Warlords I + II Reviews

Here you are getting the original Warlords game and Warlords II Deluxe. If you are a younger player I recommend skipping this and going immediately for Warlords III Darklords Rising for an ultimate experience. If you are a nostalgia driven older player or someone who love Darklords Rising and would like to see the development history of that game do buy this by all means. The first Warlords game was published in 1990 by SSG and it contains a single map of the world called Illuria where 8 factions (Sirian knights, Storm Giants, Grey Dwarves, Orcs of Kor, Elvallie, Horse Lords, Selentine Empire and Lord Bane) vie for supremacy. Each side can be played by computer or by human player in hot seat game environment. The sequel Warlords II was released in 1993, it contained 5 maps and a powerful random map generator. New worlds, units, factions, better resolution and difficulty options were introduced. It is important to understand that you shall not get original 1993. Warlords II game here. What are you getting here is the 1995 Warlords II Deluxe, it is more a proof of concept than the game in the classic sense of a word, that shall lead to Warlords III Darklords rising in late '90s. Warlords II deluxe contains 5 Warlords II maps (Dragon Realms, Isles of Sorcery, Erythea Campaign, Hadesha Campaign, and Isladia Campaign) and a huge amount of user generated content. Developers encouraged talented individuals from within and outside SSG to submit their own worlds, factions, and units so you shall be able to fight everything imaginable using Warlords mechanics, from ancient world to other planets. The game also pioneers a concept of fighting in underground dungeons where rooms take a role of classic cities which shall be heavily used in Darklords Rising. In most maps you can click on a city or ruin for a description that should help you with world immersion. If you generate random map AI shall try to fill in the lore, but lacking any sophistication in that sense the results are often hilarious as AI mixes concepts known to the game so the results looks like "XXZZYY is a muddy encampment renown for its purple frogs". Game concept itself is easy to learn and hard to master. You have a map, cities, units, heroes, ruins and temples. Cities generate gold and produce units, units have strength value, movement, upkeep in gold and some of them bonuses (cavalry is stronger in open terrain, Minotaurs and giant spiders excel in city battles etc), Heroes are central units as they provide bonuses to themselves and their stacks of units as they level up or pick items found in ruins or earned by completing quests, ruins contain various dangers and rewards, and temples provide blessings to all visiting units increasing their strength in battle and allow heroes to take quests. There is also a diplomacy. Each faction has a certain label in diplomatic circles, and you should by all means avoid to be labelled as a "Running dog" for a prolonged period of time. Performing despicable acts like plundering, sacking or razing cities or above all else attacking other factions without the formal declaration of war lower your diplomatic standing. The ultimate goal is to be the last standing faction on the game map.

Nostalgia abounds if you played this when you were younger like I did. There's a few random things I noticed in Warlords 2, where they altered visuals for some of the units, and the battle sounds are also different. Overall, a few bucks is worth the trip down memory lane for me.

This is a turn base strategy game similar to RISK mingled with Dungeons and Dragons. This is an old school game with old school graphics but if you like turn base strategy you will like this game. You progressively build up your Hero and armies and work on conquering other Human players or AI players. Most features work flawlessly inside of the STEAM platform. Given its price, you having noting to lose and everything to game on this retro strategy game.