Great game. However it takes times and patience. I see it as having 3 game styles: 1) combat oriented; 2) trade and production focus; 3) mix of both. Unlike many other games you can play completely free, you won't find yourself in a situation where you cannot progress without paying or progress is so minimal that you have to pay. None of that. Nevertheless, buying ingame currency (diamonds) brings you much greater rewards in comparrison to other games I played.