Great Houses of Calderia
Great Houses of Calderia is a Feudal Grand Strategy game focusing on family dynamics & stories. Use your family strengths to compete against rivals to rise in the ranks of Calderia - produce, trade, scheme, bribe, and battle to build your legacy of power!
Great Houses of Calderia is a grand strategy, rpg and strategy game
developed by Resistance Games
and published by Firesquid.
Released on May 02nd 2024 is available in English only on Windows.
It has received 335 reviews of which 229 were positive and 106 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.5 out of 10. 😐
The game is currently priced at 9.80€ on Steam and has a 60% discount.
The Steam community has classified Great Houses of Calderia into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Processor: Intel Core i5 7400
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 with 2GB of VRAM or equivalent
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 20 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Got the game on sale. It was very fun while it lasted, but this is a one and done game. After one play through, you will have seen enough and know all the tricks such that everything will become tedious the second time around. Would have liked options to extend the game longer as opposed to being herded by set game events.
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TLDR A very mid game that is only recommended on 50% or greater sale. Only reason I recommend is I feel I got my $10 worth but would of felt cheated at full price. I see what they are doing here. Making a political intrigue game that focuses on family relations instead of completely combat. I welcome this focus in grand strategy games. Though this game has a couple of issues that cause this to fall apart. It gets extremely repetitive fast. After you reach level of count (almost half way through single play through) it just becomes a major repetitive snoozfest. Diplomacy encounters are at first enjoyable. But they play exactly like military encounters and by the time you reach count you will be smashing that auto resolve button faster than the "like" button in a Youtube clickbait influencers wildest dreams. The game introduces several artificial roadblocks that just get annoying and grindy. One perfect example of this is trying to get a new feudal title (a core dynamic that is essential to progress the game). You cant declare a war outright to claim another title. You have to follow a convoluted process as follows: 1. Recruit a spy in the title holders town 2. Use spy for slander campaign 3. Declare "humiliation" war 4. Conquer their town 5. Fight a peace negotiation encounter to give the town back to them 6. Wait for the peace timer of 120 days to tick down 7. Redo steps 1 - 5 again with only difference being declare a "title" war this time. After these steps expect to do the exact same steps each time you want to progress in title. With a few roadblocks thrown in between like "get a title from the vice" which is separate from the feudal titles (count, duke, vice) and only happens on a 3 or 4 year count down and is only relevant for the feudal title that you are wanting to progress from. So for example from count to duke you literally sit your army outside a dukes town waiting to start the (7 x 2) step process of becoming duke for the 3 year counter to tick down so you can get the special non feudal title given by the vice (that only applies to count) to satisfy a checkbox. You must do this before you turn Duke to satisfy the artificial roadblock only to immediately become Duke after disregarding the stupid title that only applies to count. Does it sound convoluted and confusing? Thats because it absolutely is. There is no tutorial on how to progress feudal titles and you are left googleing the very counter intuitive process of first declaring humiliation war before you can then declare title war. This adds nothing to the game but game hours spent. I suspect it was an attempt by the devs to boost game play time stats without adding any content.
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Concise Game Reviews: "Great Houses of Calderia" (Scroll down for the longer version) Game Value: ✅ Recommended for players seeking a deep, family-driven grand strategy experience, offering intricate political and social dynamics within a Renaissance-inspired setting. Game Tags: ✔Strategy ✔Simulation ✔Political Intrigue ✔Family Dynamics ✔Resource Management ✔Diplomacy ✔Tactical Warfare ✔Historical ✔Feudal Setting Genre Classification: A grand strategy game focusing on managing noble families, political machinations, and tactical warfare within a richly detailed feudal setting. Game Length: The length of each game can vary significantly, but it allows for endless replayability. The overall gameplay duration depends on various factors, including strategic choices and personal goals. Challenge Level: Varied; offers a challenging experience with deep strategic and tactical elements that may require a steep learning curve. Graphics: Detailed and stylized visuals inspired by Renaissance art, with rich color palettes and intricate designs that enhance the historical atmosphere. Technical Stability: Runs smoothly with occasional technical issues; regular updates from the developers aim to address stability and performance concerns. Replay Value: High; the game's intricate systems and modding support offer significant replayability and variety in each playthrough. For further insights, feel free to join my [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/YourSteamGroup]Steam group or follow my updates on my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/YourCuratorPage/]curator page . You can also connect with me on [url=https://twitter.com/YourTwitterHandle]Twitter . Detailed review: Key Features: 🌟 Dynamic Family Management: Control not just the head of your noble house but every family member, each with their own stories and ambitions, influencing the house's fate. 