There's actually a blurb in the game's manual about what the historical background is--it's set after the Second Baron's War of 1264-1267. In real life, the rebel barons had some initial success, but Edward Longshanks of Braveheart fame defeated them at the Battle of Evesham and later at the Siege of Kenilworth. This game plays alternate history and assumes that Edward was killed in that conflict, so there's now no king and England has a free-for-all to take the throne.
Thanks for that. I knew it was in the manual, but I hadn't read it in over a decade so I couldn't remember. Of course, that would mean I also ignored the manual that came from GoG. Oops.
So the rules of the game is as it is for Long Shank's time, and if you use scorch earth tactics of Long Shank you shall win; I really like the LOR2 which you can raise a whole bunch of 1 man army by trying to garrison the castle with a larger than castle army, then you may enter the castle with only 1 man; as for LOR1 you can basically split the armies into 10men units, you can switch the home county of the army using the split army technique, and disband farmers into desire county. The best of it, when the population of the county increases over the last end term, you can raise the happiness from 0 to 40 if you sent in enough men.
LOVEd this game. Got to be a bear to manage after you've claimed several counties, but it was fun and engrossing. Lord of the realm was really more like Lord & Administrator of the counties. And -- Yeah! Another Irish mercs fan!!!You talk about cattle being so important, but then ignore them! Buying cows, grouping them together and spreading them out in the fields, to maximize birth rate for them, is the way to go -- constant micro-management of them until you have a strong base. Get everyone fed on dairy, use what grain you have as a buffer, sell the extra cows for $$$, and then focus on Happiness, resources, and armies. But great to see this demo'd. I wish I could run this game on my computer. It would make me sooo happy.
I know this is an old video (and an old game), but apparently this game still get played and it really is a fun game. So... Some pointers on how to get started for anyone just starting out. These tips are for the expert game play level. The goal is to get enough cows to feed your entire population on dairy, while having enough grain on hand to act as a buffer should your population outpace your ability to produce dairy. At start, you'll be low on population, low on food and your fields are a mess. You'll already be at half rations at start. Keep the rations at half, make sure you've enough peasants to maintain your grain and cows and put the rest into serfs to reclaim fields. Since you're on half rations, cut taxes to keep happiness from falling too quickly. I usually zero them out at this phase in the game. For the first few years of the game, you'll just be doing the above and burning through turns. Don't be afraid to cut your grain ration even further if that's what it takes to keep from running out of food. Being low on food is bad, but being completely out of food is worse. And, you always want to make sure you've enough grain left over to plant your fields over the winter. Never allow your peasants to eat your cows, even if they're starving. Always plant the max grain that you can without taking surfs away from maintaining fields or tending cows. I never bother with sheep. There's nothing really wrong with having some as long as you keep in mind that cows and grain are more important. As soon as you start getting fields recovered make sure to split your cows on to multiple fields. If they're all in one field, a single bad weather event can wipe them out. But, always make sure you've at least one fertility flower. I always recover two fields before I split up my cows. It will be the end of the third year before you start cranking out enough grain to think about increasing your rations. Every game is different on this point as your harvest depends on the weather, but as soon as you think you've enough grain, get your peasants back to full rations. Monitor your food stocks closely and don't be afraid to adjust ration levels as necessary. Keep growing your cows. As soon as you get back to full rations, your happiness will start to climb. When it starts getting up into the thirties, start taxing again. I usually go to fifteen percent at this phase in the game, then later drop it down to ten as you start getting control of more counties. If there are no nearby threats, use the tax income to buy more cows from the merchant until you've enough to feed your entire population on dairy. If there are threats around, spend your money on mercenaries instead. Design and build a minimal castle (buy the stone and wood from the merchant). This is just to prevent an enemy from blitzing you and to give you a couple of turns to deal with them. Later, when you're food secure and your population is getting big, one can think about expanding into other industries. The above should get one off to a good start. For an added challenge, try playing the game without using the merchant. That takes some real organizational skills.
I was so young playing this that I played it for months before I figured out how to play it. I shouldn't even say figured out. through trial and error over the course of months I learned what to do. I played forever before I realized you can control your fields and use a market. such an amazing time as a kid playing all these games.
