Fight for the crown against other greater nobles - who will be victorious? The best strategist will be the victor!

User Rating: 8.6 | Lords of the Realm II PC
Lords of the Realm II is one of the better story lined turned based strategy games. This game is only one of the few games that I have seen which actually implies strategy over troop quantity to decide a victory situation.
Lords of the Realm II is truly an in depth look at the life of a fuedal lord in the middle ages. Peasant life, Serfdom, Conscription, Taxes, Wages, Treasury Management and Warfare (Yeah, I'm a history major). It is the total package. The troop constription affects your county's happiness and hence your peasants. If your people are not happy, you will not have a land to rule and they will revolt against you. You must then CRUSH the rebellion and then resubjegate the rebellious serfs.
Strategy wise, the game employs terrain, troop number, the discipline (weapon type) of the troops, the position you place the troops, troop speed and armor classification for each individual troop type. The troop battle screen is broken in to troop units consisting of men determinded by the total group of troops. Being this is the middle ages and troop communication is limited by flags and banners. The minimum troop number at the formation of an army is 50 men while the largest combined army totals 1500. Mercinaries roam the counties and at times you may be able to purchase their services. Because of heritage rivalry issues amongst the different mercinaries you may only have one group of mercinaries per army.
The Greater Nobles, who own their own land, are the Bishop, the Baron, The Countess, and the Knight. They will wage war against you for the crown. You have the choice of diplomancy and you may send compliments, insults, gifts or request an alliance and if they accept you have additional alliance options. The A.I. is not always hard, but they are all backstabbing. Keep in mind it doesnt matter what you have typed, you can send a blank piece of paper the computer only responds to the genre of letter.
Lords of the Realm II truly is the best of the series. It is not as hard to keep up with every single part of game play as Lords of the Realm III. It truly is a great war for the crown - good luck in your attempt to claim the throne.