Play Online: House of Wolves
Developer: Louissi
Genre: Strategy, Adventure
Game Review
I have been busying with my schoolwork. Thank goodness, I finally have the time to rest in a lovely Sunday night and do a thorough review on House of Wolves, developed by Louissi. I'm particularly excited to do a review on this because House of Wolves is a lite web-based Real Time-Strategy (RTS) flash game such as Age of Empires and Starcraft but, it is on a side scrolling 2D plane. Very refreshing!
In every RTS game, you always start off with a fundamental unit usually called as settlers or builders. Their role is to harvest trees, hunt down animals for food and explore the map to mine resources such as iron and stones. Once you collect enough materials, you can expand your kingdom by building pig and chicken farms to maintain your food source reliably. Then, raise an army by building barracks, archery stands, wizard towers, etc to seek vengeance on Lord Vilereck for taking control of the crown.
I'm surprised at the considerable amount of options and control in House of Wolves. You start kind of in the middle of the 2D plane and to the right is the evil lord and to the left... Please don't go. There are some things best undisturbed in the wild. Some very evil things. Nonetheless, they will still find you trouble by attacking the villages periodically. You really need to attack on both fronts which takes some time and effort to first raise essentially two armies and then manage both. Yes, micromanaging is the word to describe.
House of Wolves is really a gem. Even working with only a single dimension, the game manages to provide challenge and remain interesting throughout. I hope to see more implementations like a market where you would be able to sell your excess resources in return for other materials or demolish your own troops/buildings. This could really broaden a considerable amount of strategy and controls. Perfect ten for me! First run through will probably take you around 40 mins, but it's worth it!
House of Wolves Guide
List of Buildings in House of Wolves
Hut - Recruit Settlers and gather resources
Chicken Farm - Generates chickens for food
Pig Farm - Generates pigs for food
Barracks - Train the best swordmen in the realm
Archery - Train the finest Archers
Black Smith - Upgrade your troops here
Wizard Tower - Recruit Wizards that will help you in battle
Watch Tower - Mounted with an archer, this tower is great to keep an area safe.
Tower - Mounted with two archers, this tower is much more durable and damaging.
Fortress - Recruit Knights and Catapults
List of Units in House of Wolves
Settler - Settlers are the hearth of your people. Use them to gether resources and build structures.
HP + 40, Attack + 6
Spearman - Peasants with spears. Good for a small fight. Weak against arrows.
HP + 50, Attack + 10
Swordman - Stronger and better equiped than the spearman. Very effective in melee combat.
HP + 120, Attack + 20
Archer - Can attack form a distance, but very weak in melee. Support unit.
HP + 25, Attack + 4
Mounted Swordman - Mounted on a horse, the swordmen is faster and can last longer in battle. 50% chance of 2nd life.
HP + 175, Attack + 30
Wizard - Support unit, will heal teammates around him. Extremely vulnerable in combat.
HP + 60, Attack + 8
Knight - Knights are the best soldiers we got. They are steady and effective.
HP + 155, Attack + 25
Mounted Knight - Oncre mounted on his warhorse, the mounted knight is almost unstoppable. 50% chance of 2nd life. Special charge attack.
HP + 200, Attack + 35
Catapult - Slow and steady it goes, but once in position, it unleashes hell. Just make sure to protect it well.
HP + 30, Attack + 75
List of Upgrades in House of Wolves
Sharp Spears - Spearmen damage + 2 / 5
Sharp Arrow Tips - Archers damage + 1 / 3
Sharp Swords - Swordmen damage + 5 / 12
Boiled leather - Infantry HP + 10 / 20 %
Stiff Bows - Archers range + 10 / 20 %
Siegecraft - Catapult range + 25 %
Fine Horseshoes - Horse speed + 20 %
Glory - Mounted Knight Mana + 25 %
Spell Mastery - Wizard Mana + 15 %
House of Wolves Walkthrough
Standard Rush
Normally, I will always start building huts at every rock/iron/gold mine you find. Pop out three more settlers to mine collect the all kind of materials. You should have roughly 33% of your population at any time taken up by settlers or maybe a little less. Keep a contingent of soldiers guarding the eastern (right) border at all times. This force may be required to increase in size as the difficulty increases. It should probably take up around 10-20% of your population to be effective.
The remaining portion of your population should be directed first at clearing the western (left) portion of the map, then the eastern (right) portion. Use whatever types of soldiers are most effective at defeating particular types of enemies you encounter. When a mine is depleted, direct the settlers who have been working it to either farm pigs or harvesting lumber. About half of your non-mining settlers should be in a mob, going from tree to tree chopping. Simply direct them to chop as you go along, and eventually they will be picked up by the mob that develops.
FOOD! If you don't have enough of it, you won't be able to keep your two armies at maximum strength. You should have about one pig farm for every two huts you have, and each pig farm should be worked by two settlers. Deer are unreliable and chicken farming is too slow. Next is don't be afraid to place new military buildings closer to your new frontiers. They're not particularly expensive once you've established a good woodcutting enterprise, and they are very useful in keeping reinforcements up to date. However, the Blacksmith only needs to be built once.
Lastly, support your armies with towers. Only build stone towers when you're in serious trouble, though. Stone is more effectively used in mobile troops, and does not replenish itself, whereas wood is renewable.
Speed Rush
Speed Rush is slightly straightforward. You are only to win the game by using only settlers! Yup. The first 25 settlers should mainly focus on gathering materials especially wood and food. The rest of the settlers should be clearing camps and destroying castle & tower. Remember to build huts at fallen campsites and towers, this is an easy way to replace dead settlers and harvest precious resources like stones.
With enough materials, rush for Black Smith and Sharp Arrow Tips immediately. You will notice your settlers will have a slight increase in overall damage. From here onward, they can clear the eastern (right) portion of the map with your both eyes closed. You're are basically unstoppable with a large unit of weak settlers. ^^
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