The Information of Rise of Nations

Overview

Fundamentally, Rise of Nations is similar to many real-time strategy games. The player usually starts with a basic city, dispatches resource-collecting workers, creates factory structures with which to build and strengthen their army, and attacks the enemy's army and settlements.
Rise of Nations employs the concept of "territory," as employed in Civilization III; the area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their territory or that of an ally. A nation's borders can be expanded by the creation and expansion of cities and forts, the discovery of certain technologies, and obtaining access to certain rare resources. Other technologies and resources cause enemy units to suffer attrition over time, which can eventually destroy an unsupported invasion force.
Cities are significantly important to gameplay; most buildings must be built within a certain distance of a city, borders are most easily expanded by building and expanding cities, and cities are the only source of the resource-collecting Citizen unit. City placement must be carefully considered, because the player may only build a certain number of cities, usually eight, although more may be obtained through conquest. Because cities are so critical to gameplay, they cannot be destroyed when attacked, but are instead assimilated to the control of the capturing player over a span of several minutes. The side controlling them, however, can adopt a scorched-earth policy and raze the surrounding buildings to prevent their capture.
Citizens (resource-collecting workers) in Rise of Nations don't remain idle after creation until orders are given to them; rather, after a brief pause, idle citizens look for any nearby construction sites, unoccupied resource gathering sites, or damaged buildings and automatically move to build, gather, or repair there. This option can be disabled if desired. All resource patches in Rise of Nations are infinite, unlike the finite amount of resources found in, for example, Warcraft single-player campaigns; the main limit is the player's maximum-collection-rate cap, which must be upgraded via research.
Each of the 18 civilizations in Rise of Nations has its own set of at least three unique units spread throughout the ages, as well as a graphics set unique to their cultural group. Rise of Nations uses a hybrid 2D/3D engine to render buildings, but a 3D engine to render units, terrain, and special effects .
There are six resources in Rise of Nations, five of which (Food, Timber, Metal, Oil, and Wealth) are used mostly to build units and buildings; Wealth can also be exchanged for the other four on the Market. The sixth resource, Knowledge, is different from the others as its primary use is researching technologies; its only other use is the construction of missiles and the last two wonders (Supercollider and Space Program). Knowledge is generated by placing Scholars within Universities; however, each one of the player's cities can only have one University. Each building, technology, and type of unit requires one or two different resources, and each copy of a specific unit or building costs more to build. Both these concepts (resource diversity and "ramped-up" costs), along with the fact that units are also deliberately designed in a Rock, Paper, Scissors weakness system, encourage the player to create diverse, well-balanced armies.
As in the Civilization series, any nation can be played during any age, despite the nations historically having come into existence or having been destroyed at extremely different times in history. Some unique units are based on predictions of what may have been, if certain nations were not destroyed in real-life history. For example, the Native South American nations (the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca) have unique units in the Modern and Information ages, which resemble Iberian-South American guerrillas of real-life history. The end conditions are also made to be historically neutral, in that one can win the game by a capital capture, territorial superiority, researching four dominating technologies, or the usual wonder and score victories. Another perceived inconsistency is that some nations have their historical capital city instead of the current one (or vice-versa). For example, the Turkish capital in Rise of Nations is Istanbul, although the capital of Turkey has been Ankara since 1922. Similarly, the Japanese capital in-game is Kyoto, despite the fact that Tokyo became the capital in the 19th century. It is also worth noting that the same city can be built by multiple nations: if the Romans, Greeks, and Turks are found in the same game, it is possible that the cities of Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul can exist as separate cities during the same game, despite the fact that these are different historical names for the same city.
A single player campaign, Conquer the World, is included in the game. It is comparable to the board game Risk, except that attacks on enemy territories take place during in-game battles, which can last as long as 90 minutes depending upon the scenario. The campaign map is similar the same as Risk's, but luck is less of a factor. The player can also purchase reinforcements or bonus cards and engage in diplomacy with other nations. The campaign starts at the Ancient Age and progresses slowly over the course over the campaign to end at the Information Age. Within the context of a battle, it may be possible to advance to the next available age (and thus benefit from the associated potential unit upgrades in that battle).
Rise of Nations uses an ELO rating system to rank players.

