Gameplay

Don't fix what isn't broken

The exhaustive effort on Cavedog's part to make Total Annihilations: Kingdoms a different game than its predecessor are most evident in the gameplay changes. This game plays nothing like TA, though it shares the same engine and interface, and similar mechanics. Bear in mind that you have a very powerful-- though not invulnerable-- Monarch unit that is the core of your forces. The core gameplay is identical to most other RTS games, with some notable departures that I'm going to cover in detail.

The good guys!

Dragon roasting his lunch

Simplified resource model

Instead of metal and energy, you only need worry about one resource in Kingdoms: Mana. The collection of mana is quite simple; just build a lodestone on the designated map point and the mana rolls in at a fixed rate. Your mana "budget" shows in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Construction only stalls when your mana cost exceeds your mana production. There is a fixed amount of mana that will be stored for each lodestone, so you can build up an excess of mana for a rainy day-- but you have no direct control over how much storage capacity you have. There is also no way to actively generate mana. This is a major change from the fusion plants and fusion aircraft carriers of TA!

Exaggerated height effects

Units in TA had slightly extended view and shot range when elevated, but units in TA:K have a HUGE range advantage when elevated. This makes occupying high ground exceptionally important.

Stained glass windows eh?

More dragon action

Veteran effects

The concept of units that achieve "veteran" status with a certain number of kills was first explored in TA. The effect was rather subtle and given the huge numbers of units in play, it was rarely worth babysitting units to get there. However, veteran units in Kingdoms are EXTREMELY powerful, and they get even more powerful as they achieve more kills. One cool side effect of this is that units actually look different as they get more experience-- this is manifested as gold textures added to the unit model. The more gold you see on a unit, the more powerful it is. A squad of veteran units will absolutely wipe the floor with freshly produced units of the same type, sometimes with double the amount of attack power or spell points. It definitely pays to pull back your veterans so they can live to fight another day.

Why don't these guys run?

That looks painful

Ambient health gain

In what is probably another carrot to encourage keeping units alive, all Kingdoms units slowly regain health over time. You can pull back damaged units and they will regain roughly half of their health in about a minute.