Pioneers of Pagonia is a cosy city-building RTS that’s worth settling in for

thesixthaxis.com:

When it comes to early RTS games, you can keep your Age of Empires, your Strongholds and your Warcrafts. I’ll take The Settlers, each and every time. I couldn’t entirely tell you why this is the series that’s crawled under my skin like so many woodlice under a rock, ranged against a wealth of other inarguably top-notch outpost-building, material-mining choices, but here we are. So, you can imagine the intense excitement when I discovered Pioneers of Pagonia, an upcoming town-building RTS that’s being developed by original The Settlers designer Volker Wertich. Fortunately, I was instantly able to check it out, via the brand new demo that’s just launched on Steam!

The demo gives you access to three maps to tinker with – the Rich Forest, Wet Grassland and Dry Rocks – each of which brings its own unique biome to bear. You arrive in The Venturer, a ship that’s all set to unload its bevy of settlers onto the shore, each of which will give you a leg-up in this untamed landscape. First, though, you’re going to need roads. It’s as easy as selecting the road option and laying some down, easily snapping them together as you go. Building these unlocks plot locations alongside them, allowing you to then truly start on your outpost.

Placing your buildings down is just as clear and intuitive, locking into place against the roadside, and allowing you to easily rotate them before finalising their placement. As expected, it’s all about infrastructure to begin with, and in time-honoured fashion, it’s best to start chopping those trees down and turning the nearby stone into something more useful shapes and sizes. There’s a handy list of objectives for you to work towards, helping you to make sure your settlement will thrive, but that’s about