Overview
In this Guide, I will show you how to play Lords of the Realm 2.
1. Story
It is 1268 A.D. The news that the King has died has spread sadness across the land… for the common folk. For the nobility, this news is greeted with grim yet open arms, as it signals to the bloodthirsty and power hungry Lords that the Crown is now within reach!
You are one of these Lords who would be King (a.k.a. The Prince). You too would be King, but you will have to deal with some very unwelcome opposition from the Baron (weathered but wise), the Countess (cold and calculating), the Bishop (religious zealot), and the Knight (brash and headstrong).
Work your sole county to start, creating weapons, farming, harvesting resources, and expanding your holdings. Also, fight the enemy in the field as well as in sieges of castles, manuveuring yourself into a position of total dominance within the country, claiming the Crown which is yours by the will of God himself!
2-1. County Features – Farming
Each county is blessed with a bevy of fields to call upon for food (usually they number at least 8 and as high as 16). These features can be used in a variety of manners, including:
Cattle Farming:
Cattle will live in the selected fields, producing milk. This milk will be turned into cheese, with each portion of cheese being enough to feed 5 people from your county for that season.
Wheat Farming:
Wheat can be planted (10 units per field in Winter), then you will need to take special care of each field for the Spring and Summer months, allowing your peasants to harvest the fields once Fall ends. The pay-off for every 10 seeds planted will yield 120 units of food, PROVIDED you put your full efforts into every field for the previous 3 seasons.
Fallow Fields:
These are fields that are not in use, instead sitting there vacant.
This may sound like a waste (which it usually is), but read on to the next paragraph to discover why this is a viable option in certain situations.
If you are playing the game with Advanced Farming, you will need to keep a balanced field approach to avoid having fields wither and die due to overuse. This means that you take your field totals for each county, divide that total by 3, and then divide each group of fields into one job.
(ie Cattle, Wheat, and Fallow).
NOTE: The changes you make don’t take effect until your next turn.
2-2. County Features – Barren Fields
Sometimes a field will become barren, meaning that no farming can be done there to create food for the Peasants. In fact, many of the Campaign Mode levels begin with a large portion of the county’s fields in complete disarray. Any time that a season changes at the end of turn, a field is
vulnerable, though a razing can occur during an opponent’s turn (provided they spend the extra movement points to send an army into the field to do the vile work).
The reasons for a field becoming barren are many, including:
Drought:
Sometimes the weather between seasons will be extremely dry, lacking rainwater. If this occurs, then the field will become completely dried out, killing off the ability for it to sustain Cattle or Wheat.
Fire:
When the lack of rain does not utterly bake a field, it can sometimes lead to a fire starting, which will burn the entire field, leaving nothing but a smoldering mess. If this occurs, then the field will become completely dried out, killing off the ability for it to sustain Cattle or Wheat.
Flooding:
The opposite of the above two, sometimes between seasons the weather will have a wild amount of precipitation, which will result in the over saturation of a field, drowning all of the plants, thus making it into a marshy mess that is incapable of supporting Wheat or Cattle.
Overuse:
While using the setting of Advanced Farming, a lack of switching between field types will result in the field becoming barren due to over farming of wheat (degrades the soil) or over raising of cattle (degrades the vegetation).
Razing:
This is the only instance where the opposing force has direct control over a field becoming barren, which is caused by their purposeful marching of their army through one of your fields (provided it is being farmed for Wheat or Cattle) to destroy everything contained within it.
To fix barren fields, select Peasants and put them to work on the left side of town, above the Blacksmith. Also, you will need to select the barren field and toggle it to repair. Once this has been done, your Peasants will work diligently, repairing the field in a time as fast as four seasons (the bare minimum time it takes for them to remove the dead stuff, re-seed the field, and then care for it to recover).
2-3. County Features – Natural Resources
No campaign to tame the rebellious enemy Lords can be waged without the use of weapons or castles, both of which are created by harvesting and then utilizing the resources to increase the strength of your forces.
What are the resources that can be harvested? Well, there is Iron that goes exclusively into the production of weaponry. Wood is also used for creating weaponry, but it is also a valuable component in castle building. Stone is for castles only, which is good because the higher end castles require TONS OF STONE!
Iron and Wood harvest at twice the quantity of Stone, but they are worth half as much with the merchant. This means that if you need a lot of Stone, use your money to buy the Iron and Wood you need while all your Peasants you can spare work at Stone.
