Strategy Defense

While Strategy Defense looks like a tactics game, it really isn't. There's very little strategy involved in one 'hero' taking on anywhere from 4 to 8 (until the last battle) enemies whose only strategy is to charge forward, shoot at you and then run away.

But it's still a fun game. I found that by treating it as a puzzle game I could enjoy the challenge that came with each level. While getting stuck on certain levels was extremely frustrating when I couldn't solve it, I did get by eventually.

Ever hear of moving in a diagonal? Apparently the maker of this game hasn't.

Tips:

1. Kill everything to build up your experience. While you get more money for finishing levels in fewer rounds, the xp counts for more. Instead, make sure you are at full health (or close to it) in order to build up your money supply. Building up money supplies is important. Don't waste any chance to end with a higher hp.
2. Don't worry about buying things at the store. If you don't use it, you can sell it back later at the same price.
3. Sometimes its best just to get shot and use your retaliation to fire back. Take a health potion on your turn instead of firing back and getting shot in retaliation. The best time to shoot one of your attackers is only if they will die with that shot. Otherwise, they get to hit you twice (once on your round in retaliation, and once on their round when they shoot back).
4. If you can, stay out of range of your attackers and hit them with the magic arrow. Especially on the earlier levels and against the towers, this can save you a lot of time.
5. Magic (except for the arrows) becomes useless within four rounds of when you can start using it.
   
6. If you can't avoid your attackers the best strategy is to minimize the number of attackers who can hit you in a single round. Then heal yourself on your turn. Allow your retaliation to take care of them.
7. Enemy knights are easy to avoid, so kill everything else while avoiding them.
8. Keep in mind that you can run a lot farther as a knight, and you can switch right back to whatever else you want when you get there.

Update: Oops! As the anonymous commenter pointed out below, I never told you where it was.

Play Strategy Defense at crazymonkeygames.

Bloons Tower Defense 2

Bloons Tower Defense 2 has everything you ever wanted as a kid, bloons, towers, and uh... dart throwing monkeys.

The follow-up to Bloons Tower Defense, the sequel has improved the original slightly. You still have balloon popping, dart throwing (yes, they are all right-handed) monkeys, but now you have to use some of the different towers. For instance, unless you have a cannon, you can't blow up the lead balloon that start coming in level 20.

There are also some nifty tools, like monkey glue and road spikes that you can use for a temporary reprieve.

The sequel is harder than the original, but I have faith that if you beat the original, you can beat at least the medium level. Again, the super monkey is the best dart thrower out there, but without a cannon, you won't be able to finish the game.

Play Bloons Tower Defense 2 at ninjakiwi.

StormWinds

Stormwinds is a new turret defense game that is pretty generic in nature. If you like games like Bowmaster or Battle, you'll enjoy this game. Just don't expect too much.

Place your turrets in your cliff fortress and fire away at the oncoming waves of enemies. The first few levels are very easy, but they do get tougher. There are 25 levels in all, with each one getting progressively more difficult (not completely linear, but a general trend of increased difficulty is there). The boss is not too hard to defeat once you get to him.

No sound effects is a detraction, but the music is good. Repetitive after a while, but it does set the stage nicely. I wish the hot keys would work for me. Switching guns is a pain, the hotkeys would be nice.

Basic guns are the heavy turret (good for taking damage) and the machine gun (good for long distance fighting). Place your heavy turret in the first slot to take the most fire. The sniper gun is useful for quick take downs. One strategy is to have two snipers and one heavy turret. That will get you pretty far. The lightning gun is fun, but slow to recharge.

This game is pretty basic in nature, fun, but like I said, don't expect too much.

Play StormWinds at herointeractive.

The Battle

The Battle is in Beta, so anything I say here could be different in the final version, and really, that should be a good thing.

Similar to Bowmaster or Bowmaster Prelude, you have a big gun that you can fire at the opposing troops (but not their base) as they try to invade your base. You can also recruit troops to attack their base or defend your position.

On the field in between the two opposing bases are turrets which you can take over (or attack if they are already occupied) and oil fields. You want to defend the oil fields in order to build up your money supply.

The money you collect can be spent on troops, research on better troops, upgrading your weaponry, or shooting at the bad guys.

What I like about this game: the introduction of money into the strategy is certainly interesting. Also, different weapons, upgrades, the cost of firing your own weapon, the 'surprise' ending on level 15 all make this enjoyable. Figuring out where to place your troops to maximize their effectiveness adds a nice bit of strategy to the game.

What I don't like (and I hope they fix in future versions):
Overall, this game is way too easy. You can shoot your way to victory on every level without recruiting more than a couple of men (who go out and occupy the turrets and oil fields). It's also way too easy to take the turret (when available) that's next to the enemy base and let it destroy the enemy base.

The research is a nice idea, but it's too easy to research everything by level 5. Then you're left with a lot of money which means you don't have to worry about spending at all.

The point system leaves a lot to be desired. Perhaps a bonus for time to finish or something. If you want to maximize your score, just kill everything the other base creates and he runs out of troops. Destroying the other base gives you a nice bonus, but not enough to make it worth your while to do so.

Also, if you have two different methods to end the level, there should be some way of marking your progress with either method. You know what the enemy base hit points look like, why don't you know how many more troops he can recruit?

Why can you stop some of your troops from running off the far side of screen and not others? Also, once you run out of population, you need to commit suicide in order to build others. It would be nice if you could sell them off instead.

Anyways, I still had fun with it. Bowmaster is way better, but if you like that, you'll like The Battle (lousy name, btw).