Warrior Kings: Battles Preview

Abbadon surrounded by death.

Barbarians attack castle in the snow!

Ian Turnbull: Empire had been one of the first publishers we ever spoke to (in 1999!). Over 3 years, we have got to know and trust Empire, and it was a natural decision to go straight to them with WK: B. Everyone at Black Cactus is delighted to have found a publisher who actually played WK for fun. The enthusiasm they have for RTS in general, and specifically for WK, really shines through.

AT: Can you reveal more info about the storyline in Warrior Kings: Battles?

IT: Warrior Kings: Battles is set 100 years after the events in the first Warrior Kings. The Kingdom forged by Artos collapsed after the current ruler was assassinated by a fanatical zealot, and now the whole of Orbis has fallen into anarchy. Every local warlord has seen their chance to grab a piece of land, and wars are being fought across the whole continent. The player is given the task of once again, reuniting the lands of Orbis, by the use of diplomacy and warfare.

AT: How many missions will the new single-player include? I remember that some of the scenarios, even though somewhat linear, were pretty lengthy. Do you plan to maintain the same principal in WK: Battles?

IT: In Warrior Kings: Battles there are 22 territories to conquer in the single player fully replayable campaign. Each of the territories has between 1 and 4 AI generals in it. Conquering a territory results in receiving Spoils of War. These spoils may be in the form of a larger population limit, Gold, opening the tech tree etc. In addition each time you conquer a territory it becomes available to play in single player skirmish or multiplayer modes, the AI generals also become available as well.

You do have options over the order in which you conquer territories, and you are going to have to explore the map to get all the Spoils of War before you take on tougher AI Generals.

AT: Give our readers a sample of some of the new units and races they will get to see in WK: Battles.

IT: There are many new units, but one really cool unit is the Arch Druid. He is a new Pagan unit. He has some pretty stunning abilities. For instance, he can convert any tree on the map to a Wood Elemental, a monstrous unit that will do his bidding. The same goes for the other resources on the map, Stone and Gold, which can also be transformed into Elementals. Get really sneaky and he can turn enemy units into trees... Your peasants can even chop them down!! Or the Arch Druid can convert them into Wood Elementals. This leads to a whole new game dynamic, do you get your peasants to collect resources, or do you turn them into Elementals...

AT: One of the most enjoyable moments in the first game (which also gave it a nice RPG flare) was the ability to advance the experience of your units. As for WK: Battles, what do you think players will be enjoying the most in terms of gameplay?

IT: This new way of dealing with resources is certainly going to make people think about what they do more. But what we think is really cool are the new ways to confuse your opponents, both Human and AI. We have several new spells that can be cast. Ghost Armies can be created and sent into battle, or to make your opponent think that you are sending forces in a certain direction. The reality is they are just an illusion, as soon as they are engaged in combat they just vanish (archers will even fire Ghost arrows). You can also cast a confuse spell on your opponent, making him think he is being attacked from all directions.

AT: Your previous game had all the essential qualities of a true RTS. Are you planning to bring any innovations to the genre? Will we perhaps see anything new in terms of strategy (unit formations, a new economy system, or something like that)?

Forest of wood elementals on the move...

Undead, leave no one alive!

War Elephants walking through the snow.

IT: We like games that have interesting choices, rather than just grab all your units and throw them into the battle. In Warrior Kings Battles we have introduced even more interesting choices. Not only do you have to make choices over what formations to use and units to fight each other i.e. Spearmen are good against Mounted units, but mounted units are weak against Spearmen, now you have to consider how you use your resources. Do you chop down trees to build more buildings or convert them to Wood Elementals, do you use your peasant to collect resources or sacrifice them to increase your ability to cast spells. It is those interesting choices that will make the game fun to play.

AT: Judging from the screens it's obvious you'll be using the same engine. What changes have you made since the last game, in terms of visuals?

IT: The game engine has been very much improved on. We now have bi-liner blending on all the textures so you won't be seeing the pixels on the landscape. It can now throw around 3,000,000 polys a second, all the objects like trees animate and blow in the wind (leaves even fall off the trees now). Route finding has been re-written, and there are many more improvements being made as we speak. We have been quite busy.

AT: The AI in Warrior Kings had its bad moments. Frankly, it was unbalanced and even weak at times. The patch didn't seem to help either. So, are you guys working to tweak that AI? Also, tell us more about the new AI diplomacy feature.

IT: We have a totally new AI system in Warrior Kings Battles. We wanted to develop an AI system that did not cheat, there are simply too many games out there where the AI knows where all the units are on the map and therefore has a significant advantage over the player. The AI system we have developed has to scout the map, it can only see what its units can see, just like a real player. This means that it can also be fooled, lure its unit into an ambush and watch the carnage.

There are three levels of AI general that you play against in the campaign, single and multiplayer games. There are 70 AI generals in total to fight against. But it does not stop there; we also include an AI general editor where you can create your own AI generals to play against.

We have also introduced diplomacy for the AI generals, again to give more of a feeling of controlling a human opponent. So, when playing the Campaign or single/multiplayer games you can ally with an AI, they will even approach you sometimes. Some might even form allies against you!

AT: Tell us a bit about the multiplayer.

IT: We have packed Warrior Kings: Battles full of multiplayer game modes in which you can play against any combination of Human or AI opponents, so even a single player game against a couple of AI generals makes you feel like it's an online multiplayer game. You can play a standard game, where you start with a Manor and have to build up your resources & economy etc, as per a traditional RTS. But we now have a couple of extra game modes that are just so much fun to play. King Piece is where you have a King on horseback, if you lose him then you lose the game. Hide him in a building and a flag appears showing your opponent which building he is in. On top of this we have what we call Valhalla, this is similar to capture the flag. Valhalla is point-based, a number of flags appear on the map - you generate points once you're in possession of a flag. The twist is that when your units die they automatically re-spawn back at your base, adding to the fast-paced mayhem.

One big advantage in all multiplayer modes is that they can be saved out at any time.

AT: Well, what can we say in the end... We're really itching to try the game out, so tell us when can we expect it to hit the stores?

IT: Expect it to be worldwide around April - UK street date is 21st March.