Battle Realms
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| Battle Realms | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Liquid Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Ubisoft |
| Distributor(s) | Ubisoft |
| Release date(s) | 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player and Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Teen (T) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Media | 1 CDs |
| Input | Keyboard and Mouse |
Battle Realms, released by Ubisoft in 2001, is a real-time strategy computer game and is the first game created by relatively new Liquid Entertainment. Ubisoft released the stand alone expansion pack Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf in 2002.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Battle Realms follows the basic formula for many real-time strategy games. All of its factions have similar buildings, with similar uses, and worker drones. However, this is where Battle Realms differentiates itself from the rest. Whereas worker drones in other games simply do tedious labor (such as resource-gathering and building), worker drones in Battle Realms do another important thing: they can be trained into advanced units.
The basic worker drone units are called peasants in Battle Realms. Peasants gather the two resources in the game: rice and water. They also round up horses, which can be used by most other units in the game and can provide additional payload for peasants. Peasants can build all of the buildings in the games.
Peasants are the only units the player can produce outright. Most of the buildings available are schools where peasants are trained into a variety of other units. For example: sending a Dragon peasant to a dojo will train it into a Spearman; an archery range will train it into an Archer; an alchemist hut to train it into an Alchemist. These can be trained further into advanced units by sending them into the remaining schools. For example, sending a spearman to an archery range or an alchemist hut will produce a Dragon Warrior or Kabuki Warrior, respectively. Peasants can have a maximum of three levels of learning; one clan has four.
Also, certain buildings can teach special techniques (called Battle Gears) for a price, giving new abilities to aid the said units. They can also allow units to defeat higher tier units they normally would have a problem (or be slaughtered) from.
Another key element in Battle Realms is Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are only obtained in battle. Yang is for the Dragon and the Wolf clan while the Yin is for the Serpent and the Lotus clan. They are used to summon heroes, upgrade units, and strengthen Battle Gears. The farther units are from their base, the faster Yin/Yang can be harvested.
[edit] Story
The story begins with a young traveller, Kenji, son of Lord Oja, the former ruler of the Serpent clan, narrating the events that lead to today's world.
The Horde was destroying everything in its path. Tarrant the Elder, leader of the Dragon Clan and Kenji's ancestor, was forced to use the Dragon Clan's most sacred and powerful treasure, the Serpent's Orb, that was given to them by the clan's totem, the Dragon itself. With it, he saved his people the Horde, but at a terrible price. The continent was cut in half, and various other clans were affected. The Dragon's people, traumatized at the events, reawoke as the Serpent Clan.
The Lotus Clan, living peacefully on their island, away from the troubles of other clans, suddenly found no seas and their land besieged by the Horde. In desperation, some of them embraced the Forbidden Path, the dark side of the Lotus, and acquired tremendous power. With the little magic they had learned, they fled their island and estabilished themselves in the lands of the former Dragon clan.
The Wolf Clan on their island experienced destructive storms due to the Dragon's Fury, and were forced to use their clan's treasure, the White Wolf's Skull, given to them by their totem, the White Wolf. The power of the Skull teleported them to lands of the Serpent Clan, where they intended to live their lives peacefully once again. However, The Serpent clan had made a deal with the Lotus clan and allowed them to enslave the Wolf clan to work in their shale mines.
Suddenly, Kenji witnesses Serpent bandits butchering a peasant village. Should Kenji join his clansmen and teach the peasants their place? Or he could save the peasants and slay the bandits? Either way opens up the two paths to the story. Kenji could rejoin the Serpent Clan and become its master. Or he could reawaken the Dragon Clan, a clan long dead.
[edit] Play Details
One of the most important things in Battle Realms is that all units have a melee attack, even missile units (with one exception). Missile units' melee attacks are weaker than their missile attacks. This puts missile units in a dangerous position: if a melee unit comes in close, they will be forced to engage in melee, usually with disastrous results. However, there are some exceptions (see below)..
A unit's attack has a property - either cutting, piercing, blunt, magic, explosive, or fire. The property of a unit's missile attack may also differ from their melee attack. Each unit has resistances to particular properties and weaknesses to others. For example, the Dragon Samurai has excellent resistance against cutting, but a poor resistance to explosive. This means that a Serpent Swordsman's cutting attack would hardly dent the Samurai's health, but the Lotus Warlock's explosive attack would drastically reduce it. This also means that although a melee unit can usually defeat a missile unit, the melee unit may fail; the property of the missile unit's melee attack is the weakness of the melee unit's.
Most units have an innate ability, whether it be the Spearman's immunization of height advantages or the Infested One's area of effect attack. These could be supportive, such as the Kabuki Warrior's idle animation which regenerates peasants' stamina, or offensive, such as the Blade Acolyte's idle animation, which sharpens his blade and increases its damage.
