Warlords II frequently asked questions list:
(Last updated 27th June 1995)
The questions answered in this FAQ are:
1. What is it?
2. Where can I get Warlords-related material on the Internet?
i. What scenarios are available?
ii. What utilities and patches are available?
3. Do I need the Scenario Builder to use the scenarios?
4. Where do I get patches?
5. How can I edit random maps?
6. I've got a scenario off the 'net - how do I add it?
7. I can't get addscen to add this scenario - what's wrong?
8. How do I copy graphics between army (or city) sets?
9. How do I edit shield sets?
10. Why do all the enemy warlords ALWAYS declare war on me?
11. How do I pick up bags left behind by dead heroes?
12. What's SSG's email address?
13. What's happening with Warlords 2 Deluxe?
This FAQ consists mostly of IBM-related information, but some Mac
information is now being included. If you want more information
added, just send it to me. If you think there is a burning question
that should be addressed, send it to me. (G.Barnett@unsw.edu.au)
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1. What is it?
Warlords is essentially a strategy game, with (in its original form)
some fantasy elements. The emphasis is on combat, though economics,
diplomacy, and exploration figure into it as well. The basic aim is
to conquer at least half the cities on the map (unless you are
really bloodthirsty and don't accept surrenders). Up to 8 players
- human or computer - can participate. More than 3 humans can get a
bit slow, unless you have several machines, and play multiple games
simultaneously, moving from machine to machine.
Each side (human or computer) begins with one "hero" with one army and
one city. Heroes may be of either sex. Cities can produce armies. Each
city has a different production and income, and you take more cities by
combat. The hero can also explore ruins, where there might be items
(after overcoming any guardians), sages (who reveal the locations of
other items, or maps of areas, or reward you with gifts), or monsters
willing to become allies. Heroes can also go to temples to be blessed
or receive quests. Quests may be rewarded with special allies. Armies
can also be blessed at temples (blessing affects combat strength).
The default scenario is fantasy-based: Dragons, Wizards, elves, and
so on. The cities mostly look like castles. However, many kinds of
scenarios are possible. There exist tank battles, pirate scenarios,
even a battle in the mud for a pig-farm (between pigs of course).
Each scenario is playable many times - I played the original
Warlords I scenario dozens of times.
One of Warlords' best features is the quality of the computer players -
at their most intelligent levels of play, they are reasonably difficult
opponents. If they become too easy, you can issue a challenge (so they
concentrate their efforts against you more than at each other).
If you are a really super player, you can give the computer some extra
advantages.
It has a random map feature which extends playability enormously -
the random maps are very good indeed - most give an excellent game.
The scenario builder (Warscen) allows you to make new scenarios
(new maps, armies, cities, shields, boats, items, ruin guardians
and so on). This extends the playability of the original game further,
as well as being fun in itself.
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2. Where can I get Warlords-related material on the Internet?
i. Lupan:
lupan.byu.edu: /site/ibmstuff/Games/Warlords_II
The Warlords II stuff on lupan has been faithfully maintained by
John Rosenquist (rose@bert.cs.byu.edu), and John deserves hearty
thanks for his work in making available and keeping it going.
*Note*: this site has undergone substantial reorganization
in recent months, and /Warlords_II has a number of subdirectories.
There are some newer scenarios as well.
Upload scenarios into /site/upload
The new directory structure is:
/Warlords_II (has both of the patches: war102a.zip, wl2p1-11.zip)
/Scenario (has about 50 scenarios, and the fight order utility)
/New (has the cartoon and 3 pelicar scenarios + utilities)
/Reviews (has lots of reviews, all or nearly all by Dirk Pellett)
(the stuff on lupan is available on the web as well:
http://lupan.byu.edu)
ii. If you have WWW access look at:
http://www.princeton.edu/~rfheeter/w2home.html
Bob Heeter has taken over Eugene Lee's Warlords page. Bob's page
is a little different from Eugene's, and he's still adding to it.
