However, if I were you I'd put this into an historical context, this may seem like a much more offensive practice. For you see, back in the day about a thousand years, the people knocking at the door were not overly likely to be two well manicured twenty-something year olds. Rather, they were more likely to be lice ridden, blood stained, smelly religious fanatics and mercenaries for hire -- all 20,000 of them. And by "knocking on your door", I mean attempting to break it down so that they can go about their rather original method of conversion, which was to send you straight up to meet Himself, as He is obviously far more qualified to speak on matters ecclesiastical than they could ever be. And, as a perk of the job, they'll then either burn your house down or move in.

This form of religious permutation is what occupies much of the goings on of Knights of Honor, a hybrid of high level strategy mixed in with a tactical level game. On the strategic level you control an empire of your choice from the western medieval world, which includes Europe, North Africa and the Holy Land, deciding upon matters economic, diplomatic and military. On the tactical level you can then fight individual battles, from open-plain slog matches to bloody sieges.

The game also brings in a fair few medieval era quirks to governance; the seat of power is the monarchy and the Royal Court in which there are nine slots for Knights of the Realm to sit. These knights fulfil various tasks assigned by the player, from military generals to economic misers. Managing this court can be an interesting juggling affair. For example, a military commander can only command up to nine units of military troops, so in order to be able to field a massive army for conquest or defence you must sacrifice other forms of courtiers in order that the armies can be commanded. This means that a long and protracted war or maintaining an overly large military force will have an impact on other vital areas of your empire.

After the Royal Court there is the highly important medieval concept of dynastic rule, in which one must ensure that the family bloodline is continued so that monastic rule can be ensured after the current King kicks the proverbial bucket. This is complicated by the fact that most kings won't want to sit in their palace sniffing cleansing bath salts all day, and can be killed off on the field of battle, or even through an unfortunate accident at mealtime. Without an heir to take over, the game ends, and so ensuring the baby making is going apace takes on a rather urgent face and gives one a real sense of sympathy for poor King Henry VIII.

Another interesting problem for burgeoning monarchs to deal with comes in the form of inflation; Developers Black Sea have taken this ever present and somewhat vague (to me and you) concept and stuck it into the game in a rather effective manner. Should you be something like me and hoard money until that rainy day it might be an idea to listen up, for this will affect you. The inflation works by judging your income against what you have in the bank, and if your income is significantly lower than your stockpile, inflation will kick in and make this stockpile almost worthless, so obviously it's a good idea to keep this one nipped in the bud by spending the money as you get it.

Combine these quirky elements with your standard fare economic management game, which includes one or two more interesting bits such as religion and the use of education, and Knights and Knights of Honor provides an extremely capable strategic level game. But what of the combat, which is almost a game within a game?

Well, as your armies march onwards about the Europe of the day they'll inevitably run into some other devout peoples and proceed to kick the crap into one another in the name of King and God. This is done through the medium of a 2D based tactical game engine which includes some fairly competent terrain features to boot.

Troops can march about using the usual ensemble of different formations and stances. It's a rock-paper-scissors affair, with cavalry, infantry and ranged units squaring off to give a somewhat satisfying experience, though the AI does let it down somewhat, and with a bit of experience you can happily rip enemy armies to shreds within minutes. Of course, that is presuming your men don't run away crying for their mothers first, as Morale plays a major role in combat; not only do troops become more and more demoralised as they are ground down through combat, but the strategic level stuff plays on their tactical performance as well, and troops just after coming off a long march will already be slightly more demoralised than an opponent sitting comfortably in his positions for the last six weeks.

In all, Knights of Honor is a very broad and exquisite experience, requiring of much time to learn its subtleties in the various areas of rule, from the economy to medieval diplomacy (…have many daughters, being the key here…) to warfare. The combat AI is less easy to simply shrug of, though as the tactical combat is but a minor facet of the overall game it can be forgiven somewhat.

Knights of Honor is not for those who are unwilling to invest some time into their games; apart from the instant tactical battles you'll have to wait and play this game before it churns out its fine rewards over time. Get hooked on it, as I did, and you'll find yourself playing an hour and feeling like it was only fifteen minutes… the true mark of any strategy classic.