The three tutorials are fairly comprehensive and impart knowledge on how to plan and organise your towns, load and transport goods, send out your scouts, set up regular trade routes and handle the basics of combat. Even so, there’s still a lot to learn and quite a bit to figure out on your own. Even seasoned RTS veterans may find themselves struggling a little during the early stages.

Between the campaign and continuous game options the latter is the best way to learn the ropes. Without an ultimate goal to achieve you can simply play for as long as you like. There are also several scenarios to choose from that provide a full range of environments, peaceful or hostile inhabitants and a sedate or more chaotic style of gameplay to suit your own level of expertise. To aid matters, there is also a handy, almost encyclopaedic A to Z indexed help option that details all the different elements of the game and is invaluable when you get stuck.