Battle Realms + Winter of the Wolf

When Battle Realms was released, the RTS genre sadly suffered from a heavy infection of WW2itis. Every game had to have a WW2 setting and especially every RTS had to have tanks und Nazis. And then there was Battle Realms. No tanks, no nazis, not even a single shred of japanese Kamikaze fighters. Instead we got samurais and ghosts and demons in a mystical Japan of legends and tales. Sure, we got ressources and buildings and we could group our units with selection frame, thus Battle Realms was surely a RTS. But BR had more. A unique "Special Power" system, where you had to act aggressive to gain enough points to upgrade your units, but also had to be cautious to not waste your limited ressources carelessly. You had foot soldiers who could mount horses to become a mighty cavalry. Forrest were usefull to hide your infantry for surprise attacks, heavy rocks could be thrown down from cliffs on your enemies bases. You had a lengthy beautiful SP campaign, you had multiplayer. And you had the first RTS using this fancy new shader thingy Nvidia had put in their GeForce 3 cards. But Battle Realms proved once again that innovation and commercial success exclude each. Most people were content playing with tanks, they didnt need anything else. Sure, astoningshly enough there was an addon to BR, but overall ... BR was not a commecrcial success. There are several reasons why, but the main reason still exists today: You cannot make game full of new and innovative things and expect it to make billions like Call of Duty or The Sims.

Battle Realms is *THE* RTS for people tired of learning build orders to spam the same 2-3 units to inevitably win. This RTS is about strategy, knowledge of the game units and micro-management during battles. And beautiful medieval japan mountainous sceneries. It is worth playing just: - for its unique medieval Japan ambient and environment (and music)(and units, at least as good/fun as the Starcraft 1 ones) - for its 3 SP campaigns - for the very different playstyle of each clan, against one of the many different AIs (if you're not into online or LAN games) Its most unique feature is the formation system: all units first spawn as simple peasants, then they train in one, two or three buildings (one being melee, one being long range, one being explosives/specialized), to become a new unit. You can pick any one-formation or two-formation unit and complete his formation (going through one or two more formation), to become a two-formation/three-formation unit. Note that three-formation units are indeed costly and longer to train, and often a little bit more stronger in their specialization, but will get slaughtered if attacked by the right unit (even a one-formation unit): there is no "super" unit to mass produce and automatically win. One exception to the multi-formation system: geishas/fan geisha/channeler/druidess, the peasant is replacing her at the temple/bath house, they can't be follow a new formation. ... 1) A complete offline experience: As said above, for people not interested in multiplayer RTS, there is many different AIs (with more than 10 parameters defining their personalities and playstyle - some of them really like to synchronize their attacks and defenses with their allies) to play in "skirmish" mode (nb: you can give regroup-troops/look-at orders to allies, it works wonderfully), while the game has a SP campaign for the Dragon, Serpent, and Wolf clans. 2) A large diversity of gameplay-relevant elements, while still keeping a good accesibility: For me, it's the best overall RTS, as anyone can play it and still do well with it - people who never played a RTS and pro-players will both enjoy it, this is really amazing. And don't worry, the skill "ceiling" is really high (thanks to all the unique abilities, maps and "races"). There is 4 races, in each race there is 7 to 8 (beside healers) very different units, each units has two different acquirable abilities (along with its innate ability), and 5 to 7 unique Zen Master (heroes bought with Yin/Yang earned in combat). That's nearly 70 different units-abilities: there is everything you'll need, and more. Examples of these "innate abilities" specific to each unit: - the Sumo cannon is throwing purifying salt in front of him when idling, it reduce the next damages taken by 50% for nearby allies and himself. - The Kabuki warrior, when idling, is juggling with orbs of energy, encouraging peasants to work faster (not to be confused with the slave master, Budo, and his whip ability). - the Dragon Warrior, even if rather fragile, is an inspiration for nearby allies for his courage, and will give them a small damage bonus when he's attacking. - Bandits (one of the best units in the game, in terms of character and fun to play) can loot corpse, giving you some of the resources spent for it. - several units will "curse" their enemies (through various effects) when dying, hurting their enemies and/or boosting their allies. - Zymeth, if the weather is currently stormy, will call lighting on his targets. - the Necromancer will spawn zombies out of fresh corpses near him - etc... 3) Attention to many details: The voice acting is top notch (even in the french version !), same with the music (really good OST) and environment sounds, all these things really adds to the immersion. Also, the amount of details is incredible: the terrain type, slope angle (height) and unique innate ability (active when attacking, or defending, or idling, unique for each units) are influencing the combats. Meanwhile, the environment has its own complete vegetation (including various trees that you can burn to damage enemies and get better line of sight), frogs, rabbits, birds and such. Also, running instead of walking while in the forest will often send birds flying away, telling out your enemies of your movements: you can make a diversion, using a fast unit - or risk being detected and ambushed by rushing to your objective. You'll also learn to cherish (and damn) rain: it makes the rice grow much faster (helping out low pop players trying to build a new army/base a LOT) and extinguish fires on trees and buildings. If you made a small squad of Raiders (incendiary units), and Zymeth is in the place (he has the power to cause rain), you might want to turn them into Ronins (even if they're pretty vulnerable to Magic attacks) 4) A balanced game: Everything in this game is balanced, thanks to an excellent initial design and several balances patches (who drastically changed many gameplay elements, in the right way): - if you're low on population (after a bloody battle), you gain new pop faster than your enemy who has his army ready. It means that to win (or be defeated), the attack has to be swift and brought to the enemy base. (!) However don't be fooled, winning a battle in the middle of nowhere will grant you some Yin/Yang points, used to spawn heroes and acquire upgrades. You rarely go for the kill immediately, first the Yin/Yang through battles/skirmishes, then the final battle(s). - if you're lacking one of the two main resources, you can always use one to help the gathering of the other resource: water can be used to water the rice fields, rice can be used to build a well next to a hut. There is no limited resource, only limited population. - if you've got less buildings, resources and time than your incoming opponents, you can always pick the right "weak" (one-formation only) units that are stronger against the type of units your enemy is using, use their unique abilities to strike your opponent's army and prevent them from winning just because they've got a bigger army. A smart player can make the difference. - if you're suddenly invaded by enemies, you can always relocate your base elsewhere and effectively survive, thanks to a faster pop regain rate (when on low pop). It means you have to scout ahead and supervise the battlefield if you don't want a peasant to escape when crushing an enemy. ... 5) Customisation of your MP (against AI or humans) games: You can choose how much horses are available (horse can be used by troops to move faster / gain height / attack, or by peasants to carry rice/water), the speed of the game, the rice growth rate, the population cap, the starting army, the Yin/Yang gain rate, when creating a game. Personally, I prefer a low population of horses (AIs are too good at rushing for them :P and I hate losing a poor horse in combat), medium game speed, medium rice growth and Yin/Yang gain rates, no starting army and low or medium population cap. ... 6) Conclusion: I've never been that good at RTS (I can barely handle myself at Starcraft MP, with european beginners), and always hated the RTS games where all you had to do, was applying the same tactic to produce more units than your opponent. Battle Realms is the only RTS I would play at anytime, with anyone. It's a RTS, without the usual flaws plaguing these games. I really recommend it, even -especially- to non-RTS addicts. If you want more informations on the games and the units, you can go there: http://www.battlerealms.cc/content/units/

