War Reign is a nicely done Boom Beach-style clash-like. Besides some new ideas, it has 3 fully different races; elves, humans, and undead; completely different buildings, troops, spells and leaders. No one does that. The StarWars clash-like has 2 sides, but it pretty much had to. But 3?
Each race gets one passive defensive building. For undead it’s a pustule that explodes when destroyed. The humans’ is simply very, very tough. The elves’ heals other buildings. For traps, humans do damage, undeads do a percentage of the defender’s health, and elves also slow you (I think). The undead mortar does less damage but creates nasty grubs that love to chew on tough guys. Humans get a slow, hard-hitting cannon; the elves version is machinegun-like thorns; undead instead have an “Eye of Mordor” which slowly ramps up damage on 1 target until it dies.
Undead troops include cheap skeletons and wraiths that gain power as skeletons die. The first offensive undead spell summons more skeletons, while the second allows troops to heal by doing damage. If you want a healer unit or a blast spell, play humans or elves. Elves have the game’s only haste spell. Likewise the undead leaders can summon skeletons and heal through damage. Human leaders aren’t so odd, but have the only area-of-effect attack.
A problem with all this racial variety is the small troop selection for each. I have just 4 troops types unlocked and only use 2. It appears you can separately play as each race, but that seems like a lot of work.
A really clever feature is defensive spells for the now common “defend” mode. Undead have one to weaken attackers, toughen buildings, summon skeletons, and lure nearby invaders to one building. It works great, they recharge as invaders die, turning defending into a much more active game.
You win by killing the HQ – every other building instantly explodes. Attacks come from one side, so the HQ is usually at the rear. At first you can use the Beacon spell to run around for an easy win. But once everyone knows what they’re doing, defenses are extremely tough. And you can’t find easier people to fight — the game presents 5 players a day, at about your level. There’s a prize for 5 wins. That takes me about a week. Mitigating the impossibility of winning is that losers get to keep anything they steal. There’s a special item you only get from attacking other players, which is the main reason to beat your head against that wall (metaphorically – the game has no wall defenses).
The area with computer bases has the same difficulty problem. Boom Beach style, they become more and more difficult. Fine at first, but ramps up fast. Some of them look like misprints — huge interlocking fields of guns larger than you’ve ever seen. If you somehow power through, you need to beat stages 2 and 3 without replacing any of your losses.
Most of that isn’t necessarily bad. It’s a tough game, and there are plenty of attack plans and fast thinking spell use that might beat an impossible opponent.
Lastly, this game is from “SmileGate Megaport”. That doesn’t sound right, but it’s a South Korean computer game company and that’s their real name.