Like the title says it is one of the slowest city / village builders. For me this is the better version of the settlers games as it has a great technology tree that progresses with the skills or job experience of your vikings and you can trade with others. The beginning plays almost like a survival city builder, I even nearly lost some vikings on the first mission due to starvation. That said you can and maybe should play the second game because it's better in every way and you don't need to know the story of the first part.
This is the most charming and one of the most unique game I have ever played. You manage your dwarves, they have to relax, so they can...reproduce and you work and fight your way through the huge techtree. To invent new buildings and tools your dwarves have to become experts in certain skills, including fighting, so there are light RPG elements. Everything is well implemented into a a minimal user interface. I love this game but I never finished it. Why? Because it takes it's time and it gets actually pretty hard. The story is ok, no crazy twists or anything, but the characters and puzzles are pretty fun although some are a bit clunky. I can't explain what it is, the animations, the dialogues or simply the adventures and roles of your dwarves but every dwarf becomes important to me. As you get like 20 dwarves you learn about everyones set of skills and who is connected to whom. This way you get emotionaly invested in everyones death (either from damage or old age). The game even gives you the option to build graves for them. It is amazing, but not for everyone, as it isn't fast paced in any way.
OMG! They did it! I did not expected it to realy happen. One of the best RTS in my opinion, with a good story and mechs. You are able to get parts of other factions and research them, to mix it into your mechs, so a slow heavy mech with a big cannon on the back gets legs with the ability to sprint. It is wonderful :D