Bob is putting lots of interesting information up, and it is
definitely worth a look. He has lots of information and resources
not available at other places, like the combat odds table, and
strategy tips, and reviews of the scenario builder and suggestions
on creating scenarios, and the "Rules of Engagement" document, and
a page on combat bonuses, and lots of other things. This is one of
my favourite sites. If you have a question about Warlords II, you'll
probably find the answer here.
iii. *** NEW WEB SITE ***
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~schikore/warlords2.html
Matt Schikore has a site still very much under construction, but
nevertheless with some nifty ideas. It has a number of utilities,
including one I had not seen before. The scenario list gives
information on a whole heap of scenarios, many of which are
downloadable. I think Matt has every scenario currently available....
iv. wuarchive.wustl.edu used to have lots of stuff, but it all got
cleaned off. Even the directory was gone until I put it back. It has
only a couple of scenarios in pub/MSDOS_UPLOADS/games/warlords_II:
cartoon and pelicar (which is really 3 scenarios in 1 zip file) -
a scenario called gammaw was up a directory I think (in /games),
but I can't find it now. wuarchive now also has the showarmy utility.
v. Other sites
http://www.teleport.com/~stiltman/warlords.html has 3 scenarios,
and a nifty review of Warlords II. The descriptions of the scenarios
looked pretty good, but I haven't actually had time to play them yet.
vi. Mac-related sites
o http://www.einet.net/galaxy/Leisure-and-Recreation
/Games/chris-loggins/Gaming.html (won't all fit on one line)
has a review, and tells you where to get the Mac demo version.
o http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/HyperArchive/Abstracts
/game/com/warlords-ii-104s (sorry, that won't either)
has the Mac demo version.
Of course, another way to get lots of nice scenarios is to buy
the scenario builder, since it comes with about two dozen.
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i. What scenarios are available?
(addresses given above)
Matt
Scenario Notes lupan wuarchive Schikore's stiltman
web page web page
1805.zip - - Y -
altair1.zip Y - Y -
arghan.szp - - Y Y
babes.szp Y - Y -
bay.szp Y - Y -
bearer.zip Y - Y -
brokenb.szp Y - Y -
cartoon.zip 1 Y Y Y -
craig.szp Y - Y -
dante.szp Y - Y -
dominio.szp Y - Y -
donut.szp Y - Y -
f-rang.szp Y - Y -
fanbri.zip Y - Y -
frigid.szp - - Y Y
gammaw.zip Y - Y -
greece.zip Y - Y -
hobson.zip Y - Y -
iceland.szp Y - Y -
illuri.zip Y - Y -
islands.zip Y - Y -
jpark.szp Y - Y -
mars!.zip Y - Y -
mars.zip Y - Y -
mearth.zip - - Y -
medit.zip Y - Y -
midngt.szp Y - Y -
minaria.zip Y - Y -
mudlord.szp Y - Y -
mystara.szp Y - Y -
mythtec.exe Y - Y -
nexus09.zip Y - Y -
nippon.szp Y - Y -
norse.zip Y - Y -
olympia.szp Y - Y -
orcas.zip Y - Y -
oz.zip Y - Y -
para.szp Y - Y -
pelicar.zip 1,2 Y Y Y -
pelicar1.zip 1,3 Y - - -
pirates.zip Y - Y -
powers.zip Y - Y -
quadrnt.szp Y - Y -
rain2.zip Y - Y -
rainwr.zip Y - Y -
realm.zip Y - Y -
realms2.szp Y - Y -
shogun.szp Y - Y -
softwar.szp Y - Y -
tarot.zip Y - Y -
tolk.szp Y - Y -
trucks.zip Y - Y -
ultima7.szp Y - Y -
vale.szp Y - Y -
vulcan.szp Y - Y -
warcity.szp Y - Y -
yar.szp - - Y Y
Explanation of notes:
1. for lupan, these were in /New last I looked
2. 3 scenarios (pelicar, elfwar, decline) in one .zip
On Matt's site, they are available separately
as pelicar.zip, elfwar.zip and decline.zip
3. I suspect this is the same as pelicar.zip
I know Compuserve and AOL had some scenarios, many of which were
later uploaded to wuarchive and lupan, but I know of at least a
couple that don't seem to have made it to the Internet. If anyone
has scenarios (not from SSG's commercial releases) not on this list,
could they put them up?
