Warrior Kings

There are three different paths to choose in this game: 'Pagan', 'Imperial' and 'Renaissance', each with its own unique values, style of war, and storyline.

The story revolves around Artos, the young son of Baron Amalric of Cravant, a small fiefdom within the Holy Empire, the dominant power in a world called Orbis. The Holy Empire is a theocratic state (seemingly an amalgamation of the Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire and the Papal States) devoted to a deity called 'The One God'. It is ruled by a spiritual and militant leader, the Patriarch and the Holy Protector respectively. The new Patriarch, Icthyus Granitas, is cruel and corrupt and the Holy Protector is nothing more than his henchman.

Warrior Kings started life at the back-end of Eidos plc's title: Plague, the first large-scale full 3D strategy title featured at E3/LA in 1997. Plague was originally designed by Dave Morris from a concept by Ian Livingstone, and the technology was designed and developed by Sam Kerbeck. When Eidos closed the internal game development division at its corporate HQ in 1999, the Plague team transferred to a new company, Black Cactus, which continued to develop the game, now titled Warrior Kings, initially with investment from Eidos. With the winding-up of Black Cactus in January 2005, rights in the game reverted to Dave Morris.

Creative Director Jamie Thomson said historical events provided the inspiration for the game, which made the game world "much more fully realised and logically consistent".

In The Video Games Guide, critic Matt Fox described the game as "ambitious" with "true 3D environments", but criticized the overall gameplay and AI interaction.