The Table Round

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys, I just thought I'd take a few minutes here and let y'all know about a neat game I just got from Steam.  In the recent spate of Steam sales I picked up "King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame" for a song, and I have really been enjoying it.  I had no idea this game even existed, and it's of both a genre and a subject that I really enjoy.  Steam had it, plus a dozen DLC packs and expansions for ten bucks, and after playing it in the last few days, I definitely think it was money well spent. 

Anyway, this is a neat mixture of Total War games, Warcraft 3/Warhammer: Mark of Chaos style, hero-centric combat, and choose-your-own-adventure books.  The basic idea is that you play as, surprisingly enough, the eponymous King Arthur, and you are trying to unite Britain.  The game world itself is a fascinating mixture of Arthurian myth and Celtic mythos.  The faeries of British lore play a part, with both the Seelie and the Unseelie showing up to complicate matters.  You conquer provinces, raise troops, and improve your lands in a vaguely similar fashion to TW, but you also recruit and level up knights, who are the ones who lead your armies and do pretty much everything.  They can also go on quests, which take a number of different forms.  This is where the choose-your-own-adventure bit comes in.  Quests will show up on the map as little scrolls, and you can send a knight or an army to try to do them.  Usually you'll get a text adventure that will present you with various choices, the succcess or failure of which will sometimes depend on your knight's stats.  Sometimes they'll end in combat or negotiations.  Either way, they are surprisingly fun and well-written.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying this game, and apparently it came out with nobody really noticing, so I thought I'd encourage the strategy fans among us to check it out.  I'm a huge fan of Arthurian myth, and this game just drips with the lore of the Once and Future King.  You never find games that are this literary.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I've heard of a lot about this game, and snagged a copy from Impulse recently myself, although between Blood Bowl Legendary Edition and City of Heroes, I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

[lugaru]

I've heard of a lot about this game, and snagged a copy from Impulse recently myself, although between Blood Bowl Legendary Edition and City of Heroes, I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

I'm another bloodbowl addict...

As for King Arthur I bought it a while back for next to nighting but have not really gotten into it yet since. Glad to hear a good endorsement, I'll get back to you on this game.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I have heard that the new interquel is horrible though, so you might be best off avoiding that one.

[BentonGrey]

Cool, ha, funny that two of y'all have bought it but haven't gotten around to playing it yet.  Anyway, if you do try it out, make sure to go through the tutorial!  The game is fairly similar to TW in some ways, but the differences can be somewhat hard to grasp.  The learning curve can be a bit on the steep side.  Also, keep in mind that you don't have to do quests that don't have a time limit right away.  That's important, because a lot of those move the game's story forward and change things in the game world.  If you're not careful you can end up facing three or four major threats before you're ready for them.  Well, I hope y'all will let me know what you think about it.