Disciples II: Dark Prophecy
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is a 2002 turn-based strategy game by Strategy First for Microsoft Windows. It is the sequel to the 1999 game "", and has become significantly more successful in terms of both sales and popularity than its predecessor. A collector's edition version of the game was released, which included a card game based upon the story and five extra quests. Four expansion packs were released: "Guardians of the Light", "Servants of the Dark", "Rise of the Elves", and "Gallean's Return". A port of "Disciples II" for the Nintendo DS was in  development, but not released. A sequel named "" was released in 2009. Gameplay. "Disciples II" is a fantasy strategy game, set in a fictional kingdom called Nevendaar (also referred to as 'The Sacred Lands'). The main focus of the story revolves around four dominant races in a state of almost constant war. These four factions are the human Empire, the dwarven Mountain Clans, the demonic Legions of the Damned, and the skeletal Undead Hordes. There are also several other 'neutral' races such as Merfolk, Greenskins and Elves (the Elves became a full-fledged playable race with the addition of the expansion  pack 'Rise of the Elves'). The gameplay is divided into three main parts; building up the Capital City of your race so that you can research new Warriors and spells, and building up new armies (this involves careful resource management); using heroes (leading small squads) to explore the surroundings, procure resources and attack the enemy; and finally the battles themselves. Each playable race's Capital City is protected by an extremely powerful guardian, who is nearly impossible to defeat except with a very strong hero. The Capital City is the only city capable of building structures. Other cities may only  upgrade themselves to allow them to mount larger defense forces. Battles consist of confrontations between a hero's squad (which can take up to five other Warriors, bearing in mind that some large creatures such as dragons take up the space of two units) and an enemy squad. High praise is given to the excellent graphics and animations in these battles. At the end of the battle, the winning side receives experience points. All surviving units receive the same amount of XP. If sufficient XP is accumulated by a unit, it may then upgrade to another, determined by the type  of structures in the Capital. If no next-level structures have been built, the unit does not level up and does not receive any more experience until the structure is built. The only exception is if the unit is at the end of the "upgrade tree", in which case it will remain the same unit but gain small increases to health, attack damage, and accuracy stats. At the beginning of a campaign, the player may select his or her class (warrior, mage, or guildmaster). Each class has advantages and disadvantages. For example, a mage player may cast the same spell  twice in a single turn, while a guildmaster has the ability to carry out more types of spying/assassination assignments. Besides player classes, the game also features five types of heroes (or leaders): Warrior, Mage, Ranger, Rod Bearer, and Thief. The first three differ only slightly, as they are all combat leaders. The Rod Bearers are the only leaders capable of claiming resources on the map. Thieves may perform special actions on enemy armies and cities. Spellcasting may only be done outside of battles and requires the use of mana to both research and cast a spell. There are four  types of mana (life, runic, death, and infernal) with the fifth type (grove) added for the Rise of the Elves expansion. Each race's spells are mainly reliant on their corresponding mana type (e.g. Empire -> life mana), although other mana types are required for higher-level spells. Grove mana is only required for Elven spells. Only one spell may be researched per turn, and a spell may only be cast once per turn (twice if the player is a mage class). Also, a mage player researches spells at half the normal cost. During the single-player campaigns, the player  may transfer one leader and five artifacts (including potions and one-shot spells) to the next level. At the end of a campaign, an option is given to save the player's top leader in a file for use in custom or multiplayer games. Reception. Section::::"Dark Prophecy". The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. It was a nominee for "GameSpot"s annual "Best Graphics (Artistic) on PC" and "Best Game No One Played on PC" awards. Expansion packs. Section::::"Guardians of the Light". The "Guardians of the Light" expansion pack received "average" reviews according to Metacritic. Section::::"Servants  of the Dark". The "Servants of the Dark" expansion pack received more "mixed" reviews than the first two games according to Metacritic. Section::::"Rise of the Elves". The "Rise of the Elves" add-on received "favorable" reviews according to Metacritic. Section::::"Gold Edition". The "Gold Edition" received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.