Sovereignty: Crown of Kings

It's crashed about 7-8 times since I started playing last night. Got more bugs than Texas in summertime. Unplayable. Would have been a great game I think.

This is a great game. Too bad you can't buy it anymore.

Pro: Gorgeous map, great skeleton of a strategy title. Con: But a skeleton is all that we're left with. Buggy, unfinished, and shallow. In its current (final?) state, SCoK isn't worth 5 bucks, let alone 24-25.

A decent game, actually pretty good game for one that got de-listed on STEAM. To me it's very much like a turn-based riff on the Total War series, with some old-time Fantasy General / Masters of Magic included, but with it's own lore. The Strategic national map plays out turn-based and you try to control provinces for not only gold income and a variety of resources but also some provinces have special properties to boost some aspect of your kingdom (a watch-tower, a fortified pass thru the mountains, healing to un-dead units etc.) and research points (used for discovering magic spells). The tactical fighting map is also turn based and can be either auto-resolved or controlled depending on if you have a leader present in that battle. Controlled battles have a deployment phase, and then you may move and fight any of your units in any sequence you wish. The auto battled fights do also take some strategy on your part as well being that the battles will play out with a ranged phase, then a melee phase then essentially a shock phase (cavalry and high move units charge into melee for extra damage); so assembling your units that do not contain a leader can be done to tactical advantage. Units may also gain many traits that can help with geography (mountain, swamp etc) magic, healing, defence, attack,movement and many other promotions. The game also contains trade which you try to use to either generate more income or gain the right resources to build building or elite units. Diplomacy is present and although not critical for most nations it can be very very helpful for others i.e. to create alliances or getting other nations ti trust you and dislike others. Yes, there were a few game crashes but certainly not as much as some panic button reviews have stated, I experienced 1 lock-up and 1 crash-to-desktop in the first 25 hours; which compared to some all-CAPs reviews must mean my laptop was made by wizards. Overall I would've liked to see the game survive and see what the Devs (Gothic) could've done had they not gone under; too bad Lordz or Slitherine didn't pick it up or assign to a new Dev as a couple of game-play patches would've made this a good game and with fantasy theme and already included multiple races and cultures the door for multiple DLCs would've been wide open. TLDR: Decent game, too bad the Devs went under.

I love the game, the world seems to have good potential, the combat system is not bad at all for tactical combat. It saddens me that the game essentially appears to be unfinished. -It has many bugs and crashes, I ignore them and save often, but there are people who can feel frustrated. -The factions are not balanced, that is to say, it is not the same to play with Hadrigel that has a very competent army than with Latvia for example, and that seems excellent to me, since it makes sense that a country with a great military tradition is not equal to playing with another who doesn't have it, and leads you to look for tactics in battle to compensate for your disadvantage. -This game seems to have a story behind it that the game doesn't finish exploiting properly, more role-playing component for each faction would have made it a sublime game, also despite the diplomatic modifiers the AI ​​usually does a little what it wants in diplomacy. -The history campaigns in many cases I don't like at all, the Evengaad campaign for example that has been my favorite faction, it is essentially not to bother Ariselle, lest she get angry with us... I was forced to play with Evengaad in conquest mode and conquer Ariselle to compensate. -I really liked the detail of unlocking special troops for each faction in the conquest mode. In summary, I love this game and I am very sorry that it did not unfold the potential that both the game and the world have, and of course if something similar is tried again with this world and trying to put everything that should be put into the would buy.

There is an audience for this strategy game, but I think it is very small. The interface is cluttered and illogical, making it a daunting task to get to a point where you feel you understand everything that is required to manage your empire. Combat is decent, if not a bit raw.