Loving it

Amen to that!

Agreed...hats off to Stardock!

Agreed.  For those of us who really, really liked to play Master of Magic this game is good and will be great.

Yeah I had fun with the game. Unfortunately I've reached a limit on replaying the game as I've mastered it with Kingdom. If I put any more handicaps it would be just plain impossible to win.

I'm also under the impression Empire is even easier with the -10 aoe and ogrespam units. (think i'll go try that out now)

Looking forward to future patches that make the game tougher (I know Stardock will pull through), and I'll be playing it all over again like crazy

Enjoying it since the March, Beta release. It is getting warmer but still the most enjoyable game I have played since ..... I don't know when!

The game has its flaws and annoyances and I run into them more than once an hour and they piss me the hell off.

It is a testament to how awesome this game is that I still can't stop playing it for too long.

I absolutely enjoy playing it for all its flaws, and can't wait to see what its future holds. Such promise, such potential. Will they deliver?

Thanks, Stardock! I feel like this is one of the best 50-buck transactions I've made in a while.

You got it backwards Campaign is a kind-of tutorial to the game, sandbox mode is the real thing.

Food system is simple: Food is a global resource. Each hut(and some buildings, like marketplace) eat one food per turn. A farm near a city generally creates four food per turn. You need at least one food per turn positive income to be able to build buildings that require it. Food generation can be boosted by certain buildings(irrigation etc.), parking a 'farmer' champion in the food-producing city, or bu building and sending caravans from other cities into the food-producing one, the longer the route the higher the bonus. All these are percentage boosts tho, so it makes no sense to build an irrigation in a city that does not produce any food to begin with(zero increased by 25% is still zero).

I just want to add a couple things to what Stax77 said:

1. Be sure to use Caravans... a lot They can provide huge bonuses to your food production.

2. Huts (which is your starting "population building") are used to allow more people to live in the city, so the city grows. As you research the appropriate Technology, Huts will be upgraded so that each population building allows more people to live in them, allowing your cities to grow even larger.

3. It's not necessary to allow every city you own to grow to level 5 (the largest), especially if you are low on food.

I really am liking this game.  As a fan of the Warlords series, it's nice to have a new game in the genre.

The game asked me to patch as soon as I installed it, so I probably avoided some issues immediately.  That being said, while it does crash after a while, the autosave feature makes this a minor issue, not a major headache.  No worries.

I'm sure there's a lot about the game I am not fully grasping as of yet, but the game has thrown up some challenging fights already, which I've had to learn from.  I am probably focusing too much on my Sovereign/Adventurers, but that's the part of the game I like best - killing monsters, completing quests, occasionally beating up enemy forces, and working to level up my guys.  While I don't mind conquering enemy empires/kingdoms, it's nice to have something else to do, at least in the early game so I'm not worrying as much about being invaded immediately.

I don't consider the game unplayable by any means.  It would be nice if the documentation was more descriptive about things, but I've been able to figure out a lot of stuff after several games.  I've been starting over once I figure out what NOT to do, or figure out what I want to try differently in the next game. 

I'd definitely recommend that  the developers revisit the manual at some point, and rewrite it so that game mechanics, stat effects, etc. are spelled out more clearly.  Specifically, a detailed list of city improvements, and what they do exactly would be helpful.  That way, players can make more informed decisions in advance r.e. city specialization and such.

This game definitely has a unique feel as far as mechanics go.  I don't feel like I'm playing a clone of some other game, and the research/technology aspect of the game is pretty cool.  AND it doesn't feel like GalCiv at all, although several concepts have been adapted from that game to this one.

I don't mind the current magic system.  It's intriguing.  I'm interested in seeing where it evolves.

I bought my copy at Best Buy, and while you always want the best deal possible, I don't regret at all paying full price for it.  Stardock is one of the few game companies that I have a lot of respect for (because of various policies/ideologies).  I like that I don't have to have the game CD handy just to play one of their games.  Political Machine and GalCiv II are both on my laptop currently, and I can jump into either game any time I want.  With a LOT of other games, if I don't have the CD handy I'm usually SOL, unless I go the unauthorized crack route and take the risk of infecting my machine (no thanks!)...

Impulse is also nice.  It checks for updates unobtrusively, and installing updates is a breeze.

I'm sure with the changes that are planned in the future, Elemental will be an even cooler game.  As it stands, I think it is a very cool game already!

Good replies. I've since figured out the food system, but thanks so much for the tips. Played a large map on easy to give myself some time to experiment and have really enjoyed it. I'm sure there are spells I'm not seeing, but enjoy chain lightning. Miss the little green elves from masters of magic, but this is great strategy.

For example, I left a town with no one in it, and it was taken. As it should be. I'm loving the game so much the PS3 is sitting there with no one to play with, although that might change when Dual of the Planeswalkers comes out.

Still, hard to beat an EXCELLENT strategy game.

If you use the natures bounty (sp?) enchantment on your cities, the granary and irrigation bonus applies. it doesnt give much, but all those little bits add up and can to extra food.