Gameplay

Gameplay focuses heavily on creating a balance between a heavily aggressive and militaristic attack and developing a strong economy and center of production. Players who develop a balance tend to be better than players who focus specifically on one or the other.
Because every unit in the game has its counter unit (for example, pikemen kill knights), and terrain and military tactics matter, a keen sense of generalship is required to make the best use of one's army. Flanking maneuvers are made possible as attacks from the side and, to a lesser extent, from behind, will do more damage than frontal assaults. A general unit can be used to fast march an army to outmaneuver an opponent or move to where it needs to be quickly, create decoy armies to draw enemy fire or create a diversion, camouflage an army to make them temporarily invisible or "dig in" infantry troops and thus increase their defensive capabilities. Terrain also plays a role on a tactical level: attacks from higher ground are more effective, and, from a defensive standpoint, units in rocky areas are better protected whereas units wading in water are more vulnerable. Several tactical formations are also available, including the ability to compress or expand the line of battle. When a formation is chosen, the selected units automatically reposition themselves accordingly, typically with faster moving units in the front and slower moving, vulnerable units in the rear. With sufficient skill in creating proper unit distributions in an army and fielding that army, it is possible to defeat a numerically superior enemy in Rise of Nations.
In a manner similar to chess, slight strategic mistakes early in the game can turn into major tactical problems later on. For example, a poor and hasty placement of a city in an empty piece of land when some more reconnaissance would have shown a superior wood placement site can lead to severe wood gathering problems later on since a lumbermill must be built within city boundaries and serves to automatically enhance the productivity only of those wood gathering sites that are within the city's limits.
It is common to find a shortage of resources early in a game, but usually, as the game continues, the gather rates rise and these shortages disappear.

Units

There are more than 200 different types of units in Rise of Nations, ranging from the Ancient Age Hoplite to the Information Age Stealth Bomber. Military units are created at certain structures: the Barracks, Stable/Auto Plant, Siege Factory/Factory, Dock/Shipyard/Anchorage, Airfield, Missile silo and Fort/Castle/Fortress/Redoubt. Unit types such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry and Ranged Cavalry are upgraded as the player advances through the ages. These upgrades usually represent revolutionary changes in their particular field. For example, the Arquebusier of the Gunpowder Age becomes the Musketeer of the Enlightenment Age, representing the great advantage of flintlock muskets over the earlier matchlock muskets and showing increased attack power and reload speed. Also, each nation gets its own set of unique units. For example, the Greeks can build Companion cavalry, the Russians can build Red Guards infantry and T-80 tanks, the British can build Longbowmen, Highlanders, and Avro Lancaster Bombers, and the Germans get the Tiger and Leopard tanks.
Because of the wide variety of units in the game, players have the opportunity to create an army customized to their tastes. Most units have a cost that is roughly equal to that of their peers. Additionally, most units use only two resource types, making creating diverse armies easier and almost required. Terraced costs further contribute to the incentive for a diverse army, as each additional unit a player creates of a single type will cost more.

Reception

Rise of Nations received mostly positive reviews from most websites and magazines and won several awards. However, there were significant problems with multiplayer gaming.

The Information of Battle Realms : Winter of the Wolf

Overview

Winter of the Wolf just like the first Battle Realms, follows the basic formula for many real-time strategy games. All of its factions have similar buildings, with similar uses, and workers. However, the workers in Battle Realms, unlike in most other real-time strategy games, are able to transform themselves into military units. Thus, buildings are not used for "making" units, but for "transforming" units. The most important units in Battle Realms: peasants; farming, building, and training into military units.

The basic worker units are called peasants in Battle Realms. Peasants gather the two resources in the game: rice and water. They also round up horses, which can be used by most other units in the game and can provide additional payload for peasants. Peasants can build all of the buildings in the games.

