Knights and Merchants: The Shattered Kingdom
1998
- real time strategy (rts)
- simulator
- strategy
- historical
- single player
- multiplayer
The story
Knights and Merchants recreates the era of the Middle Ages. Apart from the purely fictitious geography of our world, all game elements and scenes are based on the Anglo-Saxon period, 1200 A.D. And we haven't used imaginary elements like fabled creatures, either. The player takes on the role of an ordinary captain in the Palace Guard. A conspiracy against the king catapults the captain into a situation where he finds himself responsible for the defence of the last royal province. This is all that remains of the shattered kingdom, which has been split into numerous small principalities and fiefdoms. And now even the king himself, ensconced in his capital, is threatened by enemy armies. This is the starting point of your Middle Ages adventure. Now you must win back all those provinces which once belonged to your king.
What it’s like
Small, busy isometric villages in bright, storybook colours, with tiny sprite-sized peasants hauling logs, milling grain and trudging between farms and stone quarries. The mood is calm and industrious, with a lute-and-horn medieval soundtrack that loops under the clatter of carts and hammering. Progress comes from watching a settlement's supply chains knit together, and the pace is unhurried until a wave of soldiers marches over the hill and the screen shifts to brief, sprite-scale skirmishes of swords and arrows. The violence is small and bloodless in look, more a tally of losses than a gory spectacle, and the tension is about scarcity and planning rather than dread. The story is a sober frame: a captain in the palace guard tasked with holding the last royal province and winning back the lands around it, one fief at a time. It suits a long, quiet afternoon at the desk, a comfort replay with tea, or anyone who enjoys the slow satisfaction of an efficient economy. It is for players who want strategy with patience, puzzle-like logistics and a gentle, non-graphic medieval world.
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