Please help me find PC game 'Liege Lords'

[Sitnam]

I’m in the middle of [Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History](Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History) by Simon Winder and on page 110, before he begins to get down to the real nitty-gritty of the complicated topic of German dynastic struggles he makes an offhand comment to the effect ‘to truly understand the difficulties these princes faced you’d have to play the PC game I believe is called Liege Lords’. My Google-fu has turned up bupkis.

I am aware of the Europa Universalis franchise and Crusader Kings II, but I was hoping someone could point me to the game Simon is talking about. The book was published in 2011 so the game is not more recent but it could be a DOS text game for all I know.

[Grey]

Well there was Lords of the Realm, which at least had weather impacts on food supply, but it never attempted to create the political dynamics CK does.

[Miller]

What year was the book published? That’d help narrow things down (your link is broken, btw). Also, presumably this was a German game - if it never got published outside of Germany, the name might not have been translated, so looking for “Liege Lords” on Google wouldn’t help. Babelfish suggests “Lehnsherren” as a translation for “liege lords,” but that doesn’t turn anything up for me, either.

[Grey]

Germania: In Wayward Pursuit of the Germans and Their History: Winder, Simon:...

Amazon shows that it was published in 2010 but I really can’t think of any mainstream medieval grand strategy games other than CK. Maybe some of the Mount and Blade games but they’re not really in the same vein.

[nightshadea]

only thing I get is stronghold kingdoms … Stronghold Kingdoms LIEGE Lord - Search

[Miller]

Also, while Germany isn’t particular known for videogames, they’re huge into board games, some of which are insanely complex. Are you sure this is a PC game?

[gnoitall]

Searching the text itself in Google books turns up the reference Sitnam is thinking of, I think:

@book text

Only in a computer game (perhaps not, in all honesty, a very profitable one), called something like Liege Lord, could the immensely complex patterns created by generations after generations of these families’ goings-on be adequately expressed.

My observations:
[ol]
[li]OMG. That sentence. I write dense and complicated prose sometimes, but dayum.[/li][li]The way I read that sentence is that such only a detailed dynastic turn-based strategy simulation game could do justice to the history of Germany. But the game itself doesn’t exist, even with the hypothetical title of Liege Lord.[/li][/ol]

I think the name of the game is just a throw-away and the game itself doesn’t exist. Although a game like Crusader Kings II comes close, just not throughout the entire historical span of what we think of as “Germany”. (It’s explicitly a Medieval era game, and some of the most interesting hijinks of Germany are Renaissance and later.)

[Merneith]

I agree the game “Liege Lord” probably doesn’t exist (and there’s nothing with that title at Moby Games). But may I offer for you consideration, “Darklands”.

Darklands

Darklands was released in 1992. It is set in Germany and Prussia of the Fifteenth Century - but a mystical version, such as the Brothers Grimm might have written about. Fantasy, but firmly grounded in history.

Here’s a quote from one of the user reviews on GOG -

Unlike most fantasy CRPGs of the era, Darklands does not take place in some grandiloquently named fantasy continent, but rather in the 15th century of the Germany of our very own Earth. It’s a dark and mystical Germany filled with magical beasts and heretical witches and alchemical magic, but it is Germany nonetheless. It is immediately apparent from both the manual and gameplay that great pains were taken to root the world of Darklands in history; the currency is a bafflingly archaic system of pfenniges and groschen and florins, and time is kept in three hour increments according to the prayer routines of the then-prolific churches and monasteries. The game is also sprinkled with German terms, for which a lexicon is included at the end of the manual. These touches, among many others, immediately help to set Darklands apart from other games.

I can’t truly vouch for it’s historical accuracy, even skipping over the fantasy stuff, but someone interested in medieval Germany might still find it amusing.

[Sitnam]

@gnoitall

Searching the text itself in Google books turns up the reference Sitnam is thinking of, I think:
My observations:
[ol]
[li]OMG. That sentence. I write dense and complicated prose sometimes, but dayum.[/li][li]The way I read that sentence is that such only a detailed dynastic turn-based strategy simulation game could do justice to the history of Germany. But the game itself doesn’t exist, even with the hypothetical title of Liege Lord.[/li][/ol]

I think the name of the game is just a throw-away and the game itself doesn’t exist. Although a game like Crusader Kings II comes close, just not throughout the entire historical span of what we think of as “Germany”. (It’s explicitly a Medieval era game, and some of the most interesting hijinks of Germany are Renaissance and later.)

That’s the one, and you are right, the whole book is that sort of prose. He mentions the game again, I believe, on page 126. I’ll quote it when I get home.

Thanks for the recommendations so far, guys. I know this is a long shot.