========================================================================
LORDS OF THE REALM III FAQ: Courtesey Of Saerko, V0.85
========================================================================

==================================
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
==================================
1.0)FAQ
2.0)BASIC OVERALL STRATEGY
3.0)ADVANCED OVERALL STRATEGY
-3.1: Serfs
-3.2: Burghers
-3.3: Clergy
-3.4: Knights
-3.5: List of Knights/Requirements (PARTIALLY COMPLETE AS OF 6/28/04)
-3.6: Strategies
4.0)CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES (INCOMPLETE AS OF 7/31/04)
-4.1: Ireland
-4.2: England
-4.3: Germany
-4.4: France
5.0)BASIC BATTLE STRATEGY
6.0)ADVANCED BATTLE STRATEGY
-6.1: Formations
-6.2: Ideal Army Configuration
-6.3: Terrain Tactics
-6.4: General Strategies
-6.5: Castle Combat 
==================================

===============================
1.0: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
===============================

1) Q: How do I get armies?

   A: Well, all questions of strategy aside, you need to place vassals.
To place a vassal, just look to the bottom bar of the screen. On the 
right hand side of the larger empty (or possibly filled with pictures) 
bar should be three small icons that look like chess pieces. The top 
piece, if clicked, will display your Knights, and the lowest piece will 
display the Lesser Vassals, including more Knights. Drag one of the 
knights to any empty parcel (which should look like a little field with 
a small flag in the middle of it) and let go. The knight will appear and
with him comes an army. Select the knight with a selection box, click
to a desired location, and voila!

2) Q: The game crashes/this feature doesn't work/there's an error here,
what should I do about it?

   A: Short answer: download the patch, install it, restart your
computer. When the computer has restarted, open the task manager, shut
down all programs and processes that are not vital or essential, and 
make sure all drivers are correctly installed. This should fix 99% of
the technical problems with the game. If it doesn't, just be aware that
since Impressions Games is dead, there won't be any future patches, and
support will be shoddy. Sorry, I think it sucks too. =(

3) Q: How do I get better vassals/armies?

   A: Well, first, refer to the strategy portion of this FAQ. If you
just want the basic rundown, better vassals and armies come from you
(the player) fulfilling some sort of prerequisite, like having a low
Christianity for a certain period of time or winning 15 battles, for 
example.

4) Q: How do I use ships?

   A: This seems to be badly explained in the manual. Basically, look
for parcels on the coast or near a large amount of water. If you drag
your cursor over them, some will say "Landing" or "Port". Ports are 
just Landings that are occupied by burghers, and both can have ships
potentially landed on their shores. Only ports, however, can support
the ships you need to move from one landmass to another. To use a ship,
just select an army and move them to the ship. Once they are in the
ship, select it and click on a landing or port somewhere else, and the
ship will start moving in that direction.

In a quick aside, the manual says that armies that board ships become
unsupplied, and take the associated penalties. Maybe this is just a
bug, and something that is fixed in the patch, but I've never actually
seen those penalties accrue, so if you notice the same thing, feel free
to exploit it, because the computer sure will, as will opponents in 
multiplayer.

5) Q: Is it possible to create "exhibition" games, where I can just
play to the death?

   A: The good news is yes; the bad news is that all except for one need
to be unlocked by beating the scenarios in the campaign. A cheat from
Gamefaqs or any other code/cheat resource will unlock them, but I really
recommend playing through the campaigns. They give you a nice feeling of
escalating difficulty throughout the game, though any of the exhibitions
will be easy once you get the strategy down. The exhibition missions are
 Ireland: High King of Ireland, England: Albion Forever, Germany: The
Golden Bull, and France: Vive le Roi!. In these missions you can pick 
any house to be by clicking on a different shield, but the same is true
for all of the multiple-house missions. Some missions are one house only
though, and those you pretty much only have one way to go.

6) Q: Is there a trainer for this game?

   A: Since Lords of the Realm III has, at the time of this writing, an
exceedingly small following, I doubt it. Feel free to make one though,
and contact me. I'll post the name of the trainer and the link here
(but only after verifying that both link and trainer are good, please no
viruses/trojans. I've got a pretty decent virus scanner and will resent
any such attempts extremely, tarnishing your good name =] ). 

7) Q: Help! Retainers (thieves, corrupt cardinals, assassins) are making
my life hell!

   A: I know what you mean. The only way to stop it is to download the
patch, where the AI was retooled to use more mercenaries and less of the
retainers. Depending on your play style though, you may be better off as
things are, since the retainers can sometimes help. For example, if you
have an enemy that's fond of using cardinals, you should just keep your
Christianity at 1 and use the vassals that come as a result (no small
number of them).

8) Q: What happens when a parcel is razed/pillaged?

   A: Again, depends on what version you have. Pre-patch: Pillaging does
essentially nothing to the parcel, above what already happens when an
enemy army occupies it (it stops producing). Razing destroys the parcel
and sends your vassal that occupied it back to your court. However, just
place the vassal again after the waiting period ends and all will return
to normal. The computer will not observe the waiting period when you 
raze its parcels.

Patched: Pillaging slowly lowers the level of the parcel, down to one,
and razing removes the vassal and makes the parcel unusable for a 
certain amount of time, (10-15 seconds). The computer, with the patch,
will now observe the waiting period.

9) Q: How do I know which knights in an army are from where after they've 
been grouped, and what companies they control?

   A: First, select the army, and open the window that displays the
different companies that comprise it. Click on any single company in
that window, and the knight that it belongs will appear. To find out 
where they're from originally is mainly just a hunt through the parcels.

10) Q: If a knight is in battle/in an enemy parcel/with an army, what
happens if I replace him/her, or the parcel is razed?

    A: If the knight is in battle, you can't replace him or her. If the
knight has his or her parcel razed while in battle, the knight is fine
until the battle ends, when he/she promptly disappears. If the knight is
in an enemy parcel or grouped with an army when his/her fief is razed,
the knight disappears. If the knight is replaced, the same thing happens
and the new knight appears in that parcel, and will have to be marched
elsewhere.

11) Q: Easter Eggs?

    A: Heh, well, it's purported that you can unlock the King Arthur
vassals in the Albion Forever mission, and one is unlocked (I believe)
by placing a cathedral in the estate parcel at Middlesex, which yields
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Placing him somewhere on the map will yield the
Arthurian vassals (Lancelot, Gallahad, Beneveire, etc.), but exactly
where is something I don't know.

However, if you read the names of the vassals carefully, you may notice
some interesting ones, especially among the French serfs. Vassals like
Vidal Sassoun, Pierre l'Odiferous, Ronald MacDonald, etc. are sprinkled
throughout the game, probably as an attempt by the designers to relieve
boredom.

12) Q: How do I conquer a region?

    A: Every region has an estate parcel, denoted by much larger/more
grand vassal structures. A castle is the estate for Knights, a City for
Burghers, a Manor for Serfs, and Cathedral for Clergy. To conquer a
region, move an army to the estate parcel. If it's occupied by Clergy or
Serfs, you can take it immediately (provided no enemy armies also occupy
it). If it's occupied by a knight or burgher, you'll need to take an
army and siege the Castle/City, which you can conquer after the
garrison units have been destroyed. To actually conquer it, drag a
vassal to the estate parcel, place them, and boom! You've conquered the
region. Now you get to try and hold on to it. >:)

13) Q: How do I get my garrisons to leave the castle walls?

