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Review

Duration: 31:06

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I'm playing Chieftain, a 4X strategy game by Splout Ltd. Utilizing randomly generated terrain, the game is turn-based on the map with real-time battles. Different races give varied bonuses and drawbacks. Resources can only be collected in specific tile types: gold from towns and villages (which can only be founded on fields or plains), food from farms (again, only on fields or plains), wood from lumberyards (only on forest), and iron from mines (each nation start with one mine and there are no neutral locations to capture). Builders can construct new farms and lumberyards, while settlers establish villages. An army can consist of five different units (each unit is a group of 30 individuals). There is only one unit allowed per hex, which means you can block opponents from accessing parts of the map (and vice versa). Units cannot be told to guard their location and skip every turn until attacked. The real-time battles have some minor adjustments in stance and formation, but usually just involve moving towards the enemy. Diplomatic options are extremely basic (just declare war or sign treaties). Because you cannot change the terrain (turn forests into plains, for example) or trade resources, success in Chieftain is primarily determined by the luck of the map generator instead of skill. Because all nations start in very close proximity to each other, the number of available tiles to scavenge is very low, meaning you will likely be short one or two resources and can’t do anything about it other than invade adjacent nations and hope your army is superior. Due to the rigid nature of the map tiles, Chieftain lacks the flexibility to allow the strategy to overcome the luck of starting positions.