🔥 Intricate Political System: Engage in complex diplomacy, trade, and espionage, blending strategic depth with personal intrigue. 🎯 Real-Time Tactical Battles: Manage battles with a tactical real-time system that adds a layer of strategic planning to military engagements. 🎨 Renaissance-Inspired Aesthetics: Enjoy detailed and period-authentic visuals that evoke the opulence and intrigue of the Renaissance era. ⚙️ Modding Support: Create and share custom stories and characters with built-in modding tools, enhancing the game's replayability and creativity. 🌟 Overview: "Great Houses of Calderia" places you in the role of a noble family seeking to dominate the feudal landscape of Calderia. Players will navigate a world steeped in political intrigue, familial conflict, and tactical warfare. The game combines rich narrative elements with strategic gameplay, offering a deep and immersive experience in a visually captivating Renaissance-inspired setting. 🎮 Gameplay: Step into the shoes of a noble family leader, where you must manage family dynamics, engage in diplomacy, and command armies. Players handle intricate political and social decisions, balancing internal and external pressures. The gameplay flows through strategic planning and tactical combat, with significant player agency in shaping the house's destiny. 🌍 Exploration: Discover the rich world of Calderia and its myriad of political and social scenarios. 🔧 Crafting/Upgrade System: Not a primary feature; focus is on managing political and military aspects. 🤝 Social Interaction: Deep interactions with other noble houses and characters, including marriages, alliances, and rivalries. 💥 Combat System: Real-time tactical battles requiring strategic planning and resource management. With its focus on detailed family management and political strategy, this game offers a comprehensive and engaging experience for fans of grand strategy. 📖 Story and Depth: Set in the mythical province of Calderia, the narrative revolves around the power struggles of noble families. The story unfolds through personal and political dramas, with each family member's choices impacting the overall plot. Character development and the evolving family dynamics provide depth, making each playthrough unique. The game's rich lore and intricate storytelling are complemented by a dynamic narrative that reacts to player decisions. The depth of the story is reinforced by the game’s detailed setting and character interactions. 🏆 Verdict: "Great Houses of Calderia" is a hidden gem and has quickly become one of my favorite grand strategy games. It excels in delivering a rich, immersive experience akin to Crusader Kings III but with its own unique flair. The game’s intricate focus on family dynamics, political intrigue, and tactical warfare creates a deeply engaging experience. Despite still being in Early Access, it offers substantial and intriguing content. The Renaissance-inspired visuals and complex systems enhance its appeal, while the detailed narrative keeps players invested in their noble house’s journey. With high replayability and a dynamic gameplay environment, it offers a fresh experience with each playthrough. The game’s promise of future updates and its already impressive depth make it a standout in the genre. If you’re a fan of managing detailed political systems and exploring elaborate family stories, "Great Houses of Calderia" is a must-play. Its combination of strategic depth and immersive storytelling positions it as a noteworthy addition to any grand strategy enthusiast's collection. ✅ Good: 👍 [Rich family and political dynamics that enhance the strategic depth of the game]. 👍 [Detailed Renaissance-inspired visuals that immerse players in the game's setting]. 👍 [High replay value with modding support and dynamic gameplay elements]. 👍 [Innovative conflict management system that offers unique strategic opportunities]. 🛠️ Ways of Improvement: 👎 [Expand features and complexity to appeal to 4X fans, as the current lack of depth may be off-putting for those seeking a more intricate experience]. 👎 [Enhance the balance and depth of certain gameplay mechanics, such as trade and diplomacy]. 👎 [Improve user interface and clarity of mission objectives to reduce confusion]. 👎 [Rebalance difficulty settings to offer a more consistent challenge, addressing the current issue of extreme difficulty variances]. 👎 [Fix repetitive and frustrating trade deal proposals, which negatively impact player relations and gameplay flow]. 👎 [Improve the tutorial and interface for managing marriage proposals, allowing players to make more strategic choices and avoid unwanted diplomatic consequences].
