Warlords (game series)
Encyclopedia
Warlords is a computer game series created by Steve Fawkner
, in which role-playing
elements are combined with strategy
in a fantasy
setting. The series has been split into two different games lines, the traditional turn-based strategy
Warlords series (currently in its fourth edition), and a newer real-time based
strategy
Warlords Battlecry
series (currently in its third edition).
Unlike Battle of Wesnoth in Warlords units are wastable resource: they don't progress much with experience, are much cheaper and are produced on a regular basis.
Unlike units the heroes are valuable resource. The reasonably experienced hero with some items may become the most powerful unit in the game.
The cities produce units, give income and a strategic benefit of player's presence in the region. Cities have defencive properties. The production may be forwarded from one city to another, allowing player to concentrate armies on the borderline or in another location of strategic interest.
, with neutrality in between. Heroes on the side of good are the Sirian Knights, the mercantile Empires of Men, the elves and the dwarves. On the side of evil are the demon
ic horsemen: the Lord of Plague, the Lord of Famine, the Lord of War, and the ever present Lord Bane, Lord of Death.
The politics of the world, however, are more complicated than they first appear, particularly in the third installment of the series. For example, the Minotaurs, who were created as servants for Sartek, the Lord of War, are a neutral race rather than an evil one. Also, the third game opens with the human
Empire pillaging and exploiting the newly-discovered lands of the peaceful Srrathi snakemen, in an obvious nod to the historical Europe
an conquest of the Americas
. Most importantly from a player's point of view, a Hero's race is not as important in determining their moral alignment as their choice of class. For example, while the Undead are evil as a rule, an Undead Paladin would be treated as good (though such a thing is only possible in the third game, wherein all previous restrictions on race and class combinations have been removed).
. It featured eight different clans battling for the control of the mythical land of Illuria: Sirians, Storm Giants, Grey Dwarves, Orcs of Kor, Elvallie, Horse Lords, Selentines, and Lord Bane, but the Lord of Erektions will come in WB4. Each clan could either be controlled by the computer or by a human player, allowing up to eight participants taking turns in hot seat play. Gameplay consisted of moving units, attacking opponent units or cities, adjusting production in cities, and moving hero units to explore ruins, temples, libraries, and to discover allies, relics, and other items. The goal of the game was to conquer the land of Illuria by capturing or razing at least two thirds of the cities in the land.
The game reception was extremely positive.
Thanks to the publication of the editor, Warlords II Deluxe led to an increase of user-created content. Many new maps, army and terrain sets, and scenarios were distributed on the Internet for the game.
Long time Warlords player and enthusiast Bob Heeter imagined, and then organized, a multi-player tournament using Warlords II, through the newsgroup for strategic games. The tournament depended on a special program called "WarBot" that calculated what 'should' happen when two diverse armies fought under the Warlords rules. Tournament rankings and awards were given based on how well a player did in comparison to other players with the same side in the same scenario. Awards were also given for best roleplaying during the games. The tournament generated a great deal of interest.
and used new system capabilities to dramatically improve graphics. The army movements became animated and the user interface became skinable.
The Reign of Heroes brought many changes to the gameplay:
In this version every player had a number of pre-defined units he was able to produce, and an additional number of units that could join him. This allowed for more consistent storyline in the campaigns and made players' advancement more challenging, as the natural production of the further cities normally wasn't matching the player's race.
The game CD
included the soundtrack in CD-DA format.
By this time, the real-time strategy
game genre was in full-swing. There was less of a market for turn-based games.
However, Dark Lords Rising release in 1998 was truly overshadowed by the oncoming rush of first person shooters and first generation MMORPG
s. The turn-based strategy genre in general would take a hit during this period. Warlords III like Warlords II had a campaign editor and had realistic terrain.
3D sprites
for its unit and city graphics and particle graphics
for various effects. Despite this, the game had an overall 2D look to it.
