Old World

Игра ведь должна быть хоть в какой-то степени весёлой, правда? А тут каждый ход... тот сдох, этот заболел, а камня всё равно не хватает, хотя вся карта в каменоломнях. Недовольство от религии, недовольство от недовольства, недовольство от довольства. Техи вроде исследуются, но в итоге от них только хуже, потому что... камня опять нет, как и мест под каменоломни. Новое здание? Ура, но места под него уже нет. Ну и пошло оно всё, да и камня всё равно нет. Наместник помер, посол заболел, правитель расточительный, а внебрачный сын пропал в урагане. Зачем я в это играю... ведь грёбаного камня всё равно нет.

I just don't find it fun, the complication, the lack of explaination of different stats and the time it will cost me to learn to play this game altogether. If you lack time and have no motivation to learn to play this game don't buy. This is terrible backlog addition and a waste of money.

Old World is an exceptional 4X game that almost seems as though it exists just fix the problems of the Civilization series and Paradox games (particularly Crusader Kings 2). It has internal management mechanics that stay challenging through the whole game, an exceptional combat system and a character system that makes characters actually important. Most map and 4X games are pretty bad at making internal management interesting or challenging. Very early into these games the realm is stabilized and ruler deaths become seamless transitions. In Old World stabilizing the realm is extremely difficult. Each city must be assigned to a family that has the potential to cause uprisings, civil wars and chaos when upset. They react strongly to ruler decisions, character traits, religion, and city unhappiness. Cities by default start off losing happiness and as the game progresses more religions become available resulting in conflict. Deciding between being tolerant or an enforcer of religious unity is a meaningful decision. The character traits of rulers, religious leaders and members of families massively affect family happiness and a stable realm can quickly become unstable upon key people dying or getting enraged. Tutoring, bribing, religion and intrigue are central to actually doing well at the game instead of just fun sideshows. Civilization 5 & 6 have pretty mediocre combat. Cities get placed too close together and easily support each other with defensive fire and reinforcements. There is little space for maneuvering or tactics and every civ basically makes the same type of armies unless they have broken unique unit to just spam for an era of the game. It is all just a slog. Old World fixes all of these issues. The biggest change is that cities can only be made on specific titles that are appropriately distanced away from other possible cities. This creates space for set-piece field battles with more tactical game-play and interesting sieges. Old World also makes armies more diverse by giving every nation a unique unit that only requires a modest 4 laws and a stronghold (7 and Citadel for elite) to build. Every nation wants to rush out their elite unit, but each unique unit changes everything about how the game should be played. Each require different resources to build and some like cavalry can only be built in cities with a specific resource (horses). Research decisions to compensate for the unit, city planning and even empire planning all change because of the unique unit. In Crusader Kings 2 the state becomes so stable that leaders just become interchangeable figureheads and most of the decisions relating to them just become a side gimmick. In that game you control of all character actions and those actions eventually stop mattering. In Old World characters are central to the game you have to react and adapt to their decisions because their traits massively affect happiness, research and production for the whole game. Your ruler marrying the head of a family and cheating on them has disastrous consequences. Your heir being a debaucherous heretic will result in an unstable and chaotic realm on succession. In other games you can stop this from happening or even just force the character to act differently, but in Old World they will act on their traits. You can embrace the heir and take the heretic religion the new religion and use the debauchery as a form of charisma. Another option is to enrage the previous heir by changing your succession so somebody else takes the throne and risk a civil war. Or perhaps survive chaotic heir’s rule until a more conservative and establishment friendly heir comes along. Old World strikes a good balance between player agency and having to react to the characters. Old World has a laundry list of changes to the 4X formula that make everything better like an orders system that limits actions each turn to make decisions more meaningful and points/ambitions victory system that stop the game from dragging out, but this is a review is too long for that.

If you think that the last iteration of Civ V was peak Civ, then Old World is your game. It takes that most of the mechanics of that game, lops off the later years and improves on it in almost every way so you never spend turn after turn just hitting "End Turn" and hoping something happens.

