Because undercover spies are controlled by your opponent, he won't necessarily know what they're up to. All he sees is a soldier in his army. Imagine placing spies in all of your enemy's fortresses. Over time they'll gain prowess and favour, perhaps disposing of a few generals before being promoted themselves. When the time comes for the enemy to attack, confident in his army's power, from out of the blue your spies reveal themselves and command their troops to turn on each other. The potential for espionage is incredible.

Fortunately you don't need to be an Olympic mouse athlete to keep all your units in check. The game can be paused and orders given before the action restarts, which is extremely handy in the thick of a massive battle, which stretches across the map. Although the maps are somewhat bland, the graphics are superb.

The option to play the Fryhtan monsters and experience their radically different playing style is a welcome change. The Fryhtans must literally continually slaughter their way to a bigger empire, using bloodshed to breed more units.

The campaigns are all completely randomly generated so you'll never get the same game twice. The individual battles vary in objectives, and the ability to take certain leaders from one battle to the next gives an impression of games being related. It's these subtle twists that really make Seven Kingdoms II stand out from the crowd.