Should I play it? Yes
Ive always been a fan of Paradox games, as they make the best historical simulators in my opinion. Currently, Ive sunk 121 hours into this game.
As the image shows above, the game is very graphics interface friendly, with many different options for viewing. Im not going to write out every little game mechanic because the game has way too many and is way to in depth for that. Above you see my game when I decided to start as the Duke of Apulia. From that tiny position on the Italian peninsula, I used my Norman rulers to unite southern Italy and first drive out the muslims occupying the island of Sicily. After this was accomplished, I created the Kingdom of Sicily! I had some superb kings ruling the kingdom, because I was able to expand all over North Africa. In this game you play as a character, the ruler of whomever you play as. There are several levels of leadership in the game in this order, Count/Duke/King/Emperor. You can start as any of these, and progress to the other positions of leadership through conquest, marriage, diplomacy, being sneaky, etc. The game allows you to do it any way you see fit.
Be warned though, this game will try and make you lose! Its a very difficult game, but very awarding.
Above it a crusading order that I hired during my conquests of Africa. They assist sometimes when they are available, and do come in handy most of all for defensive purposes when the Muslims declare Jihads on you. In my position on the map, it happened very often. In that case though, I simply hired them for some conquest purposes. Combat in this game is fairly simple, and is taught well in the tutorials. It will take about a week for most people to fully understand this game, as it is very in depth, and I mean VERY freaking in depth and complicated. That is what makes it so cool though, because the feudalism is portrayed so well!
Above I established a crusader kingdom in Spain after assisting in the crusade for Spain. So this means, if a crusade was called for Jerusalem, you could in theory establish the infamous/famous Kingdom of Heaven if you were one of the top contributors of the crusade. In this scenario, I had one of my sons crowned King of Galicia. Its nice to have allies, because they help out very much in this game and wont back stab you very much.
If you do decide to play this game, I would say buy it with the Legacy of Rome, and Sword of Islam expansion. Play as a count of Ireland or somewhere else to understand the simple mechanics of the game, as dealing with one province is a great way to get good at the game. When you feel more comfortable you can move up the chain. In my case, I play as anything to test and see how it feel. I will tell you, playing as an Emperor is freaking tough as hell, especially the Emperor of the Byzantines.
Overall, this game is worth a look if you love history first of all, and then a good classic strategy game. Be sure to play the tutorials, browser their forums for the game ( to check up on some mods, or helpful topics), or message me if you need help.
