Warrior Kings: Battles

Warrior Kings: Battles is a real-time strategy game from British developer Black Cactus. It was published in Europe by Empire Interactive and in North America by Empire together with Strategy First. Released on March 21, 2003 in Europe and September 30, 2003 in North America, it is the sequel to the 2002 title Warrior Kings. The story takes place a century after the original game, with the Empire of Orbis broken into warring states.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, the game combines resource management, base building, and unit combat with an alignment system: all players begin as a basic faction and can develop into one of three unique paths—the religious, knightly Imperial; the occult, demon-worshipping Pagan; or the logic-driven Renaissance—each featuring both historical and fantasy unit designs. Gameplay focuses on gathering three resources: food, materials, and gold. These are not available until delivered to a village and then carted to the main base or warehouse.

Materials and gold come from forests and mines, while food is grown on farms, with growth speed depending on soil fertility. A portion of food delivered by farmers is deducted to feed fighting units, with the deduction rate based on the ratio of farms to food-consuming units. Villages and resource buildings can be placed anywhere outside the base walls, but most military and economic structures must be built inside, with each new building expanding the walls.

Some special units have a mana bar for magic (absent from all Renaissance units), and certain alignment-specific structures—like the Imperial cathedral or Pagan temple—also have mana bars that can be refilled through prayer or unit sacrifice. Units fall into seven broad classes: Light (mostly ranged), Heavy (melee), Cavalry, Siege, reconnaissance (scouts), Demonic, and Special. Some units belong to multiple classes—for example, a "gibbering horde" is both a demon and light infantry.

Each class has strengths and weaknesses against others, such as demonic units being weak to special units and heavy cavalry vulnerable to heavy infantry head-on. Overcoming these handicaps requires careful use of terrain, formation, positioning, and attack mode. Units are built at a base level and can be trained for better effectiveness using attack dummies.