Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion
| Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion | |
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| Developer(s) | Joymania Entertainment |
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| Designer(s) | Peter Ohlmann, Adam Sprys |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
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| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Distribution | CD (1) |
Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion is a historical real-time strategy video game, developed by Joymania Entertainment (since changed to Joymania Development) and published by TopWare Interactive. The scenery is inspired by the Anglo-Saxon period, circa 1000 AD. The gamer plays the role of the palace guard captain whose goal is to win back all of the lost provinces that once belonged to the king. The game was released in 2001, but only in a few countries. Later in 2002 it was released in additional countries and in 2005 it was finally released in the U.S. The game has not been released in the UK.
Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion is commonly referred as a gold edition or an expansion pack for its prequel, Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom. It is a stand-alone game, but includes the 20 original missions (although the Russian release doesn't include the original campaign) as well as a brand new campaign that consists of 14 missions, a scenario mode with 10 different scenarios, and new buildings and units. Unlike most real-time strategy games, Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion only has a single civilization, so all players have the same tech trees to play with.
Multiplayer mode in the original game was completely broken with the game going badly out of sync,[1] and only fixed in KaM Remake (see section on fan remakes below).
Gameplay
Technology
The game's tech tree is simple and straightforward, and most new technology is accessed upon new building completion. To begin, the player can only build a school house that trains basic workers, but as the game advances more buildings and units become available. When playing a scenario or multiplayer mode, the player's technological advancement is not restricted, however in the single-player campaign some buildings cannot be built until the player progresses to later missions. The AI always begins with a technological advantage against the player, allowing them to develop at a higher level.
Economy
The economy in Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion is complex, stemming from the game's variety of resources, ranging from wood and stone, to sausages and wine. Many resources need to be transported to other buildings to be refined, and then delivered - which presents the challenge of building placement and interconnecting (every building has to be connected by roads) as the player develops.
The citizens in Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion get hungry - from workers, to farmers, to soldiers. This creates a challenging dynamic for the player - between managing combat, resource gathering, city building, as well as making sure there is a stable food supply for all the units. Unlike many other RTS games, Knights and Merchants: The Peasants Rebellion has no unit cap - aside from limited map size and hunger features, which help to limit the player's sustainable unit numbers.
Fan remakes
Several attempts[2] were made to extend game engine's capabilities and fix it's bugs. The latest and largest currently are the unofficial 1.6 Patch[3] and the whole engine rewrite KaM Remake,[4] the latter including complete original game experience except on two cornerstone points.[5]