Warlords

"Warlords is a computer game series created by Steve Fawkner, in which role-playing elements are combined with strategy in a fantasy setting. The series has been split into two different games lines, the traditional turn-based strategy Warlords series (currently in its fourth edition), and a newer real-time based strategy Warlords Battlecry series (currently in its third edition).

The games are set in the fantasy world of Etheria, and tend to be based around the traditional premise of good versus evil, with neutrality in between. Heroes on the side of good are the Sirian Knights, the mercantile Empires of Men, the elves and the dwarves. On the side of evil are the demonic horsemen: the Lord of Plague, the Lord of Famine, the Lord of War, and the ever present Lord Bane, Lord of Death.

The politics of the world, however, are more complicated than they first appear, particularly in the third installment of the series. For example, the Minotaurs, who were created as servants for Sartek, the Lord of War, are a neutral race rather than an evil one. Also, the third game opens with the human Empire pillaging and exploiting the newly-discovered lands of the peaceful Srrathi snakemen, in an obvious nod to the historical European conquest of the Americas. Most importantly from a player's point of view, a Hero's race is not as important in determining their moral alignment as their choice of class. For example, while the Undead are evil as a rule, an Undead Paladin would be treated as good (though such a thing is only possible in the third game, wherein all previous restrictions on race and class combinations have been removed)."

Source: Wikipedia, "Warlords_(game_series)", available under the CC-BY-SA License.

Basic Info About Warlords
Warlords, Warlords II, Warlords II Deluxe, and Warlords III are the main elements in perhaps the world's best dynasty of fantasy strategy games, created by the Strategic Studies Group.

The Original Warlords:
In the original Warlords, 2 to 8 human or AI players strove to conquer the cities of Illuria, using powerful heroes, magical allies, and numerous armies built by the cities in the single game scenario. Warlords was a classic strategy game with great replayability. It should still run (under DOS) on PCs and on any Mac through at least MacOS 9.

Warlords II "Classic":
Warlords was superseded in 1993-1994 by the Warlords II. The "Classic" version, distributed on floppies, was released first. Warlords II extended the basic concept of Warlords by including a variety of scenarios, complete with unique graphics, army units, and of course game maps. Warlords II also enabled players to choose the production of the cities, and allowed heroes to earn fantastic rewards by completing various Quests.

Warlords II "Deluxe":
Distributed on CD-ROM starting in 1995-1996, for both the Mac and the PC, Warlords II version 2.0 and later (known as "Deluxe") builds upon Warlords II "Classic" by including even more scenarios, and a Scenario Builder (for the PC version only) that allows players to design their own scenarios. Some players were less happy with the Deluxe graphics and user interface, but the AI is reportedly a bit stronger, and the vast variety of scenarios and game options, combined with the general strategic quality of the Warlords series, make this a classic game. Both Warlords II and Warlords II Deluxe are great for email play, though direct real-time Internet play is not supported.

Warlords 3:
Several new games in the Warlords series were released starting in 1997. For Warlords 3, SSG turned to Broderbund to help with their marketing and distribution, and Broderbund apparently screwed the Mac fans of Warlords by not allowing SSG to release the long-promised Mac version. So, as a Mac user, I gave up on Warlords and wrote my own turn-based multiplayer internet strategy game, Power's Edge. But there are many other sites with Warlords 3 information and online gaming, which you can find with the usual search engines.

Source: "http://www.heeter.net/warlords/about_warlords.html"