WARLORDS (THE ORIGINAL) - Game Manual Strategic Studies Group (SSG) 1. INTRODUCTION Warlords is an eight player game of the struggle for supreme power in the fabled Kingdom of Illuria. The manual is written for all versions of the game. Computer specific information may be found on the separate information card, and in a README file. If there is a README file, please read it before starting the game. If you have any problems with the components, or questions about the game, please contact Strategic Studies Group at one of the addresses shown at the end of this manual. 2. AN OVERVIEW Warlords is a strategic war game, fought out by eight different players, for the domination of the Kingdom of Illuria. It can be played by one to eight people, with the computer taking the remaining positions. For example, you could have one human versus seven computer opponents, or three humans versus five computer opponents; the mix of human and computer players is up to you. You may even watch eight computer players fight it out. The Kingdom of Illuria, after some severe internal disputes, has seethed under a sullen and uneasy peace. This truce has now disappeared, along with the arch-mage who imposed it. The eight empires of Illuria realise that this is their chance for total domination, a very unstable situation. Forces are being mobilised for conquest, and only one Supreme Warlord will prevail. Your objectives in Warlords are brutally simple: to eliminate all organised opposition to your rule. To do this, you will have to control all eighty cities in the lands of Illuria, and thereby eliminate all seven opponents. There are many ways to achieve this, and brute force is just one of them. You might ally with dragons or wizards, or have your Heroes search out and wield magical swords that will tip the battle in your favour. Clever military tactics or even economic warfare are possibilities too! The Kingdom of Illuria is roughly divided into eight parts, each one controlled by one of the eight empires. The contending empires are appear below, with their identifying color, and a brief description. If there is no color available, or the colors are different, this will be covered in your computer specific instructions. 1. The Sirians (White) The Sirians are Knights of a one-time chivalrous Order, dedicated to spreading the worship of their God to all of Illuria. Conversion by the sword is their favoured, (and some say their only), method of spreading the good word. Their capital city is Marthos, on the southern edge of Eastern Sulador. 2. The Storm Giants (Yellow) The Storm Giants are a race of powerful twelve foot tall giants, whose capital city, Stormheim, is located on the peak of Storm Mountain, in Western Sulador. The Storm Giants despise all those shorter than themselves, and have vowed to purify Illuria of what they see as an infestation of minuscule pests. 3. The Grey Dwarves (Light Blue) The Grey Dwarves are a hardy folk, living in the city of Khamar, which is found in the Nirnoth Mountains in central Lauredor. They desire to mine and exploit all the treasures of Illuria without let or hindrance. The surface dwelling races of Illuria are uniformly regarded as an obstacle to this grand ambition. 4. The Orcs of Kor (Red) In the city of Kor, in far off Huinedor, live a degenerate race of Orcs, led by a vile creature known as the Great Orc. Years of being the object of both derision and disgust from the other races has bred a terrible resolve. They will stop at nothing to spread their bloody-minded rule over all of Illuria. The rest of Illuria regards the term 'degenerate', when applied to Orcs, as redundant. 5. Elvallie (Green) Elvallie is the name of a forest and a city and the people who dwell therein. It is the homeland of the Light Elves of Illuria, in Central Sulador. An arrogant race, they believe that only they are fit to live in harmony with the land. They consider the removal of all other sentient races from Illuria to be merely sound ecological practice. 6. The Selentines (Purple) The Selentines are a cruel empire of Humans, whose capital is Enmouth, on the Western edge of Lauredor, by the Paramer Sea. They are a great naval force, and will miss no opportunity to spread their rule into new lands. They also regard all trees as ships that are simply yet to be constructed . 7. The Horse Lords (Dark Blue) The Horse Lords are a wild people, living on the plains in Eastern Lauredor, between the White and Nirnoth Mountains. Their capital city is Dunethel, where they can usually be found amassing great legions of cavalry. They covet all the lands of Illuria, and consider it the height of achievement to stable their horses in the ruins of other civilisations. 8. Lord Bane (Black) Lord Bane is an evil force, lurking in his citadel in the encircling mountains of Argundor. His legions include all sorts of warped races, such as Dark Elves, Men, Ogres and Orcs. Tradition and ambition both decree that he attempt to enslave all of Illuria. 3. TUTORIAL It would be a good idea before starting this tutorial to read Chapter 4, at least up to the end of section 4.3.1. This will give you the general picture of the screen layout in Warlords. Consult the computer specific card for installing the game on a hard disk or running it from floppies. When the game option screen is displayed at the start of the game, choose to play the Evallie as Human. Click on the icon beside the Elvallie name until the word human appears. Set all the other players to computer control as Knights; click on each icon until the word Knight appears. When you have finished, click the OK. button. The computer players will each take their first turn and then the Info Screen will ask you to click to start your first turn. As this is the first turn of the game, a Hero is automatically supplied. Click once to bring up the dialog box. Click on the Name button or text field, type a name in the dialog box and hit the Enter key. Click on the Done button when you are finished. The Hero will appear in your Capital, and you will be placed automatically into the PRODUCTION display. You have three choices, heavy infantry at two turns/four gold pieces, elvan archers at one turn/four gold pieces and Pegasi at six turns/sixteen gold pieces. Click on the elvan archer icon and then click on the PROD button. You have just told the castle to produce one elvan archer per turn. It just so happens that there is a very weak, neutral castle just up the road, and your Hero could almost certainly take the place just by turning up. However, as this is a tutorial, we will be a little more cautious. Choose the End