Some useful Kingdoms information
Hey guys just finished installing Kingdoms, after buying it about an hour ago.
Naturally I'm about to start playing, the only question is whether to play as Norway first, or the Apaches...or Wales...or the Byzantines...or New Spain...or Egypt...hmm nm.
Anyway, I thought I'd post some interesting info from the manual and the readme for those of you who have yet to get your greedy hands on it.
First, the manual is great. Besides explaining the new features it has a nice faction breakdown of each campaign, with a unit roster present for all of the different initially playable factions.
Of course, the first new feature is that of "controlling reinforcement armies." Gameplay wise you do not have direct control ala your original 20 unit army, but instead have several option buttons to check which are alongside the reinforcement army unit card on the right side of the screen.
The three buttons allow you to set the army in a "defensive stance" where they defend the position they are in, don't chase routers, etc. The "aggressive stance" button tells them to move to engage if the enemy comes within close proximity, fire at will, etc. The "shootout stance" tells them to fire missiles without engaging in melee. Melee units will defend the missile units.
Lots of great new units, but also (at first glance) a good balance to the factions. Because the timeframes are more specific, you get (for instance) a "zoomed in" version of mid-level Turkey as they no longer have janissaries but get the Ahdath, Kurdish auxiliary, and Hasham infantry units as well as crossbows and some more cavalry. Egypt is loaded for bear as well. Other factions have relatively spare unit rosters (like the Apaches) but this makes plenty of sense.
Whats great is how different all the campaigns are, both their objectives and specific rules and variations. For instance, in the Crusades campaign I like that you have to hold an enemy power center for 30 turns to complete game objectives, giving the enemy a chance to stop the "human wins" countdown and hopefully make for some dynamic gameplay.
Spain, besides calling on the mother land must utilize ports effectively, as they are a prerequisite to troop-recruiting buildings. In practice, this means you are going to be having a hard time gathering armies in the American interior, instead having to assemble them near your coastal colonies before marching them off into the wilderness. Also, New Spain can only recruit the best mercs by being allied to native factions. So you are gonna have to divide and conquer with your smaller troops and managed mercenary alliances.
It's also cool how certain American factions get some guns only by defeating enemies in battle who use them (after hitting a certain limit of these, gun troops become recruitable, much like the "sword master" allowing the recruitment of No-Dachi in STW). This isn't for all, but for some like the Apache and Chicimec.
Speaking of South America, lets talk about human sacrifice.
All of the Mesoamericans can do sacrifice. They can sacrifice captives after a battle, the population of settlements, AND their own units. Doing so increases the happiness of settlements. The Apaches get Ceremonial Dances and Warpaths.
Also in the New World, taxation is less effective (reflecting the lack of basic civil infrastructure and systems of currency) so instead trading with merchants and settlements is more lucrative, and more money is gained by sacking settlements.
That pretty much comes from the manual, but here is the addendum from the readme. More good stuff. The manual originally said that the Teutonic Knights can't upgrade cities past the city level.
Crusades:
The map for the Crusades Campaign has changed slightly, resulting in the
Manual displaying an incorrect map for this campaign.
Teutonic:
Teutonic Campaign: Playing as the Teutonic Order
Castle-Driven Build Options
The Teutonic Order is capable of upgrading its city settlements past the
level of City and converting castles to cities; however the Order does not
endorse the construction of the Brothel, Pleasure Palace and other buildings
in the Tavern chain which encourage impious behaviour amongst its citizens.
The Teutonic Order will instead need to maintain public order with an iron
fist, and rely on its Castle Libraries and Academies to recruit Spies,
Diplomats and Assassins. These buildings can be constructed in castles
above the level of Wooden Castle.
Britannia:
Culture
In the British Isles, each faction spreads its unique culture rather than a
religion. The amount and type of culture present in a settlement determines
which units can be recruited from that settlement and how much unrest is
created by insurgents within the population.
Many units require that a certain level of their faction’s culture be
present in a settlement before they can be recruited there. The level of culture
required to recruit a specific unit can be viewed on the Building
information screen of the structure which trains the unit. Conversely, while a foreign
faction’s culture remains within a captured settlement; mercenary variants
of that faction’s units may be drawn directly from the population. The quality
and variety of mercenary units available are determined by the size of the
settlement and level of foreign culture present.
Settlements with high levels of foreign culture will suffer greater unrest
caused by insurgents within the population. While the culture in each
settlement will shift in favour of the settlement owner over time, the most
efficient way to minimize the unrest caused by insurgents and speed the
spread of the controlling faction’s culture is to install a Governor in the
settlement.
Governors in the Britannia campaign receive the “Management attribute in
place of “Piety: The greater the Governors management skill, the faster his
culture will spread within the settlement and the lesser the effect insurgents will
have on public order. While second to Governors, spies are also able to increase
the spread of their faction’s culture when stationed within the walls of a
settlement their faction controls.
Religious buildings can still be constructed in the Britannia campaign,
However they no longer allow the recruitment of the Priest agent type and instead
serve as a means to boost population happiness and increase the spread of culture.
So, hope that you guys who still have a few days or weeks or whatever to wait, or who are waiting to hear about certain aspects (like reinforcements) have something to enjoy!I really like the AoR concept of culture and unit recruitment they implemented in the Brittania campaign, among a lot of other things.
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Originally Posted by Black Francis
