Evony is a real time strategy (RTS) game which you can play for free after you sign up for a free membership account. It is a browser based game so there is nothing to download or anything like that. It is set in the middle ages and your task is to build up your city, recruit heroes and build an army, conquer new territory and build new cities and build up your prestige and rank as well as your riches and honor.

I have played many, many free online games of various kinds, and this is the most advanced free game that I have come across, in terms of the number of different features and the quality of the game play. It is also onw of the most popular online games, with many thousands of players from all over the world.

Like all games of this type there is some waiting around while things build, but the fact that there are so many different things you can do while you are waiting for your buildings to be completed, such as training troops, performing research at your academy, building up your defences or sending your troops out on missions, that the waiting around isn't as much of a problem as other games like this that I have played. You also start off with a few scrolls called 'guidlines' which can speed up building and research times, and when you have used them you can earn more through completed quest or you can purchase in-game credits which you can then spend on various items including these guidline scrolls.

This really is a 'real time' game, so even when you log on your cities keep on operating as you left them in real time and you can build up loads of resources while your away from the game. When you first start out you get beginners protection for 1 week so that you can learn the game and build up the defences of your first city so that you don't just get hammered straight away by the more experienced players.

There are loads of different buildings that you can add to your city, from warehouses to academies to inns, marketplaces, stables and so on, all of which open up new options to you, and all building can be upgraded after they are built. There are also a wide variety of different types of troops and defence structures that you can build, and of course you have to build famrs, mines, sawmills and so on to bring resources into your city.

When you build your embassy you can join alliances with other players, or start your own alliance, in which players can join together to protect each other or to start wars on other alliances. There is also a chat box with various channels and a forum, making it a farily social game to play.

If you are interested in giving it a go visit Evony.com and take a look.