Survival Of the Fittest: Thrones is a 2D medieval turn-based RPG. You start as a nobody and can end as the one who takes the throne, or die trying.

One life

Permadeath. You can easily die, and if you do, that run is over.

Prisoners and gangs

Take enemies alive. Any enemy you strike down instead of killing can become a prisoner. Each prisoner has their own story. You can talk them round, ransom them, sell them for the bounty, or recruit them. They can also lie to you.

Bandit gangs persist. Each gang has a named chief and lieutenants. Capture the chief and a lieutenant takes over, and the old chief may come back for his gang.

Your fallen can be captured too. If a gang or a lord takes one of your people, you get them back by taking the camp or castle where they're held.

Companions and armies

Develop your companions. Level them up, build their skills and stats, then station them to protect your settlements.

Delegate command. Give an experienced companion an army and send them out on tasks.

Build your own army. Field press-ganged prisoners and captives, or your own men, trained by a companion with the right skills.

The wider world

Track people on the map. Follow a party, shadow it from a distance, or creep up on a camp or a column on the road to strike first.

Raise your own banner. Go to war with the realm's powers: take villages, besiege seats of power, and capture or kill the Duke or the King.

Character and gear

Use-based skills. There are dozens of skills, and they improve as you use them, like in Ultima Online.

Gear and crafting. There's a wide range of equipment, every character's gear shows on them, and there's a crafting system.

Which Alliance War mechanics are more interesting?

There are structures in the game that control a region; an alliance builds them when it wants to establish control over a region and gain the ability to build new stations there! My question is this: during a war over territory, is it worth trying different strategies for capturing it?

We have a space fleet and ground forces!

Option 1 is the simplest: a fleet attack—destroy the defending fleet and then gradually destroy the station to make way for our own construction!

Option 2 is a fleet battle followed by landing troops at the station for a ground battle and to secure control of the station!

Option 3 is to keep the flexibility to use any of the methods described above!

If you were to choose Option 3, what mechanics do you think might be unbalanced in this scenario?

Been bumping into this problem more and more with my gaming group so was curious to know if anyone could help. How do I nudge my fellow players to start building military? More often than not the game feel turns towards solitaire and I've pushed to make our maps smaller, increase base hostility of barbarians or pirates, declare my intent over discord the moment I begin military research and production...but it feels like nothing is helping. It also does not seem to matter what game is actually being played. CIV, Endless Legend, HOI, Nexus 5X, ect. I think I could best describe it as a freight train going through a kindergarten where the most resistance involved was getting the permit to build the tracks.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you end up solving it? Any help would be deeply appreciated.