Disciples 2 is a fantastic turn-based fantasy strategy game. Instead of commanding armies, you built yourself groups of heroes and their guards to wander around the map, claiming resources, freeing cities and doing battles with other heroes. They gain experience, level up and gain new skills. A lot of items like potions or equipment can be found and used by those heroes, as are quests, so it sometimes feels like a RPG. You should save often though, as a loss of one of your group of heroes can be game deciding.
Once you gain an understanding of the mechanics of the game, the civilization feeling will settle in with "just one more round", until you realize that it's already 4 in the morning :) A map will take quite long from start to finish, especially if you play it the first time. Unfortunately, the autosave will save at the _end_ of your turn, when you have done all your actions, before the enemies have their turn. Also, only one autosave slot exists, so it would be wise to manually save every 3-5 turns.
Battles between groups are nicely done and remind of trading card games like Magic. Every unit has one way to attack, heroes can use equipped potions, units can defend, heal, etc.The tactical side shines in the combination of the different unit types and their strengths/weaknesses against other types. It's possible, although hard, to win with 'lesser' units against stronger groups, but the reverse is also true, so save often.
The graphics are nice, especially the 2D world view, which has a lot of small details, like flowing waterfalls, reflections of ships in the water, flying flocks of birds, etc. The landscape changes with your influence, so it's very rewarding to see the area in your kingdom turning to lush green fields, or hell-like, sulfurous wastelands. The graphics in the combat screen are good, with really great animations. The two groups are standing opposed of each other, and it reminded me a bit of Final Fantasy.
The story and setting is a dark fantasy world (which reminded me of Warhammer). Every race has it's own believable goals in the main story line, and the story is told from different point of views. The unit portraits are done nicely, as is the interface - although it's a bit clunky for my taste. With 5 races and three campaigns plus a big selection of solo maps and a map editor, there's really a lot to do.
One of the biggest disadvantages of this game is it's difficulty. Although the complexity and learning curve are not that big, the maps and the enemies you'll face on them are quite hard, and you'll find yourself quickloading a lot of times. Leveling is not restricted to your units only, as the enemy will also level up. This means a lost battle is also a double gain for the enemy and when you are on the loosing track it's very hard to impossible to swing the outcome around. Unfortunately, you'll notice this not until it's often too late, so save often.
tl;dr summary: A good strategy game that will keep you in it's grip if you give it the chance, and it's an entertaining timesink like civilization. But save often.
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