The strategic choice of factions

About a week ago, I re-bought Warlords Battlecry III, which came out on Steam recently. While I did still have my CD, it had a notorious bug that made it not work on my more modern computer (invisible units and buildings are not much fun), so I'm glad I was able to get it.

I personally have always preferred it to the other RTS games I've played. Why? That's actually a good question, one I had to stop and think about while it was downloading. While there were a couple of other points, the main one was how they handled factions.

The thing is, when it comes to strategy games I feel like choosing which faction you play as should be a meaningful choice. In other words, each faction plays significantly differently from the other factions. While a common core can remain (in WBCIII that core is controlling resource buildings like mines), beyond that choosing a faction influences your strategy.

There's also the personal element of the hero units, which adds another layer of what I like to call "preparational choices", or decisions made before actively encountering your opponent (be it A.I. or another player). A lot of this boils down to how much you are willing and able to risk your hero, dependent on how tough or fragile that hero is. This "situational choice" feeds back into what race and class you picked for your hero, and the skill points you spend as he/she levels up. This kind

This stands in contrast to other RTS games like the Age of Empires series (particularly the first two games), or strategy games in other genres like the 4X Civilization games. In those cases, the central core of what you have to do every game takes up too much of your efforts, and almost every game plays out the same way based solely on what victory condition you go for.



Things can go too far the other way, though, which is how I feel about the earlier games in the Warlords Battlecry series. Both the factions and the heroes fill just a little too pigeon-holed to make situational choices in-game particularly relevant or engaging.

It doesn't make WBCIII a perfect game, but it's one where the overall gameplay stands the test of time, and one I'd highly recommend. While RTS games are a dying breed, it's good to look back at the best of them; and hope that future RTS games learn from games like it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I might just go power through another map with my wood elf warrior and her armies. (Treants backed by druids are cool and effective, what can I say?)