2-4. County Features – Blacksmith
This is located in the bottom left portion of your town, which is where your Peasants that you send in there can create weapons. First of all, you will need to select a weapon to be constructed (Sword, Pike, Mace, Armor, Bow, Crossbow), followed by making sure you have enough materials to construct that particular weapon. The exact resources needed for each weapon are as follows:
Sword: 10 Iron, 3 Wood
Pike: 3 Iron, 6 Wood
Mace: 4 Iron, 4 Wood
Armor: 18 Iron, 4 Wood
Bow: 0 Iron, 13 Wood
Crossbow: 10 Iron, 6 Wood
Provided you have a large enough surplus, you can add more and more Peasants to the Blacksmith, leading to a maximum number of weapons to be produced after the turn ends.
2-5. County Features – Army Creation
When you have the need to call upon your loyal subjects to go to battle for you, click the sword and shield icon to bring up the armoury. Here is a slider bar that will allow you to set the number of people that you desire to make up your newest army, which can be further augmented by hiring the
services of a Mercenary Force. After setting the number of people you want into your army, it is time to assign them weapons by clicking on the appropriate weapon in the armory, then assigning how many of that weapon you wish to dispense. After getting the weapons assigned, click Create Army to send that unit into the field all ready too go wage war on behalf of their Liege!
Note that army creation has two serious drawbacks however, which are:
Loss of Work Force:
This slows production and hurts food production, hurting the Happiness of the county.
However, it can also relieve some food pressure upon your stock if the county has become too populous.
Lowers Happiness: This will occur in a fairly large degree. When creating a massive army, it is better to build it up from three (or more) different counties than to rip all the people for that force from just one county (removes some excess people from all three locations rather than gutting the one county).
2-6. County Features – Mercenary Forces
A County Town will sometimes have a sword symbol hovering over it, surrounded by coins. This signals that some soldiers for hire have marched into your county, looking for someone to pay them to go do what they do best; which is to bring death and destruction upon those that did not hire them! Although they come at a slightly higher expense than purchasing weapons and outfitting your own people, they have the added bonus of being an army that can be created without penalty to your Happiness.
Some of the forces that can be hired through out the lands are as follows:
Saxon Macemen: 150 Maces for 1900 Crowns
Burgundy Macemen: 250 Maces for 3100 Crowns
Swedish Swordsmen: 100 Swords for 2700 Crowns
Danish Swordsmen: 200 Swords for 5500 Crowns
Spanish Knights: 25 Knights for 2700 Crowns
Angevin Knights: 50 Knights for 5500 Crowns
Scottish Pikemen: 100 Pikes for 1800 Crowns
Irish Pikemen: 200 Pikes for 3500 Crowns
Flemish Crossbowmen: 100 Crossbows for 3000 Crowns
Norman Crossbowmen: 200 Crossbows for 6000 Crowns
Moorish Archers: 150 Bows for 3000 Crowns
Welsh Archers: 200 Bows for 4000 Crowns
2-7. County Features – Castles
Costs:
Wooden Palisade: 40 Stone, 400 Wood
Motte & Bailey: 80 Stone, 800 Wood
Norman Keep: 1000 Stone, 200 Wood
Stone Castle: 2000 Stone, 400 Wood
Royal Castle: 3000 Stone, 800 Wood
Builders Needed:
Wooden Palisade: 200 workers
Motte & Bailey: 400 workers
Norman Keep: 800 workers
Stone Castle: 1500 workers
Royal Castle: 2500 workers
Tax Bonus Boost:
Wooden Palisade: 50%
Motte & Bailey: 75%
Norman Keep: 100%
Stone Castle: 125%
Royal Castle: 150%
Maximum Garrison
Wooden Palisade: 150
Motte & Bailey: 200
Norman Keep: 200
Stone Castle: 400
Royal Castle: 600
Boiling Oil Numbers:
Wooden Palisade: 1
Motte & Bailey: 2
Norman Keep: 3
Stone Castle: 4
Royal Castle: 6
2-8. County Features – Merchant Carts
Traveling merchants will make the rounds through out the counties, offering their wares to the Lord of that area. They have many goods, ranging from weapons to resources to food to ale.
Each price is for one unit of the merchandise being purchased.
