Let me start by saying that I love this game. Back when I was young I had Command & Conquer Red Alert, Warcraft 2, and this on my computer, and this was my favorite. Going back to it now, I can more clearly recognize its flaws, but I stick by my view that the game is underrated.
Let's get the bad out of the way. The story line is kind of dull. Honestly, it's just not very memorable. The learning curve is non-existent. The first dozen missions or so will cause you no problem, then suddenly you'll be replaying a mission 10-15 times, then the next one will be easy again. You also get shuffled amongst the different factions as you play, so it's hard to get attached to any one monarch. You're playing as them this round, and next mission you're trying to kill them.
AI is admittedly bad. Many of the expansion units (I'm looking at you Spirit Wolves) are downright terrible. They'll run straight into walls and each other, spin around for 10 seconds or so and then try something else. Getting large numbers of units across a narrow bridge is virtually impossible. Ranged units are pretty much incapable of hitting a moving target unless it's walking directly at them (this has some benefits though).
The good. This game isn't one dimensional. One thing that appealed to me about this game over Warcraft 2 is that the various factions aren't just copies of each other with the units receiving different names/graphics. Each of the four siblings controls their own kingdom with it's own very unique feel. Once you've grown tired of playing with one faction, just switch to another and it's a completely different game.
Ranged units have terrible aim, but that's a good thing (sort of). It means your scouts can fly around enemy territory with little chance of being killed. You need to use melee units to engage the enemy so they stop moving so that you can get the ranged units to annihilate them. Also, most ranged units can attack further than they can see, so you need scouts/melee units out front to best take advantage of it. It forces you to use mixed armies to be most successful.
Custom games are a little weird. It's true that an early rush will win 90% of them time. Make that 99% of the time if you don't turn on the "Monarch expendable" option, meaning that you'll never get past tier 1 units, and games will last 10-20 minutes. Avoid this by not playing 1v1 or not playing small maps, or simply put a 30 minute countdown timer on yourself before you start attacking. Trust me, these games either last 15 minutes, or 3 hours. Once they are allowed to get defenses up, it's going to be a long match.
This game also has a lot of features that other games of it's time didn't. Hotkey a building and all units it produces will have that same hotkey. Queue up 3 or 5 or 50 buildings/units at a time. You can even just set buildings to infinitely churn out a particular unit. Want your monarch to build 2 lodestones, 1 enclave, 3 more lodestones, two towers, another enclave, and then start summoning a god in that order? Go ahead and queue it up, this part of the game works fantastically.
If you're hunter throws a spear at an enemy unit, and another enemy unit steps in the way, it hits the unit in the way, or the tree, building, cliff, rock, etc. which is a nice touch of realism.
All in all, I know this game isn't great. If you want to play something that feels really different give it a try, but you have to be willing to get over its shortcomings and just marvel in what it does right. Like most games on this site, it's cheap, and you're likely to get your money's worth even if you just mess around for an afternoon. This will, however, always be one of my favorite strategy games.
