TLDR A very mid game that is only recommended on 50% or greater sale. Only reason I recommend is I feel I got my $10 worth but would of felt cheated at full price.

I see what they are doing here. Making a political intrigue game that focuses on family relations instead of completely combat. I welcome this focus in grand strategy games. Though this game has a couple of issues that cause this to fall apart.

It gets extremely repetitive fast. After you reach level of count (almost half way through single play through) it just becomes a major repetitive snoozfest.

Diplomacy encounters are at first enjoyable. But they play exactly like military encounters and by the time you reach count you will be smashing that auto resolve button faster than the "like" button in a Youtube clickbait influencers wildest dreams.

The game introduces several artificial roadblocks that just get annoying and grindy. One perfect example of this is trying to get a new feudal title (a core dynamic that is essential to progress the game). You cant declare a war outright to claim another title. You have to follow a convoluted process as follows:

1. Recruit a spy in the title holders town
2. Use spy for slander campaign
3. Declare "humiliation" war
4. Conquer their town
5. Fight a peace negotiation encounter to give the town back to them
6. Wait for the peace timer of 120 days to tick down
7. Redo steps 1 - 5 again with only difference being declare a "title" war this time.

After these steps expect to do the exact same steps each time you want to progress in title. With a few roadblocks thrown in between like "get a title from the vice" which is separate from the feudal titles (count, duke, vice) and only happens on a 3 or 4 year count down and is only relevant for the feudal title that you are wanting to progress from. So for example from count to duke you literally sit your army outside a dukes town waiting to start the (7 x 2) step process of becoming duke for the 3 year counter to tick down so you can get the special non feudal title given by the vice (that only applies to count) to satisfy a checkbox. You must do this before you turn Duke to satisfy the artificial roadblock only to immediately become Duke after disregarding the stupid title that only applies to count.

Does it sound convoluted and confusing? Thats because it absolutely is. There is no tutorial on how to progress feudal titles and you are left googleing the very counter intuitive process of first declaring humiliation war before you can then declare title war. This adds nothing to the game but game hours spent. I suspect it was an attempt by the devs to boost game play time stats without adding any content.

<3