Legend of Zelda: Imprisoning Wars

Legend of Zelda: Imprisoning Wars would be a strategy game under the Legend of Zelda franchise taking many elements of the Four Swords series.

The game would focus on micromanagement of small groups of soldiers in small skirmishes with a minimum of city building elements based on manipulating the geography of the map. Gameplay would be similar to Four Swords, except instead of 4 versatile Links the player would control and equip around 10-20 less versatile soldiers.

Gameplay
The single player campaign mode would feature multiple "Skirmishes" that depict an event in the overall storyline. These would be similar to other strategy games with preset bases for each player with various victory objectives and maps would be based on other Zelda games.

A Skirmish between players or AI would feature each player starting with a few soldiers, a Hero that represents the Tribe's leader, a Hero's House (which would have a different name per Tribe), and a few other Houses.

Rupees and time are the two resources of the game, and all things are bought with Rupees. Rupees come automatically in a trickle from the Leader's House and the player constructs buildings simply by clicking an area and waiting for it to build up. A new building must be within the sight of a previous building, with the original focus point being the Hero's House.

Buildings include Houses, Shops, Smithies, Military Buildings from which the player can create soldiers, and defenses. For the Gorons, their "buildings" would be caves that would be dug downward to form a larger complex. For the Zoras, they would create small ponds and stretch their own waterways to become larger and larger.

One of the key traits of a Zelda game is exploration. The player would of course have to scout out his enemies and find them and due to being unable to construct buildings near their opponents (there are exceptions), regular scouting would be of humongous importance. Furthermore the map would feature randomly generated treasures and small and simple "puzzles" for the player to solve, as well as small dungeons. These treasures would be extra Rupees and other items for the player to use.

Monsters will attack the players regularly in the early stages, encouraging him to build defenses and soldiers and preventing players from clashing early on.

Technologies would be few and far between and researched at the Hero's House. These technologies would be spells that have multiple use, such as revealing parts of the map, or diplomacy options where the player can recruit soldiers from other Tribes to compliment his armies.

Individual soldiers can be equipped with different items. Items can be bought at Shops and the player must stockpile items with which to equip his soldiers. The interface would be very simple and easy in order to equip multiple soldiers with a standardized set. Players can set custom soldier item sets, name them, and save them then with a simple click of a button at a creation building, they can create that soldier.

A Skirmish would generally take 20 minutes and ends when only one Hero's House is left standing

Story and Setting
The Imprisoning Wars refers to the conflict during which Ganondorf took over Hyrule in Ocarina of Time, but the plural means it can refer to various wars in Hyrule's history.

The main story of the game takes place before Ocarina of Time, during the Hyrulean Civil War described in Ocarina of Time and also the Interloper War described in Twilight Princess.

The main races mostly live in tenuous harmony, fending off attacks from monsters and occasional bandits and wrong-doers. The Sheikah are the most magically tuned race of all and are the only ones to hold full knowledge of the Triforce. All others know the Triforce as part of fables and stories.

Soon however, a small group of Sheikah separate and secretly work to claim the Triforce for themselves. They are later known as the Dark Interlopers. Because their efforts will eventually be known by all of Hyrule they concoct a plan to take advantage of the greed of men. They actively sow discord among the people of Hyrule, giving hints of the Triforce's location but never the full story. The truly talented are accepted into their ranks while most others are simply tools to help hide the tracks of the Interlopers and buy them time until they can claim the Triforce.

Gorons betray Gorons, Zoras betray Zoras, Hylians betray Hylians. The realm descends into complete chaos and civil war between numerous factions with the Interlopers.

The Sheikah are forced into a terrible situation by the King of Hyrule: because he knows that the Sheikah were the only ones with access to knowledge of the Triforce, they are immediately implicit in the Dark Interlopers crimes. To prove their loyalty, the Sheikah must hunt down their own people.

Some of the Hylian factions are backing other claimants to the throne of Hyrule without realizing that the bloodline of Zelda is incredibly important. An imbalance has occurred due to the King taking on all power and ignoring the Queen.

The Zora King has become corrupted by the Dark Interlopers and threatens to poison the water supply from Zora's Domain and turn Hyrule into a wasteland inhospitable for most forms of life.

In the final decades of the Civil War, a small boy grows up in the Gerudo Desert with a strong hatred of the Hylians.

