The turn-based tactical RPG Legends of Eisenwald is a lot like the King’s Bounty games, if they had more of a focus on questing than fighting (though there’s still a lot of fighting).
The main campaign is pretty lengthy and spans multiple chapters, with early choices occasionally having a significant effect on later events and a possibility of 3 notably different endings. You can expect to get the protagonist to level 9 by the end of it, and also expect to have your army/inventory reset multiple times. Only your protagonist’s equipment and a few specific items (Black Necklace, Feline Mirror, Cursed Idol; if you’ve found them) are guaranteed to stick around, with you getting to keep your gold from the Windfeld map onward.
If you have trouble solving some quests, thankfully there’s a complete guide available which covers everything that needs covering (albeit in broken English). As far as battle tactics go, a particularly useful one against Spear/Sword users is to combine a healer’s Gift of Medbh spell with the Witch’s Adhesion spell. In addition to the main campaign, there’s a few additional single-map scenarios:
The Masquerade is pretty interesting, with a surprising number of choices and things to discover in it despite being on such a relatively small map (you can expect to reach level 5). Cursed Castle meanwhile is pure combat/conquest, just don’t count on holding anything other than castles for long since a seemingly endless stream of undead and bandits will be wandering around re-capturing everything else (expect to reach level 4 without grinding; 5 with). Each of these scenarios will take ~3-4 hours to complete.
Finally we come to the Road to Iron Forest scenario, which has to be purchased separately. Length-wise it’s the same as the previous scenarios (expect level 5 again), but as far as content it’s something of a middle-ground between them. While there aren’t any choices, it has a strong narrative focus, there are a couple sidequests, and strategy plays a large role since you have to rebuild your army in hostile lands (be on the lookout for a Guard you can hire in one of the Inns).
All in all the game is a lot of fun (if occasionally backtrack-heavy), nicely sidestepping King’s Bounty’s late game ‘stacks of doom’ issue, and I’ll probably either replay it (as a different class; Baroness is really good at 1-shotting archers/spiritualists but Mystic seems far more versatile) or try out Blood of November and possibly Bastard.
