My Little Story with Battle Forge & Skylords Reborn

[cureall9999]

Hey everyone,

I'm a player from China, and I fell in love with Battle Forge back in 2011. I was amazed by its beautiful graphics and the fresh idea of summoning units with cards. It was so different from StarCraft or WarCraft.

The game was never officially released in mainland China (a big thank you to our Ministry of Culture for that :P), so I had to buy a physical copy from Hong Kong online, which came with the game discs and some BF points.

I had a lot of fun, but I was also very bad at it. To be honest, I've never been good at RTS games. Things like real-time micro, multitasking, and balancing my economy were always a challenge for me. But I still enjoyed it so much because the fantasy story was amazing and the visuals were stunning. My progress was slow, and the early missions weren't too punishing yet.

I remember after I got the Razorleaf card, my PVE progress became much smoother. Its super long attack range saved me from my terrible micro. I could just push my whole army forward slowly, hold position, and activate its root ability to attack from a safe distance. I didn't care that it was slow. I often spent 60 minutes on a map that other players finished in 25. But clearing it still made me just as happy.

My English is the typical "exam-style" English - good for reading and writing, but not fluent enough for real-time conversation. So I had trouble with 2-player or multi-player PVE. I couldn't find friends to play with, and I didn't have the skill or courage to look for people in the chat window. So I tried to play the Crusader campaign by myself. That was a huge setback - I failed again and again. After checking the forums and guides, I realized it wasn't meant to be played solo, so I went back to the regular single-player PVE.

Later on, I tried some PVP. There were a lot of players back then, so I could always find someone at my skill level. I lost more than I won, but I didn't get angry. But one time, I was completely crushed by an opponent's Fire Dancer (the promo version). I looked it up afterwards and realized this card was a classic example of Pay-to-Win. It was a T2 unit with moderate cost and an incredibly long range. For a free player, facing it felt like an automatic loss. I was so mad at the time, thinking "I need to pay money to get stronger too!" But buying BF points was not convenient in mainland China, so I never did it. Looking back, I guess I saved some money, haha.

I played on and off for about two years. My story progress was just so-so, and there were maps I could never beat, but the game still gave me a great experience. And then came the shutdown in 2013. EA's compensation meant nothing to me; I didn't play C&C or Ultima. My feeling at that time was "Capitalism is indeed cruel (lol)". There were so many maps I hadn't played, and for the ones I did, I only beat them on basic and advanced, never expert. My Razorleaf wasn't even fully upgraded.

12 years passed in a flash. I continued my journey of being a bad-but-happy gamer. I got into World of Warcraft and then quit. I basically stopped playing online games and retreated to my Switch and single-player PC games. Sometimes I would remember the joy and regrets of Battle Forge, and I had pretty much accepted that this story from my youth (?) was over.

Then, in October 2025, out of boredom, I asked Gemini to recommend some games. After trying a bunch of AAA titles and indie games, I remembered to ask: "Please recommend games similar to Battle Forge". Gemini recommended three similar games, and then said:

Special Recommendation: 《Skylords Reborn》
If you want to experience the original BattleForge, then 《Skylords Reborn》 is your only choice.
This is not a "similar" game; it is BattleForge itself, revived by the power of its loyal fan community. It is a non-profit project that has completely preserved all the original cards, maps, single-player campaigns, and co-op missions, and continues to receive content updates and balance adjustments. Although it requires an internet connection, its rich PVE content can be fully enjoyed as a single-player experience. For all players who miss BattleForge, this is the best home to return to.

Haha, my childhood game was back from the dead? I downloaded and installed Skylords Reborn to relive my old game. I bought back my Razorleaf and continued my turtle-style pushes across the maps, still making mistakes by not holding my units' position.

And the revived game is even more lovable. There's no pay-to-win. The promotion cards have been rebalanced, and you can't (and don't need to) spend real money. You can only win with patience, skill, and strategy. Then you collect cards and upgrade them.

In my gaming life, I've mostly experienced sudden shutdowns, getting bored after spending money, and good games losing their way after too many sequels. It's rare to find a purely positive experience like Skylords Reborn - a project born from dreams, perseverance, and nostalgia, and one that actually succeeded.