Weapons:
Maces: 20 Crowns
Pikes: 26 Crowns
Swords: 46 Crowns
Armor: 88 Crowns
Bows: 32 Crowns
Crossbows: 48 Crowns
Resources:
Wood.: 2 Crowns
Iron: 2 Crowns
Stone: 4 Crowns
Food:
Cows: 24 Crowns
Wheat: 4 Crowns
Ale: Ale costs 1 Crown per unit, and it is used to improve the morale of the population (ie Happiness). It will increase the Happiness of a County by 1 for every “X” (20% of the entire population within that county) amount of Crowns that are spent, capping off at 5 increases in Happiness per season. It’s a superb way to help get the peasants happy after a county has been
taken, especially if it has been traded back and forth between feuding Lords numerous times.
2-9. County Features – Happiness
This is the indicator of what the people think of your rule of them. A number of factors feed into this rating, mainly Ration, Taxes (covered in the next couple sub-sections) & Army Creation/County Battles.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to Happiness is that your peasants will begin to lose faith in your ability to rule if the number for Happiness drops below 25. For every turn that this number remains too low, the Peasants will get further incensed, making more and more noise
against your tyrannical rule (resulting in Riots). After three or so turns of this, they will take up their pitchforks and torches, marching out into the wilderness along the highways, seeking out ANYONE to fight. If the county is in danger of revolt, use Ale (buy it from merchants to improve morale), double or triple rations, and drop the tax rate to appease the people to a much happier plane
of existence.
2-10. County Features – Ration
All counties will be set to a default of Normal Rations, or if that is not achievable, the next highest setting. The possible settings are as follows:
Triple: +7 Happiness
Double: +4 Happiness
Normal: +1 Happiness
Half: -2 Happiness
Quarter: -5 Happiness
None: -8 Happiness
Now, it is best to keep the total around Normal Rations, but sometimes you will need to drop below that if food is scarce. In that situation, allow for this drop in Happiness by decreasing taxes a bit, thus not costing your Peasants any motivation thanks to ill will towards the ruling class.
If your Peasants end up sick, you will want to boost your rationing up to Double or Triple settings, which will assist the people in getting the extra nourishment needed to raise their health back up to a higher area that will benefit them and their productivity for you, the Lord. The Health ratings are as follows:
Perfect: +2 Happiness
Good: +1 Happiness
Okay: 0 Happiness
Sick: -5 Happiness
Diseased: -15 Happiness
It is definitely for the best to keep the peasants in the Okay to Perfect range, as they will work their hardest for their Liege under those circumstances.
2-11. County Features – Taxes
These are levies laid upon your subjects to raise the necessary funds to pay troops, purchase commodities, and to grease the wheels of a budding relationship with a fellow Lord (nothing like bribery to promote action out of a friend). The higher the rate of tax, the less Happiness that will be
experienced by the populace, so try to balance the Taxes out with the other factors affecting Happiness, hopefully getting a result that breaks even or slightly increases the Happiness of the people.
However, if you are a cruel tax collector, your rate of pay can climb quite steeply. If you are too cruel in one particular county, the effect can be felt in all of your other counties as well, starting around 19% rate resulting in -1 Happiness for all other counties (-19 for that county’s Happiness), decreasing Happiness by the same rate that the Tax rate increases from that point onwards.
Also note that Tax collection totals are affected by what sort of Castle/Fortress the county possesses.
Wooden Palisade: 50%
Motte & Bailey: 75%
Norman Keep: 100%
Stone Castle: 125%
Royal Castle: 150%
3-1. Units – Hand to Hand
Knight
Attack: 5
Defense: 3
Speed: 5
The premier force of any army, these mounted soldiers have superior leverage, meaning they can strike harder and faster than anyone else. They are extremely fast as well, due to their horses which can outrun humans (naturally, this makes complete sense). However, they do have middle of the road defensive capability, as they are somewhat exposed thanks to the height they gain from their mount as well as their ability to get separated from the other forces leaves them somewhat vulnerable to getting swarmed (especially when in Field Battles).
Also note that this is the ONLY unit in the game that is incapable of filling in a moat, as they would be unable to do so from horseback.
Maceman
Attack: 4
Defense: 2
Speed: 4
A rather kamikaze-like unit, they have the second fastest foot speed and attack capabilities thanks to their light armour and vicious spiked ball implement. However, they do pay for the lack of armor and short weapon with the second worst defense of any Hand-To-Hand unit in the game. However, they are inexpensive to produce, so it is a solid choice for a strike force as well as a good choice for rushing past opposing units to grab a flag.
They are not very good selections for moat filling, as they lose their numbers too quickly thanks to their minimal armor and vulnerability to Long Range missiles.
