Grand Strategies are not a genre that is often associated with consoles, although some of the more familiar names of the genre have been shown on these platforms. With the right adjustments and simplifications they can still work very well there. The same goes for the Nintendo Switch. CIRCLE Entertainment presented their "lite" idea of grand strategies last year with the World Conqueror X war title, and they are now continuing the trend with a new strategy that takes over the concept and brings it to a new period meeting, with which the corresponding ways of waging .
European Conqueror X takes place in a period spanning from the late 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. But don't be misled by the name. This period was rich in various conflicts around the world and you will go through many of them, so not only the European ones, but you will also fight in North America, see Africa and also Asia. That is where the colonial power of European powers stretched everywhere. But to have a little better idea, for example, you will go through the American War of Independence, the Old Continent could not miss the Napoleonic Wars and what would it be without a historical war strategy from this period without the Ottoman Empire? But there are even more nations.
If you haven't gone through this genre yet, thanks to various adjustments and simplifications, this game could be a good gateway for you. It is not as complex as its PC siblings, for example from Paradox, but still retains distinctive genre features and gameplay is the same and traditional in the core. It is a turn-based game, commanding individual armies and trying to lean on your side to win. Here the diplomacy and ceasefire is not so much played and actually there is only one way forward - to defeat the enemy in battle.
But besides, you also have to take care of your side when it is difficult to win the battle alone. You have several resources for this care. First of all, they are cities. Some belong to you, others you can occupy on the way. You can use these to build more units, but you can also improve cities, giving you new opportunities in combat, such as boosts. They can supply you with princesses that will increase your life, reduce damage and the like. However, there are also a number of generals for each faction, which are divided into four branches according to their focus - infantry, cavalry, artillery and navy. Accordingly, they also have capabilities that you can improve over time. Above all, you have to think about how you put them in battle to use them properly.
However, this is not the end of the team. You can also train your own units by gradually investing the game's earned currency. So you decide what you concentrate on. Well, the last improvement is items that also add some boosts and there is a huge pile. If you are not interested, you can always sell them. However, all this is in a separate menu outside the campaign itself, which may be a bit of an unnecessary complication and may be overlooked in the first missions.
Directly during the fighting, your options are better handled, and from the locations mentioned above, you can help improve not only your economy and research to improve troops in that battle, but also fight enemies less directly - spies, fire, and other special tactics. There are not many of them, but they quite diversify gameplay. You can also help with various fortifications and other simple structures that your units can build. As I wrote, the genre base is here and it works very well, so even newcomers will entertain, but more experienced may lack depth.
For example, the aforementioned diplomacy is missing. Also, in combat you do not have the opportunity to realize all possible improvements and other things. Rather, you only have to focus on some of the things that will help you the most and will continue to tighten them. This is mainly because the struggles are rather shorter and the conditions for winning in the campaign are limited to the number of moves. So it's not something you would have gone through in 5 minutes, but even so, the individual missions within this genre are shorter and maybe faster as they focus on the smaller armies you have under your thumb. If the opponent has a superiority, the game is more likely to balance the AI's allies.
Although he mentioned that without diplomacy in the game there is only one way to victory, the goals are different. Sometimes you have to completely defeat the enemy, sometimes only one specific one, then you defend yourself and so on. All this is limited to moves, but the game does not communicate well with the main goal. It can tell you to beat this and that, but you don't know who it is. This will cause you to play and play well a few times, but you will later run out of a screen stating that you have lost. Overall, the game would not hurt a little better presentation, whether it is communication of your goals or other areas of the game.
The campaign itself is extensive in terms of time and geography. It is divided into 7 different chapters and each consists of several missions. Somewhere it is more, somewhere less, but overall, the game in your campaign will last long enough. To make it all easy, there's a 4-part tutorial that guides you from simple basics to some more advanced mechanics and options. Again, it is a pity that despite the historical focus some historical details fluctuate, but it is primarily a game. If you are looking for a grand strategy in more detail based on history, you have to look elsewhere.
However, the campaign is not the only game mode and the authors have once again confirmed that they can offer a lot of music for little money. The game costs only some 10 euros, but in addition to a long campaign, it also offers a more open Conquest mode. In it, you just select the power you want to play on the world map, and here you go. Two starting points are currently available - the state of Europe in 1798 and the state of Europe in 1806. The year 1812 will come later. Here, too, generals, princesses, training and objects have an influence, but there are no missions. You are just fighting, there is a small degree of diplomacy (declaring war, supporting allies ...) and trying to last as long as possible. It depends largely on who he chooses. Britain is a big player on the map, but if you play for the Netherlands, enemies will be easier to tackle.
However, there is no end to the game mode, and when you have a whole campaign and get tired of conquering the world in Conquest mode, you can embark on Challenge mode, where 6 challenging challenges await you, each consisting of several battles. This mode is really more challenging and wants to test your skills. Again, things you've already unlocked and made available under other modes play a role, so you can enjoy them all around, even though it's one thing you can see that authors sometimes adjust history to playability. You might want a multiplayer here, but unfortunately you won't find anything like it here.
European Conqueror X is a strategy and you think this is not a gamepad-tailored genre. Often this is true, and for the controller, the games have to adapt, as evidenced by this title, but I must say that the controls again work very well. You can control the game with Joy-Conmi / gamepad or touch when playing in handheld mode. And I would recommend that you play it. First, it does not look worse at the time, but especially its combination of classic and touch control suits the most. For example, you move the camera with analogs, select units, and move your fingers in their menu. It's intuitive, fast and convenient.
Graphically and audibly, the game is quite simple. It's all 2D, the models are very simple and often lack the details, whether on maps, but also on units. On the other hand, the game takes up only 222MB, and although I do not discuss the size of the games in reviews so often, I have the impression that this should be mentioned. The game for little money will offer enough fun and will not cut you from such valuable Switch storage. But this corresponds to simple music, which, although appropriately evokes the atmosphere, but is schematic, repeats and over time is uninteresting.
European Conqueror X is a small grand strategy for a small console where she wants to reach out to emerging strategists and I think she is doing very well. Those advanced in it will be in vain to look for depth, but probably also can catch them for hours. While it's rooting for her mobile roots, the positive thing is that she only picked up the appropriate Switch for her mobile phone, adding many new features and adjustments to fit the console well and offer a rich experience. And although it has its minor or major mistakes and deficiencies in some areas, it is precisely on this point. It offers a fairly rich portion of content, so you spend long hours with it and, coupled with a low price, offers an excellent ratio of hours spent to spent euros.
