Warlords
| Developer: SSG | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: SSG | Sound: |
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| Year: 1991 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Strategy | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 8 alternating | Rating: |
7/10 | |
In a fantastical-feudal world, eight fanatical factions wage an unrelenting war (no heroes, if I’m to believe the manual). So, choose your side, comrade! The order of degenerate knights? The stinking orcs? The megalomaniac elves, the giants, the dwarves, the barbarians? It doesn’t matter, the outcome will be the same: conquer 80 cities by wiping out all opposition, thanks to your unparalleled tactical sense, or, failing that, a hefty mace…
The game is very accessible. You control a “hero” in the middle of the plain, searching for ruins to plunder, or a castle to attack, then plunder. The resources you gather allow you to raise a ragtag army and attack other castles, and so on, until the total obliteration of your enemies, which means everyone. The only subtlety (and even then): remember to leave an adequate garrison so you don’t have your cities taken back after you leave. Later on, other heroes will offer to join you, for a price.
The game plays out in classic turn-based style. You control your troops with the mouse, clicking on them (double-click to select a group of units standing on the same tile). They move more or less quickly depending on the “movement points” assigned to them and the type of terrain (road, mountain, forest…). When two opposing armies meet, they fight automatically. You don’t have to do anything, except count the losses, and scream at your screen if the arbitrary outcome of the battle doesn’t go your way. Note that there’s no option to retreat. Thus, every skirmish necessarily ends in the annihilation of one of the two forces. Given that the game seems to favour defence (and overpowered heroes), the strategic aspect, in my opinion, boils down to rushing as many troops as possible into the fray without thinking too much.
I’d criticise a few clunky aspects, like the need to select the hero and execute the “pick up item” action after finding an artefact, or the fact that allied units are not visible on the map (I tend to leave my pegasi lying around and forget about them). I’m nitpicking. Overall, the ergonomics are well thought out, the menus are few and clear, and there are even keyboard shortcuts (to move the camera with the arrow keys, deactivate the joystick under WinUAE).
Beware, towards the end of the game, the troop movements from one side of the map to the other can be quite tedious, especially if, like me, you forget to use the option to relocate newly trained units to conquered cities. For this reason, I suggest you curb your warmongering instincts and accept the enemy’s surrender when it comes (I said no and went to bed very late!).
Expect at least ten to twenty hours for a single playthrough (save function included, of course). Sadly, the single map offers limited long-term interest.
A word on the sound: no background music (which is good), but dreadful sound effects (special mention for the giant wolves making the sound of a steam locomotive).
Its sequel, released on PC-DOS in 1993, offers more maps and a customisable (or random) editor. The series reached its peak with Warlords 3: Reign of Heroes (1997) and its expansion, Darklords Rising (1998), before succumbing to the siren call of real time strategy. This gave way to the Warlords Battlecry trilogy, still on PC.
See also, in the same vein: Hero’s Hour (2022).
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