It was fun to play a few rounds of this. But now I remember a little better why I never missed this game much. The interface is a little clunky. You have to sit through the whole intro video every time. By the mid game, you are running a large-sized empire, but the map doesn't show friendly amounts of information. The arcade combat means learning and using an awkward set of controls, and while the scale is similar to say Gauntlet, in Gauntlet you don't have to worry about what an army is doing in the background around you. The strategy aspect is okay; there are real choices between expansion and strengthening, infrastructure versus blitzing the bad guys.

Honestly, though, the really underwhelming part is questing. The quests are handled offscreen, with a little message. But we play out the battles, which you can usually overperform just by using simple pincer manager, blitzing ranged units, and using some mixed-unit tactics when you are able. Playing little mini-dungeons would be more fun.

You can skip the intro.

You can set up the combat controls you want.