I will continue playing this game. And this time, I will be brave enough to invite fellow players for co-op maps. No more soloing Crusader for me!

 

player: cureall

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, I highly recommend the game Skylords Reborn. Please see   https://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/4210-skylords-reborn-all-you-need-to-know/  and  https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Skylords_Reborn

 

Skylords Reborn is a community-made, non-profit relaunch of BattleForge. BattleForge was an online Real-Time Strategy game with elements of a Trading Card Game, developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. The game servers were shut down on the 31st of October 2013 at midnight (UTC). Learn more about the story behind the shutdown from this interview with TheBlackOne, one of the ex-software engineers who worked on BattleForge. Everything you need to know about Skylords Reborn can be found on this page. To keep up to date with the project's development, check out the regular community updates in the forum.

 

Edited October 28, 2025 by cureall9999

[This Is Halloween_2]

Really happy that you found your way back into the game. Welcome.

The progression speed into the game is much smoother now, and the community is overall welcoming.

Do not hesitate to join the discord, it is quite active, and you will find a ton of help for deck making, PvP advices, and replay of challenges.

Outside of PvP, and special decks, the game is on the lower end of RTS in term of micro required, so do not be afraid (and even the most complicated decks or top PvP is still miles away from what is required in games like StarCraft, so no worries 😉).

You are also coming back at the start of our 2nd season. Take a month to complete the normal achievement of the game (with plenty of rewards), and then come, join and participate to the 2nd season, it is quite interesting and popular.

You will also see that plenty of useless cards have been rebalanced in the new game, and that 3 new maps have been added (with more on the way), and more than 30 new cards added, including many for the « new » amii faction , have been added to the game.

 

[Vultagx]

Dear @cureall9999,

Let me send you in behalf of the moderation team a warm welcome back.

Thank you for your lovely text. We are happy that even AI Chatbots recognise us.

Our community is better than ever. People are helpful, patient and welcoming for new players.

A lot of things have changed since original BF. More cards, maps, cosmetics, features etc. has been added to the game.

[treeliu123]

Hey I am same a Chinese player but live in Jpapan 

Start battle forge at junior high. 

Really happy to see  there are people from same country playing this game..🫡

[Majora]

5 hours ago, cureall9999 said:

Hey everyone,

I'm a player from China, and I fell in love with Battle Forge back in 2011. I was amazed by its beautiful graphics and the fresh idea of summoning units with cards. It was so different from StarCraft or WarCraft.

The game was never officially released in mainland China (a big thank you to our Ministry of Culture for that :P), so I had to buy a physical copy from Hong Kong online, which came with the game discs and some BF points.

I had a lot of fun, but I was also very bad at it. To be honest, I've never been good at RTS games. Things like real-time micro, multitasking, and balancing my economy were always a challenge for me. But I still enjoyed it so much because the fantasy story was amazing and the visuals were stunning. My progress was slow, and the early missions weren't too punishing yet.

I remember after I got the Razorleaf card, my PVE progress became much smoother. Its super long attack range saved me from my terrible micro. I could just push my whole army forward slowly, hold position, and activate its root ability to attack from a safe distance. I didn't care that it was slow. I often spent 60 minutes on a map that other players finished in 25. But clearing it still made me just as happy.

My English is the typical "exam-style" English - good for reading and writing, but not fluent enough for real-time conversation. So I had trouble with 2-player or multi-player PVE. I couldn't find friends to play with, and I didn't have the skill or courage to look for people in the chat window. So I tried to play the Crusader campaign by myself. That was a huge setback - I failed again and again. After checking the forums and guides, I realized it wasn't meant to be played solo, so I went back to the regular single-player PVE.

Later on, I tried some PVP. There were a lot of players back then, so I could always find someone at my skill level. I lost more than I won, but I didn't get angry. But one time, I was completely crushed by an opponent's Fire Dancer (the promo version). I looked it up afterwards and realized this card was a classic example of Pay-to-Win. It was a T2 unit with moderate cost and an incredibly long range. For a free player, facing it felt like an automatic loss. I was so mad at the time, thinking "I need to pay money to get stronger too!" But buying BF points was not convenient in mainland China, so I never did it. Looking back, I guess I saved some money, haha.