    A: The simple answer to this question is to select the company and
click on a point inside one of the courtyards, or on another wall/tower
to get them to move there. If you were wondering how to actually get the
units outside the castle ENTIRELY, then I'm afraid you're in trouble.
Due to the way the castle code functions, there is no differentiation
between units that are defending and units that are attacking. The
direct consequence of this (bad) design philosophy was that if a unit
of the defender could leave a part of the castle, the attacker could
also leave/enter that part, so that if you made it possible to exit a
gate in a particular direction, you can also enter it through that same
portal. The result is porous castles. So basically content yourself to
moving garrisoned units through specific regions of the castle and hope
for the best.

14) Q: How do I upgrade a castle?

    A: There's a little icon, after you click on a castle, that has a 
small, crenellated tower with an arrow pointed upward on it. Click on
that icon, and you'll be taken to the castle upgrade screen. If the
castle is already upgraded beyond Poorly Defended Outpost, the castle
type it was upgraded to will not appear, so check to see what type you
have before you upgrade, as you can actually pay to "upgrade" your
castle to an inferior design. 

15) Q: Do castle garrisons replenish?

    A: Yes. Garrisons are just like any other companies in the game, and
can replenish, be of different type and be different sizes. The only
stipulation on them is that they must be attached to a castle or fief,
and cannot be utilized outside of that specific function.

16) Q: Does upgrading a castle improve its defence, and which ones are
the best?

    A: ... O.o

       Are you kidding? Yes, upgrading always improves castles, and,
generally speaking, upgrading anything by its nature improves it. As to
what castles are better, in general higher cost = better castle. The
Outposts are just generally crap, but you could argue that a fortress
is easier to defend than a castle. In SP though, when fighting the AI,
bigger is better, and if a little of something is good, a lot is better.

17) Q: This game is different than Lords II. What happened?

    A: Different design philosophy, and towards the end, different group
of designers entirely. This game is an RTS, and tries to avoid any form
of micromanagement. Lords II was a game for people who really like cows,
grain, ale, and killing; Lords III is a game for people who just like
the killing, and lots of it. Pick a pew, move on, or return the game.
No one forced you to buy or like it, I just happen to.

18) Q: I lost for no reason! What's going on?

    A: Check the victory conditions carefully before you begin the game,
and make sure you're clear on what you and the enemy have to do to win,
and what causes an automatic loss for a side. Nine times out of ten, the
enemy fulfilled some condition you weren't aware of and beat you to the
punch, regardless of how many regions/parcels/whatever you've captured
or razed.

19) Q: Are there any more questions?

    A: It appears not, though feel free to ask some. My contact info is
located at the end of the FAQ.

===============================
2.0: BASIC OVERALL STRATEGY
===============================
 
So, you're new to the game and don't want to get your arse handed to you
in the first mission. You've looked through the FAQ, played through the
tutorials, thoroughly read the manual that comes when the game is
installed (don't bother with the paper one, it's worthless), and are
ready to go.

First off, this is BASIC strategy, so we're going to leave all
considerations of specific vassals, attribute ratings, etc. aside, and
get straight to the part where you take names and kick derrier. If you
want details on the other features, I recommend hitting the advanced
section.

First, let's assume you're playing the first campaign, Ireland, on the
High King of Ireland mission. You only have one region to start with,
and three opponents. The first thing you'll notice is that a few of the
parcels that you've got under your thumb have already been filled prior
the start of the game, and you should probably leave those alone. First,
check your food production. If you are producing more food than you are
using, you need to place some vassals. If you aren't, you need to place
some vassals. If you're even on the keel, well, you still need to place
some vassals.

If you need food, open the serfs/clergy/burghers vassal pool, and look
for a bunch of portraits with gray backgrounds. These are the serfs.
Drag one onto an empty parcel, and a farm will be created. This farm
will quickly begin creating food for your armies.

When you have a surplus of food, open the menu displaying your knights,
and knights only. The lowest group has all clergy, serfs, burghers, and
knights mixed together, and these vassals are more than worthless, they
will actually harm your production and performance in the game. I've 
beaten every campaign, mission, and battle in the game, and I never used
one of them. The computer, however, tends to use them quite a bit, so
just leave the rif-raff to the AI. Once you have the knights in front of
you, first look for any knights with the title "Knight of the Realm"
next to their name. If you find one, plop him or her onto an empty
parcel until you run out of them, making sure to keep your food
production equal to consumption. If you run out of Knights of the Realm,
look for knights with the title "Knight of (Insert Region Here)". Place
these knights as the knights of the realm. If you run out of them, or
there aren't any, begin placing the rest. I recommend placing Swordsmen
if you can, and bowmen after them.

Once all of your parcels are occupied (and your food consumption is if
not equal to, then is less than production), select all of the different
companies in your control and march them to the estate parcel, clicking
on the castle so they join the knight already in occupancy. Once all of
the knights have been consolidated into one army, or while they are
doing so, check the political screen. In the Ireland example, the house
that is farthest north will never ally/like you, so don't bother. The
houses in the middle though are more neutral, and so you should check
where they stand with you politically. Depending on what has happened so
far in the game, they might have different attitudes. Try asking for
peace and/or alliances with each of them, and try to reduce the number
of people you have to deal with at any given moment. The more opponents
you have, the more you have to look over your shoulder and waste time
fighting the smaller guys when you should be focusing on your neighbor
to the north, who is the biggest problem. If you sit back and let that
house just go, it'll conquer the others in short order.

Once you've got the politicking (it's actually archaic, and not a typo)
done, march your army to the nearest opponent you're at war with. If you
have to cross an ally's terrain to do so, don't worry. Just don't, at
all costs, cross into the land of someone you are merely at peace with,
because they will take this as aggression and declare war on you,
ruining any chance you had with them. Once you've reached the nearest
opponent's territory, march straight to his or her estate parcel, fight
any armies marching about in that parcel, and stay there for a couple
moments. The enemy will send any armies it has available to combat you,
and just defeat each one in turn. Once the enemy is no longer sending
armies to attack you, launch an attack on the castle/city and take it,
or just occupy it outright (in the case of a Manor or Catherdral).

Repeat this invasion strategy for each enemy, being careful to watch for
marauding armies trying to attack your land. If you see one enter your
territory while you are away, don't panic. Just continue on your merry
way and see what it does. If the army is a raider, it will just burn one
of your farms and leave, and you can just replace it after the waiting
period. If it's a squatter, it will enter your territory and park itself
on a parcel. If that parcel is a fief, leave it be. It's just the AI
being artificially stupid. If it stops on a farm, move an army back
to where it is and engage it ASAP, as it will slowly drain the resources
of all of your armies, possibly causing their morale to drop so low that
they desert. Even if you still are producing enough food to supply your
armies with the squatter, you should still destroy it on principle,
since you may need that food later. In both cases, check to see how
large the squatter is. If it's a single company, send one or two
companies down to take care of it and focus your main force on the siege
of your opponents. 

If an enemy attacks one of your castles, check its size. A single 
company, no matter what, will never win against a garrison in any castle
or city you own, as long as the enemy is the AI, so leave it be. If
there are multiple companies, you need to make a judgement call. Over 
three-company strong armies will always merit at least a placeholder
company in that region, so that they can't take control immediately,
and usually I send an equal or greater force to slug it out with the
enemy, should it be victorious. 2-3 company armies are simply a call you
have to make. You can never know the full composition of the force, so
check the enemy knight. Does it look like a lesser knight (has a name
without title, like Jehan, versus the more powerful, who have names like
Jonathan the Vicious, etc.)? If it does, just let it go. Lesser knights
can rarely triumph. If it's a more powerful knight, or even a champion,
you should send a placeholder, because the knight's special abilities
may give it enough of an edge to take the castle.

