The age of chivalry!
This was one of the launchtitles of the legendary Commodore Amiga computer. A next-gen console compared to the famous commodore 64. It was better then anything on the market. Nintendo's 8-bit system had nothing on this and the PC was a piece of crap compared to the mighty Amiga and in many ways it still is.
The game is about a England during the 3rd crusade. King Richard went to the holy land and is presumed dead. A struggle for power in the homeland begins. There are 8 warlords divided in two fractions. The Normans in the north and the Saxons in the south. You choose one of them and then try to conquer the entire land, which is divided in provinces. You do this by sending your army into battle. As the battle rages on you see the bodycount piling up. There isn't much you can do but shout some orders or sound the retreat. Sometimes you face a much smaller army and still loose. I don't trust this game. Every month you get an income which you can use to build your army. You can buy footsoldiers, knights on horses and catapults. The income is based on how much land you have, so it's important to gain land fast. The catapults you also need to breach enemy castlewalls. You get to pull the catapult down to a certain angle so it hits the wall at the right spot. You can also use fire-projectiles and biochemical weapons to weaken the castle's defenses before charging the breached wall. But there's much more to this game. Like a medieval lord you can participate or organize your own jousting tournament. This is an alernative way for gaining money and land. Sadly i never succeeded in knocking the rival lord of his horse. You can also go out stealing. You take control of a guy sneaking into an enemy castle. You encounter some enemy guards which you have to defeat with your sword. This is also almost impossible on the Amiga. You'll end up getting caught and having to pay ransom. Finally you can also kidnap pretty ladies and then marry them. You also have to sneak into a castle and do some swordfighting. I succeeded a couple of times and it's rewarding though you don't get to see very much. To conclude: it isn't a very good game, but it is a classic in bringing an epic story, resource management, swordfighting, jousting and very simplistic real-time-strategy all together with amazing graphics for it's time. It also inspired many other games. I hear there's a version for the gameboy advance also, but i don't know if it's any good. It can hardly be worse.