Strategy mixing AoE and Total War. In Warrior Kings, we built our own state, planning revenge on our oppressor
Warrior Kings is one of those strategy games that, while not revolutionary, appealed to fans of the genre. It offered many tactical possibilities and three dramatically different directions to expand our empire.
The turn of the century is the golden age of real-time strategies. Alongside big titles celebrating triumphs, such as the Warrior Kings can be included in the group of the latter. Although the creation of Black Cactus studio didn't revolutionize the genre, it still had its fans who it with nostalgia to this day. Let's find out why.
Almost like medieval Europe
Warrior Kings transported us to a fantasy world known as Orbis. Its center was the Holy Empire, a theocratic empire where a deity called The One God was worshipped. When the new patriarch took power, he swiftly enforced strict control, accusing not only his opponents but also regular vassals who disagreed with him of heresy and treason.
Unfortunately, the emperor set his sights on the father of the main character - Artos. After his country, Cravant, was invaded by imperial forces that destroyed the capital and murdered the ruler, the protagonist had no choice but to flee to Angland. There, he had to start everything from scratch and build his own state while simultaneously planning revenge on his sworn enemy.
Even at first glance, the plot outline above clearly shows that the main source of inspiration for the developers of Warrior Kings was medieval Europe. Angland clearly brought to mind England, whereas the Holy Empire resembled a blend of the Holy Roman Empire and the Papal State.
It became even more interesting from there because, while treading the path of revenge, Artos could choose how he would achieve his main goal. Throughout the campaign, the devs allowed us to decide which of the three development paths our country would take. We could turn to paganism, remain faithful to imperial ideals, or reject faith in supernatural powers, becoming true Renaissance people. Our decision not only set the course of the story but also affected the scope of our options. Nevertheless, we will talk about that in a moment.
Economy is the strength of every power
First of all, we need to remind ourselves what the gameplay in Warrior Kings looked like. The foundation of the game was a story campaign, which consisted of a series of missions. In each, we had to complete main tasks that advanced the story, along with various side quests. We could pay attention to the latter, but at the same time, no one forced us to do so (although the rewards were sometimes encouraging).
The Black Cactus team didn't try to reinvent the wheel, so the gameplay scheme didn't deviate much from what most other RTS games of that time presented. In the first phase of the game, we focused on setting up the economic infrastructure. We sent subjects to work in the fields and mines, expanded our headquarters, and traded surplus resources.
The situation was made more complex by the fact that our farms or natural resource deposits were frequently spread across a vast area, which rarely gave us the opportunity to create a "compact" base. Moreover, our subjects had to transport the produced or extracted goods to the warehouses. As you can easily guess, such a state of affairs made defending our lands against enemy forces challenging.
Sword aimed at the bloody emperor
In this way, we reach the second pillar of gameplay in Warrior Kings, which is building an army and fighting battles. Besides infantry and cavalry, we had access to more imaginative units, with the specific list depending on the path we selected. As pagans, we could send demons and witches into battle. While following the imperial path, we had armored units and strong fortifications at our disposal. During the Renaissance, we instilled fear in enemy ranks by using cannons, trebuchets, onagers, and even rocket launchers.
This is not the end, as the paths of paganism and the empire offer us access to unique "bosses" - the powerful demon Abaddon and the Archangel, who is a kind of "holy" response to the pagan colossus. They were so powerful that summoning one of them at the right moment could change the fate of a battle.
These battles took place in real-time, and while the number of units and the strength of our army were crucial, choosing the right tactics was just as important. This last aspect involved not only the need to use formations or leverage the strengths of specific unit types (for instance, sending cavalry against pikemen was not the best idea), but also using the terrain's topography.
Warrior Kings offered three-dimensional graphics, and the field influenced the effectiveness and behavior of the units. For instance, when going uphill, the soldiers moved more slowly than when descending from the hills, while the archers positioned on the top had a greater range of fire than their colleagues positioned lower down. While there wasn't the same level of tactical depth as in the Total War series, the options provided by the Black Cactus team were still appealing, particularly if we were used to more simplified systems.
Not everything is shiny
The story campaign of Warrior Kings provided a multiplayer mode where players faced off on expansive and varied maps.
Unfortunately, Warrior Kings wasn't a game without flaws. The artificial intelligence, which tended to ignore our orders, was particularly causing problems. This caused us to sometimes have to "babysit" our soldiers a bit to make them graciously carry out our order. Interestingly, their automatic responses (like defending against attacks for soldiers or fleeing from attackers for peasants) were already working smoothly. The same was true for the units' pathfinding, which was also flawless.
What happened next?
Warrior Kings didn't receive much recognition. A year later, Black Cactus released the sequel, Warrior Kings: Battles. The game offered a new campaign and units, improved AI, and expanded commands.
The team's next project was supposed to be a strategy game set during the time of the Crusades, titled Crusaders: Battle for Outremer. In the end, the project was called off, and the studio responsible for it vanished from the industry landscape.
How to play Warrior Kings today?
Warrior Kings is available on GOG.com for $5.99 and on Steam for $8.99. You can buy the disc version for just a buck, while the prices for its full, boxed editions start from 4 dollars.
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