When in doubt, and with gobs of money, upgrade. Don't worry about the
mercenaries and retainers yet, spend your money upgrading any Poorly
Defended Outposts you might possess. If you don't have enough to upgrade
past an outpost, don't bother, it won't make much difference to the AI.
Go for a fortress or castle, with Gargantuan being the best, or your own
design. Custom castles, if built correctly, can withstand substantial
attack forces, and repel them successfully. However, if you build a
shoddy one, expect the appropriate consequences. Just remember, wood
burns, stone doesn't. If your buildings catch on fire, they harm the
units on them, and can collapse spontaneously, killing everyone on that
section of the castle. Stone collapses too, but slower, and without the
flames.

Keep checking your vassal pool as you play the game, and add new fiefs
and serfs as you conquer regions. Follow the method stated above for
placing your vassals, keep a look out for "special" vassals. They'll be
Knights of the Realm, but will have unique portraits and sometimes even
multiple units. Grab them when you can, but don't replace anyone you
already have in play, since it will weaken your current armies. For each
scenario, as you're getting used to the game, try to limit your number
of opponents, keep a balance between knights and serfs, and never, EVER,
touch the lesser vassals. You won't have to resort to them in the early
missions, and in my humble opinion, you shouldn't ever need to anyway.
The vast majority of time spent playing Lords of the Realm III is spent
playing with a great number of options, and it's all a matter of which
ones you elect to use. Once you've gotten familiar with the flow of the
game, how battles are conducted, and won a couple missions, read into
the Advanced Overall Strategy section. If you need help on the actual 
combat,read the Basic Battle Strategy section, and then move onto the
advanced, again, after having won several missions.

Good luck on your conquests! =]

===============================
3.0: ADVANCED OVERALL STRATEGY
===============================

So, you've gotten your feet wet, know the ropes, read the manual, and
now you want to get into the meat and potatoes of the game. Maybe you're
stuck on a particular mission, or maybe you just want to purview my
personal theories on how the game should be played (if so, I'm very
flattered). 

First, a quick lowdown on the different vassals, and my personal opinion
of their relative uses and/or merits.

===============
-3.1: Serfs
===============

The type of serfs you get depends on what campaign you're playing in, or
what landmass you happen to be on. Irish serfs tend to have contribute
garrisons, English serfs tend to aid Farming and Finance, Scottish serfs
tend to be poor farmers, German serfs tend to be neutral, and French
serfs tend to have penalties to industry. If you know you tend to rely
heavily on one or two serfs that are well placed, go with the English
when you can. If they aren't available, and there are no Yeomen (minus
any penalties, or at least penalties greater than what you already have)
you probably won't go wrong by hunting for a serf with no penalties or
bonuses. If you have to accept penalties, make sure they aren't to the
farming ability of the serf.

Good serfs are attracted to Christian lords, so if have a low rating in
that attribute, you'll have to reconcile yourself to receiving the less
powerful serfs. Most Yeomen that aren't regional require a Christianity
of two or better, so plan accordingly. Serfs that have additional
companies grant those companies to any knights in their region, so place
them accordingly. If you put them in a region with 1 knight, but lots of
serfs and clergy, you aren't using them most efficiently and need to
rethink your placement. Serfs that have bonuses to farming should be
grouped together with farming clergy and burghers, so you reduce the
total number of parcels devoted to food production. Manors, while very
attractive to create, are inherently vulnerable, like Cathedrals, and
should always be protected by at least 3-4 companies. Otherwise the AI
will snipe you, and getting that parcel back with unsupplied armies will
end your reign quickly.

===============
-3.2: Burghers
=============== 

Using burghers depends heavily on your overall strategy. A city, when
created, produces a great deal of cash, and is somewhere between a small
castle and a Fortress in the difficulty of attack. However, they can't
be upgraded, and in the late game you will need to garrison them with
the requisite 3-4 companies or more in order to keep the AI from taking
them. In the beginning, unless you intend to produce massive numbers of
mercenaries, I would stay away from creating them or maintaining them as
estate parcels. 

Burghers are cash cows and mercenary recruitment, and occasionally will
contribute garrisons and aid in farming. If they do aid farming, put
them in your counties that have serfs to bolster their production. If
you're worried that you won't have any cash if you don't place them, be
at ease. While burghers are consistant, you can make a great deal off of
loot, pillage, and ransom, usually much more than your cities and towns
will ever generate. Pillaging hurts the enemy, while a town does not,
and if it's a choice between a knight and a burgher, my natural
inclination would be to choose the knight, based on utility and future
gold production alone. They also happen to be utterly neutral, so no
matter what your strategy or attributes happen to stand at, you can
still grab the stonemasons, carpenters, wainwrights, and brewers.

If you don't have any knights to place, have exhausted the useful clergy
and/or are playing the low Christianity game, and have adequate food
production, slap down a burgher to fill the space. You can use the cash,
and gaining some extra money is always better than wasting a parcel on
a lesser vassal (all of whom are meritless, in my humble opinion).

===============
-3.3: Clergy
===============  

These are perhaps the trickiest vassals to place, since the improve the
productivity of any parcel, and most have special abilities that are
specifically helpful to one type of vassal. For instance, one clergyman
might have Armorer 1, and another Financier 2. The question of where to
place them is easy, because the Armorer should be placed in a region
that is composed primarily knights, and the financier one where there
are a great deal of burghers. The best clergy come to highly christian
lords (naturally) who have employed many of their fellows, especially
if they belong to a monastic order. So if you employ a lot of Dominincan
monks, usually a Saintly Dominican or The Prophet will appear, and the
same goes for the other monastic orders. If you're playing the high
Christianity game, a Saintly vassal is something you should try to get
as soon as possible, or else your opponents will make ample use of the
corrupt cardinals floating about, and all of the christian vassals you
worked to attract will instantly disappear.

If you're playing the low christianity game, don't worry about placing
some clergy. The common and regional clergy don't care about your base
christianity rating, and you can lower your rating pretty easily by
razing parcels and pillaging church lands. Try to avoid devoted or pious
vassals though, because both will raise your christianity. If you get
excommunicated or even heretical, the Wicked vassals will begin to
arrive, all of whom require a christianity of 2 or less, so once you get
them, make sure you don't do anything nice, charitable, or remotely
good in any way whatsoever. In my experience, keeping the Wicked clergy
was always easier than keeping the Pure, but that's beside the point.

Since clergy grant their bonuses to every parcel in their region, you'll
want to make sure that when you place them, they are either stacking
with or improving the vassals already in play. If you have a region of
knights that are mostly swordsmen, many with the special ability
Armorer, placing a clergyman that also has Armorer probably isn't the
best idea. Instead, find a region with low-defense troops, like pikes,
warriors, highlanders, and the like, and plop that priest down there.
The swords and teutons already have some of the best defense in the game
and supplementing it is slightly wasteful. Similarily, farmers should be
placed with serfs, financiers with burghers, etc. Basically, down throw
away a perfectly good parcel on a member of the clergy unless you are 
sure that you're going to reap a benefit from doing so, and if clergy
are already assigned at the beginning of the mission, ten to one they
have been badly placed and you need to move them.

The biggest word on clergy is moderation: while more of them will of
course improve your Christianity, once you get to 7 they will become
much, much less worthwhile, and by that time you'll be trying to focus
on moving armies, with less time to reconsider the placement of vassals.

