I feel like this game is criminally underrated and needs more attention. It's one of those examples where everything comes together in the most immersive way to create an experience that is bigger than the sum of it's parts. Good music, amazing art, good writing and story, great voice acting, cool characters, well designed mechanics and animations, awesome environments and lore, very creative faction/unit design, fun fast battles and interesting map layer.

It reminds me a lot of Heroes of Might and Magic, not as a 1:1 comparison but as a world you want to get lost in and explore. The unit abilities remind me of Age of Wonders and the battles remind me of Dominions. Although this game is a lot simpler and easier to get into, even for those that don't play a lot of strategy. There are cards used in combat to deploy abilities and it's possible to sometimes move special units during combat. There are also cards on the map layer, however this is not a typical deck building card game, the cards are more like fancy UI options that load up before they can be used.

The Campaign is where it's at mostly, it features a lot of well done voice acting between characters which really fleshes them out. Missions are interesting and unique. I think it works best on a big screen where you can take in all the eye candy. I would sometimes take a break and just stare at the map like it's an animated screensaver, or load into a forest location to listen to the wind. All the great qualities I mentioned in the intro come together to make the campaign a compelling experience.

There is also skirmish with various modifiers and scenarios that feel a lot like isolated campaign missions. But like I said the immersive campaign was the main show for me, imo it alone is worth the price of admission (you don't need the Lighteaters DLC to enjoy it). I recommend playing on challenging and restarting if you fail a mission in order to really feel the impending doom and desperation this game is so good at evoking. Without spoiling too much, about half way, there is a certain awesome character that appears in the most desperate situation with a massive scary invasion army and the music kicks in at just the right time while he speaks some of the most terrifying lines. Very memorable, hit me right in the feels. It's full of moments like this that are worth experiencing and rewarding the devs for, which is why I posted this review.

The best way for me to describe this game for me is Fantasy Risk: a tactical realm management in a mostly zero-sum environment, where taking from your opponents makes you stronger at their expense, and where you have to balance which battles are worth taking while considering other, unaccounted-for opponents ready to feast on your carcass.

Overall, I quite enjoy the game itself, although what drew me in were the aesthetics of the game. It's truly beautiful!
As a bonus, the developers are eager to hear from players and have created Forms to gather feedback for future updates.
I really hope that the development continues, more updates are added and more DLC bring new campaigns or factions.

A particular wish of mine is to have a more intricate economy, where artifacts are not so much a gamble and where you can have some kind of "strategic goods" to provide new troops or world spells. Also, improving the UI to better signal which kind of settlement there is, for example, if it produces building materials or gold.

Great