Warlords (game series)

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Warlords, the brainchild of Steven Fawkner, is an award winning computer game series that combines role-playing elements with strategy in a fantasy setting. It 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).

Set in the fantasy world of Etheria the games tend to be based on the old good vs. evil premise. Heroes on the side of good are the races of humans (Sirian Knights and the mercantile Empires of Men), elves and dwarves. On the side of evil are the demonic horsemen the Lord of Plague, the Lord of Famine, the Lord of Hatred, and the ever present Lord Bane, lord of death with his henchman Lord Sartek of the minotaurs.

The most recent Warlords Battlecry game is based upon the release of fifth horseman from the demonic dimensions. Other races also populate Etheria, including Dark Elves, Dark Dwarves, Barbarians, Orcs, Gnolls, reptilian Srrathi etc., with some races being dropped and added with different games.

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[edit] Warlords

Starting the first turn as the Sirians in Warlords
Starting the first turn as the Sirians in Warlords

The first Warlords was created in 1990 by Steven Fawkner, and published by SSG. It featured 8 different clans battling for the control of a mythical land called Illuria: Sirians (white), Stormheim (yellow), Dwarves (orange), Orcs of Kor (red), Elvallie (green), Horse Lords (light blue), Selentines (dark blue) and Lord Bane (black), which could either be played partly by the computer or by eight different people taking turns in what is known as hot seat play. Gameplay consisted of moving units, checking and adjusting production in cities and moving heroes to explore ruins, temples and libraries, and discover allies, relics and other items. The goal of this game was to rule the land of Illuria by defeating the other 7 opponents and capturing or razing at least two thirds of the cities in the land (initially 80, but cities could be razed upon capture). The winning player could show no mercy to his opponents, in which case the battle went on until one side won all the remaining cities.

Players would have to make alliances and adjust their production to react to various occurrences in the game.

Warlords leaves its legacy as one of the progenitors of the strategy and turn-based game market. As games sometimes took many many hours to complete, many players are able to recount marathon sessions of playing the game.

An average game with eight real people playing would take nearly twelve hours or more to play, but not many such games have probably been played: individual turns can become over ten minutes long, and so the 'downtime' between a player's turns can be over an hour.

[edit] Warlords II

Following the success of Warlords, SSG released Warlords II in 1993. This version included scenarios (five initially, although the later released mission pack and the Deluxe version (1995) increased the number to several dozen). The various races were further differentiated, with some units limited to certain sides rather than any owner of a particular city being able to produce any of its possible units. Another new feature was 'fog of war' - optionally, enemy units or even the map could be concealled from players without units close enough to see them.

The game also featured multiple army, city and terrain sets (still in 16 colours, but upgraded to 256 colours with the Deluxe release), play by e-mail as well as hot seat, and a random map generator and map editor.

Thanks to the publication of the editor, Warlords II Deluxe was the apotheosis of the series in terms of user-created content. Many new maps, army and terrain sets, and scenarios were distributed on the Internet for the game.

Longtime 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, as well as a great deal of excellent roleplaying, which was archived. (See External Links.)

[edit] Warlords III : Reign of Heroes

After a four year hiatus, SSG developed Warlords III. By this time, the real-time strategy game genre was in full-swing. There was less of a market for turn-based games. Warlords III added a campaign system, along with new spells, new units, new hero abilities and new hero classes to the game.

[edit] Warlords III : Darklords Rising

Shortly after releasing W3:RoH, SSG followed with what amounted to more than a patch but slightly less than a full new version, thus the same release number but an entirely new title. Warlords III:Darklords Rising (W3:DLR) is considered by many to be the apex of the series (to date)[citation needed]. Balancing issues were 99% resolved and with a few patches (culminating in v. 1.02) the game was practically perfect. However, its release in 1998 was truly overshadowed by the oncoming rush of FPS and the MMORPG predecessors. The TBS genre in general would take a hit during this period[citation needed].

[edit] Issues on XP

Changes to the Microsoft operating system introduced with Windows XP technology did not allow DLR to run. UBI could not locate this problem even up to 2002 and no support was offered on this issue. Fans however have targeted the problem. The cursor controlling software jams the programs operation. To fix this issue, right-click the desktop or start menu shortcut, go to properties dialogue box from the menu that appears, and change the target to "c:\(your Darklords folder)\darklord.exe" /WINCURSOR. This will replace the problematic color cursors with funtional, black and white ones.

[edit] Warlords IV: Heroes of Etheria

In November 2003, Ubisoft released Warlords IV. Similar to Warlords III, but with improved graphics and a more intricate magic system, it received a lackluster reception. Game Rankings, for example, has shows an aggregate review score for the game of 70%, about ten percentage points lower than both Warlords III games ([1]).

One of the reasons this version was not as popular was due to the poor quality AI[citation needed]. The game was easily beaten on any difficulty when playing against computer players. The 1.04 patch (not available from Ubisoft, but from http://www.warlorders.com) 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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