This game brings back a lot of memories. I've spent countless hours playing it when it came out in 2001. The gameplay is great, and the campaign is pretty good too. There are 4 clans in the game: Dragon, Serpent, Wolf and Lotus. The battle realms campaign lets you play through by choosing the dragon or the serpent clan, so it has a good replay value. However, the winter of the wolf campaign can only be played with the wolf clan. Battle realms is different than other rts games because you can't summon vast armies in a couple of minutes. At the beginning of a game you have 1 hut, and peasants start appearing in front of it. Peasants can be used to collect resources, build structures and to train them into battle-ready warriors. A major part of the game are the zen masters, who take the role of heroes. Zen masters are leaders of the clans, which makes them very powerful and useful. They can be summoned from a keep and it costs some Yin/Yang, that can be obtained by successful battles.The game also has a multiplayer and a skirmish mode with computer opponents. These features make the game very addictive (it also has great animations). You don't even have to be a rts fan to like Battle realms, so I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't played this wonderful game. Trust me, you won't regret that you spent those 10$ :)

I had the demo version for this game for ages, and I loved it. The feel was just so different from anything else. For it's unfortune, the game got released around the same time as Warcraft III and got little goverage. As a matter of fact, it was years later that I actually got my hands on a retail version, and bought it instantly. To this day, I've never seen the expansion set sold anywhere, except here. On the surface, the game plays like a regular RTS, with some twists. Building and resource management are mostly as usual, but the differences start from there. First of all, you will need to train your workers for combat units, except for heroes which are hired elsewhere. Your workers will spawn from Peasant Huts automatically, with the pace slowing down the more you have. So as an example the less combat units you have, the faster you can gather resources, and if you get your attack force killed, you'll get peasants faster, balancing the gameplay somewhat. Consecutive training in different buildings results in different units, and most units can be trained again in a different building, resulting in a stronger, more versatile unit type. The buíldings and basic units can be divided into three classes: Melee, Ranged and Technologic/magic, the last usually being ranged as well. Training in two buildings results in a combination, for example, training in a technology and a ranged building usually results in an artillery kind of unit. Training a unit in all three types results in the elite unit kind, which each clan has one of. For example the Dragon Clan has samurai. This mechanic results in somewhat smaller and more limited strike groups, so it is not as easy to win with sheer numbers. In addition, certain unit types are weak to certain others, so the composition of your troops makes a great difference. Finally, in addition to normal resources, you can gather Jin or Yang --depending on the clan you are using-- by doing combat. This resource is then used to buy upgrades or recruit heroes. So you can't just hole up and upgrade your units to the max, rather engaging in combat is usually beneficial even early on, because that means you can probably squeeze in an upgrade or two. The story is typical, but interesting enough. It follows the story of a wandering swordsman named Kenji -- your main hero, and his exploits in a war torn land. In the single player campaign the player will face choices which decide the clan you play with --the traditional Dragon or the technologic Serpent-- and the clan you ally with -- the primitive Wolf or the decadent Lotus. It will also decide the heroes you'll have on your side. Technically the game is on par with the games of it's age, perhaps even a bit prettier. The maps are teeming with life and are dynamic to an extent. For example, hurrying through a forest will make birds take flight, and this will be shown as an indicator on the map -- one your enemies will be able to see as well. The graphics have aged fairly well for a game of this age -- this game had the fortune of being released around the time of Warcraft III in this respect. Games of that age have generally aged well. All in all, I can't understand why this game remained so hidden all these years, because it truly is an enjoyable, atmospheric experience. Recommended.