Considering that the Total War series seems to have an aversion to this fascinating era in history, It's worth your time getting stuck in to Pike & Shot if you love the Early Modern/Renaissance period. Just wait for its price to drop in sale, as although it's a good game, I don't think it's worth the asking price when you consider the visuals and lack of content (one menu screen, two music tracks, barely any sound effects or battle effects for that matter). If you can overlook the spartan UI & art direction though, you'll find a deep, addictive, challenging game.

At its heart it's a tactical turn based battle simulator. There's an emphasis on historically accurate formations and army divisions (for instance a Swedish mixed arms formation with artillery from 1632 will function differently from an Imperial Tercio block from 1621) so, although some of the skills you may have learned from other strategy games may prove useful, a lot of the time it'll just lead to your defeat if you don't consider the subtle differences between unit types. There's plenty of real life historical scenarios and campaigns to keep you busy, from the Thirty Years' War (which is the main focus of the game), to the English Civil War; and from Breitenfeld and White Mountain to Marston Moor.

It can be really hard and unforgiving, especially when your prized Cuirassiers chase a fleeing enemy off the field of battle, or an enemy unit you thought routed returns to the field and hits your army in the flank. For a low polygon game with no "bells & whistles" it is surprisingly, nail bitingly intense at times - far more so than in Total War games with all of their real-time action and flashy effects and graphics. So I recommend it if you can overlook the bare bones production values.

Considering that the Total War series seems to have an aversion to this fascinating era in history, It's worth your time getting stuck in to Pike & Shot if you love the Early Modern/Renaissance period. Just wait for its price to drop in sale, as although it's a good game, I don't think it's worth the asking price when you consider the visuals and lack of content (one menu screen, two music tracks, barely any sound effects or battle effects for that matter). If you can overlook the spartan UI & art direction though, you'll find a deep, addictive, challenging game. At its heart it's a tactical turn based battle simulator. There's an emphasis on historically accurate formations and army divisions (for instance a Swedish mixed arms formation with artillery from 1632 will function differently from an Imperial Tercio block from 1621) so, although some of the skills you may have learned from other strategy games may prove useful, a lot of the time it'll just lead to your defeat if you don't consider the subtle differences between unit types. There's plenty of real life historical scenarios and campaigns to keep you busy, from the Thirty Years' War (which is the main focus of the game), to the English Civil War; and from Breitenfeld and White Mountain to Marston Moor. It can be really hard and unforgiving, especially when your prized Cuirassiers chase a fleeing enemy off the field of battle, or an enemy unit you thought routed returns to the field and hits your army in the flank. For a low polygon game with no "bells & whistles" it is surprisingly, nail bitingly intense at times - far more so than in Total War games with all of their real-time action and flashy effects and graphics. So I recommend it if you can overlook the bare bones production values.