Gameplay

Resource system

Battle Realms handles resources a lot differently that other RTS games. Your economy and army are based on Peasants. As Peasants are given to you, you can send them to collect resources, or send them to training facilities to become soldiers. That means you can’t “buy” a military unit like most RTS games, you need to convert one of your peons to get one. There’s also a very low cap on the number of units you’re allowed to have in comparison to other RTS games. Most single player missions are limited to 30 units, and this is also the default on multiplayer games. The rate of peasant growth is out of your hands too – when you have little they generate quickly, but if you have more than two-thirds of your population limit they generate very slowly. Building more peasant huts may increase the growth rate, but it didn’t feel like it to me.

A dead village

The Dragon

He's full of himself

What the hell does all this mean? It means that your “army” is small; about 15 units on average. If you try to make a bigger one, you’ll be sitting around a long time. You also need to be careful with how many peasants you have gathering resources. Too many and you can’t have an army, too few and you won’t be able to build one.

The AI in Battle Realms is almost too good. In some older RTS games units had a problem where if one unit in a group was being attacked, the others wouldn’t help him. In Battle Realms the opposite happens – if a unit is being attacked all of the units around him will help. Sounds good, but there’s a catch. Your units will actually chase after any unit that attacked them, sometimes right into traps. It’s actually difficult to hold your troops back from running across the map to settle a score. There are commands to stop your units from doing this, but it’s still hard to keep them in one place. I also experienced an odd thing where if you ordered melee units to attack a specific target, they would just stand there after the target was killed – even if a battle was raging around them. This is probably just a bug, but the running after enemies doesn’t look like one.

Worlds Apart

Building units in Battle Realms is very different than other RTS games. You build training structures that specialize in certain aspects of combat, melee for example. If you send a peasant into a training facility, he’ll learn that skill – no big whoop. Battle Realms’ hook is that you can send units to multiple training facilities. Send a peasant to the melee and ranged facilities and he’ll become a third unit that can do both. Send him to three types and he’ll become yet another unit. Some high-level units require more work – the Lotus Master Warlock requires two Warlocks (which take three training sessions already) to combine in a fourth building. It’s actually not complicated, and works well in the game. I like it because it’s something new, and you can build high level units fairly early in the game since the three basic training facilities are available to build from the start.

Dragon know-it-alls

He's not that big

Farming is so peaceful

Like other RTS games, Techniques in Battle Realms allow you to upgrade a basic feature of a unit (more health, stronger attacks, etc.). Most units can have multiple techniques. You can also equip units with “Battle Gear” – basically a spell the unit can cast as a special ability. Some clans require units to go into a building to gain Battle Gear, others require a special unit to “bless” other units with Battle Gear. All together, the Battle Gear system adds to the micromanagement aspect of BR’s gameplay. Since every unit can get one or two types Battle Gears, every unit can cast a spell in combat. This is very different from the spellcasting-only units in Starcraft. This system can have your head spinning trying to keep up with it, but after a lot of practice it grew on me. I liked that every unit was important in the game, and that each unit is very unique with Battle Gear.

Another addition to the RTS world in Battle Realms is the Yin-Yang system. As your units fight and kill enemies, you can gain Yin-Yang points. You need these points to research techniques and summon Heroes. This is good for several reasons. First, there’s a huge incentive to fight. You can’t “turtle” inside your base; you have to go out and fight or your opponents will out tech you. You’re also rewarded for fighting more, since you can do more research with more points. If you’re losing battles, you’re still gaining Yin-Yang points so you can keep up with your opponents. A great idea on Liquid’s part.