===============
-3.4: Knights
===============   

Knights are the lifeblood of the game, and which ones you attract will
depend entirely on what type of strategy you use. Are you defensive? Do
you need mobility? Are you willing to wait or do you need armies now?
These are all considerations that you should make prior to starting a
mission, or at least in the initial moments as you find out what you
have to start with. In terms of units, the AI always believes Nobles and
Teutons to be "strong" companies, regardless of size, and even if you
attack one company of either with an army of 7-8 companies, they will
still go to battle. If you like placeholders and want to buy time, grab
some of them when you can, and deploy them immediately.

Generally speaking, never settle for flaws. If a knight has flaws, those
will usually come to a head in an even match or when the army the knight
is attached to is outnumbered, and might cost you a victory simply by 
their incompetence. In general, I will only recruit a knight who has a
flaw if he or she also happens to have 3-4 abilities to balance it out,
especially if the flaw is non-combat, like Builder or Industrious. No
matter what strategy you use and what attributes you settle on, there 
are always plenty of knights to choose from, and if there aren't, all
you have to do is wait. A few good knights will always trash a larger
number of inferior ones, so keep that in mind, though if you are going
to try a rush or swarm strategy, this advice necessarily does not apply.

When placing knights, don't gloss over the Sheriffs, who give extra
companies to the garrisons, since they can add valuable defenses. Keep
in mind the knight series as well.

========================================================
-3.5: A Brief List of Knights, and general Requirements:
========================================================

Captain: Medium Chivalry

Lieutenant: Medium Chivalry, 2 Captains

Marshall: High Chivalry, Medium Honor, 2 Lieutenants

Constable: Max Chivalry, High Honor, 2 Marshalls

Templar: High Honor, Medium Chivalry

Teuton: Medium Chivalry

Hospitalier: High Chivalry, Medium Honor

Master: Vassal 3 Knights of an Order

Grandmaster: Vassal 8 Knights of an Order

Papal Legate: Vassal 1 Knight Templar, 1 Knight Hospitalier

Sheriff: Have a Castle level 4, Medium Chivalry

Valiant: High Chivalry

Fair: High Honor

Pious: High Christianity

Just: High Chivalry, High Honor

Righteous: Max Chivalry, Max Christianity

True: Max Chivalry, Christianity, and Honor

Royal Guardsman: Medium Christianity, Medium Chivalry, Manor House level
One

Gabriel: Max Chivalry, Christianity, and Honor, wait 180 minutes

Uriel: Max Christianity, supply 20 food, wait 180 Minutes

Champion: Claim Kingdom

Wicked: Low Christianity

Craven: Low Chivalry

Knave: Low Honor

Tax Collector: Low Honor, vassal Burghers

Bastard: Low Honor, Low Chivalry

Devious: Low Christianity, Low Honor

Cruel: Low Christianity, Low Chivalry

Barbaric: Low Christianity, Honor, and Chivalry

Raider: Raze Parcels

Savage: Raze Parcels, Low Christianity

Bloody: Raze Parcels, Min Christianity

Death: Min Christianity, wait 120 min.

Enemy of God: Raze Churches/Cathedrals, Min Christianity

====

The above list is by no means comprehensive, and only covers the knights
known to me at this time. If you have additions, please notify me, as
well as any information on Burghers, Clergy, and Serfs, as I have not
yet fully investigated that specific portion of the game.

=================
-3.6: Strategies
=================

First off, always go to the extremes as fast as possible. A brief look
at the list of knights will show you that most of them require you to
pick a pew, and I recommend doing so early. What route you take and how
fast you get there will determine what kinds of vassals become
available to you in the later game, especially the ones that require 2
to 3 hours of play, which you should always strive to get first and
fastest, because once a player has one, they rarely, if ever, let go. As
you can see, some of the most powerful knights have only single word
names. Luckily for you, the player, there aren't many of them, so it's
easy to spot them when they do show up. I mean, if someone marches along
going by the name Death, you should be slightly wary.

My recommendation is, unless you are playing multiplayer (in which the
competition for vassals is more fierce), I recommend either being a real
scourge and have entirely low attributes, or going for the gold and
having entirely high attributes. Both require effort to maintain, and
the best vassals are always attracted to the most extreme houses. If you
do have to compromise, the easiest one to keep is High Honor and
Chivalry, Low Christianity. The only attribute that can be destroyed by
a retainer alone is Christianity, and Death comes along much sooner than
Gabriel or Uriel, as does the Enemy of God. If you make use of the 
Wicked clergy (who never raise your christianity) you can still have an
effective game, though the cost is always in serfs. You can make up for
that though in the early game, where you're usually producing too much
food anyway, to allow for expansion.

In the realm of parcel allocation, my suggestion is to, against all
common wisdom, place all of your eggs in one basket. Have one region
(if you have multiple ones), preferably your smallest, devoted entirely
to the production of food. Place the best serf in your court in the
estate parcel, place at least one member of the clergy in one of the
parcels, and fill the rest with either very good serfs that aid farming
or burghers, even more clergy. Immediately send 2-3 companies to the
manor and have them sit there, guarding the region, but don't let them
leave the estate parcel. If they do, it becomes vulnerable and you WILL
lose that region. Both the computer and players are ruthless, and will
exploit such a weakness. However, the food production from that single
region alone will support 4-5 others if it is well staffed with Yeomen,
farming Clergy like Cistercians, and farming burghers. In most of the
later scenarios you start with 3 or more regions, so this is a very
useful tactic. If you have less though, two or even one, simply set one
region to be a proto-farming area, to be converted to a manor when you
have enough land and can consolidate. The region used for farming in
both cases should be the most defensible region you have, bordering one
enemy or less, and never on the coast where ships can land. 

Border parcels, and later on, regions, should be filled with as many 
knights as they can support, forming a defensive barrier around your
territory and making it difficult for the enemy to effectively raze
parcels, since all of your farms will be located within the deeper
regions of your ever-expanding kingdom. If at all possible, expand on
all possible fronts, making your land as uniform and circular as it can
be. Sometimes this is impractical though, and you'll have to adjust as
game conditions change. Just remember to always check on the breadbasket
to ensure that no mercenaries or knights are moving into to capture,
pillage, squat, or raze your highly productive farms. Always choose
knights for the border parcels that have few weaknesses, large numbers
of companies (if available), and units that can be easily combined into
new armies or added to those existing. In the end game, things can get
crazy, but don't forget to carefully place your vassals, because if all
else fails, a good knight with strong companies can overcome even some
of the more talented players by brute force alone.

Watch out in the middle of the game for armies trying to snipe regions
from you, or if you're leading by this point, getting crushed by a large
alliance of your less powerful opponents. The AI is pretty divisive, and
often will backstab you as well as its own allies, but human players
have this nasty habit of being "reasonable" and "working together", so
just keep that in mind. The end game is pretty typical, either you're
throwing dozens of armies at your opponents and only jumping into the
really important battles, or you're fighting for survival against some-
one who's doing just that thing. The problem with being large and in
charge though, is that you can no longer effectively focus your
attention on the many different fronts you're fighting, so a smaller foe
who uses a more effective battle strategy than the AI, or against an AI
with a paticularly nasty knight in retinue will cleave through your
massive, hard-won 10 company behemoths. On the other side, you can often
(if you have extra cash) flood your larger neighbor with single
companies of knights or mercenaries (works best with the mercenaries
though) bent on razing parcels, pillaging the countryside, and/or
squatting on those same parcels. Anything goes when you're on the losing
side, and don't be afraid to ask for alliances with the other survivors.
If you're the only one left, things will be a little more interesting,
but persevere and fight down to the end, at the very least making the
enemy pay dearly for every parcel (and frustrating him/her/it to no
end).

