Expeditions: Conquistador Review (Dad Gamer 1978)
Normally I'm not really into tactical RPGs, but I've heard good things about the Expeditions series and I've always felt the Spanish conquest of the Americas is a criminally underutilized setting in games so naturally this game caught my interest.
While it drew me in pretty quickly, this game isn't for everyone. It has a pretty steep learning curve and really makes you feel like you're just barely surviving, at least initially. This game pretty much front loads most of its difficulty and the whole Hispaniola section of the game is quite difficult despite being the tutorial area. I felt like the game got considerably easier after arriving in Mexico. Whether that is a result of me just learning how to play the game better or my party members being leveled up more in addition to the resources I had amassed at that point is up for debate.
If you can get past that initial learning curve there is a lot of fun to be had here though. The game utilizes its setting well and is well written. The combat, while not great, is serviceable and if you're playing correctly you should be able to avoid a lot of combat scenarios or at the very least go into them in such a way that you are at an advantage. The exception to this are some rather brutal random events that will occasionally pop up as you camp at night that can lead to combat encounters that are more difficult than anything you face in the story missions and no-win dialogue options that will lead to the death of one of your expedition members. It's for that reason I recommend saving often so if you get one of these bullshit events you can load a save prior to that random event.
As for some recommendations should you play this game during character creation I advise you put most of your points into diplomacy, survival, and scouting. I also advise that your starting party consist of 2 doctors, 2 hunters, 1 scholar, 2 scouts, and the rest of the slots filled out by soldiers. You'll have opportunities to recruit additional members of various classes throughout the game, but try not to ever let yourself go below those numbers for the key classes I mentioned.
All in all I'd give it a go if what I've said sounds interesting at all.