This tutorial provides a quick introduction to the settings screen that appears when you play a Kingmaker map in Stronghold 2.  We'll cover player identification, player setup options, alliances, starting conditions, map selection, text chat and also provide a table that shows the effect o­n starting goods for each rank in comparison to the human/computer balance setting so you can create your perfect Kingmaker mission...

Submitted by LordBritian and Aubergine

To start a Kingmaker game from the Main Menu choose "Play", then choose "Path of War" followed by the "Kingmaker" option. This will display the Kingmaker settings screen as shown below:

We've highlighted the eight key sections of the settings screen as follows:

1. Player Identification - crest/avatar, name, visual display of estate and alliance
2. Player Setup - add/remove players, randomise players, set/remove alliances
3. Minimap - shows minimap for selected map and allows you to allocate estates
4. Starting Conditions - rank and human/computer balance
5. Map Selection - number of players, balanced, map name
6. Text Chat - not used in single-player Kingmaker
7. "Back" button - return to Path of War menu
8. "Play Game" button - start game

Now let's go through each of the key sections in turn...

1. Player Identification

This is where you set up the players (human and computer) and teams that will take play o­n the map:

• Human players (i.e. You!) are clearly marked as such along with their name and crest.  The little shield that also appears next to your name does nothing as this is a single-player game so you can't remove yourself!
• Computer players, often referred to as AI's (Artificial Intelligence) are shown with their name and a picture of their face.

When you first enter the settings screen, o­nly your name will be present. As you add AI players (see 2. Player Setup) they will be added to the list.

As well as the player image and name, the following information is also indicated...

Estate Indication

Each player, whether human or computer, will have their name shown in the same colour as the castle estate that they will occupy o­n the minimap (see section 3. Minimap later for details o­n how to change their castle estates).

Alliance Indication

If you have set-up alliances (see 2. Player Setup), the background colour of the players will change to indicate their alliances and when an alliance has two or more players there is enough room to show the little icon for the given team colour - players with the same background colour (and icon if more than 2 players in a team) are part of the same alliance and will help each other in their fight against other players and alliances.

2. Player Setup

This section is where you add/remove players and set-up alliances...

Add Players

Clicking the button with the sword, shield and helmet will take you to the "Add Players" screen as shown below:

Simply click the avatar of an AI player to add them to the small boxes at the top.  Your player will always be the first in the list and cannot be removed.

You can add an AI player several times if desired, eg. you might want to fight an alliance containing 7 Olafs!

As you add players, they will automatically be assigned a castle estate - you can change castle estates using the minimap (see 3. Minimap, later).

Note that there will always be spaces for 7 AI players, regardless of how many castle estates are available o­n your map (see 5. Map Selection, later). If you choose more players than the map can handle, you will have to remove some of them before you can play the map.

Add Random Players

If you don't care who you play against, or just want to try a random selection of players, click the dice button.

This will randomly assign sufficient AI players to the map to use up all the castle estates.

Each time you click the dice button, all the existing AI players will be removed and a new set of random AI players will be added.

Warning: Because existin AI players will be removed and new random players added, any existing alliances you have set up will be lost.  As such, it's best to get your players allocated to your requirements before setting alliances.

All castles shall be occupied when this option is selected, from 2 to 8 depending o­n the number of castle estates provided by the selected map.

Add / Remove Alliances

Alliances are used to define teams. To add a player to an alliance, click o­n a player in the Player Identification area (see 1. Player Identification, earlier) and then click o­n o­ne of the little shields.  Add more players to the same alliance (team) in the same way.

When you add a player to an alliance, the background colour will change under their name and when you have two or more players in an alliance you'll see the crest of the shield appear to the right-hand-side of the player names.

You can have o­ne or more players o­n a team and players o­n the same team will help each other fight against the other teams (and any players not o­n a team).

The example below shows how we've created 4 alliances, each with 2 players:

Although you can have a team with just o­ne player, there's not much point as they will still have to fight against all other players.

To move a player to a different alliance, click o­n their name and then click the little shield to set their new alliance.

To remove a player from an alliance, click the picture of torn parchment (to the right of the little shields).

Alliance settings do not alter the castle estates assigned to players.

Remove Players

To remove a player from the player list, select them and then click the boot button to kick them out of the list!

3. Minimap

The minimap shows a small image depicting the selected map and the estates that it contains:

There are three types of estate:

• Unoccupied Castle Estate: A grey keep depicts a castle estate that is not yet allocated to a player
• Occupied Castle Estate: A tower depicts a castle owned by a player (the colour of the tower and estate is the same as the player colour)
• Village Estate: Some minimaps include village estates allowing lords to fight for control over the resources it produces.  Village estates are depicted by a small red flag.

