Ancestors Legacy

The gameplay is solid. weirdly, whoever wrote the story REALLY hates christians. To a silly degree.

Got this game for summer sale. Its up there I think its in top 10 Rts game atm it has its own character and I would say I like it better than age of empires4

An Underrated RTS Gem for History Lovers

As a history enthusiast, Ancestors Legacy was a real highlight for me from the first mission to the last. What stood out immediately was how the game lets you experience different campaigns from multiple perspectives. Whether Vikings, Anglo-Saxons, Germans of the Holy Roman Empire, Slavs, or even Saladin each faction brings its own story, atmosphere, and interesting characters. It doesn’t just feel like a standard RTS; instead, it genuinely gives you the impression of stepping into historical conflicts and events. Of course, the game takes some creative liberties, but that blend of history and entertainment is exactly what makes it so engaging.

At first glance, the core gameplay seems fairly simple: gather resources, build a base, capture villages, and ultimately destroy the enemy stronghold. However, despite this straightforward structure, every single campaign mission feels unique. Different objectives, varied maps, and changing tactical situations ensure that nothing ever feels repetitive – for me, the game was essentially 0% repetitive.

What I also really enjoyed is the strong focus on tactical combat. It’s not enough to simply outnumber your opponent. Positioning, terrain, ambushes, and proper use of unit types all matter significantly. This keeps every battle engaging and rewarding from start to finish.

On top of that, the presentation is very strong. The medieval atmosphere is well captured, the environments are detailed and immersive, and the sound design fits perfectly. Combined with the campaign structure and storytelling, it creates a very cohesive and enjoyable experience that kept me hooked for hours.

If you’re into medieval history, immersive atmosphere, and tactical real-time strategy, Ancestors Legacy is absolutely worth playing. It left a strong impression on me and is, in my opinion, an underrated gem in the RTS genre.

"EXCELLENT - ATTACK." -Boleslav, Campaign #8, the resident scenery-chewer
It's not a good game in my book (read: too much repetition and grinding), though it is slightly closer to Recommended, so that is what it is. Not terrible, though not good either. Real talk - playing the game requires constant focus and is super draining, so playing it is not exactly fun for the most parts. CAVEAT EMPTOR
Tl;dr - it is barely good enough for a try mostly due to the campaign and scenario design content. The downsides include atrocious unit AI that often picks outright wrong path and the reliance on spawning more troops out of nowhere and relying on superior numbers in the scenario design.
It is quite well optimized and runs well on a potato.
If you are wondering if the DLC is worth it: HELL NO. The DLC campaigns tend to be all about dealing with massive amounts of enemy troops that is all kinds of awful. Having your sparse 10 units distributed to where they are needed does not always work and the traversing the map takes a long time in case you predicted the enemy spawning location wrong.
The worst part of the single player content is the Saladin campaign. The later levels are prone to crashing and there are tons of glitches such as the critical objective building not taking damage from catapults as intended, forcing you to restart the scenario. Also they expect you you to use the Grenadier unit that can mow down the whole enemy army in about 30 seconds and is impossible to beat if it throws the grenades from a bush (read: bushed troops cannot be targeted unless you are in the same bush yourself). That last campaign in general feels rushed and undertested to the max. They even gave Saladin the same "EXCELLENT" voice lines as Boleslav in the previous campaign.
I am fed up with the battle system (read: Total War lite with the stiffness and a lot of glitches such as the unit turning canceling the enemy troop's charge effect on it). There is some rear-attack and flanking in the game, though the implementation is a bit suspect. It is best explained by: "rock paper scissors and archers beat everything." In practice, if you are facing a lot of archers, your only way to beat them is to have your archers beat their archers, preferably by baiting the enemy ones into attacking your super tanky hero while your archers target theirs.
The fog of war system is extremely annoying. It means that your units cannot see two feet in front of them unless you tell them to light a torch... that they will immediately drop if they feel like attacking the enemy without asking you.
Most of the game is irritating babysitting of your units and their trashy useless-tier AI and braindead pathfinding ability. At the same time the enemy units separately and routinely do constant movement changes as reactions to your movement commands. This means that if the enemy is anywhere close to yours and you need to do range maintenance, you will be spending like five minutes in the slow-down mode just to kill one unit and trying to not get caught by the enemy. It is either that or your dumb troops getting caught and one-sidedly slain, setting you back with their loss and making the game take even longer to beat to the point it is faster to load a save and try again.
The resource accumulation is quite slow in this game and it gets ridiculously slow during some of the Saladin missions. You will be spending some missions without adequate food, cutting your troops attack power by about a half.
I could go on for quite a while how frustrating the game is to play, how some of the achievements are tied to the DLC campaigns (read: don't go for the DLC or achievements) and how universe-breaking the Saracen Grenadier unit is. This game is far from polished and the main gameplay never stops feeling rough. It also takes a long time to get anything done in it.
It seems Saladin DLC is the only one out there, though the Konrad campaign (about Templar Knights' pagan purges in Europe) have similar issues and it is marked with the same exclamation point in the campaign menu.
The usual gameplay experience is better done in other games. All this game has going for it are the campaign storylines. Keep in mind the DLC storylines are quite weak and not worth the money in general.
I got this game from a Fanatical Mystery Bundle.

Pretty good RTS. Mainly focuses on small squads to battle your enemy and has a bit of a chess vibe in the sense that you have to counter match your enemies units carefully and quickly. Great setting and atmosphere as well as it having a wonderful cinematic camera...lots of fun and challenging for sure.
gameplay - 7/10
graphics - 7/10
AI - 8/10
story - 5/10
machanics - 8/10
Voice acting -5/10
Voice acting for the vikings is a bit off-putting with American accents but i try overlook it...still a decent game though.

great game although wouldve loved a templar campaign considering theres a saladin campaign

This is one of my favorite RTS games of all time the Ulf Iron beard campaign intro is one of my favorites I really want a second one, the multiplayer is dead sadly but that wont stop me from replaying campaigns or just jumping in to play solo skirmish vs bots.