===============================
4.0: CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES (INCOMPLETE)
===============================
      
The campaigns are long, quite involved, and frankly, my copy of Lords 3
is sitting on the other side of the country at the moment, so I haven't
done anything with this section yet. However, I do watch the Gamefaqs
boards, so feel free to post any questions you have there, and I'll try
to get moving on this section. I know that's frustrating to all of you
out there looking for a walkthrough, but there's been a need for some
kind of FAQ on this game, and I figured even an incomplete one is better
than nothing. If all else fails, read the strategy sections, check the
victory conditions, and if victory still eludes you, let me know and I
will do what I can.

===============================
5.0: BASIC BATTLE STRATEGIES
===============================

Battles are time-consuming and hectic later on, but in the earlier games
they're really simple. There are some basic commands you should master,
like attacking, moving, and charging, before you even read on in this
section. The manual that comes with the game (the electronic version) is
good at explaining this, and it's pretty intuitive anyway. As this is
not a manual, I'm assuming you know how to do this sort of basic thing
before we continue.

If you're new to fighting with formations and whatnot, just find the
button on the toolbar that shows a bunch of guys in a line, and make
sure every one of your companies is in that formation before you move
them. The line is the easiest formation to use, is much more effective
than columns (in my opinion), and know how to mass a bunch of troops
together in a big battle line is a pretty safe guarantee of victory in
the earlier missions. After everyone is in a line, move any archers or
crossbowmen behind the melee fighters, and make sure there aren't any
gaps in the line made by those close-quarters companies. Don't be afraid
to overlap them a little, as the tighter you can get them, the less
chance there is that the enemy can punch a hole in the line. Once you
have the front line of melee companies and the back line of ranged
companies, locate the enemy, select the entire group, and march them
straight towards those units, if the units haven't already begun to
move towards you. If they are moving towards you, attack them anyway,
but make sure in both cases not to have your ranged units try to charge
the enemy, as this is usually a great way to have them summarily killed.

If the enemy happens to be waiting behind some ridge or hill that will
split your troops, just have them march around it, reforming the line as
necessary, and then proceeding to attack them. As long as you have an
equal or greater number of companies than the enemy, and your knights 
are of a decent quality, you should win almost every time, at least
agains the AI, which is more Artificially Stupid than Intelligent when
it comes to the actual battles. It can still throw curves at you when
you're on the world-level map though, so if a battle looks like a shut-
out, it probably is, and you should find something more important to do.

As for sieges, you should preferably find a trebuchet or two, catapults
if you can't procure anything better, and monganels only as a last
resort. Find the largest concentration of garrison troops in the castle,
fortress, or outpost, and send all of your siege weapons to attack it,
bringing up your troops in the rear. Sometimes you begin the battle in
an inconvenient spot for this (like at the back of a castle instead of
the front), and in that case, just punch a hole in the wall anywhere,
and the enemy will come streaming out of the hole, where you can fight
them in the open and not have to worry about their crappy defenses. Try
to engage them before their troops reach your siege weapons, but if a
couple get burnt, don't worry, they'll replenish in a couple minutes as
long as the knight controlling them is still alive at the end of the 
battle. Wooden fortifications can also be taken apart by your bowmen,
just send them to any wooden wall/tower, and have them attack it. They
will send some volleys of fire arrows at the thing, it will go up in
flames, the flames will spread along the rest of the structure, and we
all get to learn a valuable lesson about why outposts of any kind suck.

If you see a really tough castle/town that you aren't sure you have the
skill to take out, generally speaking, a 10 company army with at least
one knight of the realm can crack a Gigantic Stone Castle under the AI's
control, so just remember that you're the king, and thus can delegate
as needed. Later on, that tactic will be less valuable, but in the
beginning it lets you focus on fights you can win yourself, without
getting bogged down in a protracted siege while the AI takes apart your
remaining regions.
 
===============================
6.0: ADVANCED BATTLE STRATEGIES
===============================

So...you've battled a little, but now you want to know how to really
crush your enemies, pounding them into the soil like so much bloody
dross. Well, you've come to the right shop friend, as I've managed to
beat every one of the battle scenarios that come with Lords III, and not
a one of them was terribly challenging, once you know some very basic
concepts, and how to apply them.

================
-6.1: Formations
================

-Column: Worthless. I have yet to find a use for this other than crossing
bridges or defending them, and to be honest, it isn't very good at that
either. Unfortunately, it seems to be the "standard" formation, so at 
the start of every battle, I would look for any units in a column, and
change them into one of the other available formations. I mean, I really
can't stress how retarded this formation is. It's like if you had a bag
of copper pieces, and shat on them, smearing to coat every coin, and 
then went up to a merchant and tried to convince him the coins were
actually worthwhile. That's pretty much what people who say this is a
legitimate formation seem to be like to me.

But I'm entitled to an opinion.

-Line: The staple of any charge, if given the choice between a column,
skirmish, or line formation, just pick the line. It has the nice ability
to wrap around the enemy, flanking them, and is the most effective way
to mount a charge. The only real downside is that a line is easy
pickings for enemy ranged units, so use it judiciously.

-Skirmish: Retarded. It's only function is to kinda/sorta avoid ranged
attacks, but honestly, I've never used it, and the people I've fought
who did have usually lost. No more to say about that, other than the
fact that even the AI never uses it, which should tell you something.

-Stakes: Bowmen and Welsh Longbowmen can use this formation, and I would
highly recommend reverting to it any time you're bracing for a charge.
If melee units, especially cavalry, charge into stakes, they take a very
large amount of damage. The only problem is that you have to be stopped
in order to use it, and any time the formation is broken, the bowmen
just revert to a line, so be careful with your orders. Stakes are only
effective against melee attacks though, so if you're faced with a mass
of ranged units, don't bother. Otherwise, make it a standby.

-Mantlets: Mantlets are the only defense your crossbowmen have against
bows, and I recommend using them like stakes, except against ranged
foes. Generally speaking though, an equal number of crossbows will
almost always lose against the same number of bows, even with mantlets
up, so if you're going against bowmen, either have melee support or
outnumber them about 2 to 1. Still, placing the crossbows in mantlets
while attempting a siege buys time for you to get troops onto the walls
to take out the garrisons.

-Shield Wall: If you have Teutons or Swordsmen, this should become your
default formation to put them in. It looks like a line, but is tighter
and gives a big bonus to their defense, at a cost of mobility. Make sure
that you charge fairly late when a shield wall is part of your battle
line, otherwise they'll stop short and won't contribute to the initial
attack. I think this is, in all honesty, the most powerful formation in
the game. A company of Teutonic Knights in a shield wall can destroy
3-4 other units single handedly if used well, more if the units are weak
and badly deployed. 

-Phalanx: If you have any sort of polearm unit (Polearmsmen, 
Gallowglass, Swiss Pikemen, Nobles, Goedendag, etc.), this should become 
their default formation as well. It gives them a good bonus to defense,
but renders them more vulnerable to ranged assault, since they're so
tightly packed. I'd use it anyway, because if you're assaulting a foe
with a lot of ranged companies, it really won't matter what formation
you happen to put them in, they'll still take damage, so you might as
well keep their melee integrity good.

