    • Ubelmeister II = Vezdekhod
    • Battlestation = P.1000 "Ratte"
• All Up to You: In a manner of speaking...
• The Alliance: ...of Nations, formed in response to the Xylvanian threat.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: When you realize the Western Frontier CO's consider war to be just another sport and it's implied they have detailed records where kill counts are equal to touchdowns. These are also the commanders that casually suggest field exercises with live ammunition for their own soldiers. This is invoked invoked during the first bonus mission (where you play as Tundra instead of Frontier), where Herman is even more of a General Ripper and Ivan Dra... Marshall Nova is far more noble.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Played for laughs with Xylvania.
• Ambition Is Eviler: Countess Ingrid's revival of the Iron Legion is apparently due to "ambition", though outside of one line, it seems it was done more because it looked like a good way to prevent Xylvania from getting its ass kicked.
  • Kaiser Vlad explicitly warned that the revival of the Iron Legion would bring "no victory, only suffering." A close study of Ingrid's reaction suggests this was not a deterrent, but a perk.
• And This Is for...: In the ending of the first Battalion Wars, Nova punches Ubel for Tundra, then throws a knockout punch for his father.
• Anti-Air: AA Vets, natch; not to mention the AA Vehicle and the submarine-killing Frigate. Flak towers also serve the same function.
• Artificial Stupidity: It may very well have been intended, but there's also the Battlestation's method of attacking the destruction objective in the last mission of Battalion Wars 2.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Subverted for comedic effect when Colonel Windsor runs out of troops defending his HQ from Admiral A-Qira.
  Windsor: "Attack! Attack! W-w-what do you mean, there's no one left? Outrageous! You'll pay for this, A-Qira!"
• A-Team Firing: The Intro Video of the Iron Legion Campaign in BWii has Xylvanian and Tundran troops shooting each other at point-blank range. Save for one Tundran who collapses, the amount of bullets that are flying proves to be rather ineffectual.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Strato-Destroyers and Battlestations. Massive weapons of war with overwhelming firepower, but suffering from crippling weaknesses that make it very hard to justify the great expense needed to build them. On a tactical level, they're hard to control and have a serious problem with overkill, making them seem more like symbols of national pride rather than legitimate tools of war.
• Badass Army
• Batman Gambit: Kaiser Vlad in the second game, launching two wars over non-existent superweapons in an effort to track down a real one.
• Big Damn Heroes Pierce in Battalion Wars 2 — three times in the last mission. In the first game's mission Black Gold, Tsar Gorgi comes back from an exile that was never mentioned to send out 6 Fighters.......which aren't even around in the final mission, the only one where Tundran forces appear again in the game.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the first game, Xylvania and the Iron Legion are defeated, but Vlad escapes and Nova comes to the conclusion that while he must strive for peace he must always be ready for war. The second game ends on a happier note with all the major countries coming together in the Alliance of Nations and proving victorious over Vlad and Ubel, though they're still alive even if their situation isn't ideal.
• Blood Knights: General Herman, Tsar Gorgi, and Governator Kommadant Ubel.
  • Veteran units as well, who speak of war and patriotism with bloodthirsty bravado and dark enthusiasm. Gets pronounced when they do so around the meeker and less in-your-face Grunts.
  Frontier Vet: "This is my third tour! I re-upped as soon as I got the paperwork."
  • Not that the Grunts aren't capable of loving war for its own sake, though.
  Frontier Grunt: *making a kill shot* "He shoots, he scores!"
• Bloodless Carnage: Soldiers glow red when hit. When killed, they fall down and have a little cartoon skull of their national color pop out of their corpses. As opposed to blood, screaming, and dismemberment/disembowelment like what should logically happen.
• Bottomless Magazines: A player-controlled Assault Veteran can fire indefinitely with only the danger of overheating his weapon to stop him from shooting momentarily.
• Boring, but Practical: Manually controlling one unit and taking out threats with it then swarming with your other units sometimes works with ridiculous effectiveness.
• Bragging Rights Reward: In the second game, getting higher ranks gives you access to unit dossiers and concept art.
• Brown Note: The piercing shriek of the Iron Legions flamethrowers is noted to, without fail, drive its wielders insane. This being the Iron Legion, such a side effect is seen as a benefit.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Bonus Mission 3 in the first Battalion Wars, right to the point of being That One Level.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Most of the COs.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": "Nerocite" is a coal-resembling material that is valued for its application as a high-energy fuel. It's name also literally means "black mineral".
