Still, I’m tempted. Not only are all my old favorites still there, but new delights like Ur, The First City and Berytos, The Phoenix Empire beckon, begging me to abandon any notion of actually figuring this thing out, and instead diving in headfirst, drinking deeply of the game’s many options without bothering with tedious things like screenshots or note-taking. I’m in a panic, in the true old sense of the word — in fact, I’d very much like to play as Pangaea, a familiar faction I never really learned, which happens to be governed by actual panii.
[--]
In the recruitment panel, the first real difference is immediately apparent. Not only have all the sprites been redrawn and are now more detailed, but the interface itself is much improved. There are separate queues for commanders and regular units, and the option to repeat each territory’s recruitment instead of having to re-queue your order each turn is welcome. There are even powerful units that require multiple seasons to recruit.
[--]
-- I open up the battle screen to give everyone the preemptive orders that will play out in combat. Turns out even this has been refined. Rather than every unit being a solid square block of soldiers like in the previous game, it’s now possible to order companies to take formations like lines to prevent flanking and skirmish positions to take less damage from arrows and spells. My heavy infantry don’t seem to like being ordered into a line, getting a small penalty to their morale--
[--]
--team games, limited range ritual spells, improved random maps, mountain passes that can only be passed in summer, new weapon damage types like “blunt” or “sharp,” global random events, extra buildings to improve castles, and improved AI.
How's it going, oscar?
