I never tire of this game. The mechanic is just so interesting. I love building castles, spying on enemies, negotiating with neighbors, even haggling with the Pope. My only gripe is with the oblique projection angle in the castle/battle scenes; isometric would have been so much better.

I'd really, really love to see this re-released with a high-resolution interface and a multiplayer component (turn based, perhaps?)

Anyone else here a fan?

I only ever had the opportunity to play this game once or twice, but it seemed interesting. If I recall though, you would constantly be deluged with the attempts of the pope and other nobles to extort you, pretty much from turn one.

Yep, it was a careful balance between paying them all off and living in the poor house, or keeping to yourself and making enemies. If you have military superiority, though, it's possible to extort THEM. You can send diplomats to your rivals asking for gold, and if you're lucky you'll have them pay YOU to improve relations.

Castles has the simplicity of a board game, which is why I think it still works. There's not deep tactical combat like Rome: Total War, or a labyrinthine tech tree like Age of Empires, but there's basic elements of both that make it accessible to the newcomer and fun to play over lunch breaks.

I never played Castles Ii but I did play the original Castles and loved it. I would still be playing it now if I had a computer that would run the old software. This would be another series of games I would love to see relaunched. Nothing like dropping burning oil on attacking Celts ~Merry meet and merry part until we merry meet again~

I have both still... Haven't played in a very long time (anyone have a 5.25" disk drive? And would the disk still work? ) You should check out the Total War Series (Medieval 1&2, and Rome) they are almost a sucessor to the Castles series (I know different company... sorry). Although you don't get to design your cities(castles) which would have been really cool...

I loved everything castles 2 had, including the simplicity. This game was just plain fun in a box but I don't know if they could bring it back and still have the same feel.

I could use some help.
I recently found my disk for CASTLES II, including the manual and the box and reference card. I used to love this game. I played for hours. When one of my kids or my wife would call and ask "what are you doing?" I generally would answer by saying "I am conquering Brittania." and they would know what I meant.

My problem is trying to install the game on my Windows XP Professional machine. (I used to play it on a Win 95 box).
> during install process (yes, I followed the instructions) I am prompted where to install the game. Unfortunately, the install EXE is not giving me a choice of my C: drive. Instead, it only allows me to choose between D and E, which are both CD-ROM. I have tried several ways to get past or around this and it just won't work.

Any suggestions?

details of install process.
> open DOS window
> insert CD
> chg to drive D (or E)
> type INSTALL (which runs a BAT file which issues a CD INSTALL and then executes INSTALL.EXE
> first prompt is assuring the install I have enough memory
> second prompt is a choice between D and E asking where I want to install the game
I cannot change D to C, nor E to C. It is a selection, pick one or the other.
> I have tried selecting D (and E at different times)
> next prompt is the directory name of where I want the game installed. I can chg the directory name, but not the drive letter.

Then I get mad and walk away, come back and try again with same results.