Peasants are the only units the player can produce outright. Most of the buildings available are schools where peasants are trained into a variety of other units. For example: sending a Wolf peasant to a Combat Pit will train it into a Brawler; a Ballistic Grounds will train it into a hurler; a Quarry to train it into a Mauler. These can be trained further into advanced units by sending them into the remaining schools. For example, sending a Brawler to a Quarry or a Ballistic Grounds will produce a Sledger or Ballistaman, respectively. Peasants can have a maximum of three levels of learning; two clans have four.

Another difference in unit generation is that peasants are produced automatically without any cost. However, the rate at which new peasants are produced slows down as your population grows.

Certain buildings can teach special techniques (called Battle Gears or special abilities) for a price, giving new abilities to aid units. They can also allow units to defeat higher tier units they normally would have a problem (or be killed) from.

Another key element in Battle Realms is Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are only obtained in battle. Yang points are for the Dragon and the Wolf clan(light clans) while the Yin points are for the Serpent and the Lotus clan(dark clans). They are used to summon Zen Masters, upgrade units, and strengthen attack damage of heroes. Some clans can use these Yang/Yin to power a powerful nuke or give units Battle Gears. The farther units are from their base, the faster Yin or Yang can be harvested.


Story

The story begins with Grayback, the last heir to the Wolf clan's throne, explaining that long ago that life was better for their clan before the storms came and drowned their paradise. They were saved from death by their druidess order using their clan's most sacred treasure the white wolf's skull, given to them by their clan's totem, the white wolf.

The skull took them to the lands of the Serpent empire where their new neighbors the Serpent and Lotus clan welcomed them as allies but unfortunately they trusted them. Thinking that their lives seemed simple and good again little did they now that Lord Zymeth of the Lotus clan made a deal with the Serpent emperor and attacked them by surprise. The Serpent clan looked away as the Lotus burned their towns and killed their people, many wolvesmen tried to fight back but were unsuccessful, the survivors of the battle became slaves in the Lotus shale mines, ever since then Grayback trained his fellow miners in the arts of war, led them to rebellion and struggle for freedom from the grip of their slave master Mistress Yvaine.

Wolf Zen Masters

Grayback- Leader of the Wolf clan with a pick axe for a weapon. His battle gear "Wolf's Howl" gives his allies a temporary damage bonus at the cost of stamina.

Longtooth- A Wolf clansman armed with boomerangs has the ability to make his boomerang pass through buildings and units damaging everything in its path continually draining his stamina.

Gaihla- Not much of a fighter and naturally the weakest Zen Master of all but with a decent battle gear that heals all nearby allies at the cost of stamina. Her Idle Animation helps rice grow faster if you make her stand near ricefields.

The Shale Lord- This shale monstrosity used to be a wolf slave turned into an experiment that went wrong. His Battle Gear allows him to rip out some of his shale flesh and armor an ally at a small cost of health.

Wildeye- This Maniac (as Longtooth would call him before Grayback went to Yvaine's fortress) is armed with a drum which he uses to attack his opponents heads off or to use his Battle Gear which summons a spirit wolf to his side at the cost of stamina. These spirit wolves can then be used to aid other members of the Wolf clan.


Units

Dragon CLan: Guardian and Battle Maiden. Hero is Teppo-chemistry and pyrotechnic mastery

Serpent Clan: Enforcer and Witch(Demoness with appropriate Battle Gears). Hero is Taro-enchanted blade and magic curse mastery

Lotus Clan: Reaper and Overseer. Hero is Yvaine- ice mastery

Wolf Clan: Digger and Dryad. Hero is Wildeye- summoner of spirit white wolves mastery

The Information of Battle Realms

Overview

Battle Realms follows the basic formula for many real-time strategy games. All of its factions have similar buildings, with similar uses, and workers. However, the workers in Battle Realms, unlike in most other real-time strategy games, are able to transform themselves into military units. Thus, buildings are not used for "making" units, but for "transforming" units.


The most important units in Battle Realms: peasants; farming, building, and training into military units.

