These Tank Battles Look Awfully Gratuitous

Gratuitous Space Battles is one the unsung heroes of PC strategy gaming. Especially given its wonderful name. But if Gratuitous Space Battles don’t tickle your fancy, then perhaps Gratuitous Tank Battles will.

While Positech’s new game retains the top-down view of its predecessor, things sound a little more involved this time; GSB’s “send them all to die” approach is replaced with a “point them in the right direction then send them all to die” approach.

It’s set in a world where the First World War never ended, trench warfare now includes men, machine guns, and giant robots. Oh, and tanks.

“I suppose what I really want is Blackadder Goes Forth with lasers,” designer Chris Harris tells Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Which is the most powerful marketing statement I’ve heard in 2011.

Adding a big campaign mode, complete unit customisation and downloadable strategy AI (as in, fight “ghosts” of your friend’s armies), Gratuitous Tank Battles should be out on PC later this year.

Revealed: Gratuitous Tank Battles [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]