Kingdoms & Castles is one of those "little games" whose release went relatively unnoticed on Steam in the middle of Summer. Since July 20, 2017, the game of the studio Lion Shield LLC is available at the small price of 9.99 €.
Surprised by the price (and seduced by the label "city builder"), I tried it. And I was not disappointed.
A CLASSIC CITY BUILDER
Kingdoms & Castles , at first glance, is an umpteenth city builder with a vaguely medieval inspiration. Banished inaug whole this genre a few years ago, but without the military dimension. Lion Shield LLC has not forgotten these little details and has endowed its game with a less peaceful mode. There are three possible modes of play:
- Pacific: The player can build safely. No attacks, except inclement weather.
- Easy: Attacks can occur, but are infrequent and of varying intensity.
- Difficult: the attacks are very strong, very quickly. It takes a lot of hours of play to master this mode.
As in any good city builder, you have to look after your citizens. Their first need will be be housing: three types of dwelling are available (cottage, house and manor), and each have a well-defined number of occupants. Without available housing your village's development prospects will be reduced.
Food is also compulsory: without it, the happiness of your villagers will drop, and thus your chances of attracting new inhabitants. Fields and orchards (for the time being only the means of food production, aided by the bakery) are to be placed on fertile (dark green) land, often at the edge of the water, to produce rich
And finally, the villagers who also need heat heat will be made for coal. The basics of any good city builder are made laid; to these are added buildings said happy, such as a well, a market place, a church ... many small details enhance Kingdoms & Castles and give a more realistic atmosphere: residents will be happier if they have neighbors (who willing are never harmful ...) or if they are close to the sea
AN ECONOMY (FOR NOW) SIMPLISTIC
Kingdoms & Castles . IS lagging behind ON The ECONOMY It IS Very Basic:. The Player MUST the collect Wood, Stone, Food, Gold and Iron Ore No Commercial Exchanges Possible, although but The Developers are Working ON IT of As A Result, The Player Quickly. goes around the economy, since the only possible development will be to multiply the production sites (more forest huts, more stone quarries ...) to increase the rate.
Gold is used to finance soldiers, defenses and some buildings. It is obtained via the taxes that the player can not, for the moment, lower forcing you to be careful to not click too quickly on the sum asked to the inhabitants, because there is as yet no backward
The addition of merchants will allow you to achieve facilities without having to wait very long ... The player can increase the happiness of its citizens by organizing fairs in the public square. These temporary events make it possible to attract many more inhabitants.
Finally, each soldier (defenders and infantry) as well as doctors or booksellers are paid on the coffers of the kingdom. Gold is so never really a concern if the player management to keep new arrivals of citizens every year.
Other resources are charcoal and tools. The first is to increase the happiness of the citizens, the second to improve the performance of lumberjacks and quarries. The most important things are to place your warehouses well: the closer they will be to the processing places, the more efficient the economy will be (workers will have less distance to refuel).
For the moment basic, the developers hope that the management of resources become more interesting by bringing a diversification into the next updates.
WAR AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Why those two points are still in their infancy in the game, but that improvements are possible (and planned).
War is for the moment very basic: the only enemies are the dragons or the Vikings. While the dragon will inflame your buildings, the Vikings, with their ogres (yes, ogres (???)) will destroy your walls, burn your buildings and kidnap your villagers.
To deal with these plagues, the player will first build walls, towers and will place ballistas (big damage, but long reloading) or archers (weak damage but rapid fire). If by chance the Vikings still manage to pass the walls a tort: to recruit a hero and soldiers who will cluster around. The combat is very basic, the soldiers will go to attack the troops designated to destroy them. The damaged buildings (especially the towers and walls) can be repaired by the mason.
In the words of infrastructure, they have been added to the update of September 2017. The main ones are related to agriculture: a noria (water wheel), aqueducts and reservoirs. Their construction will improve the fertility of the territory inside the island (the most fertile territories are located on the coast.) The cost, as much in stones as in coins, is not negligible, but in view of the bonus provided, the investment is profitable.
Developers have promised that additional infrastructure will be added, but for now no additional information has filtered