Wargroove is still looking quite good

Although Nintendo has made some Fire Emblem games in the past couple years, the beloved Advance Wars series has been dormant since 2008. Enter Chucklefish, the studio that helped bring us Starbound and Stardew Valley, who are putting their pixel artists and programmers to work on Wargroove, a turn-based fantasy strategy game releasing next year.

I snuck into Nintendo's indie games area at PAX to speak with community manager Tom Katkus about how the arcade strategy game is coming along. I wanted to know more about what we'll be able to do in Wargroove's map and campaign editor, how matchmaking will work, and what connection the game has to Starbound. See the newly detailed units that Tom talks about in the video below in gif form, with some added descriptions pulled from the Wargroove blog.

This is a Giant – in particular, the Cherrystone Kingdom’s Golem. This mighty construct towers over footsoldiers, and deals one of the most powerful attacks a unit can deliver. For obvious reasons, it is the most expensive land unit to purchase. That said, it does lack the superior mobility that the Knight possesses – so if covering distance is a priority for you then maybe bigger isn’t always better. 

This is the Ballista. Like the Trebuchet, it is a big vehicle that cannot move and fire in the same turn, but boasts a huge range to make up for it. Air units can be extremely deadly in the right situation, but every air unit is extremely vulnerable to the Ballista’s bolts. Strategic placement of Ballistae can create entire zones of the map that are too risky for air units to enter alone. Keep in mind, however, that they can’t counter attack! 

Give a warm welcome to the Balloon! This unit acts like a Wagon for the air, picking up units and transporting them without having to worry about that pesky terrain getting in the way. Just, uh, look out for those Ballistae, though!