Knights of Honor

[Fez]

I've been hearing a few people here and elsewhere mention Knights of Honor and I'm looking for a strategy or management game now. The two I've been considering were Evil Genius and Knights of Honor (totally different I know, but I'll probably get them both in the end if they are good enough).

I'd like to hear the opinions of anyone here who has played the game already. Is it worth getting? Is it original or just another graphical update of an old game?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Eh. I might give the demo a try. Personally, I'm not a big fan of RTS games. Age Of Empires 2 was the only RTS game I ever really got into. Well, Stronghold was pretty good too, but I eventually got bored with it. AOEII is the only RTS game I've ever played that is still in my library of games. Oh... sorry... I almost forgot about Red Alert 2. That game was fun.

If any RTS wants to grab my attention, it's going to have to pull some spectacular shit out it's ass. KOH does look intriguing though and, like I said, I might try the demo. For now though, I've got plenty of games to keep me occupied for awhile. Heck, I still haven't even been able to play Far Cry or Painkiller yet. Luckily a friend is loaning me his copies of both games. And I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Sea Dogs after years of hunting. :D

 

[The Exar]

Knights of Honor is a wonderful game. It's even better than Rome:Total war. I'm not going to explain the whole conception - its similiara to R:TW, but with some major exceptions. Yes, we still have a battlefield and full control over the army, but lets just say, that the battle is not the main aspect of the game. Its strong side is the economical element, based on province resources, good leaders(in this case - knights) and different buildings and advantages. You can beat the game by conquering the whole continent, but if you always wanted to be an economical power - thats the game for you!
The diplomacy, espionage are also available for those, who are interested in peaceful progression. If yor economy is strong, you can beat the game by achieving all of the Kingdom Advantages. But thats not so easy as you possibly think...
The game has many, many advantages and its absolute MUST for every RTS gamer.(KoH has french and german versions).
If you are sceptic, just play the demo and see...

 

[Sheriff05]

Knights of Honor is a great game, it's not a RTS in the standard fashion
it's a great single player strategy game in the tradition of Lords of the Realm 2
you can manually control the battles, like R:TW, but unlike R:TW that isn't the main focus
the main focus in overland map and campaign so it's very similar to the Paradox games.
in that there is a ton of stuff to do.
Unfortunately the Mulitplayer is only for the skirmish battles so that's pretty lacking
The A.I is average at best so even on the hardest setting if you play these types of games regularly it won't be that *hard* but definitely entertaining
(it took me between 16 hours and then20 hours to complete the 2 games I finished)
IF the campaign portion offered mulitplayer this game would be up there with MoO2
as a strat game. Also no US publisher wanted to pick this game up, so you will have to import if you're in the US.

 

[The Exar]

Knights of Honor is a great game, it's not a RTS in the standard fashion
it's a great single player strategy game in the tradition of Lords of the Realm 2
you can manually control the battles, like R:TW, but unlike R:TW that isn't the main focus
the main focus in overland map and campaign so it's very similar to the Paradox games.
in that there is a ton of stuff to do.
Unfortunately the Mulitplayer is only for the skirmish battles so that's pretty lacking
The A.I is average at best so even on the hardest setting if you play these types of games regularly it won't be that *hard* but definitely entertaining
(it took me between 16 hours and then20 hours to complete the 2 games I finished)
IF the campaign portion offered mulitplayer this game would be up there with MoO2
as a strat game. Also no US publisher wanted to pick this game up, so you will have to import if you're in the US.

I'm glad to see such words for this game! You see, there is something very important and gives the game great advantage: all the kingdoms, halifats, emirats and other kinds of countries are completely authentic; you'll even see the proper rulers for every kingdom. If your homeland wasn't playable in other RTS of the same genre, be sure that it will be in KoH! That's what I wanted to see in R:TW, but Black Sea Studios just did their job better... :wink:

 

[Fez]

I bought Evil Genius, so far I don't think much of it, so I finally got around to playing the demo of KoH during a moment of boredom.

It plays like the bastard son of EU2 and Rome: Total War, though the real time combat is more simplistic than the total war games. Actually I didn't like the RT combat part at all, it seems pretty shoddy when you look at its predecessors. It doesn't do anything original or particularly well in that aspect. Overall the game is not too bad though it seems a bit "thin". The alliances and political parts seems to be almost pointless, too easily exploited and not the political intrigue I might have hoped for. The huge map is great, but limiting your armies with the general units means it gets very messy if you want to win. There are all lot of other complaints I have and it's tempting to go into it more but I suppose it would be unfair to do that on just a demo.

