About to finish my first full playthrough, game 186. If I sound like a rant, it is from frustration at the game, not the players.

I do not like the promotion system, battle system, and people can change teams on a whim.

The battle system is nothing but an arm wrestling match. He with bigger numbers wins. The last game I played, the opposing horde used the call to arms wonder right before attacking us, therefor blocking it's use(smart move yes). They then used secret weapon 2 times during the battle. When the battle was over, call to arms came available. WHAT? Before they used the first secret weapon, the armies were about 40/60 to 45/55 of each others strength, and that shifted with weather, after it was about 20/80, and the battle was a route.

Additionally, when the strength numbers were 50k strength to 10k, I watched their side get back to back attacks, which is beyond... odd. There is no tactical ability for a side in battle, especially if the general is not online, even that is minimal. It is even worse when the title is handed out by some background magic system. There is no flanking, no taking defensive high ground, using range.. it feels like just an arm wrestling match. Big turn off to the armchair general in me.

Add that to the battlefield slot system. Players from other countries can put 1-2 units in defending slots, I would assume that could block players who log in later with 40-50 units? Currently there is about to be the game ending battle, 2 players on the team (America) have 4-5 groups on the field with less than 5 units, it is going to be a bloodbath, I was blocked from using a 24 unit Battleship group and 45 unit Tank group. Without any penalty to changing countries, was this sabotage or just some rookies who joined late putting in their few guys?

Unless there are genuine tactics involved, I will not be happy with the finished product. I want tactics, and I want some sort of exodus penalty(time and or resources). In Civ PC games, turning a city into a group of settlers and moving across the map takes time. This game has a magic teleporter. I like being able to balance teams on the fly, but not all players take that in good nature. I witnessed players, well the most experienced players, shift from 1st team to second team to third team as these teams started doing better, speeding up the balance of power faster with them. Some players wanted to win, or be on the big team, more than stick it out with their first set of teammates. Again, it is not the players I am worried about, but the game allowing this.

So, being a beta tester, that is what I saw and why I didn't like it.