rhunt@uncmed.med.unc.edu (03/02/91)
Has anyone else gotten hooked on Warlords yet? I picked this up at the store 3 days ago and haven't gotten a good night's sleep since. It is a fantasy wargame from SSG, makers of Reach for the Stars. Each player can play one of 8 different countries and up to 8 can play. The computer can take the other positions and play them at 4 different skill levels. There are the standard fantasy military units (infantry, cavalry, wolf riders, dwarves, elves, giants) and the leaders are heroes who are pretty powerful themselves. One of a leader's best abilities is to raise the other units in the game (dragons, demons, devils, mages, undead etc.). New heros will offer to join your side as the game progresses, and bring these allies with them. The combat is fairly simple, but can be influenced by a lot of factors. If there are any leaders, flying creatures, or special units present, the combat value of the army increases. Terrain is considered as well as the nationality of the army in that terrain. For instance, elves fight best in the forest and dwarves fight best in the hills. There are naval units and one country fights best on the coast and on ships. It does have a few minor problems, mostly with control of the units. For instance, when a leader rides a dragon, the stack moves at the speed of the leader, not the dragon. You also either have to get one unit of a stack or the whole stack, so it is a pain to grab half a stack one unit at a time and move them one hex, and get all the ones you want that way. Most of the problems I have encountered are minor however and don't really detract from the game, once you learn to expect them and work around them. It installs on a hard drive and multitasks, if you have enough memory. They suggest having 1 meg free when the game is started. It is also not copy protect _in any way_. It doesn't even have a lookup method, which is pleasent for a change. It is nice to see a company that is brave enough to do that. After about 24-30 hours of play, I haven't seen a crash, guru, or hangup. It seems very solid. Don't bother if you are looking for flashy graphics and awesome sound. After the OK startup screen, the graphics and sound are functional, not awe inspiring. This is a wargame in the classic sense of the word. There are no arcade sequences and no blood and gore on the screen. But if you are looking for a good multiplayer, strategy wargame a couple of notches of complexity above Risk, you may want to check it out. Suggested retail is about $50 US. Rick Hunt
gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) (03/02/91)
In article <2807@beguine.UUCP>, rhunt@uncmed.med.unc.edu writes... >Has anyone else gotten hooked on Warlords yet? I picked this up at the >store 3 days ago and haven't gotten a good night's sleep since. Yes, I have it. Wargaming friends have always liked SSG's games, which was a factor in my decision to buy. >It does have a few minor problems, mostly with control of the units. For >instance, when a leader rides a dragon, the stack moves at the speed of >the leader, not the dragon. You also either have to get one unit of a >stack or the whole stack, so it is a pain to grab half a stack one unit at >a time and move them one hex, and get all the ones you want that way. >Most of the problems I have encountered are minor however and don't >really detract from the game, once you learn to expect them and work >around them. Also annoying is that a navy is always on top of the stack. This means that to have armies disembark you ALWAYS have to click at least twice, slowly. >It installs on a hard drive and multitasks, if you have enough memory. >They suggest having 1 meg free when the game is started. It is also not >copy protect _in any way_. It doesn't even have a lookup method, which is >pleasent for a change. It is nice to see a company that is brave enough >to do that. After about 24-30 hours of play, I haven't seen a crash, >guru, or hangup. It seems very solid. I have occasionally been able to lock up the cursor so that it won't select armies, but I can get out of it by just trying to click everything in sight, including the menus. Also, the production gadget in the center bar sometimes gets confused. Also the indicator on the right side of the screen (which I surmise is a sprite) remains on screen if you switch screens. Not serious flaws. What is a serious flaw is that (like most games of its type, most notably [Interstel's] Empire) is that the computer opponents are dumb,dumb,dumb. After getting used to the controls on an easy game, I played the Sirians with all computer opponents on Warlord level. It took only a short while longer to win, and I can attribute most of