Lords Of The Realm

Title		Lords Of The Realm
Game Type	Strategy
Players		1-6 (ish)
Compatibility	AGA
Submission	Aidan Ryder

Review
This is an engaging strategy game, and one of the Amiga`s finest. You are
cast into the role of a medieval warlord in England, and must wrest
control from the other major powers to win. You control counties, down to
what they plant in the fields, you trade, you build castles, and you raise
armies. The game is very nicely done, with loads of pleasant animations on
the county screens, and plenty of attention to detail. In each county,
your aim is to keep the morale of the citizens up, while building up
supplies to build a castle. To do this, you must manage the farming, buy
ale for your people, and try to avoid things like excessive tax rates, and
conscription.

When you have a county or two ticking along nicely, it is probably time to
protect them. So you design a castle (or pick a pre-made one), name it,
and set your people to work. You are told how much stone and wood is
needed, and how long it will take to build. In this part of the game it
works much like Castles - you assign people to farming, woodcutting,
quarrying and building. When your castle is built, you then decide to
venture forth with an army. You tell your populace to mine ore and smith
weapons, and you buy more weapons from traders.

You raise an army (of not more than 50% of the population) and then try to
keep farming balanced while you move so many people out of the county. You
can then move your army (or armies if you are feeling aggressive) about
England, ransacking villages, and taking other counties. Battles are fought
in a sub-Dune2 style, with units being given orders during "pause time"
which are then carried out in realtime.

The real fun starts when you get to a county that is protected by a castle.
Then you have to lay siege to it, and you can choose whether to just starve
them out, or to build war-machines and destroy the castle. Sieges can take
years, and are quite satisfying, particularly when your catapults go to work
on destroying the place.

The enemy is not restful however. Propelled by a quite advanced AI system,
they attempt to pillage their way through your kingdom, just as you do
theirs. There are few "AI traps" that you can set, and the opponents really
do keep you on your toes.

Another very nice feature of the game is the multiple player modes. You can
have up to about 6 players on the go at once, as the game is turn based, and
this adds a lot to the mix.

Now, onto the game`s failings. There are not many of these, and they are not
too intrusive. Firstly, the game is a little sluggish, and will be downright
slow on anything below an 030,

secondly, it does not multitask, so no renders in the background. Another
problem is the way that a small mistake at the start can crush an otherwise
good go, but that is just the nature of the game really.

I would give Lords Of The Realm a score of 90%

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