Battles of Norghan

Great little game. Took me 24 hours to get to the top of the division one.
Some battles do get a little tedious. Would be nice if you could simulate battles with clans you usually wipe the floor with. All in all, great gladiator sim.

Fun loop. Strange spikes in AI difficulty, I can beat division 3 teams during the clan cup but one of the division 7 teams has a guy with legendary dodge skill (forced the sudden death lightning strike mechanic). Quickly remade my team to always have minimum of 2 people with bad luck spell, but it was a horrible early impression.

The game's graphics and user interface, true to its age, present a nostalgic trip for veteran gamers but may seem antiquated to newcomers. This dated aesthetic, while adding a certain charm, can be a barrier to some.

Battles of Norghan offers a challenging learning curve, demanding players to invest time in understanding its mechanics. However, once conquered, the game reveals a lower skill ceiling, allowing seasoned players to master its nuances without excessive complexity. However, the difficulty modes allow for the game to be a challenge no matter how skilled a player you are.

The game shines in its gameplay, focusing heavily on strategic management and combat without the distraction of an overarching story. Players engage in meticulous planning, training, and equipping their gladiators, reveling in the depth of options available—from choosing races and classes to detailed skill and equipment management. The game's focus on statistics is a notable highlight, offering enthusiasts detailed insights into their team's performance. This aspect adds a layer of engagement for those who enjoy delving into data and optimizing their strategies accordingly.

While it can be challenging for newcomers, Battles of Norghan excels in its hot-seat multiplayer mode, providing an engaging experience for friends to compete. Its unique position in the gaming landscape as a fantasy gladiatorial manager ensures its appeal to a specific, albeit obscure, niche of gamers.

The game's structure makes it an excellent choice for casual gaming sessions, fitting seamlessly into short breaks or between other activities. This ease of engagement, combined with the game's strategic depth, makes it a mostly positive experience for those seeking a unique blend of fantasy and strategy without the need for continuous, long hours of play.

In conclusion, "Battles of Norghan" is a gem in its own right, offering a distinct and engaging experience for fans of strategy and fantasy. Its dated graphics and interface are a small price to pay for the depth and enjoyment it offers. It stands as a testament to the enduring appeal of strategic management games, especially for those who appreciate a focus on gameplay mechanics and team statistics. For those willing to navigate its initial learning curve and admittedly clunky interface, the game promises hours of strategic planning and fantasy warfare.

7.5/10 - Recommended.

Total garbage. But interesting concept. I love it!

Good game if you are into old-school fantasy roguelike tactical games. Has an interesting concept and is executed fairly well for being made in 2005. I felt like the information of text was a little overloaded, but quickly found myself learning the ropes. My only complaints are:

-Graphics are fine, the lack of resolution support leads to a lot of graininess and makes the text hard to read.
-The UI is not self explanatory, and lead to my death. Would of been nice if the game explained you needed to put a checkmark next to new recruits to have them participate in battles.
-Misclicks are easy to make and fatal like many others have stated controls aren't very polished

All that aside, you should know that is what you are getting yourself into purchasing this. I do think the un-discounted asking price is steep, but I found this game fun and inspiring and hope to put some more hours into it in the future.

This game is great strategy, no game really like it out there either.....But ill leave gameplay (and the sort) reviews to others, I want to tell a story about the author of the game.

Once, a LONG time ago, I bought this direct from its website.

Years passed and a point in time was reached where I had lost the install file.

I sent an email to the author that I had lost it, and he was kind enough to send me another copy. (through email no less)


At the time I was hard up for cash and it meant a lot, I've re-purchased on steam to say thanks!

This was an amazing game and I would love to see a more modern take!

Great sim, I sunk a few dozen hours into BoN before it was on Steam.

I was pleasantly surprised with this game. Good game and good price for 5 $

Battles of Norghan is a hidden diamond in the rough. Team-sports-manager sim meets classic RPG; this game shines as a beacon of hope for gamers wanting deep immersion and old-school, brutaly honest gameplay without necessarily needing the best graphics.

You won't like this game if you've never read a rulebook. You won't like it if you're used to adrenaline fueled, instant reward gameplay - and you definitely won't like it if you crave compensation for your in-game achievements. Battles of Norghan spits on your homebrew team's struggle and fortitude while setting you up, match after match, with intricately diverse AI team composition dynamics that test whatever creativity and nuance that you thought you might have cultivated.

This is a game that values ultimate strategic thinking and crucial turn based reasoning to adequately combat the vastness of it's scope. You can recruit a bunch of scrubs that empirically might work (the classic warrior, mage, archer, priest) only to be butchered by a solo dwarf who has elite training and equipment. Or your minotaur duo could tear through all the expensive ogres, giants, witches and wizards that are going into combat next-to-naked due to their upkeep fees. Sure a druid *sounds* like a good idea, but after they've run out of mana summoning bear and wolf fodder, what good are they with their staves and likely poor armour, once the enemy lizard-men have slaughtered all your 'knights' and 'cool summons'?

An Indie game with a heart of gold - with the publisher/dev still answering questions and active in the community.

Thank you, Mitorah Games!

