Sunday is Gaming Day: What are you playing thread.

Ok, lemme give you the general overview of Anbennar.

Right, so Anbennar takes place on the fictional planet of Halann, and is set mostly in the same type of world as Dungeons and Dragons, with many of the same creatures inhabiting it. It has many new mechanics and a metric ton of L O R E. For example, fantasy races are a central mechanic, whose unique administrations and military give nationwide benefits and drawbacks, along with province to province effects depending on acceptance level of racial minorities along with tonnes of events who affect tolerance level and "problems" that may arise with certain groups. Like a troll suddenly outdoing a local lord in collecting bridge tolls. Depending on the choice made in the event, it will change noble loyalty, money gained and tolerance increases or decreases for Trolls.

Another addition is "adventurer" countries, imagine a DnD party but it contains enough murder hobos to form its own nation-state 100 years down the line. They are at first only found in the devastated and depopulated region of Escann (east of Not Europe (Cannor (Escann is short for East-Cannor))), they use EU4 natives mechanics, generating development, creating loose federations (actual federation is disabled) and migrating around, causing devastation. After enough reforms are gained, they can settle down and form their own country. They appear also in the New (Old) world.

There are also the Dwarovar adventurers and warbands, orcs, goblins, kobolds, harimari (Anthropomorphic tigers) and dwarves all seeking to grab a piece of the wast riches of the Serpentspine. A mountain range so massive, it severs the continent in two, with only narrow passes between them. Inside said mountains are the ruins of the old Dwarven civilization, whose holds and ancient railways lay derelict in the darkness. This is my favorite part of the game. Holds are super-provinces, reaching up to 120+ development, with their own unique digging mechanics. The Dwarovrods, the old railways can be restored to improve movement speed and trade, and hold specialization can give huge benefits over time. Of course, only select races can dig holds, of course including the Dwarves, but also Kobolds and Goblins. Orcs get their own set of mechanics based around collecting loot and doing their own things with the holds. (There's also Roadwarrior, hope you like owning 1 province the entire game. Don't worry, your job is to make sure everybody has none provinces.)

To go further into depth with dwarves, you might think "Hundred dev provinces? Railways? Precious metals and gems all over the place? That must be broken, balance-wise" Which is completely correct, there is no real "balance" in Anbennar, as having a fun and unique experience is prioritized by the devs. This doesn't mean it can't be hard as all hell though. Dwarves for example get about 6 or so disasters, all of which are BRUTAL and will leave an unprepared player with a hundred loans, 0 manpower and 50% devastation on all provinces (also development loss during one of them).

But moving on. We got an entire world to cover after all. We got Haless (Not-Asia) where many unique mechanics and countries lie, we have the Harimraj, a caste based empire administered by the Harimari, tigers given ascencion in the year 0 AA (After-Ash( what does that mean?( Don't worry about it.))), meanwhile to the north the Great Hobgoblin Command (or just The Command) is planning it's invasion of all their neighbors, in the mountains the devious Oni seek to corrupt the ancient temple complexes, releasing the chaotic spirits sealed within. The golden kobolds search endlessly for their missing dragon mentor, the Xiaken lands are trying desperatly to unite, the mayor of Feiten is looking into lighter-than-air travel for commerce purposes, the Dwarves of Verkal Ozovar are bringing their human vassals under tighter control (Literally 1984) and many many more. Watch out for The Rending.

God, what more? We got Aelantir, the lost lands of the Elves. You see, 1444 years ago, an Elf named Ducaniel blew an entire civilization up because he didn't get to marry his niece. This ended elves living practically forever, weakened the bonds between the different planes, disappeared all the Djinn and Genies, made a mahoosive crater-turned new sea in the epicenter and blasted most of elven civilization into exodus or back to feudal society. Known as the Day of Ashen Skies, it fucked everything up for everybody big time, but especially the elves. In fact, the (relatively) few elves that managed to escape by boat accidentally got trapped in the plane of water for 1000 years until a witch king trying to conquer the empire of Anbennar accidentally let them out and then got his ass kicked by them. Basically you can RETVRN as the elves of Venail and create a genocidal settler-colonial empire with many flavors of despotism to chose from, from Napoleonic war state, literally 1984, and elven ice-queen Hitler who turns native (Ruinborn) elves into magical batteries to make her castle float. Yeah.

What else is there to say? Way too much, like, I haven't even mentioned the magic mechanics, casting spells, studying them, becoming a lich, siege magic, undead armies. Then there's the artificers, capacities, artificer regiments, inventions, controlling relics and damestear provinces to further expand invention capacity. There's all of Bulwar, the Jadd, all of Sarhal, THE VALLEY, the forbidden plains of the centaurs, the lake federation, the Kheonai, the Eordand, the Ynn, the Deepwoods, the Dragon Coast, Gerudia, the Harpies, the Ogres (includes Shrek reference) the Trolls, the Gnomes, the Halflings, Gawed and Lorent, etc etc etc etc etc. There is SO MUCH STUFF in Anbennar, it's redonkelous.

You know what you should do? Go play it, please, it's so so so so so good, you'll never run out of things to do, I promise you.

Oh, you asked me to tell you "a bit" more about Anbennar? Whoops.