Dom3 == Best TBS Ever
Some reviews…
http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=36http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/dominions3theawakening#criticshttp://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2007/01/05/on-site-review-dominions-3-the-awakening/http://gamerdad.com/detail.cfm?itemID=3512My mini-review…
PLUS PLUS
* Random Maps - big, small, water, no water, mountains, no mountains, extremely customizable and makes really good maps. Has really added to the game as Dom2 provided maps were pitiful and the best maps crafted by game players (who did some make some excellent maps). Graphics arn't Civ4 by any stretch, but the maps scale up and down just fine and look good enough to me...
...random maps can even be scripte into the game server.
* Ages - the feature of nation "themes" dumped, and instead, early age, middle age, and late age is a game option. Difference being that early age is more magic oriented, late age more "conventional" combat unit geared.
* New nations, new units many new pretender physical forms, lots of national specific spells - strategic depth unrivaled by any other game... ...thousands of units, hundreds of pretenders (though depending on nation selected, you get to choose a subset of those)
* More income, resources by default - making getting to the action a lot quicker, but all of these settings are easily customizable that can lend to another game style easily..
* 300 page manual! - well not sure if this is that great of a plus, but it's a great manual, half devoted to grimoire and magic items that can be crafted or nation specific spells and breakdowns for summons, rituals, and independent nation units...
MINUS
* 3-D battle film/renactments basically the same, upgraded a tad but I really would like to see a detailed battle turn report option. Battle reports with detailed casualty stats or at least tell me which commander didn't make it out of battle... ...watching the battle film is cool but it'd be nice if the game would spit out the turn by turn results at least at a summary level...
* Need more hotkeys for F1 nation overview - great that you can click on all the commanders, sites and provinces in the listings, but better would be if I had hotkeys to search for my prophet, highlight priests v. mages v. comanders, sort by income, resources, defense, etc...