• Captain Ersatz: Marshall Nova is a fairly beefy guy who always has his hands taped up, and in his ascension to Leadership over the Tundran Territories, is shown holding what looks suspiciously like a Championship Belt. Given what country Tundra is the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of, fans often compare him with Ivan Drago.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Kaiser Vlad, and all of Xylvania in general. Best exemplified at the conclusion of Chapter 3 of the second game, when Vlad poisons A-Qira and launches his invasion of Tundra. A-Qira first accuses him of the poison, then of more general treachery as the scope of Vlad's plan is revealed. The Kaiser cheerfully affirms both accusations as A-Qira writhes in his agonizing death throes.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: While enjoying dinner at the Parliament House, Pierce and Windsor hear the rumbling of the Solar Empire's counterattack striking home. Pierce is understandably alarmed, Windsor is utterly unfazed. Even when a shell rips open the roof, almost crushing him and dumping a chandelier, along with a fair amount of masonry, onto his food.
  Windsor: *mildly annoyed at the aforementioned inconvenience* "...pass the salt, would you Commander?"
• Cavalry Betrayal: In the first game, Tsar Gorgi attempts to make a pact with Xylvania to force back the Western Frontier, only to have the bombers they send turn on both the Western Frontier and Tundra.
• Cavalry of the Dead: In 1, Countess Ingrid resurrects the Iron Legion as a desperate gambit to achieve victory for the Xylvanians when the Alliance of Nations are right on their very doorstep. Subverted, however, since they have no loyalty to their descendants and immediately try to take over the world again. Starting with Xylvania.
• A Commander Is You
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each faction predominantly uses a single color:
  • Western Frontier: Green
  • Tundran Territories: Red
  • Solar Empire: Gold (1), White (2)
  • Xylvania: Blue
  • Iron Legion: Purple
  • Anglo Isles: Yellow
• Commissar Cap: Tundran Mortar Vets are required to "glue" their hats to their heads to avoid losing them. Not just because they're loose-fitting but because their grenade launcher kicks up a lot of exhaust upon firing.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: There's a case that helps the player in Beachhead in Battalion Wars 1; the CPU-controlled Artillery can snipe off the infantry climbing up the hilly terrain that makes seeing them difficult, from inside the fort on top of the hills. However, in Battalion Wars 2, while there is another case that involves a playable unit in the last mission, it does not help the player whatsoever: the Battlestation attacks the guns that fire the weak green lasers coming from the Mining Spider before attacking the blasted digging machine itself, but you don't get to aim at these guns whatsoever. This makes no sense because the Fighters you get are harder, albeit generally more rewarding, to control than the no-brainer Battlestation, but at least the Heavy Tanks fire at the guns too if commanded to attack the Spider.
  • Veteran infantry can use their weapons at full power immediately, rather than having to wait for the charging period like the player does. The tradeoff of course is that a player-controlled Veteran has a health and damage bonus, while also not falling victim to Artificial Stupidity.
• Contractual Genre Blindness: Kaiser Vlad.
• Cosmetically Different Sides: A complicated example. Every faction has the same roster of unit types with the same functionality. In 2 all units are statistically identical, with the only functional difference between the factions being that the mounting points for secondary weapons can vary. This was notably not the case in the first game where each faction actually does have some statistical differences; this is most perceptible with the Iron Legion, who are noticeably more durable than everyone else.
• Cool Old Guy: Windsor in Battalion Wars 2.
• Crazy Enough to Work: Tundran fighters are based on ICBM designs. The version in seen in the games is the first iteration to have wings.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Somewhat averted.
• Cutscene Incompetence: You could theoretically have your Recon and your Vets in Black Gold wait on the bridge where Tsar Gorgi gets thrown off from by Ubel.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: You know how Iron Legion has that Battlestation in the intro of the second game? Well, in the next two missions where you play as them, they don't use it. Surprisingly, the game made your Battlestation mission critical in the first mission where you play as them, but in the following missions, you don't get to use it anyway? Maybe because the programmers wouldn't want to give you an easy time massacring the poor Solars. This is possibly Fridge Brilliance as while the Battlestation is an impressive machine, it as also large and cumbersome and almost impossible to transport (not helped by that fact the Iron Legion lacks any kind of transport vehicles). It's entirely possible that the Legion couldn't get the Battlestation where it was needed in time and are forced to make do with nearer forces.
• Dark Reprise: The grim, but triumphant music in the Prologue mission of Battalion Wars 2 is played again in Apocalypse. Except this time, it takes an ever-so-subtly more sinister tone. In fact, the difference is so subtle, and it happens so much later on in the game that it's really easy to miss... but they are two distinct tracks.
• Deadly Gas: Xylvanian Acid Gas Veterans use spray-guns filled with "ghosgene". Also, Kaiser Vlad rescues Kommander Ubel by deploying a poisonous cloud that only Xylvanians are immune to.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Possible, but not too likely to happen. A bunch of Assault Vets can conceivably take out a Light Tank and even a Heavy Tank, but you're better off using Bazooka Vets.
• Distress Ball: P.O.Ws in the second game. So much so that they completely neglect their vehicles and wait for someone to rescue them.
• The Dragon: Ubel. In the first game he splits the role of Vlad's lieutenant with Countess Ingrid until Ingrid gets assimilated into the Iron Legion.
