Lords of the Realm II

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Lords of the Realm II
Developer(s)	Impressions Games
Publisher(s)	Sierra Entertainment
Release date(s)	1996
Genre(s)	turn-based strategy
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	PC
Media	CD-ROM

Lords of the Realm II is a computer game published by Sierra Entertainment and developed by Impressions Games. It was first released on October 31, 1996, and is the second game in the Lords of the Realm series.

The game takes place in a medieval setting, with rulers of several counties warring for the right to be king of the land. Players grow crops, accumulate resources, manufacture weapons, manage armies, build and lay siege to castles, and attempt to conquer their enemies.

The game is turn-based except for the battles, which take place in real time, with players able to control units individually or in group formations. Players may also allow the computer to calculate the outcome of the battle.

Lords of the Realm II is more intimate than most strategy games. Players know exactly how many peasants they have, and how many births, deaths, immigrants, and emigrants they have each season. Every turn takes a season, and winter, spring, summer, and fall all have different looks. At the beginning, the player has only one county and a few hundred peasants, who must be carefully allocated to rehabilitate fields, grow grain, tend cattle, cut wood, mine iron, and quarry stone. Stone is used for castles, and wood and iron for weapons. With enough wood and iron, the player can assign peasants to make weapons, and with enough weapons, conscript an army. There is a delicate balance between growing enough food to keep your people healthy, and making weapons fast enough to not be conquered. Also tax rates can be adjusted, with low rates increasing happiness, and high rates making money to pay armies and buy resources from traveling merchants.

Each county is managed separately. As the player conquers more counties, the first ones, now prosperous, can send armies and money to help the newly conquered ones. The game ends when the human player loses all counties, or conquers the entire map.

The game has limited diplomacy, where the player can make alliances and send money. The computer opponents are different characters with distinct personalities and strategies.

Compared to the original, Lords of the Realm II is much more robust, with better graphics and music, and an improved management system. The game achieves a strong Medieval feel, but it's historical and not fantasy -- there is no magic. And unlike many strategy games, it has no technology tree.

The game had an expansion pack, Lords of the Realm II: Siege Pack, consisting of new combat scenarios. It was followed years later by a sequel, Lords of the Realm III, which abandoned almost all the resource management elements and added more complexity to the battles.