Review by: Michael Teplitsky
Published: June 13, 2005

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the continent of Europe found itself split into a huge number of loosely defined principalities. With no Romans around to guide them, people quickly shattered the aqueducts, forgot the military drill manual and lost the recipe of concrete. Upon accomplishing these important milestones, they concerned themselves primarily with waging war on everything that moved. This happy period of human history would later be called the Dark Ages. Recently, however, it was discovered that the ‘darkness’ was relative so now we refer to it as the medieval times (not to be confused with a restaurant by the same name). Still, contrary to what some romantically inclined authors would have you believe, this was not a very pleasant time in which to live.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and particularly the advances in computer gaming, we now have the luxury of seeing medieval Europe from a bird’s eye view. This allows us to skirt around many integral parts of medieval existence, such as lice, rotten teeth and the plumbing arrangements focusing instead on more noble and glorious things, such as killing your neighbors and taking over everything they owned. Knights of Honor is a game that lets you do just that. I began by selecting a period of time in which to begin. The choices are: Early Medieval, High Medieval and Late Medieval periods. I was also given a choice of difficulty from the standard Easy, Medium and Hard. With the basics covered, I could now move on to the important task of conquering by selecting a state which I desired to lead to great victories. This selection is made from either a list or a map, depending on your preference and knowledge of medieval geography.

I was now in charge of the selected province, which contains natural features such as pastures, fertile soil, or salt deposits that act as prerequisites for constructing certain buildings. I also held residence in a town where I could build various military and civilian structures and recruit armies. Additionally, I owned villages that may produce food, gold or piety and can also be plundered by invading neighbors. This fine mess is governed by a royal family, which consists of a king, a queen and whatever offspring they manage to produce.

On top of the screen, there is a stone bar entitled the Royal Court, which displays nine nine tiles that can house kingdom officials and display their portraits. Officials are obtained by either promoting a knight, which will cost a 1000 gold + maintenance, or by letting a male member of the royal family do the job. The members of the royal family are used to a lavish life of luxury so their free time is immense and suits them perfectly for a relaxed political position. Officials come in six different flavors, each with his own benefits. A Marshal is an army leader who can recruit serfs to fight with him and can gain various battle skills. A Spy is ‘ a spy (think James Bond with a sword) who can either infiltrate an enemy court to make things difficult for them, or run reconnaissance on the home front to keep watch for enemy spies. A Cleric is a man of the church (or a mosque) who can increase the production of piety, write books, convert provinces of different faith and eventually evolve to the position of Pope or Patriarch. A Merchant brings home cash by traveling to other countries and trading or by governing a province, which in turn produces more gold, while landlords are responsible for raising the population and increasing food production. Lastly, a Builder speeds up the building process, which can encompass a significant amount of playtime if you choose to go without this official. Oddly enough, the captured spies and enemy commanders also take up room in the royal court. This seems strange because you’d think they would be rotting somewhere deep within the royal dungeon.