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"I played a lot of the first campaign scenario last night. The game is challenging (to me at least) even on Easy difficulty, though now at the end of the first scenario I've gotten to the point that I have the bad guy surrounded and am just trying to build up enough force to take out his multi-stack garrison in his capital.
The tactical battles are much improved over the original and the demo IMO. You start close enough so that most archers are in range, though not guaranteed of hits, yet there's still room to maneuver. No more treks across the map to find the enemy, either. Sieges are tough; you can now break down gates with regular units, but that channels your attacks pretty predictably, and missile troops on the walls can shred you--especially if you are facing magically enhanced flaming stone walls topped with upgraded marksmen The whole "player as mage" thing seems to work well. Much of the strategy of the game is in expanding your domain so you can cast spells where you need to (like, deep in enemy territory). Building mage towers, capturing magic relays, that sort of thing. Heroes carry a one-hex radius "domain" effect so you can always cast spells via a hero, but unlike your mage (who is immortal as long as you have a wizards tower under your control--if you "die" you reincarnate next turn) heroes can and do perish. And the game is truly gorgeous looking. Zooming in gives you some pixelation but overall it's a great visual system."
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