fantasy

I've been playing Warlords since the original game came out. I actually still play the original every once in awhile. Every new version of the game improved on the concept with the exception of Warlords 4.

This is about 1/2 the game it should be. There are so many things missing, most notably diplomacy, that simply ruin this game. I honestly believe they ran out of money to make the game.

Warlords and Heroes of Might and Magic are my favorite series of all time. I love these types of games. This game is so bad however, that I actually deleted this game, threw it away and went back to playing Warlords 3 which is a significantly better game.

The only good thing about this game is that when I went to the website to see when they would release the unfinished half of the game many of the posters were talking about a game called Dominions 2. I ordered it and have been playing it almost non stop for 3 months.

Warlords 4 is a solid turn-based fantasy wargame in which you can play 10 different races and create a warlord character that you can take with you in either a campaign of linked scenarios, random maps, skirmishes or multiplayer.

Gameplay is simple to learn and unlike many real-time strategy games, you don't have to manage an economy or build resources. Cities build your combat units and generate income to maintain your armies of up to 8 units each. Each of the races has 8 unique units with different abilities such as archery, fire attack, regeneration, etc. All the units gain experience for successful combat and they become more powerful as the level up. With each new level, you can improve their stats such as life points, combat, or special skills. Hero units in particular can be devastatingly powerful at high levels. You can attach up to 3 of these hero units to your warlord's retinue and bring them with you. This role-playing element makes each of your warlords unique.

Cities are the only thing you can capture and control on the map. Some cities are permanently linked to resources that give bonuses to production, gold, unit strength, and these resources cannot be destroyed or captured on their own. Without the headache of sending out your peasants or workers to mine resources, you are free to spend your time on what matters most: exploration and combat.

Although you can turn off the hidden map feature, it's more fun to play when you can't see the whole map and you are forced to send scouts out to gradually reveal the map. All the maps are dotted with mysterious ruins, dungeons and towers that you can explore (at your peril) to find hoards of gold, experience and magic items. The magic items are particularly useful since you can attach up to 4 of them to your special hero units and grant them additional skills and combat bonuses.

Combat occurs when enemy armies meet in the open or when one army besieges a castle. This is probably the weakest part of the game: the player simply clicks on a unit to send it into the 2D combat map and the AI does likewise. The 2 units trade blows until only one is left standing. You have no control over the unit and special abilities are used or not used on a random basis. If your unit survives, he fights the next enemy and so on until one side has no units left. There is no option to retreat and you can't withdraw a unit once you have selected it. This means you have to sacrifice a ton of weaker units to bring down powerful enemy armies or cities with many defenders. Enemy warlords are particularly annoying as they have tons of life points and are always well-defended in their capital cities.

The graphics are generally good (though you will need a fast machine with a good graphics card to have all the options on), but the units are rather small on the main map and look rather cartoony on the 2D combat map. Spell effects are appropriately gaudy.

Warlords 4 is definitely worth trying if you like the slower pace and more thoughtful play of turn-based games instead of the hectic clicking and micromanagement of many real time games. Give it a try--you might find yourself hooked on this simple, but deep wargame.

What a waste. I really liked the previous Warlords products and played them all. I was expecting some great things from this version. Especially when I found that it would not work properly because it required DX9. Wow! DX9! It must have some spectacular effects. So I upgraded my graphics card (since my old one didn't support DX9) and finally installed the game. Ho hum. Graphics were dull in most parts. Nothing really exciting about them. Nothing to warrent getting a new graphics card for, that's for sure.

Game play is simplistic. Not much thought or strategy involved. Run around the map and destroy the enemy. Got my Heroes way up there in points. Not too hard to do.

Tried the multiplayer stuff. Sad. Here's a great Friday night: gather your friends into your computer room and have them bring their copies of WL4. Install it on all your systems then sit around and WAIT for each person to play their turn! Can you believe that? Sit there and watch the little time bar go across your screen waiting for "player 1" to finish his turn. Wow. Underwhelming, to say the least.

I sent email to UbiSoft asking if there was something about multiplayer I was missing in the woefully un-helpful doc. Never got a reply. Would like to get a refund though.