Every unit has two status bars: a green health bar and a blue stamina bar. Stamina is used for most Battle Gears, as well as running, increasing a unit's speed until all stamina has been depleted. A unit can also regenerate (albeit slowly) they're health until it reaches the green zone; the Wolf Clan can regenerate theirs full. Healing in this game takes a different approach to other games. In Battle Realms, healers automatically heal a unit when its health reaches the yellow zone (50%) or red zone (20%). They then restore the unit to 100% hit points immediately. However, they can be ordered to heal units near full health. Healers in Battle Realms become a very powerful unit because they heal to full hit points in one charge. Dragon and Serpent geisha use 1/2 to 1/4 of their stamina while Lotus channelers sacrifice a raven. Due to their speedy regeneration, the Wolf Clan uses no healers, instead using druidesses to entangle enemy units.
In Battle Realms, the player is limited to four watch towers. Furthermore, each watch tower doesn't have an attack, they act as scout towers. To give them an attack, one must place units inside them. The unit then attacks using their range attack, if they have any. A unit inside a watch tower has longer range as well as a 50% damage bonus. Towers also have special abilities depending on the clan that depletes their stamina: the Lotus have black lightning which strikes a single foe for heavy damage, the Wolf have horns which drastically slows enemy units, the Serpent use flash powder to blind all enemies, and the Dragon has a flash powder that stuns enemies.
Battle Realms' environments are not simply for eye candy. Trees are not impassable, and there are advantages to passing through trees, such as restricting enemy units' vision. Furthermore, the trees of a forest may block missile attacks until they get destroyed by them. However, traveling through forest will reduce a unit's speed, and certain trees have birds in them that automatically take flight if any unit passes underneath them, alerting the other clans to your unit's presence. Cliffs, trenches, hills and other height differing places can give units bonuses to attack and defense. Melee gets a -+25% while missile units can get -+50%.
[edit] The Four Clans
| Clan | Description |
|---|---|
| Dragon Clan | The ancient Dragon Clan prize honor above all rest. They scorn the use of firearms, preferring to fight honorably. Their warriors seek to become one with their weapons. In spite of the lack of the firearms, only three units do not have range; the Spearman, the Geisha, and Peasant. Although they may seem to be the beginner's clan, they do have their own advanced strategies that make them dangerous, such as the dragon's spirit ability called from the dragon monument, if one places four samurai and has 3 yang points, one can summon a fiery inferno upon any place on the map. |
| Serpent Clan | Descendants of the Dragon Clan, the Serpent have forgotten their honorable ways and have resorted to thievery and deceit. Unlike their Dragon ancestors, they do not scorn the use of firearms; instead they have learned to employ its use in many of their fighting arts. Even though the Dragon knew how to use gunpowder, it was the Serpent who uncovered its secrets. However, the serpent have not forgotten magic, nor its usefulness, they sometimes sacrifice 4 high ranking ronin to the necromancer's throne for the services of the undead sorceror. |
| Wolf Clan | The wild Wolf Clan prize freedom above all else. Unlike the other clans, they have no cavalry, nor do they have healers. They feed the horses to their wolves, which accompany them and partake in their battles. Their wounds knit amazingly fast, faster even with the use of herbs. They prefer melee combat but their ranged fighters pack a punch. They know a little magic, and much of what they do know is tied to nature, a berserker, if enough well versed in magic, could transform himself into a ferocious werewolf. The Wolf Clan is perfect for new players to the game, though they have enough secrets for experts as well. |
| Lotus Clan | The Lotus Clan is the remnant of a Yang Clan of old, but now a Yin Clan. They follow the Forbidden Path, which centralizes around death and decay. Their religion centralizes around three ancient brothers, now long gone, who tend to the Yin side of the Tree of Life, the Tree of Corruption. The Lotus Clan’s strategy centralizes to their immense understanding of magic, which translates to unit abilities and Battle Gears. They have some of the most powerful Battle Gears in the realm. Their clan alone has a fourth level of learning for its peasants. Their Warlocks and Master Warlocks have three sets of Battle Gears, whereas the other clans have two. A side note, to become a Warlock you must conquer Death and Decay, the principles of the Forbidden Path, however, even as one conquers these pitfalls, warlocks are not the sturdiest in the melee. The master warlocks however have eliminated their human form and rely on strong constructs of metal and bone, thence Master Warlocks are nearly immortal, save to the power of flame, their only weakness. |
[edit] Zen Masters
Zen Masters take the role of heroes in this game. Zen Masters are the lords of the clan; who make certain each clans' survival. They are summoned at a cost of Yin/Yang, as well as rice and water. Their Battle Gears are unique, and can turn the tide of a battle in an instant. Usually assuming the role of lords, demons or powerful warriors, they are summoned from Keeps.
