Field of Glory: Kingdoms

This game is a Gem. Let's straighten it right now : it does not have the Depth and Magnitude of Europa Universalis, but what it does, it does it perfectly. It doen't mean it lacks of Depth, not at all, but the player can't put their hands on everything like in all those boring swedish pretentious "sandboxes". The gameplay is nicely balanced between Realm management and Wars in an intricate way. It looks very simple but it is really challenging and pushes hard decisions on the player. On higher difficulty modes, Factions really make the player suffer. The "government" mechanic - that is central - is not in the player's hand per say, it is about carefully using the Authority Currency to develop The Realm, relatively to the other Factions : Factions with high Authority bang against each other constantly as it is how Claims happen the most (you don't click buttons to get what you want). That means that if the player invest in their Economy, which they excruciatingly need to do, they loose their Authority and their government decays. If they amass Authority, they can rapidly rise in a higher form of government but they are weak and can't sustain logistics for Wars, lead an effective Diplomacy, nor manage Religious Crises. Authority is hard to gain, it mostly comes from the difference between the size of the potential player's realm of their government and the actual number of lands they own. The faster you get big, the faster you rot, as well as being fat big makes you unable to move. It's the perfectest mechanic against mindless snowballing and low IQ blobbing on the Market, by far. The gameplay is hierarchised in order to focus on what happens on the Map rather than increasing numbers, it's not a nice cozy little game with fluff, eye candies and s h i t. It's Raw. The game Design is brilliant, effective, engaging, highly addictive. DLCs are mandatory (2 in total) : the first one expands the Map significantly and adds a punishing mechanic of agression for some factions (like Hordes, the Normands, etc), and the commerce with the East for some factions. The second extends the length of the Campaign, deepens the Economy and brings guns to the table. HIghly recommand Kingdoms to any GSG / Strategy game player.

My problem with this game is that pretty much every match ends up playing the same doesnt matter what nation you play has, so if you pick florence for example, you gotta either focus on taking out HRE or the byzantines because they will win basically doing nothing and if your nation is far away from those then you are screwed, you would have to sail and invade them instead of being more realistic and focus more in your own region, the game has more buildings than Empires but most of them are pointless bloat that you end skipping since authority buildings are more important so every region ends up being the same too

Again another game i've played more on the forum / site version than on steam, would recommend to anyone who loves war games

After a bit of thought, have to put it as a negative. The base game sorely needs actual differences between factions, more unit variety and more meaningful decsions and it seems like those will only partially come via DLC's. You have to own yet a seperate second game for this to have a chance of being worth it, and even then I am not the largest fan of how they implemented the export battles. Probably the biggest problem is how the world feels unalive. They detatched many ostensible decisions to the AI, and then made it so completely non-interactive and meaningless that after a while I could care less whether one leader was ousted or whoever sat on the HRE throne.

This game has the tightest mechanics of any grand strat game that I've yet played. The only thing that I really wish would happen (along with FoG:E) is that the graphics get a polish up. I know that gameplay > graphics, but it really is bland to look at the campaign map, sometimes, despite the great artwork for everything else. Game is still great but a facelift would be a missive booster! Being able to export battles to Fog: Medieval is brilliant, although not essential as the game has a brilliant autoresolve function, as well. PS: I have around 20 hours of this on a non steam version.

The UI of this game is ridiculous. From barely readable white text on grey backgrounds, to scripted fonts one level removed from Comic Sans, to ornately decorated windows and buttons that detract from usability. rather than add anything meaningful to the ambience of the game, I want to love the game, but I spent more time fighting it than playing it,

I tried several times to get into this game but got frustrated with something or other and gave up. But I kept coming back. One time it just clicked, I finally understood the mechanics enough to enjoy the game, and really like it now. They're a small studio, so quality of life and transparency are a bit lacking but the depth of the game more than make up for it. What I like most: - Mechanics that make it harder to paint the map. I like playing "tall" i.e. have a small area but build it up well, and this game allows me to do that. - The authority mechanic. Took me a while to appreciate this. Essentially factions are ranked based on their authority, and those with low authority can end up regressing to worse forms of government, (that get penalties to loyalty, authority, military quality etc.). - Troops require Manpower to recruit and repair, and those that are heavily armed also require metal to build and repair. Producing manpower and metal require certain structures that take up slots in your regions that could otherwise be used for buildings that produce food, money, etc. So there's a tradeoff if you want to be a warmonger. - The Decision system. These are like special actions that you may get, eg recruit special units, or spend money to develop a particular region, or recruit a priest. Best thing is, you can sell those you don't need in exchange for resources. So they don't go to waste. Also, it's not all down to randomness. You can spend money to alter the chances of each decision. E.g. my regions are all size 10+ and i need a second priest in all of them: so I spend money to increase the chance of getting the recruit priest decision, and over time I'll be able to recruit more priests. - Pops have religions and culture, and will generate more unrest if conquered by a foreign power. So it's worth spending time converting their religion (using piety) and their culture (using stewardship?), before continuing your conquests. - It rarely feels like a slog. When first started, I was just pressing end turn a lot and waiting until something happens. Now each turn I spend time planning: should I send this neighbour a gift and try to vassalise and peacefully absorb them? should I spend authority to build a building not currently on offer? which Decions do I need and is it worth spending money to increase their likelihood? Should I alter my pop allocation? Should I focus my regions on improving my fortification levels to generate more authority? Do any of my characters give bonuses to a region/province, if they are a governor or a general stationed there? Lots of depth to ponder. What I dislike most is the lack of transapency but this is mitigated by very active forums and developers who are still responding quickly to queries multiple times a day, a year after the game has been released. The AI turns can seem slow, eg 90 seconds. So I like to play this game whilst exercising. So end my turn, go do one set of dumbbells, come back and take my next turn. Overall, if you have some patience and don't mind learning through trial and error, then I can highly recommend this game.

Kingdoms has a steeper learning curve than Empires, and info is harder to find. However, if you stick with it and every thing clicks, it has a great flow and is addicting. The in game battle system is the best in any GSG, easy to understand but still has some tactics to it. The map is massive and you will only really play in one area per play through, so it has lots of replayability.

I’ve had a lot of fun in my first 440 turn campaign, playing at the 3rd difficulty level. I played a De Hauteville parody where I helped the brothers spread from a couple of regions in southern Italy, into Sicily, then on to Constantinople (to honour William’s ambition). I didn’t attack the Papal States though or capture the pope like the brothers did. I relived Bohemond’s land-grab during the first crusade (I sent my own ships down to Antioch and took it while the crusaders pushed further south to Jerusalem) then went a bit off-history by spreading my Sicilians across North Africa - because my nation was making multiple claims there?! I then allied with Castille to help them spread the Christian faith into southern Spain, but they turned on me which started a full-on 150 turn war against my fellow Christians that ended up pushing them right up into France. I can’t wait to start the new bombard campaign, turn the difficulty up to the next notch and see what I can do with the English.

Безусловно, игра мне очень нравится в сочетании с Field of Glory II: Medieval. Однако, играя за исламский халифат, я был немало удивлён, когда успешное и ненавидевшее меня 100% католическое Папское государство согласилось отдать мне Рим в обмен на пару островов в Средиземном море и пару регионов в африканской пустыне. Без войны. Это уже сюрреализм)