Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The Good
I loved the God like quality the game gave you. This is an early sim type game, where you literally lord over your land and use your smarts to build up your empire. I love the complexity and challenging way the game makes you think.
“Should I spend more on my troops this season?” “How many men should I train for the army?” “Where should I place my armies?” “Which province should I attempt to make an peace?” “Should I guard against floods this season?” “Who should lead my army?” These are only a very, very small handful of questions you are asked to find answers to, and your decisions can literally cost you the game! It is addictive, very compelling.
You are never quite sure if you did the right thing, or for that matter, the wrong thing, as you might not discover your error until another season, or two. For example, if you didn’t prepare enough for the floods, or perhaps are betting against them, you might not find out for a few turns when suddenly there is a flood or fire in your northern province. The results of your smallest actions could, in time, balloon into a threat to your very existence! Rule wisely indeed!

The Bad
This game is VERY text based. There is very little in way of graphical play, other than movement of players, grain, armies, messages, money etc. over the maps. You have an option of watching the battles or simply being told the outcome.

Of course the reason for this is made very obvious the first time you ever play with the option to watch battles! The game slows down to an absolute snails pace because you have to witness every single attack and counter attack, and in every single province that you and/or the AI choose to fight in. If the game has a lot of scattered provinces with many rulers, like in the beginning rounds of play, it bogs down incredibly. Best to choose NO to watching battles! Trust me, otherwise you’ll be playing this until the end of time!

That kink in it’s armor is another annoyance, yes it’s text based, but it would be fun to watch some battles, join in the carnage, but you can’t really, and so it’s all texts and messages and questions and more texts! OY!

This game is very complex and there are hundreds of choices to be made, and it can get very tedious simply buying rice, selling rice, training troops, spying on neighbours, grooming generals, allocating rice and monies etc. etc. etc.

The Bottom Line
A very deep, rich game with countless hours and hours of play. Lots of text to read, lots of decisions to be made, but that's the life of a depot or Emperor. Fun simulation type game and LOTS of replay value, with a ton of variation. A game for thinking.