I bought Knights of Honor on a Steam sale for about $2.50.
It is a medieval conquest game. You can play as one of 60 or so countries in three different eras. But you only control 9 knights who are immortal if they don't get killed in combat. These knights are your moving pieces. In reality, you have to take one of the starting knights and make them a spy and keep them home on counter-espionage. You also need at least one cleric. Early in the game you also need a merchant or two for income. This leaves you with 4-5 pieces that can move troops. As you expand, this becomes increasingly difficult to handle was all of the rebellions pop up.
I started on intermediate and got my clock cleaned. Then I started downloading and reading guides. Even on intermediate the other nations get 125% of gold income. Rebellions occur seemingly every time your king dies, every time you get involved in a war, and are seemingly nonstop when you conquer provinces that are different from your base starting religion.
I've taken Poland and after 15 hours of play have managed to get to the 3rd strongest nation in Europe. But it is two steps forward and one step back on a constant basis. And this "accomplishment" was after studying two different strategy guides for two days after work.
This is a good game - but maddeningly hard.
This single player?
Edit: Ah sorry. I have mistaken it for a Mount and Blade type game.
I have had my arse handed to me many times by Knights of Honor. I have never won a game IIRC and to be honest I don't know if there are ways to win...I don't remember.
It has a difficult start, but the snowballing is very evident in this game, once you hit certain milestone no one will be a threat to you anymore. Regardless, it was an amazing game, and hit a sweet spot between Total war and paradox games.
This is an awesome game and one of my old favorites. I still have the original box, pullout, manual etc. If the battles were a bit more fleshed out I would give it a 9.5/10 The campaign blows away anything TW has put out since then.
Quote from: AchillesLastStand on November 16, 2016, 12:26:09 AM
This is an awesome game and one of my old favorites. I still have the original box, pullout, manual etc. If the battles were a bit more fleshed out I would give it a 9.5/10 The campaign blows away anything TW has put out since then.
Agree with you, if I have to choose between TW or KoH, it will be undoubtedly KoH is much much better game than any TW to date (campaign design wise).
A game with the breadth of medieval Europe as your sandbox and surprising depth.
Just some tips. You can pause the game with the PAUSE/BREAK key to plan strategy, analyse the political and religious maps, and give orders to your armies and cities. Its best to only appoint relatives (princes) as spy masters to prevent hiring another realm's spy to that position. If you're a small kingdom you can still prosecute an effective strategy of raiding your enemy's farms and villages, but then retreating back to the safety of your own cities when your enemy fields a larger Army. I can't tell you how satisfying it is to use that tactic, but then to stop my army on one side of a river hoping an enemy army continues to pursue. You can play with the option of pausing time on the strategic map when engaged in a tactical battle, but it seems the AI will still reinforce even though you cannot. To counter that, just deselect that option to allow for reinforcement even when you've engaged in a tactical battle. Use two knights to lead two armies to attack and defend while reinforcing each other. If you have the economy, use a third knight's army to act as a blocking or interception force to protect the other two, especially if the third marshal has the battlefield fortification skill. If you start as a small province and conquer or inherit a larger domain that includes a historical kingdom you can found that kingdom. For example, a few weeks ago I started as Leinster, then, after conquering Munster and Ulster, I founded Ireland. You can do the same in Scotland, England, Spain, Portugal, and probably some other kingdoms. Appoint your king and/or princes to be merchants or hire a merchant to start trading to earn money at the beginning. Also, try to increase your Kingdom Power to earn more gold, keep your people happy, and keep the respect of other monarchs. I could go on and on, but there are some decent guides out there that cover more.
Do consider patching to 1.05 to add even more nuance to the AI and your game play.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1083701 (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1083701)
http://www.gamershell.com/news_35805.html (http://www.gamershell.com/news_35805.html)
http://www.moddb.com/games/knights-of-honor/downloads/knights-of-honor-v105-patch (http://www.moddb.com/games/knights-of-honor/downloads/knights-of-honor-v105-patch)
I was so impressed with this game after playing it when it debuted years ago I sent the developer Black Sea Studios a note encouraging them to adapt the engine to other time periods. Sadly, I think that was the last game they made. There are also some mods for the game, but I've never tried them.
