I started playing Genesis a few days ago, and I'm loving it! The early game is especially good, where I really have to weigh my options every turn. And it's quite challenging; I'm only in my third game in the campaign, and if I win this one I might consider bumping the difficulty up a step from beginner. And there is still a lot of content I haven't seen yet!
A few points of criticism though: In my earlier post I pointed out that the map looks a bit cluttered, with towns everywhere. I hadn't realised each hex is a province in it's own right, with lots of things to do. This part I really like. But halfway through a game the map looks very developed, and even in my first game on a small map I got maybe six or seven provinces to the 'trade centre' level, which makes it feel a lot less special. Perhaps more provinces should start out empty, and only start to develop when you found a town there?
My next point ties in with the previous one; early game each province matters, and I pay attention to developing them. But by the time you have ten or more they all start to blend together, and I only pay attention when there is an event in one of them, or when I just conquered them.
My last point is also related to the previous ones; early in the game it feels like you are founding a kingdom, developing your capital and surrounding provinces. But after a while this feeling is lost. I love the building aspect of games like this, so I hope this part is developed a bit more. Just a thought; but what if provinces became harder to rule and develop the further away from your capital they are? And the way to remedy this is by building regional capitals that acted a bit like your demesne. Developing these capitals (and their surrounding provinces through them) would put this part of the game more into focus I think.
Anyway, I don't want to be overly critical though, I still love it and am looking forward to Masters of a Broken World!
Some questions for the more experienced players;
1) So far I've been mainly relying on swordsmen and bowmen/crossbowmen for support. What are the redeeming qualities of the other units? Because they all seem quite weak in comparison.
2) What alignments can you mix and match? Keeping good and evil units away from each other is simple enough, but what about lawful and unscrupulous? And can I mix those with good and evil? (Lawful and evil, unscrupulous and good?)
3) Is there any benefit to playing evil? Oppressing your population, sacrificing them for mana, raising them from the dead to fight for you, taking their stuff and money. So far the only real benefit I've seen is getting more money from events, at the cost of your people hating you, revolting against you, and stunting your economic growth.
4) How do you deal with some of the tougher monsters? I tried to kill a few ogres the other day with a warrior that could cut his way through an army without breaking a sweat, and he got smashed to a bloody pulp before even seriously hurting one. And what is the trick for giant slugs? I can handle one or two, but any more and their spit just melts my units before they get close.
5) How do you finish quests? I've received a few, but I have yet to finish one. The objectives seem very hard sometimes, like in the game I mentioned above I had to kill 5 ogres before the centaurs would join me. I was only able to find 3 (and unable to kill those). Or a wizards tower that asks me to bring them a specific scroll, but I have no idea where to find that specific one. Are you completely dependant on luck, having it drop as a reward after a battle? Or in my first game, some dwarves asked me to return a weapon that was stolen by some brigands, where would I go to find them, somewhere nearby? Or doesn't it matter where I go look?
6) About heroes, do the commander and the wizard become more viable later in the game, when you have acces to higher tier units and spells? Because they seem quite underpowered compared to the warrior and scout early on in the campaign. And is it every worth it to 'dual-class' them at level 10? Seems to me you are sacrificing the most powerful abilities, and only getting moderately useful benefits in return.
