Medieval strategy/RTS games?

I've got a long, long break before I go back to work and I'm on the lookout for a good game to keep me going. I'm looking for something a bit different and I noticed these three medieval RTS games at my local vendor, King Arthur the Role Playing Wargame, Crusaders Thy Kingdom Come, and Lionheart Kings Crusade.

I've played the obvious Medieval 2 Total War and loved it but I get bored of the same relentless slog across the map (and I'm not really interested in the addon campaigns), but I really like the medieval setting, and the battle mechanics were more or less flawless.

So I wondered if anyone had played these games or can recommend a similar sort of thing. I come from an RPG background but like me a bit of RTS sometimes, but I'm by no means a hardcore RTS gamers. I also like trading games as long as theres some action.

Thanks very much.

I should note I have a fairly old system. It was new when Oblivion came out but it hasn't been upgraded since.

There's the Stronghold series of games by Firefly Studios, they might be up your street, and they're pretty low spec games (Especially the first) so you're not going to need a power house for them. They're pretty basic in that there's a small variety of resources you need and that some have to be made by certain combinations of buildings/farms. The scenarios and skirmishes can range from defending a castle to a more economic mode back to attacking a castle. There is a story mode, too, and you can always play through that.

If you want something else like Stronghold, there's always the more expansive and wider ranging Age of Empires II, which focuses on the medieval era.

The Anno series is good if you're more into seafaring and trading, too.

I'd like to recommend Knights of Honor, a hidden gem that I only recently discovered. Unfortunately, it's fairly difficult to find, but I'd rank this game as one of the best, most under-rated strategy games out there. It has extremely deep strategical elements on the campaign map, and the diplomacy aspects are very fun to manipulate; cultivating and exploiting alliances, forging trade agreements, arranging political marriages, and using agents to benefit your kingdom is extremely addicting. There are also battles that you can choose to play out yourself, but unfortunately this aspect is the weakest part of the game. Despite this drawback, however, I'd say that the stellar strategic and diplomatic aspects more then make up for this shortcoming. The setting is authentically medieval and "realistic," which I usually prefer in strategy games.

So if you're looking for a strategy campaign that has a lot more depth and diplomatic options than the persistent warfare and pure militaristic conquests of Total War, I think you should check out Knights of Honor.

Edit: Also, I believe this game was released in 2005, so your computer should handle it just fine.

Nerevarine said:

Unfortunately, it's fairly difficult to find

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It's on GamersGate for 50% off, at least in the UK

Stronghold's great, and it has a fun little economy as well

Dwagginz said:

It's on GamersGate for 50% off, at least in the UK

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Well then, it appears that it wasn't so hard to find after all . I guess the "fairly difficult" part for me was that I looked for a physical copy, which took me a while to find. I suppose that's what I get for being "old-fashioned" and preferring to own the actual disc.

In the 90's I loved Lords of the Realm 2. I'm not sure how well it's aged but I noticed that it's at GoG. It might be worth a try considering the cheap price tag.

There was once a game which would fit perhaps good, but I just can't remember its name ...

Thank you for all the suggestions. I appreciate it.