BattleCry 

I have been playing computer strategy games for 20 years and I have found Warlords BattleCry to be my all time favorite game. 

The game just goes on and on, once you have chosen your hero as the battles ensue he becomes stronger and stronger as does his retinue. 

This allows you to play a new game when time allows with your same Hero and his retinue.   

I am going to give you what I have found to be a fun way to play BattleCry, and believe me there are many ways to play this game and you will find your favorite way to play it — this is mine and should provide you with a lot of good gaming Fun! 

First you will choose Skirmish from the first screen presented to you when you start the game. 

Then you will be presented with your Select your Hero Screen. 

If you already have a favorite Hero choose him or start by creating a new hero, this gentleman will be your leader in the ensuing games you play.  The reason for this is as the games are won — Your hero will gain strength and levels 

As you hero gains Levels of strength you will be presented with a screen offering a number of choices to improve him and his force. 

These choices are all important, but the most important one is improving his ability as a Merchant. 

This increases your available Money and since Money is the crux of this game, this should be chosen whenever you have enough available points.  You can also wait as your hero goes up the levels to use his points. 

So if you do not have enough points to increase his merchant abilities you can wait until he moves up again and then use his points for this choice. If your Hero or Heroine is killed in battle, he or she will appear for your next game.  

Tip: When possible place your Hero in a Tower near your enemies point of Attack. After you choose your Hero, the next screen is for your game setup. 

The first choice is in the top left corner — choose Extra Large for your random map size. 

Next choose Desert for land type. (This will give you a cleaner ground area to build on at your base camp.) 

Next choose No Animals unless you want random animals on the map. 

Now go to the first line under Side and choose your Hero (his name should appear), under resources choose Very High for resources. 

Go to the hero Line for Undead and here you have four choices for the opposing Hero — The toughest being Grand Warlord, and the weakest Ai Knight, choose according to the strength of your Force.. For resources choose Very High. (You are going to face one opponent.) 

Now go to first box on the top on the right and click six times or until you see Fortress, this sets the battle so it can only be won by destroying your enemies Keep or Keeps or he destroys yours. 

To the right of this box is a box for Level of Play or level of Keeps , click four times or until you see Level 3. 

Now click Exposed Map in the box below and also choose No Quests, your going to be too busy for Questing. 

Now click on Advanced Option and choose the top item Toughest Starting Towers. This will give you 3 extra strong towers at the beginning of the scenario and also to your opponent. 

At the bottom choose 50 set up points, your opponent will also receive these. Points, they are important to give you a good starting force. 

As your Hero gains levels he will also develop a retinue of White, Red, and Black Generals.  These Generals are excellent when placed in Towers with 1 Infantryman and 2 Archers.  The Infantryman and Archers will add strength, speed, and firepower to your Towers. 

If you are just beginning with your Hero and do not have a retinue of Generals, choose 32 peasants to fill your 4  mines with Mine workers right at the beginning of the scenario — this will give a real boost to your money and production  Add 2 more peasants for wall-building for a total of 34 peasants 

Also choose 2 Eagles, you can use them to build your buildings and then walls.  They are quick and more efficient builders than the peasants. 

Remember your F12 key, Your Pause Key — it will stop the game at any time and will be your best friend — there is no reason to hurry — in fact hurrying can be your worst enemy in this game. 

When you click Start, the computer will begin to build your Starting Towers and mines at your home base.  When it begins to load hit your F12 Key, this will pause the game when it is loaded and you can begin.  When you want the game to start again hit the F12 key.

Your over-all scheme here is to build a wall at a diagonal from one side of the screen to the other.  Your starting position will be in a corner, so you will end up with a triangle with the longest side being a wall facing your enemy. 

Now you see your base camp and your force in the center of the screen. First, left click and draw a box around your force. At the bottom of the screen you will see a picture of your Hero and anther picture with all your troops and also a small order screen at the bottom right. 

Go to the Order Screen and choose Attitude, and click Aggressive — this will set an Aggressive attitude for all your units — Very Important in this game to have everyone working with an aggressive attitude. 

Now, go back to the small screen to the left of the order screen and pressing Shift, left click everyone but your peasants, send these peasants to a spot near your Gold Mine leaving two peasants behind for Wall Building. Right click the map where you want them to go.

If the computer puts your 3 Strong Towers in the corner — this will not help you so resign the scenario and start a new one.  You want at least one Tough Tower near your wall. You want as big a Triangle as possible with at least one Strong Tower next to the Wall, this will greatly help in the defense of your base camp. 

Towers that are not near the Wall should be removed, you will need the room they occupy for building.  To do this Left-click on the Tower, the hit Ctrl “D”, this will get them out of your way.

This also works on the wall if you want to remove a part of it. As you play you will learn how much room you need at the start of the scenario for your buildings. It may seem complicated to get set up and get used to using the keys, but it isn’t — after a couple of games it will be a walk in the park for you. 

