I was on facebook one day and came across the link to try Evony Online. I love city/war/economic strategy games so I decided to give this one a try and see how I liked it.

So far the experience has been pleasant, the interface is very good, the technological advancement is well thought out and the graphics are extremely good for a browser based game.

The initial stages of the game will be pretty standard for anyone who has ever played this type of game, you set up sawmills, iron mines and quarries in order to gather resources in order to upgrade your city and economic activity. You will need to build barracks and stables in order to produce troops, an academy will be required to research technologies, and you will need to upgrade your defenses such as wall and town hall building to higher levels to be able to withstand attacks.

One thing you will need to be aware of that sets this game a bit apart from others in this same genre is that it takes some time to actually do the research and construction for everything you will develop in your city. As the level of each industry or building increases, the amount of time it takes to improve it will go up dramatically. Especially in the latter stages of the game, you will be selecting a building or technology to upgrade, and you will have to wait for a couple of hours for the project to be finished. While this may turn off the impatient player, I personally don't mind having to think about what i really need to be improving in my city and in what order I need to spend my resources to improve my city in the way I think I need to advance poperly.

The payoff is conducting battles on an epic scale for most games of this type. Your troop numbers will eventually be in the hundreds of thousands with siege engine support if you are able to properly research the technologies before you begin your conquests.

The game itself is totally free, but the developers have allowed the players to purchase in game items to improve gameplay as well. The most useful types of in game purchases will include items that will 'speed up' industry and building improvements by several minutes to several hours. You will not always need to make these purchases as you can also win these items by completing certain in game quests such as meeting certain food production requirements, or meeting certain population or battle requirements and accomplishments.

If you enjoy castle/war simulation games, I suggest you give this one a try.

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