One of the best 4X games around. it's quite complex and doesn't hold your hand at all. You'll need to read the manual if you want to get the most out of it, but it's also very well written.

With that out of the way, the are a lot of novel ideas in it and that's saying something for a genre that's been stagnating for quite a long while. The orders system is just brilliant and brings that chess or puzzle like feeling to doing your turns right. It's a very combat oriented game, but the combat system is very well thought out and while it takes a bit of time to get used to how everything clicks together it's very enjoyable and satisfying once it does. The light sprinkling of characters and events is well balanced and doesn't get in the way while at the same time it adds a bit more variation to the gameplay. It's certainly not a mix of civilization and crusader kings, but more of a laser focused 4X with just the right amount of role playing elements added as seasoning.

The devs have been updating the game constantly since release and so far all the additional content that was added to the game, both free and paid, has been great.

In the end this game is certainly not for everyone. If you go in and expect to click around in a CK clone with some 4X elements bolted on top you will probably not enjoy it at all. On the other hand if you are into deep complex strategies that require tens or even hundreds of hours to really get into and like to dig through manuals and spend hours fretting and thinking about each turn your play or if you are a history fan and in particular enjoy reading up on the ancient world, I would definitely recommend this game to you.

I've enjoyed my time with this and might play more if there are any interesting updates in the future. Love the focus on ancient history and the rich events and storytelling.

The order system is a great idea and it works great. As a ruler you can give more orders as you gain legitimacy, skill, etc. and you can focus those orders on tutoring, appointments, moving units, etc. The brilliant part is you can focus everything on one or a handful of units or spread it out to a many units - reduces the tedious move or sentry/sleep all units that I've started finding tiresome in Civ and allows for some interesting tactics.

I enjoy how your ruler, wife, children and everyone in your court ages and changes in character and abilities and as they do the portrait ages. However, after a few games I started noticing the same faces and names coming up again. This makes it harder to keep track of who-is-who and some of the charm of the interesting personalities also diminishes as you encounter the same or similar characters and events.

Speaking of events these are really bring the game to life, and are very fitting to the era and affect the game in interesting ways, sometimes forcing you in unexpected directions. Sadly they do repeat and when they do they lose most of their charm and I stopped reading most and just looked at what I get for my choices. I get there must be a finite number, but a lot more is needed IMHO.

Finally a warning. The combat is well considered where terrain, training, unit types, flanking, etc. has a huge impact on outcomes. This sounded great to me, but I found that playing on a large map with many units it would be incredibly time consuming and tedious to try and position all my units in the best position to win in a war. The AI is very good at taking full advantage and using its units effectively, so I found myself avoiding war at any cost.

So there are things I dislike that prevents me from putting hundreds of hours into it, but I do think it is very well made and I've had a lot of fun playing it and would recommend.

PS! The game let's you choose the style of game you prefer with more, less or no events, how characters age, etc. This is a really nice bonus. I usually find it off-putting when there are too many difficulty options, but the ability to tweak the focus and type of gameplay is a really nice bonus.

very fun