-Schiltrom: Essentially, this is just a placeholder formation. You use
it when you're on the defensive, but don't want to commit to the battle.
On the level of a single company, a phalanx is a much better choice, but
if you're getting attack on multiple sides, and have 3-4 units that can
use this formation, make them into a triangle or square, form up a
schiltrom, and make sure any ranged units are in the center of the shape
the companies form, with any ancillary melee in lines arranged in front
of the schiltroms. The inherent weakness of this formation is that while
it raises morale, the total face of any given side is low, so a strong
charge by several units can break the unit in short order.

==============================
-6.2: Ideal Army Configuration
==============================  

What type of army you can make really depends on strategy, luck, and the
scenario, but here are a couple of general ideas for armies that I have
found to be quite effective. I really suggest finding what works best
for you in each situation, but generally speaking I like these combina-
tions the best. I've also labeled at what point in the game you can
generally produce one of these armies, but again, that can change based
on circumstances and setting. (B) stands for early/beginning game, (M)
for the mid-game, and (E) stands for the end-game, when it's assumed you
have more resources and/or more powerful knights. You'll notice that I
rarely use cavalry in these army compositions, and that comes from a 
personal bias that cavalry are near worthless. Generally speaking, light
cavalry can replace footmen in any of the below descriptions, heavy
cavalry can replace warriors, and chevaliers can replace swordsmen and
nobles. Cavalry, if not otherwise noted, should always be in a line
formation.   

(B)Skirmisher: Composed of 4-5 units, ideally a company of bowmen or two
companies of crossbows, two companies of warriors/highlanders, or three
companies of footmen, and a company of swordsmen or nobles. Have the
ranged units form a single line, and array the footmen, warriors, or
highlanders in a single line in front of them. The nobles/swordsmen
should be in the center of the line, or slightly in front of the melee
line. Have everyone in line formation at the start of the battle except
for the nobles/swordsmen, who should be in Phalanx or Shield wall. If
you're fighting the AI, they'll always attack the center of the line,
and any cavalry they have will be destroyed by the swordsmen or nobles.

(B)Squatter: 1-2 Units, composed of whatever you don't care about. I
usually use polearms, peasants, or footmen for this task. Just move the
unit onto a location you want to pillage, squat on, or raze, give them
their orders, and promptly ignore their existence. If in battle, the
enemy will almost always outnumber you, so just move forward and charge,
or move to a far corner of the map and wait. Either way, this army is
nothing more than a placeholder.

(B)Defender: 4-5 units, 2 companies of bowmen or 3 crossbows, and 2-3
companies of polarmsmen, swordsmen, nobles, or footmen as available,
with the most desireable units being nobles, and the least being the
footmen. This unit is designed to buy time in your inner regions so that
your more powerful forces can move in to support the region that is in
the process of being attacked. Nobles are nice because for some reason
the computer thinks they are the toughest units in the game, which they
really aren't, but if you're attention is split, they can throw the
calculations in your favor. Have the bowmen/crossbows form stakes or
mantlets in front of your melee line, and keep the slower melee units in
the center of the line, with the faster ones on the outside. Find some
high ground or a nice ridgeline that will split the enemy forces, and
squat behind it so that they can run right into the teeth of your ranged
units. Once the enemy begins to charge, have the melee line charge
forward as well, and try to time it so you meet them right before they
would hit your ranged troops.

(M)Horde: 7-10 units, 1 or 2 ranged attack companies, and have the rest
be warriors, footmen, highlanders, or whatever other miscellaneous, fast
moving companies you can summon. Basically, you want to form three
battle lines, with the front two composed of the melee units, and so
close that you can barely tell them apart. Place the ranged units right
behind those two lines, and then move the whole thing towards the enemy</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
such that the entire line can contact the foe simultaneously. Most of
the time, the force of the initial charge from this mob will break the
companies of the enemy quickly, but this army is extremely weak against
lots of polearms or a great deal of ranged units. This army is easy to
make though, and is generally quite effective at taking out most early
armies that the AI will throw at the player.

(M)Turtle: 5-6 units, 2 bowmen or 3 crossbows, and three companies of
swordsmen or teutonic knights (if available). Form two battle lines,
with all of the swordsmen or teutons forming shield walls and marching
only slightly in front of the bowmen or crossbows. Have the ranged units
make the first attack, firing at the enemy, and as the enemy melee
begins to close, have the line of swordsmen/teutons charge. The idea is
to weaken the enemy such that when the shield walls charge, they break
on contact, or shortly thereafter. Even if they don't, the swordsmen or
teutons will usually be able to hold their own long enough for the
ranged companies to do some damage.

(M)Swamp Fox: 5-6 units, 2-3 ranged units, 3-4 polearms, pikes, Goedend-
ag, or Nobles, preferably Nobles, because they happen to be quite good
swamp fighters. Make sure to form two distinct lines, with the bows in
front in this case and forming stakes, and the melee behind, but ready
to move forward once the enemy gets close. I've destroyed 10 company
armies with one well used Swamp Fox. They also function as an all
purpose defensive unit when they aren't fighting in swamps.

(E)AI Crusher: 10 units, composed of as many Nobles as you can find and
pack into it, any Teutons you have, and Swiss Pikes, any Heavy Cavalry
or Chevaliers, and 1-2 companies of Genoese Crossbows or Welsh Longbows,
or any other ranged unit you can dig up. Fill any available space with
one of the specialty companies or warriors, but never peasants, footmen,
or polearmsmen. Basically, this army is moderately effective against
humans, but in the AI calculator, it's pretty invincible. Generally,
when I need to invade a place but don't want to personally be in the
battle, I send one of these behemoths in for the kill, and let the
computer sort it out. As long as your opponent doesn't personally jump
into the battle, the win should be in the bag; if not, who cares? You
weren't going to pay attention anyway, and by this time replacement
knights aren't hard to come by.

(E)Sardukar: 10 units, 3 bowmen, welsh longbows, or three genoese
crossbows. 7 melee units, with either 5 swordsmen/teutons and two nobles,
swiss pikes, or Goedendag on the flanks, or 7 warriors, highlanders, or
gallowglass. If needed, throw in two heavy cavalry or chevaliers on the
flanks, and follow the usual formation guidelines. I'd definitely make
sure that all longarms are in phalanx formation, and all swordsmen or
teutons are in a shield wall formation. Minor adjustments can be made
as needed, but the core of the melee should always be swordsmen/teutons.

(E)Cluster Bomb: 8-10 units, 6-7 ranged units with at least 3 bowmen and
3-4 melee units, preferably something that will slow an advance of any
sort but can also cover a large area, like big polearmsmen or warrior
companies, set in line formation. The ranged units should be arrayed
in front of the melee, forming three lines. The first line should be
the bowmen in stakes formation, the second any crossbows or remaining
bowmen in mantlet/stakes formation, and the rear line composed of the
melee units in line formation. Make sure all three lines are almost
touching one another in combat, and simply move the melee forward as
soon as the crossbows begin firing, because that's about when the enemy
will be ready to charge, unless they have cavalry, when you should move
them forward if the front line begins firing. Try to keep the length
of each line as short as possible, so that your melee units can block
any attacks on the ranged.

That's a list of my favorites, but most of the time you won't get the
ideal number of troops to form one of the above archetypes, so don't
sweat it if you have to adjust the numbers or composition a little. I'm
a big advocate of experimentation, since everyone uses a slightly
different approach to strategy gaming, especially in a complex RTS like
Lords III.