• The Dreaded Dreadnought: Present in the arsenals of almost every nation with a navy are massive flagships with heavy and medium cannons galore called Dreadnoughts. Amusingly, because of their mixed loadouts, the Dreadnoughts are actually much closer to Pre-Dreadnought battleships in practice.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: One in each game, and quite literally. Tsar Gorgi gets thrown off a bridge in the first game, and Admiral A-Qira is poisoned on his ship in the second.
• Drowning My Sorrows: A-Qira takes a big swig from his flask while impotently raging at the Anglos denial of his rightful vengeance. Turns out the Kaiser put a little something extra in his drink.
• Dumb Muscle: Ubel, who has both the build and intelligence of a gorilla. He's a somewhat capable military commander, but his strategies typically boil down to "overwhelm with power."
  • Not that he isn't a patron of the sciences, however. He is a leading proponent of continued development of submarine technology, citing the unsatisfactory performance of his personal Battlestation underwater.
• Enemy Chatter: Enemy units can occasionally be heard speaking to each other.
• Escort Mission: Quite a few in Battalion Wars 2.
• Everything Is an iPod in the Future The entire Solar arsenal is smooth, white, wireless-online enabled, solar-powered, and environmentally friendly — and has been since at least the Lightning Wars
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Vlad has been shown to genuinely care about Ubel and pre-possession Ingrid, claiming to have raised both.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kaiser Vlad himself objects to reviving the Legion, on the grounds that "there would be no victory, only suffering."
  • Completely subverted, by contrast, by Countess Ingrid, who only cottons to the idea more.
• Evil Old Folks: Apparently, Kaiser Vlad is over 100.
• Evil Overlord: Kaiser Vlad, who rules Xylvania and seeks to expand their territory into the other nations. Lord Ferrok, Vlad's ancestor, was this even more, nearly conquering the world with a supernatural army.
• Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Iron Tower, seat of Lord Ferrok's power.
• The Faceless: All Rifle Grunts' faces (except for their eyes) are covered with masks of some sort. The rest of the Iron Legion's infantry units (and Lord Ferrok himself), Tundran, Frontier, and Xylvanian Flame/Acid Gas Vets, and Xylvanian Bazooka and Assault Vets follow suit.
  • Averted with poor Private Hazard.
• Fake Special Attack: The Mining Spider has some scary looking green lasers to defend itself, but they're more of a lightshow really, barely scratching your Battlestation, and only posing a threat to any infantry you may have.
• Fantastic Racism: Herman repatedly calls the Xylvanians "X-ers", much like American troops called the Germans "krauts". A-Qira also refers to his foes as "barbarians" and "insolent dogs", again, much like the Japanese did during their many wars.
  • An uncomfortable Truth in Television version appears in the Unit Dossiers. The noise the engines of an Xylvanian bomber make is called the "Hun Hum". "Hun" was a popular racist slur for German people in England during both World Wars.
• Fantasy Conflict Counterpart: Basically WWII if Japan was one of the good guys. And the Germans never went democratic and had a horde of zombies up their sleeves. And everyone had 21st century (or better) tech. And Superheavy tanks actually were a good idea.
  • While not a direct allusion, the "Lightning Wars" between the Solar Empire and the Iron Legion are a possible reference to the German Blitzkrieg.
  • The conflict between the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories alludes to the Cold War, with Tsar Giorgi initiating the first war over rumors of a Frontier superweapon.
    • "Fort 51" is a reference to Area 51.
    • The DMZ between the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories alludes to the Korean DMZ, as being the site of an "uneasy truce." It's also a possible reference to the Vietnamese DMZ.
    • "Windbreak Ridge" is a reference to Heartbreak Ridge, a Korean War battlefield.
  • The Dune Sea campaign alludes to the North African campaign of World War II.
    • "Beachhead" is a cartoonish re-creation of the Normandy landings, but with pseudo-Americans defending against pseudo-Germans. "Fort Omaha" is also a reference to Omaha Beach.
  • The Coral Atolls campaign in the first game and the Solar Empire campaign in the second game both allude to the Pacific Theater of World War II, with the initial Anglo attack resembling the attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • In "Bridge on the River Styx," the fight to secure bridges leading into Xylvania alludes to the Allied fight to secure bridges across the Rhine.
  • The Vladstag is a reference to the Reichstag.
  • "Their Finest Hour" in the Anglo Isles campaign alludes to the Battle of Britain.
  • The Tundran campaign in the second game alludes to the Eastern Front of World War II, especially the battle for Giorgisburg.
    • The Tundran dreadnought Potemkin is a reference to the Russian battleship fo the same name.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture
  • Western Frontier = Cold War America
  • Tundran Territories = Cold War Russia
  • Solar Empire = Super-futuristic Japan
  • Anglo Isles = Britain
  • Xylvania = Imperial and Nazi Germany
  • Iron Legion = Medieval/Steampunk/Necromantic Barbarians
• Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: The Battlestation, a tank that every faction regards as the be-all, end-all of military firepower... despite its main gun (and only worthwhile weapon) being in a position where it can only aim up and down, requiring the entire tank to slowly rotate in place just to hit something slightly to the side of where it's facing. Fortunately, this issue was fixed in the sequel, giving it a proper rotating turret.
