The Napoleon movie hitting cinemas lately is a timely reminder to everyone how crucial naval warfare is, and indeed was, to battle, and this is an aspect that The Battle of Polytopia acknowledged it lacked. That is, however, until they dropped their new Path of the Ocean update which totally overhauled its water-based combat.
Before, you and your tribe could paddle around a bit on the waters, shooting the odd stinkeye to your opponents. With this update, you can completely dominate the sea thanks to the changes made to the Philosophy system. Certain choices are no longer locked behind expensive routes so you can hit the sea sooner, and there are new Fish and Aqua Crop Resources.
Of course, what we all want to know about is the new units. Boats have been replaced with a standard Raft, no big fanfare, but this can be updated to new ships. The Scout are your eyes, weak but they can see two tiles away, making it perfect to help you position your Rammer ships, a melee ship that headbutts others. This can be superseded by the Juggernaut, an even bigger ship that damages every adjacent tile as it moves. Finally, for traditional naval combat, the Bomber is all cannons and has no speed, decimating other ships but taking a turn to set up and fire.
To make the most out of this new feature, we will need a bigger map. Continents have been overhauled following player complaints, with a host of separate islands separated by waters to give ample gameplay on and off the boats. For a more tactical affair, the new Pangea map is one clump of land surrounded by water. Every player can be reached on foot and by ship, so there is sure to be a fierce battle for resources in the centre, as well as constant raids on coastal cities. The perfect way to celebrate this epic update.
The Battle of Polytopia is available to download from the App Store and Google Play.