Turn action from the Turn Menu. After a brief pause for the computer players to make their second move, it will be your turn again. Click to start the turn. You will see a message announcing the arrival of the "Elvallie 1st Elvan Archers", and asking if you wish to keep producing them. Click the YES button to keep churning out your troops. The army will be added to your Hero, making a stack of two. That's enough to do over the neutrals down the road. An army icon, either the Hero or the eleven archer, will appear on the city wall. The other icon is underneath it. Click on the top icon. A small cursor will appear over the icon. This tells you that the top icon is selected. To select the whole stack (i.e. the Hero and the elvan archer), double-click on the top icon. A larger cursor has appeared, enclosing the flag-pole adjacent to the army. The larger cursor tells you that the whole stack is selected. The smaller cursor tells you that only a single army is selected. The size of the flag tells you how many armies are in each stack. Move the cursor randomly over the map. It changes to an arrow shape, telling you that movement orders are possible. Scroll the map with the right arrow key until the grey castle comes into view in the top right corner. Click with the mouse just next to the left hand side of the castle. Your stack will move to that point. (If you hold the cursor over the castle itself, the cursor changes into a sword, and if you click there an error beep sounds. You must be adjacent to attack.) Once adjacent, you should have two movement points left, just enough to attack. (If you don't, just wait until next turn). Move the cursor over the castle until it has changed into a sword, and click. Battle is joined immediately, and the results are displayed. You will almost certainly win. On the off chance that you don't, just restart the tutorial again! If you have been victorious, click to bring up Production details for the newly conquered castle in the Info Screen. There is only one unit type which can be built at this castle, so click on the Light Infantry icon and then the Prod button. That's two castles down, seventy eight to go! The object early on is to grab as many neutral castles (the grey ones) as possible, before the other guys can. There is a cluster of three to the Northeast of the one you have just captured. Head for those straight away, and produce as many armies as quickly as you can to get the other neutral castles around the place. See Chapter 12 for more detail on how to win the game. A Reminder About Stacks and Armies It is important to realise the difference between single and double clicking on unit icons. Single clicking selects a single army from a stack, double clicking selects the whole stack. Mostly you will want to double click. Armies (and stacks) will be automatically deselected when their movement allowance runs out. If you do not wish a unit or stack to use all of their movement allowance, you must deselect the army (or stack) by clicking on the deselect button on the Command Bar. 4. STARTING A GAME Follow the instructions on the computer specific card for loading and starting the game. 4.1 Choosing Sides The first thing you will see on beginning a new game, is the title screen. Click the mouse button to get past this. You will see the game setup screen. This is where you choose which sides will be played by people, and which ones by the computer. The left hand side of the screen lists all eight empires in the game along with icons displaying who is controlling them. There are four levels of computer control, Knight, Baron, Lord and Warlord. The computer Warlords are very fierce opponents, and we recommend that you start off by playing against Knights. To change the control of a player, just click on the icon. A difficulty factor appears in the lower part of the screen. The tougher your opponents, the higher the difficulty factor. One human fighting seven computer Warlords is as hard as it can get (100% difficulty). When all your choices have been made, click on the OK. button to start the game. We want you to realise that the computer uses exactly the same rules as you do. There are no secret bonuses available to computer players. In fact, the opposite is true. For example, Knights deliberately waste money and sometimes forget what they are doing and who they hate. Strategic Studies Group has pioneered the development of superior artificial intelligence in strategy games. Warlords benefits from these years of experience and we believe the level of subtlety and skill displayed by the computer players in this game is second to none. 4.2 The Screen Layout The computer screen is divided into five major areas. Consider the diagram. Area A - This is the Playing Map. Most of the game action takes place on this map. It is the tactical map. You will see close-up views of your armies and castles here, and you will control their movement by clicking into this screen. Area B - This is the Strategic Map. This screen displays a map of all of Illuria. It is always present during play. The area of the Strategic Map currently visible on the Playing Map is shown by a small cursor. If you need global information, such as where all of your armies are located, it will be displayed in this screen. Area C - This is the Info Screen. Any text information will be shown down here. This includes what turn number it is, how much gold you have, and statistics for your armies, as well as many other things. Area D - This is the Command Bar. The most common actions used in Warlords are located on the central Command Bar. Area E - This is the Menu Strip. The remaining actions used in Warlords are located on the Menu strip. 4.3 Living in Illuria The actions in Warlords have been divided into five categories. (1). Commands. These are either issued directly by clicking on the map, or by clicking on the Command Bar in the middle of the screen. (2). Orders. These are accessed from the menu strip across the top of the screen. The actions which can be chosen from this menu are used less frequently than commands. (3). Hero Actions. These apply only to Heroes. They are accessed from the menu strip across the top of the screen. (4). Reports. These are used to get information about the status of the game. They are accessed from the menu strip across the top of the screen. (5). Game Features. These features affect the playing environment. They are accessed from the menu strip across the top of the screen. 