I'm updating my review after putting some hours into the game.

I haven't experienced crashes again since the first day I played. I don't know if there was an issue that appears only when you first start playing, or if I'm not trying to do the things it doesn't want me to do thereby avoiding the potential crash. I just know it involved me trying to drag individual army creatures around from one to the other.

The game does have a level of difficulty that can be discouraging when you first play it, but it depends on which hero you use. If you have a hero that has some death benefit mechanism that generates more units than what die in a battle, suddenly things get easier.

Further, as suspected, hobbling the CPU opponent's growth reduces the overpowered attacks a few weeks in that will decimate your forces and lose you the game. If you see their lesser heroes roaming near you, take them out.

In order to dissuade the AI from attacking, plop one of your own lesser heroes in camping mode at a choke point which will prevent the AI from exploring further (at least until the AI decides to attack).

I also went into several weeks after defeating the CPU just to explore the equipment system. There are levels, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Greater, and Ultimate spread out over 32 different sets:

Rabbit, Wilde, Rogue, Titan, Legend, Mesmer, Mudcast, Regal, Batal, Tusk, Bronze, Heretic, Ascetic, Assassin, Eastcay, Gladiator, Paragon, Extract, Slayer, General, Protector, Jotun, Conjurer, Echoes, Necrotic, Ruthless, Chaos, Scarlet, Mandel, Kismit, Exarch, Mithril

There are stacking benefits that start with 2 or 3 matching sets. I did finally achieve a full set with 10 matching items, but no special achievements were triggered beyond 5 items.

What's annoying is that when you pick up items, they will equip sometimes and push your favored item into the storage. This means you have to be vigilant to make sure that your items stay the same as you selected, which is cumbersome when you have dozens of items and multiple heroes.

I wound up creating an Excel spreadsheet which I had at my side on a laptop so that I could manage this better, but this whole system could be improved by allowing equipment to be locked.

The gameplay itself is okay. Essentially, there is no progression, everything is a one-off match, unlike a game like AOE in which you can follow a campaign and keep your gains toward the next map. As such, nothing really matters other than becoming more powerful than your opponent faster and nibbling away until they are gone.

It seems easiest if you just attack everything you can that gives a difficulty of "Easy" and add more forces until everything is "Easy." Defeating roaming heroes, neutral or otherwise, along the way.

Breaching forts seems to be fairly easy, even without catapults. I don't know if it's hero specific, but there is a catapult mechanism that allows you to camp near enough to the enemy's fort and bombard it with a catapult for as long as you like. I just left it running as I did a couple weeks of building up armies and when I finally invaded, the wall was completely rubble.

Overall, the game can be fun, but it doesn't require much thought. The battles are pretty much easy to let your troops do what they want while you cast summoning spells on their ranged units.

I'm not too sure about how much there is to keep coming back, but for right now, I've found a way to enjoy it.

My original review is below:

Crashed within the first 10 minutes of playing. Others posted game ending crashes on the discussion board as well. This is a buggy game that needs to be fixed to be considered work anyone's time.

Okay, I tried again and pushed past the thing that was causing the crash (dragging creatures around) and as someone else noted, the difficulty level is insane, and this is on the vanilla default settings, with difficulty set to "Normal."

Sure, I'm new to this game, and games like this need some time to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of each hero. Also, figuring out ways to better the AI is similar to how learning that in Age of Empires III, if you send of your explorer and constantly attack the villagers, especially when building a structure, you will hobble the AI's growth. At hat point, suddenly, AOE3 gets far easier, but feels dirty doing it.

Well, I managed to win my first game on the first tiny map and was randomly given Delerium/Asce The Ruined and fought against Pyre/Kediz. It actually wasn't difficult initially, but in playing the next random game, it got far more difficult. This obviously means you have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each faction and hero, and how best to account for each.

After spending hours building up only to being sought by the heat-seeking missle AI army, I started a new game only to find that I was complete locked in with no paths available. This shows that the random maps do not prevent this, so you might wind up playing a game for hours only to find out that you can't actually reach where you need to go.

There is an option to disable random maps, so that might the solution there.

I'm stubborn, so I will continue to fight this game for a bit longer. Maybe I'll change my mind on it later.

I'm updating my review after putting some hours into the game. I haven't experienced crashes again since the first day I played. I don't know if there was an issue that appears only when you first start playing, or if I'm not trying to do the things it doesn't want me to do thereby avoiding the potential crash. I just know it involved me trying to drag individual army creatures around from one to the other. The game does have a level of difficulty that can be discouraging when you first play it, but it depends on which hero you use. If you have a hero that has some death benefit mechanism that generates more units than what die in a battle, suddenly things get easier. Further, as suspected, hobbling the CPU opponent's growth reduces the overpowered attacks a few weeks in that will decimate your forces and lose you the game. If you see their lesser heroes roaming near you, take them out. In order to dissuade the AI from attacking, plop one of your own lesser heroes in camping mode at a choke point which will prevent the AI from exploring further (at least until the AI decides to attack). I also went into several weeks after defeating the CPU just to explore the equipment system. There are levels, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Greater, and Ultimate spread out over 32 different sets: Rabbit, Wilde, Rogue, Titan, Legend, Mesmer, Mudcast, Regal, Batal, Tusk, Bronze, Heretic, Ascetic, Assassin, Eastcay, Gladiator, Paragon, Extract, Slayer, General, Protector, Jotun, Conjurer, Echoes, Necrotic, Ruthless, Chaos, Scarlet, Mandel, Kismit, Exarch, Mithril There are stacking benefits that start with 2 or 3 matching sets. I did finally achieve a full set with 10 matching items, but no special achievements were triggered beyond 5 items. What's annoying is that when you pick up items, they will equip sometimes and push your favored item into the storage. This means you have to be vigilant to make sure that your items stay the same as you selected, which is cumbersome when you have dozens of items and multiple heroes. I wound up creating an Excel spreadsheet which I had at my side on a laptop so that I could manage this better, but this whole system could be improved by allowing equipment to be locked. The gameplay itself is okay. Essentially, there is no progression, everything is a one-off match, unlike a game like AOE in which you can follow a campaign and keep your gains toward the next map. As such, nothing really matters other than becoming more powerful than your opponent faster and nibbling away until they are gone. It seems easiest if you just attack everything you can that gives a difficulty of "Easy" and add more forces until everything is "Easy." Defeating roaming heroes, neutral or otherwise, along the way. Breaching forts seems to be fairly easy, even without catapults. I don't know if it's hero specific, but there is a catapult mechanism that allows you to camp near enough to the enemy's fort and bombard it with a catapult for as long as you like. I just left it running as I did a couple weeks of building up armies and when I finally invaded, the wall was completely rubble. Overall, the game can be fun, but it doesn't require much thought. The battles are pretty much easy to let your troops do what they want while you cast summoning spells on their ranged units. I'm not too sure about how much there is to keep coming back, but for right now, I've found a way to enjoy it. My original review is below: Crashed within the first 10 minutes of playing. Others posted game ending crashes on the discussion board as well. This is a buggy game that needs to be fixed to be considered work anyone's time. Okay, I tried again and pushed past the thing that was causing the crash (dragging creatures around) and as someone else noted, the difficulty level is insane, and this is on the vanilla default settings, with difficulty set to "Normal." Sure, I'm new to this game, and games like this need some time to get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of each hero. Also, figuring out ways to better the AI is similar to how learning that in Age of Empires III, if you send of your explorer and constantly attack the villagers, especially when building a structure, you will hobble the AI's growth. At hat point, suddenly, AOE3 gets far easier, but feels dirty doing it. Well, I managed to win my first game on the first tiny map and was randomly given Delerium/Asce The Ruined and fought against Pyre/Kediz. It actually wasn't difficult initially, but in playing the next random game, it got far more difficult. This obviously means you have to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each faction and hero, and how best to account for each. After spending hours building up only to being sought by the heat-seeking missle AI army, I started a new game only to find that I was complete locked in with no paths available. This shows that the random maps do not prevent this, so you might wind up playing a game for hours only to find out that you can't actually reach where you need to go. There is an option to disable random maps, so that might the solution there. I'm stubborn, so I will continue to fight this game for a bit longer. Maybe I'll change my mind on it later.