 

[The Exar]

Hm...the demo has some limitations, but...
Something positive?

 

[Fez]

Something positive? Well, the 2D maps were nice to look at and I liked the tiny animated people on them.

The game has that feeling of a lot of great ideas only half realised, shame really. It'd be worth getting but not at full retail price.

The sieges are utterly pointless right now and that is a big problem if you are going to have a RTS game with castles, especially when there are plenty of better examples to show how to do it better.

Every time I try and think of something good about it other than the huge 2D map I end up thinking of why it wasn't done right. It is frustrating as it should be great, but it came out merely better than average.

It isn't that I hate the game or developers, I want to like the game but it falls short.

It's like they took all the greatest bits from my favourite strategy games, mixed them up, swallowed it all down and then vomited it directly onto my PC. The ideas are all still there, but it stinks and leaves a bitter taste after a while.

 

[Sol Invictus]

You want Nexus and you know it.

 

[Seven]

You want Nexus and you know it.

Let me guess, Nexus looks "pretty?"

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Let me guess, Nexus looks "pretty?"

It is graphically gorgeous. Especially if you have a beefy graphics card and can have all the options cranked. Runs astoundingly well on a low-end system too, which is a nice change.

But, in defense of Nexus, it's a wonderful game. Very well thought out with a variety of mission types. While it is quite linear, the modability of the game is what's going to open this baby wide up. Plus, it's got quality voice acting and plenty of backstory to be read through journals and info files, which you can read at your own leisure.

I recommend it. And coming from me, that doesn't just mean "pretty".

 

[kris]

Knights of Honor is a great game, it's not a RTS in the standard fashion
it's a great single player strategy game in the tradition of Lords of the Realm 2
you can manually control the battles, like R:TW, but unlike R:TW that isn't the main focus
the main focus in overland map and campaign so it's very similar to the Paradox games.
in that there is a ton of stuff to do.
Unfortunately the Mulitplayer is only for the skirmish battles so that's pretty lacking
The A.I is average at best so even on the hardest setting if you play these types of games regularly it won't be that *hard* but definitely entertaining
(it took me between 16 hours and then20 hours to complete the 2 games I finished)
IF the campaign portion offered mulitplayer this game would be up there with MoO2
as a strat game. Also no US publisher wanted to pick this game up, so you will have to import if you're in the US.

Since I am even more of a strategy gamer than a RPG gamer (on computers) I must have my say here. I don't think this game was that great in any way. It is far from realistic and have not much of historic realism at all. The RTS battles is forgetable and far from "Total war" battles (which is better in all ways even if they are unbalanced).

It is correct to compare it with the Lords of realms games as it plays a lot like them both as in how provinces work and the stratgies. But to compare it with Paradox games is far off IMO.

 

[Saxon1974]

Ok Im going to resurrect another old thread!

Just started playing KOH and seems like a game I will like so far, love the music and graphics.

Any pointers on starting out? I went thought he tutorial to get the basics but it doesnt give you much.

I created 5 or 6 "Knights" and had 3 of them as merchants thinking gold was a critical resource.

I only had 2 Marshalls and my country started being invaded and since none of my Marshals were in the same area I kept losing territories.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Beginners fail. Don't worry, with time you will learn how this awesome game works.

And yeah, the tutorial is piss poor. Doesn't even tell you that merchants don't go into towns.

 

[Saxon1974]

Beginners fail. Don't worry, with time you will learn how this awesome game works.

And yeah, the tutorial is piss poor. Doesn't even tell you that merchants don't go into towns.

Ok, well I guess I will learn as I go. It just pisses me off when my territory gets attacked and I dont have any armies near to defend a town.

Does this game get repetitive fast? Im curious how much there is to it other than meets the eye....................

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Does this game get repetitive fast? Im curious how much there is to it other than meets the eye...

Actually, it's less repetitive then... lets say MTW.

I would recommend you to start playing a country with only one territory, like Ulster in the early stage. It's a good way to learn which building goes where and as you gain ground (the whole of Ireland) you get a proposition to unite the island under the name of Ireland (for gold of course).

