Hello all, and welcome to my page featuring hints to the game "Lord's of the Realm II". Though this is an older game, I have just recently started playing it. I have only conquered a few scenarios so far, but I will share the knowledge I have gained so far. Please be patient as I will update this more as I play the game.

The great thing about LOTR II is that there really isn't any "Correct" way to go about the game. I've read many FAQ's and Hint pages on the game. It seems that each person's stradegy is different. These are some of things that have worked for me. I hope that you enjoy everything I have presented to you.

Getting Started

The first few seasons of a scenario are very important and can make or break the rest of the scenario. In different levels, you begin with different resources, amounts of people, levels of happiness, usable fields ect. The amount of each should help you decide on your first commands.

If you begin with a high number of happiness (80 or more) raise your tax to 4%. (You will gain 1 happiness every season). If your happiness is any lower, I suggest putting taxes to 1% to help raise happiness. Next, look at the fields you beging with. Distrubute cows/grain to the empty fields. Next, check to see how many damaged fields you begin with. If you begin with a small population (0-300 people) I suggest leaving the fields damaged. With a small amount of people, you will not have enough labor to support your county and it will take years to reclaim a field. Instead, use your serfs to work the usable fields until your population goes up to around 700 or 800. Then you will need more fields to support your population and you will have enough labor to reclaim fields very quickly. It's a good idea to build a sizable (but not too large) army as soon as possible. You usually begin with 50 weapons in the treasury. If you have a low population/happiness rating, conscripting will lower both your happiness and population, which could be devastating in the early parts of the scenario. Also, it might take many turns for a merchant wagon to come to your county so you may purchase weapons. There are two methods for building up a decent sized army in the early stages of a scenario. One is if you have the necessary supplies, you could upgrade your current castle. When a castle is built/upgraded, you usually get some troops to garrison it. Another plan is to hire mercanaries. At the beginning of each turn, click the conscription shield to see if there are any mercaniaries for hire. (When you have more than one county, each county could/or couldn't have mercanaires for hire, so be sure to check them all) I find that a hired band of 150 Mace Men along side a few of my conscripted Archers makes a nice army to go out and conquer a few smaller counties.

Managing a County

County management is 1/2 of winning the game. All kinds of things come in to play here with the ultimate goal being to have the highest amount of happiness and population possible. I will explain all of the aspects of managing your counties in this section.

Food

You begin most scenarios with your population being fed mostly by cattle. Cows produce dairy products and can also be eaten, which makes them very versatile. I usually begin my new counties off with cattle, but then gradually switch to grain, leaving about one of two fields with cattle. Once your population begins to grow, it's difficult to maintain a steady herd. I find that a few cows work great with large amounts of grain.

I have found grain to be the best resource for food. It is planted in the Winter, and is havested at the end of Fall. As I said earlier, I start most counties off with cows, then gradually go to grain. What I do is obtain grain if the county begins with none, (either by buying it, or importing it from another county), then plant one or two fields during the winter. Each year I switch one or two cattle field(s) to grain field(s) until my fields are eventually 80% grain, 20% Cattle. I find that the few cows really helps along with the large numbers of grain, opposed to running a county on 100% grain. The main drawback of grain is it is only harvested at the end of Fall. It can be very stressful counting down the seasons until Winter because your county is starving and is anxiously awaiting the grain harvest.

Industry

Lumber is one of the most important industries. With lumber, you build weapons, castles and seige machines. I usually allocate 35% of my workers to lumber.

Iron is used to make weapons. If you use melee weapons as the bulk of your army, I suggest allocating the majority of your serfs to iron minining.

Stone is used alongside lumber to build castles. It is espcially important when building Norman Keeps, Stone Castles, and Royal Castles. It's a good idea to keep a large amount of workers in the stone mines during the later stages of a scenario.

Every county has a blacksmith. Blacksmith take the aviable resources of lumber and stone to forge weapons. If you have an ample amount of resources coming in, and blacksmith is very effective in making lots of weapons which is sometimes better than buying them off of a merchant.

Each county has different configurations on which resources they have. (though all of them have blacksmith's) I find that the best way to go about this, is utilize each county to the fullest potential of one of it's resources. For example, I'll have one county concentrate on lumber, while one's job is to just mine stone. Of course, the more counties you have, the more freedom you have to distribute work.

