I’d really recommend downloading the Lite version, having a go at the story level and then getting stuck in trying to get medals on the Free Play missions. It’s an excellent game once you get into it. Shame it doesn’t give a better first impression.

Still, I’ve advanced some way in the story of Hills and Rivers Remain and have tested out Free Play mode a bit more. I think to get fun out of it I’ll have to work out the best settings – on Normal with one enemy you can simply put your headquarters next to theirs and wipe them out before the game even really starts.

I won that one without any hint of a problem, too. I hope story mode gets difficult enough to be fun before it’s over.

(Slight confusion: In the story you play the red guys, whereas I’ve been playing as the green guys in Free Play mode in the Lite. It’s made for some interesting “WTF?” moments.)

I also had a quick look at Free Play mode. As expected, it’s more of a Skirmish mode than the mission-based Free Play mode of the Lite version. You choose a map and then configure the number of sides, items, difficulty, etc. There are medals to earn, but they seem a bit pointless when you can set the options to give yourself an advantage. Hopefully some of the later maps will have medals for winning a game under certain option set-ups.

I’ve realised what the main problem is – the enemy is just far stronger than me. No matter what the stats say when I choose sides, I need overwhelming forces to capture enemy bases. A small numbers advantage just isn’t enough. This makes things very, very difficult. So difficult that I think I’ve given up on it for now. I’ll come back later, I’m sure.

It’s all very interesting and I hope I can work out what I’m doing wrong – or what he’s doing right. More likely, though, I’ll eventually just win without being sure why or I’ll give up and move on to the full game.

Until, somehow, I managed it twenty-three turns. I think I shouted out in my victory and may have punched the air. I seem to remember having to explain to the wife why I’d startled here.

The most important thing to do when you need speed is to make sure you’re constantly moving troops around. On a time limit you can’t afford to keep troops in reserve behind your front lines, no matter how tempting it is to leave some defenders just in case the enemy breaks through. Also, if you know you’re going to lose a base to the enemy, you’re better off retreating before they arrive, so you’ve got more men available for a counter attack. And you really have to make good use of the power ups that you’ve been given and not leave them in reserve until it’s too late.

It’s brilliant game and I’m definitely going to get the full version. I’ve been planning on finishing off all there is to do in the Lite before buying it, but I’m not sure that’s wise. It seems sensible on the surface, but the Lite version is getting very hard indeed now and I really don’t want to find the full game a pushover when I get to it. It might be better to have both and swap between the two. (The Lite version features content not in the full version, by the way. I think the Free Play mode in the full version may be closer to a Skirmish mode than the mission-based structure of the Lite, but I’m not sure.)

It’s an odd game in that it moves slowly but forces you to move very quickly, constantly changing your headquarters so troops are generated where you need them most. I think I may have already played this for longer than I’ve played Galcon, mainly due to each battle lasting fifteen minutes or so, rather than thirty seconds.

At this rate I might even have to buy the full version.