Crown Wars: The Black Prince - historical fantasy turn-based tactics from Naheulbeuk devs

[Denim Destroyer]

One of my squad members died but I was able to continue on as if he were some lich unable to be destroyed.

Could it be that anyone who "dies" is merely taken out of action or story characters can't be killed? In Battle Brothers your brothers can die, but they also have a chancce to survive being struck down at cost of getting a permanent injury.

In this case no, after party wiping I was able to restart the mission despite being told by the game I would have to send out a new party. However when I restarted, all four party members were shown as having zero health but I had enough supplies to heal three of them. My "undying" party member was the only one I could not heal. So essentially as of now you can have immortal party members provided you restart a mission after failure and avoid healing anybody.

I should mention that all four members of my squad were chosen at random in the barracks and seem to have no story prevalence.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Welp - finally got around to finnishing the demo. Its good for what it is, I would say its in the 7/10 territory. As I said, the game brings very little in terms of originality - it is a nu-XCOM in the 100 Years War low fantasy setting.

A few additional observations:

- there is a bit of verticality going on on the battlefields, there are all kinds of climbable terrain/ladders leading to elevated areas, which opens up some more tactical options
- the class skill trees are not very deep (you usually have a choice between two skills on each level
- the base building part also seems to be rather shallow
- combat is simple but fun, enemy AI is adequte
- the demo crashed on me once and I had one bug when a bear got stuck while moving over climbable terrain in the second mission (the game however unfucked itself after a while on its own)

So yeah, dont expect to be blown away by this - it is a competent nu-XCOM clone without much depth, skip it if that doesnt sound like something you are interested in. The setting is perhaps the most interesting part of the game as we dont see the dark low fantasy take on real history very often. It seems to be going for what Sapkowski did with his Hussite trilogy books (ie. magic/dark cults/monsters in the background of real events) which in itself is commendable.

Anyway, I got plenty of good stuff to play, so I will see if I get this or release... might way for this to go on a discount later on.

 

[Harthwain]

Welp - finally got around to finnishing the demo. Its good for what it is, I would say its in the 7/10 territory. As I said, the game brings very little in terms of originality - it is a nu-XCOM in the 100 Years War low fantasy setting.

I am not going to lie, that's a bit disappointing to hear. I was hoping for shaking things a bit with the system, like King Arthur: Knight's Tale did.

 

[Eazy-E]

I'm not sure how this is exactly historically beyond using historical names...........le funny plague doctor XD

 

[Galdred]

Welp - finally got around to finnishing the demo. Its good for what it is, I would say its in the 7/10 territory. As I said, the game brings very little in terms of originality - it is a nu-XCOM in the 100 Years War low fantasy setting.

I am not going to lie, that's a bit disappointing to hear. I was hoping for shaking things a bit with the system, like King Arthur: Knight's Tale did.

But King Arthur also had a great atmosphere, art direction and soundtrack. This game seems much weaker in these departments.

 

[Harthwain]

But King Arthur also had a great atmosphere, art direction and soundtrack. This game seems much weaker in these departments.

Yeah. I removed it from my wishlist.

 

[REhorror]

Tried this.

Graphics too cartoony, nothing historical about this.

 

[Infinitron]

Plan your battle; take the high ground. Tame Chaos. Those are the three lessons to master the Art of War.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Hellraiser]

TBH I wasn't aware they were going for a full nuXCOM take, that is they aren't skipping a strategic layer with resource management, research etc. and just focusing purely on the tacticool side like say Mutant Year Zero did and I guess also Battletech (the management side is rather lackluster in that one, so I don't count it as really having one). I think this might for me be the key selling point here, but maybe I should just get phoenix point to scratch that itch or something.

 

[ArchAngel]

This looks like a good production fantasy Xcom, I wanted a game like this for a while. I hope it is good.

 

[Infinitron]

In the midst of the war of crowns, every battle is decided by steel and fire. Fearless knights wield legendary weapons. Choose your allies wisely.

 

[mediocrepoet]

This looks like a good production fantasy Xcom, I wanted a game like this for a while. I hope it is good.

The demo was pretty fun.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

The game is OK, just dont expect more than a medieval nu-XCOM - if that sounds good enough for you to drop 40 € on release that go for it, if not... wait for a discount.

 

[Infinitron]

ChristopherOdd has had the opportunity to try Crown Wars. Listen to what he has to say about this new tactical turn-based game.

 

[Spectacle]

The game is OK, just dont expect more than a medieval nu-XCOM - if that sounds good enough for you to drop 40 € on release that go for it, if not... wait for a discount.

How is it like nu-XCOM?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Literally everything is like nu-XCOM. Barebones base management, two AP move/attack combat system, barebones skill tree for characters.

 

[Shaki]

nuXCOM in fantasy setting sounds pretty fun tbh

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

This isn't the only attempt to make one.
Slaves of Magic and Zodiac Legion have both the same basic idea.

 

[notpl]

nuXCOM in fantasy setting sounds pretty fun tbh

king arthur: knight's tale was pretty good, yeah

 

[ArchAngel]

nuXCOM in fantasy setting sounds pretty fun tbh

king arthur: knight's tale was pretty good, yeah

Isn't that more like RPG with tactical combat?
To be Xcom like it needs random soldiers that can die at any point, some overworld mechanics that let you build stuff, research and at least equip your guys and missions that are not all fixed story missions.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Hellraiser]

Ransoming prisoners is definite

 

[Fargus]

Doesn't look half bad to be honest. Maybe it will be a solid nu-com clone. But i'm torn between commiting to this or trying Penis Point that has been dusting in my library for some time. Or just replaying Ja2 1.13... again.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Doesn't look half bad to be honest. Maybe it will be a solid nu-com clone. But i'm torn between commiting to this or trying Penis Point that has been dusting in my library for some time. Or just replaying Ja2 1.13... again.

Did you try the demo? I thought it was pretty solid and fun. YMMV though, especially since it sounds like the setting and theme doesn't matter much to you.