Furious28289

Extremely well tested (for playability) and thought out. Very satisfying when you experience success, devastating when you fail. Very unforgiving so its not for the weak or faint of heart or those who cant bounce back from failure. Bear in mind that it is very hard to protect this kind of game from the player who (being the extremely intelligent little game breakers/exploiters we can be) can end up ruining the game. This game prevents that but at the cost of requiring careful, intelligent and methodical performance by its players. If you aren't smart or at least persistent then I'd advise against you playing "The Castle Doctrine". If you aren't prepared to rise to the challenge or don't get satisfaction from doing so, then this game is definitely not for you. For everyone else, its very entertaining and VERY rewarding! My best advice? Play the game without mercy, don't hold back for fear you might end up breaking it or discovering a fun killing exploit. Learn from your mistakes, don't begrudge them. Have a lot of respect for the developer, we need more like him.

Played for a day but got bored of it real quick unfortunately. Ill try to give an honest assessment. CONS - Battles become a giant blob of units mess - One year per turn has destroyed the attachment and reward you get from slowly training up your generals and agents, they just keep dying which brings up the "noble death" cinematic over and OVER again. Agents are also VERY expensive - Concept of one year per turn is so stupid, it is adhered to for "historical accuracy" in some areas of the game (to its detriment) yet ignored in others. Just trash the whole idea, and do it like rome 1 - AI is extremely inept - Naval landings against cities is FUNDAMENTALLY broken, as the defending side just clogs the limited landing spots with their own ships - Huge performance issues, even on high end rigs - Diplomacy has taken a step back from Shogun 2 (the whole game has taken a step back, but this specifically. Diplomacy quite bugged/not working - MASSIVE turn times, all those chores u have been wanting to do but cbf doing will be done while u wait for this epic turn time lol - As it was called out on the forums, the testudo formation is a useless JOKE, and in itself a true indication of CA's collapse of common sense - UI has also taken a step backwards: it is much harder to get a grasp of relations, who owns what on the map, finances, public order etc. NOT because i want it to be dumbed down, but because there are too many uneccessary UI obstacles to getting this information, or it simply isnt there - Battles full of bugs, units getting stuck, refusing to obey orders etc. - Much more difficult to effectively control your army in battle, couple that with the very fast pace of battles and you have a cluster turd of a situation. - Many bugs in all aspect of the game - Siege times are too short (CA trying to cling to the ridiculous notion of 1 year per turn again) - Sense of satisfaction on creating an empire/playing campaign map is missing, still trying to pin it down but it probably a combination of the above and the one year per turn nonsense inhibiting/destroying all the aspects of previous total war titles that we all loved. PROS - Has potential, like in a years time when (if) copious amounts of patching has rectified many of the above issues. Wait for steam special folks, in 2 years time. In the meantime go back to Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai which is actually a much better game. - Campaign map looks nice, just need those performace issues addressed - Army stances seem nice, although i see limited use for defensive stance - I believe the battle speed MAY not be an issue if they can enhance the unit controls more. Mosh pit mob effect must be fixed though, roman legionaries fought with much more cohesion in rome 1. - City building is kinda cool

WARNING! DO NOT BUY THIS GAME! This genre is right up my alley, I was just beginning to love it when it broke my heart. After the first 4-5 missions (which are really easy even on hard), the game starts to struggle with multiple missiles and planes moving round the map. It eventually freezes intermittently or crashes, either way making it unplayable. Dont take my word for it go and check the forums and read the stickies to get an idea of the how the tradegy of this 'abandonware' unfolded. Strongly advise you do so before buying this game. I'd give it a zero, except for it would actually be a really good game if only they had fixed the stability issues instead of abandoning it.

Another game with heaps of potential, yet ultimately found to be lacking in too many crucial areas. I have put many hours into this game, and have previously been in the top 20 on leaderboard, currently in top 50, now i feel the need to write a review to explain this game from a fan of the genre. This game will give the average player many hours of fun, its only when you start to get good at it that you start to notice some glaring issues. If you, like me are the kind of person who always seems to push a game to its limits, then id advise you listen well. Im only going to describe the problems i have with this game, if you want to find out about the good things, that information is readily available elsewhere. - Flawed victory conditions: The available gamemodes do not allow for a proper assessment of who was the better player. The current default ranked gamemode "destruction" only takes into account unit losses/kills. So you can pretty much sit and camp for most of the game, which is exactly what usually happens. The new gamemode "conquest" does the opposite. It only takes into account victory points (land held) and not kills, which means you could have lost twice, three times as many units as your opponent yet you still win if you had a slight advantage in positions held. A gamemode which took into account both unit kills and positions held is the obvious answer, yet due to Eugens lack of interest, that has not been materialised. Broken deck system: The deck system is horribly broken, making cheese tactics like helicopter spams or other types of ridiculous spamming techniques not only viable, but often optimal. The deck system is simply too complex and poorly thought out. For NATO players who want to be competitive, they are forced to use a mixed deck, with national decks being simply too uncompetitive, and use the same units. In fact most players use a NATO mixed deck, being the strongest deck in the game at this time making for extremely repetitive, boring gameplay. 800+ units were advertised as being available in Wargame: Airland Battle, yet you will learn that only 200 or so of them are actually viable for use. For PACT players, the USSR is the only viable choice, with all other PACT minor nations being utterly useless and pathetically weak. A lot of this comes from the way prototypes work. Prototypes are units that are BOTH outside of the game time frame (post 1985) and are therefore restricted to national decks. However this means that many units that are extremely effective are available to both mixed and national decks. It is not possible to balance a unit that is NOT restricted to a national deck. You just end up making a unit OP for mixed decks or under powered for national decks. Read the forums to get an understanding of the sheer frustration that this has invoked. It is a great game and the casual player will get lots of enjoyment from it, just dont expect it to be the kind of game that encourages highly skilled competitive gameplay. The devs themselves have said many times on the forums that the national decks, for example, are just there for lollygagging around with or for use as a 'challenge' (translates to: you will get crushed by anyone who isnt a noob). This extremely frustrating attitude is propagated on the forums by the devs and the mindless marshalls, with anyone suggesting a new path getting a ban or thread-locked. I hope you find this review informative and helpful.

I simply MUST respond to what is blatant rating bombing. Ive been watching this game since pre-release, and must admit there is ALOT of potential here, love the ship design feature and the diplomacy windows are very well done. However the game is still in beta. SO many bugs and issues that are yet to be resolved. I experience frequent crashes, and whenever i feel brave enough to start a new game, i end up giving up within 1-2 hours due to all the remaining frustrating bugs and issues IF I dont CTD first. As I said, lotsa potential, but its an unfinished and I would argue UNPLAYABLE game.