[typing]
So, as I've been playing through my game collection recently,
as I am prone to do,
I started realizing that there is a bit of a pattern
as far as certain types of games
that for some reason, whenever I come across them,
they always click.
Something in my brain just can't resist this combination of things, and
one of those is medieval strategy.
Especially when it involves any kind of kingdom building,
or turn-based combat elements and things like that.
And you know, I started thinking back,
like, what was the first game
that really got me into that genre?
And that's when I ran across this floppy disk once again.
Which contains...
King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table,
or K.O.R.T.,
developed by Brandon McMullen and Wesley Gray,
and published by MVP Software in 1994
for MS-DOS PCs.
This is one of the many Shareware games
that I got from an educational convention
back in the mid-'90s,
and I picked this one mainly
because I was studying medieval history in school.
It was always a gamble buying things from these Shareware vendors,
since half the time you got the game on a disk
with a sentence or two describing it and that was it.
But when I got it home and installed the game,
it was even more than I bargained for.
As in it didn't work.
It would do nothing at the command prompt,
maybe getting so far as the opening logo, but that was it.
Fast-forward a while and I found this:
King Arthur's KORT Deluxe,
distributed by Essex Interactive Media in 1995.
By the time this was in my hands, I had another PC,
and finally I was able to play the game.
Pretty uninspiring cover art, though,
but at least it actually has some screenshots to look at this time,
so I won't complain.
But I will complain that it doesn't come with a physical manual,
so you have to print it out from a file on the CD.
And, man! Talk about an in-depth set of documentation,
covering everything from basic gameplay
to resource management strategies to combat theory.
Super useful stuff!
Well, other than the parts where it talks about another game
Desert Storm Command,
instead of King Arthur's KORT.
Whoops!
KORT Deluxe starts things off with a slideshow intro,
telling you its tale of Arthurian legend.
King Arthur has fallen by the hand of the traitor Mordrid,
which means Britain has entered into the Dark Ages.
Or it could just be because they forgot to pay their wax bill
and all their candles were repossessed.
At any rate, things get out of hand,
and everyone hates everything,
so the former Knights of the Round Table
all set to unite Britain under one king.
Sure, there's the legend about Arthur returning with Excalibur one day,
but it doesn't affect this game in the slightest, so instead,
lay the smack down on your former allies
and effectively claim the throne yourself.
The main menu then arrives
to mainly tell you that you can look at the instructions,
start a new game or play a previous one.
Starting a game presents you with several options,
all of which are pretty key
to how you'll fare during gameplay.
The number of opponents and difficulty level is most important,
ranging from page on the low end
to knight on the high end.
You then choose from one of five knights to play as,
each of which has unique abilities
and armor-clad facades.
Oh, and voices. Don't forget those majestic voices.
KNIGHT: God save England!
Right-clicking on buttons will tell you what they do,
and you'll have an advisor you can enable as well,
which is great, because some of this stuff is pretty vague at first.
I'll be playing the retail Deluxe version here,
since the original game had four fewer buttons,
and less gameplay overall, so yeah.
Screw Shareware, gimme more stuff!
Now while this may look slightly complicated,
the goal is rather simple.
Britain is split up into 18 territories
and it's your task to unite them all under one banner.
The best banner:
Of course, the other four knights all have the same goal,
and since peace and diplomacy is for pansies,
that means you'll be battling for supremacy.
Along the way, you'll be taxing the peasants,
dealing with random disasters,
laying siege to enemy castles,
waging a war of attrition on the other armies,
and holding occasional jousting contests.
In other words, it's Defender of the Crown:
Shareware Edition.
And I've got to say, for a game that came out
eight years after the one it's so clearly mimicking,
it doesn't do much to improve on the formula.
In fact, Cinemaware's medieval strategy game
was largely criticized for lacking in gameplay.
So the fact that King Arthur's KORT
contains just about the same, if not less,
well, it's not exactly a good sign.
But let's assume for a moment
that you're not familiar with Defender of the Crown.
In fact, let's assume that you've never seen a game like this at all.
That was me when I first played KORT,
and I have to say, once the gameplay clicked,
its hooks were in deep
and I could not stop until I beat the thing!
Which was about 40 minutes later, but I digress.
King Arthur's KORT was a game that may not have been terribly deep,
or even very pretty to look at,
but man, if it wasn't engaging to play.
For the short time it lasted,
this had me thinking in strategic ways
that my brain had never experienced when I first got it.
