Warrior Kings

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Warrior Kings is a game, produced by the company Microids was developed and made in 2002. Microids also got some help from Black Cactus and is now merged with MC2.

Warrior Kings is a Real-time strategy game, set in a medieval world. The game focuses on the consepts of pagan tribalism, renaissance enlightenment, and imperialist theocracy.

There are three different paths to chose in this game: Pagan, Imperial, Renaissance. Each with its own unique values, style of war, and course of storyline.

Contents 1 Storyline 2 The Pagan Path 3 The Imperial Path 4 The Renaissance Path 5 Military Power 6 Drawbacks

[edit] Storyline

The story resolves around Artos who is the young son of the Baron of House Cravant, a small fiefdom within the Empire, which in turn is situated in a world called Orbis. The Holy Empire is a theocratic state, which could be compared to the Papal States, devoted called a deity called 'The One God' and is ruled by a spiritual and militant leader, the Patriarch and the Holy Protector respecfully. The new Patriarch however is cruel and corrupt and the Holy Protector is nothing more than his henchman, as soon as he is in power he begins charging all those who speak against his rule with false charges of heresy and treason to the state. These lords either change their minds overnight about the Patriarch or else dissappear entirely. House Cravant is one such state and on the first level is invaded by the Empire, who kill your father on a trumped up charge of treason and raise the city. Artos flees with a small band of loyal soldiers across the sea to Angland where he plots his revenge against the Empire.

From there, the player can decide who he does this. There are three 'alignment' that the player can choose from that are listed below. These are Pagan, Imperial and Renaissance.

[edit] The Pagan Path

The Pagan path is one of superstition, witchcraft, and nature worship. Pagan war involves cheap mass prodused units in combonation with stat damage to one's opposition. The successful pagan player is one who tests enemy borders on a regular basis and then moves to overwhelm it while not counting the cost. Pagan signature units are its demons and witches, all of which have a series of secondary powers and spells to employ against their foes. Once they have become suitably advanced the Pagans may construct a Wickerman and summon a demon called the Abadon, a powerful AI controlled unit that can cause a lot of damage before being destroyed.

[edit] The Imperial Path

The path of the Imperial is more or less akin to Europe during the crusades. Religious ferver is at its highest and people are flocking to spread the faith. "Believe or Die!" is the phrase heard through out the streets. Imperal warfare involves expencive well armored troops and strong fortifications. The successful Imperial player waits and watches behind thick protective walls until the enemy makes a critical error, then punish them for it. Signature units for the Imperials are its Priests, Bishops and Inquistors, who can pray at churches to activate 'Acts of God' to unleash upon their enemies. As with the Pagans, the Imperials can build an Archangel Statue later on in the game and summon Michael, a powerful angelic being who acts in a similar fashion to the Abadon.

[edit] The Renaissance Path

The Path of the Renaissance is one of human ingenuity and humanity. New ideas are running wild and scholars are everywhere. The Renaissance mean giving up some offense and defense but with it comes outstanding economy and powerful seigecraft. The Renaissance player knows the enemy and adjust accordingly. Renaissance players are made unique by their acceess to gunpowder units, such as gunners and cannons. Though they do not have a demon or angel to aid them, Renaissance players can construct a series of siege engines such as trebuchets, mangonels and even primitive rocket launchers that more than compensate for this loss.

[edit] Military Power

Warrior kings winning is not about who has more troops but rather who has better tactics. From higher ground arrows travel farther, flat ground allows mounted troops to move faster.

Then theres formation, troops will gain more attack power in a vangard, move faster in a pillar, cover more ground in a line, and balance damage to them better in an orb.

Of course even the best strategy is worthless if you don't know the strength of your troops. heavy calvary can mow down light infanty, light infantry outrange light calvary, light calvary easily out maneuver heavy infantry, and heavy infantry will tear heavy calvary to shreads.

Perhaps another great tool that is brought into play in warrior kings is that of fire. Unlike other games warrior kings treats fire as fire, that is to say, fire doesn't just stay in one spot instead it spreads to the buildings next to it.

[edit] Drawbacks

Despite all innovative aspects of warrior kings, there are a couple of problems. The game itself ran at sluggish pace and some casual gamers found it more mentally intensive then other games in the same category (more or less moving from checkers to chess).