Tax

Just like any real government, yours won't get anywhere without funding. And also just like any government, if you tax people to much, they'll get angry. I find that the most effective way to set taxes are on the basis of happiness. If you have a low to mid happiness rate (0-60), I find that setting your taxes to 1% works great. It really boosts your happiness, while still obtaining income. If you have a higher amount of happiness, set your tax to 4%, you will still recieve 1 point of happiness each season, plus signficantly boost your income. Once your happiness is at 100 (at your people are in good health) set your tax to 5%. You cannot gain anymore happiness at 100 but you don't have to worry about losing any at 5%. A very important aspect of taxation is building castles. The higher the level the castle, the more it will magnify the amount of money you recieve. Even building a Palisade helps boost taxes by 50%.

Happiness

Happiness is what truly makes your county work. The higher the happiness level, the more people will migrate to your county. Almost everything you do within the county effects happiness. The most important being taxation. I've already explained happiness and taxation in the paragraphs above, so I won't go into that again. Just remember that to boost happiness in a low happiness county, lower your taxes. Conscription into the army lowers happiness. The higher the happiness, the more men you can conscript without losing lots of happiness. (You will lose more happiness points concripting 50 men in a county with 30 happiness points, than you would concripting 100 men in a county with 95 happiness points) A good way to boost happiness is to feed the population double/triple rations. I only do this for a few seasons, cause your people will eventually beging to run out of food with a pace like that. Usually after I conquer a county, and the happiness of it is pretty low, I'll try to catch a merchant wagon going through and buy the county some ale.

Managing Your Armies

The object of the game is to destroy all of the other lords, and you are going to need an army to do this. Everyone has their favorite configuration when building armies, so I'll tell you mine. There are three ways to build an army: Conscript your own people, hire mercanaries, or build/upgrade castles which usually come with free soldiers. Remember, when you hire mercanairies, you have to pay them seasons wages and you cannot mix mercanaries from different ethnic backgrounds in the same army.

Unit Types

- Peasants - Peasants are what you get when you conscript men and don't give them any weapons. As you can guess, peasants don't have much offense of defense........but, they aren't without purpose. Peasants can be used for all kinds of jobs on the battlefield. One of the most important being able fill in moats. Since they are cheap and plentiful they are also expendable. When I'm sieging a castle, I'll often send a couple peasant units in to attack the enemies pots of boiling oil. The oil ends up spilling, killing a few of my peasants, instead of being dropped on a bunch of my sword men or mace men. I'll also line peasants up infront of my archers so they get hit instead of the archers. You can send bands of peasants out against armies who are headed for one of your castles to weaken them before they reach your castle. (Also giving you some time to put more troops in your castle)

- Archers - Archers are the most important units in the game. Espcially when sieging/defending castles. An army of a few hundred archers can be devestating. I usually set all my blacksmith's on bow making duty. Be sure to have a few melee units to back archers. Archers aren't very good in close quarters combat.

- Sword Men - Sword Men are the most important melee units in my opinion. They have a very powerful attack and very high defense. Sword Men are best when being backed by archers.

- Pike Men - Pike men are not quite as powerful as sword men but still pack a wallop. These guys seem to take a beating and keep on going. They are excellent to use against knights. They can be easily killed though when they are overwhelmed by to many units.

- Crossbow Men - Crossbow men are a little bit better equiped than archers, but are more expensive. They also don't have the fast re-fire rate as the archers. I usually start conscripting crossbow men to fight alongside my other units after my conties have become powerful.

- Mace Men - Mace Men are best in large numbers. They don't have high attack of defense rates but they are cheap. I usually hire a band of mace men mecanaries during the second round of the Italy scenario.

- Knights - Knights are probaly the most expensive units to make. To me, they get killed very quickly in battle. The knights most important attribute is it's speed. Why's that important, you ask? Because, since the knight is a very fast unit, this makes it a great resource when sieging a castle. You can use knights to hurry and run to the enemy's flag to capture it before the enemy moves in any units to guard it.

