Gemfire is a game I grew up playing in my basement on SNES. It is the story of warring families on a large island, like England perhaps, all fighting for control of six gems. Whoever controls the gems and all the lands becomes supreme ruler of the land. You must simultaneously run the domestic side of your provinces, including building up protection against natural distasters, harvesting crops, providing food to keep your citizens happy, and building armies. You can hire monsters, steal from neighbors, and get other provinces to join your nation. The whole time, good and bad events affect every part of daily life.

The territories are won or lost on the battlefield. Square-mapped combat with the use of five units, a horseman, two infantry, a ranged bowman, and a 5th special unit, is easy to learn. Unfortunately, the AI is weak on the battlefield. Different characters have different stats and your battle stats can put you at a disadvantage. 5th units can range from Ogres to wyverns to dragons, skeletons, mages, troops, and other people (uruk-hai for the win). Gemfire features an enjoyable combat system but once you figure out the AI, you can win handily.

Both parts of the game come together to form Gemfire. This is a fun play and a fairly deep multi-strategy game. It often takes a while to get a hold of your territories but when you do you can win easily. The Game Over animation and music is nice to watch. They took some time to do the last scenes.

Gemfire is a fun game. It's a not-to-difficult strategy game that is above and beyond the usual hack'n'slashers or sports game.