Lords of the Realm II

About Lords of the Realm II

Lords of the Realm II (1996) is Impressions Games' medieval strategy game combining turn-based management of counties with real-time battles and castle sieges, as rival lords vie for a vacant throne.

Lords of the Realm II in Depth

In an alternate 1268, a king dies without an heir, and players compete with rival claimants to win the throne. Play alternates between a turn-based map, viewed isometrically and divided into up to ten counties held by two to five players, and real-time battles. Each county's economy is managed separately: food comes from grain or cows, and mining, smithing, forestry and farming produce resources that can be switched on or off, traded with travelling merchants or forged into weapons by blacksmiths. Labour is split between food and industry with a slider or managed in detail. Each county has a happiness level shaped by taxes and food supply; unhappy peasants riot, hungry ones die or emigrate, and events such as the Black Death or drought strike at random.

Armies are raised by conscripting peasants, who can become knights, archers or pikemen if the right weapons are available, and marched on the map to intercept enemy armies, towns or castles. Counties can be fortified with a palisade, motte and bailey, keep, stone castle or royal castle using stone and iron, and diplomacy allows gifts and alliances. Single players choose from 24 maps, difficulty and number of opponents. Critics praised the medieval theme and the blend of modes; Next Generation found its economic management "plausible" and "realistic" with a "sense of the dynamics of ruling", though some felt the two halves conflicted or lacked depth.

Making Lords of the Realm II

Impressions Games developed it as the sequel to 1994's Lords of the Realm, and Sierra announced it after acquiring publishing rights to Impressions' games, releasing it for DOS, Windows and Mac in 1996. General manager and lead designer David Lester aimed to merge "visceral" combat with in-depth strategy and streamlined the economic simulation with slider bars to "reduce the learning curve of the game dramatically". It received generally favourable reviews, with PCMag calling the turn-based mode "very well-designed", while critics disagreed on its difficulty, AI and the strategic options in combat. It peaked at ninth on PC Data's charts in January 1997, and Lords of the Realm III followed in 2004.