Dragonshard Preview at GameSpy

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And also GameSpy has posted a preview of Liquid's Dragonshard, focusing on the innovative qualities of the build-up system. As in other previews, there is a couple of screenshots to enjoy. Here's an excerpt:

That said, much of our recent demo focused on the game's traditional RTS elements, and the functionality around building your armies. Players will start out with plots of land that can house 16 structures, each of which produce unique units, and enable you to purchase their upgrades. Strategy has been incorporated into the simple act of choosing which structures (and, thereby, which units) you want to build, though, as the level cap for a given type of unit depends on how many of its home structure you have built. For instance, if you have a single blacksmith's shop, any barbarian units that come from it have a maximum level of three. In order to get it to six, you have to build another blacksmith. You can't just build it anywhere, though -- it has to be adjacent to an identical structure. As such, the game not only forces you to think about what structures you build, but also where you're building them.

Our host made it clear that the game's intended design takes for granted the fact that players will demolish structures once they're done with them, in order to facilitate the strategies that will emerge over the course of a match. "Expansion nodes" will be littered around the map, which will grant players four extra plots to build on, and these can be expected to be heavily contested resources. One key concession was made to ensure that battles don't begin too quickly, though, and this is the presence of walls around every player's home base. They're there to prevent "zerging" tactics, and while they're strong enough to withstand an early rush, you'll have to upgrade them before they can viably hold off an enemy that has "teched-up" sufficiently. Another cool feature is what Liquid calls the "King Screen." It's a handy interface that lists all of a player's structures and resources, as well as the units and upgrades that they can produce. That players can build or upgrade units directly from this interface seems like it would be incredibly convenient, as what RTS player hasn't forgotten, at a key moment, where they build a certain structure?

Read the whole thing at GameSpy.