User Reviews (1 - 11 of 15)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Fun and easy to learn

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 15
Date: January 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'[m not a hard-core gamer, and I don't spend all my free time playing games. RPGs that are huge and complex are more trouble than I want to go to, and strategy games with dozens of complex tradeoffs that take weeks to learn are way beyond my interest.

This is a fun, easy to learn game that you can play for a little bit at a time and have fun with. There's enough strategy to add interesting elements, but much of the game is concentrated on D&D-style combat between parties of creatures, which makes it fast-paced and enjoyable.

If you are a hard-core gamer, I suspect you'll find this pretty facile and get bored with it. But for the casual player like me, this is a terrific game.

Shine your blade and prepare your mind

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 18
Date: November 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game compiles an incredible amount of strategic game engines. It has a great mixture of RTS, RPG, and Turn Base style game-play and can be refreshenly addictive. This game will expand your imagination and make time-taking more productive. You won't regret purchasing this game unless you perfer mindless action and eye-straining 3D graphics.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I have played every Warlords.This latest game is the best of the turn-based releases.It seems to have a little of all the previous Warlords games in it,from the first one to the Battlecry games.I loaded the game and right away down-loaded the patch before i played the game and have had no problems at all.The game is smooth and stable.Combat is all new from previous Warlords games.It is much more hands on,although you can default all combat to the computer if you want to speed it up or don't want to spend the time playing it out.It is much harder to capture cities.The units also seemed to be more balanced with no single unit really dominating in combat.If you like the Warlords series you won't be disappointed with this game.I have been playing the remade Illuria scenario(original Warlords scenario)for about 30 hours now and I am not half way through yet.

Warlords the Magnificent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: March 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Excellent game play. It seems that every aspect has been considered in the creation. Lots of fun!

Same old

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: February 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Most players that have interest in this turn-based game have probably already played Warlord 3 and those will find 4 to be very much the same old game with some relatively minor modifications. Not that that's a bad thing - I used to like 3 and I like 4 quite a bit too. I like the turn-based style and this is one of the very few turn-based titles remaining. The ability to develop characters is also a plus. Even though they are very simplistic the economic models of maximizing resources under constraints are fun for all civilization and family fans.

The drawbacks are:
- Simplistic strategies - at the end of the day the strategy changes very little from one scenario to another.
- One on one combat - the way the game goes a unit fights another unit then after the battle is resolved the surviver takes on another unit. This style of combat gives almost no chances to even very large armies if they are faced with a single very strong unit. For example, I have a hero with Heal +5, combat 25 and life 50 - the guy can basically single handedly go through almost unlimited number of opposing units.
- Flying units make terrain irrelevant - I think the map could be more of a factor and strategic maneuvering more important had it not been for the fact that most races have some kind of a strong flying unit (Pegasus, Archon, etc.). With the flying units in the game things like control of bridges, crossroads and mountain passes become irrelevant.

Overall, I don't play many games these days but this is one I enjoy. I wish they would change it a little more to allow for a little more varied play and richer strategies but then again I am just glad to see a turn based title - a dying breed.

Surprisingly good

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: April 14, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My first experience with the Warlords series goes back to Warlords II. Ancient as it was (had to jury rig it to run in Win 95), it was a good game then and remains one in its latest incarnation.

Warlords IV retains all of the old charm from its early editions and adds features such as a 'campaign scenario' that takes the hero through a series of quest adventures and a story line. It permits the player to retain built up heroes for subsequent scenarios. The game also gives the various races more distinctive attributes (advantages and disadvantages). The computer players' artificial intelligence is enhanced and can be tough to counter.

Its charm lies in two features. A hotseat mode allows multiple users to participate in the same game, switching the active player as each turn progresses. My only problem is that it no longer scrambles turn order randomly from turn to turn. The other feature is that it is a real strategy game, unlike so many 'build a village' games that are actually real-time tactical exercises that have little to do with real strategy. RTS is anything but truly strategic and is a deceptive misnomer.

For a fun, addictive game that a host of people can enjoy together, try Warlords IV.

A solid fantasy wargame

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Warlords 4 is a solid turn-based fantasy wargame in which you can play 10 different races and create a warlord character that you can take with you in either a campaign of linked scenarios, random maps, skirmishes or multiplayer.

Gameplay is simple to learn and unlike many real-time strategy games, you don't have to manage an economy or build resources. Cities build your combat units and generate income to maintain your armies of up to 8 units each. Each of the races has 8 unique units with different abilities such as archery, fire attack, regeneration, etc. All the units gain experience for successful combat and they become more powerful as the level up. With each new level, you can improve their stats such as life points, combat, or special skills. Hero units in particular can be devastatingly powerful at high levels. You can attach up to 3 of these hero units to your warlord's retinue and bring them with you. This role-playing element makes each of your warlords unique.

Cities are the only thing you can capture and control on the map. Some cities are permanently linked to resources that give bonuses to production, gold, unit strength, and these resources cannot be destroyed or captured on their own. Without the headache of sending out your peasants or workers to mine resources, you are free to spend your time on what matters most: exploration and combat.

Although you can turn off the hidden map feature, it's more fun to play when you can't see the whole map and you are forced to send scouts out to gradually reveal the map. All the maps are dotted with mysterious ruins, dungeons and towers that you can explore (at your peril) to find hoards of gold, experience and magic items. The magic items are particularly useful since you can attach up to 4 of them to your special hero units and grant them additional skills and combat bonuses.

