Medieval Lords: Soldier Kings of Europe
DOS - 1991
Also released on: Commodore 64
Description of Medieval Lords: Soldier Kings of Europe
Although quite well received upon first release, Medieval Lords had many bugs that were not fixed until patch 1.1, which was not widely available and so this game never took off.
It is a very historically accurate recreation of the period from 1000 AD to around 1400 AD. Advise a king or sheik from any nation in the world and deal with taxes, war, diplomacy, the Pope, real historical events and personalities, plus many other things!
Overall, a far more effective use of the Storm Across Europe game engine.
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Comments and reviews
Nik 2023-09-17 0 point DOS version
Well, if you think this is any sort of "Crusader kings for DOS", you are mistaken, this game is all about luck.
Kyle P 2021-07-25 1 point
Okay so I'm a history Prof. And would like to comment based on some of the comments I read.
The Dos game is better than the buggy c64 version where kings and rulers are immortal ETC but its unrealistic. There's no other mechanic, battles lack tactical strategy economics taxes etc. theres not much of that either. Its just basically a percentage and a rock paper scissors roll that's unfair and favors the defenders too much. Castles are almost useless btw, historic events are there but aren't always realistic. For example if you play as France during the 11th century and play a 100 year game turn it does not unite and England does not unite after overthrowing Denmakr it just creates independent kingdoms like the old days before Alfread and Aethelstan. The only accurate portion of it is the Crusades. Sort of. Also the role of religion and families, merchant guilds, crafts guilds, dynasties and internal feudal politics is virtually non-existant.
Also, the game goes on into 1530, there's nothing about the discovery of America and Asian trade and exploration of Africa. Also the role of Islam in affecting science, navigation and the rennaisance is absent.
Crusader Kings 2 was much better as is Patrician 3 and 4.
BEPPE 2020-10-06 1 point
Love this game since I was a teenager in Nineties. It gas some bugs. For example if you decide to conquer the world, leave some Little countries behind or It will crush. I love the system of claims. For Catholic the progression is count, duke, king, holy roman emperor. For muslims It is sultan, caliph, emir. If you play as Khan of Pechenegs, they start being pagans, you can decide to become Catholic or muslim and then follow the system of claims. If you start as Khan, you can also become Emperor of Byzantium. I love history and the way events happen random. Have fin!
Pilgrim 2019-07-11 7 points DOS version
So, you want to be a Medieval Lord, uh?
This game is hard. Unforgiving. And it is intended to be that way. Not because their creators were sadists. They wanted to make a realistic medieval simulation, and they managed to do it.
Anyway, you aren't supposed to be playing a kingdom, or a dynasty. You are supposed to be the advisor of a ruler. And every time the ruler dies, you can go to serve another. In the intended gameplay, you can just have fun with a domain, pushing it has hard as you can until it inevitably explodes, then switch to another.
But of course, you will want to stick to a single Kingdom and lead it to Glory. Don't expect it to be easy. Your careful plans will get twarted by random factors. Your slugglish advances will get reverted by unexpected and unpreventable disasters.
One day you have a crack King leading an ustoppable host, conquering county after county. The next day he dies without notice and gets replaced by his young idiot son, who dies a few turns later and you got stuck with a baby king tutelated by a lame Regency. Townsfolk of once loyal lands no longer want to pay taxes and rebel. Ambitious nobles who once rode loyaly by your side see their chance to cut ties and run their own independent domains. Inhabitants of recently conquered provinces will uprise to throw away your yoke. Heretics and Infidels will attempt to undermine the authority of the One True Faith. Neighbouring kings who once cowered in fear at the mention of your name now begin to pillage your borders. The Emperor of Byzantium decides it's a good time to nibble on your remains and sends a fleet of four hundred ships to your place.
When the Black Plague comes, you can't help but greet it as a blessing.
Welcome to the Middle Ages.