(On Compuserve, Warlords 2 scenarios are in GAMERS forum in Library 3:
there are lots of scenarios and utilities. We have most of them, but
it can't hurt to look.)
Start with lupan, in /site/upload, and if it doesn't have one with
it already, put a text file with it so John knows what it is for.
If you can, put it up at wuarchive as well. Since Matt's site has
the most scenarios, send it to him also (uuencode it if you mail
it). If you're feeling generous, tell me you did it, so I can put
the information here.
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ii. What utilities and patches are available?
Matt
Utility Notes lupan wuarchive Schikore's Explanation
web page
showarmy Y Y Y army set info
showscen Y - Y scenario info
sortscen 1 - - Y sorts scenario list
w2copy Y - Y copy army & city pics
w2order 2 Y Y Y fixes fight order
warld2ed Y - Y edit city & production
war102a Y - Y patch: v1.02 to v1.02a
wl2p1-11 Y - Y patch: v1.02a to v1.11
Explanation of notes:
(1) sortscen is useful if you don't have the scenario builder.
(2) the current version is in a file called w2ord13.zip
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3. Do I need the Scenario Builder to use the scenarios?
No. All you need is the 1.11 patch. If you have the Scenario Builder,
you don't need the patch. You may also need the 1.02 patch if your
version number is lower than 1.02a.
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4. Where do I get patches?
The lupan site, and Matt Schikore's web page has them. Addresses
and more information in Q1.
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5. How can I edit random maps?
a. Without a utility:
Let's say I want to create a random scenario called "Sample":
(Any other name would do - but no more than *7* characters)
i. Run WARSCEN. Load STAMP (say). Save As Sample. Quit.
(Any other scenario should do instead of STAMP.)
ii. Run WARLORD2. Choose Random Map, and select desired options -
even a different terrain set. You can exit as soon as you get to
choose who is Human etc, but you will probably want to look at
the map first. Go ahead and look. If you don't like it - generate
another one. It doesn't matter whether you leave everyone as Human
or not at this stage. Quit. You don't need to save the game.
iii. At the DOS prompt:
From the Warlord2 subdirectory type:
COPY .\RANDOM\RANDOM.* .\SAMPLE\SAMPLE.*
(I'm sure you can figure out the corresponding commands from other
directories.)
iv. Run WARSCEN. The "Sample" scenario now appears. Load it.
It is now the random map. When you save, the information on
the number of cities and ruins should be updated. Note that
a different terrain set may look a bit odd when you first
load it - just move around a bit and it should look OK. Change
what you like, and remember to save often.
That's it! One edited random scenario. Take care - it is possible
to cause problems, but you can always reinstall WARLORDS in the
worst case.
b. Quick method:
Get hold of the W2ORDER utility (version 1.2 or higher -
Version 1.3 is available at lupan, Matt Schikore's web page
and wuarchive).
Use, for example,
w2order /r /o Sample
to make a copy of the random scenario called Sample, with the extra
benefit that the army fight order is the same as the order of the
armies in the Edit Armies display, rather than the slightly jumbled
order you can get from a random scenario.
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6. I've got a scenario off the 'net - how do I add it?
If you have the Scenario Builder, or you're running Version 1.1,
just copy the .szp file to the Warlords II directory. If you have
a .zip file you'll have to unzip it first. Then type ADDSCEN filename.
If there is a text file with the .szp file, it doesn't hurt to copy
it down into the scenario directory (Warlords ignores files it doesn't
know about).
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7. I can't get ADDSCEN to add this scenario - what's wrong?
If you used ftp, check that you downloaded the scenario with binary
mode on. Secondly, it may be that you have one of the scenarios that
came via Compuserve, in which case you may find you need to rename the
.szp file before it will install.
For example, to install the scenario hobson.szp, you need to name it
"HOBSON'.SZP", because Hobson' is the name of the scenario (Hobson's
choice), but Compuserve won't allow a filename of that length.
