Subject: REVIEW: Warlords 1, enhanced
From: [email-masked] (Omar Siddique)
Date: 27 Mar 1994 23:11:48 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews

PRODUCT NAME

	Warlords 1 enhanced, version 2.04.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

	Warlords is a 8-player fantasy war game with a mouse-based user
interface.  The players can be human or computer.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

	IN THE USA/CANADA:

	Name:		Strategic Studies Group Inc.
	Address:	1747 Orleans Ct.
			Walnut Creek, CA 84598
			USA

	Telephone:	415-932-3019
	FAX:		415-933-4327

	ANYWHERE ELSE:

	Name:		Strategic Studies Group P/L.
	Address:	P.O. Box 261
			Drummoyne, NSW.2047
			Australia

	Telephone:	02-819-7199
	FAX:		02-819-7737

LIST PRICE

	I am unaware of the list price.  I bought Warlords from Software
Support for $34.99 (US).

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

	HARDWARE

		One megabyte of RAM required.
	
		Warlords installs on a hard drive, and requires 1.5 megabytes
		of free drive space.

		Warlords works fine with a 68030.

	SOFTWARE
	
		No special requirements.  Warlords worked fine on an Amiga
		3000 running Workbench 2.1 and Kickstart 2.04.  It is
		reported to run properly under 1.3, as well.

COPY PROTECTION

	None.  The two floppy disks are not copy-protected.
	Warlords installed on my hard drive without any difficulty.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

	Amiga 3000/25, 4 MB Fast RAM, 1 MB Chip RAM.
	1 internal 880K floppy, 1 external 880K floppy.
	Maxtor 120MB internal hard drive.
	Quantum 1.2GB external hard drive (Warlords was installed here).
	NEC 3FGx multisync monitor.
	Workbench 2.1, Kickstart 2.04.

INSTALLATION

	Warlords installed easily on my hard drive.  A program to perform
this installation is included, although no mention of it is made in the
technical supplement.  Warlords installs in any location you wish, and I had
no trouble saving and loading games from the hard drive.

REVIEW

	In the kingdom of Illuria, a long and shaky peace has come to an end
with the death of the archmage that enforced it.  You play the part of the
leader of one of eight empires within the kingdom.  Your goal is to
destroy your opponents utterly and unite the land under your rule.

	The leaders of the eight empires can be played by either the computer
or by humans.  There are four levels of computer control: knight, baron,
lord, and warlord.  Knight-level players are indecisive, often forgetting who
they were planning on attacking, etc.  Warlord-level players are at the
opposite end of the spectrum.  According to the manual, the most difficult
game would be one involving seven computer warlords against the human player.

	The game begins with each player's controlling a single city; the
other 72 cities are all neutral at this point.  After the mad rush is over to
capture as many neutral cities as possible, and the players begin eyeing each
others' cities, the real fun begins.  The sort of fun only found in
absolutely demolishing one's enemies.

	For this purpose, you have various types of armed forces.  Each city
produces at least one, usually several, types of units, varying from Navies
to Pegasi.  Additionally, along the course of the game you may acquire
heroes (all players start with one) and supernatural allies such as demons
and dragons.  Up to eight units can be "stacked" together for attacks (I liked
this, games like Empire (Interstel) that don't allow stacking absolutely
drive me crazy), and as many as 32 units can defend a city.  Units are
rated by strength and movement points.  Certain units are granted bonuses
that apply not only to themselves, but to any other units in the same stack.
These include a leadership bonus for heroes, and a flying army bonus for
winged armies.

	There are other facets to the game as well.  Simple economics play a 
significant role in the conquest of Illuria.  Each city produces a certain
amount of tax revenue, while each unit costs a certain amount to produce, and
half that amount to maintain.  A successful warlord with vast armies has to
keep an eye on his/her treasury.  Additionally, there are ruins that can be
explored by heroes; they often contain treasures or supernatural allies.
Libraries and temples also await exploration.

