Get this game, it is that plain and simple.
The battles are very similar to chess, where as you have commanders (chess pieces) each with different movement capabilities and power. Each commander control a certain number of troops under their command, the number of troops act as health points in a way. When either attacking or defending you loose troops according to various criteria including: terrain, attacking commander’s strength, your commander’s strength, unit type, direction of attack (head on assault, flank, and etc.). Furthermore to add a whole new level of complexity to the game each commander has special attacks called tactics. These attacks are many in variety and if used effectively can turn the tide of the battle. Tactics can be simple, like ‘charge’ a basic head on attack, or complex, like ‘muddle’ which to allied commanders will accidentally attack each other. The real benefit of these tactics is that your commanders will loose no troop while executing these sometimes devastating attacks. Also tactics can be strung together between different commanders to unleash devastating combos to obliterate, or sometimes ever capture, enemy commanders. Your commanders gain experience after each battle they participate in and will grow to become stronger, control more troops, and even learn new tactics.
When not locked in fierce battle you will be gazing onto a continental map of China marked off with different routes to choose from. You task will be to choose how to allocate troops and how to move your armies along this map so as to have a advantageous offence will still maintaining a stout defense to protect you capital from invading enemy. My only real beef with the game come with the system of moving troops. At time certain nodes on the map are ‘blacked out’ so as to block your movement and restrict where you can and cannot travel to. This can be very frustrating because it makes the game feel kind of restricting be forcing you to attack certain individual while restricting you from battling with other forces.
The game comes with three playable forces all with different stories, strength, and commanders. Are feel unique and have their own very complex story tree which will take you several play thought to experience all possible scenarios. You navigate through these different scenarios depending on who you attack, who you make treaties with, if you help besieged nation. This is cool because the decision are hard to make with often unforeseeable outcome, but make the game feel rather unique with the level of freedom it presents.
Overall Dynasty Tactics is a great game not just for those people who are fans of the series but for anyone who is looking for a great strategy experience with lots of complex layers of intrigue. An easy game to recommend to anyone who wants a meaningful game in which ultimate conquest is your goal.