that to the fact that a couple of the others started with dragons, so that I couldn't concentrate my production. I've never seen the computer produce a navy (even for the Selentines). I also notice that when playing with itself, the computer first tries to get artifacts, not grab any territory, but when it played me, I never found a single artifact in its posession. It would probably be a lot of fun to play amogst humans, though. (Mumbles about sending game files email, etc.) +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Kitakaze Tatsu Raito Neil Gilmore internet:gilmore@macc.wisc.edu | | Jararvellir, MACC, UW-Madison bitnet: gilmore@wiscmac3 | | Middle Kingdom Madison, Wi DoD #00000064 (no ints here) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
nad@tegra.COM (Nancy Durgin) (03/05/91)
In article <1991Mar2.075356.10035@macc.wisc.edu> gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) writes: >In article <2807@beguine.UUCP>, rhunt@uncmed.med.unc.edu writes... > >>Has anyone else gotten hooked on Warlords yet? I picked this up at the >>store 3 days ago and haven't gotten a good night's sleep since. >Yes, I have it. Wargaming friends have always liked SSG's games, which >was a factor in my decision to buy. > I have 3 SSG games -- REACH FOR THE STARS, GOLD OF THE AMERICAS, and WARLORDS. All are excellent, with no copy protection and all HD installable (I think -- never installed the first 2 on a HD...). Of those, REACH FOR THE STARS is probably the weakest, in terms of playability and bugginess, but it is also the first, and they have only gotten better. This company does *good* Amiga ports! >>It does have a few minor problems, mostly with control of the units. For >>instance, when a leader rides a dragon, the stack moves at the speed of >>the leader, not the dragon. You also either have to get one unit of a >>stack or the whole stack, so it is a pain to grab half a stack one unit at >>a time and move them one hex, and get all the ones you want that way. >>Most of the problems I have encountered are minor however and don't >>really detract from the game, once you learn to expect them and work >>around them. >Also annoying is that a navy is always on top of the stack. This means >that to have armies disembark you ALWAYS have to click at least twice, >slowly. > Yeah, I found manipulating the navies a bit annoying... But overall, didn't have any serious problems with stack manipulations. >>It installs on a hard drive and multitasks, if you have enough memory. >>They suggest having 1 meg free when the game is started. It is also not >>copy protect _in any way_. It doesn't even have a lookup method, which is >>pleasent for a change. It is nice to see a company that is brave enough >>to do that. After about 24-30 hours of play, I haven't seen a crash, >>guru, or hangup. It seems very solid. >I have occasionally been able to lock up the cursor so that it won't >select armies, but I can get out of it by just trying to click >everything in sight, including the menus. Also, the production gadget in >the center bar sometimes gets confused. Also the indicator on the right >side of the screen (which I surmise is a sprite) remains on screen if >you switch screens. Not serious flaws. > Hmm.. I played a *lot* and didn't notice any of these problems. One session, it had some kind of glitch that caused recurring instances where it would make me fight battles against phantom opponents (squares where something had been located, but had died in an attack against me, for instance...). It was just the one game though, and I've never seen it again. I haven't seen *any* bugs or glitches other than that one time. (Running on an A3000 under 2.0X). >What is a serious flaw is that (like most games of its type, most >notably [Interstel's] Empire) is that the computer opponents are >dumb,dumb,dumb. After getting used to the controls on an easy game, I >played the Sirians with all computer opponents on Warlord level. It took >only a short while longer to win, and I can attribute most of that to >the fact that a couple of the others started with dragons, so that I >couldn't concentrate my production. I've never seen the computer produce >a navy (even for the Selentines). I also notice that when playing with >itself, the computer first tries to get artifacts, not grab any >territory, but when it played me, I never found a single artifact in its >posession. > I agree on this. It said that playing the Sirians against the Warlords would be the toughest game, so after my introductory game (where I played the Elves), I tried that. Won it on the first try. Kind of disappointing. And it seems that although the computer collects the artifacts, you can never get them from his dead heroes. I've been meaning to check if it is different when the opponent is human. I assume it must be, otherwise the manual is in error, or there is a bug in the program. >It would probably be a lot of fun to play amogst humans, though. >(Mumbles about sending game files email, etc.) > Yeah, I'd really like to try this against another human.. Nancy -- ============================================================================== Nancy Durgin | (Usual disclaimers | Tegra-Varityper, Inc. uunet!tegra!nad | apply...) | Billerica, Massachusetts ==============================================================================