4.3.1 Commands SELECT ARMY When the cursor is positioned over an army or group of armies, it will change shape to indicate that you can select the top army. Just click the mouse button once to select the army. You will hear a tone, and a small cursor will appear around the selected army. A description of the selected army appears in the Info Screen. SELECT GROUP This is similar to SELECT ARMY, except that you double click over a stack of armies. Every army in the stack is now selected as a single group. You will hear a tone, and a large cursor will appear around the stack. The Info Screen will tell you that you have selected a group. MOVE ARMIES Once a single army or a stack of armies has been selected, moving the cursor around the Playing Map will change the cursor to an arrow. To move your armies, position the cursor over their destination and click the mouse button once. The armies will move to this point using the most efficient route possible, using roads and avoiding obstacles. You can use the arrow keys to scroll the map to bring your destination into view, and your armies will try to get there. If they have a long way to go, move the cursor onto the Strategic Map, position it over your destination and click once. Your armies will keep moving until their movement allowance runs out. A maximum of eight armies may stack in a single square. Under no circumstances can additional armies enter a square with eight armies, nor can they move through. Refer to Section 5.2 for more details on stacking. If an army, or stack of armies, uses all of its movement allowance in a turn, then the next army or stack will be selected automatically. If you wish to end an army's (or stack) move before all of the movement allowance is used, you must deselect the army as explained below. DESELECT ARMY Whenever an army or a group of armies is selected, you must deselect it before selecting a new army. Do this by clicking on the top button (a flag with a cross through it) in the Command Bar in the centre of the screen. Armies are also automatically deselected if they run out of movement points, or cannot move. Armies remain selected even if they are scrolled off the map, so be careful to deselect them before proceeding to another army. PRODUCTION The PRODUCTION command is used to create armies. To select a city for production, you must first issue the PRODUCTION command by clicking on the picture of the sword and the shield in the Command Bar. You must then position your cursor over a friendly city (notice that it becomes a small castle as you do so) and click once; production information for this city will be displayed in the Info Screen. You have four options: PRODuce an army, send a produced army to another LOCation, STOP production, or EXIT without making any changes. Look at the accompanying diagram. To produce an army, click on its picture on the left hand side, and then on the PROD button (on the right hand side). To obtain information about an army type, double click on its picture on the left. To direct a city's production to another location, select the army from the available types on the on the left, but instead of clicking on the PROD button, click on the LOC button. You can now click on any other city that you own, and the army will appear there instead. A maximum of four cities may direct their production to any one other city. Armies appearing in another city take an additional two turns to arrive. To stop an army being produced, just click on the STOP button. To exit the production display without doing anything, click on the EXIT button. If all you wish to do is examine what army is being produced, select the PRODUCTION command, see what's happening, then click on the EXIT button. If you click on the PROD button and then click on a castle that has transferred its production, the destination castle will be highlighted on the Strategic Map. If you click on a receiving castle in the production phase, the sending castle will be highlighted. INFORMATION When no army is selected, and the cursor is over an empty location on the Playing Map, it will change to a question mark. If you click the button now, it will give you information about the location you have clicked over. This is particularly useful for finding out about cities, ruins and temples. If you want information about a location underneath an army, just hold down the shift key; the cursor will now be a question mark no matter where on the Playing Map it is moved. VIEW When the cursor is moved over the Strategic Map, it becomes a magnifying glass. Clicking in this window will change the view shown by the Playing Map. This is a very quick way of looking around the countryside. ATTACK You can only ATTACK when your current army or armies are next to an enemy army, an enemy city, or a neutral city. Select the unit with which you wish to attack, and then move the cursor over the enemy. The cursor will change into a sword. Click once, and the battle will start. You will not be allowed to launch an attack unless your army (or stack) has at least two unused movement points. MOVE MAP You can use the arrow keys to scroll the Playing Map, and the space bar to centre the Playing Map on the currently selected unit. INFO (?) Click on this button to highlight on the Strategic Map the location of all of your Armies. Armies colored white have used all their movement allowance. Armies colored red have some movement remaining. NEXT Click on the NEXT button to select the next army or stack. QUIT Click on the QUIT button to remove an army from the cycle for this turn and then select the next available army. DEFEND Click on the DEF button to permanently remove an army from the cycle until it is subsequently selected again by the player. These last three commands may not seem very useful at the start of the game, but as the time goes on and the number of your armies increases dramatically, they will become more and more useful. 4.3.2 Orders BUILD By using the BUILD action, you can either build towers to help defend your troops when they outside city walls, or you can strengthen your cities by raising their defence value. Issue the command to BUILD when your currently selected army is located where you wish to build. That is, you must select an army to build the tower or strengthen your city. Towers may only be built on plains. Building is never cheap, so you will be told the cost, and prompted whether you still wish to build. CAPITAL The CAPITAL action will return your view in the Playing Map back to your capital city. This is initially set to the city you start with. If you lose this city then Warlords will automatically calculate a new capital for you. DISBAND The DISBAND action is used for disbanding your army units and removing them from the game. Use this command when a single unit or a stack is selected. It is particularly useful for getting rid of excess troops, so that you no longer have to pay any upkeep for them. You cannot disband a hero. RAZE The RAZE action is used to destroy cities and towers, turning them into ruins. Once they are destroyed, they can never be rebuilt - even by a BUILD action. To raze something, issue the RAZE action when your currently selected army is in the city you wish to raze. Again, you must select an army to do the razing. You will be asked to confirm your choice, since razing one of your cities is a rather serious business. 