SEVEN KINGDOMS

I'll admit I have a soft spot for Seven Kingdoms an old RTS that I didn't truly begin to master until well after High School. I imagine part of the problem was in my youth I was a lot less aggressive which allowed the AI to outpace me in terms of military development. As I've gotten older I now tend to rush the AI so much that the AI counters by fusing multiple kingdoms together in a bid to keep up with my military might. Oddly enough this leaves the AI weakened to a certain extent since it means my main rival is now spread all over the map which allows for potential hit and run attacks to be more effective then they should be.

Though oddly enough I'd say the AI is better on medium to high difficulty. This is because on the highest setting the AI tends to run its economy into the ground. So much so, that I've toppled entire kingdoms by simply destroying a mining outpost.

Another problem with the AI is that it tends to turn around and run home if you blow up the main target of an attack before they arrive. So, it's really easy to avoid taking serious damage by blowing up your forts before the AI can reach your kingdom.

And while I will acknowledge you can buy Seven Kingdoms on Steam. You can also download it for free from a fan site. This is because the code was released to the public. The only downside with the free version is that it doesn't include the game's soundtrack. A soundtrack that constantly leads to my videos for the various scenarios and just playing through Rank 200 (max) campaigns to getting hit with copyright claims. Thankfully these claims don't prevent people from watching the videos, but it does mean the videos are monetized by the people that own the rights to the music.