Solid game for gamers with a brain (not pudding) First: Lords of the realm 3 is NOT Lords of the realm 2.
People should not compare it to Lords 2 as they are indeed very different. Also, before being a RTS, it is mostly a strategy game.
The game: - strategic map. You have to place vassals. Sounds easy and it is in the beginning cos you don't have much choices (yet). You have farmers (food), you have priests (relations), you have burghers (money -> mercenaries, relations and upgrading of castles) and you have Knights (armies). All of them are different and the deeper you go into the game (and depending on your actions), the more you will have. Managing and placing all these vassals is part of the strategy and get's more difficult with time (there are more than 500 different vassals with different troops and qualities...a good knight has bigger companies than bad ones). You have to think about your military strikes carefully and also keep an army or two to guard your backyard as he ai sees your weak points and attack them. The wrong strategy and you've lost very quickly.
-Combat map. Well it's not praetorians nor TW, but it's very well done. The ai knows very well how to attack your castle.
Bad:
I don't like the way the AI places his troops to defend his castle. It doesn't make it so much easier but still.
The very very bad: no printed manual. This is bad. However, it seems that almost nobody here has been able (or knows how) to download the manual from the homepage sierra. Plenty of information there. The very very good: the game is simple but difficult to master. Most of the player seem to stop after the campaign of Ireland. That campaign is actually the last part of the tutorial and it is very basic. The real fun begins later.
Don't resign until you've played the Black Prince scenario.