Review by: Pete Hines
Published: June 27, 1997

Lord of the Realm 2 combines real-time combat, like in Warcraft II, with turn-based strategy and movement, like in Civilization. You begin the game with your own piece of turf, complete with loyal subjects. Making sure your peasants stay fed, happy, and productive is crucial to your success. Doing so means you become more powerful and can build armies to overtake other shires (sections of the map). Your goal is to become king (or queen) and master of all you survey. Then it’s on to another map and more challenges.

In order to get anywhere, you have to manage your resources. Each shire can produce certain amounts of food and different types of raw materials. For food, you can produce grain and cattle, which provide meat and dairy products. You decide what your peasants will eat and how much they will eat. The strategy portion of the game is split into four turns — the four seasons of the year. It is up to you to decide how many peasants should be tending the herds or crops in a given season. You can trade food between your shires, if you have more than one, or can sell it for money to the merchants that will visit your shire.

On the other hand, your subjects can also be used to increase your stockpile of wood, iron, stone, and weapons. The raw materials are used to create weapons and build a castle, which protects your shire. Have peasants make additions to your castle to make it tougher for the enemy to attack you. You can always buy goods and materials from the merchants who come to visit — but it will cost you. Finding a delicate balance between the two is important. Lots of food means increased population, which means more labor to use. But, armies are the only way to get anywhere in this game, so you have to be sure to beef up your troops with good weapons.

When you recruit peasants for an army, you can outfit them with any weapons you have in your possession. They do not have to use weapons, but they are pretty weak without them. Swords, pikes, maces, crossbows, and bows all provide stronger and more effective troops. You can also recruit mercenaries when they come to your shire. They cost big bucks, but it is a quick way to raise troops without making your people unhappy (they don’t like it when you take their sons and daughters off to war).

Now comes the fun part — battle. Battles can take place on all kinds of terrain, which can play a role in determining strategy and tactics. Also, in order to take over another shire, you usually have to lay siege to the owner’s castle. This can include the use of hot oil, battering rams, catapults, and all kinds of fun stuff. The battles take place in real-time and allow for a lot of strategy on your part. Charge a flank with your pikemen, protect your archers, or divide and conquer. The game will even automatically calculate the outcome for you if you don’t want to fight yourself (but where’s the fun in that)? And since we are talking about combat, why don’t we look at the newly released Siege Pack for Lords of the Realm 2.

The Siege Pack for this game added a lot more of the good stuff, namely battles. Sure it includes another campaign where you can move through a series of increasingly difficult maps and opponents, but there is much more. The expansion also includes a skirmish mode, which allows you to jump right into combat. There are three different types of skirmishes: siege, equal battle, and unequal battle. Sieges involve one side defending a castle and the other side attempting to take it over. Equal and unequal battle scenarios are pretty much self-explanatory. Each of these three skirmish types has a number of variations to play, and there are 25 different skirmishes in all. But, a lot more battle variations exist thanks to the numerous customized options.

First, you can choose to be the defender or attacker in each battle, which changes your objective in sieges and your starting position in battles. Also, you can give an additional advantage to either side, which basically gives the side more money to spend on troops. For every skirmish, each side has a given amount of money to spend on troops. You can choose to accept the default troop configuration or customize it to include the exact number and types of units under your command. If you find a battle too easy to win, give the other side an advantage, or change your troops and use less powerful ones, or both.

Another great addition in the Siege Pack is the multi-player play, including a service provided by Sierra, called the Sierra Internet Gaming Service. This service lets gamers find human opponents for either campaigns or skirmishes. Playing against human opponents is always more fun and challenging than playing the computer. Also, a map editor comes with the Siege Pack, which essentially gives gamers unlimited opportunities for creating challenging skirmishes against the computer or other players. Not only can you build your own battlefield, but you can also allocate the troops to be used on both sides. The number of possible battles is endless.