Battles of Norghan is a niche game, and one of my long-time favorites. I've played it off and on for most of a decade and have far more hours into it than my Steam profile indicates. Even for when it was originally released over ten years ago, the graphics and interface were already "retro," so in a way it's kind of timeless. However, the graphics may be off-putting to some, and the UI requires a lot of getting used to. If you have the patience to get past those hindrances and the likely frustration of your first couple forays into the tournaments, you will be rewarded with what in my opinion is the best fantasy gladiator management simulation ever made. Yeah, I know . . . that isn't saying much. The fantasy gladiator management sim genre is not well represented, much to my frustration, which is why this is a niche game.

The gameplay is essentially turn-based tactical combat with RPG elements. Each of your gladiators is its own character with skills that improve with training and use. Between battles you can spend money to train them individually or as a group and also upgrade their equipment. This would be greatly improved if there were an actual market with random equipment as opposed to just a static list, but it still works.

What really sets this one apart is its league rankings and tournament structure, which works like a real sports sim. At the beginning of each season a multitude of fighters become available for contract, and you and the opposing teams bid on them. It can actually be overwhelming at first, not knowing what type of fighter might work best and how much to spend.

The game also keeps track of a multitude of stats, which is awesome, except that it also brings me to the one part of Battles of Norghan I have always hated. There should not be a "Gold" version. It is just the same game only with a couple more options between battles and some more detailed statistics. Obviously, these statistics are already tracked, and the options are programmed into the base game. In my opinion, Mitorah Games should be ashamed of charging its customers a full 50% extra just to access these features that should just have been included in the base game already. It's a somewhat disgusting move for a developer, designed merely to milk more money out of those who already like and support your product, and I honestly can hardly believe they have stuck to it even after finally getting the game published on Steam.

Still, despite that, I stand behind my support of this game, with hope that its niche eventually gets filled with new and even better titles.

I remembered playing this game like ten years ago and was always looking for it because I forgot the name.
Was more than glad when I found it on Steam during the 100 years of Finnish independence sale!

What can be said about this game?
It is a fairly well done gladiator clan managament and turn-based battle game.
The graphics look dated, sure, but IMO also pretty charming. 2D ages well.
Your first few tries will be met with certain doom until you have hammered it into your head that you really have to pick a good character AND have enough gold for adequate equipment.
Once you get the hang of it, slowly getting other units, training them and getting better equipment is really fun, as are the battles.

There are some very glaring downsides, though:
The game was made for 4:3 resolutions and just stretches on modern monitors. Which makes the menus look really, really bad. The devs should fix this, but who knows if this game was even touched in the last five years ;)
The combat UI bar on top is absurdly tiny.
Sound effects and music are bare-bones.

HINTS:
- Do not restart (or alt+F4) when losing a battle. Reviving characters is fairly cheap, especially when you start, and as far as I can tell there is no downside to it other than losing out on the win reward. Of course, if you end up losing all battles, do restart with a new group.
- Take the best starting char you can afford, but still keep 1k gold in reserve to equip him. New members come to you nekkid.
- Train! Train each gladiator each time after each battle. It really adds up and is a worthwhile investment.
- Invest gold into improving your existing chars (by training or equipment or spells) before getting more characters. A good warrior is worth far more than three bad ones with bad equipment.

The graphics are painful for 2005 and the UI hurts my head. Learn the hotkeys quickly. Also buy the game now when it is on sale for $5. I recommended it for what it should become - a nice tactical challenge as you build your team up. There are a decent number of weapons/armor/spells/units. With an army of 26, it should get interesting (I hope).

Also is CheatEngine compatible in terms of "gold." I would never have the patience to play without the initial boost to build a decent/interesting army.

After four hours of play, I've found this game has some frustrating issues, for me at least. Certainly not worth $10 full price for a 12-year-old game that looks 15 years old and an interface that is late 1980s. I cheated like heck and have three heroes and it takes me 30 tries to kill one little dwarf. Nothing is intuitive, like switching weapons. I think you have to just memorize the hotkeys or go fish. There's a certain threshold - I think 2 to 3 move points - where it's not enough to attack but you have to finish up with the player, so you just randomly move to bleed off the extra move points. Makes no sense.

Anyway, there's plenty of better games on Steam even for $5.

So unfortunately, had to change my review to thumbs down on this one.

The first few fights you get into are either you getting destroyed by the enemy when they crit you or you doing no damage because their team takes no damage from anything other than a crit. I spent the better part of an hour trying to make sense of the tutorial and try to find a team that doesn't get one shot the second I go into combat.

A solid game, I really like it. You manage a team of gladiators that you control in tactical turn based battles.
You win money with these, and have to decide how to invest it: training, equipment, new team members.

Graphics is a bit outdated, but the game concept is great. Many hours of fun for a good price.

First and foremost, this game reminds me of Mail Order Monsters which is why I like it so much

Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of refinement that is needed to make this game great but it is a great deal of fun

I enjoy the simplicity of the concept of the game, but also the complexity of the unit growth and details

Clean up the UI a bit to make it smoother and improve the AI and this game will be awesome

It should be first said that this is definitely a retro old school game. The graphics are only slightly better than what you would see in an 80's gold box game or 90's Master of Magic etc... So with that expectation properly in mind, I would very much give this game a hearty recommendation. If you're familiar and enjoy TBS and management games this is one of the better ones I've seen. If you're new to the genre or on the fence the dev has a free demo on their website that I highly recommend trying before purchasing. I purchased the Gold add-on which allows you to edit all the stat's of the units, which is fun to play around with. Game runs fine on Windows 10, just may require a reboot after install.