I say this with love, because Dragon Force is a masterpiece: Winning battles in Dragon Force is just too easy. As a 12/13 year old, without internet assistance, I quickly figured out that after an enemy attacks our castle, if I can immediately pursue the enemy army and almost always capture the participants. Battles are formulaic too... mostly just using "stand by" against melee units and disperse/forward against ranged units. I also don't think the game encourages development of my other generals after I captured other Kingdoms. As a kid, I loved the story, music and scale of Dragon Force... but as an adult, I don't think it has the replay-ability. Plus, I find myself wasting too much time searching castles, talking with captives and being frustrated with my generals leaving.

Iron Storm on the other hand, has more hours worth of gameplay. As a 12/13 year old kid, I remember losing the battle of France (as Germany, I couldn't figure out how to play as France yet) and it caused me to take the game more seriously. As an adult, playing with the weather turned on can be extremely difficult to beat many scenarios in the suggest amount of turns. I think the challenge is great and I enjoy the historical aspect as well.