Eador. Genesis
 

This December Eador. Genesis, a remarkable Russian* indie fantasy turn-based strategy/role-playing game, had been finally translated into English (the game was initially released in 2009) and is available from GOG.com.

Eador is made in a distinct old-school style and adheres to the best in the turn-based strategy and role-playing game traditions, improving on the ideas from such classic titles as Warlords, Master of Magic, Dominions, Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might and Magic, as well as Sid Meier's Civilization and Master of Orion. Despite its immediately familiar visuals, the game is neither a straightforward clone nor a simple mixture of any of those, but an independent, unique game, envisioned and designed by its author and project leader, Alexey Bokulev.

What makes Eador stand out is the complexity of the game world: it is meticulously thought out to the tiniest detail, and everything is important. The depth of the world isn't just for show, as it gives players a great degree of freedom in their actions, producing near-infinite variety of playing situations and possible solutions. Players are encouraged to develop their own style and ways of playing as they build up their armies, run the economy and manage politics, make alliances and acquire new technologies. There is absolutely no railroading on the part of the game whatsoever. Want to maintain a powerful army comprising entirely of ranged units? You can do that. Want to become a powerful necromancer? Sure thing. You wish to become a goody-good lawful leader who is allied with Elves or Dryads? That is also possible.

In Eador, it's easy to grasp the basics but you'll spend quite some time learning the intricacies of the game, some of which are not immediately obvious. Thankfully the game has a very friendly and extensive tutorial that allows to learn playing essentials without having to suffer from naturally occurring beginner's mistakes.

Combat is quite an important aspect in Eador but it's not the only thing that matters. You'll also need to manage your provinces, expand your influence by means of diplomacy or good reputation, and deal with a huge variety of unique events that occur in your kingdom from time to time. Every decision matters as it affects the player's reputation and moral alignment.

The mainstay of gameplay are heroes, who can be guided to become whatever a player desires. There are four basic classes (Warrior, Ranger, Commander and Mage), each with lots of unique skills and abilities, and the ability to multi-class once they had levelled up enough times, opening numerous paths of development. Each class serves its own purpose - thus a Ranger, for example, excels at diplomacy and province exploration, while a Commander can field the most number of units in his party at any time. Regular units also level up and can gain additional abilities as they grow in skill. Not all units and technologies are available from the start, as there is no fixed tech tree; some units can only be acquired by making alliances or visiting special locations.

Eador has too many features to be listed in their entirety without the list becoming an expansive strategy guide for the game. Much fun is in discovering them on your own. There's a Russian language demo available from the official site (I don't know if there is an English demo). There is also a screenshot gallery.

* Alexey Bokulev lives in Ukraine but the original release of the game is in Russian and Russian is his native language.

Great review!

You only forgot to mention over-increasing complexity and possibilities due permanent technology discoveries for each new maps. And "semi-hard" limit to 4 heroes - one per class.

Otherwise - thumbs up! :)

Heh, I was afraid to put too much info lest people just go "Hey, wall of text! tl;dr" ^_^ Initially I just wanted to write one, maybe two passages simply to inform that such a game exists and is available :)

I'm pretty certain that during a longplay you can stack enough gold to afford a second hero of the same class, only it's hardly worth it, unless just out of curiosity :)

Then again, a limit on heroes is a noteworthy thing only if you compare the game to HoMM, which is not absolutely necessary.

Well, you made nice review instead "info note". ;) Different type, still good.
That's why it's _semi_-hard. :)

Third hero available too. On another increase of 10x. No, even me didn't buy it. :D
Disagree. Having 4 different heroes notably differs from "having 4 heroes overall" and "having as much heroes as you like". :) And it's really sounds like last one in your review. :)

Well, I meant a second hero of the same class, not just a second hero. On easiest difficulty, four heroes of all classes are quite workable, and I suppose the same applies, with more skill on the player's part, for higher difficulty levels as well.

Err... I see misundertanding here. :)

1st hero of selected class is 500. 2nd - 5 000. 3rd - 50 000. I love long games, but even me hardly can afford 50k in this game. :)

Better? :)

TBH I've only played the demo version so far. The first hero costs 100, the second 500, the third 1500 and the fourth 5000 (I guess, but since I got a structure that makes heroes somewhat cheaper at the point when I could consider buying hero #4, the price was 4500).

I fancy it's either that the costs were tweaked in the latest version (v1.51 IIRC; the demo is v1.4), or the costs are skill-level-dependent. Being a relatively new player I had not yet ventured beyond Beginner difficulty, which is recommended by the in-game tips.

Hmm. Well, as I never was good with numbers and played game, like, half-year ago, I can be totally wrong with it. But I still believe it was class-dependant in my version... Let me check it. Maybe I am totally wrong - then I am sorry. :)

---update---
There are two increasers, as I see.

100-500-1500-5000 is here. But "ten-fold" increasers is here at well. :) So after 1st hero (say, Warrior) you can buy second hero for 500... if it's not a warrior, as second warrior have price of 5 000 gold right away. Price increases with each new hero. So when you buy second hero (say, Mage), you still can buy next for 1 500... if it's not a Warrior or Mage, as each of this costs 15 000. This law repeats now and again, and in my last game I have full 7 heroes - but 8th hero, Leader, would cost me 50k (and any hero of other classes - 500k, obviously).

Hi, I have been playing this game and have a few questions. Do you know how village garrison works? I can rarely seem to be able to hire guards, however when the enemy hero takes the town he gets automatically 20 level 6 units in each province. Wtf?

It depends on your Capital. :) And sometimes you can found "contracts". Check building/contract descriptions, it's usually says, what it does and where it can be set. Most garrisons can be set in any province (if you have buildings in capital province), but sometimes it restricted to Woods, Mountains or something.