I've been playing Eador for a couple weeks now and it has sucked me in. I've had trouble putting it down...that is until the cpu becomes so overbalanced that you're stuck backing up a turn repeatedly until you finally realize you're in too deep and have to start the whole campain over again. The strategy is fun and it is very much like Heroes of Might and Magic except deeper in a lot of areas. The graphics may turn you off at first but once you get absorbed in the game world you don't really notice anymore. Your individual troops gain experience but most of the dregs are easily replaceable and you won't be counting on experience for them until you get stronger creatures. The heroes upgrade as well but buying new ones is expensive and you typically won't run around with more than 3. The armies also cost gold to keep them each turn so managing your resources is very important. The campaign is fun to progress through but my god once you lose a few shards (stages) and miss out on some of the special features that come with winning those shards, you might as well pack it in. The game gives you no opportunity to try again due to the autosave. It's either back up one move (which you will do a lot of as you fail to anticipate the cpu's behavior early on) or start from the beginning. It's an interesting concept and after I try the campaign again, I may have different feelings but the game is frustratingly difficult at times due to the computer having access to so many things you do not. (By frustrating, I mean launch your laptop across the room...which thankfully I took a deep breath and decided to vent in this review instead.) It gets cumbersome at times wandering around the map exploring each area in hopes of finding that special spell scroll that will allow you to finally conquer the enemy's final territory. More than once I had the enemy pinned down but was unable to defeat their army of troll defenders. Edit: just tried campaign again. Hate this game
