Knights and Merchants

I played this game long ago, then it was up-to day. you will need to spend 1-2 hours preparing your food-production economy. and 30 minutes trying not to spoil your expensive troops. if I'm to choose the game to play in this genre - I choose Settlers

The headline sums it up, what else can I say? It's fun building the town and the supply chain is less complex than in other games like The Settler or the Anno Series, but it is still challenging nonetheless and real fun. But while a game like The Settlers provides you with an automatic combat systems, here you need to point and click. Sounds great, right, but it's simply terrible! Units start to move after a few seconds or so, are never holding their marching formation and sometimes don't do anything in combat, even the enemy unit is next to or they are under fire of archers. oh yes, archers btw, probably the worst AI I have ever experienced. Instead of attacking from distance, as they are meant to do, they move towards the enemy most of the time. I know that this game is not meant to be RTS but this is simpley frustrating and kills all the fun, unfortunately.

The game was outdated when it was released. When you stop to think Age of Empires II came out 3 years prior, this game looks and acts like a child coded it. The military unit AI is abyssmal. For example, archers will literally march right up to melee units and get slaughtered rather than standing back and firing from range. There is a 'hunger' mechanic that all units have which is pointless and serves only to make the game play laborious and frustrating. Non-military units go to the inn themselves (you hope) so they alleviate their own hunger. Military units must be brought food via serfs but you can only request they do so, not force them. Sometimes the serfs will starve themselves bringing the food. Sometimes the serfs won't bother bringing the food. The maps are all quite small so the hunger mechanic is unneeded and only hurts the game. You have to train specific people to run each individual building. I.E. you need a baker for a mill, a wood-cutter for a saw-mill, a fisherman for fishing hut, etc.. The problem is these people randomly disappear or die, leaving buildings unmanned. This will lead your economy to collapses unless you are highly vigilant and constantly train new people to work the buildings. So in closing, is the game worth it; worth the cash and worth taking the time to play? I got it on sale for $2 so the money wasn't an issue. I played the tutorial and first level for hours so I feel it was money well spent. Actually despite the many shortcomings I will probably play some of the other levels to try the rest of the game out. If you are into Real-Time-Strategy games, give this game a shot. If RTS games are not one of your favorite things, you are better off not getting this game.

This game has a lot of charm. However, the road system is terrible, all buildings can only be accessed on the south face, and combat is a huge gamble. With a lot of patience, you can really enjoy it, but in the early levels, I kept feeling like I was running out of resources and could do nothing about it. This game is like a really cool, funny guy you meet in class, but he just doesn't have it together. Worth a try, and certainly an amusing interface.

i LOVE this game!