Recent reviews by Shad

This game used to be an excellent alternative to KOEI's ROTK series. It doesn't have the fancy graphics, but the game mechanics are quite elaborate, the devs actively added new things to the game. Thousands of historical officers, crafting, duels, massive customisations and game rules options.

I'n short, it was an excellent developping game.

Unfortunately "was". The latest update replaced the simple but straightforward and functional GUI with some abomination that clearly noone tried to use to play though a full camplaign with. Buttons now fill a much larger part of the screen, at the expense of actual information, which has been moved to various sub-menus. In a game where seeing officer info/unit info at a glance and comparing officers to each other is essential, it's literally the worst possible GUI.

Also the color palette of the new GUI is worse, with the blue background and gold/white for buttons and text replaced with a brown/red palette, which is harder on the eyes.

The core game is still great, but the current GUI makes it unplayable.

This is one of best tactical strategy games avaliable.

One of the first things you notice is that the game is quite straightforward to get into. Quite a few "hardcore" strategy games fill the interface with lots and lots and lots of buttons/indicators/status reports and such, requiring you to read a massive manual (or a long youtube tutorial) before even beginning. UG is quite easy to understand the basics if you played any TW game. All key stats are easy to see.

At the same time, the battle mechanics are very deep and quite different from other games in the genre. Positioning and expoiting enemy weaknesses are essential to win with manageable casualties. The whole technology era (where both sides started the war with militia armed with napoleonic-era muskets and ended with breech-loaded weapons and even some repeater weapons) forces you to adapt tactics as the game progresses.

The grand campaign (as either side in the war) takes you through virtually every single battle in the war, with your army following you through the whole game. Between battles you refill your troops with recruits, manage officers, form new units, manage your armament inventory. Since your army is persistent and carries over from battle to battle, you need to make a lot of strategic choices to mnage your resources. Which unit would you prioritise for veteran reinforcements and best equipment. Do you really want to get commit your elites now and take losses, or wait until later and potentially run out of time to fulfill your objective? Do you want to make your cavalry charge and silence that enemy artillery which is shelling your army, but likely lose the cavalry in the process? And so on...

Throughout your campaign you will face an enemy army which will change depending on how you fight them, making enemy casualties actually matter. Though the enemy army will never be fully destroyed, fighting them well pays off, even if you don't win everything. Battles are split into "sub-campaigns" which consist of several smaller battles and a major battle which is fought over several days. In large battles towards the endgame, you can end up with up to 100 separate units (regiments, artillery batteries) and the battles truly feel huge.

A note: the game is quite hard. No matter which side you pick first, you may be better off starting on easy until you feel you understand the game (both tactical and strategic). It is very much possible to win lots of battles initially, but lose the campaign halfway through

This mod is both good and bad, but with more bad. Let's go through:

1. Focus of Empire and Vampires
* 1 new legendary lord to each
* 1 regular lord to each
* 2 new VK units + 3 Empire new units
* Regiments of renown: unique (no more than 1 of each type per faction) more powerful variants of existing units.

2. Positives
More variety is good

3. Negatives
* There is not quite enough in the pack to justify the price. Just a couple new units for just 2 of the factions. This of course might be a perfectly good price of you, so the biggest stinker is the next one:
* Selling gameplay advantage. The Regiments of renown are not just flavor, they are a major boost in campaign. The regiments are recruited instantly, and do not have building requirements of their base units, just the lord level. The regiments themselves come at full exp (3 gold shevrons) with some extra abilities to add. This is a big deal throughout the campaign, especially early on. While this is not as bad as some other games (bew Deus Ex, Dead Space 3) selling game cash, this is disgusting nonetheless. Things that give an advantge (as opposed to variety) that should have come as a free patch.

Ironically if this DLC had just the new lords/units, I may have given this a thumbs up.

There is something wrong about selling unit protraits, graphics and music as separate DLCs. I would only buy these "things" on a holiday sale bundle, as paying a price of a full game for cosmetic things which should be in the game is not right. I have no problem buying real expansions, though.

This review is for the Agurust 2015 version.

The game is based on a familiar permise: start with a handful of colonists in a wild place and make it more hospitable. The XIX century/steampunk setting is fun and the key elements are present.

State of Early access: the game appeared on EA in August 2014, and honestly at the time was not really much of a game, with only barebones of the experience present. However, progress has been steady. The devs have a clear roadmap of their project and regularly update he game, adding the mechanics that they promised.

Today, the game is solid and fun, though there is clearly still work to be done before release.

Overall I would recommend it if you are a fan of the genre or if you like steampunk.