Warlord



Warlord is a Play By Mail (PBM) game run by KJC Games in England. It was originally designed by David Bolton and intended to go under the name of Cassus Belli, and after running it for some years, KJC bought the full rights with help from dedicated players. Now they could change the programs and the changes has proven to improve the game, and the most direct change is the graphics.

Credits

Design by David Bolton, Nigel Mitchel, Kevin Cropper, Steven Fairbrother & Jason Hartley

Programmed by David Bolton, Steven Fairbrother & Jason Hartley

Copyrighted 1993, 1994 by KJC Games.

Intro

With Glasnost and a bit of luck this world may just manage to avoid the folly of nuclear war. The world of Dexet is not so fortunate. Five centuries ago Dexet was devastated by a global holocaust. They're getting ready to do it again!

The first Global War surprised no-one, it had been in the cards for years and, like many others, your nation had prepared secure underground bunkers to ensure the survival of the chosen few. Unfortunately the debates as to who excactly the few should be gre a little heated...especially when the bombs started dropping. In the end, ruthlessness and superiour firepower were the deciding factors. After a brief, but extremely bloody battle, Colonel "Iron Jaw" Stevens declared himself 1st Supreme Commander of Bunker One, a title later shortened to WARLORD, and now inherited by your good (?) self.

After generations underground it is time to emerge once again into the outside world. The nuclear winter is over, and radiation is no longer a danger... well not much, and the troops have other, more immediate things to worry about. Now is the time to shape a brave new world.

You do have a problem however. Other bunkers have survived and they may not see things your way. A little persuasion will be needed. It's lucky you have all those tanks and guns ready! If things get really tough? Well, Tech Division are sure to sort out those nukes eventually and then those turant dictators will know who's top dog. Assuming, they're still alive that is.

Type of game

Warlord is a game of world conquest, and 100 players start in a city with production and research centres and a small army. All games start with a new, random map and the players start with the same assets. Exception is that if you're starting city is coastal, then you get 3 transports as well, but this advantage could be weighed down by the likelyness that you will might have a harder time getting the nearby cities early and get lesser income. At the start of the game, technology is at the level a few years after that of World War, and much has to be rediscovered as databanks and needed commodities are lost in the holocaust.

Game technicals

The game is 100% computer moderated and you send your turns on a card with 15 orders, composed of letter and number symbols. Currently, all games are started with a 12 day turn-around. This means, that you need to have your turn arrive at KJC Games office before the next turn is processed, 12 days after the last. This day is printed on the results which you receive as a printout every 12 days. All turns are processed at the same time.

My opinion of the game

My personal opinion is that Warlord is a fun game. The printouts are nice and it is easy to learn but hard to master. Some disadvantages are:

1) Players tend to drop out as they feel they cannot win the game.
2) The game usually lasts quite long, 80 turns is not uncommon.
3) The larger empire usually has all the advantages, and so being large from early on is a bit too essential to win. This is not always so, as I have proven by winning a game after an utterly hopeless start, but I believe this discourages many warlords.
4) It is possible that the higher tech ruins the game balance.On the positive side, the higher techs helps bring the game to an end, and offsets some of the advantages by the infantry-monger expansion.Most of the winners had a steady expansion for the entire game.

However, it is fun and with recent programming inactive players are actually run, with little brains, but at least they move around and try to capture nearby cities. This is a great improvement as some players quit early and leave a strong city, building 3 infantry regiments a turn, and thus making it little cost efficient to capture, leaving a lot of small mega-cities which no-one bothers taking, as you might as well invade a strong player empire instead, with fewer casualties. New after KJC started intensive work on it, are new tech levels too, and earlier, nukes were not part of the game, neither was biological and chemical weapons. This makes achieving the higher tech levels necessary. Before, some empires could win while being on tech level 4.

Ethics for the keeper of this page

The main point with this page is information on the game and how to start playing. You will find this info in a link below, but let there be known that I have no part in the company KJC Games, I am just an interested player and this is not meant as a commercial. My only benefit for making and keeping this page is the possibility that more people play it, and thus games start more often. I might get some more fun out of that.

FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

Well, this page was created 29th of August 1995, and I do not have lots of material. However, if you have any related questions, or know of what questions players meet, let me know by sending me a e-mail at the below address. I will also keep an eye on the rec.games.pbm newsgroup for any messages related to Warlord.

Me and mine in Warlord

By tradition I always name my empires NOSTRAMANIA and I currently play in game 34. My empire number is 98 and I am nearby empires 10, 34, 89 and 28. I have never backstabbed allies in Warlord. Reputation for keeping ones word is worth something in Nostramania. I've had a poor start in this game as well, but I am alive and enjoying every minute of it. Actually, I am already among the top ten, and I would like to thank Techno Destructo (89) for this. Thank you for a fruitful treaty. I would also like to encourage warlords of the north to get in touch, especially Nexus II (34).

Pleade to Warlord players

Please try keep playing no matter how bad it goes. I have dropped out myself, but please try to hang on as long as you can, as this makes the game more fun for all (?). And if you suffer heavy losses from a bigger enemy, know that if you drop out, he will have achieved what he wanted most, and he will have the advantage of rolling over an inactive or computer controlled empire, and thus you help your blood-sworn enemy by dropping out. And if you survive when the going gets tough, you'll feel much better when improving afterwards or even conquering the one that almost made you wimp out. A great example is game 27, which is closing now. There seems to be only 4 active players, of which three are in coalition versus the largest, and nobody seems to win quite yet. However, if one of those who have dropped out and that are still on the top 10 list, had continued to play, this nation could tip the scale and actually win the game, by having 13-14 cities in turn 70. You may call them pretty damn dumb, but this is what some do when they feel that they won't win. Things change, and 13-14 cities is NOT impossible for even lousy starters to get in 70 turns.


Some graphics, tables and lists:
Cezton@nvg.ntnu.no