TBS Help me remember a TBS game

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Guys, I just thought of a old TBS game whose demo I very briefely played, but stopped because I could't into TBS and English at the time. I don't remember much of it, tell you the truth, only that it had units that were dinosaurs, I think I remember Velocipators or something like that, and it came in a demo on my Caesar II cd, which makes me think it was probably a game by Sierra (the CD wans't by Sierra, but a local magazine through), because there were also demos of Pharaoh, Zeus and a futuristic FPS I don't remember.

 

[sser]

The Brazilian Slaughter

 

[Lorica]

Eh, this doesn't make sense with the timeline, but what jumped to mind was:

Civilization II: Fantastic Worlds--The Age of Reptiles, if I remember correctly.

EDIT: Lords of Magic is awesome, sser!

 

[spectre]

Maybe this?
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dino-wars
Basically an Archon clone with dinosaurs, so you get a chess board and an action sequence to decide the outcome.

EDIT: Er, nope.

 

[sser]

The Brazilian Slaughter

I looked at some screenshots and yes, this is it! LORDS OF MAGIC!!!

YOUR RECEIVED ARCHIEVEMENT: FOUND GAME FOR FELLOW BRO!!

Now let's talk about it: Is it good? Which know titles compare to it?

The game is showcased on the inside sleeve of the Lord of the Realms II CD-case, that's how I knew what you were talking about. For some reason, I carry a memory of kinda oggling the pictures wondering if I should pick the game up. It came out in '97 after CaesarII and LotRII, back when Sierra was dropping strategy games left and right, but I never really played much of it besides probably the same demo you did. It has similar gameplay elements as the LotR series as far as I know, but with a fantasy approach. Pretty sure it was a total hit or miss with people back then and was not as well received as the LotR series. I really love that picture, though, and instantly knew what you were talking about based on your details because of it.

 

[Lorica]

It was one of my favourite games for a while after it was released. I much prefer it to HoMM3, of which it is something of a clone/imitator. I think it has very little in common with LotR other than the name.

What to say? It's like HoMM with the strategic/tactical division. You have heroes, like HoMM, that lead armies (3 heroes and 9 squads of regular units apiece). They participate in combat and play pleasingly differently between 3 classes though less radically across factions. Armies aren't HoMM doomstacks, they're units of men or individuals that occupy up to 9 slots. They gain experience, they can be replenished when they die so long as the unit isn't destroyed, etc.

Heroes come in the warrior/mage/thief variety. Warriors are warriors. Mages need to research spells (overland and combat included). Thieves can sneak, detect other thieves, knockout enemy heroes allowing you to imprison, torture and ransom them... Heroes can be equipped. You have a main hero, a lord, whom you must keep alive. One neat strategic element is a rush to liberate the holiest site of opposed factions, forcing the lord of that faction to swear fealty to you--basically you flip part of the faction, taking the rest of it out of the game, and getting a backup lord/superpowered hero.

Units are gorgeous and fun. I could talk a long time about them.

Castle building and such is pretty rudimentary, though pleasing in general.

No random maps, though there's a map editor and the complete edition comes with a few scenarios. Generally, it's a pre-set campaign where the whole world is against the super powered death faction.

What else do you want to know?

 

[Internet]

I had a lot of fun with this game back in the days.. However, you should know that while the overland map is turn based, battles are in real time (pausable if I remember correctly).

 

[Ashery]

Bought it on GoG a month or two back because I had fond memories of the same demo, but, sadly, while the turn based overland portion of the game played quite well, I was left with a terrible impression of the actual combat after finishing the tutorials and starting an actual game. Maybe I just didn't learn the nuances enough, but it uses the rather sloppy real time combat that was fairly common at the time and it seemed like challenging encounters could only be overcome by borderline exploits.

 

[Lorica]

If my decade old memory serves, part of the key to victory is using hier tiered units, making full use of magic, and getting good complements of both by capturing unit generating buildings from a variety of factions. You know, Order cav and Life archers supported by a mage with a decent complement of spells to get through the toughest.

