In a case of “when it rains, it pours”, this has been an abundant period for strategy game and DLC releases.
Shadow Empire has just received its newest DLC, “Republica”. This expands on the game’s political system with nine government types (including one that sounds delightfully science-fictional, an ostensible democracy run by a computer, and one that gives noble families their own feudal militias) and a “Virtus” system that measures the health of the body politic. I have picked it up but have yet to play it — I look forward to seeing how these mechanics work, especially with my usual cuddly post-apocalyptic democracies.
Later in the month (23 April) Anno 117’s first content DLC, “Prophecies of Ash”, will come out. This will add a new, vast island, which the devs promise will be the largest in series history (and larger than Anno 1800’s Crown Falls and Manola). It will also add new, optional volcano mechanics, with more details to come. I usually jump back into Anno games after about a year or so of DLC, so I might either use this to revisit the game or wait until more of the season 1 DLC is out.
In other strategy game release news:
- Field of Glory: Kingdoms (a medieval 4X/GSG) has received its newest expansion, “Burghers and Bombards”. I will probably skip this one — when I played the Kingdoms grand campaign as Venice, I really liked the early game but found that the game mechanics did not scale well to larger realms (and my empire wasn’t that large, not that much bigger than modern Italy).
- Xenonauts 2 is now out of early access. I had originally looked forward to the first game, but it left me with decidedly mixed feelings. I did enjoy the brief time I spent with a Xenonauts 2 preview build provided by the publishers several years ago, so I think the question is the extent to which this improves on my biggest complaint with the first game, the repetitive combat.
I’m still slowly playing the new releases I mentioned two weeks ago: Old World‘s new expansion (“Empires of the Indus”), and Machiavelli the Prince, alongside my ongoing Pokopia playthrough.
Old World is easy to sum up (it’s still fantastic), although I suspect I’m only scratching the surface of the new content. Playing the Maurya feels interesting and thematic (Ashoka, their starting king, is an absolute powerhouse in early expansion), but the surprise star might be the new map types. Playing on a Wetlands map feels very different: there are marshes and chokepoints everywhere, limiting buildable space, and the tribes also seem to survive for longer (does the difficult terrain inhibit the computer players’ expansion?).
So far I would characterise Machiavelli as medium-weight: it’s not super-long (the game defaults to a 100 turn length), is far more compact than its stablemate Emperor of the Fading Suns, and has a simple core gameplay loop: buy low, sell high. The fun, for me, comes in exploring the farthest corners of the world to discover new ports. The further the port, the better the opportunities. (Other game mechanics exist such as warfare and Venetian politics; playing on normal, I haven’t had to engage with them.)
A final note is that free advance reader copies of my upcoming fantasy novella will still be available through the end of April: more info here, and signup here if you’re interested!