The basic worker units are called peasants in Battle Realms. Peasants gather the two resources in the game: rice and water. They also round up horses, which can be used by most other units in the game and can provide additional payload for peasants. Peasants can build all of the buildings in the games.

Peasants are the only units the player can produce outright. Most of the buildings available are schools where peasants are trained into a variety of other units. For example: sending a Dragon peasant to a dojo will train it into a Spearman; an archery range will train it into an Archer; an alchemist hut to train it into a Chemist. These can be trained further into advanced units by sending them into the remaining schools. For example, sending a spearman to an archery range or an alchemist hut will produce a Dragon Warrior or Kabuki Warrior, respectively. Peasants can have a maximum of three levels of learning; two clans have four.

Another difference in unit generation is that peasants are produced automatically, at no cost. However, the rate at which new peasants are produced is inversely proportional to the current population of the player's army.

Certain buildings can teach special techniques (called Battle Gears) for a price, giving new abilities to aid units. They can also allow units to defeat higher tier units they normally would have a problem (or be slaughtered) from. For example, the Dragon Archer can get a BG called Flame Arrow or a BG called Zen Arrow. These 2 BGs are from different buildings, and they can change the Archer dramatically. With Fire Arrow, this unit will be a base-sieger but with Zen Arrow the Archer would be a reconnaissance unit.

One of the key element in Battle Realms is Yin and Yang. They are obtained in battles. They are used to summon Zen Masters, upgrade units, and strengthen attack damage of heroes. For instance, 2 yang points can be spent on Art of Massage to increase the healing rate of Dragon Geishas, or 4 yin points on Poisoned Weapons to make 2 Serpent units stronger. Some clans can use these Yang/Yin to make a powerful nuke or give units Battle Gears. The farther units are from their base, the faster Yin or Yang can be harvested.

The 4 clans are very different, from the units, battlegears, and innate abilities, to higher tech tree levels. Like the Lotus and Wolf get 4th tier units and Dragon can summon a devastating inferno on the battlefield when the Serpent has a super powerful unit. Many more surprises in different clans make them more diverse.

Every clan has a different back-story and different things corresponded:
Dragon: fire, summer, east, ferocious, honor
Serpent: water, autumn, west, adaptive, domination
Wolf: earth, spring, south, sturdy, freedom
Lotus: air, winter, north, intellectual, corruption

Story

"I am the Nightvol. I am the Dark."
The story begins with a young traveller, Kenji, son of Lord Oja, the former ruler of the Serpent clan, narrating the events that lead to today's world.

The Horde was destroying everything in its path. Tarrant the Elder, leader of the Dragon Clan and Kenji's ancestor, was forced to use the Dragon Clan's most sacred and powerful treasure, the Serpent's Orb, that was given to them by the clan's totem, the Dragon itself. With it, he saved his people from the Horde, but at a terrible price. The continent was cut in half, and various other clans were affected. The Dragon's people, traumatized at the events, reawoke as the Serpent Clan.

The Lotus Clan, living peacefully on their island, away from the troubles of other clans, suddenly found no seas and their land besieged by the Horde. In desperation, some of them embraced the Forbidden Path, the dark side of the Lotus, and acquired tremendous power. With the little magic they had learned, they fled their island and established themselves in the lands of the former Dragon clan.

The Wolf Clan on their island experienced destructive storms due to the Dragon's Fury, and were forced to use their clan's treasure, the White Wolf's Skull, given to them by their totem, the White Wolf. The power of the Skull guided them to lands of the Serpent Clan, where they intended to live their lives peacefully once again. However, The Serpent clan had made a deal with the Lotus clan and allowed them to enslave the Wolf clan to work in their shale mines.

Generations later, Kenji witnesses Serpent bandits butchering a peasant village. Should Kenji join his clansmen and teach the peasants their place? Or he could save the peasants and slay the bandits? Either way opens up the two paths to the story. Kenji could rejoin the Serpent Clan and become its master. Or he could reawaken the Dragon Clan, a clan long dead.