=====================
-6.3: Terrain Tactics
=====================

Generally speaking, there aren't actually that many ways to fight a
battle in Lords of the Realm III. It's kind of like in Musashi's "Book
of Five Rings", you can try all of this fancy stuff, you can make up
ludicrously elaborate schemes to outwit a foe, but once you remove the
trimmings, there's really only a couple of ways to win. I firmly believe
this to be the case with Lords III, and will caution you (the reader)
to take this into account when trying out the tactics that are described
below. I've listed the most common terrain types you'll encounter in
the game, and how to fight effectively on them.

-River Terrain: If you're fighting near a river, you can get a map
with either a single bridge, two bridges, or two fords over said river.
If you're the smaller army, you'll want to find which bridge or ford
the enemy is going to cross, and block it with a phalanx or column of a
defensive unit, preferably Nobles or Swiss Pikes. Array any ranged units
behind the blocker, and pound the enemy with missiles until they break
or you do. If you're the larger army, you're probably on the offensive,
and will need to either divide your forces to cover all fords/bridges,
or try to beat the smaller army to one of them. This is a good time to
use cavalry to full effect, and have them cross ahead of the main force.
At the least they can stall the enemy advance so you can move the rest
of your units across and fight them in the open. If both armies are
equal in size, look at each one's composition, and determine which
army is stronger. Ideally, if you're the weaker army, there's no reason
you should be going on the offensive, and you should drag the battle out
as long as possible to tie up your more powerful opponent's forces.

-Hilly Terrain: There's several types of hilly terrain in this game, but
the archetypes are the open plain of small foothills, the ridgeline, the
staggered start, and finally the mountainous terrain. Out of all of the
maps you could get, the staggered start is the worst. Basically, both
armies start only slightly out of bow range from each other, but both
are also parallel to one another, with the both right flanks forming
the dividing line. Basically, if that's the situation, whomever reacts
fastest and gets their troops formed and moving will pretty much take
the field, which is annoying, but you'll get good at reacting to it
after a while. For the most part the fact that the terrain is hilly in
that map will be irrelevent since battle is joined almost instantly.

For the small foothills map, again it depends on which army is more
powerful. If you're the larger force, try to take out the enemy with
your ranged units if possible, or at the least lure them out, so you
can fight them in a valley or on a plateau. If you're the smaller army,
you're going to want to assess your composition. If you have ranged
units, I recommend finding one of the larger hills and planting yourself
on top of it, so that the enemy has to charge up a slope to attack you
from any direction. If you have pikes, polearms, or nobles, this is an
ideal map since it destroys the ability of enemy units to charge. The
mountainous map is the same type of deal, except that it has several
large peaks and summits that you can hide behind or use to split the
enemy forces. If you're the larger army, try to avoid having to directly
assault one of those positions, since in Lords III the basic rule of
thumb is that the more simultaneous charges you can land on a group of
units at once, the more likely they are to break. If the charges are
split though, or have to go uphill, they are essentially worthless. The
smaller army, naturally, should be moving such that the larger army has
to split itself or risk going around an obstacle, at which point your
army can hit it with ranged attacks or move to another location and go
through the whole thing again, time permitting. It all depends on how
important the battle is. If it's part of an invasion, just resolve it
quickly. If you're on the defensive though, don't be afraid to stall for
time so that any reinforcements or allies can arrive to harass the enemy.

For the ridgeline map, things a little trickier. This map is essentially
just an open plain, but the presence of a large ridge in the upper NE
corner, or lower SW (depending on facing) changes tactics a little. This
ridge is, in all reality, nothing more than an annoyance, since all you
really have to do is get on whatever side the enemy is on and fight it
out normally. The defender in this situation can quickly switch sides
though, so the name of the game is to aim for the elevated side, so that
if push comes to shove you can charge downward. If they're straddling
the ridge, I recommend forming a very short series of lines with the
slowest companies in the front and the fastest companies at the rear,
with the obvious exception of the ranged units, which should be at the
back. Then pick a side and charge it, and use the fact that their forces
are split between the ridgeline against them. A clever foe might try
wheeling their army to face you, but since you should be on the high
ground anyway, it won't really matter that much.

Lakes and Swamps- Both lakes and swamps reward small armies with lots
of ranged units, so be aware of that when marching in those terrain
types. Again, there are only a couple of maps for both terrain types,
and the specifics of each map really aren't that relevant. In any lake
terrain, all the lakes do is form a series of large, impenetrable walls
that you have to maneuver around. If you're heavy on ranged units or
cavalry, fight on the offensive immediately. Your mobility and/or range
will allow you to quickly circumvent the problems the lakes pose, and
force the enemy to slowly circle around the lakes while you either make
an attack on their flanks or fire at the slow-moving infantry as it
tries to bring its weapons to bear. Lake maps are death to any sort of
pikes or polearmsmen if they run up against powerful ranged units, and
crossbows can be destroyed easily by the cavalry. Swamps work slightly
differently, in that they pretty well paralyze cavalry, and favor all
ranged units. Also, slow moving units with high defense will tend to
win in a swamp, as long as they stay in a tight line. If a unit gets
too far ahead of the others, or you charge to early, the enemy companies
will swarm your vanguard and cut them to pieces while you're still
attempting to bring up the rest of your forces. Because of that reason,
larger armies are inherently at a disadvantage because they have to
spend much more time consolidating all of the different companies and
keeping them from getting too far ahead. The larger army should go on
the defensive in this case, and try to get to one of the sides of the
battlefield where the swamp won't slow them down, and form a diagonal
line that abutts the swamp but doesn't enter it, without also being
completely vertical (which would open the line to flanking). The smaller
army should squat in the center of the swamp, and try to entice the
larger one into the mire. Basically, whoever goes on the offensive first
is probably going to lose, though that's never predestined.

========================
-6.4: General Strategies
========================

First, there's a couple basic rules to remember about combat in Lords of
the Realm III. The first and foremost is that bigger is not always
better, since a mob of 50 peasants or footmen with crappy morale will
always lose to 20 swordsmen with good morale. If your troops are happy,
they will suffer through adversity, breaking later and sometimes they
will even fight to the last man. If you have to choose a place to fight,
try to make sure it's on the lands of a church, or in some terrain that
will benefit the army you're fielding. Use of formations is also key,
because someone who uses formations ineffectively can easily be beaten
by a foe half their size. Pay attention to the different attributes of
your knights as well, since they will factor into whether or not a
company breaks in combat. If a company does break, don't chase them,
because generally speaking, it will take them forever to regroup. Your
focus should be on destroying and/or breaking all of the enemy's units
until there's nothing left to do but chase down the remaining dross
one by one. Also, don't get hung up on roles. In every battle, there is
always a defender and an attacker, but that doesn't mean you have to
assume that role because you're invading someone or being invaded. 

In most cases, if you have the smaller army, you should be fighting
defensively, and if you have the larger army, you should be fighting
offensively. After all, having a small force tied up in a protracted
battle is a lot less straining on one's battle strategy than having a
large one tied up in that same battle. In fact, if a three company army
can stall a 10 company army for an extended period of time, the player
with the smaller army stands a good chance of finding a large force to
intervene and take on the (now somewhat reduced) 10 company army after
it spent so much time fighting the smaller army, or of even razing and
capturing parcels/regions while the main force is away. If both armies
are somewhat equal, determine how important the battle is to you, and
try to guess how important it is to your enemy. If your enemy seems
unconcerned, or is the AI, take charge and command the battle yourself,
since the computer will always, without fail, use the most ineffective
tactics possible to defend/attack, and if you're careful and deploy
your companies effectively, you should carry the field with minimal
losses.

