The difficulty is set almost to the max, just enough to win myself the title of "expert" difficulty, but not more then requiring two attempts to win. I don't count New Settlement and 10,000 gold settings as making it more difficult because everyone, and I mean everyone, should start skirmishes like that unless they are just beginning to learn Majesty. Scratch that, they should always start skirmishes with that setting especially if they are just beginning to learn Majesty.

I started out in the bottom left and began executing a ring formation with a double warrior's guild build order (I almost always turtle in Majesty because rock giants can't call you a lamer) But if I just started trying to build two warrior's guilds with only two peasents, they would be about finished by the time the minotaurs are discussing pike sizes for my head. So the first step of the game was to get some gnomes. Building the first hovel behind the palace as not to disturb the ring formation, it didn't take long for two other hovels to pop up on their own around it. With a fresh supply of gnomes(4) at hand, I ordered the construction of two warrior's guilds and a marketplace inbetween them.

The marketplaced finished faster then the two guilds, and gave me time to tech healing potions before even a single warrior entered the kingdom. Soon after the research was completed the two guilds finished construction and I began recruiting warriors until both guilds were filled. The recruiting spree finished just in time to defend the realm from a pack of minotaurs who had just begun a raid on the kingdom from the East and North.

The fight took place in two seperate areas (northwest and east), both guilds fighting off seperate raids. The left flank took the most casualties, with three of the four death tolls to their credit. But the more important aspect of the skirmish was that I won it, and after the battle I replaced the casualties and spent the remains of the treasury on a ranger's guild, but because the Northern area of the pending ring formation was still covered in fog of war, I was forced to place it directly East of the palace (warriors seldom explore the fog of war, so I needed to recruit a ranger or two to open up some new locations, besides, I can always pay 800 gold later to move the camp) Only able to recruit one ranger at the time because of low resources, I contented myself with watching the lone ranger (hehe) wander about the wilderness while my tax collector scrounged up enough money to recruit the other three. The recruitment costs cleared nearly all the gold my T.C had just deposited after a visit to both warrior's guilds, but it's definately worth it. Scouting is quite possibly more important in Majesty then other RTS games because explored areas never relapse into fog of war, allowing you to see an attack coming a mile a way if you scouted the area the raiders are traversing through.

But any plans of exploring the wilds was cut short as a second party of minotaurs charged into the kingdom from the East. Their first target was the ranger's guild, but they banded too closely together and became surrounded by warriors within seconds. The circle of slashing and stabbing swordsmen backed up by the constant hail of arrows from the supporting rangers proved too much for the beasts, and the raid was crushed without a single casualty on my side. Blessed with the gold of a defeated siege and no reinforcements to spend it on, I decided to use 800 to move the ranger's guild into the ring formation. Yet sadly, giddy with joy from the last battle, a ranger wandered too far into the wilderness and was eaten by an evil oculus, sending the "days without accident" poster straight back to 0. Not to mention costing me another 350 to replace him.

Having been left with a fresh plot of empty land right next to the palace after moving the ranger's guild, I chose it as the spot for my blacksmith. It's always best to try to cash in on the benefits of armor and weapon upgrades early in the game, especially when dealing with heroes that rely on upgrades like warriors and rangers. For the next few days I focused on teching upgrades for my heroes, drawing warriors back every few seconds to get the latest model of the long sword. During this time some sewer entraces began sprouting up around the city, releasing giant rats and ratmen into the streets at random intervals. One of the ratmen made the mistake of robbing the warrior's guild, and was promptly hunted down and executed by the guildmembers. Besides that incident, anything that poked it's head from a sewer grate was gutted without question, often times immediately after it appeared.

While continuing on my teching spree for blacksmith ups, one of my rangers stumbled across an old, seemingly abandoned castle in the forest. Jinkies, I wonder if any monsters live there. Apparently the two warrior guilds thought so, and came together for a little male-bonding trip to raid the place. The raid was called back short however, as some minotaurs had attacked the city. The warriors took their sweet time getting there, as one gnome had already died in the defense of the city. After having to replace two warriors in addition to the slain gnome, I decided it was probably time to upgrade to tier 2 because I had gotten bored of watching the same old warrior-wall ranger-support fights, and was feeling a little frisky. How frisky you ask? Half-naked barbarian frisky, it was Krolm time.

