I highly recommend this game to any strategy buff. It is better than Total War and Civ by far IMO due to its design.

It is real time and may seem complicated to play with the overwhelming interface, but it really isn't. Their are no resources like food or wood to micromanage for example, all you have to worry about on the surface is stability,unrest and your income. Other things like war exhaustion and aggressive expansion come into play also during conquest.

The diplomacy in this game is the most functional I have ever encountered in a strategy game and has real consequences.You can know based on your diplomatic score how nations will react to you most of the time which comes in very handy. For example, when deciding to declare war on a common foe unlike Total War or Civ you will know beforehand if they will join you or not based on various factors, you will also know whom you will be up against.

Diplomacy is essential to your survival, and can really make or break your game. You are not likely to survive or progress in the early to mid stages of the game if you do not form alliances. If you are too aggressive and ♥♥♥♥ off the wrong people, coalitions will form and attack you and force you to give up territories.

The game is real time and you can adjust the speed to speed up during slower times in between conquests or to slow down to micromanage your troops and events at a pace that is comfortable for you.

This was a breath of fresh air for me coming from Total War Rome 2 where campaigns can take 40 hours or more to complete. Depending on how fast you set the time it is possible to finish a campaign depending on your goals in around 10-12 hours. Additionally, all nations are available to play each presenting the player with a unique challenge and experience.

This game is a sandbox game, so there are no "victory conditions" unlike in Civilization or Total War, which gives you total freedom to pursue Ironman achievements, focus on building a trade empire, colonize, lead a crusade, overthrow the Holy Roman Empire, become the Emperor and many more. For example, you can play as The Ottomans who have the best starting position in the game or you can play as The Knights of Rhodes who have nothing but a tiny island and are in one of the worst starting positions in the game, being threatened by The Ottomans for a different challenge.It is totally up to you. There is nothing more satisfying than triumphing as a small nation over larger foes through skill and diplomacy.

Every game plays out differently due to the AI RNG which allows for almost infinite replayability.
There are many achievements to get that are very rewarding and challenging if you play in Ironman mode.

DLC:

There are quite a few DLC that are essential to getting the full experience out of the game. They are good in that they add new features that are blocked behind a paywall in the base game but bad in that you have to pay extra for them. The reality is that most of them are not essential to the game but Art of War and Common Sense should be the ones any player has at a minimum.

The DLC can be found on sale typically during steam sales for very cheap or you can go to 3rd party sites to find them for an affordable price if you don't want to pay full price.

The learning curve is steep and I am still learning things so it is highly recommended that you search the wiki and watch YouTube videos to learn the fundamentals of the game as the tutorial is seriously lacking.


Overall as a complete game. I cannot say enough good things about it. It is currently IMO the best grand strategy game on the market even with the DLC business model.


10/10