Kingdoms and Castles is a cute little medieval village builder where you are the king of the realm and need to guide your peasants to glory.
I played this once, years and years ago, and it was alright. I liked it. But it seemed a bit lacking. It's had a few updates since then and I randomly decided to open it up again, and it does feel a little better now than it was before, but overall, once I got a decent-sized city stable and thriving, I got bored and closed it.
It's a good little timewaster and if you get in the zone you end up wanting to make an aesthetically pleasing city at least. The design: your accomplishment.
Allow me to share with you my kingdom of Fan'driel! Not the most aesthetically pleasing city, but for my first city in four or five years, I think I did quite well.
I generated a nice medium-sized chunk of land where there was a nice spot with fertile land, stone, iron, and plenty of trees. There was also plenty of fish in the water. It looked like a pretty good area! I didn't bother generating islands to play with other burgeoning cities. My people are the only people of this world.
I immediately set out my first paths, trying to plan my future city at the same time as this humble hamlet. I pathed towards the stone and iron, the forest, and just down from the castle keep I started planning my humble little peasant houses.
I was thinking of having the peasant area there, then move on to cottages, then manors, all in their own little "district" areas. I'm sure other people simply demolish the simple buildings and replace them with better ones, but eh, I like having alternating looks.
In the 14th year of my sleepy village, we were visited by a dragon. He flew over, had a look around, then flew away. No peasants died. Nothing was set alight. However, a warning symbol beside my map informed me that he would return in 17 years.
We must be prepared.
In the 30th year of my village, the villagers had all but forgotten the impending threat of the dragon.
I, the King, had not.
Yet, imagine my surprise when the dragon returned, and this time with vikings!
The vikings were swiftly taken out by the archers inside the king's keep, but the dragon... he breathed fire over the farms and killed a peasant.
We couldn't just leave the peasant to decay in the fields, so I was forced to use my precious stone and gold to build a cemetery. This was when I decided that taxes were too lenient. 30% of all the peasant's money shall henceforth be mine! For the good of the kingdom!
The vikings would not accept defeat. Every 10 years or so, they returned to try and steal gold from the treasury and to take my peasants captive.
They never found success. They returned over and over again with larger battle formations, and each time were defeated.
It wasn't until the 67th year of our kingdom we finally managed to fell a dragon.
I like to think it was lured over to the keep to admire the dragon statue I had my peasants built, and then, once captivated by its likeness, the strategically placed ballistae fell the dread beast to much rejoicing from all the peasants.
By the 83rd year of our Kingdom, we boasted over a thousand people! The city was amazing. Everyone wanted to move there. Everyone wanted to experience life on this idyllic island I, the king, had built up from humble beginnings!
The peasants enjoyed jousting tournaments. Theatrical entertainments. Parades in the city squares.
They relished in religion at the many churches, read thousands of books at the many, many libraries, and filled themselves to bursting at every tavern in the city. And there were a LOT of taverns. A tavern on every corner! How it should be.
After playing with the graphics settings, I learnt I could make things look better, hence the change in image quality in the screenshot above and afterwards.
In the year 113, three dragons, incensed by the deaths of their fellows in years prior, attacked the city. All three were promptly killed. My archers and ballistae showed them who was boss. Me. I'm the boss.
And at last, by the year 123, I considered my city finished.
If I could do this city again, I would wall up the entire island instead of having random towers placed here and there all over the place. Mostly just to slow down the vikings. Most of the time, I killed them right at my king's keep after they had zoomed into the city, which would be quite dangerous in a real medieval setting. I'm surprised they didn't plunder and burn all the farms and things on their passage. Instead they just go to the keep's treasuries and try to steal your rightfully earned tax money. Maybe they're not programmed to be that destructive. Or maybe they don't do things like that on a normal difficulty. Who knows.
But yes! Walls instead of random towers. And that's about it. I'm happy with how my city turned out. Farms to the south and the west. Peasant shacks all in one neat little area, cottages in their own area, manors in their district. Industry in their own appropriate areas, not impacting housing. Cottage and manor areas with nice parkways pathing, and the city all done up with stone roads.
It still feels like a bit is missing from the game. Year 123 isn't thattttt many hours, maybe 5 or so? I'm not sure. Wasn't paying close attention. But I felt that I had pretty much finished my city and there was nothing else to do except repel an increasing number of dragons and vikings every 10-14 years. It's a good little time-waster though, easy gameplay, and the graphics are pleasing. It just feels unsatisfying after you've built up pretty much everything you can.
You can find it on the Steam Store behind this link!
Until next time. 🙃