4.3.3 Hero Actions TAKE The TAKE action is used by Heroes when they wish to pick up an item. Make sure that the Hero (or his stack) is selected, and then issue the TAKE action. You will now be presented with a list of items that the hero may take. Click on the UP and DOWN buttons to scroll this list, until the item you wish to pick up is highlighted. Click on OK, and your hero will now have the item. If you do not wish to take anything, just click on the CANCEL button. Note that when your Hero finds something, he does not automatically pick it up. You must use the TAKE action to make him do this. There is no limit to the number of items a hero may carry. DROP The DROP action is similar to the TAKE action above, except that it allows a hero to drop a selected item. Make sure the hero is the only selected unit, and issue the DROP action. Once again you will receive a list of items to drop. Scroll up and down, until the item you wish to drop is highlighted, and then click on OK. If you do not wish to drop anything, click on the CANCEL button. Use this action when you want to transfer an item from one hero to another; i.e. drop the item and move away with the first hero, move in and pick up the item with the second hero. SEARCH Use the SEARCH action to make heroes search special locations (such as temples and ruins). This is usually how magic items are found, and magical allies discovered. It can also be used to receive a blessing, and gather information from libraries and sages. Chapter 11 discusses special items in more detail. To search, you must generally have a hero in the stack (exceptions to this are covered below). Simply move the hero into the location to be searched, and issue the SEARCH command. You will discover the results of the search in the info screen. The only time that armies may search, is when they are at a temple. If a selected group of armies (none of them need be heroes) searches at a temple then they will receive a blessing - for free! However, each army can receive only one blessing from each temple. There are four temples. A blessing raises an army's strength by 1. FIND The FIND action displays all of your heroes on the Strategic Map. Click the left mouse button or hit any key to continue. INVENTORY Issue the INVENTORY action when a hero is selected. A list of the items being carried by that hero will be displayed in a dialog box. Click on OK or CANCEL to return to the game. 4.3.4 Reports Reports give information about the current status of a game of Warlords. After reading a report, you must click the mouse or hit any key to continue. To activate a report, select REPORTS from the Menu Strip and then the specific report you wish to look at. ARMIES The ARMIES report will display a graph in the info screen showing how many armies each player has. Small colored dots, corresponding to player colors, will appear on the Strategic Map to identify the location of all armies in play. CITIES The CITIES report will display a graph in the info screen showing how many cities each player has. Small colored dots, corresponding to player colors, will appear on the Strategic Map to identify the ownership of all cities. Dull grey cities are neutral (or razed!). GOLD The GOLD report will display a graph in the info screen showing how much gold each player has. HATRED Each computer player in the game has a particular attitude to you. The best you can hope for will be apathy, the worst is outright loathing. These attitudes vary with the time, and as a result of your interactions with the other players, and are very important. The attitudes, in order of increasing severity, are Apathy, Distrust, Dislike, Disdain, Disgust, Hatred and Loathing. PRODUCTION The PRODUCTION report will display a graph in the info screen showing the percentage of cities which are producing for each player. Only your cities are identified on the Strategic Map. White cities are producing in situ. Yellow cities are producing at another location. Red cities are not producing at all. WINNING The WINNING report will display a graph in the info screen showing how well each player is performing at the moment. 4.3.5 Game Features These actions are activated from either the ABOUT, GAME or TURN lines in the Menu Strip. ABOUT The ABOUT action will give you some brief information about the game and its designers. Click the mouse button to get past it. OBSERVE ON/OFF The OBSERVE ON action allows you to watch the operations of all other players. Turning it off will speed up the time taken for the computer to complete the operations of the other players. SOUND ON/OFF Switch the sound on or off to suit yourself. LOAD The LOAD action will allow you to reload a previously saved game. SAVE The SAVE action will let you save a game, so that it can be resumed at a later time. QUIT The QUIT action is used to exit Warlords. Just in case you change your mind, you will be prompted first. END TURN When you have finished all operations for one turn, issue the END TURN action. You must use the action to end a turn! AUTO CENTRE This action is not found on any of the menus. It will display your currently selected army in the centre of the Playing Screen. Hit the SPACE BAR to call this action, or click on the Centre (Ctr) icon in the Command Bar. 5. Armies 5.1 Introduction to Armies. Armies play a very large part in Warlords. Without them you could not take over cities, or defend yourself from your marauding opponents. There are three main types of armies; ordinary armies such as infantry and cavalry, special armies such as dragons and wizards, and heroes. A complete list and description of all sixteen army types appears in the Appendix. 