Key Preview Takeaways:
- I solely received to attempt the 1v1 Skirmish mode on two completely different maps.
- Visually, War for Westeros adopts the appear and feel from the present, with heroes like Jon Snow and Tywin Lannister each trying like their respective actors.
- The digicam was problematic in my preview construct.
Having grown up within the ‘90s, an period when base-building RTS video games had been much more prevalent than they’re in the present day, I’ve a particular fondness for this number of technique recreation. So when a brand new one will get introduced these days, the wave of nostalgia washes over me, and I take discover. That’s precisely what occurred when PlaySide introduced the upcoming Sport of Thrones: War for Westeros RTS again at Summer time Sport Fest 2025. Not too long ago, I had an opportunity to trip into battle waving the banner of Home Stark and Lannister in an early construct of the sport, coming away understanding a bit extra now than Jon Snow.
Set within the period of the mainline sequence of A Tune of Ice and Hearth versus the prequels of Home of the Dragon or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, War for Westeros has gamers hoist the banners and take command of a few of their favourite Nice Homes. These embrace the likes of the Starks from the North, the lions of the Lannisters, Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons, and even the frozen hordes of the Whitewalkers themselves. The construct that I had an opportunity to take a look at was a bit much less grand, consisting of 1v1 on-line and offline skirmish modes with the alternatives of fielding the armies of both Stark or Lannister, with two smallish maps to select from.
Visually, War for Westeros adopts the appear and feel from the present, with heroes like Jon Snow and Tywin Lannister each trying like their respective actors — Package Harington and Charles Dance — and drops them onto an already impressive-looking battlefield. Even on this Alpha state, I used to be impressed with simply how good War for Westeros is trying. Watching flaming arrows rain down on Lannister buildings and set them on hearth as they crumble, or the good emerald flames of Wildfire engulfing poor Robb Stark because the pyromancers hurl their precarious projectiles, had been at all times delights to observe.
The remainder of the sport, exterior of the demise and destruction, is already trying fairly rattling good too, and despite the fact that solely two of the factions had been playable, I received the sense that PlaySide is placing nice care into ensuring the aesthetics of the varied homes look distinct. You might zoom in and see the Stark items, adorned with fur capes and the armor that residing within the north would require, their buildings constructed from sturdy lumber and gray stone, whereas the Lannisters fielded troopers in gold-and-crimson armor, their buildings draped with the lion’s banner.
The distinction between Stark and Lannister is much deeper than merely “one facet has wolves and the opposite lions” (simply to be clear, the Lannisters don’t have lion items so far as I do know). Each armies can unleash all kinds of distinctive items with various talents and strengths, which I eagerly took benefit of, with each armies requiring their very own technique and construct order to benefit from.
Beginning off first with Home Stark, these northerners are powerhouses, with some unbelievable cavalry choices to run straight via the traces of a lot of what the Lannisters can put on the market. In a little bit of a stunning twist, the Stark faction is ready to recruit and practice not solely highly effective Evening’s Watch Brothers, with each melee and ranged choices to select from, but in addition Wildlings and a number of the beasts that decision the realm past the partitions residence.
Serving to to guide the north’s forces, the likes of Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and their respective dire wolves served because the faction’s hero items. These particular hero items will degree up as they take out enemy forces, studying increasingly more highly effective talents as they go, on the expense of longer recruit occasions and better value to take action, ought to they sadly fall in battle. Jon Snow, for occasion, will encourage these round him, making his close by troops deal extra injury and imparting some injury resistance whereas having one other means that lets him ship a savaging sword strike and inflicting a bleed impact.
“Lannisters at all times repay their money owed,” and that’s thanks largely to them being stinkin’ wealthy, a incontrovertible fact that PlaySide has used to assist outline the faction. The Lannisters’ gold manufacturing buildings produce extra of the given useful resource per construction, granting them a sooner charge of getting gold and might make their builders work sooner by lining their pockets with a bit of additional coin. Coupled with the flexibility at any time to show their gold into affect, and vice versa – affect being the opposite sources used for constructing and coaching your extra superior buildings and units- this home had a vastly simpler and sooner early recreation in comparison with the parents from the North. Whereas the Starks achieve all their allies via extra conventional coaching strategies, the Lannisters should purchase contracts for quite a lot of mercenary firms to rent their fighters, every with completely different strengths.
