It's a fairly simple game right now, but it's already got an addictive quality. After registering on the forums, you're allowed to do the same for the website -- since they are connected. Then you pick your race out of the many, many races to choose and don't worry because you can change your race later on. Doing puzzles earns you gold with which you use to build up your army, however there is only one gold-earning puzzle right now.
Playing and subsequently doing well in WO's first puzzle game -- Warlord's Breach, a fairly basic color-match game -- will earn you gold. Once you have amassed enough gold to recruit a sizable army, the next step is to switch to the world map where you can play a little mini-game to attack other player-faction territories to gain them in your army's name. A similar mini-game is played to build up defenses as well.
You can gain levels as well, but right now they don't actually do anything. We're sure there will be plenty of additions to the game (puzzles, features, etc) in the coming months, but hopefully sooner rather than later.
One word of warning. Warlords Online is so addictive and well-made that its website has been getting hammered ever since it launched today -- so it can be a bit frustrating trying to play when server crashes are causing some strange bugs.
