Wizard Warfare 2: Cephalopod Wars

There are several interesting ideas, but they are not executed well I feel. At current price point this feels worth it, but this game is not as polished as likes of Dominions. I wish there was some extra complexity - like rituals to affect world or more interesting spells -, but even now auto battler portion is interesting, but too often I end up clicking next turn button as it feels that I have to wait turns to pass for something to happen. Battles being simulated with groups of individual soldiers is fun, and offers plenty of opportunities for thinking, but battle balance feels slightly off. Random monster lairs seem interesting as an idea, but they force player into turtling strategy while not actively endangering player - simply bogging down gameplay as you have to contend with cities never being destroyed, but their growth being slowed down. Spell tree is a little short and sparse, but spells that are there do give value and even occasionally change strategies (like Chaos mages being able to summon imp workers to create roads and improvements). It's just that it feels like game was published half-done. There's only fifth level for conjuration tree - and that's for summoning dragons (or archangel) of various colors. Water and water battles seem interesting idea, but there's no real need to actually engage with seas and they are often filled with pirates before you can even finish harbor. First time I did anything in a game about pirates was when I managed to get wraiths and sent a full army of them to kill everything in an inland sea. Seeing sea battles being different from ordinary battles was deeply interesting, but it is hard to reach point where I can reasonably do anything about seas as pirates keep burning all ships when they are build one by one. This game feels like it is waiting for modding for advanced features that were left out in rush to publish.

Dominions and Civilization, together at last! I've played a fair number of 4x games like this, but I much prefer the ones like this that don't copy the Might & Magic heroes paradigm. Instead, you have mages that are of great importance, but you can build them like "regular" units. Armies can also get very large. You pick a path of magic at the beginning. This path will be the "primary" path for all your mages, but you can roll possible side paths just like Dominions mages. These will get you a little bit of non-primary magic, but you probably won't get more than a point or two. There are 3 main school of magic to research and 5 levels total in each. I found this to be a little shallow, and did eventually run out of research to complete in the end game. I could probably have gotten away with using a few of my mages in combat a bit more often instead of sitting at home researching. Each path of magic feels fairly unique. You'll get lots of upkeep-free skeletons from Death, or Fire elementals from Chaos, etc. There are some worldwide spells as well, which are very powerful. For example, Death gets a zombie outbreak spell, which causes all combat deaths anywhere to rise as zombies under you control. After a few turns defending from enemies, you'll get your own dead militia as zombie units to control, while the militia at home regenerates. Many battle spells also have ritual variants, which let you pre-buff squads before battle. It also has a lesser version of Dominions positioning mechanic: you set the location and general behaviour on a per-squadron basis. Overall, very fun. I'll probably play though a few more times with other paths.

No tutorial, it's 2025 ffs.

Pretty good so far, minor UI issues that I'm sure will be fixed as the game progresses. The battle system is a bit like Dominions, but even lass graphical if that's possible. Adequate but won't win any awards. The battles themselves are interesting. One big mistake I made with WW1 was not realizing unit enchantments are mostly free upkeep and very important. You won't win any city battles early in the game without knowing this. For the price this is a surprisingly fun game. It's completely playable, missing a few text descriptions etc.

A fun 4x indie strategy game made by a great team. I have played the first one at EGX and WASD. I bought this one when I saw it released. I really enjoy watching the auto battle feature it reminds me of old White Dwarf Warhammer fantasy battle reports. There are also a great deal of unit and building options along with random lair's to conquer on the world map. The naval fleets add a great new dynamic to the game. I would highly recommend this and look forward to playing it further.

very good

Slow, boring, bland. At least it's cheap.

This is a steal for the asking price. There's a mix of Master of Magic, Dominions battles and spell systems. This is a more approachable game than Dominions, though, and I think a better singleplayer experience (I do wish it had multiplayer so I could play with a friend).

Good for what it is, but the dev seems a bit inactive.

THis is better than the First Wizard Warfare! (ALSO A GOOD GAME THAT'S A MUST HAVE) Its like Age of wonders 3, Master of Magic and other 4x games. While it is true that the in both UI and the graphics aren't as good as most games are, its still a fun fun game. AT Least get it on sale! The game is still being improved on and there are new things added. The game is going to get better. Even if its not on sale at least get it anyway. Telling ya its a good game! Rating 8/10