For all the HoMM lovers out there, a hardcore TBS inspired by civilization, master of orion (from what I've heard), Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might and Magic ->
Eador: Genesis
I discovered this game only a week ago but apparently the original Russian version came out in 2009. An english version came out in early 2013. There is also a newer 3d version of the same game but from what I've understood the transition brought a lot of bugs and mistakes so one should stick to the original.
Has anybody played it? I'm still figuring it all out.
Whats special/different about the game:
You have one main castle you start out with, this is your base where you build everything and recruit your army. If it's captured you lose the game. Same goes for your enemies. You dont have to capture all their territories you only have to capture the castle.
Surprisingly the game is very RPG heavy. Heroes play a very important role, they participate in fights actively and can become very powerful. There are 4 classes of heroes. Fighter, Ranger, Commander and Mage. Figther is a 1-man-army, ranger is ranged and has a ton of useful skills, commander has the ability to get the biggest army. Once a hero hits lvl 10 you can chose for each one a specialisation out of 4 availible. For example a mage could become a necromancer or a battle mage, which would allow him to wield swords and carry heavy armor.
You have to pay your army every turn. So if you your income is low there is no point starting with a commander. each unit has tons of different stats and abilities. apart from the hp bar each unit has an energy bar (which deplets as he does actions or receives damage) and a morale bar. if you're facing a very though opponent with heavy armor and tons of damage it makes sense to equit yourself with fatigue spells and instead of trying to kill him deplete his energy first. at 5 or lower he loses tons of attack dmg and defensive stats at 0 he is unable to perform any action and has to wait a turn to regenerate energy. morale works in a similar way. if it reaches 0 unit will try to run away. it gets higher if unit kills somobody or lower if an ally dies next to the unit.
almost every unit has some kind of a special ability and the game in general is full of little nuances which are in most cases fully explained in the descriptions.
Check it out, tell me what you think.