2. Point of entry:
The player has severe financial problems, which
means that he first must collect some money. There are
several possibilities:
-Trade
-Attack caravans
-Conquer towns and plunder the treasuries
-Search for raw materials, find and exploit
-find the kings treasures
-Gamble in the casino
3. Description of the program's user surface
On each screen, there is an information bar and an
options menu.
notices, (e.g. the coordinates of an island).
Buying: Serves to buy combination with buying or
selling, i.e. all possible articles are bought or sold.
Position of the switch is visible on the mouse pointer.
Switch off by clicking on MAXIMUM again.
Door: Serves in most cases to leave special situations
or places.
OK: To answer a question, player clicks on here, if
the question shall be answered with a "yes" (e.g. Enter
Town XYZ ?).
Retreat: Serves to call back the selection unit in the
fighting screen.
Attack: Make unit attack in the fighting screen.
Otherwise attack in general (e.g. of a town, bankor a
castle) .
Increase: Serves to adjust the speed in the fighting
screen, in which the fight takes places. Also a
possibility while adjusting the money value during
NEGOTIATIONS ( see below)
Search: Send out scouts to search for raw materials or
treasure.
Restore: Serves to restore a saved game. Only possible
in a town.
Town information: Give you information about the town
you are in.
Sell: With this function, the player can sell his
goods. Also in connection with MAXIMUN.
More goods: Helps you to ssearch inside the WAREHOUSE.
Treasure: Shows you the known coordinates of a treasure
visually.
Not Okay: Like OKAY, helps you to answer question. Here
it serves as a negation.
Negotiations: During the fight you can make negotiations
to avoid an armed conflict whenever possible.
Decrease: Opposite of INCREASE.
Mine" You can open a mine.
Furthermore, there is as information field in the center
of the menu, in which you can adjust or read special
things. There is also a green button in the upper left
corner of the field,. which makes the field rotate.
Synchronization and effects can be switched on and off
here.
4. Program parts
The program can be divided up into three parts:
Landscape, Town and Fight.
4.1 Landscape
In the landscape, the player can ride from one town to
the other, open mines and find treasures. You have
to pay attention to the fact that the player cannot
ride over mountains. If the player is accompanied by
an army, he has to make sure his soldiers receive
their money on the first day of each month. The player
therefore always should have enough money with him, so
that he can pay for his army. The money which the
player has on his account cannot be used for paying
the soldiers' wages.
Furthermore, there are two dangerous places for the
army:
a. On the one hand the swamp, in which the
players army sinks when he does have enough magicians
with him who protect his army. Each magician is able
to protect about 100 soldiers in the swamp.
b. The same goes for the enchanted forest, except
for the fact that each magician can only protect 50
soldiers.
When he crosses the landscape, the player further must
consider the fact that there are also some caravans
travelling around and that he could possibly bump into
these.
The player has the possibility of finding the enemy
armies. This depends on the number of scouts the
player takes with him. The more scouts he has, the
bigger the radius in which he can see his enemies.
During the search radius decreases, as the search for
these goods is much more difficult than the search for
armies.
But look out! During the search for raw materials or
treasures, the player can no longer move his army as
he has to wait for the scouts. Moreover, he is not
able to see his enemies, as the scouts are being used
elsewhere and can no longer enlighten the enemy's
territory.
If it should come to a fight during a phase of
searching, the scouts are also not at player's
disposal. The player should nevertheless keep in mind
that the scout's wages must be paid.
If the player is lucky enough to find a treasure or
raw materials, he must open a mine To do that, he
needs a capital of 30000 and a transportation system
can be bought in the warehouse under the designation
"machine".
With the money and the machine, the player can open a
mine (by going to the place chosen by the scouts and
select the function "MINES").
If he has not exactly hit the place named by the
scouts, it is possible that he missed the raw
materials reserves. In this case, the mine reveals
soil and waste. If the player should now get the idea
of filling his wagons with soil and waste, If the
player should get the corresponding number of wagons,
as nobody will be ready to buy the waste from him.
But if he has found a raw material, the will reaveal
this material incressantly, until the space in the
storehouse is filled or the reserves are exhaust ed.
Each storehouse has room for 300 units of any raw
material. The player has the possibility of building
more storehouses, which would of course result in
further costs. But the mine would be ready to reveal
raw materials for a longer time. Moreover, the player
does not need to fetch the raw materials as often
anymore, as the production will not have to be ceased
because of the overfilled storehouses so soon.
It is also possible for the player, if he has more
machines with him, to build up too 3 conveyor towers
per mine. This has the advantage of increasing the
amount of the haulage.
As the player is only allowed to own a maximum of 20
mines at one time (because of the danger of a
monopoly), he must under all circumstances close
exhausted mines, when he wants to open new ones.
If the player finds a treasure and wants to take it,
he needs, like the mine opening,30000 capital and a
transport system. In a treasure, there can be a ring
but also a certain amount of money. Both are surely
helpful to win the game.
Concerning the treasure, one can say the following
things:
On the big continent, 2 of the searched rings are
hidden in the treasures. 2 more rings are in treasures
on the islands and another ring is hidden among an
army which is to be defeated.
4.2 The Town
In town every player can buy or sell goods, gamble in
the casino, buy armies, go to the bank and so on. All
players options are placed in separate, single houses.
If you want to enter a house, you just have to click
on the appropriate house.
