Ah, a huge strategy game! Nothing beats the thrill you get from conquering your enemies with high-minded strategy. When you win, you bask in your own aura of warm fuzziness, instead of shouting epithets at your opponents as in other types of games. Well, if it's high-minded strategy you want, you've got it in the form of Crusader Kings, the new medieval strategy game just out in the US. You take the role of a medieval king, planning, plotting, scheming and warring your way to supremacy. Take command of William the Conqueror's armies or fight the Hundred Years war and change history! Changing history is always a fun prospect, one that many gamers are sucked in by. There are many historical games, but medieval strategy games of this magnitude are few and far between.

The sheer depth of this game is vast. The game takes place anywhere from 1066 to 1453 AD, from Ireland to the Middle East. There are hundreds of territories and hundreds more characters inhabiting the Crusader Kings world, and every one of them is a stepping stone along your path to supremacy. You achieve your goal by achieving wealth, piety, and prestige. Wealth is money of course, piety is gained through service and contributions to the Catholic Church (this is all before the Reformation, remember), and prestige is gained by secular activities, like growing your empire, ensuring lines of succession, and maintaining a strong military force. Wealth can be generated by having productive provinces generating cash. You gain piety through high church contribution rates and performing services for the church, like participating in crusades. A big part of achieving your goals is manipulating the people around you. You have a court to advise you and a family to educate and marry away. You can choose what type of education your children receive (martial, ecclesiastical, or a general education at court), and each character has a variety of good and bad traits that you must keep in mind when deciding what to do with them. Got an ugly sibling that's giving your family a bad name? Marry them off to a far off province, and then use your sibling's claim on the throne there to declare war and take it over. Historical events will also affect how well you do. If you play for long enough, into the mid-13th century, the Mongol hordes will even join the fray, attacking everything they see in the Middle East and Europe. Your lands could also be stricken with bubonic plague, severely curtailing your empire growth. There are so many different strategies and paths to victory that there's no way to predict what will happen from game to game.

Unfortunately, what most gamers will think the minute they start playing is "I'm in over my head here," and for the most part, they'll be right. This game is based on the Europa Universalis engine, and if you've never used it before, prepare for a truly agonizing learning curve. Crusader Kings does not come with an in-game tutorial, and the manual really only describes game concepts and gives only general overviews on how to grow your empire and wage war. The number of different elements that interact with each other is vast, and it will take you several extremely frustrating hours to start playing with any idea of what you are doing. Another downside to this game is the lack of scenarios that come with it. Out of the box, you have three to choose from: Hastings starting in 1066, The Third Crusade in 1187, and the Hundred Years war in 1337. These are all very in-depth campaigns, but it would have been good to see a greater variety. How about an "Epic" game, similar to the Civilization series where you just play the game without a scenario?

We tore into Crusader Kings expecting a game of high strategy, cunning and guile. Well, we got it, but at a huge cost in sizzled brain cells. We have to wonder what Paradox was thinking when they put together such a masterful strategic experience and then didn't tell gamers much about how to play it. Even with good instructions, this game would take a while to get the hang of. The way it is, you can count on spending four to six hours getting all the basics down. If you do manage to overcome the obstacles, however, a very good game awaits.