Play Details

Unlike in most Strategy games, all units in Battle Realms have a melee attack. However, missile units have drastically weaker melee attacks, usually making them weak at melee. Units are very detailed and have different and interesting martial art fighting animations. Units can dodge projectiles if they run fast enough and projectiles have different speed and fire at different angles.

A unit's attack has a property - either cutting, piercing, blunt, explosive, magic, or fire. The property of a unit's missile attack may also differ from their melee attack. Each unit has resistances to particular properties and weaknesses to others. For example, the Dragon Samurai has excellent resistance against cutting, but a poor resistance to explosive. This means that a Serpent Swordsman's cutting attack would hardly dent the Samurai's health, but the Lotus Diseased One's magic attack would drastically reduce it. Ex: a 1st tier Wolf unit called Mauler can defeat a 3rd tier Lotus unit Warlock in 1v1 battle. This showed that this game is very balance and the units you use at the beginning of the game will have to be used at the end to ensure victory. Although a melee unit can usually defeat a missile unit, the melee unit may fail if the property of the missile unit's melee attack is the weakness of the melee unit's, and the melee unit's attack is a strength of the missile unit.

Generally, the best combination of properties is blunt and explosive. This is because no unit, other than the Serpent Necromancer, has resistance against both blunt and explosive - a unit is weak against one or the other.


The Necromancer. An undead monstrosity summoned by sacrificing four Serpent Ronins.

Most units have an innate ability, whether it be the Spearman's immunity to height advantages or the Infested One's area of effect attack. These could be supportive, such as the Kabuki Warrior's idle animation which regenerates peasants' stamina, or offensive, such as the Blade Acolyte's idle animation, which sharpens his blade and increases its damage.

Every unit has two status bars: a green health bar and a blue stamina bar. Stamina is used for most Battle Gears, as well as running, increasing a unit's speed until all stamina has been depleted. A unit can also regenerate (albeit slowly) their health until it reaches the green zone (about 75% of health bar); the Wolf Clan units can regenerate theirs to full. Healing in this game takes a different approach to other games. In Battle Realms, healers automatically heal a unit when its health reaches the yellow zone (50%) or red zone (20%). They then restore the unit to 100% hit points immediately. However, they can be ordered to heal units near full health. Healers in Battle Realms become a very powerful unit because they heal to full hit points in one charge. Dragon Geishas and Serpent Fan Geishas use 1/2 to 1/4 of their stamina while Lotus channelers sacrifice a raven. Due to their speedy regeneration (regen to 100%, even before they upgrade their healing speed), the Wolf Clan uses no healers, instead using druidesses to entangle enemy units.

In Battle Realms, the player is limited to four watchtowers. Furthermore, each watch tower doesn't have an attack on its own, they act as scout towers. To give them an attack, one must place units inside them. The unit then attacks using their range attack, if they have any. A unit inside a watch tower has longer range as well as a 50% damage bonus. Towers also have special abilities depending on the clan that depletes their 'tower charge': the Lotus have black lightning which strikes an area that the enemies are in for heavy damage, the Wolf have horns which drastically slows opponents down and deals moderate damage, the Serpent use flash powder to blind all attackers and lower their resistances, and the Dragon has a gong that dazes/stuns invaders when striked.

IN WotW - all the clans devised their own ways to defend against watchtowers.
Dragon: Battle Maiden - Power Transfer give allies bonus attack when she siphons Tower's energy

Serpent: Witch - Vampiric Gaze give allies bonus health when she drains Tower's energy

Wolf: Dryad - Sapping Ritual give allies bonus defense when she osmoses Tower's energy

Lotus: Overseer - Tower Corruption damage enemies when she channel Tower's energy.

Battle Realms' environments are not simply for eye candy. Trees are not impassable, and there are advantages to passing through trees, such as restricting enemy units' vision. Furthermore, the trees of a forest may block missile attacks until they get destroyed by them. However, traveling through forest will reduce a unit's speed, and certain trees have birds in them that automatically take flight if any unit runs underneath them, alerting the other clans to your unit's presence. Cliffs, trenches, hills and other height differing places can give units bonuses to attack and defense. Melee gets a -+25% while missile units can get -+50%. Units are slowed down by slopes when walking uphills and when it's raining except certain floating units. Fire is put out when it's raining and rice grow faster. Even burning pieces of buildings fallen down would hurt your units.

