New Battle Realms Screens and Art

Today, Liquid and Crave Entertainment dropped off a dozen new screenshots and concept art for their upcoming real-time strategy game, Battle Realms. Set in a mythical land modeled after ancient Japan, Battle Realms takes familiar concepts from the real-time strategy genre but adds a lot of unique flavor and innovative elements.

In Battle Realms, four clans wage war against each other. However, the core plot revolves around the splitting of a once unified clan. The Serpent and Dragon Clans were once a single unified family but have since devolved into civil war. Also joining the fray are the diseased Lotus Clan and the feral Wolf Clan. Each side in Battle Realms will have unique units and gameplay. The Lotus Clan, for instance, which is depicted in several of these screenshots, has powerful magic that is unavailable to other clans, but in order to access it, the clan's units must give themselves up to a rotting disease. This rotting disease erodes the innards of all but the most advanced Lotus units, who have become so powerful that the disease no longer has any effect on them. The Wolf Clan, in contrast, has powerful melee troops supplemented by immensely powerful werewolf units.

The concept art shows off several Dragon Clan units. This clan has a more technological bent, as evidenced by their cannon-bearing units. In addition, the various screens show the different clans and a few buildings. You'll also see a horse stable. In Battle Realms, you won't recruit horse-mounted units. Instead, horses will roam wild on the plains, and you'll have to capture them. Once you do that, you can have any unit mount the horses to become mounted units. Of course, enemies will also be able to steal your mounts by unhorsing you and capturing them.

You'll also see some ranged units from the game, including some that carry huge crossbows that look like shoulder-mounted ballistae. High ground plays a big role in this game, and you'll see in one screenshot that enemy archers have taken the high ground against these crossbowmen, thus earning a tactical advantage.

Another screenshot shows forest terrain, which is ideal for hiding troops and setting up ambushes, as only the frightened flight of birds disturbed by your hiding troops will betray their presence. In yet another screen, a village building has caught fire. Not only will water be an essential resource for irrigating rice fields to feed your units, but it will also be a precious commodity for fighting fires, which can spread to other buildings and quickly raze a village.

Keep checking GameSpot for the latest updates on this beautiful and intriguing real-time strategy game. Next week, we will have the Battle Realms Designer Diary update and more screens. For now, you can peruse our screenshot gallery and see the new screens and concept art.