Knights of Honor 2: Sovereign

[bobarossa]

Thanks for the clarifications!  I don't have any memory of the first game being this complicated!  This appears to be much more detailed than the strategic layer of Medieval TW2 and when it came out I thought THAT would have made a good game on its own.  I realize a single province start would be difficult from reading this thread.  I just wanted use it to learn the interface basics for a day or so. 

[solops]

Can the game be paused for review and to give orders during the pause?

[Anguille]

Can the game be paused for review and to give orders during the pause?

Yes

[Anguille]

Thanks for the clarifications!  I don't have any memory of the first game being this complicated!  This appears to be much more detailed than the strategic layer of Medieval TW2 and when it came out I thought THAT would have made a good game on its own.  I realize a single province start would be difficult from reading this thread.  I just wanted use it to learn the interface basics for a day or so.

The new version is a lot more complex than the first one...

[Gusington]

One province kingdoms will have the opposite effect of being helpful because, in my experience, you will either be crushed quick or you will be running around like mad trying to put out fires and stay afloat at the same time, like Bosnia and Ragusa. Playing as Moldavia with two provinces is opening up more expansion opportunity and making things a little more flexible. I think for my next game, whenever that is, may be as another two province kingdom and set a minor victory at acquiring 5 provinces total, now that I am somewhat better at military expansion.

IIRC that farm is on fire in the above pic because of a rebel army passing through as I besieged the capital.

Same thing happened in Wallachia on a bigger scale...I was besieging a Wallachian castle as the Serbs (unknown to me) were besieging the capital. When Targoviste fell, I didn't understand what happened for a few seconds and then cursed the Serbs. Ultimately it worked out for me as Wallachia was destroyed and all my nearby neighbors were like 'Wow - guess we won't mess with you after all.'

[Ian C]

This is a seriously great game. Deceptively deep with a great deal of immersion. I don't think I've wasted this much time on a game for quite a while. It looks simple on the surface, but the relations between building improvements and building other things is vital to how your economy and military works. Also worth noting is that resources are distributed differently with each new game, so replay value is huge.

I strongly recommend anyone playing for the first time watches some tutorials on YouTube and then plays a test game on Easy Difficulty with the max gold option at startup. This worked out  for me as I learned to play. Once you get used to the way the systems work, it's a LOT of fun.

I failed badly on my first play-through. The easiest mistake is to not understand how the buildings/improvements interact with each other to produce gold, trade and other things.

Also, choosing the right advisors and levelling them up yielded some great but not overpowered bonuses that can really make your Kingdom successful. I got some real kicks out of clinching  great trade deals that filled my treasury with thousands of gold because my merchants were great at their jobs. The opposite is also true, you can face some real pitfalls if things go badly, but they go sideways in a realistic way that just adds to the immersion and challenge.

I don't know what it is about this game - I've played Crusader Kings 3 and Total War and this just seems more real for some reason.

[Gusington]

^The toughest for me to wrap my brain around is gold and commerce. Still early with this game but as I improve it will be a go to for a long time. I still haven't played through a battle yet either. I have been pining to play some Total War as I get to know KoH2 but I think that may fade once I start playing through battles.

Is the 'max gold option' you mentioned the maximum gold you can start with? 20k, 35k, etc.? Haven't tried that yet either.

[Ian C]

Is the 'max gold option' you mentioned the maximum gold you can start with? 20k, 35k, etc.? Haven't tried that yet either.

New Campaign screen, under 'Starting Gold'.

Also, that save game icon on the starting screen next to 'Starting Period'  is able to load a previous save to use as a starting scenario for any Kingdom.







This is a pretty good 18 minute intro to the game.

[devoncop]

Agree with your summary above Ian....

This is a gem of a game. I also think the strategic game and AI are streets ahead of those in Total War and Crusader Kings.

My first proper Campaign has come to a head now as I decided to take the plunge, ally with Norway and try to take on England. I am besieging Ulster and raiding Newcastle at the minute with the Norwegians hopefully tying up the English armies on the continent.

Interestingly, Aragon has done very well in my game as have the Seljuks whilst France is only 3 provinces and looking sickly..... interesting to see if the same countries do well all the time like the big blue French blob in EU4  :)

[undercovergeek]

am i right in thinking the goods map has green shaded territories for those areas that COULD build that good but havent yet got round to it

[Gusington]

Thanks Ian - IIRC I posted that vid upthread here in the murky depths of the past.

[Ian C]

am i right in thinking the goods map has green shaded territories for those areas that COULD build that good but havent yet got round to it

Not sure yet, still taking in a lot of info...


also, very useful STEAM guides:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/736820/guides/#scrollTop=500

[Gusington]

^Wow there's a ton of content in that link.

[Gusington]

After making a few kingdom upgrades and kind of feeling ok about myself, all hell broke loose with a massive rebellion in my fiefdom and in all the surrounding provinces too. Anyone else seen this? Still playing on 'easy' too 

I rage quit. The real time system of this game is just not giving me enough time to learn it. I may/may not go back to try to salvage this particular campaign, which is very unlike me.

[solops]

The real time system of this game is just not giving me enough time to learn it. I may/may not go back to try to salvage this particular campaign, which is very unlike me.

OK, this is the kind of data I look for. I like turn based. Simultaneous is better than igoyougo. And "RTS" can be even better if done right and treated as "continuous, pausable time" as opposed to "real time", which is nothing of the sort. But there is absolutely no excuse for a strategic level game not to give you time for review, organization and execution.