Warlords

User summary:

An early 4X fantasy game from SSG. There is only one fixed map, with no fog of war, a good amount of terrain and 80 cities to conquer.

The game can be set up with any combination of human and computer players in the eight (fixed) factions. Victory is at 41 cities, unless you refuse the surrender, in which case all the remaining powers will concentrate on the player and all 80 must be taken.

One of the problems with the game was the number of units moving each turn would get excessive late in the game. A later patch added the ability to 'vector' units to other cities, which would remove them from the game for two turns... in return to sending them to any friendly city.

Units could stack to eight, and combat is between stacks. Cities occupy four spaces and the entire garrison must be defeated at once. The game also included 'heros' tough units with the ability to explore ruins and either find artifacts or gain magical allies.

The original Warlords would have a profound impact on the entire genre for years to come.