It may not be as popular as Age of Mythology or Warcraft III, but Warlords Battlecry II has a devoted fan-following of its own, and for good reason. Set in the famed Warlords universe, Warlords Battlecry II let you battle it out as any one of Etheria's numerous fantasy races. Like in most real-time strategy games, your job was to construct a base, harvest resources, explore the map, research upgrades, and build an army to crush your opponents. But what made Warlords Battlecry II so popular was that it wrapped the traditional real-time strategy gameplay in a dynamic campaign that let you conquer the world, one province at a time. The game had basically two parts: the campaign layer and the real-time strategy game. You'd plot your moves on the campaign map, sort of like the board game Risk, and then drop down into the real-time strategy portion of the game to resolve battles. It made for an addictive and fun experience. We had the chance recently to play an early version of the upcoming third game in the series, Warlords Battlecry III.