5.2 Stacking Up to eight armies may be in the same location at the same time. This will be indicated by the length and location of the army flags. The first four armies in a stack are indicated by the increasing length of the top flag. A fifth army is indicated by a short bottom flag, and a short top flag. Thereafter, the sixth, seventh and eighth armies of the stack are indicated by the increasing length again of the top flag. Thus, stacks with four or less armies have only one flag, those with five or more have two. Armies at a location need not be of the same type; for instance you could have one cavalry, one giant, a dragon and a hero. However, a stack will move at the speed of the slowest army for each particular terrain type encountered. If a terrain type is prohibited for any unit in a stack, then the whole stack will be prevented from entering. 5.3 Army Info When an army is selected, information about it will be displayed on the info screen: Name - The name of the owner; i.e you. Strength - The number of strength points that a single unit has. This is on a scale from one to nine, where one is very weak and nine is very tough. Movement - The number of movement points that the unit has remaining. Army Identity - The name of the unit (e. g. "Sirian 3rd Marthos Cavalry"). 5.4 Getting Armies There are sixteen different types of army, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. There are three different ways of getting these armies: production, alliance and hiring. Production means actually training an army in a city. Production is used to get ordinary armies. Ordinary armies are Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Elvan Archers, Giant Warriors, Dwarven Legions, Cavalry, Wolf-riders, Navies, Pegasi and Griffins. In the Appendix you will find a table which lists which cities produce which armies and the ratings of those armies. Alliances are made when a hero searches a special location (a temple or a ruin) and discovers some creatures that wish to join him. Alliances are made with special armies. Special Armies are Wizards, Undead, Demons, Devils and Dragons. Heroes in Warlords are all hired swords. From time to time a hero will turn up in one of your cities and offer himself for employment. He will quote a sum in cash, paid in advance, (it's a risky business) and you may accept or reject his offer. The more heroes you have on the pay-roll at the time, the higher the asking price is likely to be. The only exception to this is the hero who starts the game on the first turn, and comes free of charge. Heroes who are hired may bring allies with them as well. 6. Playing the Game 6.1 Starting Conditions All players, computer and human, begin Warlords in similar circumstances. You will have one city (your capital), and a hero, whose name you will be prompted for. You will also have an amount of money, but this varies between the players; for instance, Dwarves will have much treasure, and the Giants little. 6.2 A Sample Turn Any turn in Warlords can be broken down into the following parts. (1). At the very beginning of your turn a fanfare will sound; you must click the left button or hit any key to continue. (2). If a hero offers himself for employment this turn, you will be informed. If you accept his offer you will be prompted to name him. (3). You will be told about any armies that have been produced this turn. You will be shown on the map screen where they were produced (the city will be highlighted), and then asked whether you wish to keep producing these units at that location. Click on YES or NO accordingly. The END REPORT button skips the production reports for the rest of the turn. (4). You will receive your money for this turn, and you will be told if you have run out of money. For more details on money see Chapter 7. (5). This is the main part of the turn. All the commands from Chapter 4 are available to you here. Most of the turn, however, you will be doing three things - (a). Giving production orders (see Chapter 8) (b). Moving armies (see Chapter 9) (c). Attacking enemies (see Chapter 10) (6). Lastly, you must end your turn. Do this by issuing the END TURN command from the turn menu. (7). Before your next turn begins, all other players must move. If any players attack you, you will be shown the combat and its results. After this, the fanfare will sound and you are ready to begin play again. 7. Money 7.1 Income and Expenditure In Warlords, you are controlling an empire, and just like a real empire, there is never enough money. How do you get money? There is basically one solution, capture cities. You start the game with some gold, but after this, almost all gold is generated by cities. Any towers you control will also bring a small (very small) amount of cash. Each city has an income associated with it, which represents trade and taxes. You can find out this income by clicking on a city. If you own a city, its income will be added to your tally of gold at the beginning of every turn. Thus, if you owned three cities generating 20 gp, 25 gp and 28 gp respectively (where gp stands for gold pieces), you would receive 73 gp at the start of your turn. You can see your total income at the start of each turn. An Empire's treasury is considered to be distributed equally amongst all of its cities. If a city is captured, the Empire loses a proportional amount of its total treasury. Half of this money goes to the Empire that captured the city; the other half is considered to be liberated by the troops that did the pillaging! Sages can also reward questing heroes with money, as well as information. Where does the money go? Chiefly the money goes to supporting your troops, although you must also pay to produce them. It costs half as much to support an army each turn as it did to produce it; thus if it costs 4 gp to produce a unit of heavy infantry, it will cost 2 gp to support it every turn (for more information on production costs, see Chapter 8). Money may also be spent on building towers, increasing city defences and hiring heroes. 