King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame – The Druids Review

Gaming sites don’t seem to be lining up to review the latest expansion to King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame, with Malaysian Gamer being the first that I’ve seen, dubbing it “more of the same with added variety and with freaking dragons!”

There’s also a new factions/guilds screen in which you can take specific actions against the sidhe(a mystical ancient faction of magical creatures), the bishop, the guild of outlaws, and marauders. Each of these faction give you special diplomatic actions. The guild of outlaws allow you to send spies to your enemies regions, or the marauders would offer you to terrorise any region you wish for coin.

Despite more diplomatic options, the diplomacy system is still very simplistic. It lacks a diplomacy AI in the sense that it is based on a reputation system. You give someone gold(or do something good for them), your reputation increases. The higher the reputation, the less you need to pay them to accept your diplomatic offer.

Which means, they will always accept your offers. The only question is how much gold do you need to offer. This in my opinion makes the diplomacy less believable. It doesn’t feel like you are negotiating with a faction or a character. But I admit, even if it feels a little mechanical, it works quite well. The other Kings will grow to fear you(the fear meter increases) if you expand your army or your border quickly.