• Friendly Enemy: The Frontier and Tundran COs seem pretty chummy with one another, other than Gorgi and Herman. Once the Xylvanians attack, they drop the "enemy" part
• Friendly Fireproof: Not even explosive weapons such as artillery shells and bombs can hurt friendly soldiers.
• Freudian Trio: in the first game:
  • Western Frontier - General Herman (Id), Colonel Austin (Ego?), Brigadier Betty (Superego)
  • Tundran Territories - Major Nelly (Ego), Tsar Gorgi until his death, at least, and Marshal Nova (Id/Superego interchangeably).
  • Xylvania - Kaiser Vlad (Ego), Countess Ingrid (Superego), Kommander Ubel (Id)
• Gas Mask Mooks
  • Xylvanian Rifle Grunts wear gas masks and are the rank and file of Vlad's fighting forces. According to their dossier, it's primarily to protect their weak complexions against the harsh sunlight outside their homeland.
  • Acid Gas Vets also. Justified, because they use poison gas as their primary weapon.
• General Failure: Ubel isn't a bright man, and this translates to little success on the battlefield when he's in charge; fluff even suggests he sank the Ferrok, a prized Dreadnought, during an exercise. Kaiser Vlad seems to put up with Ubel's failures out of respect for his loyalty.
  • Commanding officers tend to swap between competency and this at times, particularly in Battalion Wars 2. For example, Colonel Windsor goes from sending groups of Rifle Grunts and Light Tanks one at a time to attack a fortified palace, to a relatively competent commander when defending his homeland.
• Gimmick Level: A few are scattered throughout the games.
  • In the first game, "Call Sign Eagle" exclusively gives you a roster of air units. Your task is to provide cover for a ground force as they do the mission's objectives instead of you.
  • Most of "Operation POW" involves racing a Light Recon to its destination under a time limit, with only a token combat section at the start and end of the mission. The second game's "Showdown at Big Honshu" is similar, involving driving a Recon around to plant bombs under a time limit.
  • "Bonus Mission 3" has an enemy bomber constantly attacking you... and unlike virtually every other mission in the series, you don't have any method of countering it. The mission revolves around surviving its bombing runs long enough until you finally summon a squadron of Fighters to take it down.
• Glass Cannon: Bazooka and Flame/Acid Gas Vets, the former against vehicles and the latter against infantry. Anti-Air Vets were this in the first game, but went from Game-Breaker to seriously underpowered.^note  This was because Anti Air Veteran Missiles had to do a high amount of damage to destroy Gunships, Bombers, and Fighters, seeing as the latter bunch had EXCEEDINGLY high HP. The HP and DPS (Mostly to the Gunship) of Air units and damage done by AA vets was lowered in the second game by tenfold, allowing rapid fire weapons like MG towers to take them down, and Assault Vets to take down Air units faster. Anti Air vehicles didn't have to worry about this because the missiles were less accurate to ground units, and the speed was dropped for a larger quantity of AA missles fired. Changed in the second game.
• Gonk: General Herman
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Windsor's "Dash it all" in Battalion Wars 2.
  • The Frontier Gunship is armed with "Heckfire" missiles.
• Guide Dang It!: In Battalion Wars, how to have your other units attack more actively.
• Guy in Back: Every vehicle has at least 1 or more AI-controlled gunners that will fire on the nearest enemy regardless of whether or not their weapon is effective. Even the Fighters have a tail-gunner which is a rather useless and excessive feature.
• Heel–Face Turn: Tsar Gorgi, who asks for forgiveness after his actions end up playing right into Xylvania's hands. Zig-zagged in the sequel, where his ghost shows up to urge Marshal Nova to act more hawkishly.
• He Knows About Timed Hits: This results in the hilarious impression that your character is some sort of bodyjacking ghost whom the Western Frontier have tricked into helping them and kept from leaving the battlefield using some kind of magical Invisible Wall.
• Hero Unit: an interesting twist here
• Heroic Sacrifice: Made by the Solar troops who ended the Lightning Wars. Most of them died carving a path to the Iron Tower for the Staff of Qa-Len, and those who survived perished in the ensuing Wave-Motion Gun blast.
• Honor Before Reason: Admiral A-Qira takes this to Idiot Ball levels, repeatedly ignoring Lei-Qo's warnings that something's strange about the Anglo attack and ultimately playing right into Kaiser Vlad's hands.
• Hufflepuff House: The Dune Sea is the site of a major campaign in the first game, existing as an independent entity on the Xylvanian continent. And yet, despite the presence of dwellings, it is not shown to have any army, form of government, nor a single character, named or otherwise. In the second game, it is completely irrelevant bar a few token references in the unit dossiers.