Interesting balanced tactics, I always superload on cows and stop sewing grain until I need armies mid game. You grow fast at double ration and 8 cow plots but it can be a pain to keep up with
That's awesome. I wish Lords of the Realm 2 had a feature where you can layout your castle like the first game. I'm surprised it wasn't a feature they kept.
A great classic, way ahead of its time! I have played it 20 years ago and even today is quite fun. Later in the game when you have many counties the micromanagement becomes a bit repetitive and boring, but overall the game is great. The sequel is also very good.
You can keep only two or three central counties for your own management and leave the rest to your steward, but keep in mind to build a couple good castles in the counties you let your steward to handle. So in those central counties in the back without touching your enemy, just do your maximum profit economy, in those counties on the border, let your steward handle the siedges.
Yeoman of medieval England is the center of LOR1, it is more like contract between captains and commoner; Yeoman are the third rank of fighting social order, more like commoner state hire worker; above knave or servant rank. It appears that servant=slave both in medieval England and China; in China before Qing dynasty, servant and craftsman are not allow to take civil bureaucracy exams, what's different is the farmers for China is capable of taking such exam; in Europe there's no farmer class, only serfs; in China merchants are consider craftsman; craftsman only advance through government hired departments and never up to the same level as the bureaucrats; soldiers can take military exams, servant of general can only advance when the general promote him, but servant to general sometimes got much better daily treatment and even in and after battle promotions.
Ah, the classic Americans mangling English county names 🤣 I grew up in Massachusetts, which has most of these (and they're pronounced the English way) but it never gets old. BTW Gwynedd is pronounced gwi-neth, but with the "th" of 'then', not the "th" of 'thin'.
for overall game mechanics the 2nd are better, but its dropped the castle design. You have 12 rows x 17 columns of space to design the castle layout. (actually its 10 rows x 15 columns as you can't place walls towers or a keep at border edge) Each counties could have their own individualistic castle which but with the 2nd game all of that castles looks boringly the same.
Took me FOREVER to find this game. Played it when it first came out. What I remembered most fondly was clearing those rock fields. Gotta rebuy on Stream.
First of all is the farming, there are several tricks especially for sheeps and cattles, they all have critical points to concern: sheeps only multiply in winter, so get yourself a second county asp, and you may move them from county to county without losing number and man power, second there are two critical number of total sheep you may keep in a county for the best rate of multiplying 165 and 185. The cattles has many critical number as well, varies by the number of cattles shown in the field map, the best critial number to remember is 196 to 199 for the two cattle state.
Then is the population, in this case is actually more related to an army's home county; this will change when you merge two armies together, the larger number army alway dominates where the home county is, and you may only disband an army in home county; so if you wanted to move people around, keep this in mind. Happiness goes up if within one season a large number of population increases, that turns a 0 happiness county into a 40 happiness one within one season with no joke. The best of all mercenaries follow the same rules of the regular troops, and army likes to eat everything but dairy. So keep in mind for more grain for this asses.
When I play, I use exceptional for all setting, and when it comes to farming I learned a little trick from the computer, even the land said you may plant 300 for the execellent fertility, you better not believe it, plant lesser, and the economy system is actually best when you run two agriculture system: either both sheep and cattle or cattle and grain. You don't need to care about the number of cattle in the map over three or four unless that is your major arm production center, some county was cursed by Thomas Robert Malthus's theory and the population just growing without end; like Yorkshire. So, yes you may feed all your people with cattle over 4 or 5 in the map when you have 5000+ population. But below 4000 people you are still capable of running two agriculture system together, sheeps take 5 fields and do not concern about fertility, grain take 3 fields and when you leave 3 fields fallow it has only one destruction power shown as grass if you looked. Which means only after two years your field fertility down grades, and I always move people around and keep my fields at excellent quality.
Another thing for happiness boost is that when you conscript troops with less than 6% of population, no happiness change, so raise 50 men army as many as possible, when you are near 10 happiness, then draft 50% of the population if you wanted to draft, move them to another county asp and disband them there because the terrible morale will turn them into thugs. For other troops like mercenaries, they like to fight, without victory they will turn into thugs too, merging the two armies only get the mid point of morale, and when they split, each will have its own morale.
