Crownhold

It has good bones and starts strong, but as the game wears on it starts falling apart. Bugs start cropping up (Tributary Command research doesn't give extra units, sieges have more walls than they show, the next available purchase button doesn't go to all buildings) and game balance starts getting wonky (your ability to increase trade power stops waaaaay before your demand stops, upgrades start being available before they do anything) and, of course, the classic failure mode of incremental games: the last stage simply takes too long and you just have to leave it running while you go read a book for an hour. Could get fixed. We'll see.

I completed the game within 10 hours, two sittings. I enjoyed the aesthetic of the game a lot, the main issue I had wasn't the grinding aspect of it but the way information is explained, specifically the military concept of it. The only part of the stats I understood in terms of the military was the breaching aspect, I had absolutely no idea what any of the stats meant in terms of upgrades and how it affected my gameplay. I feel it could be simplified a lot more because it was extremely overwhelming the moment the army aspect became a thing. The graphics are a real eyecatcher and it was really nice seeing the world slowly evolve when you purchase certain upgrades. The vassals don't change at all unfortunately, but I did notice certain things like a big lighthouse being built, forts and castles that you conquered were being rebuilt and upgraded with gardens etc. which was a really nice touch to the gameplay for an incremental style of game. I probably wouldn't go back to playing it again unfortunately, but for the amount that I paid for it with a sale on launch it was a fun game to distract me for a bit.