Knights Of Honour 2: Sovereign is a real-time strategy historical war game based between 1110 to 1360 AD in medieval Europe. Developed by Black Sea Games and published by THQ Nordic, this complex and engaging strategy game gives you an in-depth experience that covers a vast array of tactical mechanics that don’t fall under the usual ‘you build a big army, you win’ trope like a lot of other strategy games out there. Knights Of Honour 2: Sovereign allows you to play your way by building relations with other kingdoms, or subterfuge and deception, even commerce is a solid option.

Now as great as this all sounds, I will put a disclaimer on the praise I am giving, it is a less than easy game to pick up, and to fully understand it, you will need to do a lot of reading and hopefully take in all of that information only then will the full potential of this game be unlocked. I have barely learned half of what is possible, however, I am still having fun and I am learning more every time I play, hell my latest game I am doing well. So be aware if you are not used to these types of games or even the more combat-focused version of this type of game.

This game only has one goal, as Brain used to say every night to Pinky, ‘The same thing we do every night, try to take over the world.’ That is, it is world domination, the undisputed ruler of the world, conquering, deceiving, or owning the world market there are many ways to win, if you check enough boxes and unlock every tier, you can be crowned king by the remaining world leaders. However, doing so is easier said than done this is a slow-roll game you could play quickly, but I would not try until you are fully accustomed to the game. to make things easier you can also play the co-op/versus mode where you and five friends or randoms can play together or against each other. But that is the gist of the game it is interesting in mechanics as well.

Now there will be a lot of mechanics I will not talk about as there are still things I have not read up on or used in any of my games so far but hey that leaves some of the mystery to you to find. Now the first thing you get to do is customize your game difficulty level, what of the three different times you want to play in, and what kingdom you want to play as. Then you start in your kingdom depending on which one you pick, a large kingdom or small will determine how many providences you have each of those has some farms, mines, and a castle.

Unlike other games in this you don’t build structure technically, instead, you purchase barracks, markets, a dock, or farmlands these will each give you things like markets will give you money. Each province has four slots to use with four more you can unlock, and extras specific to the location like iron deposits or sheep farming, things like that that give bonuses or allow you to export material and items you normally wouldn’t without the specific area resource.

Besides the King, you can hire eight other leaders that can look over these separate regions and give bonuses to the area depending on the class and abilities they learn. There are five classes commander, diplomat, merchant, spy, and priest, each class helps in its way most are pretty self-explanatory merchant helps make you more money while the diplomat helps strengthen relationships or helps mend them.

Also, something I did not realize is that to start building an army you need a commander leader, and he leads a squad of I believe ten units of cavalry, swordsman, pikeman, and archers so if you want a few armies you are going to need a few leaders.

This was probably the part that was the weirdest thing to get used to, still not a huge fan, I like to build up an army, and having these limitations dulled the experience for me, but I got over it. This does force you to use the other classes to improve your kingdom as a whole, so I get why it has the army that way it is frustrating though, one of my games, not ten minutes in and I got attacked by a kingdom that had over three thousand power armies I am only just getting to that level of army power and I am like three to four hours into this run.

There are several keybindings useable in this game that I could not memorize if you were playing PVP that’s when I would probably sit down and learn each one. However, if you are only playing for fun the mouse is pretty much all you need I also hot-keyed pause to a more comfortable button as that was all I needed.

You can also hold down the left alt key which lets you click on highlighted keywords that take you to the information guide that explains what everything does and means, this is the reading part I was talking about its use mostly some parts are not well explained, at least not like press this to do this, it more just explains what you can do not how to do it.

Knights Of Honour 2: Sovereign uses a top-down view of the world map you can zoom in slightly, but I didn’t see too much point in it. The landscape is full of life with farms, mines, holy sites, and the capitals, roads connect places that have few people moving between.

Every different nation has unique units and buildings which is nice and to compliment these different areas the lands scape paints a beautiful picture of the different environments from the rolling plains of now Europe to the harsh deserts of north Africa and the Middle East. There is not so much in the way of music in this game except for the title screen which uses a pretty epic score that uses a lot of trumpets, violin, and thunderous drums.

Other than that, there is a subtle soundtrack behind the game like a bard song you hear in the background of a tavern in a fantasy show, along with that you get the sounds of waves crashing, seagulls cawing, farm animals, and the rustling of trees it is all quite serine if you take the time to appreciate it though don’t lose focus it only takes moments to lose everything. Other than that there are a few voiced parts but they are more alerts than anything if you are getting short on resources or being attacked, things like that which is useful, especially if you are focusing on a different area of your kingdom.

Knights Of Honour 2: Sovereign is a game that takes patients and a strategic mind, a dash of luck would not go astray either. You will make bad decisions that could just about bring your whole kingdom crumbling to your feet, and if that happens just try again. Just beware however you will need time to play this, either a lot at once or in short intervals over a long time, this isn’t a quick skirmish and the games one this is a long term, put plans in motion and prepare for a long winter type of game. Yes, you can still just play for the fun of it, though with friends would make that easier and more enjoyable. For the hard-core strategist, this game will show you just how good you are and will make anyone who loves that sort of competitive aspect or challenge to their skill giddy with excitement.

Written by: Adam Brasher