If you want to do realpolitiks and total war with friends, while conducting scientific studies of the effectiveness of spells on enemy army compositions this is for you. The game boasts incredible magic and unit diversity, offering strategic experiences varying from 'haha but I anticipated that you anticipated that I would anticipate you teleported your wizard to my capital this turn' to 'bwahahaha you may have the upper hand, but by taking thrones X and Y, I gained diplomatic ammunition to fearmonger others of your impending throne rush and have thus turned the entire map against you :)' to 'lolllz big units with many number go bonk BONK xDDD'!

At its core there is a good game with engaging mechanics, a lot of really cool ideas, and a fun old-school aesthetic, but it's lacking any and all quality of life features that make a game intuitive and enjoyable to play.

For learning how to play - the game itself isn't that hard to understand, it's just not explained at all other than in a 400 page pdf that jumps between entirely over-explaining many features, and simply glossing over others.

Once you have learned the game system, you realize that most of the challenge in playing comes from the game interface itself rather than the gameplay. You will spend far more time just trying to input your commands than you will actually strategizing and coming up with them.

For an alpha release of a game, the bare minimum interface that it takes to interact with the game is understandable and even expected, but for the 6th iteration of the game? At $45? Roughly 20 years after the release of the original? I can't recommend it.

If you enjoy dominions 5, 6 is in all ways an upgrade. Many quality of life features added. Amazing depth and replayability. So many strategy games fail to deliver real asymmetric factions, and Dominions has made 100 that all feel unique. Divergent strategies for success let you adapt and play an infinite number of ways. The single player AI is much improved, and still presents a serious challenge at higher settings. The multiplayer scene is vibrant with amazing players, video playthroughs, discord communities, and constant games. This game series is a labor of love and has given me thousands of hours of entertainment over the years.