Lairs & Lordships

You don't start behind the gate. You are the horde that breaks it.
Lairs & Lordships is a reverse tower defense strategy game. Plan the assault, break the keep, claim the land, then hold it when the kingdom wants it back.

PLAN THE ASSAULT, WAVE BY WAVE

Seven monster classes, one budget per wave: 150, then 125, then 100 army points. Use it or lose it. Skeletons up front, Golems as walls that walk, Orcs to break the real ones, casters behind. Once sent, a wave fights on its own; between waves, the battle freezes while you plan the next.

SEVEN FORTRESSES, SEVEN RULES

Kill the lookout before the horn sounds. Spring the forest ambush with a front line. Smash the rockfall for a back road. Split your wave before the volley battery picks a flank. Hit harder on hot ground, and burn for it. Wade the flooding ford, or take the bridge. Draw the royal reserve to one flank, then hit the other.

ELITES AND CHAMPIONS

Watch for gold rings. Elites carry up to three passives, from War Banner to Last Stand. On Difficulty III, twelve named champions join them, one to three per fortress. Click any unit to read its card, then break the aura carriers first.

BREAK THE KEEP, CLAIM THE LAND

Take a fortress and its keep sinks. Your lair rises where it stood, and the land pays you gold: spend it on five more monster classes and 89 monster upgrades, or on your lairs, for the day you defend them.

THE KINGDOM WANTS IT BACK

The first raid comes straight to your gates. After that, the more you take, the angrier the kingdom gets: raids grow larger and tougher, and up to two can stand at once while you conquer, three once the whole map is yours. Every raid brings elites of its own.

NOW BE THE WALL

Every lair starts with 60 wall segments, and lair upgrades add more. Draw a corridor and build towers at its mouth. Then defend in person, leave a defense plan for the garrison, or strike first: take the fortress where a raid musters before it marches. Lose, and the land is Lost until you storm it back.

SCROLLS AND SIDE EXPEDITIONS

Aim a Fireball where the crowd is thickest. Craft all six scrolls at the Scroll workshop, and set runes in them.

Dig the Ore Vein and search the Ancient Ruins for what the workshop needs. Or take a bandit camp with one army, 100 points and no reinforcements.

FEATURES

• 7 monster classes, 89 monster upgrades, 13 of them abilities that trigger on their own
  
• 7 fortresses, 7 rules, 3 difficulty levels each, on a map that forks twice
  
• 175 elites, 12 of them named champions, across the seven fortresses
  
• 6 battle scrolls, 3 runes, 3 bandit camps
  
• World events every few battles, and a short training battle with Abel, your advisor