Field of Glory: Empires

FoG:Empires is another of those turn-based games like the old Master of Orion, or Slitherine's own previous Legion, Chariots of War, or Spartan games, where you move arbitrary-sized units of population to any of the 4 different task groups: Food production, Construction, Money making, or Cultural advancement. Filling up the food bar completely grants another unit of population, with each additional unit requiring exponentially more food to build. Diplomacy is considerably more fleshed out than in their earlier games, and it plays pretty easily once you learn the interface (which is about average in difficulty, despite a couple of quirks). I was up and running in about an hour on my own, and didn't need the manual to at least figure out the basics, although I had to consult it later to clarify a few issues. There are several annoyances and insults in the design of the game, such as the initial campaign selection screen always defaulting to the DLC, and you have to CHOOSE to play the base game, since the default selection will throw an error message for not owning the DLC. Each faction (out of well over 50) has its own list of "goals", which unfortunately will always be presented in the same order if you choose to replay that faction, so it's not quite as "infinitely replayable" as it could have been if it had been procedurally generated or randomized. Some factions are pretty much destined to get overrun by nearby and larger expansionist powers which will inevitably get an early mission in EVERY campaign to destroy you, so not all factions are "worth playing". Overall, after the initial "newbie failure" due to picking a difficult country without the experience to pull it off, this has turned into one of those "just one more turn" games where you look up and find that it's 2am. I find it well worth the sale price I got if for, here on GOG.

First, I'd like to say that this game's mechanics are more or less similar to the ones used in the Civilization franchise. Therefore, having played Civilization IV before, I really didn't find it that hard to adapt to the way the game asks you to play it. One drawback that I believe might actually hinder anyone from proceeding further into the game is the fact that Field of Glory: Empires doesn't provide the players with any sorts of tutorials to help you get yourself accustomed with the game. The game simply gives you this question mark (?) at the top right corner of every tab that you open during the game, where upon clicking it, you'll be given with texts that basically teach you the functions of each icon in the UI, descriptions of each one, etc. If you wanted to look for a manual, you'd find better luck looking for it outside of GOG as the game here doesn't come with a manual. HOWEVER, don't let that one elephant in the room prevent you from giving this game a try. Like I said, the game plays more or less similar to the Civilization series (Civilization IV to be exact, since I've never played the other Civilization games other than Civ4 and a little tiny bit of Civ5). Therefore, if you've played those games before, then your introduction into this game shouldn't be too difficult. This game is also turn-based, so you can take your time to think your strategies through without getting stifled by elements that real-time strategy games often throw at you. This is also what makes the game quite enjoyable. Beware, one more turn... Lastly, the aesthetics of Field of Glory: Empires is something that I can definitely appreciate. The UI, the map, the soundtracks, everything! If you feel I have not listed down enough good points/things about this game to reflect on the five stars I've given for this game, it's because the rest should come from your own experience playing this game. I'm sure you won't regret it. P.S.: You don't need FoG2 to enjoy this game.

Ok, the game is very interesting. At first you will be probably face decadence and civil war because of the game mechanics. Yes, culture balance decadence. Yes, some buildings produce culture as well as decadence. Yes, conquering objetives reduces decadence. This is challenging and refreshing. The commerce sistem is also great. Depending on the buildings you build you will get a resource but if you lack other related goods you wont get any bonus (money, culture). Depending on your trade skill some goods may be not reachable tough. It is a great game, with so many nations to choose: since Rome to small tribes like Judea...and plus you have independents (like barbarians)you can not make peace with. At first you will be confused, give the game some hours and you will like it a lot. On the negative side: check carefully if your machine can handle the game or it will go painfully slow (like any othe game) There is one thing I dislike very much: the ranking between turns. Yes, it is great to be ranked, the token sistem (depending of your ratio culture/decadence you are ranked and likely to get a progress or aging token) is also good but... why not give the player the choice to avoid SEEING IT between every damn turn? It just makes the game slower as the game progresses.

It's an ok strategic game, maybe a bit too much troop spamming and too much clicking. You have to click even when the AI has finished its turns! Clunky interface.

How many hours have I sunk into this game? Good thing Galaxy doesn't track hours played offline, I'd be appalled at myself otherwise! With a surprisingly complete (or complex?) approach, FOG:Empires is a grand strategy game which doesn't necessarily come to the full 4X genre - the last X for eXterminate is not an absolute necessity. Victory is defined by legacy, a points system that can be accumulated through culture-rich territories or some buildings including wonders. Culture, money, food or infrastructure are "resources" produced locally through the assigning of each region's population to work on them. You can switch their work area anytime or even form provinces to unite some resource pools and hasten the work, but the particular efficiency of food (to enlarge your local population) or infrastructure (used to build) is heavily tied to the type of region - a desert or alpine region sure won't produce as much food as a plain would! The culture/decadence system goes a long way towards keeping the game fresh; a ratio based on it allows for a ladder, determining whether you will or not accumulate tokens of progress or regress - making overexpansion likely to throw your nation ultimately into civil war, possibly causing the rise of rebels or even nations hostile to yours. The playable pool of nations is incredibly large; ethnics are important in determining your regions' loyalty to prevent revolts (hellenes don't mingle as well with germans as they do with celts for example), but also your building pool - most of them are shared like farms, but each ethnics have their exclusivities. A few nations even add extras restricted to their use, just as your government type do (a tribe, a city-state...). With the addition of nation-wide decisions ranging from developing a target territory to a global effort in producing more food, FOG:Empires really brings an excellent, diversified take on the turn-based strategy genre. The DLC steps up the difficulty; give it a try!