XIII Century – Gold Edition

XIII Century - Death or Glory and it expansion, Blood of Europe, is a real time strategy game that similar to Total War series.

However, unlike Total War, XIII Century have no campaign mode, focus entirely on historical battles. So unless you really like historical battles mode in Total War, and interest to learn more of Eastern Europe history, you really have no reason to buy this game.

Personally, i like the game enough. It's a decent distraction when you want something new, but still similar to Total War. Sadly, they didn't have siege mode.

NOTE: For those who suffered the infamous Black Screen. Turn off the HDR Lighting.

This is honestly THE MOST HISTORICALLY ACCURATE GAME ON THE MARKET!!! nothing comes close to how detailed each big and subtle thing is in the game. A MUST HAVE FOR ANY HISTORICAL ENTHUSIST!!! This game blew my mind, so much research went into this, and not only that, but the AI (not NPC) is really really challenging, to win a battle, you first need to win all available advantages to win like in real life, and another thing that suprised me was how underrated this game is. I would love to see this game come out with a remaster for 2022 graphics and more 3d, less pixelated, less old school looks to it, like Rome II Total War, and I also forgot to mention, if you're a fan of the older Total War games (specifically Medieval II Total War) then this game is a complete upgrade but with the same character design with just more historical accuracy.

Battle simulator without empire or army building. Does battles well enough. Looked like a bit light on content. And for some the game crashes once you get past the tutorial. Get it cheap.

18 year old game revisited... Remarkable that the AI seems smarter than same period games made since. Units wrap around flanks intelligently, and individuals break and fight they way through the lines in a believable manner. Troops are not always obendient and get tempted to chase the enemy. The visuals have a rather dark, dream-like quality and over-bloomed, but this is am amazing game for what is often just a buck or two in sales. You'll likely have to fart about to get the game to play right (a black screen - I fixed with changing to 60Hz and settings. There's several postings that tell you what to do.

If you're struggling with the memory access violation problem and decide to try using a virtual machine -- don't bother. I tried it, it's still the same.

However, I still have to give this game a positive review -- it's extremely cheap, so there's more than enough content for your money, even with the inaccessible missions. Plus, the multiplayer is solid (assuming you can set up a virtual LAN to play it).

Overall, it's just as fun as Total War Medieval 2, except it's all historical battles. Yes, the crashes significantly impact the experience, but I still got hours of fun out of a game which costs half a pound. Plus, the game is obviously abandoned at this point, so it's not like leaving a negative review will cause 1C to fix the game. It's a fun game, and worth the asking price.

Very fun 13 century battle sim. Various formations to choose from and units that are interesting. For an older title it is still fun( yet buggy with crashes Still), No big deal mostly battles are strung together to form the campaigns. I like the tone and the stories of the various factions.

Bet you thought XIII Century was just a Total War knock-off - only without the strategic layer?

You thought wrong then.

If I were to compare XIII Century to anything, it would probably be Byzantine Games' Pike and Shot - Sengoku Jidai - Field of Glory series.

In Total War you mostly win with numbers. There are exceptions (using chokepoints, for instance), and one should never underestimate the power of micromanagement, but as a rule of thumb if you have a bigger and stronger army, you win.

Not so here. Because XIII Century understands morale. Here a battle is often resolved in a matter of seconds and won by positioning. You have to manipulate your enemy, force him out where you want him. And if you do have him where you want him, his entire army might lose morale in an eyeblink, and then - you win. The same applies to you.

When determining a squad's capacity for inflicting heavy bodily harm, XIII Century keeps track of numerous parameters. Apart from the usual experience, weapon quality, morale and freshness, among the factors are: cover on the flanks, cover on the rear, cover of archers and exposition to missile fire.

The AI in this game is predictable, but very, very smart - it constantly repositions itself in order not to be caught off-guard and seeks for openings in your defenses. The predictablility of AI is really the only thing that allows you to win games, because you will always be heavily outnumbered.