Quote from: Raied on November 16, 2016, 12:41:35 AM
Quote from: AchillesLastStand on November 16, 2016, 12:26:09 AM
This is an awesome game and one of my old favorites. I still have the original box, pullout, manual etc. If the battles were a bit more fleshed out I would give it a 9.5/10 The campaign blows away anything TW has put out since then.
Agree with you, if I have to choose between TW or KoH, it will be undoubtedly KoH is much much better game than any TW to date (campaign design wise).
It needed a sequel long ago.........
An old favorite of mine...played many many hours though it's been a while.
I'd recommend to go for the Kingdoms Advantages otherwise it's very long to conquer the entire map.
After Knights of Honor, they made Worldshift, an intersting real-time strategy game before becoming Black Sea Crytek.
Unfortunately, they had even started some work on Knights of Honor 2 before becoming part of Crytek and this will never be released. :-[
PS: didn't realise the steam version wasn't patched...strange.
Haven't played this actually. Do you think the graphics are still good enough on modern computers?
IMHO, the graphics still hold up well, at least as well as the AGEOD games.
^+1. jomni, I think you would like this game.
Quote from: bbmike on November 16, 2016, 08:09:30 AM
^+1. jomni, I think you would like this game.
Yeah. I'm very intrigued by the mechanics.
Quote from: bbmike on November 16, 2016, 08:09:30 AM
^+1. jomni, I think you would like this game.
I thought it was good. Not quite amazing, but good. These days, I'd rather just fire up some of the more recent TWs.
Anyone picking it up should do themselves a favor. Track down the mod that removes all the Intro screens. I remember they were long and annoying as hell on my old digital version.
^Helpful site (http://www.rome.webz.cz/KoH_Holy_Rome_mod.htm) for that.
Quote from: bbmike on November 16, 2016, 10:05:11 AM
^Helpful site (http://www.rome.webz.cz/KoH_Holy_Rome_mod.htm) for that.
Don't overlook the
no intro fix on that site. It saved me a lot of time and aggravation.
The Steam version does not have the 1.05 patch. I recommend using the patch. It did not mess up my save games.
I also recommend reading the two decent strategy guides that are out there. I got the two guides and then edited the crap out of them to compress the length. I have them in MS Word now. If you PM me I can email them to you. My edited guides are now 7 pages printed front/back with narrow width formatting.
As your kingdom increases in size it becomes much harder to manage rebellions. I'm going to attempt more kingdom advantages and building more advanced inns to attempt to mitigate part of this. Also, save if you build up all of the cash to try a conversion of religion. Converting to a different religion is a bear.
I am hesitant to try the "no intro fix." The unavoidable intro is annoying. Does this fix mess up your save games? Please advise if you have used it.
Jommi - you can get the game from Steam for $2.50. If you PM me I can send you the two edited strategy guides. It is a very good game - just challenging even on the "easy" setting.
Quote from: airboy on November 16, 2016, 12:06:10 PM
I am hesitant to try the "no intro fix." The unavoidable intro is annoying. Does this fix mess up your save games? Please advise if you have used it.
No, it just replaces the existing movie files with blank ones. Back up your original files first if you want them.Highly recommended. O0
Quote from: Anguille on November 16, 2016, 04:15:06 AM
An old favorite of mine...played many many hours though it's been a while.
I'd recommend to go for the Kingdoms Advantages otherwise it's very long to conquer the entire map.
After Knights of Honor, they made Worldshift, an intersting real-time strategy game before becoming Black Sea Crytek.
Unfortunately, they had even started some work on Knights of Honor 2 before becoming part of Crytek and this will never be released. :-[
PS: didn't realise the steam version wasn't patched...strange.
I recall seeing some screenshots for KOH2 some time ago, I believe.
