Patrician 3

I'm playing this in 2019 and this is still one of the best management games. At the beginning (or if you're playing the tutorial), it might feel that the game is oriented towards making the most money, which isn't all that hard (even if you go to the hardest difficulty). But once you start trying to appease to the townsfolk and become the mayor and aldermann, you realize how hard (and rewarding) the game can get. I really like the idea of becoming this all-powerful individual who can erect whole towns, as well as make many important decisions. I don't really participate in the naval battles as they aren't interesting to me, I'm a pure trader. My only kind of gripes with the game (which don't make it unpleasant for me, hence the 5*) are that it is a bit hard to find captains. For me a better solution would have been to have more captains, but with lower-trending skills and perhaps caps on their max value for each skill? Still, every time I met a captain at a tavern, I would be so happy, to the point where reading the word 'captain' after playing this game makes me tingly. Speaking of battles, I think that it would have been nice to have a toggle which disables the prompt asking if you want to manually navigate the battle.

I've been hooked on strategy games since the golden age of Avalon Hill and SPI board games in the early 1970s and on their computer brethren since the original Sid Meier's Civilization in 1991. Having logged thousands of hours on hundreds of titles, I can say this one is in my Top 10 along with the likes of Civ, HOMM, MoO, MoM, RRT and SC. It's easy to get in to, detailed without being obtuse, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable for hours at a time. The graphics and sound have aged well and the overall product comes across very much as a labor of love. The only debit for me was the removal of the audio portion of the tutorials which were in Patrician 2. If like me you're an auditory learner, their absence is a loss.

I like simulation games where you build empires. Patrician just one of those games. It more complex than most of the games I have played you really need to read the manual. Things you do and the order you do them in really make a difference, to the long term. The main part of the game is the economics of the Hanse. Keeping people fed and happy. Usually this means balancing just 0ne or two very simple intems not so in Patrician. Get it get your trading stratagy wrong and 6 months later your get into real problems. Not forgetting that in winter the poor get hungry and produce less. This is a game i will come back to over and over.

This is an excellent trading game, although obviously dated. The issue with it is the problems with the video settings. There is a lot of information available to deal with this on the Steam Store. However, my experience seems to match that of some other people: some modern laptops cannot support the 800x600 video mode that the game initialises into (before going to the chosen setting), and it crashes, and there does not seem to be a fix. Conversely, my desktop ran the game without any issues (and I played it a lot). Just being more profitable than the AI is not that hard. The trick is setting up a trading/political empire in all the cities. Although you can attempt to micro-manage by manual control, that is too painful. You need to master the automated control systems within the game. Getting those systems running takes a long time to master. There are plenty of resources for the game, especially if you can read German.

I don't know what got into me when I bought this game, but man am I glad I did. It seems to have fill the void I had for a game that would let me be a part of a medieval trade network. It does take a special type of person to like the game, but I think if you're into economic driven games then you should take a look at it. Also, for my Linux brethren. this game runs perfectly fine on WINE. Enjoy Bug I've noticed: The game does have this weird issue where the main menu gets all rainbow pixely and goes to one side of the screen when I first start it. The menu still works, though, and the game itself doesn't have this issue. I would say it's a minor patchable hiccup, if they were able to patch it.