Open Field Battles

Open field battles can be hard sometimes. To tell you the truth, sometimes sieging a castle is easier than taking on a huge army on the open field. There's really no science to open field battles. The IA is pretty predictable. They usually move their archers/crossbow men in a line behind their melee units. The best stradegy is to group your units together, and come in either from the side or behind the enemy. (Where you can get their archers/crossbow men) Have your ranged weapon units in back, with melee units in front. Get close enough that your range units will start firing upon the enemies ranged units. After killing so many of their units, they will eventually charge you with their melee units. Then allow your melee guys to take out theirs while being backed by your archers.

I find that tactics really don't matter much in open field combat. The best way to succed is to have the bigger/better equiped army. I find that if you have an army of about 200 armed men up against about 80 units of peasants, a good tatic is to auto-caculate the battle. You will walk away from the battle losing only few if any men, where you would normally probaly lose about 30 if you fought the battle yourself.

Sieging a Castle

Sieging is the battle highlight of the game. This is where the most thought and preperation pay off. Before sieging a castle, you must ask yourself a few questions to make the siege go smoothly. The most important is: What kind of castle am I trying to take over? Smaller castles can only house so many troops inside. Remember that if you take 600 archers against a Motte and Bailey (with a max capcity of 150 troops), chances are, unless you are a complete dimwit, you're going to win. Knowing what kind of siege machines (and how many you'll need) is very important. Building siege machines takes time, and you don't want to spend 8 seasons building up a bunch of catapults to take out a Palisade. I also find that who's defending the castle has a lot to do with the difficulty of it. (I had a lot more trouble trying to take out one of the Countess' Norman Keeps than one of the Baron's Norman Keeps) You should choose unit types accordingly, but remember that archers are going to be the most important units in a siege. Peasants are also good for filling up moats and to sacrifice by attacking the enemy's pots of boiling oil. (It's better to lose a few peasants by attacking the enemies pots of oil, than charging a bunch of pike men in to have the enemy dump it on you). Here are my tactics for taking out each type of castle.

- Palisade - These are the simpliest types of castles to take out. I suggest getting about 200 archers. (and any melee guys you have) Then build either a battering ram or catapult. Move your archers close to the walls and have them shoot across to hit any units on the inside. Do this while you either knock down the wall with your catapult or the door with your battering ram. By then, you have taking out most of the units. Charge in after the flag, or destroy the rest of the units.

- Motte and Bailey - These are actually my favorite castles to siege. I've learned the trick to sieging a Motte after watching the IA do the same manevuers everytime. The key is to get about 200 archers and a handful of melee units. Don't bother building any siege machines. (When you build siege machines it will give the computer time to put more troops in it's castle. For some reason you're not allowed to garrison your castles though when they are under siege, damn it) When the siege begins, the computer is going to move all of it's troops into the rear part of the fort. Since all of it's units are all in the back, there is no hurry in smashing down the first door. (thus, why you don't need a battering ram) Simply take your melee units up to the door and start hammering on it until it goes down. Keep an eye on your melee men while you're doing this though. The enemy is going to be moving their pots of boiling oil around. When they computer sticks it's oil on the front two towers, move your melee men out of the way and let your archers attack the oil. Keep doing this until you either knock down the door or destroy the pots of oil. When you eventually knock down the door. Move your archers into the hallway before the second part of the fort. They will begin shooting at the units in the flag room. After they kill the first row, the computer will probaly move some of it's units up. It also may charge some of it's melee units, which usually get cut down before they reach your men. You'll eventually kill off all the guys by shoothing through the door.

- Norman Keep - These castles can be very difficult. I'm still trying to figure out the best stradegy for sieging this. They aren't very hard if you have an overhwelming army, but you still have a good chance of losing, even if your army is a 3rd bigger than the one defending the keep. I have found that it's nearly impossible to capture the flag and your best bet is just to go in and destroy all of the units. A battering ram is almost needed. I've also tried using catapults to knock down the side walls and siege towers, but the catapult if a definate must. I usually move my archers up towards the front of the castle. The computer will then put a few archers in it's towers. The two armies will then start shooting at each other. While this is going on, move your battering ram up to knock down the first door. When it's knocked down, move the ram to the back of the map. Send in your men to take out anyone in the main hall. Take your archers and shoot through the second door to kill off any ranged units. Then move the battering ram back up to take out the second door. Move your units into the last room to destroy any units defending the flag.

- Stone Castle - I haven't had to siege one of these yet. I just made it to England where all the nobles have one, so it looks like I'm going to have to. I'll tell you what I did when I finally siege one.

