Warlords Battlecry III

Warlords Battlecry III, a real-time strategy title from Infinite Interactive, hit shelves in 2004 as the third game in the series and a direct follow-up to Warlords Battlecry II. Though it plays mostly as an RTS, it borrows from role-playing games: players can take on optional side quests, build a custom Hero who gains levels from one fight to the next, and outfit that Hero with powerful, one-of-a-kind gear.

The campaign blends an overhead strategic map with real-time battles. Unlike its predecessor’s Risk-style territory board, this game splits the world of Etheria into numerous locations—mostly cities—that players travel between, each offering different events. Nearly every map location contains a mission to play, though some stay hidden until others are finished. Locations also feature shops, academies, and mercenaries for hire. When a mission starts, the game shifts to real-time combat reminiscent of Warcraft or Age of Empires. Players manage four resources—Gold, Metal, Crystal, and Stone—to build structures and train units. Resources come from neutral buildings that can be captured or temporarily destroyed, and they generate automatically without any player input. While magic and spells exist, victory usually goes to whoever fields a bigger, better army and micromanages their Hero more effectively. By the late game, a Hero can become so powerful that they can single-handedly cut down dozens of ordinary soldiers.

The game stands out for its replay value, thanks to a diplomacy system and a large roster of races. Depending on which missions a player completes and which race they chose at the start, they can become Enemies, Neutral, Friendly, or Allied with each of the 16 races—being Allied makes that race playable. Backstory-driven biases make it harder to ally with historically hostile groups, like Dwarves and Plaguelords, but it’s still possible.

Warlords Battlecry III offers more factions and hero types than earlier entries, with 16 races and 28 character classes. Heroes command retinues—loyal soldiers who follow them into battle—and the unit level cap jumped to 20, up from 7. The human faction split into two new races: the Empire and the Knights. Three entirely new races—Swarm, Plaguelord, and Ssrathi—were added, while every older race got at least one new unit, sometimes several. New magic schools appeared: Arcane, Poison, and Divination.