I see a good foundation here....

[Tragic Seriously]

I know it's an early version and just a demo, but there is most definitely work to be done here. I like what you've got started but this thing is gonna need some interesting troops that wield this strange magic and monsters created by it or animals twisted by it with interesting combat mechanics but I'm not seeing that in this game really. I dig the map, even tho the area I was in had no access to iron at all. But maybe the demo meant to do that? I also couldn't harvest the crystals even tho I was given the power to store them safely. But again maybe it's not ready for that part yet? But regardless of all that what I'm seeing feels like generic, run of the mill unit types that you point and click and that's combat. Just throwing numbers at your enemy and whoever has the most wins. Soldiers, Calvary, and Bowmen. Maybe toss a couple buffs in the mix, some equipment upgrades, but at the end of the day it's point and click and they run at each other or shoot and that's the extent of the combat system. Now maybe I'm wrong, it is just an early demo. But that's the impression I was left with after playing the demo. I hope I'm wrong and the combat and unit types will offer something unique, something that brings strategy and thought to the fight. I'll have to wait and see. What you have here is a good foundation in which you could build a great game from. I hope to see that happen.

[Galroche]

You are not supposed to have access to iron in your first village, but tutorial should guide you toward making another with wheat/iron and then send them back through trade route. or is it that no site for a 2nd city nearby had access to iron either ? if so it might indeed be a problem a map balance.

purple crystal should get picked up automatically after you build the grim crystal vault (up to 500 value apparently, not sure how much each crystal is worth but you'll need more than one quickly if you want to store everything). it's the last build of the laborer tab. be carefull, those things explode without enough oil (and seem to not be 100% safe even with oil) so build it far, and be prepared for your ears to be destroyed because IMO this explosion sound is way too loud.

for the strange unit i guess the only one i saw during demo was the giant beast summoned by the grimval surge (according to devs in another thread it's a scripted spawn early on to scare player off, it disappear after a bit) probably more to come in full version.

[Tragic Seriously]

I was never presented with the option to build a second location, but now that I think about it I never packed a caravan up with the stuff needed to settle a second area and tried to do it myself either. But I just chalked it up to being something you see is in the game but they aren't letting you play that far in the demo. Which felt pretty disappointing because iron is the one thing I needed to be able to build my own troops. My play through of this demo was purely farming mats, building structures, and choosing 1 of 3 dialog options every so often until I go the "Thanks for playing our demo" screen. The closest I came to combat was when I tried to setup a trading post in the city of a hostile kingdom. I know that sounds like "Why would you do that?" but the units my caravan passed by on the way to the city, including the group of them building up just outside of the city gates paid them no mind, So I thought maybe they would still be okay with trade and it would be safe to set up the trading post. But once inside their city the computer sent 1 bowmen after me. He chased me out of the city, past the groups of soldiers, cavalry, and other bowmen outside the city gates who still paid me no mind, around the map for a little while before it just vanished. I did see the dragon like monster, and that did look pretty cool. But will we get things like that for our armies? Or do we just throw numbers of soldiers, cavalry and bowmen at that too?

[playside-gaming]

Hi Tragic Seriously,

A big thank you for playing our game and taking the time to share your feedback!

In regards to magical elements/ beasts - there will be more beast creatures added during EA, both as enemies and as a power to summon so you can use them in combat yourself. The Waelgrim crystals you collect will allow players once they have become Benevolent or Tyrannical to use special abilities including summoning.

In regards to iron - you won't have had access to iron in your first village but as Galroche above has mentioned, we encourage players to explore new territories to access to new resources by establishing a trading route.

Steps 1: Use the caravan from the start of the game, or you can build additional caravans from the military building menu.
Step 2: Bring the caravan close to a stockpile and unpack it in a tent camp.
Step 3: You can click the Purple Auto load button and the caravan will request all items needs to build a "Traders Hut."
Step 4: Once fully loaded pack up the caravan with the green button and move to the new province you wish to takeover.
Step 5: Build a Traders Hut in that new province to take ownership of the land.
Step 6: You can use the blue top right menu to setup trade routes to bring goods to and from the different provinces you own.
These videos show an old version of the game but has most of the same elements:

Creating a new town: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzAE24Tj7O8
Setting up trading routes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekBVKvR0UUY

We hope this helps. For more tips, feel free to join our community on Discord, and thanks once again for playing our game and sharing your thoughts!

[Tragic Seriously]

@playside-gaming You said once the player has become "Benevolent or Tyrannical". Is that part of the theme to this game? Playing the authoritarian that rules with an iron fist? I kinda like the sound of that. I'm excited to see where you guys take this. And now that I know about the trade post I'm gonna have to give it another go.