• I Am Legion: Countess Ingrid in the first game after awakening the Iron Legion and getting assimilated into them.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: BWii introduces Flak Cannons as a secondary anti-aircraft weapon. They're effective against helicopters but are terribly ineffectual against fixed-wing aircraft at any distance besides short-range.
• Improvised Weapon: Tundran "tanks" are farm tractors with gun turrets slapped on. They still have the harvesting equipment attached.
• Instant-Win Condition: Missions in general involve this.
• Keystone Army: The Iron Legion in Battalion Wars 1 are bound by the Cenotaph, which lies in the center of the Crater of the Sun, a landmark which used to be the Iron Tower in the sequel that was destroyed by the Solar Empire in the final days of the Lightning Wars. The penultimate mission "Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers" involves both Colonel Austin and Empress Lei-Quo leading a battalion to destroy the Cenotaph and return the Iron Legion back to the grave.
• Kill Sat: The super weapon everybody's seeking in the second game.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Units will occasionally give some remarks that makes it seem like they acknowledge how absurd the game can be sometimes.
  Frontier Grunt: You ever feel like you're just a pawn in a huge game of chess?
• Lightning Bruiser: The Strato Destroyer is a do-everything flying weapons platform that can engage and destroy both ground and air targets with equal and deadly levels of effectiveness. About the only way to counter one is with multiple fighters, anti-air vehicles, or another Strato Destroyer.
• Luck-Based Mission: 100% Power in any mission in the second game where the final objective is to capture a facility capable of making units respawn fast.
  • In "Call Sign Eagle" of the first game, your best bet to to get all the transport ships is to slam on your thrusters at the start of the mission. The problem is your allies' spawn positions are ever so slightly random, so there is a decent chance they will spawn right in front of you.
• The Man Behind the Man: Kaiser Vlad in both Battalion Wars games. In the first he manipulates Tsar Gorgi's invasion of the Western Frontiers for his own ends, while in the second he tricks the Anglo Isles into going to war with the Solar Empire.
• Man in a Kilt: In Battalion Wars 2, the Anglo Empire veteran soldiers all wear kilts and have fancy handlebar mustaches. Their Flame Vets even wear Tam o' Shanters.
• Mascot Mook: The Frontier Rifle Grunt gets featured in a lot of promotional material.
• Medieval Stasis / Modern Stasis: Fluff from the second game reveals that a majority of the Solar Empire's military technology hasn't changed in two hundred years. On the other hand, they had futuristic laser rifles, hovering drop-ships, and a Kill Sat, all solar-powered, back when the Iron Legion's coal-fired battle-wagons were considered cutting-edge. And then you have Lei-Qo's Staff, which is revealed to be a hand-held upgrade of the aforementioned Kill Sat. Laser death in the palm of your hand!
  • It's even mentioned in the unit dossiers that the Solar's insistence on high technology is as much a handicap as a boon, with temperamental vehicle A.I.s being hard to control in combat and the incredibly precise materials needed to make Plasma Vet weaponry ensuring they're permanently short-handed on gear.
• Mildly Military: Standard for Nintendo Wars. Even the otherwise Only Sane Man Colonel Austin will freely admit the idea that his superior is a war hungry maniac had "crossed his mind" to the man's face (Herman clearly is, but still not professional).
• Mighty Glacier: The Battlestation, Strato Destroyer, and Dreadnaught; in infantry-centric missions, Mortar and Bazooka Vets.
• Mission Control: The COs.
• Mordor: The Iron Legion's homeland was like this.
• Names To Run Away From Very Fast: The name of the Xylvanian "Schreckenfaust" rocket launcher means "Terror Fist".
• Night of the Living Mooks: The Iron Legion in the original.
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted. In the first Battalion Wars, you could play as other countries, including Xylvania and Iron Legion, in certain bonus missions. In addition, "Flashback 2" in the sequel has you play as the Iron Legion against the Solar Empire, though there is no Xylvanian campaign.
• Not the Intended Use: Anti-Air vets in the original Battalion Wars had stupidly high damage AND fast fire rate. It was merely a matter of getting close enough for the missiles to hit ground targets, and watching them melt from a lone player controlled AA vet.
• Non Entity General - Though rumors suggest that initial concept art was drawn for what would've been the Frontier player character. Featured a spiky-haired, goateed young buck named 'Sam.' Appropriate, as he looked like a young Uncle Sam.
• Nostalgia Level: The co-op missions "From Tundra With Love' and "Crack Squad" are remakes of "Plan of Attack" and "Herman's Heroes" respectively from the first game.
• Obviously Evil: Xylvania and its predecessor, the Iron Legion.
  • Old Xylvanians look like Orcs. Modern Xylvanians look like vampires.
• Our Orcs Are Different: In the second game, the Iron Legion's green-skinned, red-eyed, clawed and iron-shod appearance during the two Lightning Wars flashbacks make them seems like Orcs who had an industrial revolution.
