Warlords Battlecry II Preview

SSG's Warlords series has been around in one form or another for more than 10 years. The Warlords games were originally a fantasy-themed turn-based strategy series that let you create armies of knights and wizards and explore an overland map, defeating enemy armies and capturing castles and towns along the way. In 2000, SSG took the series in a new direction with Warlords Battlecry , a real-time strategy game that featured all the trappings of a real-time strategy game: base-building and defense, resource gathering, unit production, and massive battles. But Battlecry was different from all other real-time strategy games not only because of its unique origins as a turn-based game, but also because of its hero system.

Warlords Battlecry II will feature an enhanced version of the previous game's hero system, which lets you develop a hero character in much the same way that you develop player characters in traditional role-playing games. Both the original and the sequel let you create a hero unit that belongs to one of the game's fantasy races and keep that hero character through both single-player and multiplayer games. And in both games, heroes have four basic attributes--strength, speed, intelligence, and charisma, abilities that affect a hero's attacking power, movement speed, ability to use magic, and ability to recruit large armies, respectively. However, both games let your hero gain experience points by defeating enemy units, capturing enemy holdings, and, most importantly, surviving each battle.

As your hero unit gains experience points, it will eventually gain experience levels and be able to learn new skills and even magic spells. And as in the original game, you'll usually want to keep your hero in the thick of things, since a hero unit conveys special bonuses to any friendly armies within that hero's command radius. Even though heroes may look like just another unit onscreen, they're surprisingly versatile, since they not only act as military generals, but also build structures, capture resources, and play crucial roles on the battlefield as a wizard, a frontline fighter, or a spy. And Warlords Battlecry II will let you choose a hero from the game's original nine fantasy races, including the barbarians, which previously served as only regular units, not heroes. It'll also feature three all-new playable races: the powerful demons, the evil dark dwarves, and the nimble fey. The sequel will let you play in four different modes: normal, tinman, bronzeman, and ironman. Normal mode will award your hero experience, even if it's defeated in battle; tinman will award your hero with 25 percent bonus experience if it's victorious, but none at all if it loses. Bronzeman will give your hero 50 percent additional experience if it wins a scenario, but if defeated, your hero will actually lose experience; and ironman will double any experience your hero gains, but if that hero is defeated, it's lost forever.

And like the previous game, the sequel will let you develop one of many different kinds of hero types. Developing a strong hero will be more important in Warlords Battlecry II than ever. As in the original game, you'll be able to choose from only a few basic professions when you start a lowly first-level hero, though as you advance, you'll be able to change your hero's profession to a more advanced character class. But the sequel will feature not only new race choices with different sets of abilities, but also a total of 20 different advanced character classes, which should make creating and developing a high-level hero an even more engaging pursuit than in the previous game.

New Heroes, Abilities, and Units

You'll have no problem developing a distinctive hero in Warlords Battlecry, because the sequel will let heroes learn more than 100 special abilities and more than 100 different magic spells, including new schools of magic, like ice spells, which can let a spellcasting hero dispel negative effects from his allies or summon an icy storm to attack enemy armies and buildings. Being a spellcaster in the sequel will be a much less frustrating experience than it was in the previous game, in which spellcasters would sometimes stand stock-still when attacked and not defend themselves. Warlords Battlecry II will feature an improved "attitude" AI system, which will let you instruct your troops to stand their ground, flee, or even cast magic spells when attacked.

Even though Warlords Battlecry II's heroes will be even more interesting and varied than in the previous game, they will still need the backing of a good army to conquer their enemies. Warlords Battlecry II will feature an expanded roster of units for each side, including three completely new types of troops to accompany the three new hero races--the demons, the dark dwarves, and the fey, as well as lots of new units for the nine playable factions from the previous game. All told, the sequel will feature an impressive 140 units total. Warlords Battlecry II will also feature a brand-new unit type: the titan. Each of the sequel's 12 playable factions can produce a different kind of titan that looks different and possesses different abilities, but every single titan in the game will be horrendously expensive to produce and incredibly powerful on the battlefield. The sequel will let you carry a retinue of units along with your hero from scenario to scenario; these units will gain experience and grow more powerful alongside your hero. In addition, the sequel will actually let you bribe powerful enemy units into joining you. Though your hero gains bonuses when leading troops of its own or an allied race, some enemies will definitely be so powerful that you'll still want to include them in your retinue.

Judging from the early build of the game we've been playing, much of Warlords Battlecry II's battlefields, units, and heroes will look similar to those in the previous game; presumably, the developer is focusing on adding more features and more-balanced gameplay than on completely overhauling the game's graphics engine. That's not an entirely bad thing either, since the original Warlords Battlecry was a colorful, decent-looking game that featured detailed 2D graphics and had absolutely no trouble displaying huge battles between large numbers of varied units onscreen--and the sequel looks more than capable of doing the same. However, Warlords Battlecry II's areas will have a more varied look to them because of the sequel's new weather effects, like snowstorms, and new height-mapped terrain. Elevated terrain will actually be of tactical value; troops that hold the high ground will have a definite advantage over their enemies.

Will Warlords Battlecry II be even better than the previous game? From what we've seen so far, it certainly seems that way. The sequel's new hero types, new units, new magic spells, improved AI, and new terrain features suggest that Warlords Battlecry II will feature all of the previous game's strategic depth, as well as improve upon all of it. We'll have even more information on Warlords Battlecry II as we approach the game's release, which is currently scheduled for spring 2002.