Paradox announces new turn based strategy game with magic; spiritual MoM successor?

[Stuie]

The demo is up on Steam. This is looking really good... and like Sammual said, it looks like it will be playable day one!

And it's only $20!?!?! Easy pre-order.

[Sammual]

The demo is up on Steam. This is looking really good... and like Sammual said, it looks like it will be playable day one!

And it's only $20!?!?! Easy pre-order.

Yep.

At normal difficulty the game is not a challenge as long as you remember to check what spells the other great mages are casting every ten turns or so. (At least one tries to win by casting the spell of Unity ASAP)

I am missing something. My casting skill does not seem to be increasing (It still takes a full turn to cast most combat spells) while the great mage I am fighting just hit the army attacking his capitol with an AoE (That takes me 2 turns to cast), a single target spell (That takes me a full turn to cast), and a single target spell (That takes me a 0.8 turns to cast). In the game notes it mentions that you can improve your great mages casting skill but I have not seen a way to do this. Can anyone fill me in?

[Spaced Cowboy]

Is this game 1UPT?

[Sammual]

Is this game 1UPT?

Yes, and the more I play the more I think it is a good replacement for the MoM battlefield.

[Main_Brain]

Got released today

[Stuie]

I've been enjoying this. There are some definite flaws and a big caveat.

First the big caveat: This is a tactical wargame with a thin strategy layer of city/resource management on top. Combat is the meat of the game. Given that understanding, it plays really well. The AI holds up well enough - it could definitely use some improvement but I would say it is putting up a way better fight than Civ V did on release.

Some of the flaws: lack of hotkeys for much of anything, UI can be clunky at times, magic is random research - no directed research of spells or schools of magic, and there are only three races present along with a dozen or so leaders. Speaking of leaders, the "customization" options are abysmal.

Some positives: The three races each play very different than the others. Units follow pretty standard fantasy tropes (this is a plus in my book) so it's easy on the immersion factor. For all its clunkiness, the UI would actually be pretty damn good if there were some hotkeys. The AI plays a decent game in the short term (longer games may derail it - haven't had a chance to play more than a couple shorter games).

I'd recommend the game as long as you can get past the big caveat I mentioned.