The Golden Horde

About The Golden Horde

The Golden Horde (released as Great War Nations: The Mongols in some territories) is a 2008 real-time strategy video game for Windows. Developed by World Forge, it was published in Russia by Russobit-M in February 2008, in Europe by JoWooD in March, in North America by DreamCatcher Interactive in July, and in Australia by n3vrf41l Publishing in September. A spiritual successor to Ancient Wars: Sparta and Fate of Hellas, Golden Horde uses the same game engine as the previous titles – the Ancient Wars Engine (AWE) – and features similar gameplay. One more World Forge game using this engine and gameplay style would follow – Age of Alexander.

Set in Russia and Eastern Europe during the Mongol invasion (1237–1242), the game features three playable races – Mongols, Russians, and Crusaders – each of whom has their own campaign, which occasionally overlaps with the other two. The campaigns feature fictional depictions of historical figures such as Batu Khan, Burundai, Jebei, Subutai, Yuri Ingvarevich, Yuri Vsevolodovich, Evpaty Kolovrat, Alexander Yaroslavich, Birger Magnusson, and Herman von Salza, and depict such events as the fall of Ryazan, the Battle of the Sit River, the Siege of Kolomna, the Battle of the Neva, and the Battle on the Ice.

The Golden Horde received mainly negative reviews. Although some critics lauded the ability for the player to arm their soldiers with opponents' discarded weaponry, the majority were unimpressed with the AI, pathfinding, and LAN-only multiplayer. The game's slow pace was singled out by many as especially problematic.

The game can be played in one of two modes; single-player or multiplayer. In single-player mode, the player can play either campaign missions or individual non-campaign games. In campaign mode, the player must complete a series of missions, the goal of many of which is to defeat the computer controlled opponent or opponents by destroying their settlement. Most missions have several primary objectives, which usually must be completed sequentially, and often one or more secondary objectives. Secondary objectives are not necessary to complete the mission, but they do reward the player with troops or resources if completed. The game features thirteen missions (a four-mission campaign for the Mongols, a five-mission campaign for the Russians, and a four-mission campaign for the Crusaders). The campaigns are independent of one another, and can be played in any order. The missions within each campaign, however, are linear, and each mission only becomes available when the previous one has been completed.

In non-campaign single-player and multiplayer modes, the player chooses the map on which to play, and then selects the type of game, choosing from "No other players" (the player plays the mission without any opposition), "AI" (the player competes against only computer-controlled opponents), and "Open" (the player competes against either a combination of computer-controlled and human-controlled opponents, or all human controlled opponents). Multiplayer mode allows for up to six players, or any combination of human players and computer-controlled opponents. Multiplayer games can only be played via a LAN; there is no online multiplayer mode.