Millions Lords is a brand new game by the developer Million Victories and it is a free-to-play title on mobile devices including both iOS and Android. Million Lords has been in beta for quite some time now and it was only released in its full version a couple of days ago. It brings a brand new direction for strategy games as it ditches all the complex mechanics and puts in some basic ones to encourage players of every skill level to play the game. We find out how this strategy worked out for Million Victories in our review of Million Lords.
Millions Lords is a huge game and when I say huge; I really mean huge. Instead of building your base at a single location, your goal in Million Lords is to expand your territories city by city and that involves any means necessary. Pretty soon you will be the owner of tons of cities that you have easily captured with your ever-growing armies and stocks of gold. You can build as many armies as you like in a city and you can also move your army from one city to another to bolster its defenses.
It is a lot different than most RTS games currently available as a free-to-play title. Million Victories also says that their main motivation behind Million Lords was to develop a title which is not pay-to-win and rather it is play-to-win and so far during my playthrough of the game, I have not reached a point where the game would demand that I spend real-world money to progress in the game. Microtransactions certainly help speed up the progress because your advisors cost gems and it is a premium currency but you are forced to spend them in the game.
One of the best bits I liked about Million Lords is that it does not shove everything straight into your face right at the start. Instead, it allows the players to explore a bit and then gradually unlock more advanced features so that they can easily apprehend everything and play the game in the best way possible. I am not a regular player of mobile strategy games and I never played Clash of Clans or any other conquest titles because they are very demanding and require too much time.
Million Lords, on the other hand, makes everything very simple. A single button tap will upgrade your city and make it better. Each city you capture generates gold and army per hour which further eliminates your need to build separate structures for developing armies or gathering resources. The main resources in Million Lords are gems which are purchased with real-world money or earned by completing in-game objectives. The second resource is gold which is used for expanding cities and other expenses.
This really simplifies the gameplay and makes it easier for players to understand how the game works and lets them focus more on conquering and taking over cities rather than micromanaging each and everything in your base. The game does all of that for you. All you need to do is make sure that you keep capturing more cities for your empire and defend the ones from other players that are under your control because everyone in the world has the same idea of expansion.
As you explore cities and conquer them, you not only get gold but sometimes you will also get some cool items for your lord which include armor and weapons. You can equip these items to add different bonuses to your hero and even change them according to your current moves which include attacking or defending. Equipping the right items at the right time will ensure that your lord is strong and more capable of tackling the current scenario.
Even this feature is very easy in the game as the game offers you to choose attack or defense loadout and it will automatically adjust your item loadout and equip the best ones in your inventory. Apart from items which can be equipped, every time you level up, you will also earn skill points for your lord which can be used to purchase different skills. These skills also make your lord better and add different bonuses such as getting more gold per hour or bonus to city attacks.
By using items and purchasing skills, you can tailor your lord to become more suitable for your preferred playstyle. You can also change the visual outlook of your lord from a number of different customization options however these are only visuals and do not affect the skills and stats in any way. The only way you can change the stats of your lord is by changing items or by purchasing skills which makes the mechanic even simpler.
As you continue your expansion across the map, you will encounter other players as well and apart from some Neutral cities, most of the cities will be occupied by other players playing the game from around the world. The main city of each player is built on a floating island and you cannot capture these floating islands. You can only attack and capture other cities which are on normal land and have been captured by other players as well.
To gain a tactical advantage on the battlefield, you can use different tactics to gain insight about the enemy’s cities before attacking them such as sending scouts to determine the size of enemy armies in cities. These use gems which are the premium currency of the game however using scouts really make the game easy for you as if you send fewer troops, your attack will not be successful and you will suffer a defeat. After a battle or scouting event is complete, you can view detailed reports of the events as well which give you further insight on the situation.
Another great aspect of Million Lords is that it is an excellent short-break game. You can pick up your phone, conquer a few cities, upgrade your lord, expand your cities and leave the game in hardly 4, 5 minutes tops. This makes it extremely convenient to play it between office breaks or simply during water cooler breaks because who wants to chat with other office colleagues waiting in the queue anyway.
Final Verdict
Million Lords is a great free-to-play title and really makes it easier for players of every skill to jump in the RTS genre. It’s easy to understand mechanics and to-the-point system makes it really simple to quickly jump in, enjoy the game for a bit and then continue your daily tasks. It is not demanding at all and is a great time pass if you want a decent long-term game. I’ve also not experienced any sort of bugs or glitches during my playthrough although I would recommend that you have a powerful smartphone to play the game properly otherwise it will suffer when it comes to performance. I will highly recommend that everyone gives Million Lords a shot on iOS or Android because there is nothing to lose here as the game is free-to-play. I am sure it will make its spot in your device automatically with its brilliant mechanics and easy to understand gameplay.
Final Score: 9/10
