Godking: Master of Rituals
Not as good as Dominions but a solid 7/10:
It is Dominions very/semi-light with a slight QoL upgrade.
Explore
Expand
Exterminate
Expunge
Ex-sanguinate
Yeah ok. It is more about kill kill kill than any really deep strategic level of gameplay.
Play every faction once against the AI then your next step to get anything else out of the game is multiplayer. This is where I think it would shine. Because, vs AI, all you are doing is figuring out which units to stack and pump them out of your city til you have a death stack and go stomp the capitals.
– Real player with 88.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Fantasy Turn-Based Games.
Well, three hours in this is more than enough time for me to tell that I’m going to have a blast with this game. yes, it’s no big secret that it’s inspired by Conquest of Elysium 4 and it’s nowhere near as deep or as satisfying as that game. But CoE4 really is on the absolute verge of what I’m willing to tolerate graphics-wise when it comes to playing games. This game has much of what makes CoE4 great but it also looks mych better.
At the time of posting, there are only a few factions but they’re different from each other, just like CoE’s factions are different. This game has 3D models of the units and they are really well done so it’s a mssive upgrade in the visual department over CoE. But it means that it will require much more work to create the models and animate them properly on the battlefield that it would to add a new faction to CoE, especially as that title shares a lot of artwork from Dominions.
– Real player with 27.8 hrs in game
Beard of Stone
Beard of Stone is a fantasy turn based 4x that tell the story of a world’s creation all the way to the twilight of the gods. Not exclusively a turn based strategy game, real time bidding mechanics keep everyone actively involved. Who is up for their next turn is constantly in contention! The game is fast paced and quick enough to be played in a single sitting.
Players take the role of Gods, bending the prophetic destiny of the world to their ends. Every event and action in the game is public information from the very first turn, displayed on the Prophecy Track. Players spend their Influence currency to gain control of these prophecies in real time. Anyone can bid and be outbid before a prophecy arrives as the current turn. Prophecies span a wide range of actions, from the creation of the continents of the world, the birth of all the various races, disasters, military campaigns and more.
As Gods, players are not playing as any specific race. They strive to make the warriors and nobles of the land believers in their faith. As the races expand and worship each God, the Influence invested is redistributed to the Gods to be bid on further prophecy turns. Having the most believers in the most prosperous races will lead to one of the Gods dominating the world and winning the game.
Read More: Best Fantasy Multiplayer Games.
Conquest of Elysium 5
Conquest of Elysium 5 is the next iteration of the past CoE games with more content, and with nearly the same (pixel art) graphics that were used in Civilization 2. They have gotten a little better over the years, but not much. If you played CoE4, there are three new factions, new modding tools, and new “Planes” within each map to conquer. The biggest difference for me from the previous version was not just that there was more to conquer though, it is that the “more” that exists is also now much more accessible. More on this below:
– Real player with 193.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Fantasy Roguelike Games.
I love this game, I never get tired of it. It strike the perfect balance between complexity and accessibility.
– Real player with 167.9 hrs in game
Deity Empires
Short description:
DE is the most faithful (playable) successor to Master of Magic. It has some
*4x Fantasy Strategy with seperate magic and civic research
*points to spend on perks at game start
*sophisticated economy
*incremential elements like resource upgrades and unit leveling ( (which you can turn off))
*Tactical battles and Rogue like dungeon diving (simplistic Rogue Like at the moment but there is more to come)
A negative point is, that this game is complex and/but has very limited manual (and no tutorial). As I understand it, the devs wait for the big and essential updates, before they spend time on manuals. The DE community is very welcoming. The forum search function is your extended manual.
– Real player with 783.5 hrs in game
This review is from the perspective of someone who has played a significant amount of the Age of Wonders series and the Fall from Heaven 2 mod for Civ4. I’ve also dabbled in Endless Legend, Fallen Enchantress, Dominions, and Master of Magic.
Right now this game feels like a cross of Age of Wonders and FFH2, and I love it. Below are some of my thoughts:
City Development (Tall vs Wide):
Cities start weak but can become incredible powerhouses given time and investment. For example, a starting city will produce approximately 100 gold per turn, which is enough to fund a low tier army or a level 1 improvement every 5 turns. My capitol in my latest game, however, produces 4000 (!) gold a turn, and is still not yet fully developed. I basically don’t have to care about income because this city is basically El Dorado.
– Real player with 357.3 hrs in game
ENDLESS™ Legend
Good game, but I will give more preference to endless space 2 with more mechanics and more elaborate gameplay.
– Real player with 364.9 hrs in game
Pros:
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Great strategy experience
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Interesting fantasy theme
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Enjoyable equipment mechanics
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Heroes add an interesting strategy layer
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Tweaking a faction to your play style is awesome
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Complicated subsystems that make the game always interesting to optimize
Cons:
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No in game encyclopedia to learn game terms and mechanics (tooltips aren’t enough)
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Game speeds other than standard are imbalanced
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Subsystems need better explanation
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Too much and too costly DLC
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DLC should not radically change the way the game is played (here it feels like what should be an update is DLC)
– Real player with 228.6 hrs in game
Siege of Turtle Enclave
There might be a good game here, underneath the terrible interface and clumsy explanation.
– Real player with 71.7 hrs in game
A lot of strategy here for 5$. Just started playing but so far enjoying this game. Seems like the dev put a lot of work into this.
