Indie Game Pick: Flotilla

Flotilla is a quirky strategy game, available on PC and via Xbox Live Indie Games.

It puts you in the role of a spaceship captain with only seven months to live, asking you to go out with a bang.

You travel from planet to planet, encountering a wide variety of characters and opponents, many of whom are animals. You've got space flamingos, space koalas and...you get the idea.

Not all the characters you come up against are hostile:some will give you bonuses for your fleet of ships. When you do hit on an opponent, who doesn't like your style, it's battle time. You then get to take them on in a 3d, turn based space battle.

There are a variety of different ship types, each with different armour types and weapons. After you select your moves, you can watch the execution of them playing out in real time. For a game about space battles, I find it pretty relaxing, which is probably assisted by the subtle battle score and excellent character design.

The games tend to be very short, because of the character's terminal illness, but games are never the same. It has considerable replay value for this reason.

If the idea of a pretty easy going strategy game appeals, you can find out more at the Flotilla Homepage.