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Looked at the current reviews and while I don't think this game is phenomenal (yet), I certainly don't think the current reviews reflect the quality of the game, so here's my two cents. First the gripes: -This game is not well optimized; My computer is beefy so this doesn't affect me all that much, but I can imagine it would be a problem for someone with a potato. -This game is not stable; The autosaves are regular enough to where this isn't a huge issue but I did crash a handful of times. -This game has some major (but easy to fix) balancing issues; This gripe has 2 subsections in my experience: --First, the more egregious one - peace treaties have an incredibly short length and the AI has no understanding of force difference. This leads to an AI that hates you just declaring war on you, you win, and then they immediately declare war again after you've won. This can either result in: --1. You stomp them over and over again until they no longer have the pops necessary to support a war (as you steal a pop every victory) or --2. You don't know the AI does this (or don't have the resources to upkeep your army for the long-term) and disband your army, resulting in them trying again so you have to buy your units again costing a shitload of resources instead of just a couple ticks worth of upkeep (or you're unable to spend those resources now as you ran out/don't have the reserves to do it). --This also effectively means you need to have one of your house members as a general at all times once people start declaring wars on you which may or may not be feasible as you may need those house members for other stuff (TRADE). --Second - trade gives a higher preference to how much a rival house likes the character you send to parlay with them than how much they need a specific good. I have traded with houses with deficits and no reserves for resources that will give me less in return compared to other houses that have a small reserve but simply like the character I send to talk with them. Keep in mind these houses had similar stocks of the goods I was trading for. I'd say in this case desperation is more important than how much they like some dude, and I think that should be reflected mechanically (especially if I'm trading for a resource they have a massive (1.5k+) surplus of). So, with all that said, why am I still giving this game a positive review? Well, I do have gripes and want to see those gripes addressed by the devs, but the game over all has lots of potential and the dev team is clearly passionate and working on the game. Despite my gripe with how the trading system works, It's still overall a well done economic system with variable prices that is relatively rare in these sorts of games. A game where you run a city state rather than a full on nation is also interesting as it helps avoid snowballing and bloat where you don't know what to build next or just a mindless 'build all these buildings in this specific order because meta, repeat until all settlements are full of buildings'. These city states also have specific permanent bonuses and debuffs to resource production which - when combined with the aformentioned variable price trade system and no arbitrary 'you pay x% more for resources because your character/nation is stupid' - means trade is genuinely useful. Above all, it's just a good game in spite of its flaws with many interlocking systems and different resources that have differing but important uses.
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This game is definitely not a clone of crusader kings. It's both good and bad in this sense. You won't find even most simple character interactions you expect from a dynasty management game. You can marry, but you can't divorce (till death do us apart, literally) you can't assassinate anybody, no execution, everyone dies naturally. no imprisonment or torture as well. procreation is also weird. it happens randomly, not depending on age or fertility. your family members are your "agents" basically. the more you have the better. no family feuds, alliances etc. you can just marry and hope to win the mini game to get the character inducted to your house there are limited number of baronies, counties and duchies, there is no way to mess with those structures. you can't have multiple titles of different rank. you just go up in rank until duchy and that's the end game. the map is also extremely small compared to CK intrigue is very basic, you have set of options but all of them seem useless and very difficult to succeed. you can't get claim outside war, you can't incite rebellion, you can't kidnap, kill or harm anyone. you can just increase/decrease your relations with rumors and attack trade caravans. BUT this game is actually not about any of those. this game is about medieval economy. 90% of my time is spent keeping the economy afloat. your main power comes from population and increasing population is VERY HARD (when you win a war, you can get 1 pop for 1 year as war goal). you need to constantly find trading partners, because you won't be able to produce everything yourself with limited number of pop's. I haven't managed to increase my pop permanently yet. you need to spend second tier wages on your pop to make them happy, counter the unhappy and only then you will contribute to pop increase counter. spending second tier wages on your pop is extreme luxury in the beginning. I could only start doing that once I realized I was abusing a bug (yeah when you have 1 pop producing a raw material and 3 pops using that to make second tier materials, raw material never drops to zero and you can use infinite amount of raw mats) Either this is a very hard game or I'm stupid enough (I play all paradox grand strategy games like a pro though) One last aspect of the game is the conflict mini games, basically it's exactly the same when 2 armies fight, or 2 diplomats negotiate. it seems fun at first, but you get bored pretty quickly and auto-resolve everything, so it's not worth mentioning it. the game could've done without it and nothing would've changed. I'm not going to not recommend, because I still have hope that I'm stupid and couldn't figure out half of the game yet (happened to me in CK)
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 01 December 2024 16:39 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 22 December 2024 20:28 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:49 |
| Steam reviews | 23 December 2024 13:48 |
Online players
6
Developer
Resistance Games
Publisher
Firesquid
Release
02 May 2024
Platforms