(A better approach if you want to put a scenario up on Compuserve is to
put the .szp with a doc file into a .zip, and calling that a shorter
name, but not everyone realises that).
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8. How do I copy graphics between army (or city) sets?
You need to get the utility w2copy.
This is available on the lupan ftp site
(lupan.byu.edu, /site/ibmstuff/Games/Warlords_II/Scenarios/New)
and also at http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~schikore/warlords2.html
If you run it without arguments it tells you how it works.
I think there's a doc file in the .zip as well.
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9. How do I edit shield sets?
The short answer is that you don't. There is a longer answer, which
I'll type in another time, which largely says the same thing.
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10. Why do all the enemy warlords always declare war on me?
You are doing one of four things:
i. using "I am the greatest" to make them all warlords. This automatically
makes everyone declare war after a few turns (it never hurts to
read the manual). If you want to make them all warlords _without_
declaring "I am the greatest", but are lazy, click "I am the greatest"
twice.
ii. being nasty, like attacking everyone, especially sides you're at
peace with; razing cities; or similar nastiness - you know if you're
doing this because you'll be down at "running dog" on the diplomacy
rating.
iii. having lots of spare money appears to make you a target
iv. winning
(thanks to Fred Hamilton for reminding me of these last two)
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11. How do I pick up bags left behind by dead heroes?
On the PC: you just stand on it, and press "," to bring up the hero's
list of items (or use the menu item that does "Inspect Heroes"), then
select "Take it" for the items on the ground (Yellow items are on the
ground, and the green ones are being carried).
On the Mac: pretty much the same, except that the keyboard command
is "Command-Shift-H" (or just pull down the Heroes menu and select
"Inspect Heroes"). Then you have to highlight the items listed as
being "On the Ground", and push the up-arrow button.
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12. What's SSG's email address?
(It's in the Manual...)
Actually, SSG has a new email address: gwhiley@ssg.com.au
(This will go to Gregor Whiley of SSG)
The addresses in the manual should still work, though:
Compuserve: 72662,3471
Genie: SSG
AppleLink: AUST0161
Internet: gwhiley@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
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13. What's happening with Warlords 2 Deluxe?
Here's the latest information available from SSG:
Warlords II Deluxe
Warlords II Deluxe features an upgraded version of Warlords II,
with enhancements such as network play, an improved Warlords II
Scenario Builder, plus thirty brand new scenarios, all on CD-ROM.
The total value of this package is $160.00, if purchased separately.
Warlords II was created due to overwhelming demand from players of
the original Warlords Game. The Warlords II Scenario Builder was
likewise released because warlords fans demanded the ability to create
their own scenarios. Warlords II Deluxe is the product of user's
desires for a networkable version of Warlords II.
To Create Warlords II Deluxe, with all its enhancements and network
features, the entire program had to be rewritten. SSG also took the
opportunity to make a number of improvements to the Warlords II
Scenario Builder, and to redo all scenarios in 256 colour SVGA graphics.
New Features include:
* Support for network, E-Mail, modem and null-modem play.
* Improvements to Warlords II game options.
* Improved movement system and faster game play.
* Much requested Undo function for movement.
* New 256 colour SVGA graphics for all senarios.
* Enhancements to Warlords II Scenario Builder to make scenario
creation easier.
* 30 brand new scenarios with many different army and city sets.
* New underground scenarios and terrain types.
* New music score.
* Improved computer routines.
* New painting tools for Warlords II Scenario Builder.
* Conveniently presented on CD-ROM.
* Special upgrade offer for existing Warlords II owners.
Warlords II Deluxe requires a 386 or better CPU (486 recommended) with
4mb of RAM, 2 Mb of Expanded RAM free, hard disk, CD-ROM drive, SVGA
graphics, mouse, and supports Ad-Lib, Sound Blaster Family including
AWE 32, Pro Audio Spectrum, Gravis Ultrasound, Windows Sound System,
Roland MT-32, and Roland Sound Canvas.
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End of the FAQ
Glen Barnett (comments to g.barnett@unsw.edu.au)
