Best of the best. IF you like management and big scale stakes with heavy probability failure. It is really satisfying when you bit by bit take the continent. To truly feel the weight of the loses I commit to only one save per game session.

My advice, conquer territories that are far out from your front lines as possible and not connected to your allies territories either, then strip them from every building and convert them to a religion not native, just for give these territories as presents to keep green your allies.

I've been playing this game long before I got a steam account and I still keep returning to it. I have not play KoH 2 yet.
I have played both EmpireEarth, all the TotalWar saga and all the AoE games. I still prefer KoH

To be real am really filled with nostalgia, this game was literally 1 od 5 games that defined my taste when i was a kid.

Overall a good game to pass time on, the large list of factions to play as and also each unique part of all regions. Maybe the important facts to say about the game, that the AI is not difficult to master and once you have played enough every faction feels easy to overcome. The late game for me is usually 4 marshals with Mongolian Calvary or Horse Archers just roaming around taking castles until eventually am the last one standing and just auto battling.

But then if you really wish to torture yourself, play with changes on teh script, look though forums and you will find the right tweaks to make the game actual Hell