Legions of Ashworld Reviews

I got this game just because the artwork and GUI in the screenshots looked interesting and unusual. I expected the game to be kinda blah and to just play with the interface for a bit since it wasn't expensive to buy. My negative expections ended up being wrong, this game is well done and challenging. The only negative thing I have to say about it now is that there is only one campaign to play. Hopefully this game's developers will come out with another game with this engine with more campaigns and/or campaign editos or something.* Having only the one campaign it's a good thing the dev's made it very difficult. My first few playthroughs were little more than some scouting around and getting killed. I've since gotten better and have managed to recruit several more armies and get another Kingdom on my side, but I still can't make a dent in the enemy's forces yet. *this engine would be great for a Romance of the Three Kindgoms campaign.

This game does not deserve the low user review score it has at the moment. I had a great time playing it. It has a new unspent fantasy world and a quite unique scenario: You can not fight the invading enemy forces right on, you have to retreat, build troops, find allies. It is more then worth the 5 bucks. If you like strategy games and a unique scenario give it a try!

LEGIONS OF ASHWORLD VERDICT That’s Legions of Ashworld’s greatest problem, really, a lack of character. Beyond the likeable visuals it’s a very dry, repetitive experience that never engages you or makes you care about defending your kingdom. There’s too little at stake and not nearly enough reason to keep you trudging about the wastes. The art style is lovely and there’s clearly a great affection on behalf of the developers for classic strategy/RPG hybrids, but Legions of Ashworld quickly becomes bogged down in endless army movement, uninteresting combat and micromanagement. The core elements of a decent game are there, but there’s no meat on the bones. TOP GAME MOMENT Exploring uncharted territory and meeting a new ally who provides you with much-needed supplies and troops is admittedly satisfying, but not nearly as satisfying as it should be.

There are a few elements to this game that could have been done better- more characterization and new scenarios/greater re-playability, and if so would have really launched it into the territory of being one of the greats. Still a very solid choice, and I'm excited to see more games like this or even some custom maps. 8/10 so close to amazing, but a great case study nonetheless

I really miss the times when there was close to no rules about how to make computer games and developers just tried to create something interesting for us to play. Nowadays, the first-person strategy games similar to [b]Cryo Interactive Entertainment[/b]'s [b]Dune[/b] are obsolete. But from time to time, we still get one of those thanks to the indie developers. [b]Legions of Ashworld[/b] is one of such games. And you know what? It's pretty cool. Long story short, you navigate the map in a way similar to the old grid-based dungeon crawlers (except there are no dungeons in this game, just an open world map with the cities). You visit the garrisons, you recruit the troops, you fight the enemies, you conquer the cities, repeat. That's the stuff. And, like I've said, it's pretty cool and addicting experience. The problem is... it's also [i]incredibly[/i] basic. There are no quests here, there are no tactical battles (you just get close to the enemy, press the “attack” button and watch the outcome) and the entire thing is very, [i]very[/i] limited. Also, don't expect a long and complicated campaign. Even though there's a story, the entire game comes with only two maps, one of which is a tiny little tutorial. That's right, you finish one single map (which isn't even that big, even though it may still take some time to finish), you get “[i]Victory to the Alliance of Free Lands![/i]” screen and that's it. Which means one thing – this game is barely worth the [b]$5[/b] they're asking for it. I mean, yeah, it's only [b]$5[/b]. But it's also a game that you'll probably get tired of after only a couple of hours. So, a fresh comic book about your favorite superhero, a cheeseburger and a coke may actually be a better idea than paying the full price here. Even though, like I've said, it's a cute and addicting old school experience. It's just... with no variety and not enough content it doesn't last long enough. So, if you'll see it on sale for about a buck? This game may worth your time. As long as you're an old geezer as yours truly. I mean, seriously, I totally enjoyed it while it last. For the full price, though? I'd say you can do (way) better than this in [b]Steam[/b]. With more content, this game had a chance to become really great. As is... it feels more like a small demo.