The gameplay was dramatically simplified. Diplomacy
played virtually no role in the game, and micromanagement
of units was scaled-down to a great extent. Rather than having multiple units battling it out at once, combat is one-on-one: the players would choose which unit they wished to send into battle, one after another in the stack. The units with ranged attack capabilities get involved in every round in the battle regardless of active unit though.
Heroes became the ordinary units that could be routinely produced.
The city upgrades became more important, as the level of city determines the range of units it can produce.
The races in game became predefined: Knight
s, Empire
, Elves
, Dark Elves
, Dwarves, Dragon
s, Undead
, Demon
s, Orc
s and Ogre
s. Each of these races had their traits, giving them advantages and disadvantages regarding the race of opposing player. Each player had a certain favored race, and the pace of production of units belonging to other races depended on the interracial relations.
The player's character in this game was personified as a special unit which only involved in battles over capital city and couldn't move around the map. The defeat of the warlord led to defeat of the player, so that all his cities became neutral. Depending on the traits the player picked at the time of warlord creation, he got some benefits and limitations in the game. The warlord character could be reused in other campaigns.
Warlords IV received a lackluster reception. Game Rankings, for example, shows an aggregate review score for the game of 70%, about ten percentage points lower than both Warlords III games.
One of the reasons it version was not as popular was due to the poor quality AI. The game was easily beaten on any difficulty when playing against computer players. The 1.04 patch fixed many of the AI issues, rebalanced the races, and fixed issues in the original version. This patch was released at the beginning of 2006 long after the original game's release, which may affect its ability to revitalise interest in the game.
According to Steve Fawkner, this game was built from scratch in 6 months by Infinite Interactive after being handed it by SSG in an incomplete form, and is why the game is not up to previous standards. to date it remains the least popular game of the series.
.
Steve Fawkner
Steve Fawkner is an Australian software designer, programmer and composer who has worked for several video game design companies.He was originally made famous as the creator of Warlords game series in 1989, but in recent years has found fame once again as creator of the Puzzle Quest series...
, in which role-playing
Role-playing
Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...
elements are combined with strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
in a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
setting. The series has been split into two different games lines, the traditional turn-based strategy
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
Warlords series (currently in its fourth edition), and a newer real-time based
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
strategy
Strategy
Strategy, a word of military origin, refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. In military usage strategy is distinct from tactics, which are concerned with the conduct of an engagement, while strategy is concerned with how different engagements are linked...
Warlords Battlecry
Warlords Battlecry (game series)
Warlords Battlecry, often abbreviated as WBC is a series of real time strategy games created by Steve Fawkner, also creator and designer of the award-winning Warlords game series.There are currently three Warlords Battlecry games:...
series (currently in its third edition).
Gameplay
The central aspects of Warlords game series are units, heroes and cities.Units
Units in Warlords have several standard properties (strength, movement abilities, cost, upkeep and (possibly) special abilities like an ability to fly, traverse certain type of terrain with faster pace or a combat bonus; since Warlords III units have hit points).Unlike Battle of Wesnoth in Warlords units are wastable resource: they don't progress much with experience, are much cheaper and are produced on a regular basis.
Heroes
Heroes are a special kind of units that have more properties and some special abilities:- posess items, which improve some properties of the game, such as hero's or his stack's combat abilities, player's income or an ability to cast spells (since Warlords III);
- search ruins, where hero (if survives) can find money, items or allies;
- get and fulfil quest - the special tasks upon successful completion of which the player gets some game benefit;
- cast spells (since Warlords III).
Unlike units the heroes are valuable resource. The reasonably experienced hero with some items may become the most powerful unit in the game.
Cities
The default game goal in Warlords series is to conquer most of the cities on the map.The cities produce units, give income and a strategic benefit of player's presence in the region. Cities have defencive properties. The production may be forwarded from one city to another, allowing player to concentrate armies on the borderline or in another location of strategic interest.