Having already built up a sizeable treasury from the benefits of the warrior-psyke's natural inclination to buy the latest weapons and armor, I didn't need to do any penny-pinching to save up the 3k needed for the upgrade to tier 2. The order came without hesitation, and within seconds every gnome in the city was power walking itself down to the palace to get some repairs done. Even though they're not being payed, gnomes are naturally territorial of their work sites. I came to that conclusion after witnessing the gnomes mob anything that came near the palace during the upgrade. Even for a few minutes afterwards they were seen chillin' outside the palace, making sure some prick didn't graffiti their hard work. For having 9 hp and a dull butter knife as a weapon, they're pretty hardcore.

A temple to krolm was the first structure to be erected, snugly fitting into the topmost left position of the ring formation at the cost of two gnomes who had a worksite incident with a minotaur. The blacksmith also hit level 3, and I teched the final upgrades as the first barbarians were recruited into the kingdom.

One major point of getting krolm as your temple, is that you get the most powerful spell in all of Majesty, the Rage of Krolm. The downside is not only do you get to have absolutely no other temples, but the spell costs about 1,500. In order to keep up the cash flow for all the ROKing I'd be getting in the future, I decided I needed a trading post. I picked a spot directly North of the city, but not too close to the monster-controlled side of the map. The outpost consisted of two buildings, a trading post and a guard tower. The guard tower was fully upgraded ASAP with arrows and veteran guards, and the trading post was issued a liscence to sell healing potions to the working hero. As the first caravan exited the post to deposit a supply of gold into the marketplace, a feeling of calm settled over the kingdom.

During the brief respite from action, I placed a second temple to krolm and closed the ring. This brings the combat-hero mix to 8 warriors/8 barbarians/8 rangers. A heavily melee-oriented tactic, but one that works. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work if you have only barbarians defending the realm and can't seem to find out where your other heroes went when a rock giant attacks you. Alone, low-leveled, without cash to cast rage of krolm, and not wearing any armor, the barbarians did the only thing they could, fling themselves at the rock giant en masse. The complex barbarian tactics didn't work out as well as hoped, as SEVEN barbarians were crushed into the ground before the rock giant finally fell. Of course both warrior guilds had been raiding a castle off in the distance the entire time, oblivious to the hordes of barbarians being smashed and trampled by various monsters. It took a while for the two temples to figure out what they should and shouldn't do, and by the time the raiding party had returned, they found a fresh new graveyard awaiting their arrival.

That pissed me off, spending about 2k just recruiting more barbarians to fill the gap after the first batch died made me want to hurt things. I still had enough gold for some bounty flags and at least one rage of krolm. That wouldn't be enough to make a final push, so I needed to wait afew days for some more gold to generate and some caravans to come in. The caravans never came, because a hulking rock giant began throwing a hissy fit all over the map. His first stop was my outpost, the guard tower threw a few arrows at him in a last ditch effort to save itself but was knocked flat in less then five hits. He then trampled the trading post and proceeded to make his way towards the city.

A large resistance force of heroes met the rock giant at the ring, and managed to feebly swipe at his shins a few times before being tossed around like a ragdoll. Three barbarians and two decently leveled rangers were ground to dust under the assault, founding another graveyard in silent testimony to the rock giant's rampage. That was the last insult I would take from walking piles of stones. First my barbarians, then my trading post, then my barbarians again, it was time they put up or shut up.

I scattered bounty flags of 1000+ gold around the monster buildings like confetti, and every hero in Turbo_Noob-land rallied behind my flag. A single click of the wrath of krolm button and a terrifying roar swept throughout the land, and the minimap filled with blue dots charging across the landscape, a pungent stain spreading across the pantlegs of the enemy.

It didn't take long, a few minutes at most. Every one in a while the heroes would take a breather from the ROK spell before I hit it again and everyone went back up to superspeed. Evil ocululuses, minotaurs, you name it. Anything and everything was swept up and devoured by the horde of battle frenzied heroes. When there was only one castle left standing, no one even bothered trying to defend it. The angry swarm of heroes, eager to avenge their fallen brethren, smashed into the last defenses like a sledgehammer on a ripe watermelon. Then all at once a silent hush fell over the land, and the cheery voice of my advisor announced "Your Majesty, you are victorious!"