• Our Zombies Are Different: The Iron Legion in the first game are Magic Zombies, and still have the brains to use guns and drive tanks. Despite appearances, their weapons/vehicles are not haunted, however; when we get to play as living ones in the sequel, their tanks still have a Sickly Green Glow and the flamethrower still screams like a banshee.
• Overheating: The Assault/Minigun Vet SAW's will begin firing faster and faster-then stop dead to cool off.
• Overlord Jr.: Ubel, the adopted son of Vlad.
• Parental Substitute: Vlad raised both Ubel and Ingrid as if they were his own children.
• Pet the Dog: In the second game, Vlad goes out of his way to free Ubel from a Tundran prison.
• Player Mooks: You can assume direct control and switch to any unit that you have in your squad. The incentive and advantage of this feature is that the player-controlled unit has more health and attack power.
• Polluted Wasteland: Xylvania is revealed to be like this, due to Vlad's abuse of the environment for military resources. In fact, one of his primary reasons for expansion is to gain more resources.
  • Although, oddly enough, Old Xylvania looks just about the same in Battalion Wars 2, except everything's on fire instead of poisonous and green.
    • If you think about it, the appearance of Old Xylvania could be as it is to mirror the effects of Kaiser Vlad's actions. That is, to draw a parallel between Lord Ferrok and Vlad.
    • On the other hand, maybe Xylvania is just a perennial hellhole. Look at their people. That didn't happen to them in a generation.
• Poor Communication Kills: The endgame could have been avoided if Vlad just told Ingrid why reviving the Iron Legion is a Bad Idea, instead of just saying "no".
  • For that matter the entire war in the second game could have been avoided if the Anglo Isles had actually attempted diplomacy with the Solar Empire instead of just invading them based off of intel of a super weapon, which later proved to be false.
• Punny Name: The Tundran TOZT-23 flamethrower. Try saying "toast" in a Lzherusskie accent...
• Put on a Bus: Col. Austin and Maj. Nelly don't appear at all during the Single Player campaign. Subverted when they show up in the cooperative multiplayer missions, married and on their honeymoon.
• Putting on the Reich: The Xylvanians are mostly flavoured after Imperial Germany (they are led by a Kaiser, their equipment mostly takes inspiration from the World War I-era German Army), but they do throw in a hint of Nazi-era Germany for good measure as well (their territorial ambitions in the first game was motivated by a belief in supremacy over inferior nations).
• Pragmatic Villainy: Kaiser Vlad is willing to start two world wars in an effort to Take Over the World (Of Course!), but even though there's a way to resurrect his ancestors long-dead private army of Super Soldiers, he won't touch it.
  "The Iron Legion would bring no victory. Only suffering."
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: From Kaiser Vlad to Admiral A-Qira.
  Vlad: "You will not have to suffer the shame of defeat for long, Admiral."
• Quieter Than Silence: In the dossier, it's mentioned that one warning sign of approaching Iron Legion bombers was a sudden unnatural silence as their enormous turbines sucked the air from the ears of ground troops. This is most definitely not shown in gameplay.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: The members of the Solar Empire have been accused by some critics for having caricatured Asian accents. All of them are actually voiced by Japanese actors.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Herman's view of his posting to the Solar Empire in the sequel.
• Rewarding Vandalism: Smashing random barricades, encampments and props around the stage often reveals medkits and fuel tanks to heal/repair your units.
• Russian Guy Suffers Most: Tundra gets devastated by an Xylvanian sneak attack. Twice.
  Marshall Nova: *shocked and appalled* "Never has such devastation been wreaked upon Tundran soil!"
• Rock Beats Laser: Despite their monstrously advanced technology compared to every other nation, the Solar Empire almost gets stomped flat by both the Steampunk Iron Legion and the early-World War 2-esque Anglo Isles. In fact, their invasion of Old Xylvania was a death-or-glory gambit, as they were losing the Lightning Wars very, very badly, and even that came unbelievably close to utter defeat.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: A few of the Commanding Officers are royalty, Kaiser Vlad and Empress Lei-Quo being examples.
  • Strangely, the Royalty of the Anglo Isles never appear, despite their flag being a crown.
• Kuju Has No Sense of Scale: According to background material, the Western Frontier and the Tundran Territories each have populations around 2.3 billion. For comparison, these two nations combined have nearly 66% of Earths entire population.
• Sequel Hook: Despite the sequel ending on a happy note (unlike the first game), Vlad already got the Staff of Qa-Len and is still alive, albeit buried.
• Serious Business: The Anglo Isles has the cleanup squad, devoted entirely to maintaining the nation's monuments. Apparently it's the most prestigious posting possible for them.
• Shades of Conflict: Several overlapping types.
