Category: Tactics

Posted: 06/22/07 Demons try to take over a fantasy world, but are limited by the fact that they operate only in darkness.

This is a 4X game (you know, capture bases, build units, fight to capture other bases, improve bases to build better units, etc). The premise is that demons from the underworld are trying to conquer the world of the living.

The twist is that demons can only exist in their own world. However, they can convert the living world in small bubbles around certain landmarks. In this case, owning a castle gives them a small radius around it in which they can operate.

As you can see, grabbing other bases is a good way to expand the demon area to give your demon troops more room to move. Notice the little mage guys. They have a small bubble that surrounds them. Demon units can attach themselves to the mage units and will automatically be kept within the bubble when the mage moves.

The demon world is an actual corruption of the human world, so it's more than just dark tiles. Things will actually change within the dark bubbles. Water will turn to lava, trees will become broken husks, and so on. This may affect gameplay (like you can destroy a tree husk in the dark world, but the light trees are too hard to break, lava hurts units standing in it, etc). Think of it like the dark world from Silent Hill. Same place, different interpretation.

Demon units may not enter the light part of the world at all. If they do, they instantly die. All dark keeps must be connected, through a line of bubbles to the main keep. For each turn the supply line is broken, the demon power of the keep is reduced (eventually shrinking the bubble surrounding it, if the supply line cannot be returned). A demon unit is extremely strong compared to a human unit, but obviously, if the human unit can destroy the bubble, they go squish, real nice like.

Unlike demons, Human units can exist in both worlds as they like. They may enter dark territory if they wish, but it has a corrupting influence on them. Each turn they are in there, the unit will slowly transform into a demonic version of itself and becomes property of the demon player. Usually, the changes are beneficial as the units become stronger versions of themselves. So keeping them in the demon world is a good thing, but don't keep them there too long.

So, demons require a bit more set up time and require a sort of overarching plan for supply lines. In a way, they are on the defensive, while humans do whatever they can to break that supply and defeat the enemy without becoming one themselves.