Advanced Play

By default, LORDS OF THE REALM II is designed for easy play. There are, however, several advanced options that experienced players may try when they feel they are ready for a special challenge.

Advanced Farming

When Advanced Farming is activated, you will have to pay more attention to your grain fields (if you have any).

Labor: The number of laborers required to get the most out of your grain farming will fluctuate from season to season, according to the grain planting cycle. Each grain field will require relatively few workers during the spring and summer. During the fall you will need a great many grain workers to tend to the harvest, and during the winter you will need quite a few to get the fields ready for next season’s planting.

Weather: Advanced Farming also introduces weather as an influence upon your grain fields. Each season’s weather has the potential to affect your grain output. Many seasons will be cloudy and mild, having no great effect on your output. But droughts can severely undercut your efforts, and can reduce your grain productivity. Sunny seasons, on the other hand, can improve your harvest.

While Advanced Farming is active, a weather report is available each season on the Advanced Labor panel (accessed by clicking on your county towns).

Fertility: Fertility also becomes a factor under Advanced Farming. In order to keep your fields fertile, you will need to leave a portion of them fallow at all times. While Advanced Farming is on, you should try to keep at least a third of your fields fallow. The more fallow fields you have, the more fertile your active fields are likely to be. You do not have to engage actively in any sort of crop rotation just make sure a portion of your fields remain fallow.

A fertility report beneath the weather report on the Advanced Labor panel will keep you abreast of each county’s fertility. When fertility is high, grain output will be high. When fertility is poor, grain output will suffer.

Army Foraging

Under the default play settings you will never have to worry about feeding armies. Once you draft a peasant he will no longer eat, as far as you are concerned. Your ration management applies exclusively to your civilian population.

With Army Foraging switched on, this is no longer the case. Each army must now survive on the food available in the county it occupies. Armies will automatically consume food in the county they are in, and they will eat before the county’s population. So, if you march an army through a county with meager food supplies, its population may suffer.

As long as any army is in a county you control, you will need to provide rations for it. This is done, as usual, through the rations panel.

While Army Foraging is active, the ration panel will keep you informed of how many soldiers are foraging in each county.

In addition to feeding your own soldiers, this advanced option requires you to feed the soldiers of any other player, friend or foe, as long as they are in a county you control.

If the troops are friendly, you must feed them as a courtesy. If they are hostile, they will raid your county’s stores and help themselves to your food.

Exploration

Exploration offers a more realistic game experience by obscuring your vision of the kingdom map. During the Middle Ages, leaders seldom knew for certain what their adversaries were doing, or even what the landscape outside their homeland looked like.

While Exploration is turned on, your vision of the kingdom map will be limited to what you have explored. When the game begins, you will only be able to see the single county you control. The rest of the map will be blacked out.

To expand your vision, you must explore the land. As your armies travel, the areas around them will be revealed to you gradually. Only when you have explored the entire region will you see all the lands you seek to rule.

Custom Games

You may customize any single player or multiplayer game. To do so, select Custom Game from the startup screen before you begin.

The custom game panel will allow you to set the options that you can normally set: difficulty, advanced farming, army foraging, and exploration. But here you have many more options.

If you would like to begin combat right away, all players can start with a castle, weapons, and an army. You may decide how many nobles will vie for the crown, and you may set the amount of gold (crowns) each players starts with.

There are a number of maps—both real and fictional to choose from. Each offers a unique strategic challenge.

Advanced Farming, see page 106.

Exploration, see page 108.

Nobles allows you to determine how many nobles will compete for the throne. In multiplayer games, all positions not filled by human players will be filled by computer controlled nobles.

Army Foraging, see page 107.

The Difficulty setting will determining how challenging the game will be.

Army size determines how large an army (if any) all the players will begin with.

Starting castle determines how large a castle (if any) each player begins with.

County Status refers to how strong or weak each player’s starting county will be. It takes into account the population, number of fields, number of cows, happiness, and health that each player will begin the game with.

Time Limit is designed primarily for multiplayer games. It sets a maximum time limit that each turn can last. If each player does not end his or her turn before the time allotment has passed, the turn will end automatically. During games with time limits, the timer will be visible onscreen at all times.

