Champions of Anteria is a 2016 action role-playing game for Windows. Developed by Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft, it was released in August 2016. In October, Blue Byte released two DLC packs; The Alchemist and The Beastmaster, featuring new characters and buildings.
The game tells the story of Anteria, a once-prosperous kingdom that has fallen into disarray and factionalism. Beset by enemies on all sides, each attempting to gain control of the kingdom, the people of Anteria turn to a group of champions - native Anterians who have recently returned after many years away. The champions agree to help but soon find themselves in conflict with Kalen Daark, a powerful black mage with his own evil agenda.
Originally intended for a 2014 release as the eighth entry in The Settlers series, the game was announced as The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria. Championed by Blue Byte and Ubisoft as the most innovative title in the series to date, it was set to feature a mixture of city-building, economic micromangement, real-time strategy, and action-role playing. However, after the closed beta produced predominately negative feedback, especially in terms of how the game didn't "feel" like a Settlers title, Ubisoft scrapped the project. Nothing more was heard of it until 2016 when it re-emerged as a new property entirely, unrelated to the Settlers series and with a new title. Keeping most of the art assets and maintaining the tone and broad storyline of Kingdoms, Blue Byte had completely reworked the gameplay by removing most of the city-building and economic elements and focusing instead on the action role-playing combat missions.
Champions of Anteria received mixed reviews. The graphics, voice acting, and humour were generally praised, and some critics found the integration of city-building and action role-playing well handled. Others, however, criticised the game as being neither one thing nor the other, with both the city-building and the combat lacking sufficient depth. Many critics were also unimpressed with the AI, especially in relation to pathfinding, and there was a general consensus that the combat missions were unacceptably repetitive.
Gameplay Champions of Anteria is made up of three main gameplay components - world map, city base, and combat missions.
World map The world map is divided into 26 territories, one of which is the player's city base. At the commencement of the game, some of the territories are neutral and some are owned by one of the three factions opposing the player. To complete the game, the player must own every territory on the world map. To defeat an opposing faction permanently, the player must conquer their city base, which is guarded by a boss and can only be accessed after all territories belonging to that particular faction have been captured. Players can only attack territories immediately adjacent to territories they already own, and when an opposing faction attacks the player's territory, the player has one day (in game-time) to prepare before they must play a defensive mission. If the player wins, the attack is repelled, and the player retains the territory. If they lose, the territory will be captured by the opposing faction. The game is not over, however, until an opposing faction captures the player's city base territory.
The game is played in 'turns', with the player and all opposing factions allowed to attack one territory per day. Playing a defensive mission also constitutes a turn, meaning the player cannot play both a defensive and an offensive mission on the same day. Enemy factions are fully automated and pursue their own objectives, levelling up their city bases independently of what the player is doing elsewhere on the map. In this way, an enemy faction might attack a player-owned territory, a neutral territory, or a territory owned by one of the other factions.
Captured territories can be enhanced by the construction of trading posts and fortifications within each territory. Trading posts increase the amount of gold and renown generated by a given territory each day, whilst fortifications delay an attack by a set amount of time.
City base
The player's city base is where the player gathers resources, constructs buildings, researches new technologies, forges weaponry and armour, and mixes potions. The city base generates a certain amount of resources each day, depending on what resource collection buildings and how many of each the player has built. As the game progresses, the player can also build one-off buildings - an apothecary to create potions for healing, enhancing stats, and inflicting damage; a magister machinae to create stationary offensive weaponry and healing zones; a blacksmith to forge new weaponry and armour; and a market to trade resources for gold. The Alchemist DLC added an additional one-off building, the "Foundry of Affinities", which allows the player to brew five types of new hybrid potions using a combination of resources.
To ensure they have enough residents to populate the various buildings, the player must construct residences, whilst to expand their base into additional sectors within the city base territory, the player must build a watchtower within that sector. Watchtowers can only be constructed when the player has access to a "brave person". The only way to attain brave people is by spending a certain amount of renown on the upgrade tree, which is where the player enhances their abilities, unlocks new buildings, and improves the available offers in the apothecary, machinae, and smith. Renown can only be earned by conquering territories, with each territory granting a certain amount of renown per day.
The player can level up their city base only by spending renown on the upgrade tree. Levelling up encompasses both the player's castle and every champion in their roster, so players don't need to level up each champion individually. At every second level of upgrade, the player can unlock two new skills for each of their champions.