7.2 Lack of Money Lack of money is a very serious problem. This is not often the case early in the game, but as your empire expands, you may find it has grown too fast! Without money you cannot build troops, thus you cannot defend your borders when they become weak. More importantly, you cannot defend your interior from sudden incursions by the enemy. If you are in a deficit situation, you must take action immediately. Disbanding troops will save a lot of money, and is often the only way out. 8.0 Production 8.1 Description of Production Production is the training, recruiting and building of armies to prepare them for battle. Chapter 4 has already described the PRODUCTION command, but here is a slightly more detailed look at producing armies. Each city may produce one army at a time, or it may choose to produce nothing. Each of the eighty cities in the lands of Illuria has different armies that it can produce, with each army having individual statistics. For instance, the cavalry produced by Enmouth move faster than the heavily armoured cavalry produced by the Sirians in Marthos. Once you are in PRODUCTION mode and you have clicked on a city, you will see production information for that city appear in the info screen. On the left you will see up to four entries that look like this. X 3t / 4 gp This indicates that an army of heavy infantry will cost 4 gp to produce, and will be ready in three turns (3t). As indicated in Chapter 7, this army will then cost half of 4 gp (i.e. 2 gp) to support every turn. Clicking on the army and then on the PROD button will cost you 4 gp and will begin production for you. Clicking on the LOC button instead of the PROD button will cost you the same, except that you will now be able to click on a different city where the army will appear when produced! The unit will be produced in the same number of turns, but will then take an extra two turns in administrative movement to reach the nominated city. Below the Production buttons on the right of the Info Screen is one of three messages. Current: X 5t This message tells you that the city is producing a heavy infantry army, and that it will be ready in five more turns (5t). Current: None This message tells you that the city is not producing anything. Current: X 3t - Loc This message tells you that the city is producing a heavy infantry army which will be ready in three turns and will appear in another city! If you look at the map screen, that city will be highlighted. This is the result of using the LOC action instead of the PROD action. To leave a city without altering its production, click on the EXIT button. You will be returned to the normal mode of play and nothing will be changed. Clicking on the STOP button will stop a city producing the army shown in CURRENT, and return you to normal mode. If no army is currently being produced, STOP will just return you to the normal mode. Produced armies are given to you at the beginning of your turn. The city where they are being produced will be highlighted in white on the map screen, and a message will appear in the info screen such as. Enmouth 3rd Cavalry Produced! Keep Producing These? The options YES and NO appear beneath these messages. To keep a city producing its current army, click on the YES button. This automatically deducts the cost of production from your gold and starts producing the next army. Clicking on the NO button will stop the city producing another one of these armies. It will now be producing nothing. The production message may also read something like. Enmouth 3rd Cavalry > Kazrack Keep Producing These? This means that the Enmouth 3rd Cavalry has been produced for Kazrack, and will appear at that city in two turns. When that happens you will get the message. Enmouth 3rd Cavalry reaches Kazrack 9. Moving 9.1 Movement Points In order for an army to move in Warlords it must have enough movement points to get to its new location. Movement points might be better described as "potential for movement". In other words, they indicate how far an army can move in one turn. A unit of heavy infantry has low movement points; a unit of cavalry has high movement points since it is on horseback. Different types of units will have different movement points. Even units of the same type may have slightly different movement points; for instance the Pegasi of Elvallie have more movement points than the Pegasi of Loremark. Different types of terrain will use up different amounts of movement points. Roads are easy to travel along, and thus generally use less movement points than a forest. Some units find it easier than others to move in some terrain, and so their movement costs will be different. For example, it is far easier for an Elf to move through the forest than a Dwarf. Each turn a unit will regenerate its movement points. If it had any left over last turn, a few these may also carry over to the new turn. The following table shows the movement point costs for the different types of armies. 9.2 Illegal Moves An army may never move into any of the following places. (1). Any terrain type marked as forbidden for that unit type. (2). Off the edge of the Strategic Map. (3). Onto an enemy army, or into an enemy or neutral city. These locations must be fought for rather than moved into. (4). Onto or through one or more of your own armies if that would result in more than eight armies in that location. 9.3 Movement in Stacks When armies move in a stack, they have as many movement points as the slowest army (i.e. the one with the least points), and they also use the movement cost of the army with the highest cost for each terrain type entered. There are exceptions to this rule. A Hero may travel with any army using that Army's movement cost. Thus Dragons may fly a hero over mountains; they will not get their full eighteen movement points though, only the Hero's twelve. A Navy may transport up to seven land-based units over the water. The Navy ignores the movement points of the armies it carries, and moves as if it were empty. 10. Attacking 10.1 Description of Attacking Attacking is defined as the act of trying to physically destroy an enemy army (or stack) by moving one or more of your armies into the same location as the enemy. Attacking costs two movement points. You cannot attack with less than this number remaining. As explained in Chapter 9, you cannot move onto or through an enemy army, you must fight it. Attacking is also the only way of capturing cities. If you attack an enemy city and all of the enemy Armies are destroyed, or none were present, then you will have captured that city. 10.2 Strength Points Every Army has a number of strength points. This is an indication of how well that unit fights; for example a unit of Light Infantry will generally rate about three points, Cavalry will rate about six points, while Dragons will often rate nine points. When two armies attack one another, these attack points will be compared to see who wins. An army's attack points are displayed in the Info Screen when that army is selected (by itself, not in a stack). Armies fight much better when in groups, but be warned; even four heavy infantry armies each of strength five will find it tough going against one army of dragons with nine strength points. In other words, the combat system favours quality of army more than it does quantity. Be warned, however, the lowliest light infantryman is capable of destroying the fiercest dragon! Just don't count on it. 10.3 Attacking Cities There are two distinct cases