From Nevosoft, the team that's no stranger to casual strategy or simulation games (see My Kingdom for the Princess 2, Paradise Beach 2, and Farm Craft 2 for fine examples), comes a quirky, lighthearted game that takes inspiration from the likes of Galcon and Risk, LandGrabbers. In a land filled with castles and knights and crusades, it's own or be owned. You are a brilliant military strategist (but you knew that already!) who has decided to show your prowess by taking over the land. One building at a time. Send units, fortify your homeland, and set out to conquer the medieval world the only way you know how: casual strategy gaming!
Taking over the world, as it turns out, is a simple matter of mathematics, risk, and smart decisions. You start with at least one property that slowly stocks itself with units. Click on your piece of land, then click on a neutral (or enemy) property to send half of those troops out to attack. If your warriors outnumber the target's defenses, you win that piece of land and immediately start to gather troops there. Keep the new building well-defended, as the more you expand, the more vulnerable you are!
Later on, you'll get to use more than just soldier-generating houses. Watchtowers, for example, don't create units but instead house them and can quickly dispose of invading troops with, of all things, lasers. Not bad! There are also cavalry units you can train who are faster than standard units and are able to swarm watchtowers, giving each building and each soldier a strength and a weakness, just like any good rock-paper-scissors strategy title. Buildings can be upgraded at the temporary cost of half your units, a risk you must often take in order to hold more troops, thus increasing your defenses and possible attack strength.
It isn't all about troops and numbers, though. Nevosoft has spiced the gameplay up a little by including artifacts of the ancients, spells you can cast that do massive damage to your enemy. Not too massive, of course, as they don't give you an overbearing edge, but it's enough to help you out in a pinch, and it comes with a price tag. Good for feeling more like a god than a mere military genius!
Analysis: Good looking, easy to play, and fun to conquer, LandGrabbers is exactly the kind of game you want when you go looking for a Risk-like strategy title. Games of this ilk tend to be overly serious, devoting much of their time creating complex stat screens, a thin but dour storyline, and in-game technology that is realistic within the confines of the game's world. Here, though, you find lasers and knights riding alongside each other, "Bright and cheerful" is how the developers describe it, and that's exactly what LandGrabbers is!
Apart from the reliability of the genre and the inherent depth of strategy games, LandGrabbers does take a few steps to make things more interesting. New building types are fun and add a different sort of slant to your conquering techniques, though they won't change the outcome of any battle on their own. In the end, it's up to you and your plotting and scheming to get things done, so don't be afraid to experiment and try now ideas early in the game.
One obviously absent feature is multiplayer, as Risk games tend to be more fun with, you know, other people. The game's AI is pretty good, however, and manages to be aggressive without leaving its own territory undefended. There's no shortage of challenge, and the length and variety of the included stages is more than enough to keep you entertained.
Nice visuals, an easy interface, and a pristine presentation of the casual strategy genre we all love, LandGrabbers is a great way to get your Risk fix without breaking out the actual board game and trying to hunt down some friends to play with who aren't watching Doctor Who.
Windows:
Download the demo
Get the full version
Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.
In short, after 3 minutes of playing I was hooked.
That's all that needs to be said.
Love this game but stuck on island level one. Can anyone give me some tips?
Get the towers and upgrade them. Then with the use of the evil eye, you can gradually take over the rest.
Great game; really addictive! I'm struggling here at work 'cause I was up all night playing.
Watch out though - I got ripped off! I bought it from Spintop for 29 bucks; now I discover Big Fish have it for their usual 7 bucks!
Love this game and I am hooked. I need help I can't pass level 7. Walkthrough PLEASE.
This is a great game. It's the first thing I bought from Big Fish, and I have no regrets. I'm currently near the beginning of Iceberg. Here's some of my strategy:
At the start of a round it's important to get more soldier-generating buildings than it is to have high-capacity buildings. This is because the more buildings you have, the more soldiers will be generated per second. For example, if each building generates one soldier per second, then two buildings will generate two soldiers per second, and three will generate three soldiers per second, and so on.
When I own stables, I tend to funnel soldiers from many of the nearby buildings into the stables, then as the capacity of the stables reaches peak I send out soldiers from the stables to wherever I need them so that they're super fast. As long as there are more soldiers in the stables than it can hold, I keep sending them out so that they're not wasted. This is a pretty effective way of charging into an enemy tower.
In the middle of the game, I like to take over enemy buildings by overflowing them with my soldiers. Much of the time I get up to 100 soldiers into a building just after stealing it. This way, you can immediately upgrade the building several times, maybe even to maximum, and it might even withstand some enemy attacks during the upgrades because the building is so bloated with your soldiers.
Also, I love how the little guys go "HOORAAAY" every time they're deployed.
I am stuck on Desert level 5... Any suggestions?
Love the game. Very simple, very fun. I've completed all of the levels, now I'm trying to complete all of the achievements. I am confused by the 'collect all stars' achievements. I went through the levels a second time, playing in Lieutenant mode, and completed all the levels that had a star by them - but I didn't get the Lieutenant achievement. Is there anything I am supposed to do to collect stars?
You get the star for a level you complete in a certain time.
Love this game but its harder then I expected! Cant find a walkthrough for it anywhere. Any idea's?