As players are added to the player list, they will automatically be assigned a castle estate.  The allocated castle estate will get a tower and be set to the same colour as that player's name.

Castle Estates

To change a player's estate click o­n the tower that has their colour and then click o­n another castle estate to make it their new home:

If the new castle estate is already occupied by another player, they will swap estates.  If the new castle estate is not occupied, then when you move the player to the new estate their old estate will become unoccupied.

You can change castle estates as often as you like before the game starts.

The rules for castle estates are:

• A castle estate can o­nly be occupied by o­ne player
• You cannot swap or change castle estate ownership during the game
• A player can o­nly occupy a single castle estate

Any unoccupied castle estates will be unused in the game (eg. if you have 7 players o­n an 8 player map, o­ne of the castle estates will go unused and be empty).

Village Estates

As we mentioned earlier, some maps may provide village estates.  Until you have played the map you can't be sure what resources these villages will offer, but you may still want to assign them to players before the game starts...

To do this, click o­n the a players' estate to pick up their tower and then click o­n the village estate you want them to own:

The village estate will be given the same colour as the name of the player who now owns it.

If the village was already owned by another player, they will lose the village and not get anything in return.

If you don't want anyone to own the village at the start of the game (so whoever gets there first will capture the village easily), click o­n the tower in the castle estate of the person who currently owns the village and then click o­n the village again - this will make the village unoccupied.

Rules for village estates are:

• It doesn't matter if they are owned by a player, but if a player owns them they will get the resources from the village
• A village estate can o­nly be owned by o­ne player at a time (or no players at all)
• A player can own any number of village estates - anything from none of them to all of them
• Villages can be captured from players during the game, regardless of your settings

4. Starting Conditions

The starting conditions allow you to set the technology level (and associated player rank) and the balance between human and computer players.

Technology Level and Player Rank

The four buttons to the left of the starting conditions panel define the technology level that will be used for the game.  They are:

• Freeman (Straw Hat) - Top left button - little gold and resources
• Knight (Helmet) - Top right button - normal gold and resources
• Baron (Visor) - Bottom left button - moderate gold and resources
• Duke (Crown) - Bottom right button - lots of gold and resources (deathmatch)

Note: Yes, we know a crown represents the King, but the highest rank you can play in Stronghold 2 is a Duke so you assume that rank instead.  You get to be king o­nce you have defeated all your opponents!

The human player will be set to the rank associated with the technology level and as such will be able to place buildings that are available at that rank.  For more detials as to which buildings can be placed at which ranks, please see our Kingmaker Ranks tutorial.

It appears that the various AI players do not have their rank set by the technology level - they use whichever rank they are programmed to have by default (needs further research - post a comment at the bottom of this page if you know more).

Human  / Computer Balance

By default the scales are balanced - human players will receive the same amount of gold and resources as their computer counterparts.

You can tip the scales either way to give the human an advantage or the computer players an advantage by clicking o­n the peasant to the left of the scales (human) or the robot knight to the right of the scales (computer).

Each time you click either the human or the computer, you will tip the balance a little more in their favour and in doing so you change the distribution of goods between the two (as you take away from the human player you give to the computer players and vice versa) as the table below shows:

Rank and Technology Level	Starting Resource and Troops	Balance of Scales
		-50% Resources	-25% Resources	Balanced Resources	+25% Resources	+50% Resources
Freeman	Gold	50	75	100	125	150
	Wood	12	18	25	31	37
	Stone	5	7	10	12	15
Knight	Gold	250	375	500	625	750
	Wood	25	37	50	62	75
	Stone	12	18	25	31	37
	Apples	25	37	50	62	75
	Armed Peasants	10	10	10	10	10
	Spearmen	5	5	5	5	5
Baron	Gold	500	750	1,000	1,250	1,500
	Honor	50	50	50	50	50
	Wood	50	75	100	125	150
	Stone	25	37	50	62	75
	Iron	5	7	10	12	15
	Pitch	5	7	10	12	15
	Wheat	5	7	10	12	15
	Hops	5	7	10	12	15
	Grapes	5	7	10	12	15
	Apples	25	37	50	62	75
	Bread	25	37	50	62	75
	Pigs	3	4	5	6	7
	Eels	3	4	5	6	7
	Ducks	3	4	5	6	7
	Vegetables	3	4	5	6	7
	Wine	3	4	5	6	7
	Bows	10	10	10	10	10
	Spears	10	10	10	10	10
	Spearmen	10	10	10	10	10
	Archers	4	4	4	4	4
Duke	Gold	5,000	7,500	10,000	12,500	15,000
	Honor	200	200	200	200	200
	Wood	200	300	400	500	600
	Stone	50	75	100	125	150
	Iron	10	15	20	25	30
	Pitch	10	15	20	25	30
	Wool	5	7	10	12	15
	Cloth	5	7	10	12	15
	Wheat	5	7	10	12	15
	Flour	5	7	10	12	15
	Hops	5	7	10	12	15
	Ale	5	7	10	12	15
	Candles	5	7	10	12	15
	Grapes	5	7	10	12	15
	Apples	50	75	100	125	150
	Bread	50	75	100	125	150
	Cheese	50	75	100	125	150
	Meat	50	75	100	125	150
	Pigs	10	15	20	25	30
	Eels	10	15	20	25	30
	Ducks	10	15	20	25	30
	Vegetables	10	15	20	25	30
	Wine	10	15	20	25	30
	Bows	50	50	50	50	50
	Spears	50	50	50	50	50
	Maces	50	50	50	50	50
	Crossbows	50	50	50	50	50
	Pikes	50	50	50	50	50
	Leather Armour	50	50	50	50	50
	Swords	50	50	50	50	50
	Metal Armour	50	50	50	50	50
	Spearmen	20	20	20	20	20
	Archers	10	10	10	10	10
	Swordsmen	2	2	2	2	2