The Four Clans

Dragon Clan: The Path of Righteousness

The Dragon Clan tech tree for Battle Gears

The ancient Dragon Clan prize honor above all rest. Yang followers with honor as symbol. They scorn the use of firearms, preferring to fight honorably. Their warriors seek to become one with their weapons. In spite of the lack of the firearms, only four units do not have a ranged attack; the Spearman, the Geisha, the Guardian, and Peasant. Although they may seem to be the beginner's clan, they do have their own advanced strategies that make them dangerous, such as the dragon's spirit ability called from the dragon monument, if one places four samurai and has 3 yang points, one can summon a fiery inferno upon any place on the map. Some examples of their warriors abilities are Sacrifice, Flame Swords, Mirror Image, Stunning Strike, Skin of the Dragon. Courage and bravery burns like eternal flame, the Dragon Clan is indeed offsprings of heaven Fire. Dragon's season is summer.

Specialty: 1 extra hero in Keep, Tao *therefore it's possible to have 6 monks instead of 4*
Dragon Monument that allows players to use Dragon Spirit, a powerful nuke.
BGs accquired through 2 buildings
Collect horses to mount soldiers

Serpent Clan: The Way of the Wicked

Descendants of the Dragon Clan, the Serpent have forgotten their honorable ways and have resorted to thievery and deceit. Yin followers with domination as symbol. Unlike their Dragon ancestors, they do not scorn the use of firearms; instead they have learned to employ its use in many of their fighting arts. Even though the Dragon knew how to use gunpowder, it was the Serpent who uncovered its secrets. However, the serpent have not forgotten magic, nor its usefulness, they sometimes sacrifice 4 high ranking ronin to the necromancer's throne for the services of the undead sorcerer. Some examples of their warriors abilities are Yin Blade, Demonic Amulet, Sniper Scope, Paralysis Darts, Smoke Bombs. Stealthy, flexible, cunning, the symbol of snakes is everywhere in the Serpent Clan, from poison weapons to fluid-like, deadly personalities make the Serpents children of Water. Serpent's season is autumn.

Specialty: Necromancer Throne to summons the Necromancer, super unit of Serpent Clan.
BGs accquired through 2 buildings
Collect horses to mount soldiers

Wolf Clan: The Spirit of Might

The wild Wolf Clan prize freedom above all else. Yang followers with freedom as symbol. Unlike the other clans, they have no cavalry, nor do they have healers. They feed the horses to their wolves, which accompany them and partake in their battles. Their wounds knit amazingly fast, faster even with the use of herbs. They prefer melee combat but their ranged fighters pack a punch. They know a little magic, and much of what they do know is tied to nature, a berserker, if enough well versed in magic, could transform himself into a ferocious werewolf. The Wolf Clan is perfect for new players to the game, though they have enough secrets for experts as well. Some examples of the warriors' abilities are Tunneling, Lycanthropy Curse,Zen Counter-punch, Enchanting Totem, Nature Blessings. Down to earth and in strong bonds with nature, the Wolf Clan members are carved from the Earth. This is true both physically and mentally. Wolf's season is spring.

Specialty: BGs are accquired through Blessings by Druidnesses. Cairns are needed to obtain these blessings.
Wolf units can get Shale armors
No healers. All wolf units heal 100% when idle.
4th tier unit- Werewolf
Horses are fed to cubs of wolves. 1 horse = 2 wolves *instead of riding on horses like Dragon and Serpent clans
Peasants send to Wolf Den will turn into Pack Master