Quote from: Greybriar on November 16, 2016, 10:38:15 AM
Quote from: bbmike on November 16, 2016, 10:05:11 AM
^Helpful site (http://www.rome.webz.cz/KoH_Holy_Rome_mod.htm) for that.
Don't overlook the no intro fix on that site. It saved me a lot of time and aggravation.
That's exactly the one I was talking about.
Those KoH Intro vids and splash screens = :knuppel2:
Played this game years ago and kind of liked it. I used to have the Ultimate Mod for KoH.
Knights of Honor Ultimate Mod (http://www.moddb.com/mods/knights-of-honor-ultimate-mod)
I played this game, a lot. I didn't find it particularly difficult. The key is to get merchants, fast, and three of them. Send these to the three richest kingdoms you can find, and you can easily fund a pretty substantial military, and to build the economic buildings you will need to progress.
Wow that ultimate mod looks great.
Quote from: Gusington on November 16, 2016, 07:40:55 PM
Wow that ultimate mod looks great.
Indeed! Going to try this
Is there a guide for installing to the steam version
Quote from: undercovergeek on November 17, 2016, 05:30:21 AM
Is there a guide for installing to the steam version
The instructions in the link above has it.
Quote from: WallysWorld on November 16, 2016, 05:58:25 PM
Played this game years ago and kind of liked it. I used to have the Ultimate Mod for KoH.
Knights of Honor Ultimate Mod (http://www.moddb.com/mods/knights-of-honor-ultimate-mod)
Okay, you guys suck. Like I have time to get sucked into a really old game I have with all the shiny new ones!
Quote from: Freyland on November 17, 2016, 09:15:41 AM
Quote from: WallysWorld on November 16, 2016, 05:58:25 PM
Played this game years ago and kind of liked it. I used to have the Ultimate Mod for KoH.
Knights of Honor Ultimate Mod (http://www.moddb.com/mods/knights-of-honor-ultimate-mod)
Okay, you guys suck. Like I have time to get sucked into a really old game I have with all the shiny new ones!
+1
I'm not listening, I'm not listening, I'm not listening...
Soon as I'm sat in front of a pc
Just installed the mod....fantastic! Looks like i am going to play the game a lot again! Better than a new game :smitten:
Can't seem to install the mod with Steam. :(
LOL.
Purchased: 12/27/2010
Not installed.
Hours played: 0
::)
Quote from: bbmike on November 17, 2016, 03:36:55 PM
Can't seem to install the mod with Steam. :(
You have to start the installer from the Knights of Honor folder.
Yeah, that's where it is. It doesn't want to install the official patches and when the HD patch comes up it says it can't find KoH.exe. It creates a folder called "New Folder" in my Knight of Honor directory but that's about it.
Tried it with my non-Steam version (GamersGate) and it worked just fine. O0
Quote from: Anguille on November 17, 2016, 04:07:25 PM
Quote from: bbmike on November 17, 2016, 03:36:55 PM
Can't seem to install the mod with Steam. :(
You have to start the installer from the Knights of Honor folder.
:(
I thought I had this...lo and behold I do.
Still haven't had time to play yet.
Here's the AAR that got me to buy Knights of Honor a while back. Good read:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/the-merchant-of-alexandria-%E2%80%93-a-fatimids-aar.193321/
I won as Poland. I had the largest kingdom (25 provinces) and got a minor victory as an "achievements win."
To win a straight military/diplomatic victory you have to control militarily all of the provinces of Europe. Or you can win the election of Emperor of Europe. You win that by being one of the two largest (in terms of controlled provinces) kingdoms and then winning the election. You become very powerful and gain a diplomatic alliance with at least 3 of the other top 7 kingdoms in terms of size.
I may have been able to do this with Poland - but it would have taken days more of play. I had enough economic and military clout to keep crushing my enemies. But getting your population back to happy requires converting the religious to your religion (very slow) and rebuilding your military units after the conquest (also slow). It can be done in a methodical pace - but you cannot quickly grow your empire and do everything necessary to stop the rebellions. This is not a complaint about the game design - overcoming the disruption of a succession to the throne and reconciling populations and keeping rebellions down was not easy in that time period.