  • Gray-and-Grey Morality: The Frontier and Tundra. Neither are purely honorable, though the Frontier is clearly better, and part of the story is that Tundra needs to reform. Indeed, the Tundran leadership are clear Anti Villains at their absolute worst, while the Frontier are more or less lead by the warmongering General Herman. Get emphasized when, early in the first game, Vlad describes them as "Frontier warmongers and Tundran despots", and the player quickly realizes he's absolutely correct in both assessments.
  • Black-and-White Morality: By contrast, the Solar Empire and Xylvania. The Solar Empire is basically an idyllic Utopia, with its gorgeous tropical terrain, clean energy, futuristic technology, free consumerist culture, superior tactics, and diplomatic leadership. Heck, their leadership can literally see into the future! Xylvania, by contrast, is hellish, polluted, war-mongering, treacherous, and their leader is obsessed with their past.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Colonel Windsor and Admiral A-Qira. Sure, they were both originally manipulated, but after awhile, it's just honor and tradition keeping them going. After A-Qira launches a campaign simply to deface Windsor's statue, and Windsor launches an operation just to clean up said statue, even Marshal Nova points out that the whole thing makes no sense.
• Short-Range Long-Range Weapon: You can actually hit and damage enemy units that are very far with the standard rifle or machine gun. AI controlled units, however, cannot use these weapons until they get to an optimum distance.
• Shout-Out
  • General Herman = General Colt (Kelly's Heroes)
  • Marshal Nova = Ivan Drago (Rocky IV)
  • Commander Pierce = Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye)
  • Empress Lei-Qo = Sun-Tzu
  • Admiral A-Qira = Tetsuo (AKIRA)
  • Kaiser Vlad = Vlad Tepes + Kaiser Wilhelm + Adolf Hitler
  • Countess Ingrid = Manfred von Richthofen
  • Kommander Ubel = Arnold Schwarzenegger
  • Private Hazard = Private Ryan.
  • The Solar Empire Fighter was inspired by the Super Sylph B-503 from Sentou Yousei Yukikaze.
  • Similarly, the Solar Gunship is quite clearly an Orca Fighter
  • The Solar Empire's riflemen wield blasters that bear a heavy resemblance to the MA-5 Assault Rifles of Halo. The only real difference is that the Imperial weapon's magazine is inserted where the MA-5's ammo counter would sit.
  • The Anglo Submarine. Like the rest of the Anglo army, it's colored yellow. I guess the Anglos all live in a yellow submarine.
    • Said Submarine is the Pepper-class, perhaps named in honor of a Sergeant and his band...
  • The Solar Dreadnought is a massive, plasma-spewing, sea-borne monster and, appropriately, is named the Qoo-Jilla. Say the name out loud and you'll see why it's appropriate.
  • The cutscene that introduces the Anglo Isles campaign, in which Windsor and Pierce try to enjoy their dinner as the battle outside rains pieces of the ceiling on them, is a clear nod to Carry On Up the Khyber.
  • During the final mission of the second game, Kaiser Vlad gives one to Star Wars.
  Kaiser Vlad Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Mining Spider.
• Ship Tease: Nova and Betty get quite a bit in the first game but it's mostly dropped in the second. Betty does get a inkling of it with Pierce in the sequel. Also Colonel Austin and Major Nelly in the first game, which leads to them getting married between the events of the first and second.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: subverted in the sequel, as Vlad shuts himself up only a second later:
  Vlad: Why do you care about this trifling town? Everything of value is destroyed. No matter. Launch Acid Gas vets!
• The Smurfette Principle: Lampshaded, as Nova's promotion of Major Nelly to commanding officer is a Really Big Deal to the traditionalist Tundrans.
• Spiteful A.I.: Watch your Fighters, already Too Dumb to Live, crash into the enemy Fighters and die in the second game.
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: Commander Pierce and Colonel Windsor, respectively.
• Strategic Asset Capture Mechanic: II has barracks and motor pool structures, which allow mid-mission reinforcements. All the player has to do is capture the flagpole in the middle.
• Suicide Attack: The Staff of Qa-Len is actually the target designator for a Kill Sat Wave-Motion Gun, which comes straight down onto the staff and obliterates everything around it for miles. This is most certainly fatal for the poor schmucks who have to place and activate the thing.
• Super Title 64 Advance: The sequel is abbreviated as BWii.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Each of the factions in the series corresponds to a different faction in Advance Wars. The US-themed Western Frontier are Orange Star, their Russia-themed rival Tundran Territories are Blue Moon, the East Asian Solar Empire are Yellow Comet, and the English and more broadly European-themed Anglo Isles are Green Earth. Xylvania meanwhile, being a Nazi Germany-themed outside power that manipulates all of the previous factions, are Black Hole.
• Suspiciously Small Army: The game is BLATANTLY INCORRECT when using terminology to designate a Military Unit based on its size.
  • 8 Tanks = A Division
  • 2 Tanks + 2 Anti-Air + 17 Infantry = A Battalion
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Hoo boy. To use Naval units as an example - Submarines giving you grief? Send in frigates. Frigates taking out your subs? Get Battleships on them. Battleships being a pain? Deploy subs.
