Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand is a new game from UK developer Monte Cristo. It’s name says it all. You’re a lord of a medieval territory, and you build a town and take over other areas to expand, and one may find they will be investing most of their time in this game in to just that: town building.
Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand is mainly focused around building your settlement. So focused, I might add, that there’s almost no room for a story. Each level sets you up with some resources, and the choice to begin building where you wish. Town building is pretty easy, however, there are many things you need to keep in mind when building one. First off, you need homes, or you won’t have many peasants to work in your town. Then, you’ll need: roads (so the peasants can get around to other buildings), fields, orchards and livestock for food, wells and fountains for water, doctors and graveyards for health, churches and statues for faith, and public torture devices for justice. The town will slowly upgrade, as the statuses of the homes fill with the five stats: food, water, health, justice, and faith. Food is going to be a main concern of your town. It’s hard to have a large supply during the off months after a harvest. Making many fields will help this, as will storing the surplus in granaries. Food can get production bonuses when built next to certain things, but it depends on the food type. Justice, faith, water and health are very easy to control, as you just need to scatter structures around your cities that satisfy those three stats.
"The graphics in this game are very demanding, but worth the price of admission. "
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As your houses upgrade, your settlement will change from a town with dusty roads, to a city with cobblestone paths. Before that, however, you’ll need to build tech buildings in order to create structures that will allow the homes to upgrade. Carpenters, Blacksmiths, and other buildings allow you to create better and more efficient structures for things like water.
For example, at first you will only have a well to provide water for your town. You can build a few, but the range people can get water from it is very short. After you obtain the ability to make a mason, you can create a fountain, which will provide water for a much larger area than a well. This is key to being able to expand efficiently.
Battles in the game are, sadly, boring. There are two types of troops in this game: infantry and cavalry. They always come in units of 50, unless they lose men or you squish two units together. When not in use, troops will be in small camps. They do not regenerate any casualties suffered while in camp, which is fairly annoying. Some units will become totally useless when they are left with less than 30 men. There are also siege engines, which need no one to man them to be used. Things like ballistae and catapults can be used to defend your town, or attack another town.
Battle will begin when you put troops in enemy territory, or they decide to attack you. There is a short time to prepare any defense you have, before you attack or get attacked. You have no control over how your individual troops react. Most of the time, you’ll have to amass many troops to do anything to a large city, even with multiple siege engines and cavalry assisting. Had they allowed you to set up key targets before a battle, it would be much less boring and more suspenseful when watching a battle. Battles quickly turn in to a game of, “Who’s got more guys?” and often, some scenarios will send random large waves against you with little warning, crushing your town. Building any defense structures isn’t particularly all that helpful, as siege engines will decimate any building easily, regardless. Combat seems somewhat rushed and unpolished, as combat doesn’t look half as good as your settlement can look.
The graphics in this game are very demanding, but worth the price of admission. The graphics are very detailed, and there are a lot of things going on in the small towns, wheat fields, and the cities that your towns eventually turn in to. Don’t expect a good frame rate if you crank all the settings up.
The interface is relatively clean, and very helpful. The game will assist with displaying auras of effect from certain buildings and doodads on the map like wild game, such as rabbits and deer. I didn’t notice any large graphical glitches, except for the occasional clipping error. Graphics are easily the strongest point of the game. So strong, in fact, that the sound is easily second at all times to graphics.
"Battles quickly turn in to a game of, “Who’s got more guys?”."
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The music of Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand is very fitting. Nothing of note, particularly, or anything that really stands out, as it fades so well in the game that you can quickly forget any is playing. The sound effects are decent, as nothing sticks out like a sore thumb. Overall, the sound quality is around average. Battles could have sounded a little more climactic, but it’s not all that noticeable in the end.
Final Thoughts:
Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand had great ideas, but the combat really kills the game. Because of the huge deficiency in interactivity, all you really have to do in this game is build a town, amass as many troops as allowed, then annihilate the enemy town. With a very inaccessible and limited level editor, I can see this game will not be at all too appealing for most people, sadly.
