https://the-protectors.webs.com
Well, it’s 100% free.
Right now, I am just making one of those I have dragons maps, where I start with dragons and rack us some XP and items
You should be able to play WBC 1 and 2 campaigns on it.
I’m looking through the Protectors Manual, and they sure did their work. Each faction has a list of perks and buildings that make it different from the standard faction.
Include Good Undead.
Another upcoming entry in the survival RTS genre
I like the idea of this genre, but I feel no game has really nailed it yet. They Are Billions lasted way too long for something you couldn’t save and was completely undone by missing one tiny little hidden gap, and Conan Unconquered felt like an early beta badly in need of more polish.
That is worth keeping an eye on. It has a lot of potential. They need to tone down the “Base is under attack” bit, that can get annoying fast.
In the RTS genre, nothing will ever come close for sheer annoyance to “TACTICAL COGITATORS ONLINE!” from Battlefleet Gothic.
So, I played a bit more of WBC 3: The Protectors, the free stand alone mod.
I set up an easy map with lot of mines and a Passive AI, just to check out a few of the factions.
As you know, the game had 17 or so races to play as. Each race now has between 2 and 6 faction. So, I tried out 3 of the dwarf factions and the 2 dark dwarf factions.
Besides each faction giving a one time use ability, it also swapped out units and tech.
One of the dwarf factions swapped out brawlers (a name change from runners in the base game) and crossbows for dark dwarf Fire Bombs and Fire Cannons. A nice little replacement.
Another swapped out a whole lot of melee units, and replaced it with the ability to summon random spellcasters (like the empire mercenary ability) and made the Rune Lords a support unit.
There was a Dark Dwarf nation that replaced all the golems and wraiths with Dwarf Units, giving you the ability to create Dark Dwarf Rune Lords and Beserkers to run along side Hellblasters and Fire Cannons.
I will try out a few other factions. I think there is a knight faction focused on archery, an undead faction that is good, a daemon faction based on peasants and corrupt nobility.
They also redid the hero system so it is a combination of WBC 3 and WBC 2. Spells are more like WBC 2, and you can purchase perks that give passive bonus, like WBC 2, but regular skills and stats are like WBC 3. That is a welcome change.
I did some of the minotaur tutorial mission. I’ll have to spend more time with it once my year end vacation starts on Tuesday. I wish the animations were a bit smoother.
Strategygamer.com reports that “a new non-commercial fan-project is looking to revive Battles for Middle Earth 1 & 2, titled Battles for Middle-Earth Reforged. It’s going to use a new engine to recreate the game with modern tools, tech and graphics.”
Here is a link to a video and a link to the official website.
Interesting.
I hope they can make it work. The BfME games are greeeeeeat. So sad they’re not available digitally.
I owned them but never played them. Are they really not available anywhere digitally?
No. :( due to Tolkien licensing
Damn! I hope I didn’t throw the disks and manuals out :(
I hope not too, they’re not super cheap on the secondary market.
Someone posted links further up to a site with all the downloads and step by step guide on patching & getting it to run on modern systems. Worked fine for me.
I’d be fine with using the old engines and graphics, just as long as it had a working multiplayer server with matchmaking. Same goes for C&C Generals.
For the curious
Picked up Cossacks 3 from the GOG sale.
I dunno. So far it’s falling into the familiar hole of “Why aren’t I just playing Rise of Nations?”
RoN undoubtedly has a more robust economy with more to do. Cossacks feels like it’s trying to split the difference between a more economic/strategic RTS like Age of Empires and a more tactical RTS like Starcraft. But neither end is very deep or compelling.
One of the big problems is that with the economy being just a thin version of RoN, they needed to absolutely nail the tactical portion. Maybe there’s some deep game there of line formation and flanking between humans, but the AI is too braindead for any of it in single player. Its melee will beeline straight into traps with its ranged left wide open for cavalry.
(is there any way to automate the creation of formations? wow does that get tedious)
Thank you. I’ve had that on my wishlist forever…
Yeah, in my opinion at least, the tactical side of things could have done with a bit more depth I feel. As it stands Cossacks 3 is essentially an updated Cossacks (1), and whilst the upgrade in graphics is quite nice I think I crave something more when it comes to the gameplay these days. It does a grand job of evoking the imagery of the era but falls flat on challenging me, even in a more abstract manner, with the tactical dilemmas of the 17th and 18th century general, in my opinion.
Certainly can look impressive with its large formations and battles, but it would be more enjoyable to me if I had to take into consideration factors such as ensuring my musketeers and (direct fire) artillery have clear firing lines on the opposition formations. So I still largely turn to Age of Empires 3 for my RTS fix for this era, even if the battles aren’t as impressive in size and whatnot it does at least sure know how scratch that strategy itch.
Looking good!
There is some discussion about putting together a Company of Heroes 1 or 2 Tournament. Right now, both games are in pretty good places, but I prefer CoH 2 for the commanders you can get.
Just in case, I wanted to let people know, a lot of the commanders are on sale for 99 cents on Steam, but @Otagan told me that some of the free commanders right now are the best.