This is a game with a learning curve, be advised. Compare it to any other strategy game on the market, and that learning curve falls nearer to the pattern set by chess than what the rest set. That is to say: it's a game whose core mechanics are not terribly complicated, but where there are a lot of details and possibilities in approach. That said, it is a really, really good game. Multiple distinct victory objectives, military controls that are simple and intuitive, tech trees that are fun to progress. Play together with friends, play on your own, you'll have fun either way. The AI makes really horrible misplays a lot of the time, and raising the difficulty just inflates progressive buffs to the AI and debuffs to you while making everybody more hostile to you; it's a bad difficulty system on bad AI, so I recommend finding your own challenges to undertake if you want to mix things up in making the basegame harder. But then, the bonus challenge scenarios are very fun themselves, and make for a good change of pace. About balancing: it's not been spectacularly done. Some civs have overwhelmingly stronger abilities than others, and importantly, some have very versatile abilities while others are much more situational, which can back those off-meta civs into a strategic corner. Being forced down one or two routes if you want to make use of your own civ's abilities is pretty crippling in itself when you're playing against other people, who actually try to predict your plans. Now all of that said, I rate Civ VI a strong 9/10. It's one of my very favorite games, and its fun factor is unaffected by the flaws I point out here - it's just got a little bit of missed potential.

The format of the gameplay, because of its resemblance to other things, tricks you into thinking it's a party game at first glance. KotC is really a very ambitious, engaging story game – the more your group is willing to invest in making it come alive, the better. Some of the best times I've had while playing have been moments where the action suddenly goes completely off-script – in a moment where I'm deliberating over who to tax more heavily, somebody tries to make a case for taxing their rival because I wouldn't want to provoke that person's Defiance any higher, right? And then we have a little standoff over how much that sounds like a *veiled threat*, loyal Noble! You can really have some amazing stories play out if your group gets into it and lets the game breathe. I've also played as a noble in both party and Twitch modes, and I gotta say, it's *fun*. The monarch (host) gets extra avenues to control what's happening, but the nobles have the advantage of getting to pay full attention to what their Scheme is and also what their story schtick is! The gameplay experience is asymmetrical but massively fun for all involved. Even when a faction has fallen dramatically behind, they have an incentive to maintain the welfare of the kingdom because they can join in the next round as the same faction and they don't want the other players' schemes to plunge their region into shambles! This game rules, from somebody who really doesn't write Steam reviews at all, I have to recommend it to the highest degree.