Knights of Honor

by Paradox Interactive

Product Features

• Rule all of Europe in this empire-conquering real-time simulation game
• Build up a successful Kingdom using 6 different types of Knights
• 3 main game views; 3 geographical regions with over 150 provinces
• Map with 3 historical entry periods, each with 100+ playable kingdoms
• Multiplayer gaming allows for up to 6 players

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00081UR7C
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: May 20, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,532 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Knights of Honor is the first empire-conquering simulation in real-time, and your goal is simple--become the emperor of all of Europe by fair or foul means. But keep in mind that you are not playing in a static environment and the rest of Europe is vying for the same, so you will be inundated with requests or threats from fellow rulers as well as numerous agreements and perhaps even special missions.

The game's mix of real-time strategy and out-and-out wargame provides something for all kinds of players, bringing in a much-needed simulation element.

Think on your feet because the decision of how you conquer Europe is at last thrust into your own hands.

The Knights are the most important element of the game and with them you will fight wars, manage provinces, and secure trade agreements with the other rulers. Think of the Knights as a finite resource, after all you have nine slots to fill with these powerful, brave, and bold men.

You can fight, trade, and make peace and alliances to achieve your goal while building up a successful Kingdom using the Knights in a variety of roles while other rulers are doing exactly the same.

You will play in one of three major time periods during an age rife with conquest and confrontation.

Early Medieval: about 1000 AD
High Medieval: about 1200 AD
Late Medieval: about 1350 AD

Each period represents a milestone in the medieval ages and comes with its own trials and tribulations; the Kingdom you choose affects the difficulty and challenge of the game. For example, you can choose England and you will get a large Kingdom with many resources compared to Aragon. Your economic and social situations, province sizes, and how the rest of the world reacts towards you will be totally different.

Features:

• Three main game views provide a platform on which to make global decisions and perform tactical actions for all aspects of: warfare, espionage, religion, diplomacy, and kingdom management.
• Six different types of Knights; some with special abilities and upgrades, allowing them to achieve different objectives within the game: Marshal, Spy, Merchant, Landlord, Builder, and Cleric.
• Command your loyal Knights to conquer enemy kingdoms, perform devious espionage actions, or rule over your own provinces in different ways.
• Featuring one of the largest maps ever seen in the world of games with three historical entry periods, each with a totally different political situation and more than 100 playable kingdoms.
• Three geographical regions with over 150 provinces and different architectural styles such as Western and Eastern European as well as Arabian.
• More than 60 structures and upgrades that can be built to improve the production or defense capabilities of the province.
• A unique battle system with tactical elements and more than 50 different types of military units and siege weaponry at the player's disposal.
• Nine different types of battle including: Town Assault, Camp Assault, Open Battlefield, and River Crossing.

Product Description

Medieval-age conquest and empire-building, using a compelling blend of real-time strategy and kingdom management options. Take the throne of your chosen nation during one of three Medieval periods. Become the ruler of all Europe through the use of diplomacy, subterfuge, and when all else fails, warfare. Crush your enemies and lead your people to victory by whatever means necessary.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gettin' medieval, June 20, 2005

By 

Carl (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Knights of Honor (CD-ROM)

A few weeks ago on a rainy Sunday, I downloaded the "Knights of Honor" demo out of curiosity. After playing the demo for about 15 hours, despite the fact that most of its features were disabled, I KNEW I liked this game.

"Knights of Honor" is a strategy game similar to a game in the "Total War" series. It also has elements of "Heroes of Might and Magic", "Warlords III", and "Master of Orion II" in it, along with a unique dynasty feature.

Many so-called "hardcore" gamers (who really care more about graphics instead of gameplay) may be put off by its use of 2D, rather than 3D, graphics. If you can get beyond that and enjoy the actual gameplay, you'll find a very fun strategy game.

Your goal is to become Ultimate Emperor of Europe: either by conquering all of the 100 or so regions of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, or by being voted Ultimate Emperor. You can win by fighting lots of battles, or by making lots of friends diplomatically.

The diplomatic model is simplistic, and would be useless if there were just a few enemy powers. However, since there are dozens of powers, there are lots of entanglements, which makes the diplomatic game surprisingly fun. You might declare war on Sicily, which brings in the Fatimids, but then the Dalmatians decide to attack the Fatimids along with Dacians and Novgorod. You also have to keep an eye on the four different religious factions (Christianity, Islam, Orthodox, and pagan), and you can use religion to manipulate various factions.

You can fight auto-fight battles (a feature sorely missing from many other strategy games) or you can fight them yourself. When you choose to be involved, you see your army and the enemy's on a battlefield. Both sides can call in nearby reinforcements. While battles are not on the scale of a "Total War" game, the scale is reasonably appropriate for the time period. The AI is competent enough, and I find mid-to-late-game battles a decent challenge (although I found an AI exploit that guarantees a bloodless victory against any town that has walls but no ballistae...).

Like HOMM or Warlords 3, KoH has special characters called Knights (of Honor, hehe). The marshals, who command your armies, can learn different skills that enhance their abilities, such as Dread (reduce enemy morale), Healer (reduce casualties after battle), or Sword Mastery (increase rates of units' experience gains). You can also create Knights as Clerics, Merchants, Landlords, Builders, or Spies.

