Eador: Masters of the Broken World Preview

The folks at Rock, Paper, Shotgun recently went hands-on with Snowbird’s Eador: Masters of the Broken World, the result of which is a relatively brief impressions piece for the upcoming turn-based strategy/RPG. Two paragraphs to get you fired up:

Entering a new area tends to lead to a fight, which takes place on a tactical hex map and it’s this aspect of the game that is closest to King’s Bounty and HOMM. In battles involving late-game units, which can be used in standalone scenarios for the purposes of the preview build, units’ individual abilities come into play, countering one another through increased mobility, resistances or offensive powers. There’s nothing particularly fresh in this part of Eador but it’s all effectively crafted, and picking and choosing the right fight for a hero and his companions is vital. Raid a dungeon to acquire its loot and you may have to face creatures too powerful for the losses to be worthwhile, so it can be wise to conquer some territories first and build up the capital and its ability to generate more efficient troops.

The overall goal, achieved via the process of increasing hero and army strength, is to conquer provinces in a chain that leads to enemy capitals, which can then be assaulted. The matter becomes complicated by the demands of those provinces that have been captured and events that happen within them. There’s a much more involved management aspect threaded through each shard’s campaign than I first thought, even if the choices are randomised and swiftly resolved. The karma system, altering the overarching plot and relationships with other Masters, is influenced by these management decisions, many of which are ethical as well as economical.