 

[Saxon1974]

Does this game get repetitive fast? Im curious how much there is to it other than meets the eye...

Actually, it's less repetitive then... lets say MTW.

I would recommend you to start playing a country with only one territory, like Ulster in the early stage. It's a good way to learn which building goes where and as you gain ground (the whole of Ireland) you get a proposition to unite the island under the name of Ireland (for gold of course).

I was thinking about that since it would be easier to play a country that wont be attacked from many different directions while Im learning. Was thinking Ireland or Scotland maybe.

What about difficulty, is easy too easy?

I agree on MTW, I played both MTW and M2TW and while Im a big medieval fan, I got bored with both games after a couple of days.

 

[Quilty]

As I already mentioned somewhere, get the patch that fixes the AI. Otherwise the game is ridiculously easy and no fun at all.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

As I already mentioned somewhere, get the patch that fixes the AI. Otherwise the game is ridiculously easy and no fun at all.

Can you be a bit more specific. I never downloaded a patch so I'm not sure if my version was patched, although it's a "unrar-and-play" and the AI was behaving fine.

What about difficulty, is easy too easy?

I started from normal... yes, anything easier will not be fun.

 

[Saxon1974]

As I already mentioned somewhere, get the patch that fixes the AI. Otherwise the game is ridiculously easy and no fun at all.

The most recent patch I found was 1.05 I believe. IS that what you mean or is there something else?

 

[JarlFrank]

As I already mentioned somewhere, get the patch that fixes the AI. Otherwise the game is ridiculously easy and no fun at all.

The most recent patch I found was 1.05 I believe. IS that what you mean or is there something else?

Yeah that's the one I think. Long time since I played this baby but loved it back when it was released. You could also get one of the mods that have been released for it. Play a small country, play on hard, and let the fun begin.

Also, power position (dunno how's it called, got the German version where it's Machtposition) is really quite important. The higher it is the more additional money you get, which is good.

 

[Saxon1974]

As I already mentioned somewhere, get the patch that fixes the AI. Otherwise the game is ridiculously easy and no fun at all.

The most recent patch I found was 1.05 I believe. IS that what you mean or is there something else?

Yeah that's the one I think. Long time since I played this baby but loved it back when it was released. You could also get one of the mods that have been released for it. Play a small country, play on hard, and let the fun begin.

Also, power position (dunno how's it called, got the German version where it's Machtposition) is really quite important. The higher it is the more additional money you get, which is good.

Damn, seems like this game takes a while to get started.

Im playing Munster (South Ireland) in th early era on normal difficulty.

I had to fire my marshall and use a prince to get my gold into the positive and start producing buildings to improve my city. Takes quite a while though to get anywhere since you have so little gold when you start.

I tried building an army of 3 squads of peasants and invaded the middle country and his army wiped me out pretty easy.

 

[Trash]

And now they'll come for you and will rape you silly. When you want to wage war against a stronger enemy make sure to ruin his economy by raiding his resource buildings while avoiding any battles you can't win. That way you'll grow stronger while he grows weaker. The downside is that you'll pretty much get a ruin when you've won.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

I recommend being a pussy and start on easy. Combat is chaotic like hell, and you never NEVER can do better then your marshalls. If you dont care much about battles and just want to run the country let your Marshall fight, its the way to go.

For the money, 1 Merchant is enough at start as gold trade sucks at the begining anyway. Pump tax buildings and stuff like that to get money. The rest can be pretty much marshalls to guard all directions. Later on you can try out spies, all the other knight types didn't seem that usefull to me.

 

[bat_boro]

And if you think the beginning is very slow, you could try the "+" button on your keyboard that makes the game run quicker. It's very useful when you've got nothing else to do except wait for some gold in the beginning stages of the game.

If you wage war on a state that is of another religion, make sure to send a priest to every town you've conquered to convert them to your religion as this increases happiness in town and decreases the chances of rebellion. You want to make sure your priest is well educated, though, otherwise he can be killed while trying to change the religion.

Builders are good if you have a small number of cities and want to fortify them as much as possible, as they increase the number of workers in town and decrease building time. Again, to be of any use, they must be educated enough.

Spies are quite useful too - if your spy is made a priest in some enemy town, you can declare independence or you could join the town to your country (I think)