Jaime and Tywin function the Lannisters’ heroes, with the youthful of the lions serving greatest on the entrance traces, whereas Tywin leads from atop his horse. Tywin can negate debuffs on his troops whereas strengthening his personal cavalry. Jaime, being a grasp swordsman, can ship some devastating strikes on single targets whereas additionally taunting enemies to focus on him as an alternative. Alternatively, utilizing his menacing historical past as a Kingslayer can gradual and injury enemies close to him over time.
Proper out of the gate, sides will solely have entry to a small plot of land, the place they’ll begin increasing and constructing out their bases. You will have your seat of energy, your private home base it’s important to defend from being destroyed (thus shedding you the sport), however then additionally, you will must increase your attain by establishing barracks, archery rangers, and resource-generating buildings. A few of these are locked till others have been constructed first. Anybody who grew up with the likes of StarCraft, Command and Conquer, or extra just lately the Age of Empires sequence with their remakes could have the overall gist of how Westeros performs out.
To increase your workable land, War for Westeros breaks the general map into captureable areas, with a tower that may be held to permit your staff to begin constructing in that area. Within the small 1v1-tailored battlefields that I had entry to, these areas would additionally characteristic resource-rich factors that may help you construct superior variations of your manufacturing buildings just like the Lannisters’ Mine Shafts or Stark’s Windmills, which let you actually bump up your manufacturing line. A couple of of those areas’ areas, although, had one thing I discovered to be even cooler, and in some respects, that I discovered to be extra impactful and essential to getting that W – camps.
These camps spawn impartial hostile mobs that you could kill and can web you some gold as a reward. Speeding to get a squad of troopers constructed and despatched out to kill these mobs rapidly grew to become my go-to technique through the early recreation. Its injection of sources saved my butt greater than as soon as by permitting me to rapidly begin coaching one other unit to guard my new growth into the area or permit me to begin establishing the following constructing in my tree. And the truth that they might respawn each couple of minutes meant I may park some knights and archers close by and use them as one other supply of earnings. It’s a trick that I utilized in one other related kind of recreation years in the past, and one I hadn’t considered a lot till now.
With every match I performed, War for Westeros stored reminding me of one other superb RTS recreation based mostly on an epic fantasy guide sequence: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Center-earth 2. (Aspect word: It’s, depressingly, a recreation that’s unavailable digitally anyplace, no less than formally.) From how heroes behave to the extra spread-out constructing placement and naturally the random mobs you’d wish to kill, taking part in War for Westeros takes me again to main the forces of Gondor in opposition to my pal and his annoying military of Dwarves.
Even on this small snippet, War for Westeros is already presenting itself as an RTS that may be enjoyable no matter whether or not you contemplate your self a seasoned battlefield basic or simply somebody eager to get vengeance for Ned Stark by slaughtering a complete host of Lions. In opposition to simpler CPU adversaries in earlier video games, I’d simply click on and practice no matter items seemed cool simply to see what the armies had been all about and did simply positive, however the extra time I spent and the more durable the foes received, utilizing the hotkeys to assign orders to particular teams, taking part in to a unit’s energy to counter particular enemies, and understanding when greatest to make use of my heroes’ talents grew to become essential to keep away from getting crushed. And this was solely with two of the factions; I am unable to wait to see how the wild clashes and techniques will evolve as soon as the remainder of the armies are launched.
However, as a recreation nonetheless in growth, there are actually some areas that I hope get tweaked or adjusted previous to the ultimate launch. Tooltips are a bit sparse, akin to supplying you with specifics on what the bonuses are if you garrison a employee inside a constructing, and the marker exhibiting what route your items will face is fairly tiny and simply obscured by particulars on the map, like bushes and grass. Maybe my larger request, nonetheless, is with the digicam. Buildings are massive, armies can get equally imposing, and I often would discover myself scrolling my mouse wheel down in a futile try to drag again my view even farther. Give me a high-up, chook’s-eye- or on this case, a Three-eyed Raven’s eye view, of the battlefield, and let me see the entire of those epic clashes.
Sport of Thrones: War of Westeros is shaping as much as be a formidable RTS, particularly for of us that want to scratch that base-building fantasy itch. Nonetheless, from the opposite three launch factions, to the marketing campaign mode, to even how bigger matches will play out, all stay as a lot of a thriller as the discharge date for Winds of Winter. However for followers which have been hungry for some base-building, PlaySide appears to be like poised to ship fairly the feast.
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Scott White is a contract contributor to IGN, helping with tabletop video games and information protection. Observe him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.