I got this the other day. I have to say that I am quite impressed! It doesn't shine too much over other RTS's. But it does just enough to make me want to play it. Infact, I Might play it in a minute.

So far, I can see that there are 3 playable civilisations. The Vinci, Alin (or something like that) which are a sand/fire/glass team and some other thing that I haven't tried yet.

Anyways, a few screenies are in order.





These aren't my screenshots, but I have the game on max settings and I must say they've done it well. It runs like a dream. I'm running a AMD 64 3500, with GeForce 6600 GT and 1gig of ram.

You can have some seriously HUGE armies and the game runs at the same speed.

I'd say check it out!

EDIT: Fairly mid sized battle.

Looks like another non-tactics based rts.

Well outside of the game world, you have a tactical map.

From here you can add military districts (for defense + drop shipments of reinforcments), Merchant districts (For drop shipments of resources) and research districts (To give you new techonology earlier in the level)

You have to choose where to attack next, bearing in mind the location of the enemies on the map, and where they may attack next. You might find yours self surrounded if you aren't carefull, but then only really if you suck. You can use this map to make the game easier. Go after your enemies allies first, store up your city building points for the last match etc. You can also purchase military units to increase the amount of force you have at the start of the game. Also, upgrade your unit levels and give you (plethora) of heroes new skills. (Mega fun!)

In game, the initial tactic is get a fast income of rescources. Like all RTS's games I guess. You basically measure your rescources, by the amount incoming per minute. The amount where you start to be able to turn your army around in most cases is 200-300 per minute. You have to earn both "Timonium" (some sort of magical construction matierial *cough*tiberium*cough*) and Wealth (cash). The problem is, you are limited to how much income you can gain by the size of your city/cities. So you also have to buy new merchant/military/research districts in the level. These increase your income cap/population cap/amount of research points available respectively.

The problem lies in that if you build something, the next time you build one of those it costs more. So cities become an expensive hobby.

However, that said, it's not too hard to get rescources at a decent rate, because you can usually defend yourselves from the oposition because they like to constantly onslaught you. Odd ay? Lemme explain.

If they are sending, constantly, their units all the way accross the map, and you are simply letting your new units sit in the base, probably increase at a much slower rate, they never really build up an army. Because they have little tact, to be fair. They just plow in, and you use your abilities and skill to kill them efficiently.

Where as if the oposition would build up an army at the amazing rate they seem to be able to, and send it all at once - regrouping outside of your borders, they'd crush the fuck out of you.

Essentially, they're constantly sending second rate stuff at you. Luckily.

That said, I've struggled at a few points in the game. Sometimes just out of stupidity (charging the final mission in a scenario when he still had a nearby ally) or sometimes it is genuinly hard to build an army with them constantly charging you.

Tactically, yes the game is a little dull. But fun wise, it's great. And now for a screen shot.

First, a portion of my army.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/ ... myarmy.gif

Second, the graphics sliders.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/ ... liders.gif