After a lot of grief, you can finally reach an economic take-off point. But to get to this point you have got to purge out all of the spies in your leadership (very hard to do) and win enough battles and economic development to have a politically stable kingdom through the reoccurring succession crises. I found a critical factor was having a king to had at least 2 princes as heirs who reached maturity before the old king dies. You make the 2nd heir head spy. Then you "almost certainly" have a head spy that is loyal. Get the head spy up to level 5 and they finally start identifying the enemy spies in your court. You can eventually, slowly, build up a court that is loyal to your kingdom.
Anytime you get two adult princes you must make the 2nd one a knight. Every once in a while your king dies with no heirs. If you don't have a member of the royal family in the distant past as one of your knights then your best military leader will become king. Then it will take forever to get somebody else up enough ranks to be an effective military commander in the mid to late game.
This was a fun game. But their are multiple layers to the game and if you forget to execute on one of those you are eventually going to see your sandcastle fall.
Even the great historical leaders of Europe during this time period had to keep putting down rebellions. No kingdom was ever able to keep away from fights for the throne for multiple successions after the death of the king.
Has anyone used the mod mentioned above with the Steam version? I'm getting ready to mod this up and play.
Alright so I did install the KoH Ulitmate Mod and it installed without issue. But the game is running only in the lower right half of my monitor. Any suggestions? :buck2:
You installed the 1.05 patch correct? Here is a thread that may help in getting it to run in fullscreen. http://steamcommunity.com/app/25830/discussions/0/350540973995696301/
Also might try fiddling with the Fullscreen option in the ini files maybe change it from a 1 to a 0, or vice versa. I believe the games ini files are in "your documents folder".
Quote from: Gusington on December 07, 2016, 09:37:01 PM
Has anyone used the mod mentioned above with the Steam version? I'm getting ready to mod this up and play.
I did but I had to amend the registry - totally worth it, it's my current game of choice
Quote from: Gusington on December 07, 2016, 09:54:49 PM
Alright so I did install the KoH Ulitmate Mod and it installed without issue. But the game is running only in the lower right half of my monitor. Any suggestions? :buck2:
Yeah, I think there was an .ini file in the KoH directory that needs editing. Can't remember exactly what. Google Knights of Honor full screen and there should be some solutions about it.
Found this thread on Steam (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1089972). I think it's the one I used to fix the full screen issue.
Thanks guys, much appreciated-will attempt to fix it when I get back to my gaming PC tonight. Looking forward to it!
Anyone played the Shogun or Tiger and Dragon mods for Knights of Honor?
Edited the registry - although the initial intro movie is in a small 1024 x 768 box, it is centered now, and the rest of the game takes up the whole screen in HD :)
Thanks all!
Quote from: Gusington on December 08, 2016, 08:34:17 PM
Edited the registry - although the initial intro movie is in a small 1024 x 768 box, it is centered now, and the rest of the game takes up the whole screen in HD :)
Thanks all!
Enjoy, I started as York and am having trouble with the pesky Scots and Irish so nothing new there
Quote from: Gusington on December 08, 2016, 08:34:17 PM
Edited the registry - although the initial intro movie is in a small 1024 x 768 box, it is centered now, and the rest of the game takes up the whole screen in HD :)
Thanks all!
Edited the registry!? :o
Also, install the no-intro fix to skip that whole 30 minute intro. O0
Yeah I had to edit the registry, sometimes the install doesn't create a file in the registry and then the patch won't install, need to manually edit to software
I thought that the no-intro mod was included with the HD pack...no?
I am always tempted to jump straight to Wallachia in the late era campaign but looking forward over the FAQ and notes that Airboy provided that may be the reason this game has always kicked my ass.
^ Yes, it might be. I'm not running the HD pack on my laptop right now.
It's not because my version still runs the movie...I guess it's separate.
It's running the intro but not the Sunflowers and Black Sea Studios (loud) movies....