Everything takes place in turns,
so you have plenty of time to plan ahead
and make sure you have the upper hand on your enemies.
The basic idea is always the same.
Every player starts off with one territory as their own,
and each turn it's up to you as to whether or not you use it waging war
or building up your army and defenses
to prepare to take down more territories.
It really is all about the land here,
because the more land you own, the more peasants you can tax,
and the more you can earn each turn
to buy more units and upgrades.
You'll also get a ton of space for lawn ornaments.
Yeah, being a land owner,
it's just nice.
The gameplay is a constant cycle of the same basic thing,
but every turn truly is unique.
In fact, every game is unique,
thanks to the randomized elements in play.
You've got things like plagues,
civil uprisings,
church influence and even witches casting spells on you
all of which affect your resources and abilities.
And every time you start the game, your coat of arms is randomized as well.
This not only determined how awesome your trademark logo is,
but affects your starting conditions,
like what territory you end up with,
the number of initial combat units,
your beginning treasury,
and bonus ability stats.
Oh, yeah, each knight has a set of stats assigned to them,
meaning that everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
These stats being strength, charisma, honor and luck,
which will all determine how effective you are at jousting,
battle tactics,
getting your vassals to obey,
and just making good things happen.
Most of the time, you can just play it smart and get stuff done, whatever your stats,
but other times the randomness works against you to an insane degree.
Battles especially tend to go any which way,
relying on what seem to be totally off-the-wall dice rolls.
In the beginning, most territories are neutral
and thus have nothing but peasants
hanging around all merry-like.
That is, until you come along with your sword and your horses
and your t-shirt that says "I Hate Peasants,"
and claim the land for yourself.
Of course, this is randomized to a degree,
so there is a chance that enough peasants will outnumber your army
and kick you in the balls until you leave.
Territories that are owned by another player
will typically have some defenses built up,
both in the form of a castle
or a selection of units garrisoned there.
Typically, whoever has the most units wins,
but that's not always the case.
Otherwise, the game would be far too simple.
Sometimes, you'll just all but lose,
and then you can retreat and limp away with your tail between your legs,
losing honor in the process.
Other times, you'll lose badly,
your entire army is wiped out,
and your forced to go all the way back to your home castle,
not passing Go or collecting 200 bucks.
For this reason, it's a good idea to save frequently
and always build more units each turn,
then spending time stationing them in each of your territories.
Not only does this provide some nearby bro backup for the next turn,
but it also means that enemy armies can't just waltz in
and claim territories that aren't defended,
which they will *always* do the moment you turn your back.
[screaming]
Of course, you can always make more troops with more money,
and you can easily get more money by taxing your vassals a *second* time
after your turn begins.
This risks a civil uprising and you losing some honor,
but hey, who needs respect when you got money!
You can even summon Merlin to go and do some dirty deeds for dirt cheap.
And this can slice the castle strength
and troop levels of a chosen territory in half.
Another way to claim territories is to win a jousting contest,
which can be done once per turn.
Like a Klingon leprechaun,
you normally fight for honor and gold,
but if you're a real baller, you can lay down the pink slips to your territory
and whoever wins claims the land.
While similar in idea,
this plays a bit different to Defender of the Crown's jousting
in that it's from a third-person perspective and is mainly down to your stats,
as well as the timing in lowering your lance.
Hit your opponent hard enough to knock him off his horse
and separate his head from his torso
and make his lance float around.
Aw, what an awesome feature!
Truly ahead of it's time.
Or maybe that's just a glitch, what do I know?
Lastly the game can end in the two ways you'd expect:
either you get wiped out and your home castle is destroyed,
or you wipe everyone else out and your home castle...
stays there, doing nothing.
Yeah! King Arthur's KORT!
What a decidedly okay game!
Yeah, so it's not the greatest,
and can be beaten in less time
than it takes me to get out of bed on a rainy morning,
but I enjoyed it anyway.
It owes a ton of gameplay to the likes of Warlords,
Kingdoms of England,
and of course, Defender of the Crown.
Yet it's just one of those games from my childhood that I found fascinating,
and through my ignorance, I thought it was more unique than it actually was.
But whatever, it directly led to me having an interest
in more involved medieval war games
and strategy games of all types,
like Lords of the Realm
and Crusader Kings II.
So for that, it has my gratitude.
And if you're curious to check it out,
it was released as freeware by MVP Software
so check out the download link in the video description
and why not try it out,
if you feel like losing a battle to some peasants
before getting your castle burned down.
♪♪
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