Welcome to the heart of medieval Europe!
This is certainly not a work by Tolstoy, but he would surely have liked it: building your own towns, desperate raids into neighboring principalities, and grand battles for the capital of the state take place in this world alongside the lives of the most ordinary bakers, foresters, blacksmiths, and other subjects.
For the last twenty years, life in your kingdom has been nothing short of splendid — reputable farmers have gathered bountiful harvests, foresters have planted shady groves, bakers and winemakers have competed in the art of creating exquisite delicacies, and the palace guards have even put on a bit of weight from the long absence of practice.
However, Prince Lothar, the queen's favorite and the rightful heir to King Charles, decided not to wait for his time to ascend to the throne and forcibly seized the southern province of the state, igniting a brutal civil war. A small handful of the oldest barons remained loyal to Charles, yet many easily tempted governors quickly switched sides to the usurper in hopes of new lands and chests of royal treasury gold, and within ten days, the enemies managed to besiege Charles in his own fortress.
Now all hope rests on you — the loyal captain of the palace guard and the king's best friend. Over the course of twenty missions, you will embark on a difficult journey from protecting a small town in the north of the kingdom to an epic battle for the capital, developing the economy and honing your tactics.
Everything in this medieval world is interconnected, from stables and sawmills to a troop of heavy knights and a regiment of crossbowmen, so the life of your city will require not just a forester and a sawmill to process the logs he has felled, but also coal, iron, and gold mines, workshops for metallurgists and weaponsmiths, pigsties and stables, butcheries and tanneries — more than twenty-five types of buildings to serve the diverse needs of your province.
The scale of military operations will not disappoint you either: at your disposal are nine types of royal guards, from archers and crossbowmen to spearmen, mounted scouts, light and heavy knights. Moreover, you are now free to group your soldiers into several squads, determining not only their composition but also the battle order, which often determines the outcome of a complex battle.
So, in your hands is a whole kingdom. Reliable allies and blood enemies. Cities and armies, knights and farmers. Welcome to the heart of medieval Europe!