this looks fun. Is it worth it?

Game needs patience. Some missions require hours to be completed. But its fun! Building your village is so nice, watching your citizens doing their job... But you must be aware that some missions are hard...

Blam. I've discovered a nice trick (after 9 years since I first played the game). F8 speeds the game up. By 5 times or something.

That thing was added in expansion :P

Ah, I see :) However, since GOG K&M version includes the expansion, it works in the original game too :)

Niiiiice - you just made me buying the game ... speeding up the time is such agood feature the game deserved- yeehaw!
In case you didn't noticed: I love the game and now I'll try to get it to work on Win7 :)

Oh yeah, baby.
Well, I don't know, can't tell for you. But I think this game is awesome. I just love the art, the game pace, to start everything from the scratch, to see every single unit in the game go to work, eat, rest... but I know it's not a game for anyone.
Also, like others said... be PATIENT. Every single level will take hours to complete (unless you use a real hardcore rush strategy). But I didn't know about the F8 trick... :)

It's surely worth playing, at least for me. I played the demo that was being given with a gaming magazine in the long passed 1999 and there has been no year that i've not being looking for a compatible version for my pcs. Having that game for 5$ was something that cheered up my day.
A little nice thing: for those who didn't recognize it, track 14 is a mozart piece :)

The thing is, it also features extensive (hard) military parts that require extremely precise unit control (microing), single misclick can ruin a battle sometimes. So some builder kind of players hate that, and of course tactics players may hate the building - you have to love both aspects of the game! (unlike Settlers where military aspect is kept to minimum, at least up to 3rd, I haven't played the later ones).

And the microing of you forces doesn't happen "on the run" like in most RTSes, but is rather about setting up a situation and then meticulously executing it.

I think KaM really needs to be tried. ;). It is relatively easy to play, but very hard to master, and you can always improve with better approaches

Knights and Merchants is an awesome game, and thanks to fans recreating it there's still new content being added today. The KaM Remake is the project I am referring to:
http://www.kamremake.com/

It wasn't good even in 1998. It was AWESOME.
But now, after all these years it's a little bit disappointing.

I find that no RTS game has matched the level of economic complexity to date. Its not a Stracraft type RTS where you run to the best unit you have and pump out endless hoards of them Making even the basic military unit take time and effort. If you are a rush RTS type fan, this wont be the game for you. If you are a "lasting impact to early choices" type fan, then you dont get any better than this in RTS, in the past or today.

The combat aspect I dont feel is all that micro intensive. I would dare say its basically impossible to micro. I think the frustration with that comes with units having a facing. So if you march your archers up to the front with them looking back, they wont fire, things of that nature. But really, battles are won and lost long before anyone gets to the field. 9 times out of 10 its who gets there with the fastest with the mostest! Although it is relatively easy to goad the AI into arrow death traps and the like if you have the opportunity to set them up. Bottom line, if you have the strong economy, you are in good shape.

this is my childhood game. greetings from Romania.
romaniancar.com

This is absolutely not how Starcraft 2 is supposed to be played. Well, you can do it like that, but you won't get very far with that kind of "strategy". :) Actually in my opinion Starcraft 2 is the most complex RTS that is available right now -- if you leave out Starcraft Brood War. Why? Because of this:

But back to topic: Did you guys know that Knights and Merchants 2 was in development for a (very) short period of time? There is an alpha version out there, which doesn't have much content to offer, but if you are a fan of KaM you probably want to have a look at it.