When deploying your units, try to arrange them into distinct battle
lines, and group these battle lines by hitting ctrl + (a number), so
that you can switch between them quickly. The ranged units should
always form the back line, while the slowest units should be in front
and the fastest in the middle (or in the case of cavalry, at the flanks
of the ranged units, and in a seperate group). The reasoning is simple:
protect the ranged units, and to make sure that all of the melee arrives
at the enemy around the same time, you have to give the slow units a
head start. Once everyone is grouped together, move the ranged line to
the front, and march the entire army forward until the ranged units are
in firing range of the enemy line, or until your companies begin getting
fired upon by the enemy. Once this happens, if the enemy doesn't have
any ranged units, just let your companies pepper them with arrows until
they begin to move toward your line. Once this happens, move both of
your melee battle lines in front of the ranged line, and then charge the
enemy. If the enemy is closing quickly, just have both lines charge. If
the enemy army has ranged units, just order you ranged units to attack
the company they have that seems to be weakest against that sort of
assault (like polearmsmen, footmen, and peasants), and then move your
battle lines forward. In all of these cases, DO NOT ATTACK THE ENEMY
UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO CHARGE. As soon as you order an attack, all of
the companies will break the line and move at their own speeds, and
until you want to charge, this is bad because it will cause all of your
companies to hit the enemy line at different intervals, and the momentum
of the charge will be lost. Remember, you want to break their units as
quickly as possible; any prolonged fight decreases morale steadily, and
increases the likelihood that your own companies will break.

When you're on the defensive, minimizing the number of fronts you have
to defend is the key. Try to back yourself into a corner or take up a
position that makes it difficult for the enemy to do two things, which
are 1) flank you, and 2) pepper you with ranged attacks. It's all fine
and good to sit and defend yourself, but if your enemy is just planning
on wittling you down from a distance, you'll need to go on the offensive
or be destroyed quickly. No matter how few ranged units they have, there
is a good probability those companies can slaughter your army given a
good deal of patience and caution on the part of the enemy, and the same
goes for you, the player, if you happen to be attacking someone trying
to dig into a location. Cavalry are quite useful here, since the can
flank or split the defender long enough for the main force to move in
and assault the position, and no matter how good that position is, once
their battle line has broken, it's pretty well over. Ideally, you always
want the maximum number of your units to be attacking the minimum number
of their units. For instance, if the enemy is trying to cross a bridge,
feel free to wait on the other side and charge them as the exit it,
hitting their companies one at a time with three or four of your own.
Also, while they're in that bottleneck (and as a result, forced into
column formation), hit them with any ranged units you have. I used a 4
company army to destroy a 7 company army using that tactic, and came out
with very minimal losses as a result.

====================
-6.5: Castle Combat
====================

Fighting in Castles basically depends on the type of castle you happen
to be assaulting, but in every case, these are usually the easiest of
the battles in Lords of the Realm III to fight if you happen to be on
the offensive, and the most horrifically frustrating if you happen to
be the defender. My general advice, before I get into the details of
the different situations you could be in, is not to waste any companies
or armies by garrisoning them in a castle, unless you're doing so to
improve their recruitment. The reason for this is that the way the
castles were programmed, all companies are treated equally in regards
to the castle code. This means that if a friendly company can do
something to a castle, an enemy company can do the same thing. For
example, since enemy companies can't pass through gates or portcullises,
neither can friendly units. So unless you're willing to wait for your
garrisons to (slowly) climb THEIR OWN WALLS on RICKETY LADDERS in order
to move from the curtain wall to the keep of a particular castle, you
can pretty much assume that they're, for the moment, frozen in position.
Thanks to that wonderful design philosophy, the game pretty well negates
any benefit that would have come from a castle, and spending effort to
defend them is worthless. But now I'm going to climb down from my
soapbox and talk strategy, but only the offensive portion, for the
reasons detailed above. 

-Outposts: Don't worry about siege weapons unless it happens to be a
heavily defended outpost, and if it is, just bring along 1-2 catapults
or a trebuchet, or if you're strapped for siege equipment, a battering
ram. Most outposts aside from the heavily defended variety are made
entirely out of wood, which as we all know, burns. Just bring along
a company of bowmen in your attacking army and a couple companies of
footmen or polearmsmen, and you should be fine. Have the melee units
form a line behind the bowmen, and then have the bowmen attack the tower
nearest to the defenders, but out of the range of any ranged units they
might have. The bowmen will begin shooting flaming arrows at the tower,
which should quickly catch fire. Shortly thereafter, the fire should
begin spreading along the walls, and eventually one of them will fall
down, hopefully killing some of the garrison with it. Once the walls are
breached, move your army back a little, and wait for the enemy to come
streaming out (on fire, in most cases) to attack you. If they do, just
resolve combat normally. If they stay put, make sure that the structure
they are sitting on is in flames, and if it isn't set the walls/towers
next to it on fire, until they collapse or the structure holding the
remaining garrison collapses. The enemy will either have to come out
and fight you on the open plain, or burn to death, but either way you'll
probably win.

-Fortresses: 3-4 catapults or monganels are required for this battle,
or a trebuchet. If neither are available (or in sufficient quantity),
hire a couple battering rams plus some ballistas. You want to punch a
hole in one of the walls (hopefully one that has a garrison company on
it), or batter down one of the gates. Once this is accomplished, sit
back and wait for them to come out. If they don't come out, either
collapse the wall they happen to be standing on or hit them with your
ballistas until they die. Congratulations, combat is over. Ideally you
should bring along some bowmen or crossbows, and 3-4 melee units that
are NOT cavalry (which are worthless in sieges) to defend them. 

-Castles: General rule of them with these is to bring along at least one
trebuchet, two preferably, and a lot of ballistas. The trebuchets can
fire over walls, so if you batter down the curtain wall and the defender
retreats into the other sections, or there happens to be a garrison on
that keep, then you can just knock those down too. Anywhere you make a
breach in the castles defenses, the AI will send out units to attack you.
Just move your siege weapons behind whatever army you have with you to
take them on, and have fun. If you don't have trebuchets, lots of
ballistas and several battering rams will do the trick. Essentially,
castles are fortresses with an extra layer, and maybe some siege weapons
mounted on them. As long as you remember that siege weapons are entirely
expendable companies (with the exception of trebuchets) you should be
fine. Any army that you field should be sufficient, provided it's at
least 5 companies strong and has the appropriate weaponry. Remember not
to bring any cavalry, because they can't scale walls or go through the
gates (even after they've been broken down).

That's everything you ever needed to know about castle combat in Lords
of the Realm III.

========================================================================

FAQ Created by Saerko (aka Gione Sarkisa), Copyright 2004
Version 0.85 AIM-Saerko
 
All thanks to the boards at the Lords of the Realm III game website,
located: http://community.vugames.com/WebX?13@174.IxWKdSrDEt6.0@.ef70913
Thanks to the Gamefaqs Lords III boards as well, at www.gamefaqs.com,
and to Impressions Games for producing the entire game in the first
place. I enjoyed it heartily, and hope many others do as well. Also
thanks to Gamefaqs for posting this FAQ. 

Some material in this FAQ was sourced from the Lords of the Realm III
manual, lords3tips.txt document, and various contributors to the many
boards out there.

================
Version History
================

8/2/04, submitted partially completed to Gamefaqs, still need to finish
the Campaigns section and complete the list of Knights and Requirements.