Lotus Clan : The Essence of Darkness

The Lotus Clan is the remnant of a Yang Clan of old, but now a Yin Clan. Yin followers with corruption as symbol. They follow the Forbidden Path, which centralizes around death and decay. Their religion centralizes around three ancient brothers, now long gone, who tend to the Yin side of the Tree of Life, the Tree of Corruption. The Lotus Clan’s strategy centralizes to their immense understanding of magic, which translates to unit abilities and Battle Gears. Only the Channelers have no BGs because they don't use black magic like the other Lotus so the Brothers can't bless them. They have some of the most powerful Battle Gears in the realm. Their Warlocks and Master Warlocks have three sets of Battle Gears, whereas the other clans have two. A side note, to become a Warlock you must conquer Death and Decay, the principles of the Forbidden Path, however, even as one conquers these pitfalls, warlocks are not the sturdiest in the melee. Only master warlocks however have eliminated their human form and rely on strong constructs of metal and bone, thence Master Warlocks are nearly immortal, save to the power of flame, their only weakness. Some of the Lotus warriors’ abilities are Servant of the Flesh, Tausil's Life Siphon, Inner Strength, Death Wail, Lythis's Soul Thresher. Wide knowledge and compelling wisdom, with a tad of evil and manipulation, makes the Lotus Clan symbol beautifully flies through the wind but one must not forget its deadliness. The Air power of Lotus Clan is unmatched because of Zymeth magic as well as all the Warlocks. Lotus's season is winter.

Specialty: 3 Brothers of the Crypt give BGs to Lotus units. They leech staminas off the enemies when fighting and use staminas to give others BGs.
Towers have built-in teleporting mechanism
Horses and turned into Shadow Steeds *instead of normal horses of Dragon/Serpent clans which Trample, Shadow Steeds use Fire Breath
4th tier unit - Master Warlock

Zen Masters

Zen Masters take the role of heroes in this game. Zen Masters are the leaders of the clan; who make certain each clans' survival. They are summoned at a cost of Yin/Yang, as well as rice and water. Their Battle Gears are unique, and can turn the tide of a battle in an instant. To balance this out, unlike Warcraft 3, these heroes can only be purchased at near end of the tech trees. Usually assuming the role of lords, mercenaries, wizards, demi-gods and even monsters. They are summoned from Keeps and various places for certain races. Monks are enlisted for the Dragon and Wolf clans, while Ninjas are hired for the Serpent and Lotus clans.


Lotus Master Warlocks paying tribute to their Zen Masters, the Lords and leaders of their clan.

Dragon Clan

Otomo-This swordsman can, with a battle cry, inspire troops to hit harder and stronger, his innate ability allows him to regenerate the stamina of his allies when fighting.

Garrin-This horseman can summon a steed (even from an enemy stable) to aid him in battle, he is a specialist at the art of horseback and is immune to height advantages.

Arah-This female archer can use her arrows to 'see' far off terrain, her shots rarely miss. Her arrows are filled with fiery flame. She represents Fire aspect of Eastern Dragon.

Kazan-A large sumo performer, and one of the four Elemental Brothers, he dons a massive gourd filled with his own flammable brew, which he spews upon enemies with much abandon, as he is well acquainted with fire, he is nearly immune to all forms of it.a very effective with buildings

Tao-The master monk/ninja of yin and yang, he uses the balance to his advantage, he reflects the strength of his foes back upon them. With him in play, players can summon 2 extra monks(2 ninjas in the campaign respectively).

Teppo (only available in the Battle Realms expansion "Winter Of The Wolf")-A genius from a far off land, he uses his dragon wheel invention to hurl several rockets a second at his enemies.

Serpent Clan

Shinja-Ruthless and warmongering, this dual swordsman can intimidate all around them, sapping them of attack strength, furthering the fears of all, he uses poisonous blades. He is a realist and magical attacks do him no harm.

Budo-Fat and none too handsome, this slave driving sumo uses his whip to speed up peasant movements, after so much eating, he has the highest endurance of all zen masters.
Utara-This deadly fan geisha has a voice that can soothe the soul, or kill it, her songs can sap her enemies strength and kill them. Her powers extend into the arcane as well, she stuns all units when taking harm. Utara's fluided, poisoned, sonic screams make her the Water aspect of Western Serpent.

