Warlock Multiplayer thread

[Barthheart]

It's not really CiV with magic. It's all about killing the other mages. Very simple city building, very simple diplomacy. Great magic and army building. Lots of nasty neutral players and monsters. Just today in our game I had a herd of spiders (is that the right word for a whole shit load of spiders?) kill two of my units as I was trying to find their nest.

So not really a game where you can try to win by peaceful means.

[Tuna]

It's not really CiV with magic. It's all about killing the other mages. Very simple city building, very simple diplomacy. Great magic and army building. Lots of nasty neutral players and monsters. Just today in our game I had a herd of spiders (is that the right word for a whole shit load of spiders?) kill two of my units as I was trying to find their nest.

So not really a game where you can try to win by peaceful means.

Looks like civ, but it's not.. Barth explains it best.. It's still a blast... especially MP.

[MetalDog]

I'll second MP blasting.

[BanzaiCat]

One thing about Civ V is that it restricts growth so you're not planting cities around you willy-nilly. In Warlock, you have zero such restrictions and CAN expand with abandon if you wish. Your only limitations are going to be geography (but there's ways around that as some spells allow you to change terrain).

You do have to pay upkeep for units, and some of the more awesome ones can cost a crapload of resources (gold, food, and mana sometimes, depending on the unit).

Magic does kind of sort of take the place of tech from Civ V, but one thing I REALLY like about Warlock is the spells you can research (there's five you can choose from at any one time) are randomized, though some of the more powerful spells tend to be later in the game. However, this is not guaranteed and you can sometimes have access to some very VERY powerful spells early on. I enjoy this randomness to it. In Civ V you will have your own preferences when it comes to technologies and while you may have a few different paths you might take depending on your Civ and on your world placement, in Warlock your spellcasting is totally up in the air.

If you get Warlock, get the DLC. Get ALL the DLC for it as it's very very cheap right now. They add even more to the base game. One thing I didn't really like about the base game is that you're limited to about eight or so (correct me if I'm wrong) mages. Each mage is pre-built, BUT, you can customize them and change their abilities before the game starts if you want, so there's some flexibility there. One of the DLCs adds a few more mages, including my current favorite, the Dragon Queen (aka "the hot chick" as someone said in our MP game today - can't recall whom that was at the moment). I like her because Humans are her race but she's an Elf, so she has access to Elf units. I don't think Elves make an appearance in the base game, but they become playable with that DLC.

One DLC has an 'armageddon' game mode where the world is being invaded by something called the Dremer. And they will kick your butt. When they appear, they appear with little towers that are damn near impossible to bring down and a unit or two that are very tough. Oh yeah, and they'll change the terrain around them permanently (though I think there are some spells that might counter that). VERY challenging scenario and worth it as well.

There's also monsters in the game world - as Barthheart mentioned, spiders are one set. There's also ratmen, rats, imps, Ogres, and lots of other beasts. Warlock WILL screw with you by dropping some randomly throughout the world at times. So, you can't just keep a ton of military units on the far front lines; you are forced to spread them out to deal with random incursions like this. And there are gates to other worlds - in the game setup you can select how many other worlds there are, but they will be heavily defended by some badass enemy units you won't find in the 'normal' world.

Monsters WILL attack your units and your cities, and they can capture your cities. Neutrals may do the same though I haven't seen them be very aggressive. If you take out a mage's capital but haven't taken all their cities, all their other cities go neutral, which is kind of cool too.

You can make alliances but you can break them as well. The AI will hose you over in that regard. My latest AI game has two other powerful mages on my continent. I managed to get into an alliance with both of them. Then they went to war with each other. One asked for my aid so I thought why not and joined in. Then later the one I went to aid decided to back out of the treaty and declare war on me. So I fought both of them. Then I made peace with the OTHER AI player so I could focus on the first one. After that peace was set in, a few turns passed and the second AI declared war on me again. The first one offered me peace, so I took it and turned to fight the other.

It can be a free for all. A glorious, awesome, random, thoroughly enjoyable, chaotic free for all.

[MetalDog]

Well said.  So, are you in endfire?

[Shelldrake]

Count me in for the next MP session.

Endfire, if you get the game perhaps we can have a MP warm up game since I am also fairly new to Warlock.

[bob48]

Warlock is worth every penny, and so are the add-ons. Get 'em while they're cheap. Its a great game.

[undercovergeek]

It's not really CiV with magic. It's all about killing the other mages. Very simple city building, very simple diplomacy. Great magic and army building. Lots of nasty neutral players and monsters. Just today in our game I had a herd of spiders (is that the right word for a whole shit load of spiders?) kill two of my units as I was trying to find their nest.

So not really a game where you can try to win by peaceful means.

I'll be the first to agree that I think the collective term for spiders is a 'whole shitload'

[bob48]

Ask Martok, he'll know.

It probably something like 'Oh FUUuuuuu...........'

[BanzaiCat]

The "Monster Eating Spiders" (the brown ones) aren't all that tough. The other ones, the blue ones, which I can't recall what they're called, are NOT pushovers and will hurt you. The only other monster unit that makes me cringe are the Ogres.

It really sucks when you're exploring for many turns and find a really sweet spot for a city, but a few hexes away is an Ogre Den with five or six Ogres around it.

Monster dens of any kind will spawn monsters regularly, sort of like Barbarian settlements in Civ V.

If you're thinking of taking the plunge, please do so. You won't regret it. If you played the old Master of Magic PC game, you'll see a lot of similarities with that game and this one as well.

[Martok]

Bloody hell.  Reading this thread is making me want to buy the damn game again.  As if I don't already have enough fantasy-strategy titles to occupy me (FE:LH, AoW3, Worlds of Magic, the Sovereignty beta) as it is...  >:( 

Ask Martok, he'll know.

It probably something like 'Oh FUUuuuuu...........'

Well, you're sort of in the ballpark, at any rate.  How does one spell "strangled-whimpering-that-doesn't-quite-turn-into-full-blown-screaming"...? 

[endfire79]

Warlock at $6.79 sounds tempting after checking it out.  Gotta get a few gems on sale before its game over during the baby time in February  :)

[Shelldrake]

Warlock at $6.79 sounds tempting after checking it out.  Gotta get a few gems on sale before its game over during the baby time in February  :)

Go for it! Great game!!

[undercovergeek]

As if I don't already have enough fantasy-strategy titles to occupy me (FE:LH, AoW3, Worlds of Magic, the Sovereignty beta)

what happened with this, did it get released? what do you think?

[endfire79]

Hmm looks interesting, downloading.  Going to take a stab at the single player once I finish my hockey pool picks, and trying to get a MP before Friday (road trip on long weekend).