[Chris Crawford, Atari]
“Well, that’s the darndest thing. I was acting as the squire for my brother when I realized I had forgotten his sword in the inn. Then I got lucky : someone had stuck his sword in the middle of stone slab in front of the inn, so I pulled it out and brought it to my brother. Then everyone made quite a scene, crowned me in a hurry and sent me packing toward some odd place called Camelot.
It was weird. My tutor started to give me way too much information on how I was conceived :
My tutor then explained that my destiny was to accomplish what father (whose existence had just been revealed to me 5 minutes prior) failed to do, and unite all of Britain under my rule. He also dissed my old man :
I am not sure Merlin has my best interest at heart.
Let’s visit my new place ! Follow me ! I am easy to recognize in a crowd : I am the only one with a crown.
The first room is the hall, where you can find the famous round table. It is where I can choose which knights will accompany me in war, which knights I will shower in gold and honour, and which knight I will banish from my realm. At the moment, we have only 6 knights : Sir Lucas, Sir Noskikta, Sir Sremmus, Sir Drofwarr , Sir Lamerok and of course my brother Sir Kay. Each of those knights have his own strengths, weaknesses and ambitions – and each of them has good or bad relationships with me and the other knights. For now I will not bother you with these triffles.
The next room is the map room, from where I can declare war to other kings, or pay tribute. It is also there that messengers bring me news from abroad.
The next room is the treasury room, also known as the boring room. That’s where I set the level of my taxes and of my army on the left – on the right I can see how much I am actually collecting and the current size of my army. Chris Crawford Merlin made sure to make it simple to understand thanks to the rule 1 soldier = 1 unit of tax in maintenance.
I can also see the experience of my army, how much tithes I receive or pay, and what is the wealth of my Kingdom (top-left) and the size of my treasury (top-right).
Finally, I don’t like to talk about the last room. Merlin is there, his power ready to be used. We will use this room later.
Finally, let’s leave Camelot and visit our kingdom :
Well, that was short. It is was also instructive : the green squares you see are the farms – the more there are the more prosperous my Kingdom is. As for the village in white, it has absolutely no role in the game so you can forget about it.
I also have some of the worst neighbours possible :
In the North, my neighbour is King Penda, a great military leader who I hope will not attack me early on. Merlin describes him this way :
The King is the West is a lot friendlier – family even. Unfortunately, he won’t be carrying his own weight :
But the real threat is in the East. The two brothers King Hengist and King Horsa are weird foreigners, and Hengist in particular is a piece of work
My army is tiny : the 6 Round Table Knights, and less than 5 extra soldiers – I am probably the weakest ruler of England. I slowly increase the size of the army, increasing at the same time the tax level. Apart from that, I have absolutely nothing to do, except watch the paint on Camelot dry.
A few week later I have 10 warriors in addition to my 6 Knights. And then, I realize the “peace time” has ended and that all Hell breaks lose.
- King Hengist is raiding King Pellinore of Gwynedd
- King Penda is raiding King Garwin of Powys,
- King Horsa is raiding my father-in-law, King Hoel
- King Balduff of Elmet is raiding King Idres of Reget,
- King Coldrin of Beornice is raiding King Lot of Lleudiniaw,
The two latter wars are in the North of Albion (in modern Northumbria) so I don’t care much. On the other hand, with all the alpha males of the South occupied, I can grow my army further. It looks like no one sees me as worth raiding. Fine with me.
More time passes. I bring my army to 14 men, and a new Knight decides to join the Round Table : Sir Gawain. There are raids everywhere. Hengist is the most sociopathic, attacking random Kings (except his brother Horsa and the powerful Penda), and returning full of loot every time. Meanwhile, Horsa focuses his aggression on my father-in-law. Soon, messengers line up in my map room, telling me Hoel has been raided by Horsa, that Horsa has returned to his Kingdom, that Hoel is being raided by Horsa, that Horsa has returned to his Kingdom, and finally that Hoel is being raided by Horsa.
Suddenly, my crown starts to blink : I am the one being raided. It must be Penda, he has been awfully quiet lately. I rush to the map room to check my message. I am attacked yes, but that’s not King Penda. That’s my North-Western neighbour : King Royns.
I was not expecting King Royns to attack me, as he had been described by Merlin this way :
“An aversion to warfare” and “would rather not use his army”. You are a great judge of character, Merlin. I would have appreciated if you had mentioned his weird fetish for Kingly beards, too. Apparently, he is missing his fifteenth beard to finish a cloak, and all the other Kings shaved.
I have no time to berate Merlin, I need his magic to know what’s coming. I use his power of “See[ing]” and enter Royns castle as a ghost, inspecting his treasure room :
23 men-at-arms, plus an unknown number of Knights. That’s a much larger army than mine, with the same level of experience. I don’t have the time to inspect the rest of his castle – he is a neighbour so he could arrive in front of my castle anytime – I return to Merlin’s room and ask him to cast a second spell : a plague on Royns’ army !
Seconds later, Royns’ army arrives.
When an enemy army invades, I have the choice to stay safely hidden in my castle (allowing the invaders to burn crops) or to fight. You can never been forced to fight, but as long as you don’t fight there is absolutely nothing you can do (you are “stuck” in the screen above) and your opponent will slowly burn your crops. Eventually he will leave – for instance because someone is raiding his own kingdom – but he will be a lot richer and you will be a lot poorer.
But after being hit by a plague King Royns has only 17 men (Knights included) versus 22 on my side (including 7 Knights). Of course I accept combat.
I start the battle with 22 men against 17, but because I am defending, I get immediate support from my peasants, who immediately kill 6 enemy warriors, so now I have a 2:1 ratio !
Undetered, Royns’ diminutive army – all 11 men – marches on me. I hold my position, waiting for them.
On my right, Royns Welsh knights rout before contact – it turns out that one of my Knights, Sir Lamerok, brought something special with him:
On my left, there is no giant stallion to terrorize the enemy. I am confident that Sir Kay and Sir Lucas – my best knights with Sir Gawain – should be able to hold their own. I am soon proven wrong as I watch them fall in combat !
WIth his left flank faltering, King Royns shows less determination than Cruella de Vil in finishing his hairy piece of garment and starts retreating. Sir Sremus and Sir Noskikta are in hot pursuit, and they defeat him. His army immediately dissolves.
Don’t worry about King Royns. He will soon be back in his castle. Alas, that’s not the case for Sir Kay and Sir Lucas, they are lost forever. I am down to 5 Knights of the Roundtable, and honestly mostly the Tier C ones, except maybe Sir Gawain and Sir Lamerok’s horse, but I could not make the latter sit at the table. Still, it was a victory.
As I returned to my castle, I received two messages. The first one was from King Uriens of Dairiada :
Badly battered by his Northern neighbour King Augusel, King Uryens of Dairiada is looking for a protector, and my victory put me on the shortlist. Honestly, he is a bit far to be helped, but he is paying a tribute so he does not have to know that right now.
The second message is from King Hengist :
Hengist is coming for me. Merlin mentions something about Camelot going DEFCON 2.
This is all for now. Next update I will expand my influence – or die trying – and focus a bit more on Knight management ; many of them have some interesting quirks. Of course, that’s if I am not slain by King Hengist in singular combat.