Legions of Asworld Excellent strategy game with rpg and tactical elements in it. It is a very hard and challenging game. Think about USSR at -41 when Germany assaulted it. Soviets struggled in defensive war at start, until tides turned. Thats what is going on here as well. At start your mission is unity "allies" under the same flag. While doing that, you need to defend land against hostitle and superior force. Slowly you gain power by recruiting more cities under your control and winning battles (hopefully). The game has good re-playability possibilities as there are different ways to achieve these things. For example, if you recruit a powerful king on your side, it will end up to a side quest. Which takes your attention elsewhere, while you are already busy by defending your territory. You also have few wizards under your control. They are good in battle, but can also be used in quests, hunting artifacts and treasures all over the map! A simple and quite good made UI may look strange, but it offers you just what you need to enjoy the game. Well worth 3.74e (holiday sale)!

Very clearly influenced by Mike Singleton's classic "Lords Of Midnight", Legions of Ashworld vastly improves the now decades old games' interface, but loses almost all of the charm that made LoM interesting. Characters have no real background other than a name and a race. No character traits that made them more or less likely to recruit others, as in Doomdark's Revenge. It just feels flat, uninteresting, and leaves me with no real motivation to see the war through. The first person view makes wargaming finicky and require far more clicks and actions than it would have otherwise taken. Without the charm of exploring a world full of unique characters, why bother?

First off, I want to say this could have been a very good game. It has a nice atmosphere, an interesting story, and cool mechanics. It really sucks you into the Universe, where you are attempting to save three kingdoms from an Evil Empire, Mad Wizard, and Devious Cult. You play the game a few times, until you finally pull out a win against the odds... and thats it. The game comes pre-packaged with a single senario (not counting a short tutorial one teaching you the basics of play), and once you beat that senario you have zero reason to play again. Now at 4.99 its hardly a great loss, and you probably got a couple hours of enjoyment out of it, but still. For a game with so much potential its sad to see it fall so flat. Supposedly the game was suppose to feature an editor that let you make and play your own senarios, what was given was a confusing and unhelpful web page with a ZIP file. So instead of a smooth in-game editor, your stuck with a clunky text editor that most non-coders won't be able to master in a reasonable time frame. So if you don't mind paying five bucks for a couple hours of entertainment, then this is for you. If you were looking for a game where you could build an epic storyline full of heros, adventure, and armies, then keep looking.

Very good strategy game heavily inspired by Lords of Midnight. The good: - The world and its inhabitants: Humans, wizards (different schools), lizards, giants etc - UI, much better than LoM. Moving, grouping, item exchange, searching... everything task is just enjoymnet to perform - Graphics, very atmospheric - Wildlife is meaningfull and not just an annoyance. You get food and troops (with specific mages) from them. - There are story elements, although there could be more of them - Addictive, could not stop until finish The bad: - Too short! main campaign is just 6 hours of gametime - Difficulty level. Got it right on my second (real) playthrough - Any lord can be recruited by any other lord. - The names of the humans are just too much the same, making them difficult to distinguish - Too short! If it contained 20 hours of gameplay I would give LoA a 9,5/10, but with current length I give it 9-

I'm on the fence about whether or not I "recommend" this game -- I'm putting it as yes, because I did enjoy my time with it. However, I don't think it's a game for mass audiences. The key aspect of LoA is that it is a STRATEGY game in the truest sense. Not strategy a la real-time-strategy games that in reality emphasize tactics over strategy, this game is about coming up with a grand overarching plan, sticking to it when it's working, modifying it when it's not, and coming up with new ones when your old plan gets blown out of the water. Combat is very simple: Two armies meet, time passes, and people die. The victor is determined purely through strategic-level elements: How many troops are on each side of the field, how rested those troops are, how good those troops are, and what magic influences the field. I appreciate the change of pace. One reason people might want to not buy LoA is that there's only one real campaign right now (plus a tiny tutorial campaign which doesn't count) and it doesn't seem like there's much replay value after you beat that campaign, and once you understand everything the campaign's not that difficult. I beat it on my second or third "real" try (not counting early plays where I didn't know what was going on, some experimental plays where I was intentionally doing "stupid" things in order to learn new tricks, etc) on the medium difficulty.