  • This is true in Advance Wars as well, with Subs, Cruisers, and Battleships having pretty much the same relationship.
• Tactical Superweapon Unit: 1 has the Battlestation (a superheavy tank) and Aerostation (a Flying Fortress-style bomber) units, which form boss fights in certain missions. The third-to-last campaign mission has the player utilizing their own Battlestation to nearly solo an entire enemy army. If the Battlestation is lost, so goes the mission, as your support cadre cannot fight the rampaging horde of undead Super Soldiers effectively.
• Tank Goodness: The Battlestation, it's the biggest and slowest ground unit, but can generally hold against whatever is thrown at it, its machine guns mow down infantry, and its main gun can destroy any ground vehicle (except other battlestations) with no more than 2 direct hits. Its only real weakness is sustained, overwhelming anti-tank or artillery fire, or air units.
• Tempting Fate: Vlad has a few cases of doing so, with one particularly notable instance at the end of the second game, where he announces that he will call the Kill Sat to destroy the alliance and then escape by air transport — but Pierce responds by shooting down the air transport.
  • And at the very end of the second game, where he's stuck in a cave caused by his use of the Staff of Qa-Len. Using light from a match to see, he proudly proclaims that "the torch of destiny still burns brightly for Xylvania." The match goes out immediately after he says that.
• That Man Is Dead: "There is no Countess Ingrid, there is only Legion!"
• The Theme Park Version: Every nation is this, with the Western Frontier as the United States, the Tundran Territories as Soviet Russia, the Solar Empire as a combination of China and Japan, the Anglo Isles as Britain, and Xylvania as WWI and WWII-era Germany... but kinda sorta vampires!
  • The Alliance of Nations is the TPV of NATO, as a multinational mutual defense pact arrayed against a monolithic enemy. Humorously, the Soviet analogues are a key member of this version of NATO.
• Those Wacky Nazis: While not technically Nazis, the Xylvanian commanders cover most of the character types. Vlad is Stupid Jetpack Hitler, comissioning superheavy bombers and tanks in a bid to win on the technology front, and Ingrid is a Ghostapo, utilizing forbidden Black Magic that bites her right in the arse. Ubel is a Hogan's Heroes style buffoonish, bumbling incompetent.
• Timed Mission: Operation POW, Striking Distance, Guns of Tiki Bay, Bridges on the River Styx, and Bonus Mission 2 in the first game; Showdown at Big Honshu, Line in the Sand, the first part of Purge, and the last part of several missions in the sequel.
• Token Minority: Prerelease images showed Colonel Austin as a plaid-wearing Caucasian. He was changed to an African in the final game.
• Too Dumb to Live: Your air and sea units will not try to pick up Jerry Cans at all.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The citizens of the Tundran Territories love turnips. The vegetable is described as permeating every stratum of Tundran society, to the point of it being the official Tundran unit of volume.
• Video Game Caring Potential: You already hate to let any of your little fellers down, and THEN they give you Private Hazard: an otherwise normal Grunt who has a name, a cute little bandage headwrap, and needs rescuing from a deadly minefield. Oh, and if you blunder his rescue, the COs ask what they should tell his mother. Sheez.
• Video Game Flamethrowers Suck: Flame/Acid Gas/Plasma Vets are useless against vehicles.^note  Except agains the extremely light armored Recon vehicles, which makes a lot of sense..... If you can hit them that is.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Justified. The commanders use radio to communicate and can therefore run away long before they're actually in any danger. However, at the end of the first game, the COs get into the Vladstag themselves and they had already taken down Xylvania, but Vlad manages to invoke this trope anyway. In the sequel, Vlad tries to invoke this trope again after getting the staff and calling the Kill Sat with it, but Pierce demolishes his means of escape, leaving Vlad and Ubel stuck having to escape in a manner that gets them stuck in a cave-in caused by the Kill Sat.
• Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: The various good-guy nations either coming from temperate forest areas or beautiful beachy archipelagos, while the villainous Xylvanians live in a grey desert full of pools of toxic waste.
• Voice of the Legion: Countess Ingrid gets this when she resurrects the Iron Legion.
• You Can't Thwart Stage One: In the sequel, Vlad finds the Staff of Qa-Len, and even gets it at the end, setting up a Sequel Hook, though he finds himself buried.
• You Don't Look Like You: Betty in the sequel. In the first game she has the appearance of a stereotypical cheerleader with a high pitched voice. In the second she has a completely different voice actor that has a much more adult and mature voice while also looking completely different.
• You Killed My Father: Marshal Nova throws Kommandant Ubel into the gulag for personally murdering Tsar Gorgi. Not that this had any effect on the murdered man's social life, apparently...
• Zombie Apocalypse: Due to Countess Ingrid pinching Vlad's sword and rezzing the Iron Legion. The second-to-last mission in the original revolves around putting it down.

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