Baseline dream game:

- Possibility to settle (build cities, forts, farms etc) anywhere on the map and not only on predefined squares. The type of terrain should affect the building: better defensive value for a city/fort built on a hill or among the mountains, better population growth through food production on fertile lowlands. Just like in Civilisation 4.

- The freedom to move and place troops anywhere on the map also without the presence of a hero in the group. Heroes should be a boon to an army but not all powerful: a huge army without hero should in principle have a chance to defeat a much smaller army with a hero, otherwise the game starts revolving only around the few “hero armies”, like in Heroes of MM. This is not good for a strategy game.  

- Use of magic much like in Age of Wonders Shadow Magic, i.e through building wizard towers you can enlarge your magic frontier and throw spells even into the domains of your enemies. Magic can thus work in some ways like Influence does in GC2, extending your REAL frontiers … Existence of both realm-based spells/rituals and battle spells in melee, please.

- Flexibility like in TA. Choice of civ where you can define name, race, deity worshipped, symbol, picture of race and heroes, type(s) of magic used, other civ attributes like economy, production, trade, preferred environment, immunities, weaknesses,  etc.  All this also for the opponents!

- Each civ worshipping a God/deity or pretender god, much like in Dominions 3. The most exciting feature with this (in addition to specialising your empire) is that the attributes of your deity can influence the domains under your control, like in Dom 3 (if you play the frost giants you will soon turn even the reeking jungles you have invaded into a winter landscape …) In this way your “divine mana” / “dominion” can function a bit like Influence in GC2. If possible the changing “dominion” should be reflected in the graphics too, which would be incredibly cool.

- The level of micromanagement under control – I have full confidence in Stardock handling this very well.

- Playing out siege battles much like in Age of Wonders SM or Heroes 5. Exciting stuff!

- Possibility to send out spies and assassins to get info, sabotage and assassinate enemy leaders, so you can play somewhat offensively even if not actually at war.

- A map generator would be soo nice to have in from the start.

- An “epic recorder” of events (even if pretty simple) would be gold worth - especially if written on a parchment-like fond. J

- Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of the number of buildings (and improvements), units and spells available for each civ. Ok, maybe this could be for a future expansion, but I still dream about that game which will stand out as just amazing not only in quality but also in quantity. Offering not only 20 units of choice per player but 120, not just 100 spells in total but 2000. Make it feel like a real world, with endless of opportunities, and I can guarantee you that we will play it endlessly!   

 Things to avoid:

-  It’s a fantasy game - don’t try to give it a « modern » feel through the graphics and artwork. What I mean is: please dare to do it with class and style and avoid the type of over-exaggerated illustrations we can see for game worlds such as Warhammer. It doesn’t look impressive or cool when every hero/adversary wields a 3.5+ meter long sword – it just looks ridiculous. An orch doesn’t need fifteen piercings to look cruel and evil – a pair of red gleaming eyes set in a hyena-like face with sharp teeth next to the tusks does it perfectly well. All male warriors don’t need to look like Schwarzenegger. All females don’t need to look like Pamela Anderson just out from the fantasy clothes shop (if they even wear any clothes …). Nothing wrong with piercings and well fit warriors, but you get the point – it’s all about style. Tolkien didn’t need to overdo it to convince fantasy lovers all over the world, and if you believe in your game you shouldn’t either.          

- Please avoid all gun-powder based weapons, like pistols, rifles and cannons. The existence of such weapons on a scale where they would actually be widely used in melee and on the battlefield is ALWAYS an anachronism in a traditional fantasy setting with castles and knights. The reason is simple: the cannon takes away most of the defensive value of the walled castle and fortification (why we don’t build castles for defense anymore). The pistol outdates the use of knights armour and swords in melee battle (why our soldiers don’t look like Lancelot anymore). And we do want classical castles and swords (the most romantic weapon) in a fantasy game. Again, resist the temptation to try to be “modern” when doing fantasy.

Thanks for reading and considering this, it has been produced with many hours of both fantasy and strategy gaming behind.