Quote from: bbmike on December 09, 2016, 08:33:34 AM
Also, install the no-intro fix to skip that whole 30 minute intro. O0
I would definitely recommend the no-intro fix to not be bothered with that jackassery.
But you can also reportedly hold down Shift and Left-Click to skip them. Or maybe it was Ctrl? Naaa.. probably Shift. So you don't throw a Shift-fit. :tickedoff:
Y'all making me want to boot this up for a game. I haven't played it for a few years now. Where's a fun place to start?
Quote from: Boggit on December 09, 2016, 03:30:50 PM
Y'all making me want to boot this up for a game. I haven't played it for a few years now. Where's a fun place to start?
PM me and I'll send you two strategy guides that I edited down to something printable.
Thanks Airboy. :)
There's a let's play from 2013 done in tutorial style I used as the hd mod breaks the in game one
Quote from: Boggit on December 09, 2016, 03:30:50 PM
Y'all making me want to boot this up for a game. I haven't played it for a few years now. Where's a fun place to start?
I would actually prefer a 2D game like this over something like the Total War series while on my smaller laptop screen. But I think TW surpassed KoH's depth a long time ago.
Remains a different take on the genre, but I recall moving away from KoH after I started playing other somewhat similar ones such as
King Arthur Role-playing Wargame and
Dominions years ago. Along with all the new 4X stuff that's been coming out since then.
^I don't know, even now KoH is pretty deep...man.
I've been following the thread here. Funny I forgot about KOH, and I had that one in Gamersgate for years.
So I downloaded it installed and 1.05 patch on Win 7, I'm not going to get the 1600x900 resolution but it runs fine.
I forgot how difficult this game can be. I installed the Ultimate Mod and got the weird monitor issues, and of course like a lot of things that can be tweaked I tweaked it too far. So uninstalled the mod, and restored my original install of 1.05
I'll try to reinstall the Ultimate and see if I can get it to work, otherwise I'm happy with what I got.
The monitor issue can be fixed with adjusting that registry file mentioned above. Also, in the guides that Airboy has provided, there is a lot of mention of playing on 'Easy' or similar difficulty because the game can be rough.
Just to say that the KoH Ultimate Edition mod was updated a few weeks ago: Knights of Honor Ultimate Edition 2.7 (http://www.moddb.com/mods/knights-of-honor-ultimate-mod/downloads/koh-ultimatehd-v2-7-b143)
Oh my...
Does it work with steam?
Quote from: jomni on February 01, 2017, 11:57:51 PM
Does it work with steam?
The instructions for installing the mod (http://www.moddb.com/mods/knights-of-honor-ultimate-mod) contain the following passage:
"....Install the mod with the installer (very easy) : select your Knights of Honor folder (steam/steamapp/common/knights of honor) then wait a second...."So I would say yes, it does work with Steam.
There's registry shenanigans required but yes it does
Got this in the recent STEAM sale. Pleasantly surprised.
Quote from: undercovergeek on February 02, 2017, 06:11:11 AM
There's registry shenanigans required but yes it does
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Felder-geek.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F04%2Fshenanigans.jpg&hash=a60b68eb9f11175b106c2138030eb3efed4ed297)
^^^^^^^ That's awesome :)
An absolute classic... deserves a modern remake IMHO. Try it out with the HD mod, a recommendation.
Damn, I hope I still have the KoH cd... After all those years...
So, I finally got around to trying this out. Used the hd mod, has a little shaking around the outside of the screen, but no big deal.
A couple times either when my marshall got killed in battle before it was over, or my king died while moving around with troops, or one of my marshalls moving around with troops was outed as an enemy spy, my whole army just disappeared. Is that right? Very annoying with an experienced army that cost a lot of gold to put in the field. Anything to stop this from happening?
Do Marshalls have ratings like the royals or do they all start the same and are differentiated by their skills?
Thanks.
I do not have an answer for you (sorry) but there was a screenshot dropped earlier this week hinting at the future release of a Knights of Honor sequel...I hope that brings your spirits up.