The original Warlords, at least in the 'enhanced' edition released on the PC, remains one of the best games I've ever bought. I have spent thousands of hours playing it since 1990. Eight different factions compete to dominate a single fantasy kingdom. The genius of the game is that each is very different (even different cities in the same area can produce slightly different units and you get to appreciate the monks who make up the stronger than normal light infantry from one vs the slightly quicker cavalry from another) but the game is very well balanced. I can win with any of them, but it is very rarely quick or easy to do so, and no single strategy will work every time. The Deluxe version of Warlords II tried to improve the graphics, but just made them less clear. It also included loads of other scenarios, but these had received far less playtesting so they're not as balanced and there's was a book giving recipes of how to win them all. The AI was improved to eliminate the few oddities the original had, but even the unit mix wasn't as good (those bats were a mistake for a start!) Get it, but play the original first.
Being the best chess program on GOG is not a very high hurdle. The alternatives are.. .. Battle Chess, which was the original DOS 'animated combat when one piece takes another' game. It's still amusing to see, and comes with a sequel for playing Chinese Chess thrown in. .. Combat Chess, which took Battle Chess's idea and did it with more pixels in Windows.. just not better. This one is also DOS-based. It was OK when it came out, but it's been left waaay behind in terms of looks, playing strength and adaptability. That's a nice way of saying it looks hideous, gets slaughtered by Stockfish, and has nowhere near the number of options that Fritz does.
On the plus side, if you're going to play Scythe, paying this much for the digital version saves you more than enough over getting the physical version to buy some much better board games. Because even here, it's not good. Why can your society - in somewhere that is exactly unlike Eastern Europe - build giant mechs capable of transporting your whole population, but not build bridges? Just get Terra Mystica instead. It's where all the good bits came from.