Vetkin-A young handsome womanizer, this sai master saps the will of his enemies and can run faster than a horse can gallop (save Garrin's) and never seems to run out of sprinting energy.can go to the whole map without spending stamina the fastest of all units(in term of stamina, but Raiders are truly the fastest).

The Necromancer(super unit, but can be killed by Zen-counterpunch of Brawler)-This undead sorcerer has lived for ages, and is older than all, save for lord Koril and the Dragon deity, he summons spirit warriors to do his bidding and summons the fallen corpses of his enemies to follow suit.

Taro (only available in the Battle Realms expansion "Winter Of The Wolf")-A cowardly prince and Kenji's older brother, he uses an arcane curse to make other vulnerable to his enchanted blade.

Wolf Clan

Grayback-a strong and courageous chieftan with a pickaxe from the mines, his voice encourages those around him to dish out massive amounts of damage while defending with greater effect.

Longtooth-this boomerang throwing wolf clansman can throw his boomerang through bone, stone, flesh and blood, he can also run through rough terrain unhindered.

Shale Lord-this shale monstrosity was once an eloquent, young speaker of the wolf slaves turned into an experiment gone wrong by his lord soban, he can flake off part of his shale flesh and give it to his fellow wolf clansmen, at the cost of much health. When fight, he gains stamina.

Gaihla-this nymph of the woods did not truly come to fight, but if she must, then the forests, animals, and nature itself are with her, her song is utara's undoing, she heals all of her fellow nearby wolf clansmen's wounds. She is always unhindered by forests, and the environment is always on her side, even the rice so vital for life grows at supernatural rates. High Druidness/Demi-god of Mother Nature, Gaihla's power get her the title the Earth aspect of Southern Wolf.

Wildeye (only available in the Battle Realms expansion "Winter Of The Wolf")-this drumsmaster can beat out a tune for summoning sacred spirit wolves, or for crushing his enemies heads, he can distribute his sacred wolves amongst his fellow clansmen.

Lotus Clan

Zymeth-lord warlock and leader of clan Lotus, Zymeth's sphere of sorcery is weather, he blasts balls of lightning onto his foes as a ranged attack; and can call heavy storms to his fields at the cost of much stamina, when raining, he calls lightning from the sky to sear his foes asunder, as well as regenerate his rice paddies with utter swiftness.

Koril (master of space)-the eldest of all warlocks, this swordsman can warp space itself, with a wave of his hand he can teleport any where. He also uses his powers for defensive effects, any archers or ranged attackers will become furious at the way he shimmers and diverts nearly all ranged attacks, even some of Arah's though not many.

Issyl (master of time)-some may wonder why a young twelve year old boy sits at the Lotus high council, none feel better when they learn that this is Issyl, master of time, who has aged backwards since an accident long ago, he has the ability to move his troops rapidly with a mastery of haste. He can also regenerate his flesh at an incredible rate, faster than anyone's, even the nymph Gaihla.

Soban (master of matter)-onced dismissed as a tinkerer, this mechanical arm inventor has no equal, even including Teppo. He creates animated golems, using them as workers and as self destruct bombs, convenient for crowd control and gathering.

The Three Brothers (Lynthis, Tausil, Sekh)-the three brothers are dead, yet their spirits live on, it was they that once tended the tree of life, the tree of corruption. Lynthis pruned the roots, Tausil guarded the trunk, and Sekh cut the leaves, they often return to give their allies their blessing, they also suck out the will of an enemy, spiritual sustaining their stamina.

Yvaine (only available in the Battle Realms expansion "Winter Of The Wolf")-this old ice hag can freeze enemies in a mach two gale of freezing air, her own presence slows enemies and friends down. When angered, she flings bolts of ice at all. Complete control over the the High Plateau cold blizzard, Yvaine is known as the Air aspect of Northen Lotus.

Top 5 Real Time Strategy

Sebagai seorang Gamer saya mempunyai catatan tentang beberapa game yang saya anggap bagus. Berikut List-nya

1. Battle Realms @Winter of The Wolf Expansion Pack

2. Rise of Nations Series

3. Command And Conquer: Generals

4. Age of Empires III

5. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2