Could be a great game. You can make it through the tech tree without spending money however in order to thrive in the game you need to spend quite a bit of money. All of the most effective coin and build creating units cost real money. If you want to do more than a couple battles a day you need to pay real money to heal/revive your army. I'm pretty sure it is impossible to be competitive in the guilds battleground without spending real money. It all sucks the fun out of the game.