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The Knight#

Summary#

The Knight is the most aggressive AI claimant: he favors early wars, large peasant armies, and battlefield glory over economy or diplomacy. He is dangerous early but often overextends and struggles to sustain counties.

Identity#

Field Value
culture_row 1
L2.ENG group 7 index 1 → The Knight
Manual reference Sierra manual p. 97

Biography (manual)#

What he lacks in maturity, patience, and tact, the Knight makes up for in daring. He is zealous and cocksure, and loves nothing more than to show off his prowess on the battlefield. The Knight favors lightning strikes and invasions, often taking weaker opponents by complete surprise early on. He has been known to work his peasantry to the point of cruelty in order to produce and support his ruffian armies. The Knight is a would-be warrior king, but he is no statesman.

Confidence: confirmed (manual text); likely (AI troop preferences from strategy guides, not yet fully traced in code).

Personality and strategy#

Trait Behavior
Aggression Highest — often first to raise a peasant army and attack neutrals
Economy Weak — poor tax/industry management; heavy peasant levies
Defense Low — favors wooden palisades; weak weapon ratios (~60–70%)
Diplomacy Unreliable — may help then turn on allies immediately
Armies Peasant-heavy stacks; attacks before strength is sufficient

Guides describe the Knight as a “glass cannon”: strong early pressure, frequent self-inflicted economic collapse.

Numeric parameters#

Confirmed — retail bin/LORDS2.EXE, culture_row 1 block.

Parameter Value
pop_bonus_type 2
attack_patience 3
attack_gold_budget 750
defender_spawn_count 30
desperation_threshold 100
gold_buy_threshold 1000
gold_buy_amount 100
troop_sword_threshold 250
troop_pike_threshold 250
troop_bow_threshold 250

Score bonuses (map-size rows 0–3)#

Popularity Values
Low (0x4f7d38) 0, 160, 250, 400
High (0x4f7ce8) 0, 400, 700, 1200

Behavioral rules#

  1. Attack cadence — attack_wait_counter must reach attack_patience (3) before lotr2_game_ai_army_attack_plan commits another offensive (0x004f3b60 block). Confirmed.

  2. Attack budget — Offensive spends compare province gold to attack_gold_budget (750); below threshold triggers defender spawn path (0x004f3b68). Confirmed.

  3. Desperation — When popularity tier < 2 and year < 0x4f9, only culture_rows 3 and 4 receive bonuses; Knight gets none. Confirmed (lotr2_game_ai_apply_desperation_bonuses @ 0x004b5f53).

  4. Population growth — pop_bonus_type 2 selects province happiness curve branch in province tick (0x004f3b3c subfield == 2). Confirmed.

  5. Execution VFX — Captured lord smoke PL8 uses culture-specific sprite strip (lotr2_combat_load_message_smoke_pl8). Likely — row 1 strip @ cart_kgt.

Presentation (Phaser)#

Asset Index / path
Portrait (wizard / roster) PL8 frame 10 (culture_row + 9)
Flag / diplomacy icon PL8 frame 0 (culture_row * 3 - 3)
Default name string L2.ENG group 7 [1]
Great Noble bar Same stat columns as index

Implement as NobleArchetype.Knight = 1 with the numeric table above loaded from JSON generated by dump_noble_tables.py.

Evidence#

Symbol Address Role
lotr2_game_ai_army_attack_plan 0x004b5c09 Attack budget / patience
lotr2_game_ai_apply_desperation_bonuses 0x004b5f53 No Knight bonus branch
lotr2_game_ai_assign_nation_culture_slots 0x004b2d02 Name from group 7 index 1

Open questions#

  • Exact peasant vs armed troop ratio in spawn templates
  • Whether Knight prefers cattle over grain (manual only)