If you do not have enough room for all your buildings you can place buildings outside and against the wall, as the towers will give them some protection.  Having enough building room is always a problem. 

Next click on your Hero and hit R, this will show you if all the mines that are within range for Conversion, (it will create a circle) if he is not within range, pick a better spot and right click there then go to the order screen and hit Convert, if there are still other mines out of range — right click near them and hit convert — Your Hero will move to each point and do the conversions. (Turn off the Radius by hitting Ctrl R again.) 

Next choose your two Peasants and send them near the center point of your wall Construction, one will build from the center in one direction and the other in the opposite direction.  (left click a peasant and then right click where you want him to go.) 

A Note on wall-building, If you’ve never built a wall before you may be as bad at it as I was when I started playing the game — I had walls going all over the place, but with practice you will become quite a wall builder and with the F12 Key hit you can build and rebuild to your hearts content until you have a wall built the way you want it. 

To build a wall, left click a Peasant or an Eagle, Go to the Build Tower and Walls button, left click the Walls button next to the Tower, move the wall on to the map where you want to build, hold down the left click and move the wall over the map and you will see where your wall will be built, if you do not like what you see, just repeat holding down the left click until you get the wall where you want it.

The wall should be as straight as possible so as not to give your enemy attack points that are sticking out from the main line of the wall.  The wall’s integrity needs to be checked as it’s built, particularly at the two ends, make sure they are closed or your enemy will quickly be coming through any holes left open. 

Build the wall in sections, have one peasant start then hit the F12 key and then have the other peasant butt up against the others initial block and head the other way. Monitor their progress and issue them new building orders when they are finished with each section until it is finished. 

Now you have two Eagles, Left click on one and left click to a point in the rear. Click on the other Eagle and go to the order box and click on building and then the Keep and move it into the corner as far away from the wall as possible and left click where you want it. 

When the Keep is finished left click on it and click Palace level 2 First. 

Then have the Keep start to build your Peasants for the Gold mine, then on to the other mines in this sequence Quarry, Ore Mine, and Crystal Mine.
 
If you do not have enough peasants initially to fill the Mines make as many as 16  and left click the Keep and right click the mine where you want them to go ( 8 to a mine) 

If you see Peasants standing around a mine, it means it is full and send them on to the next mine and repeat the procedure. 

Start your wall building immediately as soon as the Keep is finished and monitor their progress as you go by hitting the F12 Key, you have a small amount of time initially before the enemy appears and you want to get as much of the wall built as possible before they arrive. 

 

After your first group of Peasants are built Click Level 3 at the Keep and then build as many more peasant as you will need to fill your Mines. 

Have your two Eagles build a Barracks and a Smithy next.  Set all buildings to an Aggressive attitude when they are finished.  The Barracks will provide you with Pikemen and Squires.  The Smithy needs all four of it’s boxes clicked when money allows — this gives your troops the advantage of Armour to protect them in battle. 

When your Keep reaches level two it will add a White tent top,  

Now have your Eagles build a Market and an Archery Range 

The Market is your most important building — when finished click Trade first and Income 1 second.  Monitor this building and click Income 2 and Income 3 when they are available — this will increase your mine production.  

The Market and your Peasants in the mines are the key to mine production and your available resources.

When Trade is available at your Market, you can click Trade and you will get a Trade Screen where you can move your resources by trading them in increments of 50 points or more, this allows you to have the type of resources you need available — Very Important. 

Archery Range: Click all 3 boxes as resources allow — this gives your Squires the strength and Flaming Arrows they need. 

Your Eagles can move back and forth between Wall and Tower building and working on buildings as your levels increase, both are important. 
To Build left click army, choose building and left click where you want it built.

When the wall is finished, have the peasants attempt to move to both sides, this will let you know if it is gap free — the enemy certainly will. 
To move an Army, left click the Army and left click on the map where you want the Army to go.

If you need more peasants for wall or tower building send them from the Keep to the wall. 

Very Important:  Initially build Towers spread out behind the wall.  Later you will have the resources to build a solid line of Towers behind the wall. 

At first have your Barracks build (10 sets of 1 Pikeman and 2 Squires). Left click the Barracks and right click where you want the Armies to go.

You can use the Squires to fire arrows at the enemy over the wall and place 1 or 2 pikemen + 2 Squires or 3 Squires and 1 Pikeman in each tower initially.  When all 3 boxes are clicked in the Archery Range the Squires will be an effective weapon either on the ground or in the Towers. 

If you have Generals available place one in a tower with 3 Squires.  Place your Hero in a Tower in the center of the wall or at the point of the enemies attack with 1 Pikeman and 2 Squires, preferably in a Tough Tower. 

When resources are available click level 3 at your Keep this will allow you to build 2 Eyries  which produce Eagles and build a Cathedral near the main point of attack by the enemy. 

