Recent reviews by featheredbiped

I have played Civilization games my entire life, and this scratches that Civ itch while adding the politics and the drama you'd never get in any Civ game. I find this to be a great gateway game for Crusader Kings and other Grand strategy games. Nothing is more exciting than having your own spymaster poison your drink because he fell in love with the Queen he was supposed to slander.

Or having your lazy leader sleep through three crisis situations and getting out of bed to see them all cancel each other out.

Or overthrowing a puppet grand vizier and destroying the kingdom he fled to using the very kingdom who installed the puppet in the first place (the grand vizier went rogue).

Or being killed by your own pet monkey. Accidentally, of course.

The AI is also surprisingly good at war, knowing when to attack and to retreat. The AI throwing away 5 soldiers to kill your elite hoplite in one blow is both funny and annoying at the same time, though. I gave that hoplite way too many titles.

The Orders system is also a nice take, tieing it to your ruler's legitimacy. It's basically the number of moves you can make per turn, and it's shared between all units and political actions. Now, will you march your newly-minted army to the front, or consolidate your power first by keeping your nobles and citizens happy? At least in the early and mid-game, every move must be thought out.

Overall, it's a great game. A few bugs notwithstanding, Old World is a mix of turn-based strategy tropes done right.

Just four words: Best. Civilization. Game. Ever.