Beset by enemies on all sides, each attempting to gain control of the kingdom, the people of Anteria turn to a group of champions - native Anterians who have recently returned after many years away.

The champions agree to help but soon find themselves in conflict with Kalen Daark, a powerful black mage with his own evil agenda.

Championed by Blue Byte and Ubisoft as the most innovative title in the series to date, it was set to feature a mixture of city-building, economic micromangement, real-time strategy, and action-role playing.

However, after the closed beta produced predominately negative feedback, especially in terms of how the game didn't "feel" like a Settlers title, Ubisoft scrapped the project.

Keeping most of the art assets and maintaining the tone and broad storyline of Kingdoms, Blue Byte had completely reworked the gameplay by removing most of the city-building and economic elements and focusing instead on the action role-playing combat missions.

The graphics, voice acting, and humour were generally praised, and some critics found the integration of city-building and action role-playing well handled.

Champions of Anteria is made up of three main gameplay components - world map, city base, and combat missions.

[5] Enemy factions are fully automated and pursue their own objectives, levelling up their city bases independently of what the player is doing elsewhere on the map.

[8][11] As the game progresses, the player can also build one-off buildings - an apothecary to create potions for healing, enhancing stats, and inflicting damage; a magister machinae to create stationary offensive weaponry and healing zones; a blacksmith to forge new weaponry and armour; and a market to trade resources for gold.

[4][7] The Alchemist DLC added an additional one-off building, the "Foundry of Affinities", which allows the player to brew five types of new hybrid potions using a combination of resources.

The only way to attain brave people is by spending a certain amount of renown on the upgrade tree, which is where the player enhances their abilities, unlocks new buildings, and improves the available offers in the apothecary, machinae, and smith.

[13] The two DLC packs added two additional champions - Tarn, a brawler skilled with both metal and nature, and Weissle, a mage who can combine any three of the five elements into a hybrid magic.

These skills have various effects, such as stat boosts, extra damage, healing, or temporarily altering the elemental affinities of enemies or allies.

Setting out, they face several foes - the Dune Tribe, a once peaceful people from the deserts to the west, who have recently begun to attack Anteria without explanation;[20] the Frostbeards, a warlike race from the frozen east, once made up of numerous hostile tribes, but who have recently been united under new leadership;[21] and the Broken Crown, the remnants of the Crown Legion, who have been secretly rebuilding their strength in the mountains to the north.

The champions fight and defeat the duo, killing Bryndt, who is given an honourable funeral by the Frostbeard clans as they call off their attacks on Anteria.

[23] The champions storm Daark's fortress, but he transports them into the Unliving Dimension where he reveals his true form - a powerful dragon.

[24] Blue Byte's Director of Product Development, Christopher Schmitz, said of the game, "by reinventing our approach to the franchise, The Settlers: Kingdoms of Anteria offers players a brand new experience full of new possibilities to explore.

[25] In August, Ubisoft released the first screenshots and revealed that the game would be a combination of city-building and action role-playing, with the combat sections likened to the Diablo series or a MOBA.

[30] This proved to be a controversial announcement, with fans and journalists referring to Ubisoft's disastrous rollout of their 2010 digital rights management system, the Online Services Platform, which rendered The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom unplayable for thousands of players across the globe.

[8][16] Many found the combat gameplay too similar to Diablo games, and criticised the repetitiveness of the missions, the necessity for grinding, the high difficulty level, an unclear tutorial, chaotic fights, non-rotatable camera, and poor AI.

[8] In his PC Games interview in October, Schmidt said that based on feedback received during the beta, the combat portions of the game, which originally made up roughly 75% of gameplay would be scaled back to around 50%; players would level up faster, giving them access to more buildings and abilities earlier in a playthrough; the default difficulty level would be lowered; AI would be improved; and the tutorial would be expanded.

[40] In a statement on the game's official forums, they stated: "This step is unusual but necessary so that we can fully concentrate on modifications, new content, and solutions to known problems.

However, we are excited to announce that we have been working hard to create a new game, a challenging real-time strategy experience that we are revealing to you today, Champions of Anteria.

[44]They went on to talk about the style of the game and how it differed from titles in The Settlers series: "With a renewed focus on story, the economic and logistic features are revised and are handled via a homebase management system where you can craft items for your Champions and unlock new abilities".

[6] 4players's Dieter Schmidt scored it 77%, praising the graphics, the integration of action role-playing and city-building, and the use of Active Pause Mode, and calling the game "addictive".

In terms of criticisms, he found the combat missions repetitive and the AI's pathfinding poorly implemented and occasionally buggy.

Nevertheless, he concluded that "at its core, Champions of Anteria does a lot of things right, it knows how to entertain, and it evokes memories of Baldur's Gate".

Although he acknowledged the game wasn't especially original, he enjoyed playing it, concluding, "Champions of Anteria manages to bring together various genres and revive the essence of The Settlers.

He praised the graphics but was critical of the repetition in the combat missions, calling the game "an interesting hybrid experiment that can be considered successful, but not completely".