>>1908998
The baseline of the gameplay loop is shit, so no amount of patches is going to help.
Also, this game would be unironically 100x more interesting if they just made a game about Italian city states, instead of shitty, low fantasy version of it just for the same of it.

>>1909805
What's the main gameplay loop?

>>1909943
Theoretically, it's about managing your clan and its memebers as assets
Actually, it's about passing turns until you get enough resources to do [insert whatever]
Waging wars is shit (the actual combat system is interesting and probably the only thing worth any attention), diplomacy is brain-dead (don't bother) and you can always spend the turns you've passed to train your family members to max stats.
Effectively, it's a numbers go up game, where the only challenge comes from bothering to stick around and keep playing.

>>1909805
>Italian city states
That would unironically be so fucking based, I'm disappointed we didn't get that now

>>1908998
I actually enjoy the core gameplay loop. It's way too easy to snowball though once you "solved" the economic side of the game, which gives you better troops and agents which trivializes the rest of the game.

The game still sucks because it crashes frequently and even when you're patient enough to reload and redo everything from the last auto save every time, you ultimately end up with a broken save. The end game crisis in particular was bugged on release and wasn't fixed for months after. It also always fires too early and isn't well designed because you can barely influence the continent wide war, you simply watch and let it happen. The closest I came to finishing a game was when the civil war actually ended for once and I got elected the emperor of calderia (which is ridiculously unbalanced, I was still of the lowest rank and only had my starting city). Then I got to "continue" my game which meant that nothing had changed at all in terms of politics and everyone was locked in an eternal civil war, which never mechanically ended or could end because the peace conference event had already fired.

>>1910041
>>1913321
Can either of you explain me how the fuck is even the combat supposed to work and/or how to use the troops properly? It feels so fucking random. Like I defeat late game units with random civilians that have penalty against those with ease, but in the same time, I supposedly match better unit against something they have a bonus against, and yet get fucked anyway. What the hell?

>>1913329
Bring your family members with high martial, there is no limit on how many you can bring in one army and they generally outperform normal units. They're also free. Don't forget to check and use their special attacks, some are quite useful.

Upgraded buildings will let you recruit better troops, use those. Your frontline should focus down one unit 2 vs 1 or more instead of each unit fighting 1 vs 1. Be wary of choke points, or the AI will do the same to you, and use chokepoints to delay the battle on one flank while winning on another. Bring some ranged units, they are essential for fighting from the second row.

Usually there is one weak flank that you can rush with cavalry (they seem to move between/conquer nodes faster). This usually puts you in a losing position on the second flank, which won't matter if you hold out long enough to win the first flank. Reducing the enemy to one "spawning node" on a flank usually means that he won't recover on that flank anymore, you can retreat, regenerate, let the enemy conquer some nodes (not the spawn nodes) and then finish him soon after. If he tries to reconquer a spawn node, the way to his last spawn node is usually clear for your cav to conquer without a fight - once he's cut off from reinforcement, winning the flank should be a formality.

Don't let units die, swap them out in the last moment and let them recover. The AI is worse than you at this and unit rotation usually saves my center even when my troops are worse and I had to give up one of my flanks. Losing both flanks is a death sentence, IIRC each flank gives a combat bonus to the winner's troops.

>>1913321
Nice read. Thanks. Maybe this game will never be an actual good game or it will take too long to matter