http://www.thelordsofmidnight.com/index2.html

Has anyone played the original or this rerelease?

Nope, but it looks like you'll get a chance to on GOG next week:
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/games_that_are_unofficially_confirmed_for_release_in_the_future/post278

The screenshots tell me nothing so I'm going to see if the novella gives me a better idea of this game.

I have the re-release on my phone and I love it. Brilliant game, hard to believe that it was released so long ago in the Spectrum days and still a complex and intelligent game.

I played the original and loved it. It made a tremendous impact on me with it's first person "landscaping" view, where you saw the world from your characters' view, and not on some top down map.
The strategic aspect was also great, with many different strategies to consider: hold the plains of Blood and the line behind the Mountains of Ithril or play more defensive, maybe even withdraw all the way to Xajorkith? The Adventure part was not as strong, and it felt rather cheap winning that way.

If possible I loved the sequel Doomdark's Revenge even more, mainly because it was much more dynamic, with its faction system and mobile lords, as opposed to the more rigid and static system in LoM, which led to much more chaotic and unpredictable games. Unfortunately DR suffered from some design flaws, the worst of which was the underground tunnels, which computer controlled characters would never enter. Combine that with the other, smaller flaw - lords risking getting killed by monsters and other lords even if surrounded by their own soldiers - and you could easily win by just parking Luxor in a tunnel until Shareth Heartstealer got herself killed.

I'd be very interested in hearing impressions on the new remake, as I understand it contains several improvements, like better AI and an automap. But no improvements to the graphics?

There's the Midnight Engine which does alter graphics http://www.icemark.com/downloads/index.html

Well the setting is definitely interesting, the plot itself is a bit cliched but I can't say I'm not interested in playing this game after reading it.

Still not sure what kind of game it is, though.

After reading Petrus' post I'm more intrigued than ever.

Yeah, I tried that one, but by the time I had already played LoM to death. There's even a version with 3D grapics where you can see the movement of Doomdark's forces, but it lacked a proper auto-map. But the new remake is supposed to have better AI, so it may be worth it for me to check out.

I'm actually more excited about a possible new remake of Doomdark's Revenge, since it's much more replayable.
And if Eye of the Moon, which was supposed to the turn based sequel to DR finally gets completed that would be grand. But with Mike Singleton's death I guess that's unlikely. It's mostly a strategy (no tactics, though) game, but you only start with four characters and no army, while the enemy's vast armies are already on the march. So you need to find and recruit Lords (and some special characters) and their armies. Recruited lords can recruit other lords, but there is some racial and feudal prejudice, and some characters make better diplomats than others. Some of your starting characters can also recruit soldiers directly from friendly Keeps.
There's also lots of Liths, Henges, Ruins etc, where you find things to help or hinder you.

M.S. reused the idea in Midwinter, where you had to convince people that the missile-wielding snowmobiles outside their windows were a bad thing. And then he made Flames of Freedom which needs a fucking remake (Just Cause is too lacking in vehicles and communications). And then he made Ashes of Empire, where you could just beg a border officer to join your peacemaking cause and he would agree.

Come to think of it, didn't Dune borrow the idea with the whole hiring Freemen thing?

The feature I sorely missed in RF Guerilla.

Hi folks,

After reading the thread, I thought I'd put a bit more meat on the bones as it were.

First of all, the graphics - these are actually new, high resolution versions done in the original style by the same artist who drew the artwork for The Midnight Engine. The decision to stay true to the original style was a deliberate one, although Chris may release new alternative graphics pack(s) as add-ons at some point in the future. A switch to proper full 3D graphics was considered while Mike Singleton was still alive and rejected as the wrong direction to go in.

The game stays true to the original in most respects. There are minor tweaks to the AI, but basically this is the same game released back in 1984, only polished up for a modern audience.

Chris is working on releasing Doomdark's Revenge later this year and it could be that the future will see a version of Lords of Midnight: The Citadel (the PC game from 1995), only done properly this time, and potentially even Eye of the Moon, if Chris can be persuaded to complete the design Mike started on.

I'm biased, as I've been a big fan of this game from when it was first released, but I'd thoroughly recommend it for anyone who likes a good strategy war game romp through a fantasy setting. The plot may be a bit cliched by now, but it shouldn't put anyone off the game itself.

This would be a great remake with modern graphics.

The remake IS "modern" graphics, as in they are clear and scalable to modern resolutions. The intention of the developer was to use minimalistic graphics in order to be loyal to the original game.