Edit: Just a few hours into the first campaign, or as we turtle’s call it “The War of Owl Aggression”. The owl horde is advancing quickly into turtle territory. We recruited armored grunts for our front line backed up by herbalists, slingers and hunters. Research is slow as we’ve put most of our lumber, stone and iron resources into troops and housing. Our lone hero is now level 3, and his army is whooping owl ash. Turtle peasants worked hard to build a citadel in the heart of enemy territory, but now a huge owl army lead by an insidious enemy hero is marching towards it. We built several watchtowers at our enclave to aid in the fight in case our last stronghold is attacked.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Warlock 2: The Exiled
Warlock 2 is a truly fantastic game, despite what some of these reviews may say. If you’re a lover of 4X strategy games and fantasy lore, get this game – you won’t be sorry.
One of the reasons this game has so many harsh ratings is because it can be a little buggy. But on the right system (Windows 7, 8 and 10 all work well), it’s a ton of fun and you’ll encounter few bugs. I can safely say this after 2000+ hours of game play.
However, the Linux and Mac versions do not work. The developers were forced to abandon the game before they were fixed, so avoid this game if you’re using one of those systems.
– Real player with 5783.6 hrs in game
I bought Warlock 2 during the Summer Sale, and I’ve quite easily gotten my money’s worth. It is a lot of fun, though not without serious flaws. My review is based on three (partial) plays of “The Exiled” story mode, and one full playthrough in “Battle for the Outplanes” mode.
A big complaint a lot of people have is that it seems like a content update, rather than a sequel to Warlock. This is true to an extent. However, the handling of the planes was the biggest flaw of Warlock 1 but seems to be the central appeal of Warlock 2. In Warlock 1, there were other planes, and they were full of big bad monsters, but they weren’t very interesting and the rewards for going there weren’t significant enough to bother with them. A game of Warlock 2, on the other hand, has a hierarchy of planes, where you (and your A.I. opponent mages) start on less threatening planes, and you work your way down through to planes with significantly more dangerous fauna (and sometimes flora), or back up the hierarchy to fight the other great mages. Each plane has its own unique flavor, and most special resources only occur in one or two types of plane. The special resource thing is key… most races don’t have strong research-producing buildings, so you need to chase after the research-producing resources, which tend to be a couple planes down from where you start. The first time I reached a Shadow Plane, and established a fortress there to defend myself against the horrible shadowy horrors that awaited me, it felt … well… I would say “epic”, but that word is way overused these days. But it was awesome.
– Real player with 223.5 hrs in game
Wizard Warfare
Fantasy 4x is my favorite genre. Wizard Warfare has all the classic 4x moves - workers improving terrain, summoned phantom warriors, lightning blasts during battle, razed cities, and mage guilds. Those who’ve played Master of Magic will recognize its legacy here.
Battle is automated. You can (and often should) watch battles, but you don’t control any units. I’m okay with that. It means I’m not tempted to use cheesy tactics to manipulate the AI. Battles can feature dozens of squads on each side, and you can resolve many large battles in a short time. There is no diplomacy as of this writing. You are at war with all the AI players from the start.
– Real player with 110.3 hrs in game
Excellent game for the money ($7). Reminds me a lot of Conquest of Elysium. Strategic city building and auto play battles. Simpler than CoE, but not in a bad way. Game has enough of its own personality not to be a clone. The help screens and tool tips are well written. After a quick read though (yes, I read documentation), I dived right in and felt at home. You do have to watch the battles to see which units are the best in which situation. Not won a game yet, but am enjoying the adventure. If you like 4X, get this one.
– Real player with 84.0 hrs in game
Age of Wonders III
EDIT:
I have well over 1000 hours into this game (drat!) and every time I think of putting it down, I keep coming back. It’s been a long time since a game grabbed me like this one. Great game! replayabiliy is insane.
WOW!
Short review: If you have any doubts from the trailers and are thinking “Yeah, I want to get this game.” You are probably right and do so immediately.
For a bit more detail:
I’m not even more than 170 turns on a big map,I can already tell you that this is an awesome game.
– Real player with 3507.7 hrs in game
This game is absolutely incredible. It stays true to the style and feel of the previous games in the series, while also embracing some of the more modern elements in the 4X genre. Some may find the game a bit “simplistic” compared to other 4x games, but this is misleading. While this game is very easy to learn, and keeps most of the numbers and math pretty simple, there is an incredible amount of strategic depth to this game, and even after over 500 hours played, with 90% of that focusing on just one class, I am still learning new things.
– Real player with 938.0 hrs in game
Solaris
So fun! If you like games like Risk or Chess you will love this game. But instead of turns its all in real time just really slow, like make your move to set up what you want your ships to do, then come back and check it hours later when they are there. Or you can set your ships to loop, so they pick up and drop off troops where you want them FOREVER. I just started playing and entered like 15 games at once and I spend all day playing it without having to wait haha. Addicting, fast and great learning curve, and good replay value (harder for me to claim this latter one as I’ve only put in 40 hrs so far, just seems like a game I will always come back to).
– Real player with 124.6 hrs in game
The only negative reviews about this game are people who are mad because there are no tutorials and don’t know how to play. I mean… I was in the same boat but I had no problem learning, it is actually really easy to learn and only took a couple minutes, so I’m not sure what the problem really is. There is a wiki tab right in the game to help learn and beginner games.
I like it because it doesn’t need my full attention. I can play another game and have this up on my other monitor. Only have to play a few minutes each day and you can have multiple games going at once.
– Real player with 83.0 hrs in game