My first game, my first reaction!

[Northern Viking]

Some days ago I recieved KoH...
My expectations were high, as I read through the manual and installed the game...
But as I started playing I realiced that the game was much more different from what I had expected...
That doesn't say, I doen't like the game!
But there are things I actually is a bit disappointed over...
But after playing a while in my first game, I started to like the game again!
Though there are still things I doen't quite understand!

I started playing as Denmark...
There I tried to build up my towns and economy first. And it acually went rather well...
I then made connections with everybody else really easy...

1. Question: When I trade, with other Kingdoms, does I then just start trading with the one with the most Gold? I doen't quite understand the merchant-style's easiness!

I was in war in the beginning and made peace with some of my enemies..
Still I kept the war with Germany going on!
I took my marshall and sailed him to Oslo, where he hired 50 men... (25 Vikings - 25 Axemen)
then I sailed him to Zeeland, where he was reinforced with again 50 men (25 Vikings - 25 Axemen)
Then he came to Jutland and there he got 200 peasants with him... So an army of 300 men in all....

2. Question: My marshall only has room for 12 small groups of 25 men in each... Can't I get a larger army???

I then marched to Meclenburg, which I captured... I left the battle so my marshall could attack without me making some stupid mistake...
I got peace with Germany and everything seemed nice...
I then tried to quit and start a short battle so I could try it myself...

3. Question: I started with a huge army... I took all my cavalry and placed them on some hills... I kept my archers in the back and my footmen in front...
But then hell breaks loose... I doen't have anymore time as they suddenly smash through my footmen... My archers puts down a lot of them, and then I order the half of my cavalry to attack their front, and the other half to attack their rear end with archers!
But then the battle ends and I get the message that I had lost!!!!????
Can someone help me in the battles??? What do I do wrong?? Some facts and some tips about it!!!??? I doen't thing the tutorial showed much....

All in all it was weird to place the game... I enjoined it but also there were other things I didn't seem to understand...

4.Question: Why can't I see the year/month and that...?

5.Question: How do I get time to run faster???

6.Question: I have about 1000 piety and I can't seem to find anypplace to use them???

7.Question: What can I use all my damn books to????

8. Question: Can't I see my Kings attributes???

9.Question: Do I pay for an army keeps living??? I mean like feed them and pay the soldiers a salary??? Is it wise to dismiss the army and then gather it again when I need it again???

[Nike]

1. When you hire a Merchant, you don't automaticaly start trading with foreign kingdoms. To do so, click on his icon in the roual court, choose "Trade with kingdom" and then choose the kingdom you want to trade with.

2. I don't know.

3. Your marshall probably died. If you lose your marshall - you lose the battle. Or if all of your troops flee.

4. Because there is no time in the game - so that you don't fight with archers and knights in 2050. ;)

5. With + from the Numpad.

6. You can use piety for quick "converting" of a captured town or to increase your kingdom power.

7. To educate your knights in the Royal court. (Maybe also for something else, but I don't know what exactly)

8. What attributes? You can see his skills in the Royal family menu (place the cursor over his portrait).

9. They do need food, especially if they are out of a city. If they get hungry - they lose morale.

[the knightly sword]

1.hire a merchant , go in to the kingdom status , go to the strongest country and make a trade agreement with them .
2.dont know but i guess no
3.your marshall died . i advice you do not risk his life un nessecerly because that resultas defeat.
4.there is no time because there is no limit for the game time . but what you can see is how old your king is . and ween he dies of age you will propaly know that a long time has gone.
5.numpad,but it isnt fun with fast time.
6.use your kingdom piety either to increase your kingdom power or overtakeing a town imedaitly.
7.To educate your knight , works with knight proffesions=land lord,builder,merchant,spy.
8.you can see what hes good at on the royal family tab.
9.your army require food . so after a battle go to the nearest town wich is owned by your kingdom
and fill up there supplies other wise they will suffer morale.




ps. do not attack a major kingdom like = germany france etc etc. and rich kingdoms.instead make trade agreements and make your gold income higher.

[Roobarb]

Hhhhmmm.... Must have missed a point in the Tutorial.

How do you use your Piety to overtake a province?

[Xaero]

I can guess that 2. Is that your units gain exp. so if they reach another level they become stronger and larger men count.

