Mordheim: City of the Damned

I deeply regret having bought this game. I understand the approach of the game, that the City is hardcore and there have to be consequences. I understand, that you have to be careful to always fight in superior numbers. However a weeks work in, it did not feel like a game, it is less rewarding or Fun, than my Actual work. The straw that broke the camel's back: A mission on "Hard" in than had a 360 health point chaos enemy, that was immune to ranged combat with chromatic protection. Two attacks with a two-handed weapon per round and dealing almost 140 damage per hit. WTF? It one-shotted my leader and one heroe in one turn (both died permanently after the mission) and crushed the rest of the troops, while his other troops arrived. All in all 7 vs 1 was unfair - for the 7.

This game is a blend of Valkyria Chronicles, XCOM, and Warhammer Fantasy setting but cranked up to Hardcore extreme. It includes great tactical combat, awesome customization, permanent consequences, plenty of choice and management dilemmas. "Do I rest my wounded leader and lose 2 days of resourece gathering or do I hire a rookie leader while gold is scarce and risk it all to keep my warpstone shipments consistent?". You really develop a closeness to your top warriors and sweat bullets whenever they are downed by the enemy. When vampires showed up? I was actually kind of scared. Yes it is hard, obscure, systematic, and complex. It is not for everyone for sure. Just for the Hardcore RPG strategy and tactical nuts like me. (xcom in third person with swords and magic? yep, sign me up)

Dark, gritty, and unforgiving turn-based strategy.

This game is painfully slow. You will spend most of your time waiting for enemies to perform their actions. When you do get to move, you are walking around blindly. I wanted to love this game, and I have tried playing it several times... it just isn't worth the hassle.

With 100% personal bias, I would call this game a 4. More honestly, the story missions are absolute trash in design. Some absolutely god awful and so specific how to win with a loss easily putting you back 5-14 hours of play, and are god awfully tedious in the worse way. The normal missions demand of wyrd stone collecting NEVER just lets you enjoy the damn game. I get some of the idea behind it, but everything is a chore jut to be a chore to create a chore before you do the awful chore. I really enjoy some of it, but for most people just avoid. The unit upgrade system is extremely deep and satisfying. Though all teams are plagued in some way with classic gamesworkshop cheap stupid limitations and wackyness for the sake of being lame and faux creative. The game does a whole lot right, but damn is it miserable to enjoy. Maps are also a misery to get around and needlessly huge just to create 6 turns of walking toward each other. Again, I cannot stress this enough, so many story missions feel like they were never play tested are made by complete trolls mad at the company.