If you want serious tactical play, there is probably nothing better so far - if we talk medieval warfare, even despite Total War's constant evolution.

PS
Bill Gray from wargamer.com wrote a great article on this little-known gem where he elaborates why XIII Century still remains a fantastic wargame:
https://www.wargamer.com/reviews/xiii-century-gold-real-warfare/

If you have Win10 Do NOT buy this game even if you find it with 0.01 euro.
You will be able to play just the tutorial.
After that you will have the famous memory violation crash and there is no real crash for it.

Decent game with a lot of heart in it, I think, and a good aesthetic. Crashes any time you try to play on a map with a castle, though - don't expect to be able to start England's 4th mission or France's 2nd one without "running out of memory". Very frustrating.

If all you are looking for is historical medieval battles then this does its job. It's basically Total War Historical battles with preset armies and no empire building so low on replayability but can be fun for a quick tactical skirmish. I would recommend Total War over this game, but if you're on a budget and can pick this game up on a sale for a dollar, then this isn't a bad game. I feel more neutral about it than anything.

Also mildly annoying - there is a message about a key that won't close even after pressing Shift+Tab.

(I am going through my steam library and trying to review everything with enough time for a first impression)

Encounter problems on a win 7 e-350 1.6 GHz laptop. Certain maps wouldn't load, like it was stated in the forums.

This game is basically Total War's historical battles with a preset army. There is no replayability with this setup. For the non-blood of Europe campaign, As long as you win the battle your fine, there is no incentive to keep your troops alive. No strategic campaign. I wouldn't even call them campaigns, just 5 or more historical battles strung together out of 1 of 6 given country.

I feel like I am playing a totally different game then the people that gave this a positive review. Had trouble moving individual units in the right formation. I found the AI even worse than the Total War AI. I outflanked the enemy army and they barely reacted. On the 2nd English mission, I basically had my whole army go against William Wallace and his other 2 cavalry groups and the rest of his army didn't react. Archers are really weak in this game. If you have time, you can get in range of the archers and have them unload all their arrows and suffer no causalities and just a little wounding if you are able to flank your army correctly. I then brought my archers very close to their troops to get significant damage and even then the AI didn't react. The AI will charge cavalry into an impenetrable spearman circle. Then the game wouldn't load for the 4th English missions, tried some fixes wouldn't work. Didn't really feel like playing the game anyways. I give this game 3/10.

This is a rather lengthy review, but I think it gives you everything you need to know.
XIII Century is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it has cool battles and requires you to use some clever thinking to win tough fights. On the other hand, it only works when it wants to. I played several battles, but then the game decided I've had enough and refused to work properly. Every time I try to load a campaign battle, I get an error and a black screen. The sound and narrative play, but all I get is a frozen screen. I think there is a way to fix it for some people, but for me personally, I'm stuck.
So how can I review a game that won't let me play? I'll base this review off of my experiences in the few battles I actually played.
First off, the graphics are decent and the sound design is solid ( though the battle sounds of swords clashing and arrows falling are a bit bland). The music is nothing to write home about, but it serves its purpose and is okay. The maps are well-designed and allow for strategic play. You got hills, rivers, marshes, etc. All of these come into play when you are commanding your army.
The AI is rather decent. I've seen it counterattck, flank, keep reserves, and press forward when I am weak. It's not perfect (it's easy to exploit and crush AI units using cavalry archers), but it is aware and will challenge you. At times it can even be relentless and clever, forcing you to really pay attention.

I never had a moment where I was totally relaxed. I was concentrated almost all the time - managing my units, picking off lone enemy sqauds, and positioning my army so that I could best face the enemy. In that respect XIII Century succeeds. The game requires thinking and good unit management. Terrain must be taken seriously and the AI is not one to be underestimated.
However, there are certain downsides. As mentioned before, I get an error before every battle and the screen freezes and goes black. Aside from that, the camera is awkward. It has weird angles and is odd at times. I recommend taking it off the "free camera" mode and putting it on either "horizontal" or "normal" settings. That helps out a lot.
So what do we end up with? We have a game with great potential that falls flat on its face. With decent graphics and a stong dose of strategy mixed in with bugs and some awkward camera angles and controls, XIII Century is a game that I would recommend getting only on a big sale. If you don't experience technical issues, then you'll have a blast with this game, but wait until it's on sale in order to avoid spending a lot of money on a product that won't even work.