	Then there is the matter of what the other (computer) players want to
do to *you*.  The game rates, based on historical animosities and your
current actions, what each computer player thinks of you.  This can range
from apathy to outright loathing.  The computer player's actions are based
on this rating -- if someone loathes you, you can bet that player will be
coming after you with everything they've got!  And that brings up the matter
of the game's artificial intelligence (AI).  SSG is known for the quality of
its AI, and this game is no exception.  The computer players make
intelligent moves, sending concentrated forces to take target cities.  The
game will even intelligently move a unit to the destination you chose by the
quickest (least expensive in movement points) route.

	The game screen is divided into four sections.  The largest is a
tactical map covering the left side of the screen where the player issues
most of his/her orders.  Taking up the right side of the screen is the world
map, showing all of Illuria.  At various times, markers are displayed
indicating who owns which city, which ruins have been explored, which city
is producing what units, etc.  Between the two maps is a vertical strip of
icons that perform the most commonly used operations, such as switching
between production and movement. The bottom of the screen is used to display
text messages.

	The user interface is a delight to use.  It's simple to use, and
well thought out.  Moving the tactical view is accomplished with the cursor
keys, or by clicking on the world map.  Clicking on a unit selects it, and
double-clicking selects the entire stack.  Production is as simple as
entering production mode (via one of the icons in the central icon strip),
clicking on the unit to be built, and clicking on "produce".  The menu
options all have keyboard shortcuts.

DOCUMENTATION

	The documentation consists of a technical supplement and a relatively
short manual.  The supplement describes saving, loading, installing, and the
differences between the original Warlords and Warlords Enhanced.  The manual
amazed me.  I'm used to seeing fairly complex, detailed documentation for
strategy games (such as SSI's war games).  Instead, the manual for Warlords
is incredibly simple.  It took me maybe five minutes to read it from cover
to cover.  And it described everything I needed to know in those pages!
(Although I did have to come back to occasionally check the reference
section.)

LIKES AND DISLIKES

	LIKES

	I liked the playability.  I liked the variety of unit types, and the
strategy involved in manipulating them.  I liked the implementation of the
user interface.  I liked that the game was easy to install and play.
Basically, I liked everything about the game.

	DISLIKES

	I didn't really dislike anything about the game, but there are a few
things I wouldn't mind having added.  I'd like different world maps, rather
than having to play on the same one all the time.  I'd like these different
worlds to be unexplored (i.e., the player would be able to see only the part
of the world map that had already been explored).  I'd like a greater
variety of units, especially naval units (which currently act really only as
troop transports).  Different methods of attacking would be nice, as well,
since there are better strategies than frontal assault when dealing with
superior enemy forces.  The only other thing that I thought the game lacked
was a more spectacular ending when a human player was killed.  "So-and-So is
no longer a threat" just didn't seem like a very powerful death message.

	Most of these improvements were added in Warlords 2, which is
unfortunately not available for the Amiga.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	There really isn't another product quite like Warlords available for
the Amiga, but I will compare it to Sword of Aragon (SSI), and Civilization 
(Microprose).

	Sword of Aragon is similar to Warlords in that it's a strategy game
set in a fantasy world, with the player beginning with a single city and
having to conquer the rest of the "world".  The similarities stop there,
with Sword of Aragon following a story line, and Warlords (like most war
games) simply letting the player conquer and pillage as they see fit.  I
think players who enjoyed Sword of Aragon should like Warlords.

	Civilization fans may find Warlords to be a nice "quick and easy"
diversion, since Warlords is the same genre of game as Civilization, but not
as heavy in detail.

BUGS

	I did not observe any bugs.

CONCLUSIONS

	This is the way I like my games!  Warlords is fun, easy to learn,
easy to play, and requires a fair amount of thought.  It also has decent AI,
is multiplayer, runs on any model of Amiga, and is hard drive installable.

	If you like strategy games of any sort, you really *have* to get this
game.  Now if only I could get Warlords 2...

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

	Copyright 1994 Omar Siddique.  All rights reserved.

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