Legends of Eisenwald Kickstarter Project, Interview

Although the turn-based strategy/RPG title has been up on Kickstarter for about a week now, Legends of Eisenwald is only just coming to our attention thanks to an interview with CEO Alexander Dergay on RPG Codex. First, here’s a summary of the game’s scope and features:

Legends of Eisenwald is an original mix of RPG and strategy, with tactical turn based battles and a simple economic model. Rich possibilities of gameplay mechanics allow a player to feel being a hero of different stories ranging from treasure hunt to fighting for the throne. You can follow your game path as a Knight, Mystic or a Baroness and in each case gameplay and story will be partially different.

Game features:

‘¢ Combination of a role playing game and a strategy in right proportion that can be called a Knight-Errant Simulator.

‘¢ Turn-based tactical battles where we managed to get rid of the main enemy of turn based battles boredom. There are no moving without striking and every move there is a choice whom to attack and whom to defend. Often an entire battle outcome depends on a decision which makes a battle intense from beginning to end.

‘¢ There are many units with upgrade trees. Each unit can be personalized both with an upgrade as well as with equipment which provides a wide variety of army tuning.

‘¢ There are a lot of weapons and battle spells. Each kind of weapons has its unique features that makes you to utilize it well in a battle.

‘¢ Possibility to conquer castles to increase your power and strengthen your army. Obviously, it is not enough just to occupy castles they need to be protected from aggressive neighbors.

‘¢ There will be a campaign and some additional missions. In the future we plan to release campaign editor so each player can create his or her own adventure.

And then I’ll quote from the Q&A to fill in some of the gaps:

You have used the term “Knight-Errant Simulator” to describe Legends of Eisenwald. Could you explain what you mean by that? In general, how would you describe the gameplay?

AD: The word (simulator) is not to be taken literally. We don’t place an emphasis on reality so it won’t be necessary to feed and keep your hero in a good mood : ) What we mean by that is that our game would give the player an opportunity to feel like being in the shoes of a medieval nobleman who is not looking for a quiet life. His main business is internecine wars, fulfilling the will of his suzerain and battle campaigns to find glory and wealth.

The game’s history is divided into separate scenarios that are connected within a large campaign where a player will have to solve different tasks: sometimes to conquer all enemy castles, sometimes to find a large amount of gold in a short period of time, sometimes to earn the loyalty of a certain faction, etc. Moreover in every scenario there are side quests that we aim to do as diverse as possible.

Castles play an important role in our game because they help to maintain your army. The more castles you conquer the bigger army you can afford. Moreover, you can collect tribute from villages surrounding your castle. The situation is complicated by the fact that surrounding feudal lords know about that too, so it’s dangerous to leave your castle without defense. But it’s not easy to defend it since the recruits for your garrison often are inexperienced units that are of no big help when they are attacked by a strong army. And to make a strong unit from a raw recruit takes time. So, a player will often face a choice which units to leave to protect a castle and which ones to lead into a fight.

You know, I think I might throw down a pledge on this one.