Diplomacy
The relations between the players are regulated by the diplomacy: the players should declare wars before actually engaging their armies in battles. While there is a possibility to attack another player without prior negotiations, such behavior may be followed by unilateral declaration of war by all other players on a violator.Original games of the series
The games are set in the fantasy world of Etheria, and tend to be based around the traditional premise of good versus evilEvil
Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, with neutrality in between. Heroes on the side of good are the Sirian Knights, the mercantile Empires of Men, the elves and the dwarves. On the side of evil are the demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
ic horsemen: the Lord of Plague, the Lord of Famine, the Lord of War, and the ever present Lord Bane, Lord of Death.
The politics of the world, however, are more complicated than they first appear, particularly in the third installment of the series. For example, the Minotaurs, who were created as servants for Sartek, the Lord of War, are a neutral race rather than an evil one. Also, the third game opens with the human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
Empire pillaging and exploiting the newly-discovered lands of the peaceful Srrathi snakemen, in an obvious nod to the historical Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an conquest of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. Most importantly from a player's point of view, a Hero's race is not as important in determining their moral alignment as their choice of class. For example, while the Undead are evil as a rule, an Undead Paladin would be treated as good (though such a thing is only possible in the third game, wherein all previous restrictions on race and class combinations have been removed).
Warlords
The first game in the series, Warlords, was created in 1989 by Steven Fawkner and was published by SSGStrategic Studies Group
Strategic Studies Group, commonly known as SSG, is an Australian software development company that makes primarily strategy wargames.The company was founded by strategy game enthusiasts Ian Trout and Roger Keating. Ian was proprietor of a military books store and Roger had had several of his games...
. It featured eight different clans battling for the control of the mythical land of Illuria: Sirians, Storm Giants, Grey Dwarves, Orcs of Kor, Elvallie, Horse Lords, Selentines, and Lord Bane, but the Lord of Erektions will come in WB4. Each clan could either be controlled by the computer or by a human player, allowing up to eight participants taking turns in hot seat play. Gameplay consisted of moving units, attacking opponent units or cities, adjusting production in cities, and moving hero units to explore ruins, temples, libraries, and to discover allies, relics, and other items. The goal of the game was to conquer the land of Illuria by capturing or razing at least two thirds of the cities in the land.
The game reception was extremely positive.
Warlords II
Following the success of Warlords, SSG released Warlords II in 1993. This version included five maps (although the later released mission pack increased the number). Another new feature was 'fog of war' - optionally, enemy units or even the map could be concealed from players without units close enough to see them. The interface of the game was improved, as were the graphics (with additional unique city graphics for each different player). Moreover, the game featured multiple army, city, and terrain sets (still in 16 colours), play by e-mail as well as hot seat, and a random map generator and map editor.Warlords II Deluxe
The updated version of the game was released in 1995. It allowed for custom tile, army and city sets for maps and provided support for 256 colours.Thanks to the publication of the editor, Warlords II Deluxe led to an increase of user-created content. Many new maps, army and terrain sets, and scenarios were distributed on the Internet for the game.
Long time Warlords player and enthusiast Bob Heeter imagined, and then organized, a multi-player tournament using Warlords II, through the newsgroup for strategic games. The tournament depended on a special program called "WarBot" that calculated what 'should' happen when two diverse armies fought under the Warlords rules. Tournament rankings and awards were given based on how well a player did in comparison to other players with the same side in the same scenario. Awards were also given for best roleplaying during the games. The tournament generated a great deal of interest.
Warlords III Reign of Heroes
After a four year hiatus, SSG developed Warlords III: Reign of Heroes. The game was released for Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
and used new system capabilities to dramatically improve graphics. The army movements became animated and the user interface became skinable.
The Reign of Heroes brought many changes to the gameplay:
- spells (and mana as a second resource in game's economy)
- compaign system
- races
- hero classes
In this version every player had a number of pre-defined units he was able to produce, and an additional number of units that could join him. This allowed for more consistent storyline in the campaigns and made players' advancement more challenging, as the natural production of the further cities normally wasn't matching the player's race.
The game CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
included the soundtrack in CD-DA format.
