Lords of the Realm

Lords of the Realm is a gem among the early RTS's. It introduced the player to life as an English Lord in the dark ages. The game's premise is that the king of England has died and there is no royal lineage left. The six Lords in power at the time must decide amongst themselves who is to rule. This decision is met out in Northern Europe with bloody battle, diplomacy, and management of the land.

You start the game in one of six pre-defined spawn "points", which are really counties of England. You are burdened with the task of managing the land, the crops, and the labor. It is never a good idea to have idle peasants, so keep them busy with raising cattle, sheep, or grain or perhaps you would rather have them mine stone, wood or iron. The choices are endless in this game. I could go on about castles and alliances, but then I would also have to talk about sieges, the skirmish system, and troop morale. It just goes on from there.
This game covers all the bases and then some. It really puts you in the role of being in charge during one of the most brutal times in English history.
I can offer some strategy for the game on the lowest difficulty setting. You should lower taxes by 2 crowns in the first season. Devote just enough peasants to cattle, grain and sheep; devote the rest to recovering the lost field. Once the field is recovered, devote enough peasants to each farming activity and the rest to mining stone. Set aside 2 fields for grain, 2 for sheep, and set aside some for cattle. Stop when your field rotation goes from 4 flowers to 3. When you find that your milk can feed double your population, lower taxes to 5 crowns. When a merchant visits your country buy cattle. This should get you started. The next priorities are raising an army and building a castle.
If you are unfortunate to get the wrong version of this game, you will not be able to build custom castles. There is a bug floating around in some versions that does not allow the user to place the "capture point" for building a custom castle. This effectively prevents one from completing the build.
I give this game a definite two thumbs up, or 10 out of 10. If you like RTS's at all, or are interested in the history of the dark ages; this is definitely a game to try. I prefer it over its sequel, Lords of the Realm 2, because in that game they removed the cash crop: sheep.