There is no such thing as a free lunch. Or, so the saying goes, but I’m pretty sure the ham sandwich I had at my friend’s house when I was seven didn’t cost me a penny. Still, in Crown of Greed, a fantasy real-time strategy game inspired by the likes of Majesty, the old adage certainly holds true. And with its release today, it can even be put into the test!

Much like Majesty before it, in Crown of Greed you are the ruler of a land dubbed Rodovia. The only problem is that no one is really all that interested in listening to any of your wants or needs. Unless you have sufficient bags of gold to hand over, that is! All of your subjects have their own “wills, fears, and desires,” right up to the point where you say you’ll pay them. For example, you set a bounty for a monster den to be taken care of, and lo and behold, your subjects will take care of it for you, just through indirect means; you’re not guiding any troops to victory yourself here.

The slight spin on Majesty here is that it leans much more heavily into city building. You’ll start small, but it’s the usual idea of building up a big ole empire to rule over (presumably still indirectly). There’s your usual resource management and economy shenanigans to take care of here, with certain buildings bringing in different kinds of heroes and citizens. Those heroes may have some particular traits too, good and bad, and it’ll be down to how much you’re willing to pay to bring the right ones into play.

There’s a heritage system too which allows you to make permanent improvements for your kingdom, making it sound like you can spread out your journey to becoming an almighty ruler over the course of a long period of time. I’m also a fan of the European medieval folklore influences in the fantasy with beasties like Drowners and Baba Yaga to come across. Neat!

Crown of Greed is out today, and you can pick it up on Steam right here.