Peasant
Attack: 1
Defense: 1
Speed: 3
Your basic resident in your counties can also be forced to take up a pitchfork in your lordly name and honor. However, they are not exactly topof the line soldier material, having no armour, a basic farming tool to attack with, and a lack of confidence as they charge (with good reasons,
specifically those first two issues mentioned). You could have gave them a weapon, making them more useful, but you chose to doom them to dying in vast quantities in a very short time.
The one upside they do have is reasonable speed, but that is a small consolation as they will be able to rush to their deaths that much quicker. They do make good cannon fodder, meaning they can help occupy some forces while your real soldiers take care of the threats of the enemy. They can also be sprinkled into moat digging groups, which will help dispense the loss of some trained and professional soldiers (though too many in a digging group will make the effort be wasted thanks to quick deaths).
Pikeman
Attack: 2
Defense: 5
Speed: 1
The most heavily armoured unit you can have, they also have the added defense of their long weapon, the Pike, which keeps enemies farther away (thus it is harder to land a kill shot). The trade off for this superior armor and long but unwieldy weapon? A lack of offense (only surpassed for ineffectiveness by Peasants) and a complete lack of speed (thanks to the
heavy, protective armor).
This makes these fellows vulnerable to slashing attacks from faster units, but they work perfectly in two situations. They work well as the line of defense for keeping your Bowmen safe from direct attack (they are tough so they hold the enemy in place while your Bowmen lay waste to these units from afar) and they are easily the best choice for digging the moat into nothingness (they are tough, so it takes a lot of arrows to kill them off, making them ideal for dirty work such as this).
Swordsman
Attack: 3
Defense: 4
Speed: 2
A major staple of every army in history till the invention of the musket (even then, the sword was still carried into battle and often used), they have the all round goods, offering a middle of the pack attack power, which is coupled with a great defensive capability (only surpassed by Pikemen). They do have a lack of speed, but that is due to their superior armor weighing their efforts to move down.
They are a jack of all trades, meaning they can attack, defend Bowmen, and dig moats (followed by rushing into a castle). These guys are worth the resource price, but remember to have some other, cheaper units around to suck up some of the losses, or your costs will escelate too quickly for compensation.
3-2. Units – Long Range Units
Bowman
Attack: 1
Defense: 1
Range: 15
Rate Of Fire: 5
The meat of any defensive force inside a fortress, they have the best range of any attacker. Add onto that their capability to fire a lot of arrows off in a hurry, and you have the markings of a lethal, long range killer.
They are a good addition to any attacking force, just remember that they need to be behind the Hand-To-Hand units or they will take dreadful losses (they will be forced into fighting Hand-To-Hand, which is not a good idea for soldiers who only have a wooden bow to swing in defense while wearing next to no armor).
Crossbowman
Attack: 4
Defense: 2
Range: 5
Rate Of Fire: 1
With a range that is just one third that of the Bowman, the Crossbowman is more of an offensive soldier than a defensive one. They also have a slower rate of fire (about 20% the speed shown by a Bowman), but their weapons are so high powered that any crossbow bolt that makes connection with an enemy will kill them (especially useful for getting rid of Swordsmen, Pikemen, and Knights in short order).
If in a fortress, use these hard hitters to kill any siege engines and Pikemen that draw near to the walls/gates, though be wary of a retreat and the longer range Bowmen of the enemy trying to pick them off (the Crossbowmen then need to be the ones to retreat to return once the Bowmen
have been neutralized). In the field, they need to be protected like Bowmen, but they fare a wee bit better in Hand-To-Hand situations, though their ability as a group to cut down enemies quickly is a large reason for that (note that this only works properly if most or all can continually unleash their Crossbow Bolts upon the charging enemy).
4. Meet the Nobles
The Prince: a.k.a The Player. Your diplomacies may vary.
The Baron: A wise and cautious man, the Baron seeks to consolidate a strong base of operations before further expanding his territory.
The Bishop: A clergyman who thinks he is divinely appointed to rule, he relies on large armies consisting mostly of peasants and archers for attack. His people are seldom happy due to his continual creation of large armies. He generally constructs large expensive castles for his counties.
The Countess: A cold, calculating opponent, the Countess’s main focus is expansion, and as a result she tends to overextend herself. If made an ally, she cannot be trusted to coexist peacefully with you, and will attack even though you are allies.
The Knight: Young, brash, and aggressive. The Knight will aggressively attack counties. While he generally constructs small weak castles for his counties, he usually fields large armies which are difficult to defend against early on unless the player is resourceful.