Crusader Kings III vs Total War Battles: Kingdom
Crusader Kings III
Crusader Kings III is Paradox Interactive’s latest entry in the popular medieval strategy saga. You’ll step into the shoes of a medieval ruler of your choice and run your domains as you see fit. Spanning across three continents and two eras, you’ll have a massive roster of historical rulers to choose from, including William of Normandy, Bjorn Ironside, Basil I, and Almos Arpad.As a count, duke, king, or emperor, you’ll try to navigate around the intrigue on your court, placating or subduing unruly vassals and external enemies jeopardizing your authority. Your realm needs attention, which is why it’s a must to secure funds to strengthen your holdings’ walls, build farms, and construct wonders. Plus, you can cement alliances with your neighbors by organizing political marriages while engineering your dynasty’s traits. After all, you’d want your descendants to be superhuman geniuses. If diplomacy fails, you can always wage wars, but first, you need to raise levies and men-at-arms that can change the tide of battle in your favor.
Crusader Kings III is a deep medieval dynasty simulator. It’s an open-ended strategy game where you can decide the fate of your dynasty. Will you bring your family prestige and lead it to the thrones of Europe and the entire world, or to its downfall? Your actions will decide your fate, but remember, real strategy requires cunning.
Total War Battles: Kingdom
Total War Battles: Kingdom is the free-to-play version of a Total War game that is available on the mobile platform. Set in the medieval times, the game perfectly captures how things were back then - an era filled with almost constant skirmishes and conflicts between lords and fledgling kingdoms. The gameplay mechanics are pretty well-done despite being somewhat restricted - you can only bring a maximum of 9 battalions into battle, for example, and it does retain most of the Total War archetypes like city-building, army training, and battles.Unfortunately, Total War Battles: Kingdom definitely pales in comparison to any of the games in the main series mainly because it fell victim to one of the worst pitfalls in the free-to-play gaming industry: microtransactions. Don’t expect to get far into the game without spending real money first, but if you still choose to persevere, it would probably take you weeks of constant playing to get your kingdom somewhere solid enough for you to hold your own.
That said, the game is still a pretty decent albeit casual installment of the Total War series. Fans of the franchise or of casual MMO strategy games on the mobile platform may want to give the game a try.