- Dragon Clan
- Otomo-this swordsman can, with a mighty cry, inspire troops to hit harder and stronger, his innate ability allows him to regenerate the stamina of his allies when fighting.
- Garrin-this horseman can summon a steed (even from an enemy stable) to aid him in battle, he is a specialist at the art of horseback and is immune to height advantages.
- Arah-this blind female archer can use her arrows to 'see' far off terrain, her shots rarely miss.
- Kazan-a large sumo performer, he dons a massive gourd filled with his own flammable brew, which he spews upon enemies with much abandon, as he is well acquainted with fire, he is nearly immune to all forms of it.
- Tao-the master monk/ninja of yin and yang, he uses the balance to his advantage, he reflects the strength of his foes back upon them.
- Teppo-a genius from a far off land, he uses his dragon wheel invention to hurl several rockets a second at his enemies.
- Serpent Clan
- Shinja-ruthless and warmongering, this dual swordsman can intimidate all around them, sapping them of attack strength, futhering the fears of all, he uses poisonous blades.
- Budo-fat and none to handsome, this slave driving sumo uses his whip to speed up peasant movements, after so much eating, he has the highest endurance of all zen masters.
- Utara-this deadly fan geisha has a voice that can soothe the soul, or kill it, her songs can sap her enemies strength and kill them, her powers extend into the arcane as well, she stuns all units when taking harm.
- Vetkin-a young handsome womanizer, this sai master saps the will of his enemies and can run faster than a horse can gallop (save Garrin's) and never seems to run out of sprinting energy.
- Taro-a cowardly prince and Kenji's older brother, he uses an arcane curse to make other vulnerable to his enchanted blade.
- The Necromancer-this undead sorceror has lived for ages, and is older than all, save for lord Koril and the Dragon deity, he summons spirit warriors to do his bidding and summons the fallen corpses of his enemies to follow suit.
- Wolf Clan
- Grayback-a strong and courageous chieftan with a pickaxe from the mines, his voice encourages those around him to dish out massive amounts of damage while defending with greater effect.
- Longtooth-this boomerang throwing wolf clansman can throw his boomerang through bone, stone, flesh and blood, he can also run through rough terrain unhindered, such as vetkin.
- Shale Lord-this shale monstrosity was once an eloquent, young speaker of the wolf slaves turned into an experiment gone wrong by his lord soban, he can flake off part of his shale flesh and give it to his fellow wolf clansmen, at the cost of much health.
- Gaihla-this nymph of the woods did not truly come to fight, but if she must, then the forests, animals, and nature itself are with her, her song is utara's undoing, she heals all of her fellow nearby wolf clansmen's wounds. She is always unhindered by forests, and the environment is always on her side, even the rice so vital for life grows at supernatural rates.
- Wildeye-this drumsmaster can beat out a tune for summoning sacred spiritwolves, or for crushing his enemies heads, he can distribute his sacred wolves amongst his fellow clansmen.
- Lotus Clan
- Zymeth-lord warlock and leader of clan Lotus, Zymeth's sphere of sorcery is weather, he blasts balls of lightning onto his foes as a ranged attack; and can call heavy storms to his fields at the cost of much stamina, when raining, he calls lightning from the sky to sear his foes asunder, as well as regenerate his rice paddies with utter swiftness.
- Koril-the eldest of all warlocks, this swordsman can warp space itself, with a wave of his hand he can teleport any where. He also uses his powers for defensive effects, any archers or ranged attackers will become furious at the way he shimmers and diverts nearly all ranged attacks, even some of Arah's though not many.
- Issyl-some may wonder why a young twelve year old boy sits at the Lotus high council, none feel better when they learn that this is Issyl, master of time, who has aged backwards since an accident long ago, he has the ability to move his troops rapidly with a mastery of haste. He can also regenerate his flesh an an incredible rate, faster than anyone's, even the nymph Gaihla.
- Soban-onced dismissed as a tinkerer, this mechanical arm inventor has no equal, even including Teppo. He creates animated golems, using them as workers and as self destruct bombs, convienient for crowd control and gathering.
- Yvaine-this old ice hag can freeze enemies in a mach two gale of freezing air, her own presence slows enemies and friends down. When angered, she flings bolts of ice at all.
- The Three Brothers(lynthis, tausil, sekh)-the three brothers are dead, yet their spirits live on, it was they that once tended the tree of life, the tree of corruption. Lynthis pruned the roots, Tausil guarded the trunk, and Sekh cut the leaves, they often return to give their allies their blessing, they also suck out the will of an enemy, spiritual sustaining their stamina.
