People love this game. People adore this game. I am not one of those people. I bought this years ago when it was new to scratch the itch created by Master of Magic. Despite all arguments to the contrary, this game borrows much from it but feels like MOM lite. MOM has more upgrades for units and buildings. But MoM became nearly extinct while this game has several sequels. What frustrated me about the game then and now is the way in which it is stacked against the player at the start. I have restarted the very first scenario 10 times trying many different strategies to find one that would actually work and haven't yet. Games of this era substituted good AI with giving your computer opponent overwhelming superiority. You can barely scrape together 8 units but the computer is sending 24 at you even though their 8 are better than your 8. Your hero is barely more than a starting unit abut they send 24 units to attack your puny 8 and then 6 units all get a shot on your hero and you die in your first battle. And then you restart it because there must be a different way to replay this, right? Conquer a bunch of cities to get your economy rolling? Nope, you'll be spread out so thin that they'll send a mere unit or 3 and conquer your poorly defended cities. Take one city and build its strength? They'll conquer everything around you and build so strong you'll struggle to defeat a single stack of units. Ignore conquering cities and go exploring, hoping to find a cache of loot to upgrade your initial army? They'll conquer everything, migrate the cities from friendly halflings to goblins so you have no allies even after you retake the cities. Quit the game, write an angry review and find some other game to play instead? Better idea. When I was a kid an uncle let my cousin punch me in the face before a boxing match started and laughed as I struggled to defend myself as he punched me in the face each time I'd get off a knee. Playing this game rekindles the feeling I had that day.