 

[Ashery]

If my decade old memory serves, part of the key to victory is using hier tiered units, making full use of magic, and getting good complements of both by capturing unit generating buildings from a variety of factions. You know, Order cav and Life archers supported by a mage with a decent complement of spells to get through the toughest.

It wasn't just about the strategy of it; it was that the overall feel of the combat was far too clunky to do anything approaching finesse. When it seems like the best strategy is to abuse a thief hero's stealth and ranged attack, there's something fundamentally flawed with your game.

Lords of the Realm II, however, despite having a similar degree of clunkiness, wasn't nearly as punishing for it for a number of reasons: Combat wasn't on such a small scale, troop experience didn't matter, the player could easily out econ their opponents, and probably a bunch of others. Because of that, I find myself still enjoying an occasional revisit to LotR2.

 

[Lorica]

Sounds like I need to reinstall to refresh my memory. I do recall that from the start of the game, before much advancement on the strategy screen, my favourite strategy with Life was using the Warrior lord to aggro enemy hand-to-hand combatants, using cav to flank and either attack enemy ranged units or to pick off weaker enemy infantry, and just murder storming enemies preoccupied by the Warrior... It's not very intricate strategy, but it's not something that you need to abuse to beat. Higher tiered enemies need higher tiered friendlies, though. Is that where you're having to abuse Thief abilities? Not to target you, but strategic problems translating into poorer tactical performance is I respect in the game.

What faction did you play?

 

[felipepepe]

I played that game to death as a kid. Was fun, but horribly unbalanced and the more you explored the map, the slower turns passed, to a point it was almost unplayable in my shitty PC, so I got used to play defesensevly with the "Life" champion.

EDIT: Wow, I still got the cd:

Ahh... the glorious days of BRASOFT... shame they died.

 

[Ashery]

Sounds like I need to reinstall to refresh my memory. I do recall that from the start of the game, before much advancement on the strategy screen, my favourite strategy with Life was using the Warrior lord to aggro enemy hand-to-hand combatants, using cav to flank and either attack enemy ranged units or to pick off weaker enemy infantry, and just murder storming enemies preoccupied by the Warrior... It's not very intricate strategy, but it's not something that you need to abuse to beat. Higher tiered enemies need higher tiered friendlies, though. Is that where you're having to abuse Thief abilities? Not to target you, but strategic problems translating into poorer tactical performance is I respect in the game.

What faction did you play?

I initially tried out Air but also gave Life a try or two.

What you're describing is exactly what I *don't* want in an RTS. I don't like needing to aggro shit and dance around.

 

[Kalin]

It may not be the most balanced nor complex title out there, but it is still very much a great game, well worth playing for its excellent atmosphere alone. The lore is refreshing and enjoyable, and the barter system was surprisingly sophisticated for its time. It is, in fact, still superior to the imitations found in modern Civ games. Then you have all the optional dungeons, their artifacts and so forth, and the spells you can research. Oh, and hey, you can use your thieves to kidnap enemy lords, torture them for information and execute them!

Plus, dat music:



Vaarna rising!



Luzur to the rescue!


Also, check out Konjad kicking some serious ass:

 

[catfood]

^ the music was one of the highlights of the game, for sure.

 

[sser]

Game's on sale btw.

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Mustawd]

Now let's talk about it: Is it good? Which know titles compare to it?

The Brazilian Slaughter

 

[Silva]

Tried to play this as a kid but between clunky gameplay and a slow PC I gave up. These days I would just play Age of Wonders 1, frankly.

 

[sser]

I physically cringed when I went to this thread to update and saw it was five years old

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Now let's talk about it: Is it good? Which know titles compare to it?

The Brazilian Slaughter

I downloaded it but didn't play

Now I want to download it again

 

[Mustawd]

I downloaded it but didn't play

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I downloaded it but didn't play

The damn "Games to play" list only expands...