The game is a really nice mix of 4X turn-based gameplay with tactical battles (with pause) and RPG mechanics. For me, the highlight are the tactical battles. There's a surprising level of challenge and depth in dealing with the terrain and your units (and the enemy's) abilities. For example, archers can do aimed shots, so they fire at a slower rate, but deal more damage, excellent for heavily-armored foes. The environment offers steadily mounting challenges as you build up your armies and level up your heroes and normal units. Levelling them up massively increases their power, so like any good RPG, you look for any opportunity for XP. And then, the higher level your heroes are, they can "teach" normal troops coming out of your normal barracks, increasing their level right out of the gate. So as the game progresses you can rely less on encounters and more on the teachings of your veteran heroes to level up your armies. Overall, nice fun game with lots of polish and depth. Yes, the graphics are a bit out dated but the 2D isometric view is still pretty enough to look at.
