What Total Annihilation: Kingdoms Changed
Cavedog Entertainment released Total Annihilation: Kingdoms in June 1999. It keeps the real-time battles of Total Annihilation, but moves them to Darien, a world of swords, siege engines and magic.
One Resource: Mana
Total Annihilation has two resources, metal and energy. Kingdoms has only mana, and every unit and structure costs an amount of it. The manual also counts time as a resource, because builders that help each other finish a job sooner.
Mana comes from Lodestones. You build them on mana sites, which the manual describes as small circles of glowing stars with standing stones around them. A Lodestone costs 280 to 492 mana, depending on the house. Later, each house can build a Divine Lodestone for 6,556 to 8,564 mana, which gathers mana faster. Creon builds a Mana Refinery and a Mana Amplifier instead.
When you spend mana faster than it arrives and your store runs out, all production slows down. Unlike Total Annihilation, Kingdoms gives nothing for reclaiming: wreckage, trees and rocks hold no mana. The only mana you get back comes from a building left unfinished, which returns its mana as it crumbles. Inside the game's files, mana goes by an older internal name, "mogrium"; it is the same single resource. The economy page explains income, storage and spending.
Personal Mana for Spellcasters
Units that use magic also carry their own supply of mana, shown as a second bar under their health. Casting a spell spends this personal mana, which then refills slowly over time. It never touches the mana your house uses for building.
Most spellcasters have three spells. The first is cheap and weak, the third is costly and strong. You choose between them with three buttons, or with the keys Ctrl+F1, Ctrl+F2 and Ctrl+F3.
Personal mana also powers other abilities. The Aramon Assassin stays invisible only until his personal mana runs out. The Mage Archer uses his for special arrows. In the game data, almost every caster holds up to 1,000 personal mana.
The houses use magic in very different amounts. Leaving out monarchs and gods, Taros can build 9 units with personal mana, Aramon 4, Zhon 3, and Veruna and Creon 2 each.
Monarchs Instead of Commanders
In Total Annihilation each player starts with a Commander. In Kingdoms each player starts with a monarch: one of the immortal children of the emperor Garacaius, or the Sage of Creon. The monarch builds the first structures of the base and fights with three spells.
The monarchs are not equal. Elsin and Lokken have 16,000 hit points, the Sage 15,750, Kirenna 14,800 and Thirsha 9,244. Thirsha makes up for this because she can fly. Kirenna can cross water, and Lokken can make himself invisible.
Before a game, the Monarch Expendable option decides whether losing your monarch ends the game. Since the version 3.0 patch, each monarch can also summon the god of its house. The gods of the four original houses cost 100,000 mana each, and Creon's Ghost of Garacaius costs 360,000. A god can also appear by itself while certain units are on the field, such as Aramon's Acolyte.
Houses That Play Differently
Total Annihilation's two sides, Arm and Core, have mostly matching units. The houses of Kingdoms do not. Each has a separate build tree and god, and fights in a different way.
| House | Monarch | God | The army leans on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aramon | Elsin | Anu | Heavy infantry, cavalry and siege weapons |
| Veruna | Kirenna | Lihr | Ships, ranged troops and towers |
| Taros | Lokken | Belial | Magic, undead and flying units |
| Zhon | Thirsha | Tammuz | Summoned beasts and flying units |
| Creon | The Sage | Ghost of Garacaius | Machines, guns and fixed defences |
Every house has land, water and air units, but they are not alike. Veruna's Sea Fort builds six kinds of ship, while Zhon uses sea creatures such as the Kraken. Taros has no real ships and uses the flying Ghost Ship instead. Creon, the fifth house, came with The Iron Plague expansion in 2000.
One Story Told from Every Side
Total Annihilation has separate campaigns for the Arm and the Core. Kingdoms tells one story, and the house you play changes as the story moves on. The Book of Darien has 48 missions: 18 as Aramon, 12 as Taros, 10 as Zhon and 8 as Veruna.
The first three missions are Aramon's. Missions 4, 5 and 6 then switch to Zhon, Taros and Veruna in turn. Many missions give you a special character to protect, such as Emen the Messenger in mission 1.
The Iron Plague campaign continues the story over 25 missions, plus an alternative final mission. You play Creon in 9 of these, including the alternative ending, Aramon in 6, Veruna in 5, Taros in 4 and Zhon in 2.
Online Play on Boneyards
Kingdoms could be played over a local network, by IP address, or on Boneyards, Cavedog's free online service. The readme lists up to 8 players on a local network and up to 4 in an Internet game. Skirmish games allow up to 7 computer opponents.
You entered Boneyards with a button on the multiplayer connection screen. Registration needed a user name, a password, an e-mail address and the CD key. Players with a Total Annihilation account on Boneyards had their name reserved, but still registered with a Kingdoms CD key.
Inside, players met in chat rooms called gatherings and joined battles as they formed. Wins, losses and scores went to the Boneyards ladders automatically. Boneyards also ran the Darien Crusades, a contest between players for the territories of Darien. The notes for version 3.0 describe territories that show how many players are in them, and that can fall without a battle.
The version 4.0 patch made Creon available in multiplayer games. For playing today, see the multiplayer page.
Sources
- Total Annihilation: Kingdoms manual, The Chronicles of Darien (1999), including the version shipped with the GOG release
- Total Annihilation manual (1997)
- Readme files in the GOG release of Kingdoms: readme.txt, readme.htm (The Iron Plague) and v4readme.txt (patch notes for versions 2.0 to 4.0)
- Game data extracted from the GOG release: units, build lists and missions
- Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Wikipedia