One of the most important aspects of Imprisoning Wars is to maintain the feel of a Zelda game. None of the Zelda games have presented large-scale, Lord of the Rings like epic battles. Furthermore, a "mundane magic" setting would be presented. Bomb Bags are magical because they are small and hold 30 large Bombs that are roughly the same size of that bag. Small hearts found around Hyrule give vitality and strength. Songs summon small rainstorms.

Hylians
The Hylians would be an all-rounder civilization with typical medieval fantasy fare.

Offense: 4

Hylian battalions usually number about 15. Each soldier has access to a fairly broad number of weapons they can be equipped with. Hylian soldiers include Archers, Spearmen, Javeliners, Swordsmen, Horsemen, among others.

Defense: 4

The Hylians defensive strength is based mostly on the size of their bases. They have the best opportunity for an expansive base, and they have variety in their defenses. They can dig ditches, fill those ditches with water, plant trees, and build walls and towers.

Gorons
The Gorons would be a strong offensive faction with an emphasis on quality over quantity.

Offense: 6

One Goron soldier is equal to two of most other Tribes, and their war bands are usually small, numbering 10 at most. Their soldiers are hyperboles. Strong and slow Wrestlers, explosively ranged Bombers, blazing fast Rollers, and ludicrously expensive but incredibly powerful Big Brothers.

Defense: 2

On defense, the Gorons dig deeper into the earth and build multi-level caves with small nooks and crannies. However they are somewhat weak due to this. Their caves usually end up being a bit of a handicap rather than a benefit. Small numbers of Gorons can defend chokepoints but this ends up magnifying their soldiers' weaknesses.

Zora
The Zoras are a strong defensive Tribe with a slow and methodical approach to everything.

Offense: 2

The Zoras don't have access to a wide variety of troops but get at least a few soldiers. They tend not to do too well on land but at least they field average sized war schools of about 15.

Defense: 6

The Zoras are stronger on defense. Their waterways are slow to expand and but most other Tribes do poorly in water while Zoras are extremely fast. Their main strength is quickly calling up Zoras from one end of their base to the other to deal with threats. Defeating the Zoras requires siege tactics.

Sheikah
The Sheikah are a specialist Tribe with an emphasis on intelligence gathering and espionage.

Offense: 3

Slightly below average on offense, the Sheikah have as much variety as the Hylians but with fewer numbers. Sheikah players will have about 10 operatives at once most of the time. They must constantly stay on the offense, eliminating threats quickly by targeting the lifelines of their opponents. Sheikah Infiltrators, for instance, can hide underneath enemy buildings and be undetectable, slowly sapping the strength of that building. Assassins can target the strongest units in the enemy armies and kill them quickly but will rarely make it out themselves.

Defense: 5

The Sheikah are somewhat stronger on defense. Their most powerful feature is their intelligence gathering. They can build Gossip Stones far away from their base to see when the enemy is coming with what force. Their villages are weak but they can place a stealth on their villages temporarily.

Deku
The Deku are a spammer-type Tribe and the strongest defensive Tribe in the game.

Offense: 1

A very weak offensive Tribe. Deku lack variety in troops and in fact only have one troop-type: the Scrub. Scrubs are ranged and cheap and that is the end of their advantages. They are extremely weak but at least Dekus an average Deku mob is about 25.

Defense: 7

The Deku are very powerful on defense. Their bases are simply large forests and very decentralized allowing them to easily create Scrubs. They simply plant more and more trees and make their bases wild mazes with traps.

Gerudo
The Gerudo are an offensive civilization. They have a focus on speed.

Offense: 5

Gerudo raids usually consist of about 15 soldiers, on par with Hylians and Zoras. Their soldiers tend to be more frail but even on foot they are very fast. Gerudo love riding horses and their Horse Archers are very hard to deal with, if expensive. Gerudos can pilfer Rupees from other Tribes.

Defense: 3

The Gerudo base is a fortress and very cooped up and cramped and vulnerable to attack. In order to strengthen their base, they must build on top of existing buildings as individual buildings are quite weak and they cannot build very far outside of their range.

Blins
The Blins represent the Moblins, Bokoblins, Bulblins, and Miniblins. They are an all-out offensive civilization with very little defensive strength.

Offense: 7

Blin packs tend to number about 20 or so and their soldiers have a strong combination of spammability, power, and variety. They wield simple but effective weapons with no extra abilities. There are Bulblin Archers, Bulbo Riders, club wielding Moblins, machete wielding Bokoblins, and cheap Miniblin fodder.

Defense: 1

Blins build very crude buildings that come crashing down very easily. They must stay on the offensive to preserve themselves.