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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/warlords1170.JPG]]
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3''Warlords'' is a 1980 video game. The players control a spinner controller to use shields to defend their castle walls from the fireballs that ricochet around the playfield. Players can capture and catapult the fireballs at opposing castles. Fireballs destroy pieces of the castle walls they hit. Essentially, it's four-player ''Breakout'', where you're trying to break through your opponents' walls while protecting yours.
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5The objective of the game is to destroy the three other castles while protecting one's own castle with the moving shield. When the button is depressed, the shield can capture a fireball. Release the button and the fireball is catapulted at the opponents. The spinning fireballs released from a shield have more destructive force on a castle wall than a fireball simply deflected from another wall or the sides of the playfield. Fireballs cannot be held long since they slowly destroy the player's own castle walls adjacent to the fireball. Additional fireballs appear at predetermined intervals or when a castle is destroyed, whichever comes first. A maximum of four fireballs can simultaneously be in play.
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7The computer controls all the unpaid castles. In one- and two-player games, if a paid player has the surviving castle, the game continues with a new battle at a higher level. In the higher levels, computer opponents play more accurately and faster. Two-player games can be played jointly (to maximize score/level) or competitively.
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9WARNING: This game gets ''extremely'' competitive. Surprisingly so for a game that's OlderThanTheNES, which explains why it was released for [[Platform/XboxLive Xbox Live Arcade]] ''twice''.
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11Not to be confused with the ''Warlords'' series of turn-based strategy games for the PC, made from 1989 to 2003.
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13!!''Warlords'' has examples of:
14%%* BreakingOut
15* CompetitiveMultiplayer: One of the earliest games of this kind.
16* CoversAlwaysLie: That knight on the Platform/Atari2600 boxart doesn't resemble anything that actually is in the game.
17* {{Fireballs}}: The game had the players trying to break down each other's forts with fireballs - put into play by a flying dragon - which could be bounced off the players' shields and even ''caught'' on them, but would blast bricks out of a wall.
18-->There be warlords of brawn and might\
19Defending their crowns of gold;\
20Beware the power of The Black Knight,\
21A power-hungry foe!\
22The dragons spit their fireballs:\
23Warlords! Hold up your shields!\
24'Tis time to protect your castle walls\
25Until The Black Knight yields.
26%%* PlayerVersusPlayer
27* WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing: It's possible for one player to win against AI players by doing nothing, as shown in a [[https://tasvideos.org/4717M tool assisted speedrun]]. This is caused by the slow paddle speed of the AI players, being unable to catch up to the ball when it approaches.
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