I played on and off for about two years. My story progress was just so-so, and there were maps I could never beat, but the game still gave me a great experience. And then came the shutdown in 2013. EA's compensation meant nothing to me; I didn't play C&C or Ultima. My feeling at that time was "Capitalism is indeed cruel (lol)". There were so many maps I hadn't played, and for the ones I did, I only beat them on basic and advanced, never expert. My Razorleaf wasn't even fully upgraded.

12 years passed in a flash. I continued my journey of being a bad-but-happy gamer. I got into World of Warcraft and then quit. I basically stopped playing online games and retreated to my Switch and single-player PC games. Sometimes I would remember the joy and regrets of Battle Forge, and I had pretty much accepted that this story from my youth (?) was over.

Then, in October 2025, out of boredom, I asked Gemini to recommend some games. After trying a bunch of AAA titles and indie games, I remembered to ask: "Please recommend games similar to Battle Forge". Gemini recommended three similar games, and then said:

Special Recommendation: 《Skylords Reborn》
If you want to experience the original BattleForge, then 《Skylords Reborn》 is your only choice.
This is not a "similar" game; it is BattleForge itself, revived by the power of its loyal fan community. It is a non-profit project that has completely preserved all the original cards, maps, single-player campaigns, and co-op missions, and continues to receive content updates and balance adjustments. Although it requires an internet connection, its rich PVE content can be fully enjoyed as a single-player experience. For all players who miss BattleForge, this is the best home to return to.

Haha, my childhood game was back from the dead? I downloaded and installed Skylords Reborn to relive my old game. I bought back my Razorleaf and continued my turtle-style pushes across the maps, still making mistakes by not holding my units' position.

And the revived game is even more lovable. There's no pay-to-win. The promotion cards have been rebalanced, and you can't (and don't need to) spend real money. You can only win with patience, skill, and strategy. Then you collect cards and upgrade them.

In my gaming life, I've mostly experienced sudden shutdowns, getting bored after spending money, and good games losing their way after too many sequels. It's rare to find a purely positive experience like Skylords Reborn - a project born from dreams, perseverance, and nostalgia, and one that actually succeeded.

I will continue playing this game. And this time, I will be brave enough to invite fellow players for co-op maps. No more soloing Crusader for me!

 

player: cureall9999

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, I highly recommend the game Skylords Reborn. Please see   https://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/4210-skylords-reborn-all-you-need-to-know/  and  https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Skylords_Reborn

 

Skylords Reborn is a community-made, non-profit relaunch of BattleForge. BattleForge was an online Real-Time Strategy game with elements of a Trading Card Game, developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. The game servers were shut down on the 31st of October 2013 at midnight (UTC). Learn more about the story behind the shutdown from this interview with TheBlackOne, one of the ex-software engineers who worked on BattleForge. Everything you need to know about Skylords Reborn can be found on this page. To keep up to date with the project's development, check out the regular community updates in the forum.

 

Lovely story, thanks for sharing it! 
I'm pretty busy at the moment, but if you ever see me in-game, just send me a message and I'll gladly help you experience the multiplayer maps you missed out on back in the day 🙂 I'm almost jealous that you still have classic content you never played before, so much cool stuff to explore and experience! I hope you will enjoy the game for years to come. 

[Vrizz]

On 10/20/2025 at 7:19 AM, cureall9999 said:

Hey everyone,

I'm a player from China, and I fell in love with Battle Forge back in 2011. I was amazed by its beautiful graphics and the fresh idea of summoning units with cards. It was so different from StarCraft or WarCraft.

The game was never officially released in mainland China (a big thank you to our Ministry of Culture for that :P), so I had to buy a physical copy from Hong Kong online, which came with the game discs and some BF points.

I had a lot of fun, but I was also very bad at it. To be honest, I've never been good at RTS games. Things like real-time micro, multitasking, and balancing my economy were always a challenge for me. But I still enjoyed it so much because the fantasy story was amazing and the visuals were stunning. My progress was slow, and the early missions weren't too punishing yet.

I remember after I got the Razorleaf card, my PVE progress became much smoother. Its super long attack range saved me from my terrible micro. I could just push my whole army forward slowly, hold position, and activate its root ability to attack from a safe distance. I didn't care that it was slow. I often spent 60 minutes on a map that other players finished in 25. But clearing it still made me just as happy.

