Warlords Battlecry: The Protectors of Etheria (or TPE), is a mod for Warlords Battlecry 3
and sequel to the Warlords franchise.
TPE is an ambitious project which focuses on a new interactive RPG experience and a streamlined &
modernised RTS experience. It is stand-alone, meaning that it can be run without having the original
game installed.
Currently, TPE is in development (and has been since 2010), and has not reached a stable version.
However, there are beta versions available for download. All users are considered beta testers and are
encouraged to report bugs and make suggestions:
- On the TPE forum
- On the TPE Discord channel
Multiplayer games are also run on the Discord channel.
Among various other features, TPE attempts to achieve the following:
- Provide new RTS and RPG elements which deliver greater strategic and role-playing depth,
including greater terrain influences on battles, unit types, dialogue choices, multiple endings
and psychological profiles
- Improve old, poorly designed systems or mechanics, including the resource, combat stat, damage type/armor, hero, retinue, conversion and terrain systems
- Integrate all official Warlords lore into the game, including lore from: Warlords, Warlords 2, Warlords 3 & its expansion, Warlords Battlecry, Warlords Battlecry 3, Puzzle Quest & its expansions,
Puzzle Quest 2, Puzzle Quest 3 and unofficial TPC lore to help fill any gaps (which is based on and respects Warlords lore)
- Provide new content, including music, maps, productions, heroes, items and a new story-driven, multi-choice campaign with diplomacy, new locations, quests, characters, and videos, which also changes based on hero traits and any of their prior actions or choices
- Provide the campaigns of the previous Warlords Battlecry games, including the Tears of Dawn WBC1 campaign, the Conquest WBC2 campaign and The Fifth Horseman WBC3 campaign, all updated with TPC’s gameplay
- Improve pre-existing content, providing new graphics, audio, features and functionality
- Provide up to 16 player gameplay which can be reliably played in multiplayer
- High resolution support for up to 4K
- Improve the editor, increasing the amount of control that map-maker’s have over their designs
- Fix every single one of the series’ bugs, from the most notorious to the most insubstantial, thereby providing the most reliable and bug-free experience in Warlords Battlecry history
- In general, bring the game up to modern standards and fulfil the potential of Warlords Battlecry, the founder of the role-playing real time strategy genre
Version 0.9.1 addresses some of the issues with the previous installment, containing mostly bug fixes, crash fixes and some minor balance changes. The most notable changes seen in post version 0.9 are presented in the feature rundown video. The new 0.9.1 patch changes are listed below.
Difficulty levels of the AI were adjusted, making the lower level ones easier to defeat (and Demigods slightly harder to defeat). Campaigns now have a Very Easy option.
Critical stun, freeze and paralyze effects have been adjusted based on attacker's & defender's damage stats. As these crit effects now work on a comparative basis like the others, they are more fair than before. Basic units that had a metal cost now cost gold exclusively, so there are no longer any unit types which are forcibly locked behind the rarer metal resource costs. Crystal costs for abilities are now 10% cheaper and may be adjusted via an external file by any user. The more expensive miners, typically ones with fighting ability, now occupy more mining slots (i.e. are more efficient at mining). Wood Elves now turn mines into trees automatically based on a timer and that timer is reduced with each Oakman sent inside the mine. The Empire's embassies have been substantially weakened, having a much smaller conversion radius, taking longer to convert, and now can no longer be placed within a radius of another embassy. Most missile units have had their stats decreased (typically damage), on exception of some with longer attack speeds. Missile siege weapons are now classified as medium, allowing them to be countered by most anti-missile units.
Adjusted all classes' starting stats and bonus skills. Typically, wizard heroes have received ~+50HP and -5MP, fighter heroes have received ~+200HP and ~+5 Damage. Hybrid spellcaster/fighter heroes gain ~+10 Mana. All XP-giving skills now award XP levels (and any decimal level bonus awards XP, so if for example a unit required 5 xp to get to level 2, and your hero has a skill which gives that unit +0.6 unit levels, the unit will be produced with 3xp), making them much more usable.
We've made the fog weather look less intrusive. The control panel production area has a Loop option separate from the Cycle option. We've also added a new Empire hero avatar.
