Storm of Armies (series)

Storm of Armies
Developer(s)	OSOVINA
Publisher(s)	Kiber-Iskusstvo
Platform(s)	Personal computer
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy

Storm of Armies (Razarian: Oluja vojske) is a series of real-time strategy video games created by Razarian video game developer OSOVINA, and since its second instalment, Storm of Armies 2, released by Luziycan publisher Kiber-Iskusstvo. The first instalment, the eponymous Storm of Armies, was released in 1999.

History

OSOVINA, the developer of Storm of Armies, had already been successful with its forays into games themed around strategy and war, with its critically acclaimed works such as Master of Fire and Incense Wars, released in 1992 and 1995 respectively. In 1997 OSOVINA announced it was working on Incense Wars 2, but later in the year the development team decided to switch to a new setting. The basic concept for the first Storm of Armies's story was released in 1998, which would take place in Esquarium with technologies consistent with the real world, rather than the Lahudican space opera of Incense Wars, and revolve around an alt-historical sudden ascent of Akai to the status of a menacing world power. The use of Akai as an antagonistic power in the series was often attributed to team leader and storyboard writer Goran Vodanović's keen interest in Acanic culture and history.

Storm of Armies was released in late 1999, featuring a world where Tuthina was annihilated during the Great Republican Uprising as a result of the use of nuclear weapons during the civil war, leading to a slowly rising Akai under the fictional Ditu Dengslug assuming the power vacuum and becoming a superpower with a sphere of influence spanning East Borea and Nautasia. An increasingly centralized Esquarian Community, which was established decades prior to its real life founding, transforms into a superstate, incorporating much of Nordania, Conitia, West Borea and Namor, and is invaded by Akai in a pre-emptive strike leading to a global war. The game was highly successful convincing OSOVINA to develop it into a series. In 2003, Storm of Armies 2 was released, and distributed by Luziycan publisher Kiber-Iskusstvo.

In 2005, a spinoff, Storm of Armies: Zenvat, taking place after a non-canonical nuclear holocaust ending possible in the first game, was released, depicting a war between the Devourers and the Reassemblers, two global cults who use anomalous artifacts and technology to attempt to achieve their religious goals while trying to defeat each other. Zenvat became a series of its own, but the difficulty of implementing the universe's concepts and stories effectively into the strategy game framework led to OSOVINA turning it into a horror-oriented first-person series after the 2008 title Zenvat II. Rights to the Zenvat series and lore were acquired by ??? in 2012.

After Storm of Armies 2, science fiction became thematic in the series, and increasing amounts of hypothesized and proposed technological concepts were used in the games such as nuclear-propelled spacecraft. Storm of Armies 3 was released in 2010, introducing a 3rd faction, the "Freemen of the Seven Seas". Storm of Armies 4 was released in 2015, and despite overall positive reviews received some criticism due to its inclusion of interplanetary warfare.

The more tactical and realistic spinoff title Storm of Armies: Dusty Echelons was released in 2011, featuring a hypothetical world war between fictional alliances the Iron Pact and the Entente. Dusty Echelons 2, set in a separate universe, was announced in 2016 and is set to release in late 2018.

The series has saw successful marketing for most of its instalments especially in West Borea. All releases have been on PC on operating systems such as Rassvet, Svoboda, VesOrb and Sensation.

Gameplay

Storm of Armies have all been real-time strategy games. Functionalities are accessed by toolbars, present usually at the side of the screen, along with minimaps and keys. Multiplayer gaming is present in all titles, as are competitive sessions.

Core elements of the Storm of Armies games, with exception of the Dusty Echelons series which usually focuses around use of a handful of provided units, have been base-building, acquisition of resources, and producing units to destroy opponents' bases. Typically, funds needed to produce combat units and buildings are provided by mining ore deposits, supply drops of raw materials, or capturing structures which provide them. In the case of mining, 'harvester' units are dispatched, acquire quantities of ore, and then unload the ore at a 'refinery' building that converts the acquired resources to funds. The 'construction yard' is the core of bases, where a building is prefabricated and can then be deployed and used instantaneously; in the main franchise a vehicle arrives to unload and assemble building parts but in the Zenvat games structures can be deployed remotely. Newly introduced factions of later games as well as mid-game perks purchasable with funds and needed structures however have varied approaches to these gameplay mechanics offering unique advantages.

Different factions and units fit into different niches and positions, and bear some form of intransitive relationship with regards to their roles and units they are strong or vulnerable against. In the main series, the Akai faction has been characterized by heavy firepower and superiority of numbers, while the EC faction is associated with high technology, quality over quantity, and flexibility. In Storm of Armies 2, sub-factions were introduced in the form of individual nations of the main factions each with unique units, structures or perks, further allowing playstyle customization. In the two Zenvat games sub-factions are present as individual sects of the two conflicting cults. Units are also often tiered based on technology level and each level requires increasingly sophisticated structures and abundant resources to access.

Games

Main series

The main Storm of Armies series has also been referred to as the Dituate series, which is also the title of release of these games in a few nations. The central plot of this series is a series of world wars between Akai and the Esquarian Community.

• Storm of Armies (1999)
  • expansion pack 1
• Storm of Armies 2 (2003)
  • expansion pack 1
  • expansion pack 2
• Storm of Armies 3 (2010)
  • expansion pack 1
• Storm of Armies 4 (2015)
  • expansion pack 1
  • expansion pack 2
  • expansion pack 3