- Royal Castle - I only sieged one of these so far and it was actually easier than I thought it was going to be. Of course, the Knight just tried to siege it before I did, so he probaly killed off a lot of the enemies units before I got there. (Which probaly is why it was so easy for me) I forget the exact army amounts, but I had about 500 ranged weapon units and about 75 or 100 melee units. The enemy had something like 500 units. You definatley need a battering ram, and a catapult wouldn't hurt either. Move your ranged weapon units up towards the caste. (close enough to hit units on the walls/towers) The enemy will move archers onto the walls and you then use your archers to pick them off. While this is going on, use any melee/peasant units to fill in the moat infront of the drawbridge. Once it's filled, take your battering ram and knock down the drawbridge. By then, your archers should have killed a good amount of units that were on the walls. Move your units inside. I understand that you have to use a catapult to get inside the flag room cause a battering ram wouldn't work. Well, I had a lot more units than the enemy did, so I just shot at their units through the door until I wiped them all out.

Gaming Stradegy

So you might have thought, "Cool, the game's all about keeping your peasants happy and going about just storming people's castles." WRONG!!! If you just build armies to take over counties head first, witout any major plan, you are going to lose. You must think on how you are going to attack your enemies and manage your counties. Here are some things that I like to do. You can see if they will work for you.

Counties must be connected - That is very important. To secure a county, it must be touching another one of your counties. Use this to your advantage when attacking your enemies. If they have three counties in a straight line, attack the middle one if possible. They will wind up losing two counties instead of one. (You will keep the one county you attacked if it's attached to any of your counties and the other will go to being netrual.)

Watch what your enemies' armies do - Don't be hastly with all of your attacks. Even when the enemy isn't marching into your territory to conquer you, it's important to keep tabs on what their amries are doing. For example, you might have your sights on a certain county. The enemy might also be marching an army towards the same county. A good idea is to let the other army try to conquer it first. The enemy army may lose to the county. Chances are, the army probaly destroyed a lot of units which means it's in a weakened state and should be easy for you to take over. If you were to take on the county before the enemy arrived, it might have been an overwhelming amount of enemy troops and you could have lost. And even if you won, you then would have to deal with the enemies army who is marching towards your newly conquered county. If they take the county from you and you then try to take it back, by the time you conquer it again, the serfs will be very unhappy with all the invading going on and the happiness will be very low.

Also, if the enemy has no counties left, yet still has an army on the map, leave their army alone. It's just going to sit there until the lord runs out of money to feed it and the men with eventually revolt.

Know who to attack when - When you are dealing with more than one lord, it's important to know who to attack and when. Each lord has their own personality and their own style of fighting. They are as follows:

- The Countess - The Countess should be dealt with immediatley if possible. She is very agressive and will probaly be the first of the lords to start conquering counties. Her armies are always strong. Her weakness is that she builds Motte and Bailey castles all the time. (Which we already discussed are a peice of cake to siege) It's easy to get her to like you though.

- The Baron - The Baron is a pretty cool guy. I wouldn't mind sitting down and having a couple of beers with him. I almost hate to conquer him cause he's such a nice guy. He's the least agressive of all the lords and will be the only one with one county while the rest of the lords are conquering all around him. His armies are pretty weak also. Usually consisting of archers and peasants.

- The Knight - The Knight is a jerk. I love kicking the crap out of him. I also love sending insulting messages to him. He begins each scenario fairly strong, but as the scenario progresses he is actually pretty much a pushover. His armies are easy to counter if you have enough archers and melee men to back them.

- The Bishop - The Bishop could be a cool dude if he wasn't such a sneaky SOB. Yeah, you're in my county on a fact finding mission my ass. The Bishop is farily aggressive, but not quite as agressive as the Countess. His armies aren't greatly equiped but are usually so large (Some armed troops with about 600 peansants) you need an even larger army to destroy them. His fault is building Royal Castles. Yeah, they are strong when they're finished, but they usually never do get finished.

One thing to keep in mind is, if a lord only has one county and it is close to you. You should make an attempt to attack it. Even if it isn't connected to any of your land. You will get rid of the lord and the county will become netrual. Remember, lords will try to conquer you, netrual counties won't.

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