By Joseph Luster

Those looking to go deeper back into history would do well to check out Broadsword: Warlord Edition, a turn-based strategy game developed by Hoplite Research and published by GS2 Games. The setup is relatively straightforward as players are tasked with completing missions throughout the Middle Ages, taking charge of either the English, the French, the Spanish, the Poles or the Hapsburgs. In battle you’ll be implementing everything from standard knights to archers, pikemen, catapults and other units, including special hero units like Joan of Arc, Wladylaw I of Poland, Peter of Castile and Henry III.

When you’re not unleashing the battlefield-impacting powers of those special hero units, there’s plenty to do outside of combat. More units can be raised through the construction of various buildings—such as mills, farms, mines and town centers—and resources will need to be created and managed to further build up the empire. There’s also technology research to take into account through categories like ballistics, forestry and many more. When everything comes together just right it can grant a major strategic advantage over opponents.

Missions can be further complicated in a manner of ways. There are different maps to learn, of course, with each boasting unique weather conditions. Movement penalties and defensive advantages are both distinct possibilities depending on the terrain, and much thought should be put into each scenario’s respective battle matchups.

On top of the five main single-player campaigns available at the time of this writing, Broadsword: Warlord Edition includes a Champion Mode that lets players create custom single-player matches using many different battlefields as the basis. Even if Hoplite doesn’t update the core game much further, as long as fans stick with it there should be other interesting creations to look forward to in the future.

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Publisher: GS2 Games
Available: Now

Back to the issue this appears in