XII Century while is not a bad game, with more focus in historical battles and some units with lot of details, such as knights, it could be way better - mostly battles are very difficult either because you are ridiculous outnumbered and often appear to require you to perform a very fixed steps in order to win which often are very plain (such as a obivous path among the map which you "must" take it to outflank the enemy) vague or against common sense (one battle almost, give you only knights and militia/swordsman and somehow expect you to force crossing on a river which all possible paths are blocked by pikemen + archers + knights its almost impossible to cross it since you knight die to pikemen and you militia is useless and they don't even give you a single archer).

While each battle is hard also the fact that there is almost single way to win it which somehow you must guess it, which reduces replay a lot.

I do like this game very much - its like a slimmed down version of the totalwar series and in some ways I like it more - I would recommend it if you like the total war games - its not as good as the total war series but its a good solid game

While this game looks nice and plays decent it probably wont hold your attention for too long. There is no Grand campaign like in the total war games. Instead you just play through a series of battles. While the strategy is fun and familiar the battles go by way too fast for you to make any fast decisions. once troops are in combat the battle is sometimes done within 30 seconds.

It is not a bad price and can be good for some quick battles here and there, but if you're looking for something with a little more depth stick with the total war games for now.

A good game for people who enjoy medieval strategy titles, that have a focus on historical battles. The battles are all tough and if a comparison had to be made, they could be compared to Medieval 2 Total War's battles. Only the game lacks the turn-based empire building and the battles feature a better AI.

For about £10 more though, you may want to consider the gold edition. Don't buy this and then Blood of Europe because currently, the gold edition is the same price as Blood of Europe and you get both that and this game. So, it's wasting money. Of course, with the gold edition being more, you may not like the game. So, I'd recommend trying a demo first.

A game that is similar to the Total Wars in terms of battles however the production values are not nearly up to par. The graphics are not particularly impressive.

On the plus side, the AI seems to be scripted to react a bit better to your moves than a Total War battle AI or at least it felt that way.

This is obviously going to be compared to Medieval 2 Total War. To get this out of the way, this is not a Medieval clone, nor does it try to be. There's no campaign or grand strategy element, the focus here is purely on the battles. Of which you have many, inspired by the actual historical battles of yore.

And as a result, what we have is a nice Medieval wargame you can get your teeth into. There's several campaigns, taking in everyone from England to the Mongols with a string of historical battles to fight, and a bonus campaign with battles which gradually unlock as you claim victory in the nation specific campaigns.

The graphics are nice, although they lack a little detail and shine they still look good. There's a little variety between individual soldiers within a unit which is nice when close up, although the animations are a little simple it doesn't detract from the overall spectacle.

The combat system itself is quite meaty, though the interface is well thought out and conveys all you need to know about your units. There's a lot of information it needs to give too. One nice touch is that when you select a unit a window opens up showing not just it's base attributes, but how those attributes are altered by it's current situation. This comes in handy when placing archers for example, since you can see immediately if they're high enough on a hillock to get any benefit.

Without a unit selected the interface is pretty minimal with simply the unit cards and minimap visible. Like in the Total War series, these cards will flash according to the unit's activity - red if it's in danger, green if it gets a boost and white if it runs away. There are also bars showing the current ammo, morale and fatigue levels too so you can see at a glance whether there are any units in trouble.

The usual troop roster of swordsmen, pikemen and archers is present, and units behave like you would expect, with polearms being good against cavalry, archers being good against massed troops and so forth.

The AI is a little variable, at times it will perform adequately and give you a good challenge, other times it will happily allow you to run down it's archers with your cavalry without lifting a finger.

There's a good series of tutorials to break you into the game, although if you're a fan of Total War or similar wargames you will likely not need them.

It would perhaps have been nice if the game provided a little more background information on the battles and the units. With the nod to historical accuracy you can of course do your own research, but one can't help feel they may have missed a trick there. The only other criticism is a lack of a random battle mode which hurts longevity.

On the whole it's a fine game which is likely to appeal to medieval strategy buffs and wargamers in general.

First when I bought this game I felt extremely disappointed. One reason to this was, I was used to battle scenes from the Total War series. And In my opinion I like that best. Though, XIII Century does offer a pleasurable game experience.

Took advantage of it being on offer and got the gold version. Must say I am really impressed. Much prefer it to the Medieval Total War. A great fire up for 15 minutes title. At least the AI is aggressive if heavily scripted (I felt!), and the lack of a freeplay campaign makes its long lasting appeal as a solo game limited. Totally agree with a previous reviewer about the HDR effects - much more enjoyable when deselected. This will be on my hard drive for a long time I feel.

I just purchased the gold version of this game which also comes with Blood of Europe. I'm a huge fan of games set in Medieval Times. I've only played this game in the battle/skirmish mode, not the campaigns and I can honestly say this is an excellent game. It has an old school look and feel to it, the strategy and movement of your units IMO surpasses the Total War Series of games, very fluid and dynamic in your ability to change formations or tactics rapidly. The sound effects are on par with games of this class, not the best though solid. Graphically I like it a lot, the characters have a distinctive and artistic look to them. The Gold Version with Blood of Europe looks excellent, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DISABLE the HDR effects, which are WAY OVERBLOWN! Good game to pass the time, I'm really enjoying this game.

A very refreshing alternative to Medieval II Total War. Coats of arms are very detailed, the troop types and tactical options are reasonably numerous, and the battles very cleverly built.

However, the difficulty level is insanely high, so the campaigns (in fact a succession of set-piece historical battles) must usually be fought several times before you succeed...or you abandon the game!

This games version of strategy is more like Tetris. I cant say it got a bad AI, but thats mainly because I'm not sure if it got an AI, the enemy rarely moves their units from their starting positions and even then they wont move far.

The units and maps are cool enough which is why I gave it 3 stars, but theres nothing strategic about this game.