In your Cathedral as money is available check the following boxes only = 

1.      Holy Word 

2.      Paladin 

3.      Knightly Order 

4.      Grand Paladin  (will not be available until the others are clicked.) 

This will make your Knights and Mercenaries formidable. 

From 1 Eyrie send 4 eagles to your keep and give them the order to Guard the Keep. 

Then from both Eyries send large numbers of eagles to the point of attack to handle incoming flying enemy units. Note: the more Towers you are able to build the more armies you are allowed to have.

The Armies you can build and the Armies you currently have appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen. 

If any of your Buildings, Towers, or sections of the Wall begin to burn due to attack, left click on them and hit the “E” Key and then hit “F” for fast repair or “S” for slow repair — “F” costs more money than “S”. 

It is important to get all the boxes clicked in your Trade Building ASAP, because  this increases your available resources.. 

You can build a line of Towers for protection and skip building the Wall, but you will soon find that the wall is your chief ally as your tower's mow down the enemy when protected by the Wall.  

You cannot afford to fill every tower with Pikeman and Squires, except at the main point of attack.  Squires on the ground at the main point of attack will add appreciably to your defense.   

They can later be sent outside the wall with your main force to counter-attack the enemy and his Mines and Towers.

Once you reach Level 3 at your Keep (This is as high as you will go) and your Cathedral and Eyries are built and all of your building have their boxes checked off and you have the money — Build one more Barracks and as many Stables as you can. 

If you have to because of lack of room, some Stables can be built outside the Wall. 

Set all building at Aggressive.  When money is available, Now is the time to start making Squires at one Barracks and Pikemen at the other Barracks.  Send them to one point behind the wall = you are beginning to build your attacking force. 

When your Keep reaches level, 3 build enough Peasants to fill all your mines to get full production from them, if you have more than 4 mines fill them also. 

At your first stable click the Warhorse Box and then start building Knights at this stable and send them to the same point where you are sending your Squires and Pikemen inside the Wall. If you build 3 Stables have two produce Knights and one produce Mercenaries. 

You must produce a mix of armies because of the resources or money — it would be nice to have just Knights but they are too expensive and you would soon run out of available money 

                               

 

In this picture you can see the Wall has been built and a number of towers has been built in one area out side the wall also -- this is not a good idea — you are better off spreading out your Towers, First on the inside of the wall and on the outside if you want to. 

FINAL BATTLE PLAN: 

When you have built a sizeable force behind your wall pick a section of the Wall that your force can pass thru and left click it and hit CTRL D, this will destroy it and open up your wall. 

Send all armies inside the wall outside, but keep them close to the opening, so your Towers can give them covering fire. 

Your enemy will find the opening quickly and direct his attack to this point.  This can be used to your advantage.  

Now direct your Barracks and Stables to send their armies just outside the opening in the wall, by left clicking on the buildings and right clicking where you want the armies to go. 

Send Eagles all directions to reconnoiter the map, until it is fully exposed.  Eagles can also be used to attack Mines that are not protected by Towers — they are not very effective against Towers. 

A kind lady will remind you when you have produced as many armies as you can, until some are lost in battle. 

At some point you must left click a box around your armies and choose all that appear in the box, then hit a number between 1-9, this will identify this group.  Each group needs to be assigned a number so you can keep track of them. (Confusion reigns on the Battlefield) 

Your First Strategy is to send your Battle Groups to wipe out all of your enemies Towers and mines, if a mine does not have a Tower built next to it so much the better — attack the mine and move on to the next.  

Left click your group and right click their target and order an attack then repeat this procedure at the next target and on and on.

 

This will appreciably reduce your enemies available troop numbers and resources. 

Once they are all wiped out, attack any Towers that are in front of their Keep and then take their Keep out and you have WON! 

Good Hunting and Good Luck, 

As I had mentioned the game may seem complex at first, but after a couple of games you will have it down pat.

Suggestion: For your first games Choose Ai Knight for your enemies Heroes Level, this will give you a weaker initial opponent and allows you to build up your force for games that follow. 

Also if you can kill your enemies Hero, this will reduce their overall strength, but it is not always easy to do. 

By placing your Cathedral close to the point of attack you can hit the Cathedral Attack button, if Crystal is available the Cathedral will attack multiple enemies within range. A very effective Defensive weapon. 

When you Win a game, you are presented with a screen that allows you to add members and change the members of your Heroes Retinue, this is also very important for your future success. 

Note: The Cathedral Attack Button is (Holy Word). Monitor your resources at the Market through out the game and Trade them as need be. If you build your buildings so close your armies can't move, remove them (CTRL D) and rebuild them.

Enjoy!  I am sure you will be playing this game for years, I know I will.    John Gleason       E Mail:    john@ssgus.com    SSG Home Page                Warlords BattleCry Game Page      To: Download this printable E Book  CLICK HERE  or you may print the Battle Plan right off the web page.