*** UPDATE July 2009 ***
Its been brought to my attention that a download to the game is available at http://www.squirtthecat.com/games/lords_of_the_realm_2/.
I haven't personally tested it as I have the CDs still.
*** UPDATE June 2008 ***
Yes, there is a small number of us still playing the odd game of Lords2. We now play it from a game lobby on Kali (www.kali.net)
It plays game through the IPX option and it seems to work though most modern router connections. Contact me on cleone.nz at gmail dot com for more information, especially if you are an old player back from the old days at WON. Kali costs $20 for life but it has a 30 day trial that you can apparently reuse by getting another temporary key. I also have instructions on how to get the game working on Windows XP. If you no longer have your game CD, it is still possible to play by downloading a copy.
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Please check out my updated page on Advanced Farming Tips
This site is developed mainly to help newbies in getting started in the game. Some of the tips here I have found along the way and I have tweaked it to my own liking - heheh.
Most games are played with advanced settings, ie - no castle, no army, weak county, hard difficulty, no weapons, advanced farming, no army eats, 100 or 500 crowns, exploration on. This guide is written for such settings.
Switching to Grain without a Wagon
Here is how to switch over from cows to wheat in the second year of the game without a wagon suggesting it started on weak county status, for the ten grain, and you didn’t have storms (hard difficulty setting too). Plant one field with the ten grain the first year. Leaving two fields fallow, and three with cows. You can feed one double ration the first year on nothing but cows (go into ration and move fork over to all cows). When harvest comes get all the wheat you can, let the cows die due to farming. The second year of the game you should plant three fields leaving two fields fallow. Leave just one field with cows on it. Leaving two fields fallow the first year is very important for this, it gives you very high fertility after the first year. Feed your people normal rations the entire second year on all cows. By the end of the year all the cows will be gone and you will have nothing but grain! The third year you may want to only plant three fields again, so you will get another fertility rise. The fourth year you can plant four fields leaving two fields fallow.
Starting With Wagon On First Turn
You should look to buy an extra 10 grain to plant 2 fields of grain instead of 1.
Leave 1 fallow and 3 with cows. Put 1 man on wood, rest in grain and cows. Double feed. - this if for the first season.
In Spring, you can make 1 another field fallow, move 1 man from cows to (iron or stone) and 1 to blacksmith. Move slider to make ration double feed again.
In Summer, if you still have a wagon, sell your cows and buy grain. Make the cow fields fallow and set to double feed using the ration trick. People who are jobless should be put into wood industry.
In Autumn, its harvest time. Harvest all the crops you can, but make sure u keep 1 man on each industry to keep efficiency rates up. - Never ever leave an industry with no people!!! Double ration again if you can.
Winter, you can now plant 3 fields with grain and leave 3 fallow. Your fertility rate should be at high by this time. From now on you should feed at normal levels. - let your grain stock grow. You can switch back to double later on in the game.
This above starting tactic is only a rough guide when starting and trading with a wagon. On some maps you will have a wagon at different times so you may need to adjust your farming to suit. - weather may also affect whether you double feed for 3 or 4 seasons. If you started with 100 crowns, only double feed for 3 seasons, and look to sell cows in Autumn if you can.
By the time you have excellent fertility, you should farm 4 fields and leave 2 fallow to keep fertility at Excellent. Tax your country once happiness reaches 100. If happiness is at say 97, you would tax at 4% at that year for obvious reasons.
You should work on saving up enough wood to make a Moat & Bailey castle, buy 30 stone if you have iron instead of stone - this will get you 150 archers. While in your early 2 years switch to make macemen with your one man on blacksmith. You only need about 6 of them. You should then start to build pikemen. You should work on making up to around 100 pikemen before winter 71. Use your taxes and sell excess grain to get iron if you have to.
Hopefully buy winter 71 you will be ready to raise an army. Use up 11 happiness to make your army, any more will use up more happiness for each extra unit.
In the same season you should start build a Moat & Bailey Castle. You need to make sure you have 400 men on hand to build it so make sure your army doesn't make your town's people fall below 460 (you need some serfs for planting grain and to keep industry efficiencies up).
By summer you should combine the archers from your new castle with the army you made last turn and march on and attack your nearby unoccupied county.
The battle - Before you un-pause the battle at the start, look at the battle map and take note of the enemy troop number. If you are out numbered then the computer's troops are likely to charge. In this case, pack your archers into a corner and defend them with your pikemen and any peasants you may have. As for your 6 macemen, you should send them halfway down the map into a safe position. When the computer's troops charge, run your maceman away around the battle field. Generally only the archers will follow your maceman, while the rest of the army will attack your main group. While your archers shoot at the computer's main group (while being defended by your pikemen) keep the archers busy by running away from them. You could hide your maceman unit behind a bush out of archer fire's way.
In the case that the enemy doesn't charge you, you will need to make the aggressive move.
Move your pikemen down towards the enemy troops and place them in a line 1 step out of range of enemy archer fire. Use either the edge of the map, a river, trees, etc as an extension to your line. The edges of your line of pikemen should be spaced out a little with an empty space between to extend the length of your line if you can. Make sure the center of your line has no gaps as behind here is where you need to place your archers. Let your archers shoot at the enemy peasants. Hopefully if the enemy isnt large enough, it wont charge but instead its archers will do the suicidal thing by taking the front line and shoot back. Let your pikemen take their hits while your archers blitz them. After the enemy archers are gone you can then finish of my sending 1 archer unit in to range to hit an enemy unit. The rest will then charge you so retreat that unit back behind your wall or pikemen and let your army finish off.
The 1500 man army is the target to get to. You can never be outnumbered with 1500 in 1 particular battle that is. Once at 1500, then if you have a few weak troops in the army you can replace them, toss out the macemen and put more knights or pikes in. Dont have too many archers and xbows either - 300 combined of archers and xbows are a good number More archers are my pick due to distance they can shoot and they are an effective counter measure against a fortified army. I often laugh when I see the enemy hide in a corner - it means I am in control of the battle and I can shoot from a distance and weaken them. Thats where your pikes come in (200 - 250 is a good number to have in a 1500 man army). Pikemen are good shields which are cheap so you can afford to lose them through exchanging archer fire. They should protect your archers. Learn how to target with archers properly, this requires skill though as you can't target from the furtherest shooting range although once you have targeted a particular enemy unit you can move them back and they will still shoot it.
Always hold back the use of your knights for as long as possible. Never charge them into the thick of things, wait until the enemy army has been split or worn down by archer fire. Knights are an effective deterant especially if your enemy has a much slower army. You should have your troops grouped with the number keys. I tend to make my fastest troops ie knights all number 1's. Have your finger over the key waiting for the opening of your enemy's defense. Patience is the key however as you want too keep out of crossbow fire. They should be your main target when the charge is on as well as protecting your own.
Well thats about all for now - I need to keep some of my last secrets from the other top players.