Clerics are useful because they help increase your religious and scholarly resources when they govern a province. They can also convert populations to your religion, and if they become highly experienced, they can become a Pope and call Crusades against other religions or excommunicate leaders from the Church.

Merchants can raise lots of money through your trade agreements with other countries. They can also govern a province and increase income from it.

I haven't really used Landlords or Builders that much (though I've already logged 50+ hours into the game), but I'm sure they have good uses.

Spies are really cool: if one of your spies can get hired by a rival power, you can do lots of things, depending on his profession. For example, as a Marshal, he can cause the army to rebel. If he becomes a Cleric, he can cause a religious revolt or convince the population to secede. It's even possible, with great luck, to get the Spy installed as a puppet king or a Pope!

One unique feature of KoH is the royal dynasty. You can play as long as you have a living king. Your king can use diplomacy to find a wife and you can have heirs. You can use male heirs as Knights or keep them safe in the castle. You can marry your female heirs off to other countries, and they can help your Spies perform espionage on that country. Marriages also affect royal inheritance, so it's possible to make claims on other countries' territories (and vice versa).

If your playing style leans toward building, you'll like how you can build dozens of different types of buildings. You have to be careful of what resources your territories have, and you may trade with others to get them or capture them through battle.

Overall, all of these different elements combine to make an excellent game. Though I gave it a 5-star rating for fun, I knocked off one star from the overall rating because of its 2D graphics, because the multiplayer only lets you play the tactical battles (you can't play the strategic game in multiplayer), and because there are certain problems with the UI and the AI (I'm sure they'll be fixed later in patches).

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is Thy Will, M'lord?, August 22, 2005

By 

M. DiSpirito "mentored1" (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Knights of Honor (CD-ROM)

Well it seems up to me to set the record here... There aren't many reviews as of this typing and the game is getting scarce (might be discontinued - stores aren't getting new copies?)... So what's the boggle folks?

Three important points to cover in this review, here they go:

1. Performance? This game, as far as I've experienced, as no bugs. It runs flawlessly, doesn't stutter or pause at all, and the graphics and sound quality are astounding. If you like 3D then Poo-Poo on you: the 2D graphics in this game outshine many 3D games on the market. The major problems that many PC-gamers have that they don't realize are among the following: virus scanning software running in the background, unnecessary background programs in memory, outdated drivers (video, sound, motherboard, etc), or just plain shoddy equipment (the cheapest and best advertised isn't the best quality!)... For the sake of guidance make sure you PC matches or exceeds the minimum requirements: the game developers did a good job of estimating what kind of hardware is needed to run the game smoothly...

2. Gameplay? Moooohahah! Total War - Total what? Knights of Honor (KoH) is on a level that cannot be compared with the current offering of strategy titles - perhaps that is why it hasn't exploded on the scene... KoH is much slower paced than other games (possibly even more time-consuming than Civilization - or at least equal)... But that is its strength: if you don't like to micromanage and don't have the patience to wait several minutes for something, anything, to happen then don't bother with KoH... The user interface, help menus, and in-game events are easy to follow and manipulate. The options for guiding your nation surpass any game I've played recently (again with maybe the exception of the latest Civlization offering)... If you like Civilization and Medieval simulations then KoH has consumed anything available today - play the demo and see for yourself...

3. Enjoyment? Joy doesn't even qualify as a proper description of this game... Again if you like the Medieval eras and you like Civilization, Rise of Nations, and so forth then Joy isn't relevant - you will be obsessed with KoH. The game spans some 3 or 4 centuries with accurate historical politics, nations, and events to boot. The setup of managing your nation is unique and very easy to follow: much of it has to do with quality not quantity (i.e. there are more descriptions and categories then there are numbers and equations)... Replayability is unfathomable: not only do you have the campaign of conquering Europe, but the game includes a 'skirmish' battle mode for just shedding blood...

As an example I'm playing as a Scottish Earl starting in 1000 AD and I'm on my 4th generation of rulers (yes your rulers have heirs and you must guide and protect them to the throne)... I've endured a squabble amongst my knights for the throne, spies overthrowing local governments, and one of my generals has led a crusade against the infidels... And I'm still going: I've only just conquered all of England and some of France... Get the picture?

This game is a gem: get it while you can...

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars MUCH better than GalCiv II, July 17, 2006

By 

Bob Nolin (Bethel Park, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Knights of Honor (CD-ROM)

I'm having a wonderful time with this game. Before this, I was playing Galactic Civilizations II, which has gotten a lot more attention from the games press. The strategy model in that game was very simplistic, I thought. Basically, it was just a race against the AI up the technology tree...over and over and over. KOH is very deep, on the other hand, and is much more immersive. The learning curve is a bit steeper, but the time spent learning is well worth it. Replayability is much better, too, than GCII. You can play as any country in historical Europe, and each country is quite different in terms of its strategic pluses and minuses. In GCII, playing as a different race just changes your onscreen character's appearance, and the look of the ships. Otherwise, they're all the same.

One other point, to set the record straight: you CAN control the speed of this game, and you can pause it. For some reason, the developers left this information out of the manual. Very unfortunate, as it has led to a bad rap for a very good game. To speed up/slow down, use the -/+ keys. The asterisk key puts you on full throttle. To pause, hit the Pause key. Hope somebody finds this helpful!