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PC Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

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PC Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

Unread postby icycalm » 12 Aug 2022 23:45

https://store.steampowered.com/app/7368 ... _Sovereign

Black Sea Games wrote:Choose your kingdom and become the king as you wrestle over control of Europe in this fresh take on medieval real-time grand strategy. Manage provinces, gather armies, initiate diplomacy, and dabble in espionage. The path is open: become the true Sovereign of your people and bring them to glory.


This is the real Age of Empires sequel. Realistic-size cities and castles, full-size maps, and the Egyptians don't live 3 minutes walk from the Japanese.

New trailer hit a few days ago with extensive battle footage that looks splendid.

Showcase Trailer 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94vUsfH ... XVyolQO3wj

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It's basically Europa Universalis + Age of Empires. You have the full strategy of EU with the full tactics of AoE, and everything running at the same time in real-time. Apparently, you can play co-op too, which should be a treat, so that while one player zooms in to run a battle, another one is still taking care of strategy elsewhere. Of course you should also be able to adjust the speed of time, etc. Not sure about versus multiplayer.

The map is gorgeous.

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TBA.
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icycalm
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Re: PC Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

Unread postby icycalm » 06 Dec 2022 20:05

Just came out.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/736820/d ... 4564340406

Lighthope wrote:My thoughts
Now that they have lifted (most of) the NDA, I can finally say what I think about the game.

I have about 97 hours into the game. That isn't too much by many standards, but I've play it on Normal, Hard, and Very Hard.

This is a great sequel to the first.

The original was "What do we think we can do." The sequel is "What do we want to do."

So KoH2 is everything you wanted to see in the first. It's a great game. If you liked KoH1, you'll love KoH2.

Yes, there are things that are different. The new building system took a little bit to get used to, but in the end you get more out of it. So it is not restrictive at all.

The Court is a new addition and makes a good wrench in the works. It's something else you need to keep an eye on. I liked it.

Spies are massively reworked and are very useful. I barely used spies in the original. I can't live without them here.

Diplomacy is still weak. There are a number of things you should be able to do with diplomacy but can't. Especially when it comes to vassals.

I've always said this game is a worthy successor to Medieval II: Total War.

I will admit, though, that I really didn't play with the tactical battles, preferring to just let the computer handle it. They didn't include Quick Battles, which is painful by its omission.

For those who think Crusader Kings is too complicated, KoH2 will be a breath of fresh air.

My only major complaint is that the AI is too easy. Once you get your economy running and your armies built up, the game is essentially over. You'll roll-stomp your enemy. Even on Very Hard mode. Hopefully they will fix that in a future patch.

The AI doesn't seem to play to the minor victory conditions, so if you are a solo player, those won't add any variety to the game for you.

So based on its price point, KoH2 is a good investment. My only concern is that this may not be a game that you'll be playing months from now. At least not in its vanilla form. The game is moddable. And it won't be long before you'll see new varieties of the modded game coming out.


Lysimaque wrote:Thanks, game was already too easy in KOH1, i wonder why they didnt fix it.


Lighthope wrote:In truth, the game is plenty hard at the beginning. In Very Hard mode I struggled. That was because it throws a lot of problems at you.

But like I said, once you establish yourself, it is just too easy.


yenni_mx wrote:Can you say why you didn't play the tactical battles much? Not interested or because they are poorly implemented?

I have read that they are "laughably bad" and "had no business being shipped with the finished game".


when khan die i die wrote:I think difficulty will be modded as soon as people will start modding the game. I hope we will have steam workshop here.

original game with Earth mode was hard enough for the challenge btw
upd. it called world scenario


Lighthope wrote:You are fairly limited in what you can ask of other countries. Diplomacy should be far more robust. I always like to compare diplomacy to Civ 6 or maybe even Crusader Kings. But diplomacy is KoH2 is almost non-existent.

With vassals, you should be able to order them to do a whole bunch of things. Stop a war, give you items, ect. You can't do any of that. Vassals give you some money and that is about it. They may support you in a war. and they will certainly demand that you help in in war. But it is all very shallow.

Diplomacy is a major disappointment.

Don't even get me started on how useless princesses are!


ShadowFox wrote:My biggest question you have almost 100 hours in atm. Do you still feel the desire/urge to play more or are you kind of over it/burnt out?


Lighthope wrote:Honestly, no? And I hate to say that.

The AI is just too easy. There is no mid-game. Once you get your kingdom up and running, there is no reason to play any further. The AI will melt before you.

Generally speaking, by the time I had less than a quarter of the map either under my control or as vassal, the game was over.

And this was on Very Hard mode.

Believe me, I really really like this game. But it's mid-game is awful.


It does have co-op and PVP though, which the first one didn't. And the screens look like this:

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So it's worth waiting for some MP impressions, and following the modding scene for a while.
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Re: PC Knights of Honor II: Sovereign

Unread postby icycalm » 07 Dec 2022 22:34

Release Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyY3VEgnqkQ

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Stunning trailer. Game looks even better in motion than in stills.

Apparently the RTS aspect is underdeveloped. But the PVP shown in the trailer should at least alleviate the lack of difficulty reported for singleplayer.

Maybe they can patch some of the RTS issues. Many of them revolve around balance. Another thing I heard that might not be fixable is that the RTS maps are smaller than the original game's, so there's not as much scope for tactics. But maybe they can increase their size...

At any rate, as aforesaid, this is worth keeping an eye on post-release, and I am certain it's worth at least a singleplayer playthrough. Grand strategy has never looked so good, and it's worth experiencing, I am sure, whatever the issues.
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