when attacking cities: enemy cities and neutral cities. Both types have defence points. These are a measure of how good the city's defences are; e. g. how strong and high the walls are. The defence points are on a scale from one to nine, and the higher the city's defence, the harder it will be to capture it. Defence can be increased at any time with the BUILD command (and enough gold). When attacking enemy cities, it is necessary to defeat all enemy troops within that city. Attacking any portion of a city involves all troops that are located in that city. Thus, although you can only attack with a maximum of eight armies at any one time, the enemy can defend with up to thirty-two armies. Nevertheless, they will soon be worn down if enough groups of eight attack. (Or starved out; huge garrisons eat up vast quantities of gold and a player who tries to maximise his garrisons everywhere will soon be in the poor-house.) Neutral cities are different. They fly a grey flag and have a poorly committed garrison inside (usually!). Whenever you attack a neutral city, there is a chance that it will fall, and a chance your army will be killed. You can increase the odds in your favour by improving the quality and the number of your troops. A Hero or other high class army on its own will usually prevail over a neutral city. 10.4 How the Combat System Works A full explanation of the combat mechanics is provided in the Appendix. You don't need to know all these details to play the game, but a glance through them will give you a good idea of the combat bonuses available and the value of A-Team stacks to take out particular objectives. In general, you should be aware that combat bonuses are available for stacks which include flying armies (Pegasi, griffins or dragons), special armies (undead, wizards, etc.), and heroes. Further bonuses are awarded to heroes who possess Battle or Command Artefacts (see Chapter 11). Cities and towers aid defence while certain terrain types can help (or sometimes hinder) the different army types. A typical A-Team stack could consist of one hero (with Battle and Command Artefacts), one wizard, one or two griffins and four or five giant warriors. You will do plenty of damage with these dudes before their luck runs out! 11. Searching and Items 11.1 Description of Searching In general, searching is performed by a Hero, either on his own or in a stack. Searching is done for a variety of reasons which are described below, but largely it is done at special locations to find either items, allies, information or gain some other advantage for that hero. It is not easy, however, for many of these ruins and temples are infested by fearsome monsters, which must be slain before the ruin can be searched. Searching at one of these locations will cost the hero all his remaining movement points for that turn. For a description of the SEARCH action see Chapter 4 To get info on a special location, just click on that location. The status value tells you what is there: Healers, Sages, or Libraries, or whether it is explored or unexplored. If status says explored, then another Hero has already been here. If it reads unexplored, then there are still monsters and other things in that location. 11.2 Possibilities of Searching The larger buildings which heroes are able to search contain healers, sages and libraries. The smaller buildings generally contain monsters and treasures, although Allies may be found there also. 11.3 Description of Items Items are either used for increasing a hero's strength in combat (Battle items), or for increasing his leadership abilities (Command Items). There are fourteen such powerful items in the lands of Illuria, many far stronger than others, all of which are listed below. 11.3.1 Battle Artefacts of Moderate Power (+1) The Firesword, The Icesword, The Spear of Ank 11.3.2 Battle Artefacts of Considerable Power (+2) The Lightsword, The Darksword, The Bow of Eldros 11.3.3 Battle Artefact of Supreme Power (+3) The Staff of Might 11.3.4 Command Artefacts of Moderate Power (+1) The Crown of Loriel, The Sceptre of Loriel, The Orb of Loriel, The Crimson Banner 11.3.5 Command Artefacts of Considerable Power (+2) The Ring of Power, The Horn of Ages 11.3.6 Command Artefacts of Supreme Power (+3) The Staff of Ruling 11.4 Actions Relating to Artefacts There are five actions related to artefacts; search, take, drop, find and inventory. They are discussed in Chapter 4. 11.5 Libraries There are two libraries in Illuria; one on the island in the middle of Lake Hithil, and the other in the north west corner by the Mindanuin Wasteland. If a hero searches at a library, it will cost all his remaining movement points. Unlike a sage, searching here costs no gold, but you are not guarantied to find out anything useful. You will either discover the whereabouts of an item or a monster, alternatively you may just find a piece of ancient wisdom. 11.6 Sages There are two sages in Illuria. One is in the middle of the Plain of Dragons, over the Illonne Mountains. The other is on the banks of the River Rapid, hidden away in the mountains. Sages will provide accurate information if you SEARCH there, but first must be reached (they are both in strange places). You can question them on the locations of items, and the inhabitants of any special locations. Sages will reward the first seeker after knowledge to reach them. 11.7 Blessing Blessing is available at any of the four temples, distributed through the lands of Illuria. This is not only for heroes, but for any army unit which can reach a temple. Simply move the units (in a group if there are more than one) to the temple, and then SEARCH. This takes all remaining movement points and every unit will be Blessed. This will raise its strength by one. Blessings at the different Temples are cumulative in effect, up to the maximum strength of nine. The computer knows which armies have been blessed at which temples, so it's no good trying to overdose on religion! 