Join us as we trawl through cool news from the world of 4X and strategy.
This is not your usual news bulletin (we have plenty of that elsewhere!), more just talking about things that caught our eye.
Our latest podcast and article are about the games we enjoyed playing in 2025. Because of that conversation, I ended up buying Knights of Honor 2: sovereign which is on sale now for 67% off. Steam says I have 104 minutes in the game, so it is far too early for a considered and measured opinion, but right now it feels like someone looked at the big daddy grand strategy games, and asked:
How can we make this more fun, more fluid and less like homework?
On the theme of considered and measured opinions, someone asked why we do not have any Civilisation coverage. The short answer is: we have not played it.
The longer answer is that eXplorminate, being a fully independent site, does not work to the same timetables as other sites, or under the same constraints. A pet peeve of mine is when reviewers rush out a game review because they are chasing a deadline. Further to this, it is rare we get free copies of games. Most games we talk about have been purchased ourselves, such as Knights of Honor2 or Runequest:Warlords. As to why so few in eXplorminate have played Civilisation 7, well that is a worthy discussion in and of itself. Your thoughts are welcome.
We aim to review games when we have a solid handle of them. The number of hours required for this is fairly arbitrary, but I have settled on 50 hours. Games in the genre typically last a very long time and have a very long tail. It is absolutely necessary that we treat them with the respect they deserve. I think 50 hours is enough to work out the game design, and ascertain how well put together it is, and ofcourse whether or not you like it.
That said, we do have a new writer, who is exploring the Civilisation series, and so we should have something, when it is ready.
A bit like Grolsch…
The period between Christmas and the New Year is a strange one. I have to work some next week, and then I get January 1st off. I always thought it weird that the English speaking world just lumps this together a “Happy holidays” but someone on the Discord told me they call it “the inbetween times” which made me chuckle.
Speaking of time, New Year’s Eve approaches, and with it the inevitable 100 things you want to change, which you will forget about by January (gyms kinda rely on your forgetting!) but it got me thinking:
What would you like from eXplorminate in 2026?
So, to wrap up my inbetween times, I am playing Knights of Honor 2, Runequest : Warlords and Absolum (I am a sucker for punishment) and I will start Terra Invicta. I am a bit scared just looking at Terra Invicta though. It’s like someone played X-com and started wondering how would the world react if Aliens really were coming. It is on sale now with 35% off, so a good deal.
If you feel like further supporting Hooded Horse, they have a mega bundle on sale:
Enjoy, and keep exploring!
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Also known as BBB in many places, Andy is well known for his love of strategy games of all types, especially the Age of Wonders series.