Random post but does anyone remember the old game series Warlords? I was playing the remaster of the first game and it got me wondering why that type of game hasn’t been built out in a modern series. I think Warlords IV was the last game made and III was the pinnacle, but the simplicity of a big open world map with castles and stronger main warlords plus armies and fantasy monsters … it’s pretty good stuff.
The core gameplay is really fun … would be cool to see something with the added complexity of Civilization combined with the Warlords model. Anyone aware of any modern games in the last few years that emulate a similar type of gameplay?
Hi. You maybe reached the only person within earshot who even knows what you're talking about.
I get the digest and just happened to catch it and sometimes pop out of the lurk.
Unfortunately, I can't help much. We could try GoG; when it was not available on there, there were many who complained, and presumably some are still there.
I could yammer endlessly about Warlords... how I played it in my dad's friend's basement with his kids (my contemporaries) on his black and white Mac... how I played it in my own basement as a teenager... on and on. I was never good at it and probably never even totally understood the concept. I just enjoyed it.
I think there were some attempts to modernize it, i.e. the RTS versions (Battlecry), which actually did fairly well critically at least, but not with the RTS crowd (I think Starcraft existed by this point). The developers went on to do Puzzle Quest and some other stuff. It's set in the same universe, I think, Erathia, and fun fact, the main designer dude guy (not sure if it's his wife who is the other designer or what) also did the music for all the Warlords, at least the turn-based ones, and I think he did the music for Puzzle Quest too. I could be wrong about all of this.
Anyway It was always rooted in wargaming, i.e. the beer and pretzels wargaming, board games, and the nerdy "grognard" type stuff (how do I even remember these terms). That is kind of making a comeback now, along with D&D and whatever, but now it's nerdy kid stuff instead of nerdy old man stuff. I don't care; I'm just happy it's happening (I was never an old man playing these things anyway... well I will be!)
All that said, I suppose there are some "fantasy" type Civ-alikes that are similar to both Warlords and Civ... kinda... But if I recited them, would it be anything you don't already know, or just Master of Magic clones? I know you don't mean Master of Magic or Heroes of Might and Magic... If you meant that, you'd have said so, and maybe 2.3 people could reply on Master of Magic and 134 and 1/2 people on HoMM.
Maybe my yammering will attract others to your question. Again, some stuff comes to mind, and maybe it was influenced, but to my mind, stuff like Warlock is probably more inspired by MoM and maybe HoMM. On the other hand, MoM itself was inspired by Civ and was meant to be a Microprose fantasy Civ since they published Civ in the first place (and of course X-COM and plenty of other stuff Take Two now owns... guess they must have just bought them out at some point). You could check out some games inspired by Master of Magic, but it kind of leaves behind some of the core aspects and simplicity of Warlords.
Actually, that might be part of the issue, is it is too nerdy, too slow, too "simple" for modern standards, and the Civalikes sort of steamrolled the whole concept into a mainstream street pancake.
Suppose we could ask the devs! Presumably they are known more for Puzzle Quest at this point.
