Hello viewers!
I'm glad to report in that I had the chance to get some serious Lords of the Realm II time in last night. I attempted to re-play the game without any source of knowledge, but I quickly found out that I had forgotten a few important aspects of the game. Such as, making sure you have enough farmers planting wheat in the winter, otherwise you'll be starving for a year!
(View of Town Centre and Workers)
Your first priority should be making your people as happy as possible. Happiness of your county's villagers is key to having a successful game. Otherwise, people may riot and fight against your soldiers. When I need happiness to go up, I put tax at 0% to add 5 hearts of happiness. Once you reach 100% happiness, (depending on your county health and food), you can raise tax to even out every turn so that your happiness never drops from 100% but you still get tax money from your people. I usually have perfect health, and normal rations which is + 2. Therefore I can raise taxes to 7% (which is -2 hearts.) The +2 and the -2 cancel each other out, leaving full happiness in your county.
About food, I typically stick to just wheat. As a default, the game starts you out with cow fields. What it doesn't tell you ahead is that cows need tending ALL YEAR. The wheat only needs a ton of workers during harvest/planting. In between, you can move workers around the town to make weapons, mine, etc. Having workers doing other things will help out later when you need supplies to create things.
Your first priority should be making your people as happy as possible. Happiness of your county's villagers is key to having a successful game. Otherwise, people may riot and fight against your soldiers. When I need happiness to go up, I put tax at 0% to add 5 hearts of happiness. Once you reach 100% happiness, (depending on your county health and food), you can raise tax to even out every turn so that your happiness never drops from 100% but you still get tax money from your people. I usually have perfect health, and normal rations which is + 2. Therefore I can raise taxes to 7% (which is -2 hearts.) The +2 and the -2 cancel each other out, leaving full happiness in your county.
About food, I typically stick to just wheat. As a default, the game starts you out with cow fields. What it doesn't tell you ahead is that cows need tending ALL YEAR. The wheat only needs a ton of workers during harvest/planting. In between, you can move workers around the town to make weapons, mine, etc. Having workers doing other things will help out later when you need supplies to create things.
It's really nice making your own weapons instead of buying them. That way, you always have reserve money for emergency sieges of your county, and you can purchase mercenaries instead of drafting your towns people. Drafts not only significantly lower your town's happiness, but it also decreases population. Lower population means fewer workers. YOU WANT AS MANY WORKERS AS POSSIBLE.
Draft mercenaries WHENEVER you can, and then combine them to your regular armies. (You can't combine armies of mercenaries if they are from different backgrounds.) NEVER create an army lacking weapons. Armies filled with peasants will fall easily. They're virtually unarmed, and unprotected. I've had 100 pike-men destroy 300 peasants and only lose a few men. Peasant-Army = BIG NO-NO
Another topic I really wanted to talk about was battle. On field battle is basically the best part of the game. It's where your hard work shows on the field against your enemies. If you're just doing field battle (no castle sieges) a good technique to always use is with archers and pike-men. Archers have the ability to attack enemies without being attacked themselves. (If they're at a distance of course.) I found that using pike-men as a barrier around archers is a great way to win a battle , especially if you're outnumbered. The pike-men have a high damage tolerance, and also dish out a lot of damage. The archers will be free to shoot whomever you direct them to, and be safe and sound!
(An example of this tactic, but with knights on horses)
Castle Sieges are the most exciting battles. One team if on the offense to take over the castle and siege control of the county, while the other teams attempts to halt the invading soldiers. Offensive armies will have either Catapults, Battering Rams, or Siege Towers. I only use 2 battering rams. (1 extra) I found success by moving all of my soldiers south to avoid arrows. Then I move my battering ram up to the door alone and let it take down all the doors in the castle. After that you can rush knights directly to the flag (kill all the people, or capture the flag to win) and have a lot of archers follow in behind them. This tactic is almost always successful unless you're low on soldiers.
(Pouring boiling oil across moat, onto soldiers)
If you're on the defense, you want to have all your archers on enemy-populated sides of the castle. If your enemy only has a battering ram, you only need to worry about the front. (They can't enter any other way.) Special weapons you get are huge cauldrons of boiling oil. Okay seriously, how cool is that! Pouring boiling onto a group of invading soldiers is HIGHLY effective. (pic above) Also, make sure you surround the entrance to your flag with oil cauldrons as a last resort to save the castle.
That about wraps up this post. I'm working on video recording so I can get some live play with tips. I'm planning on using the Fraps software since I've heard a lot of good things about it. If anyone has other opinions please feel free to comment and fill me in. Thanks for reading!
If you're on the defense, you want to have all your archers on enemy-populated sides of the castle. If your enemy only has a battering ram, you only need to worry about the front. (They can't enter any other way.) Special weapons you get are huge cauldrons of boiling oil. Okay seriously, how cool is that! Pouring boiling onto a group of invading soldiers is HIGHLY effective. (pic above) Also, make sure you surround the entrance to your flag with oil cauldrons as a last resort to save the castle.
That about wraps up this post. I'm working on video recording so I can get some live play with tips. I'm planning on using the Fraps software since I've heard a lot of good things about it. If anyone has other opinions please feel free to comment and fill me in. Thanks for reading!
- Adude321
