Elemental: War of Magic Gameplay Example, Part One

In anticipation of the game's release next week, Stardock CEO Brad Wardell has begun a series of gameplay previews over on the official Elemental: War of Magic forums. Part one takes us through exploration, city-building, magic, and combat via a fictional storyline:
The Sage Master and his apprentices were clearly disturbed by the news of war.

(Sire, we have many options available for you for going to war.)

They presented him with 6 obvious ones: City Defenses, Training, Mounted Warfare, Cutting Weapons, Blunt Weapons, and Ranged Weapons.

(I don't think we need to worry about city defenses,) the King said though it was obvious that the Sage Master disagreed. (Yithril is far enough away that we should be safe for now. Training is interested but we need weapons. I have yet to find a wild horse so mounted warfare is useless. I have used a bow so I grasp that. But what is the difference between cutting weapons and blunt weapons?)

The Sage Master sat down, (Cutting weapons are like swords and axes while blunt weapons include hammers and maces and clubs and the like.)

The King growled, (I know that, Sage Master. As a user of weapons I understand that. But I want to understand them from the point of view of a sovereign trying to assign limited resources.)

The Sage Master looked embarrassed. (Ah, yes. I understand. Cutting weapons tend to be faster but do less damage. To use them well, you need to be trained. You can't just give a peasant a sword and expect him to use it. Thus, swords and other such weaponry require more training time.

The way my old mentor explained to to me, long ago, was that soldiers use swords, warriors use hammers.)

The King asked the Sage Master to explain.

(Well, like I said, swords require more training time but in return you get a soldier who can make more strikes. But each strike tends to do less damage than someone with a hammer thus, you would also want to equip your soldier with armor.

By contrast, a warrior is someone who you rely to take out enemies quickly and devastatingly. A War Hammer is slow but does a lot of damage and takes little training time. One or two great and powerful warriors can do great harm to enemies with it. But a company of soldiers is, in the long run, far more effective because they'll outlast the warriors. That is why civilization is protected by soldiers, not warriors.

Is that clear?)