Millennia

Tentatively recommended to some people. Do keep in mind that I'm probably biased by the need to justify the purchase. Millennia is a Paradox product. It means that right now, you're buying not a proper game, but a promise that the game will be assembled... eventually. We don't know how credible it is, but updates get delivered on schedule for now. The launch was a mess: the developers royally screwed up with misleading multiplayer promises. By now, though, proper multiplayer functionality has been added, so, a good sign. The highlights of the game are progression and economics systems. Constructing nations over the ages is interesting and, unlike its Humankind counterpart, works properly, without narrative problems. The key narrative difference is that components are not historical cultures that overwrite your country's presentation to the world, but just themes (for example, "Theologians") that you add to your nation (a shame that governments aren't built the same way). From mechanical standpoint the cultures are not front-loaded packages, but trees of perks (you will normally get them all eventually, so the choice is mostly about sequence, though) that are well-integrated into other game mechanics. Then there is ages system: instead of a monolithic research tree, there is a sequence of ages with several variants, each one having different techs within. Every age comes with special rules, and the choice is global: the science leader gets to pick the next age variant... or screw up: say, after some gross sanitation mismanagement the world is forced into the Age of Plague, where everyone will have to manage disease outbreaks. Some authors's ideas are weird, even in "historical" variants, but the system overall works well. Economy system is more complicated than usual: it starts with the normal tile yields, food and production, then goes into lots of goods, organized into production chains, that exist to satisfy multiple urban needs. The goods production is tied to the map via improvements - buildings that are constructed directly on the map, in a manner similar to Humankind or Civ VI districts, but much more variable. Trade is underwhelming so far, though. The global resources are also more variable than usual, the devs adapted the standard Paradox approach with "mana" (multiple kinds) in addition to the expected science and culture currencies, with some success. Many things are predictable, mostly in bad ways. Graphics are outdated - the screenshots are fairly representative. The UI is a mess (probably even somewhat worse than expected). AIs are stupid, in all of the usual ways. The diplomacy system is simple, theoretically sound, but gets hobbled by the usual suspect of proximity penalties, combined with AI expansion style. No religious diversity: everything is a reskin. No espionage yet. The balance requires much, much work (and also less renewables' fans). Micromanagement closely follows complexity. Basically, 4X business as usual, set expectations accordingly. One thing so far has been conspicuously missing: war/combat. Well... nearly everything about these mechanics here is a disappointment. The two-tier (think Total War or, again, Humankind) system is a massive failure: the top level is unstrategical in several ways (the primary one is lack zones of control of any kind), the bottom one is... ugh. I hope that it's actually a placeholder that was retained due to a massive overextention: any other explanation implies extreme incompetence on part of the system designers. Basically, there is zero tactical control outside army arrangement, the resolution mechanics are annoying, the unit behaviour is crazy, leading to the bad kind of unpredictability, and the combat viewer is an affront to one's eyes. The result is that in every single war I wanted to scream - it was one of the worst military strategy experiences in my life. It is probably fixable, though: Humankind is out there as a reference. Overall, Millennia has several good ideas, is promising in general, but flawed (also, probably overpriced). I can recommended it to 4X early adopters/novelty seekers, but hardly to anyone else.