2020年代に発売した4Xストラテジーの中では一番好きな作品です。 多くの方が語ってますがCivilization と Crusader Kings を足したプレイ感のゲームです。 基本的には4X的な戦略が勝敗に大きな影響を与えますが、一族の人間ドラマがそこに彩りを与えるので物語性もあり、「毎回同じ展開」にはなりにくいのが大きな魅力ですね。 DLCが色々出てますが、まずは本体だけでも十分面白いです。 購入を検討中の方はセール中に本体だけ買って試してみるのも良いと思います。 [これから始める人向けTips] ・指導者の特性は大事 技術研究の選択肢となるカードの引き直しができる、都市に建てた建設物をアップグレードできる、他勢力と同盟できる、など指導者（=国家の君主）にすると強い力を発揮する特性がいくつかあります。指導者のパラメータ（カリスマや規律など）の数字よりもこの特性の方が重要です。 ・野望の達成難易度のバラつきが大きい 定期的に野望をかかげるかを提案され、達成できると正当性にボーナスがあったりゲーム勝利に近づきますが、難易度のバラつきが激しいので慣れないうちは要注意です。指導者の寿命と野望の内容を考えたら「それ無理だろ？」と言いたくなるような野望もけっこう提案してきます。 ・幸福度管理が大事 各都市には「幸福度」というパラメータがあります。デフォルトはマイナス傾向で、放置してマイナスがかさんでいくと住民反乱などにつながるのでプラスに転換させるのが序盤～中盤では大事になります。娯楽だったり宗教だったり、好転させるための方法が色々あるので自分に合ったやり方を見つけるのが大事です。 [あえて改善して欲しいポイントを上げるなら] ・戦争は物量戦になりがちなので、もう少しバランス調整してもらえると嬉しいです。 各ユニットの最大HP20なのに、1攻撃で4～5ぐらいの被ダメージ、場合によっては8～10ぐらい一撃で削られるし、敵軍も大量のユニットを前線に送ってこちらの1ユニットに攻撃を集中させるので、ユニットはすぐに死にます。 要塞の上にユニットを乗せ、防御態勢でガードをしていても1ターン持たないことがほとんどです。 また、「強制行軍」があるため敵ユニットは視界外から長距離を走って殴りかかってくるので「敵軍の陣容に合わせて自軍の配置を考える」といったことも難しいです。 上記より、「お気に入りのユニットを大事に育てる」と「戦術の妙で敵を破る」といったことは難しく、大量にユニットを生産して物量で押し切るとなりがちです。 ※単に私のプレイヤースキル不足だったらすみません。

After about 37 hours with Old World, I can confidently recommend it. The game has a noticeable learning curve, somewhere between Civilization and Paradox titles, but it remains far more accessible than something like Hearts of Iron. Once it clicks, it becomes extremely rewarding. I now feel comfortable enough to compete on mid level difficulty, and that is where the game really starts to shine. Higher difficulty levels push you to make smarter decisions, while the lower ones feel quite easy. What really stands out is the depth. Old World offers interconnected systems that go far beyond what you usually see in Civilization, making each playthrough more engaging and strategic. If you are fine with staying within a single historical era and want a deeper, more thoughtful strategy experience, this is absolutely worth your time.

An amazing successor to what is arguably the best game in the Civilization series: Civilization IV. The DLCs add a tremendous amount of content, and everything feels fairly priced - especially if you pick them up during a sale. I simply can't get enough of this game. It perfectly captures the addictive "just one more turn before I go to sleep" magic that defines the best Civilization games.

Old World is easily one of the best strategy games I’ve played. What I love most is how well all the mechanics fit together. Everything just makes sense. [list] [*] [b]The Orders system:[/b] You can’t just move every unit every turn. You actually have to think about what’s important right now. Late game feels so much better because of this. [*] [b]Logical mechanics:[/b] Dynasty events, politics, and city planning all work together seamlessly and feel like part of one big strategy. [*] [b]Combat & AI:[/b] Combat takes real tactics (flanking, terrain, line of sight), and the AI actually plays smart instead of just cheating. [/list] An absolute gem that deserves a lot more love.