Kingdom, Dungeon, and Hero

bit of an odd game - its sort of enjoyable, there is enough character dynamics to add something, the dungeon bit is a nice side dynamic. but, like Warplan, in the end I find it all rather soulless. Can't really get interested or care what happens. the UI is a guddle, the individual screens are ok but the amount of times you need to close one to do something on another. Also for the larger scenarios, you can't get from the map to the country in diplomacy (or vice versa), so again a lot of faffing around as you try to link information together so keep on coming back to, to slightly misquote 'its mostly harmless' but no feeling of buying into the action

Kingdom, Dungeon and Hero is a medieval fantasy wargame/4x/rpg-lite that is comprised of a hex and counter overmap, basic empire building mechanics and a very interesting and unique dungeon crawling aspect that gives strong oldschool Dungeons and Dragons vibes. Pick a map(or generate one), pick a kingdom(there's quite a few), and dive in. This game was created by the same developer who brought us the "WarPlan" series, which are excellent strategic level World War 2 wargames that I'd highly reccommend. One cool aspect of this game is that while victory through military conquest is possible, you can also win through non-military means by way of the "achievements" system which has you achieve various goals to get victory points(have so many trade agreements, own so many magic items, build so many boats, etc). You can, in theory, win the game without ever going into battle. Or, you can combine conquest with other goals to acrue the victory points needed to win. This system makes it feel like you're playing a board game, which is a nice touch. The dungeon diving aspect is quite interesting - you'll form a party of heroes, and send them into dungeons to gain experience, collect gold and treasure - including "shards" which is one of your national resources needed to construct buildings and units, and magic items which enhance your characters and can contribue to victory point goals. The Hybrid wargame/rpg approach provides a unique flavour, and the victory point system adds tension in the sense that there are many paths to victory, and so while you may be excelling militarily, a rival kingdom might be outpacing you in victory points for other reasons. The game's single player mode is great, though I suspect it truly shines in multiplayer (I've yet to try this mode myself) where you can do hotseat or PBEM. The game isn't without it's issues - I did encounter a some various glitches as I played through a few campaigns. There's also no end to the amount of polish and improvement the game could use - UI glitches, bugs, desperately needed features. I'm not sure how actively the game is being worked on these days. All in all, I've been having a great time with this title and I can see it becoming a staple of my regular gaming rotation. It's also a great game to stream, as you can rename heroes after your viewers which is always a good thing. I would tentatively reccomend this game in that I do enjoy it very much, but it could use a *lot* of work and I don't know if that work will ever come. TL;DR - solid fantasy strategy title with loads of replayability and some stream-friendly features.

Made with a lot of passion and attention. Watch YouTube tutorials though as you could be lost without them.

this is a fun game I enjoy the adventurer part the most havent tried waging war yet I play the less hostile kingdoms so far.

This game has a lot going for it. I really appreciate its abstract, stripped-back design—especially in an era dominated by wannabe AAA titles where flashy graphics often trump meaningful substance. While the game is mechanically shallow, it rests on solid foundations. I love that it actually bothers to simulate supply chains; feeding and equipping armies is one of the hardest logistical challenges in real warfare. Take that forest between two cities with no road, for example—you’d better think twice before attacking through it. Not only will the terrain slow your movement, but an untimely rain or snowfall could sever your supply lines, turning your grand offensive into Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Unfortunately, the game has two major flaws: First, the AI is, unsurprisingly, rather silly—but worse, it’s predictable and unfun. No matter what you do, once you grow powerful enough, the game’s “envy” mechanics kick in, making diplomacy feel rigged rather than reactive. Second, while the game supports PBEM (play-by-email), it’s not truly asynchronous in the simultaneous-turn sense. Turns are sequential, which works fine for one or two friends, but adding more human players slows the experience to a crawl. That’s a real shame, because this could have been a fantastic game for large multiplayer campaigns with multiple human-controlled empires. Still, for its price point, it’s worth a try—and it will make you see all the nonsense that titles like Total War or the newer X-COM games try to pass off as depth.

Simple and challenging, straight forward (though it does need a little getting used to with some mechanics), a lot of fun... I hope the team works on this more, or uses it as a spring board to iterate their next title. Great stuff, simplified and streamlined from the previous game...though it didn't have give up all the detail, I believe it is complete and proportionally fun as it is :)

I liked parts of it, maybe i don't understand the game. You have to fight the big bad.. but you can't march through friendly territory. So what do you do if you don't have a port? You are locked in. Only choice is to pick a fight with a friendly.

so schlecht

Its simple nice and original game. Not much dunamical and not much war focused, We will meet some stability problems when conquering too many provinces, so capture entire map is usually hard. But there are some special maps in menu (great option!) In workshop we can found few additional maps (Song of Ice and Fire is very interesting for me). Game has potential and is regularly updated by creator. Rules and options can be more flexible, but it will be probably done in future. Game has stil some bugs which are long time not repaired by unknown reasons, but hope it will be done in future.

KDH is quite a lot of fun. Simple enough mechanics but with surprising depth (it does pay to read a bit of the manual though as you encounter things you don't understand). Admittedly I struggled to get into Kraken's Warplan games but I'm a junky for fantasy strategy, so this has got me hooked. 9/10. Would be a 10/10 if KDH gave you the option to create a custom faction when starting a Warlord scenario, with the ability to choose your banner, race and specialty bonuses or specific units for instance. I hopped into the editor briefly but it's just way over my head and not very user friendly. But an in-game faction creator interface for the Warlord game mode would make this one of the best fantasy strategy/wargame titles out there IMO.