Reviews - Lohengramm512

I love this game, it is a really great pure strategy experience where your decisions at the highest level play out in automated tactical battles. The game seems a little intimidating at first, but once you realize all you need to do is recruit units and move them around it becomes much faster to play. There is a huge amount of variety in how the 18 different classes conduct warfare as well, giving the game hours and hours of replay value even if you don't engage in multiplayer. I especially love how the Necromancers were implemented, going insane by raising the dead until they defile their mortal bodies and become Liches, or Vampires that eat villages to restore their sanity. Raising legions of the dead at ancient battlefields is an AWESOME touch. Driving your apprentice insane in the early game helps convey how evil you are without a single line of dialogue. Every faction is thematically developed like this, and it creates an atmosphere filled with clashing grand concepts from dark mythology and gritty fantasy. The only way the game could be any more epic is if you were playing Dominions ;)

That being said, there are some very annoying issues such as not being able to go back to the main menu from within a game session (you must exit the program entirely to start a new game), and micromanagement of some of the classes recruiting methods can be a real slog that makes turns take at least twice as long as they would with other classes as you grapple with the UI. I would consider this a perfectly executed strategy game if not for those flaws, but they are really annoying and the limited UI severely lessens the experience with some classes.