Conquest of Elysium 4

This is probably one of my favorite "Fantasy Company-Level Strategy" game series ever. But the CoE series is extremely accessible and simple despite what it looks like. It does NOT hold your hand but the mechanics and interface are very simple and intuitive but you will discover alot of weird mechanics from trial and error and having alot of failed runs. You don't control units directly but you have an autobattle system and you spend most of your effort just in the setup alone. It is also not very balanced given certain map layouts which can absolutely screw over some factions, for example the Senator and the Baron does well on maps that have alot of villages due to their levy units mechanic which allows them to spawn units annually based on settlements held. Necromancers need graveyard to raise undead. The thing is the CoE map generation algorithm can produce stinky maps and you can be screwed over a bit if the setup just isn't right. If you don't mind playing every campaign with a faction tailored to a certain map generation, this game is generally good. A really understated aspect of this game is the writing which is genuinely funny and medieval authentic. Illwinter is putting their history degree to good use and I love the Nymph's description and the descriptions for the Senator units. The text blurbs do genuinely add alot of character to the world.

I've played about 50 games of this. I have won about 7 or 8? I wasn't keeping track. About half those wins were because the computer enemies had terrible luck in their starting positions. If I could give myself one piece of advice to new players, I would recommend they play about ten games to understand the risks of leaving your home base unguarded and how few forces you have in early game. Then I would re-roll my starting position a few times until I got a starting position where I felt comfortable taking my starting army out conquering instead of having to leave some or all of it at home to guard your base. Being able to start conquering, exploring, and blundering your way through the map and its lore is where the fun is. There is no reward for overcoming a hard starting position, and it can get in the way of the fun the game has hidden in it. If you're OK with that learning curve start, you'll have a blast. After a few games of learning, you can start to build giant armies because your necromancer/druid/cultist/whatever is summoning/converting/reanimating tons of awesome units. Then you can dash them on the rocks of other giant armies or well-defended valuable property. When you get good, you start conquering even the largest armies or fortresses. But there's always a risk of another large army attacking your home square so you'll have to balance that the whole game.

Es ist einfach viel zu viel Zufall mit im Spiel. Auch ist es ärgerlich das man seine Truppen für die Schlacht nicht selber aufstellen/ platzieren kann. Die KI ist auch nicht die cleverste, ob es die eigenen Einheiten oder der Gegner (ziehen auf der Weltkarte, ziehen im Kampf). Oft killen die eigenen Caster die halbe eigene Armee wenn man Pech hat. Schade eigentlich eine ordentliche Idee aber mäßig umgesetzt. Den Preis finde ich auch zu hoch. Sollte eher bei 10 Euro liegen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------There is simply too much coincidence in the game. It is also annoying that you cannot set up/ place your troops for the battle yourself. The AI is also not the cleverly whether it is your own units or the opponent (move armys on the world map, move units in combat). Often your own caster kill half the army when you are unlucky. Too bad actually a decent idea implemented moderately. I also find the price too high. Should be at 10 euros.

beautiful hell

To be honest, i never played it much, but thats maybe because Dom 4 existed and - compared to dominions generic mechanics of pumping out (or catching...) troops and sending them around while the respective nations gimmicks mostly only get important with time - here every one has something weird unique right at the start so i had not found "my" faction.

I wish there was a neutral option. The game itself is fun, might of magic type but there's some serious issues I have. 1. Price- I can't see the justification of this at full price. Only worth it if on sale of over 70%. 2. No option to load/return to main menu when in game. - results in having to close game down each time and re-opening in order to reload (save scumming is a thing) I do think the game is fun for people into this genre but I would not recommend paying for it at full price.