Ever dreamed of being in charge of a hoard of conquering Mongols? Well this is the game for you. If you're a fan of ruthless warfare backed by money from a capitalist free market system, then again, this is the game for you. In all reality though, this is a very well made and entertaining game.
You play as Temujin in his attempt to rule Mongolia and then the world. You have a great deal of control over your empire ranging from making economic decisions to governing your relations with foreign countries, all of whom have it out for you.
You also get to make choices about leaders and generals in your militaristic dictatorship of a government. It is about the most fun that you can have being the leader of an authoritarian militaristic regime and plus you don't have to look out for nasty coups and violent overthrows, wait I take that back...sometimes your people will revolt. In reality though, that just adds to the fun, right? Also adding to the fun is the wide array of military units that you can have. There are standard foot soldiers, archers, cross bowmen, knights, Mongols, samurai, mounted archers, and even elephants. I mean, there's a gang of people you can use to fight off your enemies. While on the subject of units, one of the
most useful things to remember in this game is that old rule: quality not quantity. Unfortunately because of the battle set up, foot soldiers are essentially useless and end up getting slaughtered by just about any mounted unit. Plus, don't get cannons those get tore up quickly.
On another note, you also get all the fun of a complaining wife in this game, without any of the physical benefits. So, if you decide you need to have kids to take over after your death, you're gonna have to spend some time with the old ball and chain and she will proceed to tell you her feelings about this and that and inevitably demand more land. Sometimes, though, you'll luck out and she'll pop out quite a few kids right off the bat and you really won't have to worry about her after that.
This sends a rather disturbing message about the role of women in the game developers' minds but that is clearly a topic of discussion for a different place and a different day. To summarize, despite a few annoying aspects, like the wife thing, this game is generally quite enjoyable. If nothing else it's definitely worth a look.