As you can see from the table above, the amount of honor and the number of troops are not affected by the balance setting.

As we stated earlier, the AI players are not affected by the rank - they have whatever their standard rank is and can place any buildings available to that rank.

5. Map Selection

The map selection is a critical part of the game setup because it defines how many players you have and the size and location of their castle and village estates.

Sorting the Map List

You can sort the map list by clicking o­n the headings at the top. Having clicked a heading, you can click it again to reverse the sort order or click a different heading to sort o­n that column instead.

There are four sort methods:

• Number of Players (first column)
• Balanced (second column)
• Map Name (third column)
• Map Date (above scrollbar)

Number of Players

The first column o­n the map list shows how many castle estates are provided o­n the map and hence the maximum number of players.

Remember that you don't need to allocate all players - as long as you have allocated at least o­ne AI player you will be able to play the map even if there are unoccupied castle estates.

A map must have at least 2 castle estates for it to be used in a Kingmaker game.  Any maps that do not contain at least two castle estates are greyed out and cannot be played.

In addition, maps that support fewer players than the number of players you have in your player list will also be greyed out - you will have to kick o­ne or more players to ensure that the number of players in your player list is the less than or equal to the number of players the map supports.

You must have at least 2 players in your player list to play any Kingmaker map.

Balanced

A map is deemed to be balanced if each castle estate is roughly the same size and defensive properties (eg. being o­n a hill) as well as roughly the same resources as all the other castle estates.  A balanced map gives each player an equal chance in terms of building area and resources such as trees, iron ore and quarry stone.

Unbalanced maps will lead to a more interesting game because castle estates may be different sizes, have different defensive properties and different amounts of raw materials (trees, iron ore and quarry stone).

With unbalanced maps, village estates and alliances become critical - for example, a castle estate might have no quarry stone and therefore have to rely o­n a village or allied castle estate to deliver stone by cart.

Note: As of version 1.20 of Stronghold 2, there is still no way for map designers to specify whether their maps are balanced or not so all maps will appear to be balanced whether they are or not!

Map Name

The map name is used to quickly identify a map in the list and is defined by the person who designed the map.

Map Date

The map date is not shown, however it's useful to sort maps by their date to show the oldest or newest at the top of the list.  Usually, when you download a new map, it will be the newest map you have so the Map Date sort button will allow you to quickly locate it.

Selecting a Map

To select a map, click o­n it's name.

Maps will be greyed out as unselectable if more players in the Player Identification section are listed than the map supports. Remove (Boot) players until the number listed next to the map is the number of listed player. An incorrectly constructed Kingmaker map will have zero listed as the number of players, and thus be unselectable.

When you select a map, the minimap will update to show all it's estates and randomly assign players to castle estates.  Any village estates selected o­n a previous map will be cleared (you'll have to manually re-assign village estates if the new map provides them).

6. Chat Window

As you are playing against computer opponents, the chat window serves no purpose in single-player Kingmaker maps.

7. "Back" Button

This button allows you to exit the settings screen and return to the Path of War menu.

8. "Play Game" Button

If you have the correct number of players for the chosen map, this button will allow you to start the game.

If you've got too many players for the selected map or if you don't have at least o­ne opponent, the button will not work.

Procedure for Setting up a Game

The best way to set up your game is to follow these steps as it ensures you do things in the most logical order:

• Select map
• Add AI players (or randomise players)
• Define alliances (if desired)
• Set up castle and village estates
• Set technology level / rank
• Set balance
• Start the game!

Well, we hope this tutorial will help you create your perfect Kingmaker mission!

Have fun!