Disclaimers having been issued. If you still have the guts to play this game, make sure you read the Manual first. Plan very careful in advance, be prepared to take maximun advantage when you get a crack lord, and have reserves to survive the inevitable times when you get a lame one and have to perform damage control. Don't expect to waltz your way through Europe. Advances will be slow, often reverted, but you have hundreds of turns ahead of you.
Good luck.
Kyle P 2017-09-17 3 points
The c64 version is buggy slow and not worth the time. The Dos version is far superior.
Christmas Skeleton 2015-09-12 -5 points
Whoever calls this travesty of a game the "DOS version of Crusader Kings 2" or "Awesome" needs to be ashamed of themselves. I mean literally this game is so fucking shitty, even for the DOS era, which you know technology was limited, and worst of all this was made in 1991 for Christ's sake, there were way better strategy games made at the time (take a look at Clash of Steel or HICOM) that were made in the same year or earlier, and they were 10 times better than this petty excuse of a game. It's like if the person who made this Game just gave up halfway through and then BAM called it a day, released it on stores and then promptly got the attention of a bunch of dumbass "gamers"
First of all the economic system in this game does not work at all, it is almost as if it is completely random, I mean literally i was playing as Bohemia, i had a superb economy and was preparing to invade SL and then 5 years later my peoples and nobles strength shrinked rapidly, my people only had 2 strength and my nobles had 3, and i couldn't pay my army and entered into deficit, i disbanded my army but it didn't matter at all because my debt was still the same, even though i had disbanded my fucking army, 10 years later Bohemia ceased to exist, and it all happened for NO FUCKING REASON WHATSOEVER, note that my ruler had not yet died and i was not at war with anyone.
Second of all the war system does not work, i mean the percentage chance bit is just fucking lame, i mean who thought of coming up with that shit in the first place, instead of putting more time and effort into the Battle mechanics and War system the game's creator instead decided to use a cheapass percentage system, that no game even used anymore, and he fucked the percentage chance system too, i mean i invaded IL as Anjou alright, i had an army of about 40.000 soldiers, the percentage that i would of conquered IL was about 91%, what happened, IL hold out. I tried again, it was now at 95% chance that province would be conquered, what happened, IL held out again, and my king had 8 generalship and 6 leadership, and no IL did not have a castle.
And talking about castles, it seems that the game's creator forgot to program in any advantages for having a castle, because look here, i was playing as Byzantium, The Seljuk turks were attacking SA, SA had a castle mind you, they had roughly 12.000 men, 46% chance that the Turks would conquer SA, and they did, and this did not just happen one time, it happened multiple times, whether it was happening with AI or me. And another thing, provinces without castles seem to hold out longer than provinces with castles, i saw the Cyprus AI try to conquer DM, DM did not have a castle, and Cyprus even though they had 68% chance of conquering it, with an army of 15.000 men, it's like the purpose of a castle was switched by the Game creator's just to fuck with players. And also this game is severly bugged if you try to move an army to another place, it really is. The AI is not bad, but it is not good either, i mean sometimes the AI just moves around two provinces for an entire turn.
Third of All, this game is just unfair to players, you cannot win this game by not save-scumming or cheating the AI because you see, you have a very high chance of getting a shitty king, and that ruins everything if you're playing as an European, because when you build up a Kingdom for hundreds upon hundreds of years, you begin conquering German provinces, you already have a gigantic army that is ready to conquer the Entire world, you get the title of a holy roman emperor, you get a shitty king and eventually when he dies, for whatever reason all your German conquered provinces gain independence, and a German kingdom that gained independence from you gains the title of Holy Roman Emperor, your entire army is gone and your economy shrinks to the hole. And it's not only for Europeans, it's for everyone. You know when you take out the player's choice out of a game, when you make your strategy game chosen almost entirely by random chance, it sucks.
Anyways i'm outta here, i could say alot more about this game and how it doesn't work, but i'll just end it here.
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