Love this game, but level 7 is ridiculously hard..Can someone who beat this level give a detailed strategy they used? Any help on this level would be nice :)
I was flying through levels but got stuck on Desert level 8. I keep getting cornered in the middle of this one! Help anyone?!? :(
hi guys i have beat the game in the first difficulty(lieutenant) with ease and almost the second one(colonel) which quite more challenging for the stars!!!the dessert 8 lvl is quite easy if you overload the 20 building at your right first and upgrade it to 20 immediatly,with about 20 soldiers from your two buildings you should conquer the one(10) that's below your first fortress and also ugrade it immediatly(basically you do that to every building you take cause 5 soldiers is easy to exist in a building if you attack it with a little extra force!!!),with the 2/3 of your population attack the left watchtower to lower your losses and then focus a buiding to upgrade it to max,if done correctly and swiftly(and you are a little lucky) you'll even be able to "kill" yellow before he expands and after that it's just a walk in the park!!!
As for the forest 7 lvl is a little more challenging cause the time limit haven't been ridiculous yet(as opposeed to later lvls where it can be 22+ minutes for a lvl that can be completed in less than 10)!!!Well for this lvl you should do 2 deploys(one immediatly after another so that the soldiers is practically one pack) to the 10 building down low on the map and upgrade it to 20 as usual,then wait till your first buiding is about 17+ and with both buildings(also 2 quick deploys) attack the 20 in the middle and upgrade both it(to 20) and your first(to 30),then with 2 quick deploys(qd)from each building you will take the watchtower very easily,after that you take the ather 20 above and the fortress and:for lieutenant mode you just have to go 50 and oveload(massive attacks) while you use a building to support yous fortress, an for the colonel mode you go all to 30 whilw doing everything else and with quick,repeated strikes(first the 50s if they are weakened)so that the enemy will lose soldiers to retake them and upgrade them by weakening his other buildings while you attack on them!!!
I really hope that was helpful!!!Ohhh an if anyone has beaten the first lvl(without the tutorial) at less than 38 seconds(the general time limit) please enlight me in how you manage that!!!!
Sorry for any bad english if any...:)
Cannot beat iceberg 7, I've mastered most of the others but that one is impossible for me. I've tried all of the hints I can.. Any help?
Land Grabbers has 4 locations - in the woods, in the desert, the snow and the lava. Each has 9 levels - that's 36 levels not 45. Is this correct?
To beat first level in 37 seconds:
1. Take the house before bridge as fast as you can.
2. Wait for an oportunity to attack (just after the enemy do an upgrade for example).
3. Attack non-stop the last house.
Sometimes is near to impossible beat that level in general mode as the computer is way fast!!
I guess the developers did some tests to create the general level however the time limit is short enough to break the game's fun (just my 2 cents)
I am having the worse time on Iceberg 5. I cannot seem to keep hold of the buildings I've already taken after I get the tower at the bottom. Tried going in the different direction to take over blue first, but that doesn't work either. Any help would be great.
OMG can't make it past level 9 in the desert.. I've played multiple times & give up at 25+ mins with little progress. any suggestions would be great.
Cant get past lava level 7 in Colonel mode. Green is waaaay too strong. Anyone have idea on how to beat this stage?
lava level 7 in Colonel mode:
Take over the building next door and upgrade it.Take over the building blocking the blues, you should be able to take the blues armoury before they have captured any other buildings.
Take the 3 buildings on the lower screen.Send troops to the armoury and then to capture the 20/50 grey watch tower, you can capture first tower now as well. You will now have access to the greens and it should be quite easy to take them over. My quickest time in Colonel mode is 3.45. Hope this helps.
I just finished all three modes with stars !- love this game.
For Tazer- not sure which mode you are playing but heres how I do Iceberg 7, colonel mode -3 mins 41.
take over 10 building, upgrade.
Take 1st castle and then on to the one on the right (about 1min 7s)
Take the cavalry and armoury and defeat the yellows in top right corner.
Should have enough troops now to take greens and then their tower.
Send as many troops as poss to cavalry before sending to attack blue tower. Once the blue tower is captured it's easy to take the rest of the blue.
For Tazer - not sure which mode you are playing but here's how I do the Iceberg 7 in colonel, 3mins 41.
Take over 10 building, upgrade.
Take 1st castle and then on to castle on the right.(about 1min 7s)
Take over cavalry and armoury and defeat yellows.
Should have enought troops to take the greens, then get their tower. Next captue castle linking to the left side.
Send as many troops as possible to cavalry before deploying to attack blue tower. once the blue tower is captured it is east to get the rest of the blues.
I continually beat the time in Desert6 but it won't le me advance. It just keeps making me play that level over and over. Any help on how I can move on?
I continually beat the time in Desert6 but it won't let me advance. Any ideas? Thx
Need help. Can't get past level 6 in the desert
Need help on desert level 6
Iceberg 8 I am having trouble
I cleared all the levels in landgrabers except the island 5 general. Can any one tell me what are the point (score)used for.
anyone know how to beat lava 8 in general mode? its my very last level and cannot get past the 2 towers since you can't use artifacts, any ideas?
Just beat all levels on lt, col, and general. Can't wait for the next stage! Got all achievements except 250 k soldiers and the one for experimenting w artifacts. Does anyone know how to get that one?
I am having trouble with Island 9 in Colonel mode... does anyone have any suggestions?? I have tried every tactic I can think of with no luck. THANKS!!
Update