The game would be much better if it wasn't for the out of memory problem. I played first 3 English battles which were interesting and fun, but on the fourth battle it just stopped. I would recommend it if there wasn't for this problem.

I bought this for lulz as it was a good deal.
I was surprised at how enjoyable and well optimized this game and its sibling games are.

If you're looking for something similar to the Total War Series, but without all the management of a nation, then this should please you well.

It includes a series of campaigns for different nations (England, France, Spain, Teutonic Order, Russia, etc.) with around 5-6 missions per. They're just battles, no campaign management.

I reviewed this game in 2015 but I wanted to try again recently to get it to work and I did. All you do is go into the game files and run the application on compatibility settings (this previously didn't work) and run the game on lower graphics than usual, the resolution may be slightly off but its very playable even.
It's a pretty solid historical battle game and I've had real fun playing it, essential a total war style battle game.

Broken shit. I eventually managed to start the damn thing, but after a few missions it decided it was going to crash on one particular level every time I tried to play it. Unless you're running a ten year old machine, save yourself the trouble.

You probally wondor "What in the world is this game?" Well to those who ask. This game is a medeival strategy game like total war. It just doesnt have any campain just random battles!!! This game is a older strategy game that the combat is like Warband, with a mix of total war with the strategy. On the other hand, the graphics and textures and stuff are like the oldest strategy game for PC called: Imperial Glory. This game is related to Real warfare 1, not 2 because it has a campain that you can acually fead your army and buy troops with! Isnt that better! Anyways enjoy this game, to those people who are afraid of random gore, this only has head gore that I have seen so atleast there aint no DLC like Rome II!

when i bought this game, i was not expecting too much, considering the price i paid for it. but when i played it for the first time, i was mindblowned by the variety of units, factions and graphics. although i admit graphics is not rising to shogun 2 or rome 2 in the total war series, it is still quite good. and the units are great, with a wide range of variety. so great job whoever had the idea of making this game. i missed some old medieval 2 type of game.

This game is amazing and underrated, not much advertisment on it, shame. Yes it can be compared to Medieval 2: Total War in general, however the battle system is different, it needs more initial planning in order to win a battle, it can be considered as hardcore version of total war battles. The only con here that the game dosent have a campign map, only series of battles, but they are tight and needs a lot of strategy and planning, a battle can last much longer time comparing to total war games. The graphics are nice, better than Medieval 2, and comparable to Empire, while the sound and voice acting are average, the AI is decent, multiplayer is very enjoyable but usually its hard to find people online to play against.

Wow... I got everything I wanted from a Real TIme Tactics game... yet I felt disappointed. This blows away RTW series for melee based combat. There are so many dynamics to the game, and better yet the stats are not hidden, but layed out in the interface. RTW and other combat games leave a few simple options available to the players. In this game, you can see the effect of open/regular/closed spacing, the effect of other troops nearby, the defestation of ranged archers, plus the usual damage/armor/defense and much more.

Yet... I felt disappointed. The battles were challenging, but I still craved the empire building of the RTW series. I wanted to create my army, my way, and not get stuck with historical units.

I know this seems like a negative review, but I feel that I got everything I wanted from this game... and at the same time, self discovered I wanted more freedom. Perhaps, if they took this level of detail and allowed me to construct empires and armies of my own design, I would have loved this game.

its just combat rts with out resources. its like all the combat from king arthur or the total war series with none of the strategy. I dont mean that in a bad way. It's just abotu the small unit tactics then it is abotu Grandscale rts. very cool though.