Combat occurs when enemy armies meet in the open or when one army besieges a castle. This is probably the weakest part of the game: the player simply clicks on a unit to send it into the 2D combat map and the AI does likewise. The 2 units trade blows until only one is left standing. You have no control over the unit and special abilities are used or not used on a random basis. If your unit survives, he fights the next enemy and so on until one side has no units left. There is no option to retreat and you can't withdraw a unit once you have selected it. This means you have to sacrifice a ton of weaker units to bring down powerful enemy armies or cities with many defenders. Enemy warlords are particularly annoying as they have tons of life points and are always well-defended in their capital cities.

The graphics are generally good (though you will need a fast machine with a good graphics card to have all the options on), but the units are rather small on the main map and look rather cartoony on the 2D combat map. Spell effects are appropriately gaudy.

Warlords 4 is definitely worth trying if you like the slower pace and more thoughtful play of turn-based games instead of the hectic clicking and micromanagement of many real time games. Give it a try--you might find yourself hooked on this simple, but deep wargame.

A mixed bag with a fatal flaw (for me)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I am a serious fan of the Warlords series and have owned all the turned based games and all of the BattleCry games. The first three Warlords (TB) games were seriously addictive. In fact, I still find myself playing way past the point when I should have gone to bed. I even have an old DOS system where I keep my old games and there you can find Warlords I and II (as well as x-com's, Betrayla at Krondor, Master of Magic, etc.).

In other words, I'm a fan.

Warlords IV is a beautiful game with a visually rich world like those found in BattleCry. Cities are well-rendered and interesting. Units are varied and have tactical advantages and disadvantages that are consistent with the opposing units you will fight. The combat system allows you to choose which unit you will use to fight - and it allows you to change your fight order in mid-battle (something the earlier games would not allow). The city interface is a little confusing at first, but quickly becomes easy to use. Production cues are added so that you can plan out the tactical advantages of combined unit types in advance.

The game is very challenging, but the greatest challenge occurs only in combat with cities, because those walls are always shooting at you.

Now for that flaw. I like to play large maps with lots of cities and eight sides. In this mode, the game took FOREVER to play. I would make a couple of moves, square up my cities and hit the 'end turn' button. Then I would sleep for a few hours and go out for dinner, then come back and wait for the computer to move through the AI players. (Okay, that's an exaggeration). But really, as the games progressed the turns lasted at least 5 minutes. Once, I got up and prepared a bowl of cereal as a snack - AND ATE IT - before the time was up (no lie). I play on a speedy laptop with lots of ram and I set all the game options to the fastest possible.

By the end of my first (post-tutorial) game, I would hit the 'end turn' button and set the computer aside so I could watch the news as the game moved through players. That can't be good. However, I was determined to send a powerful army to an opponent's capital to try and take it. It took a long time to create the army, 45 minutes just to get there and I still lost 7 of my 8 units. But really, I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to try. It was so boring that I didn't want to do any more, so I quit.

Now, I may try one more time, but I probably won't. I will probably just keep playing War3 and shelf this one next to the disappointing end of the x-com series.

Oh, well.

p.s. - If you are a Warlords fan, by all means get this if you can get it cheap. You might tolerate the mind numbing waits better than I did and thus enjoy the other great aspects of the game.

Not as bad as people say, but not great

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game isn't as bad as some of the other reviews say (especially once you get the patch), but I would agree that it's not great. The main problem is that they removed some of the nicest features from previous versions of the game:

1. No more "King of the Hill" feature. To win, you have to capture every other enemy capital. That gets pretty boring once you've established an invincible supply chain. At least you don't have to conquer every city; you just have to capture every enemy capital.

2. No more unit vectoring! Removing this was a big mistake. The new "production waypoints" system, as people have said, is a step backwards and can be a MAJOR hassle to tinker with once you've built a large empire.

3. I agree that magic items have become kind of wimpy now (though I don't agree with whoever said that heroes have become expendable--you won't feel that way when you see what a very high level hero can do). Exploring ruins usually isn't a good gamble unless you have a very strong stack. Otherwise, you'll lose units in the battle, and the reward is rarely worth it.

4. The AI is still very predictable. Basically, the computer will always choose the fastest route to its target, meaning that if you can take control of the obvious transit routes, the AI will have a hard time positioning its troops to attack you. So I don't agree with the reviewer who said that strong flying troops negate the effect of terrain. In practice, it doesn't work that way, because the AI (stupidly) always tries to use roads if it can. You almost never have to protect your flank.

On the plus side:

1. Magic, though still too weak, has been seriously upgraded. There was virtually no reason to fool around with magic in previous versions of the game; at least now the spells are stronger and the magic system is more complex.

2. The graphics are a lot better. But no one has ever played the Warlords series for the graphics.

3. Combat is more balanced. Plan on losing more units than in the past. You also have to think more carefully about how to put a stack together. Hint: having an archon and a unicorn in the same stack can be VERY useful, because they bless and heal your troops (respectively).

4. The game is stable and loads surprisingly quickly.

Disciples II is better

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: November 24, 2004
Author: Amazon User

My bottom line is that if you want a more engaging and more appealing turn-based fantasy strategy game, go for Disciples II. The only draw-back of Disciples is that there are only five races (human, undead, demon, dwarves, and elves). Warlords have more.

My biggest gripe about Warlords IV is the animation and the graphic; it's really bad. I suggest you download both demo of Warlords and Disciples and compare the artwork and gameplay. Another problem is that there are no real resource management... no gold to mine and no mana to collect. Also, each race has only 6 units! The human race has the swordman, bowman, knight, siege engine, archon, and a hero. In comparison, the human race in Disciples has almost 20 different battle units, ranging from assassins to white wizards.

Some of the drawbacks of turn-based strategy are evident in Warlords, but the negatives outlined above didn't impress me. If the price is low, I guess then it isn't a big concern.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions