My initial impressions are also very positive to the degree that I probably spent 5 or 6 hours playing. My Messalia game went for most of that time but eventually my lack of manpower couldn’t keep up with constant barbarian incursions. Didn’t help that I wasn’t able to deal with my decadence problem early enoigh and ended up with a bunch of negative modifiers.
Playing as Macedonia now which feels like a very different game so far. Athens was kind enough to declare war on me without enough allies to back them up. Hoping I can secure the rest of Greece quickly before messing with any of the other successor states.
There is still a lot I don’t understand so it’s probably time to revisit the manual.
Hmm, looks like this is part of a bundle on Steam with Field of Glory II. If you already have FoG2 you get Empires at 25% off, which makes it only $30. Damn it, I don’t think I can resist that and the interlocking battle system between the 2 games.
I’m wondering if people who have played already have some guesses on how long a full campaign game would take? And I’m guessing it would be much longer if you play the battles out in FOG2?
I’m guessing you’re right since FoG2 battles can possibly take up to an hour depending on how many forces there are on the field. I think you might only want to do it for the most important battles where you want total control.
I haven’t tried out the battle exporter yet and so far haven’t felt a strong desire to. However, it’s good to know that the people who have seem to really like that aspect. So far the strategic side of the game has been way more interesting to me that Imperator. The level of management is just about perfect for me.
I was already primed to get this, but the slew of really strong reviews, the comparisons to Imperator that heavily favors Empires, and the nice $10 discount as part of the ‘Masters Edition’ all pushed me to take the plunge now.