12. HOW TO WIN These remarks on how to win assume that you are playing against computer Warlords. Lesser computer opponents (and most humans) are far more forgiving. The start of the game is a race to control as many neutral castles as you can. Send your Hero out to get as many as possible, get each captured castle to make the troop type that is quickest to manufacture, and get those troops out fighting as well. If you have selected high level computer opponents, you will notice them doing the same thing. After the conquest of the neutrals, it is time to take stock of the situation. As a single player you will face up to seven potential foes. It is therefore an absolute necessity to determine how your potential enemies feel about you. Use the Hatreds command frequently to check out the diplomatic climate. Enemies who hate or loathe you will be trying to do something about it. If they are close, you should consider trying to eliminate them completely. If they are far away, just keep a close eye on them. There is nothing that you can do to improve relations with other players. On the other hand, taking a city from a player will definitely cause relations to deteriorate. Therefore, you should not attack computer players unless you have a good reason to do so. Since an attack in any force is bound to leave an opponent hating you anyway, an attack should aim for total annihilation of your opponent. It also follows that if an opponent who is not your current target and who doesn't hate you takes one of your cities, it may be better to let him have it for the moment. He is probably just on his way to attack someone else. As well as diplomatic questions, many of your problems will be monetary. Each unit costs half its purchase price each turn in maintenance. The temptation will be to maintain strong forces in all parts of your empire. This will be very expensive, possibly ruinously so. As a rule of thumb, a garrison of four Light Infantry or their equivalent will be sufficient. It won't stop a determined attack, but will guard against cheap attacks. Obviously, castles in the front line will need more by way of defences. You will also have to look to the state of the walls. Each time a siege is successful, the castle defence factor is lowered by one. If the factor gets below 3, the castle will not provide much of a bonus, and consideration should be given to building it up, expensive though this will be. Serious sieges will require a lot of planning. Use the production vectoring capacity to quickly build up forces at a jumping-off point. If your target is heavily defended, you will probably need several waves of attackers to finish the job. All except the last attack wave in a successful siege will die, so make sure you have plenty of cannon fodder. Commit your crack troops only when you are certain of victory. Although it's generally a good idea to keep stacks homogeneous, the addition of certain units can provide advantages to lesser troops. Blessing is also very useful, especially if done more than once, and heroes with magic items can also make a big difference. Your Heroes should be sent out to gather as many magic items as possible. Some will die along the way, but Heroes can gather items, info, allies and money, so they should always have something to do. If you see an enemy hero alone or lightly defended, consider an ambush. You never know what he will be carrying! 13. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Here is a brief summary of the various Empires in the Kingdom of Illuria. Lord Bane Slow and Safe It is unlikely that you will have any cause for computers to hate you due to your isolation. A steady build-up and a careful look around you will determine the best way to approach the conquest of Illuria. The Orcs of Kor, the Horse Lords and the Dwarves are your most likely opponents. The Selentines Lords of the North-West The main objective is to seal off the north-west corner of the Kingdom as quickly as possible. The key cities in the forest must be taken quickly and flying horses (Pegasi) can be used to capture the island. Care must be taken to stop any incursions from the Dwarves and the Horse Lords. The Dwarves Take to the Hills Expand. Fast. In all directions, looking for opportunities as they arise. A lightning thrust on the Horse Lords may see you with one less opponent. No matter what, you will end up with enemies on all sides but you have the men (dwarves?) to handle the situation. The Horse Lords Fast and Loose You have horses, use them. Send them north and south. Make all the cities around Deephallow yours while at the same time striking south to Ilnyr. No matter how peaceable you'd like to be, your position is certain to arouse the ire of your neighbours. Get stuck into the Grey Dwarves from the start. Orcs of Kor Ideal Real Estate A quick expansion with an eye to the north, west and south will set you up in a strong position. You have to go north to curtail Lord Bane's expansion and then south until you run into either the Sirians or the Elvallie. Don't start s fight with more than one of these three opponents. Storm Giants Slow and Tough It is very hard with your two-turn men to get quickly a sizeable empire. Go for the cities to the north, west and south where there is unlikely to be any opposition. Build a powerful base before striking out. The Elvallie are your most dangerous foe and all things being equal you should attempt to knock them over first. Elvallie Learn to Hate You really have to go out and grab everything you can, even if this causes others to hate you (they will anyway). Take opportunities as they present themselves and look for the quick demise to the Sirians or the Storm Giants. Get all the forest cities first. Sirians Down and Dirty With the Orcs on one side, the Elves on the other and with no friends in the world you face the hard realities of life. A bit of luck and auspicious diplomatic conjunctions and you could be on a winner. Go for either the horse cities to the north, or the area to the east, of even both if you can. When you can win the game against seven computer Warlords as the Sirian, then consider yourself a Warlord par Excellence. 14. SURRENDER In games where one human player is fighting seven computer opponents, the surviving computer players will attempt to surrender if the human player has more than 40 cities and the most powerful computer player is not within 15 cities of this number. If you accept the surrender play will proceed to the victory ceremony. If you refuse to accept the surrender, play will continue to the bitter end. In desperation, the remaining computer players will band together until the human player is annihilated or until they perish from the face of the earth. 15. DESIGN CREDITS Original Design and Amiga Programming - Steve Fawkner Artificial Intelligence Design and Programming - Roger Keating IBM Development and Programming - Stephen Hart Production Co-Ordinator and Additional Development - Gregor Whiley IBM Utilities - Simon Hayes Computer Art - Graeme Whittle Sleeve Art - Nick Stathopoulos Game Testing - Janeen Andrews, Richard Simpson, Mark Hill, Tim Wakeman, Karl-Peter Baum, Andrew Taubman, Rowan Keating, Tim Reichelt, Alex Shaw, Anthony Pearson and Ian "Orc-lover" Trout