The Fight option allows you to set the game to automatically calculate each battle fought against a nonhuman opponent. This feature is designed for multiplayer games. If Humans is set, every battle that is fought against a non-human opponent will immediately be calculated automatically. Only battles against other human players will be fought manually. When All is set, every battle will be fought manually.

Multiplayer Games

LORDS OF THE REALM II can be played by as many as 5 people connected by IPX compatible network, or by 2 people connected by modem or null modem cable. Multiplayer games are only supported by the Windows 95 version of LORDS II.

To begin a multiplayer game, select Multiple Player during the game startup. Several options will appear.

IPX Network Connection

Up to 5 players can play over an IPX compatible network. A single CD can support up to three network players.

To start a network game, click on the IPX Connection button on the multiplayer panel.

A panel will allow you to either Create a Game or Connect to a Game, or Cancel to exit the setup.

One player must create a game for others to join. If you would like to create the game, choose this option, enter your name and shield, and select Continue. You will enter the custom game screen. See page 109 for details on custom game options.

When you choose to connect to a game, a list of all current network games will appear. Select one to join. The player creating the game must set all custom game options, and click on the Start button when all players are ready.

The custom game screen allows all players to communicate by sending messages to the others who have joined. Type your message in the black text box, and press enter to send it. This option allows you to discuss the custom options as you prepare for a game.

As the creator of a game, you may load a previously saved network game by clicking on Load and selecting a game from the list that appears.

Modem Connection

A modem game connects two computers through a modem and phone line. To establish a modem connection, one player must create a game for the other to connect to.

The host player should:

1. Select Multiple Players from the setup screen, select Modem Connection for DirectPlay, and then select Create a Game from the setup screen.
2. After you name the game, the modem selection panel will appear. Make sure that all modem settings are correct. The program should choose the correct modem settings automatically, but you should make sure that the modem speed setting (on the Configure panel) is set properly for your modem.
3. Click on the Answer button and wait for the other player to initiate the connection.

The other player should then initiate the modem connection:

1. Choosing Modem Connection and then Connect to Game.
2. Type the host player’s modem phone number in the panel that appears.
3. Click on Connect to make the connection. Once the connection is made, both players will see the custom game screen.

The host player should choose the game settings and click on the Start button to begin the game.

Serial Connection

Select this option to play a two-player game connected by a null modem cable.

The host player should:

1. Select Multiple Players from the setup screen, select Serial Connection for DirectPlay, and then select Create a Game from the setup screen.
2. After naming the game, the setup panel will appear.

Port: Set the Com Port number through which you are connecting the null modem cable.

Baud Rate: We recommend that you set the highest

Baud Rate setting.

Stop Bits: Set Stop Bits to 1.

Parity: Set Parity to No Parity.

Flow Control: Set Flow Control to RTS/DTR. When these settings are correct, click on OK to proceed. After you enter your name and select your shield, you will enter the custom game screen. The player initiating the connection should:

1. Select Multiple Players from the setup screen, select Serial Connection for DirectPlay, and select Connect to a Game.
2. Select the game name from the panel that appears, and click on OK to proceed. The host player must set up the game and click on Start to begin the game. (Please consult the README file on your game CD for more information about multiplayer games.)

Menus

File

New Game: Click on this to begin a new game.

Load: Click on this to load a saved game. In the panel that appears, click on the saved game you wish to load, then click on the thumbs up gauntlet to begin.

Save: Click on this to save a game. A panel with a text box. Type a name in the box. To overwrite a previously saved game, select its name from the list so that the name appears in the box. Click on the thumbs up gauntlet to overwrite the old saved game with the new one.

Quit: Select this option to exit the game.

Options

Advanced: See page 106 for a description of Advanced Farming. See page 107 for a description of Army Foraging. See page 110 for a description of Fight Humans Only?. See page 108 for a description of Exploration.

Sound: This option allows you to turn the music and sound effects sound on or off.

Display: The Animations option allows you to control the animated portions of the game. Turning the animations off may help the game run faster on slower computers. Turning the Full Screen option on ensures that the game window takes up your entire screen, regardless of the resolution you have set. (Turning Full Screen on can improve performance.)

Game Speed: Clicking on this calls up a parchment panel in which you can adjust the game speed.

Scroll Speed: Clicking on this calls up a parchment panel in which you can adjust map scrolling speed.