Update: It is almost the end of 2018, and I STILL recommend this game higher than just about any other video game I can think of.

I really enjoy this game. I've played about 500 hours now, mostly on the Diplomacy Mod (basically improves everything), a plethora of hours in Viking Conquest, and a lot on A Crown of Kings (ASOIAF Mod).

First and foremost this game is about feudalism. You play a leader of men, as a character in the game rather than a top down general giving comands. You can get technical about troop placement, battle lines, & charges; however, this game excells at a full assault led by you personally leading the Vanguard into fierce melee with a keen sabre and a heavy steed.

You are a standard RPG character with skills, attributes, and equipment that you can distribute and utilize in any fashion you want. You start the game alone in a villiage and from there will make your destiny and impose your choices on every enemy you meet. You can gain an unlimited (virtually) number of soldiers to control in your personal army, each with different statistics, tactics, and gear. You can befriend a number of extra powerful followers who level & gear up the same way as you.

You lay siege to a city, building ladders, towers, defenses, and sanitation; whittling the defenders hopes and dreams down for days, potentially weeks. Even with powerful allies, mighty weapons, impenatrable armor, you have to personally conquer your enemies, one by one, while charging up the siege ladders, under intense enemy volleys of arrows only to meet the armored defenders face to face as you breach the crenelations on the castle walls, fighting on piles of dead bodies you and your compatriots put there for every inch of castle wall and courtyard untill you breach the city. Then, after a small respite, you have to fight your way through the streets with the last defenders throwing everything they have at you before you ravish their homes and families. Once you breech the keep, the final defense of the castle greets you in the great hall for one last push until the entire civilization has been pacified. Victory, spoils, riches, and more are yours.

How your character can sleep at night, I am not sure. The blood and gore that my characters have spread accross this pseudo-Europe is tantamount to a holocaust of the serfs. Some of my fiercest battles are in the ranges of 800 soldiers, with me personally slaughtering 250 of them.

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VIKING CONQUEST:

I personally love this DLC. The Reforged version of thee mod is virtually flawless, with all the difficulty of release being a non-issue now.

The best part of this DLC is the addition of a real story. Previously the premise of the story was, "Kill them all", but there is a well designed story line of revenge, love, triumph, and peace. All set to pretty much the most manly and bad ass time period in medieval Europe.

A few people are complaining about the lack of female character designs, the declined usefulness of a Bow, and the quickness of all the soldiers. But I say to them "go play warcraft n00bs!".

1. In the year 900, you had very few females in positions of power, let alone ones in a warrior role.
2. In the year 900, the bow wasn't the highly specialized tool it became in Hundred-Years War, it was a stick.
3. In the year 900, everyone was quick. There were no juggernauts wading through battle in an impenetrable fortress of iron and steel as opposed to full plate. Chainmail was the best around, and virtually nobody could afford a complete suit of it. Everyone compensated with a large round sheild and very quick feet.


But, long story short, this game is fantastic, the DLC/Workshop support is amazing, and the potential to play 100+ hours without coming close to beating the game (like me) is easily done.

Buy it now, look past its slightly antiquated graphics and enjoy a finely tuned machine of feudal Europe that you will enjoy for much longer than the newest "call of duty".