"Balance in everything."
War Party is a 2019 indie Real-Time Strategy game by Rogueside set in a prehistoric fantasy world of cavemen and dinosaurs. Three tribes (Wildlanders, Vithara and Necromas) harness the magical power of the ancient civilization of Go'n in a battle for domination.Tropes:
- Alternate History: A very soft example but "What if Neolithic farming societies had access to dinosaurs brought back from extinction by a mysterious energy and then used that same mysterious energy to domesticate them?" still counts.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Go'n energy. It's a magical energy that powers technology, creates life and allows you to control dinosaurs.
- Artificial Limbs: The Necroma witch doctors have mechanical arms made of wood.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- Dilophosaurus has the frilled neck and venom-spitting abilities of its Jurassic Park incarnation.
- Almost all the dinosaurs have pennaceous feathers, including those not closely related to birds like Stegosaurus.
- Psittacosaurus can shoot its quills at enemies.
- Badass Boast: "How get muscles like these? Bench press T. rex of course!"
- Barbarian Hero: Mika and the Wildlanders in general.
- Barbarian Tribe: The Wildlanders have the most classic barbarian aesthetic, being tattooed warriors from the north.
- BFS: Mika wields an impressive one in-game, likely made of obsidian or copper, given the stone age setting.
- Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The Vithara panthers have the stumpy tails and stocky build of machairodontine cats.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The Vithara's over-reliance on beast units can make them challenging to play.
- Domesticated Dinosaurs: Wildlanders and Vithara have them. Also domesticated Mammoths and Smilodon.
- Dumb Dinos: Stegosaurs are portrayed as too dumb to do anything but carry packs.
- Elemental Embodiment: The Necromas can summon fire and ice elementals.
- Exposed to the Elements: Mika and the Wildlander medics both wear outfits that show abs. In the freezing cold north.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Wildlanders are a northern tribe who decorate with blue tattoos like the Picts with some Norse elements (berserkers and throwing axes). The Necromas generally resemble sub-Saharan African cultures with witch doctors and shamans.
- Feathered Fiend: Appropriately, many of the dinosaurs have feathers, even dinosaurs that probably didn't in real life.
- Friend to All Living Things: The Vithara's hat. Wild dinosaurs don't attack them and they can be converted by the Sage.
- Fur Bikini: How Mika dresses, as you can see in the page image. How that is at all comfortable in the frigid north is anyone's guess.
- Golem: The Necromas have a unit called a golem but it looks more like a metallic robot.
- Handsome Heroic Caveman: The Wildlander warriors are depicted as bare-chested muscle-bound lantern-jawed hunks.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: The heroic Mika is the only character who wields a sword.
- Hollywood Prehistory: Neolithic humans interacting with Mesozoic dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are explained in-universe as creations of the ancient Go'n people.
- Horse of a Different Color: The Wildlanders have Triceratops and Smilodon-mounted cavalry.
- Magitek: The Go'n blended magic and technology to assert their dominance. The three game factions draw on that ancient power.
- Mammoths Mean Ice Age: Averted. The snowy wild lands are mostly inhabited by dinosaurs and the Wildlanders have no mammoth units or imagery. On the other hand, the forest-dwelling Vithara have a mammoth unit and the desert-dwelling Necromas have a mammoth skull motif.
- Medieval Prehistory: The ancient Go'n civilization, as shown in the opening cutscene, used very medieval-looking swords and armor.
- Necromancer: The Necroma's slain enemies rise again as zombies.
- Nubile Savage: Mika has the classic sexy cave girl aesthetic, Fur Bikini and all.
- Our Nymphs Are Different: The Vithara have dryad and nereid units. The dryads are pretty standard tree-like humanoids but the nereids are levitating healers with no obvious connection to the sea or the deity Nereus from whom they take their name.
- Panthera Awesome: The Vithara have a panther unit and the Wildlanders have archers mounted on saber-toothed cats.
- Precursors: The Go'n were a technologically and magically advanced civilization that crumbled eons ago, leaving cyclopean ruins dotting the prehistoric landscape.
- Raptor Attack: The in-game dromaeosaurids are a bit of a mixed bag. They are notably feathered and the Velociraptors are accurately sized but they aren't as extensively feathered as they realistically should be and their hands are pronated.
- Sadly Mythtaken: The nereids are more like naiads, given the association with fresh water springs.
- Scary Black Man: Char, being a necromancer bent on world domination.
- Stone Punk: In spite of the advances that come from Go'n energy, all the technology is made of stone age materials like wood, obsidian and copper. The Necromas in particular use a lot of machines including mechanical arms and golems.
- Tough Armored Dinosaur: Played straight with the Vithara Ankylosaurus unit but averted with the Wildlander Stegosaurus caravan unit which has no attack.
- Toxic Dinosaur: Dilophosaurus and Oviraptor both spit venom.
- Wendigo: The Vithara have access to a wendigo unit. It follows the deer monster mold popular in recent media.