[Sir Turylon]

Piety has three uses. You can raise your kingdom power, force the overtaking of a province, and change religions with it. To force the overtaking of a province simply clcik on the province you just captured and look for the progress bar. If you have enough gold and piety (1000 piety required) you can click a small button and the town will instantly become yours.

max army size per marshall is not increasable (and don't use peasents...unless you're down to your last province...and even then soemthing went horribly wrong and you should look back over the game to see what went wrong so quickly...peasents are horrible fighting forces...just use 6 swordsmen if you. You can have larger campaign armies by sending multiple marshalls out. The maximum army size is a defender. 2 marshalls + 6 town units + town gaurd according to city size.

@Frujin. Fruj, do kings get 3 additional units? I've yet to send my king out in battle... but it seems from the screenshots that the king has space for 12 while regular marshalls only have 9 + 4 for siege equipment.

Armies require no upkeep save the 10 gold for the marshall. They do not eat food when they are in a town, only off on a campaign. If you camp an army, the food loss tends to go down slower from what I've seen in the demo version.

Best tip for beginnning, make sure you're not at war with any large nations from the start. Get 3 merchants quickly by making the King and Prince a merchant, thus you only have to come up with 1000 gold for a third. If your King has high piety/religion rating, quickly get your kingdom power up to level 5. should only take you a few turns (like 30-40). Trade is the best source of income in the beginning so don't worry about taxes too much... 5-6 gold from taxes per turn is miniscul amount. It is safe to collect no taxes at all in the beginning to keep happiness high.

Make sure you build gold increasing; fish mongery, tax collector, granary, inn, docks, merchant, and any structure that raises town population and gold income, in the beginning.
If you have 2 provinces, focus one on gold income/population growth at the start and have the other focus on army building. Then, when you capture a 3rd province, switch the gold/population province to resource development/defense and the army province to gold income. the new province will become your new "army base of operations."

It is possible to get well over 1000 gold per turn from only having 4-5 kingdom provinces.

Note on conquest. If you pillage a kingdom weaker than your own long enough, and defeat his marshalls constantly you can force him into vassalage. this is another great money maker. ;) Also, do not be afraid of trading with the arabian kingdoms. They do not bite and they tend to be more pleasent with you than some of your brothers in Christendom. (not to mention more profitable in the goods trade)

:cheers: and happy conquest.

[danielrech]

Sir Turylon: excelent tips! It could be used in a begginer's guide for KOH.

I just love that they have added economy inflaction to the game. In 99% of other strategic games when you re good in them, generally in the end of the games you have so much money that you cant even spend it all. In KOH you have to be carefull and always keep spending, or else economy will be a problem.

[Sir Turylon]

Sir Turylon: excelent tips! It could be used in a begginer's guide for KOH.

I just love that they have added economy inflaction to the game. In 99% of other strategic games when you re good in them, generally in the end of the games you have so much money that you cant even spend it all. In KOH you have to be carefull and always keep spending, or else economy will be a problem.


yep. inflation is definitely a nice addition to the game.

Hehe, actuallly.. I plan on writing up a guide to KoH.. including tactics, building strategy, and campaigning. (have to get the game first though.) :cheers:

[Chris SI]

As far as unit size, the type of unit determines the amount of men in it, not experience, to answer question #2.

All cavalry units have less men, and total manpower doesn't matter much in the game, moral and unit types are much more important.

The real key to victory is to get your marshals combat experiece, so you can give them attributes, the most important in the game are engineering (you can use powerful siege equipment without it) and tactics, which makes you nearly unbeatable in combat.

[Sir Turylon]

tactics is worthless if you are facing a knight with level 3 dread and level 3 leadership. ;)

I've seen the knight's own gaurds fleeing in that situation. hehe.

"We won't fight no more!" Oops, knight is all by himself.

I still have to believe that the most inportant skills are the morale based ones. :go: personal preference though.

[King Yngvar]

Umm, never say that tactics is useless, though this game might not have the most realistic battles (compared to total war), they still outrank all those other games and the right tactics can still make you win against overwhelming odds...

[Stefan]

Umm, never say that tactics is useless, though this game might not have the most realistic battles (compared to total war), they still outrank all those other games and the right tactics can still make you win against overwhelming odds...


Hes talking about a knight skill called tactics, not the tactics used on the battlefield.