eric@pyramid.pyramid.com (Eric Bergan) (03/06/91)
In article <2807@beguine.UUCP> rhunt@uncmed.med.unc.edu () writes: >Has anyone else gotten hooked on Warlords yet? I picked this up at the >store 3 days ago and haven't gotten a good night's sleep since. Yes, and it is very good. When you think you understand the tactics, just play the part of another race and see everything change... >are no arcade sequences and no blood and gore on the screen. Tried turning down a surrender yet? eric -- eric ...!pyramid!eric
gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) (03/09/91)
In article <2130@joker.tegra.COM>, nad@tegra.COM (Nancy Durgin) writes... >In article <1991Mar2.075356.10035@macc.wisc.edu> gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) writes: >>In article <2807@beguine.UUCP>, rhunt@uncmed.med.unc.edu writes... >Hmm.. I played a *lot* and didn't notice any of these problems. One >session, it had some kind of glitch that caused recurring instances where >it would make me fight battles against phantom opponents (squares where >something had been located, but had died in an attack against me, for >instance...). It was just the one game though, and I've never seen it >again. I haven't seen *any* bugs or glitches other than that one time. >(Running on an A3000 under 2.0X). Well, let me explai further. I have experienced no problems which in any way prevented me from playing the game. The problems I have run into were all trivial. >I agree on this. It said that playing the Sirians against the Warlords >would be the toughest game, so after my introductory game (where I played >the Elves), I tried that. Won it on the first try. Kind of disappointing. >And it seems that although the computer collects the artifacts, you can >never get them from his dead heroes. I've been meaning to check if >it is different when the opponent is human. I assume it must be, otherwise >the manual is in error, or there is a bug in the program. Generally, what happens is that the hero eventually dies trying to get another artifact. Then the ones he had disappear. Since the heroes with artifacts seem to die off, isn't this a bad strategy for the computer to use? +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Kitakaze Tatsu Raito Neil Gilmore internet:gilmore@macc.wisc.edu | | Jararvellir, MACC, UW-Madison bitnet: gilmore@wiscmac3 | | Middle Kingdom Madison, Wi DoD #00000064 (no ints here) | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
nad@tegra.COM (Nancy Durgin) (03/11/91)
In article <1991Mar9.060833.13483@macc.wisc.edu> gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) writes: >In article <2130@joker.tegra.COM>, nad@tegra.COM (Nancy Durgin) writes... > >>In article <1991Mar2.075356.10035@macc.wisc.edu> gilmore@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Neil Gilmore) writes: > >>I agree on this. It said that playing the Sirians against the Warlords >>would be the toughest game, so after my introductory game (where I played >>the Elves), I tried that. Won it on the first try. Kind of disappointing. >>And it seems that although the computer collects the artifacts, you can >>never get them from his dead heroes. I've been meaning to check if >>it is different when the opponent is human. I assume it must be, otherwise >>the manual is in error, or there is a bug in the program. >Generally, what happens is that the hero eventually dies trying to get >another artifact. Then the ones he had disappear. Since the heroes with >artifacts seem to die off, isn't this a bad strategy for the computer to >use? I have had my hero die when trying to get another artifact, and it always left a little sack of goodies at the site, that I could come along with another hero and pick up. I have *never* seen a sack of goodies left by a dead computer hero... Nancy -- ============================================================================== Nancy Durgin | (Usual disclaimers | Tegra-Varityper, Inc. uunet!tegra!nad | apply...) | Billerica, Massachusetts ==============================================================================