My English is the typical "exam-style" English - good for reading and writing, but not fluent enough for real-time conversation. So I had trouble with 2-player or multi-player PVE. I couldn't find friends to play with, and I didn't have the skill or courage to look for people in the chat window. So I tried to play the Crusader campaign by myself. That was a huge setback - I failed again and again. After checking the forums and guides, I realized it wasn't meant to be played solo, so I went back to the regular single-player PVE.

Later on, I tried some PVP. There were a lot of players back then, so I could always find someone at my skill level. I lost more than I won, but I didn't get angry. But one time, I was completely crushed by an opponent's Fire Dancer (the promo version). I looked it up afterwards and realized this card was a classic example of Pay-to-Win. It was a T2 unit with moderate cost and an incredibly long range. For a free player, facing it felt like an automatic loss. I was so mad at the time, thinking "I need to pay money to get stronger too!" But buying BF points was not convenient in mainland China, so I never did it. Looking back, I guess I saved some money, haha.

I played on and off for about two years. My story progress was just so-so, and there were maps I could never beat, but the game still gave me a great experience. And then came the shutdown in 2013. EA's compensation meant nothing to me; I didn't play C&C or Ultima. My feeling at that time was "Capitalism is indeed cruel (lol)". There were so many maps I hadn't played, and for the ones I did, I only beat them on basic and advanced, never expert. My Razorleaf wasn't even fully upgraded.

12 years passed in a flash. I continued my journey of being a bad-but-happy gamer. I got into World of Warcraft and then quit. I basically stopped playing online games and retreated to my Switch and single-player PC games. Sometimes I would remember the joy and regrets of Battle Forge, and I had pretty much accepted that this story from my youth (?) was over.

Then, in October 2025, out of boredom, I asked Gemini to recommend some games. After trying a bunch of AAA titles and indie games, I remembered to ask: "Please recommend games similar to Battle Forge". Gemini recommended three similar games, and then said:

Special Recommendation: 《Skylords Reborn》
If you want to experience the original BattleForge, then 《Skylords Reborn》 is your only choice.
This is not a "similar" game; it is BattleForge itself, revived by the power of its loyal fan community. It is a non-profit project that has completely preserved all the original cards, maps, single-player campaigns, and co-op missions, and continues to receive content updates and balance adjustments. Although it requires an internet connection, its rich PVE content can be fully enjoyed as a single-player experience. For all players who miss BattleForge, this is the best home to return to.

Haha, my childhood game was back from the dead? I downloaded and installed Skylords Reborn to relive my old game. I bought back my Razorleaf and continued my turtle-style pushes across the maps, still making mistakes by not holding my units' position.

And the revived game is even more lovable. There's no pay-to-win. The promotion cards have been rebalanced, and you can't (and don't need to) spend real money. You can only win with patience, skill, and strategy. Then you collect cards and upgrade them.

In my gaming life, I've mostly experienced sudden shutdowns, getting bored after spending money, and good games losing their way after too many sequels. It's rare to find a purely positive experience like Skylords Reborn - a project born from dreams, perseverance, and nostalgia, and one that actually succeeded.

I will continue playing this game. And this time, I will be brave enough to invite fellow players for co-op maps. No more soloing Crusader for me!

 

player: cureall9999

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the way, I highly recommend the game Skylords Reborn. Please see   https://forum.skylords.eu/index.php?/topic/4210-skylords-reborn-all-you-need-to-know/  and  https://skylords-reborn.fandom.com/wiki/Skylords_Reborn

 

Skylords Reborn is a community-made, non-profit relaunch of BattleForge. BattleForge was an online Real-Time Strategy game with elements of a Trading Card Game, developed by EA Phenomic and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on Windows in March 2009. The game servers were shut down on the 31st of October 2013 at midnight (UTC). Learn more about the story behind the shutdown from this interview with TheBlackOne, one of the ex-software engineers who worked on BattleForge. Everything you need to know about Skylords Reborn can be found on this page. To keep up to date with the project's development, check out the regular community updates in the forum.

 

Nice story 🙂

Is that you? Without 9's?