04 Jun 2015, 12:03 pm
This is one addictive game that few know about. It's a game where you play a dynasty (not a single character) in the medieval ages of Europe.
The game is incredibly complex and difficult to learn; not because it is hard but rather because there are so many different factors that affect the outcome of the game.
There is the politics of medieval europe. The Feudal system which you are bound to, with its complex laws of inheritance and claims and such. You have the intrigue of the era, where any character in the game, yourself included, can plot to murder others, sow dissent in the courts of rulers, headhunt for talent, bribe others, blackmail and threaten, etc. Then there is infrastructure and technology trees for you to manage and invest into (critical)....you have military matters, infrastructure to manage and if this wasn't enough, you have to play the breeding game to gain valuable traits for your own bloodline and that of your vassals. Finally there is the political marriage aspect which is used to gain alliances, gain lands and titles (or preserve them from being taken from you).
The game is unique in the sense that while you control whoever is the head of your dynasty at the time, you do not control the actions of your vassals or even your own bloodline members. They have their own desires, personalities and ambitions... if you do not keep them all happy towards the head of your dynasty, you may find them plotting to kill you or plotting with hostile neighbors to invade you and take your titles.
One of the things that impressed me the most is that last bit. I've had games where I married my bloodline daughter to a neighbor to gain a political alliance...and the guy he married had lost his wife to disease but before that they had produced two male heirs. Well, my daughter, once she had a son of her own, plotted and schemed and with my help (she asked for my help not the other way around!) got the two sons from the earlier marriage to lose their lives in 'accidents' thus securing her son as first in the inheritance line. 
The point of the game is not to have the head of your dynasty have all the world under his direct rule (though you can but it takes centuries and lots of luck) but rather to spread your dynasty into all (if possible) the bloodlines of rulers. Doing this is not easy because your dynasty dilutes with passing generations..marrying a daughter to the king of france does not mean france will forever be in your dynasty... three to four generations later there will be little of your dynasty's blood in the French throne that it vanishes. So you have to keep marrying kinsmen into that line to keep it yours. 
Most of the game is experienced through this screen... and other screens that let you look through character relationships and titles and your infrastructure.
All in all, this game is a must for history aficionados and for strategy game lovers. Its very in-depth, highly unpredictable (no game is the same twice) and you can literally start the game as the leader of ANY of the almost 500 hundred counties in the map.
