King of Dragon Pass

There's being hard, and then there's just being flat-out unfair. I've played games with random generation in them before, but I've never felt as completely clueless as to what I was supposed or expected to do as when I was playing KoDP. Raiding alone all but guarantees your new tribe, however you make it, is completely screwed. Defending your tula? You're screwed- four out of five times, you'll be completely outnumbered because you didn't catch the raiders as they were coming. Want to raid someone else? Well, you might succeed, or you might fail... or you might be raided by another clan while you're out raiding, or simply get counter-raided by whoever your target was several times over. (Did I mention yet that NONE of the other clans can get destroyed? Yep, that's right- yours, and yours alone, faces the possibility of annihilation that all the other clans will be saved from by game-balancing fiat every-single-time.) You start the game, and you immediately find yourself drowning in a system of menus with no means of knowing or understanding what you should do first or why. Your clan ring is supposed to help you, but it's just seven different idiots who all will have five very different opinions on any event that comes up, with no means of understanding who should be actually listened to or when. And, ho-ho-holy MOLY, the events. The damaging outcomes destroy you, and the beneficial ones are either worthless or nominal- if they don't destroy you in their own special way. I understand that's supposed to be the nature of RNG, but are you seriously telling me no one could balance against one of the starting events in a game to be the flood that took 1/4th of my population, food, and herds? On Year freaking ONE? I could go on- herds repopulate at agonizingly slow speeds, sacrifices are punishingly expensive but essential, heroquests can be actively impossible- but with what space I have, I can only implore you, reader. Don't believe the hype. This is nearly unplayable.

I'll admit that I randomly found this gem. Very randomly but the reward, OH MY. It's a very interesting fantasy game, you could feel some northern vibes in some of the art, but oh boy, this is replayable. Try it, you will not regret.

Nobody will ever make games as good as this again. In depth tribe management mechanics with intense battle sims which genuinely make you care about the members of your tribe more than you would expect. One of the evergreen all time greats.

The game has one of the richest, deepest lores I have ever encountered. Moreover, the atmosphere of leading a small viking-like tribe is spot-on. You have to juggle food supply, trade, relationships with neighbors, raids and warfare, and most importantly, relations with gods, both ancestral and helpful as well as alien and hostile. Both music and graphics are also very good. Must play, IMO!

Despite its complete lack of animations, King of Dragon Pass has both a visceral and intellectual satisfaction to it, at once giving you the thrill of raiding your neighbors for cattle (and maybe slaves?) and letting you deluge your brain with the epic god stories of Glorantha. There is never any one way to victory, and even at its easiest it is a difficult game to master, with a somewhat unforgiving learning curve, but the payoff is great.