Lighthearted, charming, and simply fun. We used to play this game so much back in the day. Hogs of War is certainly not an epitome of turnbased strategy or even solid design, but there's an undisputable charm all over the place that forgives a lot of it's faults, from the single player campaign narrative to the voice acting. The game is not particularly challenging by design, but there is still some basic tactical thinking involved with choosing the right promotions, positioning, choice of target, and getting the firing angles right, and using your given time right. The clunky controls and the sometimes almost offensive timer can make a spot on hit in a tight situation feel very delicious. And even if not hard, there can be some teethgrinding over (in a fun way) a simple mistake like shooting your bazooka way over the target and then watching the computer enemy dynamite two of your pigs, or walking too close to a ledge, falling in water and drowning. The campaign builds up the challenges well for what it tries to achieve and the promotion system spices up the gameplay nicely. The most fun is to be had when trying out a no casualties run of the campaign, which is the real meat of the game, alone or with a friend taking turns with the pigs. Surprisingly (or not) the hotseat matches are the weakest part or the game and can get very old very quickly. Certainly not a "serious business" game for high grade strategists out there. And if you can approach it that way and are a fan of these little "arcade" type TB games, this should be just the game for you to pick up.
