Do you concentrate on conquest right away, or attempt to build a strong economic base first? Do you attack the opponent directly, or burn his fields and slaughter his peasants in order to destroy his economy? Counties need constant attention, and different counties tend to present different problems. Gameplay is fairly solid, with enough basic strategies to keep you entertained for quite a while. As in real-time strategy games, each unit has a counter-unit. Armies consist of peasants, archers, macemen, swordsman, crossbow troops, pikemen, and knights. Open field battles tend to be fairly simple affairs. When two armies meet, you’ll enter the real-time battle mode. The problem is, mercs are costly, won’t work together and never seem to show up when you really need them. Mercenaries show up at your county centers, and are a great way to wage war without mucking up a county’s economy. Mercs are another method of building up armies. Yes, abusing the peasantry in LotM is fun.

In times of war, you can hand them weapons and send them off to die. Those peasants are lucky to live under your banner, so don’t hold back on taxing the hell out of them.

In addition to raising food, you’ll need to put your peasants to work gathering resources and building weapons. Ample food means your peasants will be happy and healthy, and consequently, population will increase. You move armies and supplies, build an economic infrastructure or engage in diplomacy.Įach county has a set amount of arable land, which you can use for farming wheat or raising cattle to feed your peasants. You manage your empire in LotM on a county-by-county level using the world map. Indeed, that rather modern series owes more than its fair share of tricks to LotM, a strategy game evenly split between turn-based empire-building and close-up battle management. Envision the Lords of the Realm series as a sort of proto-Total War.

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