By this time, the real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
game genre was in full-swing. There was less of a market for turn-based games.
Warlords III Dark Lords Rising
Shortly after releasing Reign of Heroes, SSG followed with a stand-alone expansion pack. It featured the new maps and units and contained the sample graphics to facilitate development of alternative tile, army and city sets. The plot of the main campaign continued where the previous game had left off.However, Dark Lords Rising release in 1998 was truly overshadowed by the oncoming rush of first person shooters and first generation MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s. The turn-based strategy genre in general would take a hit during this period. Warlords III like Warlords II had a campaign editor and had realistic terrain.
Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria
Warlords IV, released in 2003, used pre-renderedPre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputing or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of a footage that was previously rendered on a different equipment...
3D sprites
Sprite (computer graphics)
In computer graphics, a sprite is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger scene...
for its unit and city graphics and particle graphics
Particle system
The term particle system refers to a computer graphics technique to simulate certain fuzzy phenomena, which are otherwise very hard to reproduce with conventional rendering techniques...
for various effects. Despite this, the game had an overall 2D look to it.
The gameplay was dramatically simplified. Diplomacy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
played virtually no role in the game, and micromanagement
Micromanagement (computer gaming)
In gaming, micromanagement describes minor, detailed gameplay elements that must be manually addressed by the player. It appears in a wide range of games including strategy video games, construction and management simulations and pet-raising simulations...
of units was scaled-down to a great extent. Rather than having multiple units battling it out at once, combat is one-on-one: the players would choose which unit they wished to send into battle, one after another in the stack. The units with ranged attack capabilities get involved in every round in the battle regardless of active unit though.
Heroes became the ordinary units that could be routinely produced.
The city upgrades became more important, as the level of city determines the range of units it can produce.
The races in game became predefined: Knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
s, Empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
, Elves
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
, Dark Elves
Dark elf
Dark elf may refer to:* Dökkálfar or dark elves, a type of elf in Norse mythology* Svartálfar or dark elves, a type of elf in Norse mythology* Moriquendi, a fictional race of elves in J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium...
, Dwarves, Dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s, Undead
Undead
Undead is a collective name for fictional, mythological, or legendary beings that are deceased and yet behave as if alive. Undead may be incorporeal, such as ghosts, or corporeal, such as vampires and zombies...
, Demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
s, Orc
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
s and Ogre
Ogre
An ogre is a large, cruel, monstrous, and hideous humanoid monster, featured in mythology, folklore, and fiction. Ogres are often depicted in fairy tales and folklore as feeding on human beings, and have appeared in many classic works of literature...
s. Each of these races had their traits, giving them advantages and disadvantages regarding the race of opposing player. Each player had a certain favored race, and the pace of production of units belonging to other races depended on the interracial relations.
The player's character in this game was personified as a special unit which only involved in battles over capital city and couldn't move around the map. The defeat of the warlord led to defeat of the player, so that all his cities became neutral. Depending on the traits the player picked at the time of warlord creation, he got some benefits and limitations in the game. The warlord character could be reused in other campaigns.
Warlords IV received a lackluster reception. Game Rankings, for example, shows an aggregate review score for the game of 70%, about ten percentage points lower than both Warlords III games.
One of the reasons it version was not as popular was due to the poor quality AI. The game was easily beaten on any difficulty when playing against computer players. The 1.04 patch fixed many of the AI issues, rebalanced the races, and fixed issues in the original version. This patch was released at the beginning of 2006 long after the original game's release, which may affect its ability to revitalise interest in the game.
According to Steve Fawkner, this game was built from scratch in 6 months by Infinite Interactive after being handed it by SSG in an incomplete form, and is why the game is not up to previous standards. to date it remains the least popular game of the series.
Warlords II for Windows Mobile
On Pocket PC Studios released a Windows Mobile clone of Warlords II. The game featured the graphics and gameplay of the Warlords II for DOS.Warlords Classic
On ALSEDI Group release Warlords Classic — a remake of original Warlords game for iPhoneIPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
.