Combat
In the original game, players could command five champions each with their own elemental alignment and weapon; Vargus wields a broadsword and is skilled with metal, Anslem is a magic user skilled with lightning, Nusala uses a bow-and-arrow and is skilled with nature, Oona wields dual-swords and is skilled with water, and Baltasar uses a gun and is skilled with fire. The two DLC packs added two additional champions - Tarn, a brawler skilled with both metal and nature, and Weissle, a mage who can combine any three of the five elements into a hybrid magic. Each champion also has access to attacks of a different element than their base element - Nusala, for example, can use fire-arrows, whilst Vargus can do a spinning water-based attack.
For each combat mission, whether offensive or defensive, the player must pick three champions. Prior to a mission, the player is told the elemental alignment of the majority of that territory's enemies, allowing the player to plan strategically in choosing their champions. The game uses a "rock paper scissors"-style wheel to determine which element is strong against which other element - fire is strong against metal, metal against nature, nature against lightning, lightning against water, and water against fire. If a champion's alignment is strong against the alignment of an enemy, they will inflict 135% normal damage; on the other hand, if the enemy's alignment is strong against the champion, the champion will inflict only 65% damage.
An important gameplay element is "Active Pause Mode", wherein the player can pause the game, but continue to enter commands, which the champions will carry out when the game is unpaused. It is possible to queue up to four commands per champion.
Each champion has 13 learnable skills, but only eight can be learned on a single play-through, as every time the player learns a skill, they lose access to another skill. Of the eight skills, four can be taken into battle at any one time. These skills have various effects, such as stat boosts, extra damage, healing, or temporarily altering the elemental affinities of enemies or allies. The player also has four inventory slots each of which can store a set number of potions and/or weaponry created in the machinae.
Plot The game begins as a trio of native Anterians return to their homeland after many years away - Vargus, a former Sergeant-at-Arms in the Crown Legion who became a mercenary for hire when the Legion was disbanded; Anslem, a warrior monk who was cast out of his tribe when he became a vegetarian; and Nusala, a desert warrior who decided she didn't like sand. Finding Anteria overrun with bandits led by a man named Randal, they head to a nearby town, where they encounter a local named Bryan who asks the trio if they can drive the bandits away. They agree, and the following day, they defeat and imprison Randal.
As the champions celebrate, however, Bryan reveals that Randal and his gang weren't really bandits, they were guards working for a powerful dark mage named Kalen Daark, who is planning something evil, although Bryan doesn't know what. He explains that various groups are attempting to take control of Anteria and asks the trio if they will help defend the kingdom. With that in mind, he introduces them to General Fidelus, commander of Anteria's army. Again, the champions agree to help.
Setting out, they face several foes - the Dune Tribe, a once peaceful people from the deserts to the west, who have recently begun to attack Anteria without explanation; the Frostbeards, a warlike race from the frozen east, once made up of numerous hostile tribes, but who have recently been united under new leadership; and the Broken Crown, the remnants of the Crown Legion, who have been secretly rebuilding their strength in the mountains to the north. Along the way, the trio are joined by four other champions - Oona, known as the "Bladestorm", she once fought against Vargus, impressing him to such an extent that he invited her to join them; Baltasar, a mercenary for hire with an out-of-control ego who heard of the conflict and assumed the champions would be happy for his help; Weissle, a clumsy but powerful mage; and Tarn, a brawler known for his affinity for animals.
Upon venturing into Dune Tribe territory, the champions discover the oases upon which the Tribe depend have become infused with magical poison, and a mysterious djinn has told the Tribe's leader, Queen Nuaba, that the origin of the magic is Anteria, upon whom she declares war. Fighting their way through to her, they beat her in combat and release her from the power of the djinn, after which she calls off the offensive against Anteria. Facing off against the Frostbeards, the champions encounter a massive humanoid creature controlled by a small magician. They learn that some time prior, the magician Kenstrid was appointed senior advisor to the king, Bryndt Jodenson. The two then disappeared for several weeks and when they returned, Bryndt had been transformed into the creature; a lumbering brute completely under the control of Kenstrid. The champions fight and defeat the duo, killing Bryndt, who is given an honourable funeral by the Frostbeard clans as they call off their attacks on Anteria. Advancing on the Broken Crown, the champions learn they are led by Fendrel, Vargus's older brother and the man responsible for disbanding the Crown Legion. Attacking his keep, the champions defeat him and the Broken Crown surrenders.