We've updated and reworked many scenarios for campaigns and multiplayer alike. Many now incorporate new mechanics and features, such as proper, dedicated cover and negative cover zones, terrain height, resource carts, items and the new decurser and item smith utility buildings. Special events were also edited to fix some undesired effects (such as the reward for conquering Etheria).
Over 100 bug fixes, including but not limited to stability issues, unavailable production issues, gameplay issues and performance issues, are delivered with version 0.9.1. All of this was made possible by you, so thank you for the plentiful bug reports and feedback!
Changelog: Changelog 0.9.1
Steam: Store.steampowered.com
Donations: Paypal.com
Discord: Discord.gg
Sharpen your swords! The long awaited version 0.9 is finally here!
In this early preview video, catch all the latest changes in The Protectors version 0.9!
Warlords rejoice! Version 0.8.9 of The Protectors is finally here.
My fair warlords and warladies: it is with great pleasure that I announce the release of the newest and most awaited version of The Protectors. Witness...
Hotfix version 0.9.1a. This is the full game. Previous patches are not required. Vanilla game not required.
Version 0.9.1 addresses some of the issues with the previous installment, containing mostly bug fixes, crash fixes and some minor balance changes. This...
Sharpen your swords! The long awaited version 0.9 is finally here. This is the full game. Previous patches are not required. Vanilla game not required...
Warlords rejoice! Version 0.8.9b of The Protectors is finally here. Requires version 0.8.9 FULL and patch 0.8.9a. Heroes from previous versions are NOT...
Warlords rejoice! Version 0.8.9a of The Protectors is finally here. Requires version 0.8.9 FULL. Heroes from previous versions are NOT deleted, but saved...
Warlords rejoice! Version 0.8.9 of The Protectors is finally here. This does NOT include patch versions 0.8.9a and 0.8.9b. To fully patch up and play...
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Cannot change resolution or choose any other mode it is insulting please fix this
Unable to reproduce. Can you provide more details?
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windows 11 dont work this game
Did you:
1. Switched compatibility mode to Windows XP SP2?
2. Run program as administrator?
3. Turn on DirectPlay?
4. Updated your system?
5. Checked if AV blocking something?
There's a lot of issues, I'll list a few here.
1. Knights' Crownsmen of Bartonia do not get access to Order of the Bull despite it not being listed as a drawback
2. The night ssrathi faction can research Snakepriests to get Cauterize but their Snakepriests can't use it as part of a drawback
3. The WBC2 campaign has multiple missions that are simply impossible to win. Palmyr is one that states "get to the northeast of the map before the enemy does", which I did. There are plenty more that do not work at all
4. Crashing all the time, usually seems to be related to hero items (such as when interacting with a shop either in-mission or on the world map) or whenever the Doomwood Dark Elf faction is involved
5. Weird stuttering issue (as in, frame freeze every 0.5 sec or so) which if I had to guess, seems to be related to AI pathfinding. Usually happens on big maps
6. The counter system is bad and lifted from AoE 2 but somehow worse. A Wraith is not a spearman, what is this nonsense? A War Dog is "cavalry". I would consider scrapping all of those changes
7. Economy for all races is homogenized, boring and makes for brainless unit spam. Upkeep is odd, punishes those who are winning (having a big army). Mine depletion happens very quickly, forces players to use rush tactics which is anti-choice
8. Crystal cost for many unit spells is too high
Speaking of Palmyr: if you mean the conquest of the Silvamane, you need a hill to the east of your starting position, surrounded by towers (purple) hostile to both you and the defender. You don't even need to fight there, just step on the hill like i did.
If you mean the spot where there is a passive hero and their units, I went there and nothing happened.
Strange, does that mean that you've encountered the bug i didn't? Cause yesterday i've created a knight of a guardian order to make sure i remember correctly, and attacked palmyr at start. I took couple of knights and went straight to the hill ignoring base building and passive hero's resistance, then I roamed the hill for a few seconds, lost my potions, but won the game.
edit. Maybe there's a particular unmarked spot on the hill you should step on to trigger the victory.