The Horde (video game)

The Horde is a 1994 "defense" videogame from the studio that made Star Control. The player is Chauncey, a peasant orphan Raised By Cows (yes) who lives in the kingdom of Franzpowanki. While serving at a royal banquet, he saves King Winthrop the Good from choking and is knighted, awarded with the deed to the Shimto Plains and the sword Grimthwacker. Chauncey then builds the plains into thriving village, frequently having to defend them from the titular Horde. After building a prosperous village and wiping out enough of the Horde, he is given the deed to other areas. Each of the additional areas contain gimmicks, for example the desert level requires you to irrigate the land (build a moat) to be able to get the grass needed to build anything.

The Horde provides examples of:
 * Acquired Poison Immunity: Played with. Kronus Maelor poisons a drink that he gives to Chauncey, but all it does is make Chauncey comment on its unusual flavor. It turns out that the reason the poison didn't work was because
 * "Celebrity" Power: Kirk Cameron plays Chauncey.
 * Evil Chancellor: Not only is Kronus Maelor evil and aptly named, but he is.
 * Full Motion Video
 * Green Hill Zone: The Shimto Plains are plain plains, devoid of any gimmicks, and are fairly easy to earn money in.
 * Infinity-1 Sword: The Trident of Wimbli; to acquire it, you need to get water to a unique sapling in the Kar-Nyar Desert that doesn't show up on the overhead map. It lets you call down meteors from the sky to bombard the Horde, which is as deadly as it sounds... but it also costs a lot of money every time it's used, and it's easy to bankrupt yourself beyond the level's tax requirement without carefully policing how you use it.
 * The Lost Woods: Tree Realms of Alburga
 * Raised By Wolves: Chauncey was raised by cattle.
 * Shifting Sand Land: Kar-Nyar Desert
 * Storybook Opening
 * The Horde: The Hordelings
 * Unexpected Successor:
 * What Measure Is a Mook? / Mook Horror Show: A few random cutscenes are shown from the point of the hordelings, who see Chauncey as a monster.