In general it is an operation. A player can compare
prices and make decisions because the clock is
stopped.
The Harbor
The harbor can just be found in towns situated at the
sea or at rivers. Here the player can do everything
concerning a message, so that he can pick it up in the
town where it has been built.
Before he can go to sea with this ship he has to
enlist sailors who steer the ship.
The player has to enter the pub and enlist the sailors
by offering money. The more money he offers the more
sailors will be interested in the job.
"Wages/month" are placed on the left hand of the
screen. By clicking the mouse pointer to the top or to
the bottom the given value can be changed. Underneath
the player can see how many people are interested in
the bid. If the player offers 20 per month, for
example, there might be five people who are
interested. If he enlist these five people, he has to
pay 100 per month. If he offers again 20 per month
there will be no one interested, because every who
wanted to work for 20 per month is already
enlisted. The wages have to be raised to 25 per
month,for example. Then there might be a new sailor
who is interested in the jobs. If the player has not
enlisted the sailors for 20 per month, these sailors
would be interested in the jobs further on. It is
important that the player only enlist 3 of 7
interested sailors for a wage and then raise or lower
the wage, or even leaves the pub, so that the
remaining sailors are disappointed and leave the pub
themselves. This means that they not to be enlisted
anymore.
On the right side of the printed form you can see how
many sailors are needed.>>NEEDED<<. From<<wages>> you
know how much you have to pay for the chosen ship per
month.
The store:
Here the player can buy or sell goods. On the left
hand side of the screen you can see the price and
quantity. On the right hand side you can see your own
cargo.
The player can adjust the quantity of the goods in the
middle of the screen so you can buy or sell the
articles. The player of the articles always think
about the maximum function.
The price of the articles are calculated by the single
number of citizens, which is unstable. If there is a
huge population in this town at the moment, the prices
are very high, because the demand is according to the
population. At the same time the production of goods
in this town is at its maximum. You're able to look at
the momentary population of the city information. In
addition to that, there are differences of prices from
town to town.
Example: If city X produces apples, this is the city
where apples are cheaper than in any other town. In
city Y, which could be far away, the apples are
expensive < the further away the city, the more
expensive>. In the store there is also a chart of the
loading capacity of each means of transportation, like
in the harbor.
Bank:
In the bank the player can make his money
transactions. There's just one bank system in the
whole kingdom, one office in every town. If the
player pays in money on a bank of town X, he can
withdraw it in every other town. The player can pay in
or withdraw money on his account and he can take a
credit.
In the beginning, the bank offers an initial starting
loan of 3000. If the player takes just a part of the
loan he has no claim to the rest of the loan. The
player has to pay the interest, of course. He'll see
the amount of interest in each banks business rates
and conditions. He has to pay interest on his bank
account and loans. Caution: The local traders at the
store support the bank. The player won't get his goods
from the traders if he doesn't pay the loans ( but he
can buy with credit for 3 months until the traders
stop business with him). He should go to the bank
immediately and pay back the loan.
The bank decides if he is worthy of a credit. He has
to have an appropriate equivalent of goods; money is
not an equivalent in this case. He can look at the
respective credit margin at "credit scope."
The Park:
The player can buy soldiers for his army in the park
but he has to observe several things. The army is
subdivided into 7 parts: Infantry, cavalry, artillery,
scouts, dragonriders, wizards and archers. Every unit
has advantages and disadvantages which depend upon the
fighting ground. For example, the dragonriders are
very good in the swamp because they are able to fly;
the other units would sink.
On the other hand, the dragonriders are bad in the
forest. They can't reach and fight the infantry on
ground because of the dense forest. The selection of
races is also very important for the strength of the
army selected for the units. If the player takes the
huge and clumbsy giants as his scouts, they won't
achieve as much as the little and agile elves.
There are 10 races and 5 qualities each and every race
has to a certain degree:
100 means maximum,0 minimum
Strength Courage Endurance Agility Intelligence
Human 50 50 50 50 50
Elf 40 37 28 75 70
Dwarf 64 67 81 22 17
Halfling 34 24 42 92 58
Orc 79 33 75 44 19
Gnome 16 33 26 89 86
Giant 99 27 91 19 14
Troll 92 32 87 21 18
Ogre 85 39 79 31 16
Zwark 18 40 32 81 79
This next chart shows which qualities are important for
each unit (e.g. scouts don't have to strong, but they have
to clever):
1 is not important, 5 is very important
Strength Courage Endurance Agility Intelligence
Infantry 5 5 5 1 1
Cavalry 1 5 1 5 3
Artillery 1 5 1 3 5
Scout 1 1 5 5 5
Dragonriders 3 5 3 3 3
Magicians 1 1 1 5 5
Archers 1 5 3 5 3
The following chart clarifies what unit is best for
different scenarios ( the higher the value the better
unit):
Plain Forest Magic forest Hill Swamp
Infantry 10 10 5 8 8
Calvary 20 5 3 15 3
Artillery 10 3 1 15 1
Scout 8 20 8 15 15
Dragonrider 20 3 1 20 20
Magicians 8 10 20 15 20
Archers 20 3 1 10 8
The player should attempt to put the correct race with the
correct unit, otherwise the strength of the army decreases
There is just a limited number of available people in
every town. The young must grow up before they are able to
fight. So it is possible that the people of one race are
not available yet. In the " TOWN INFORMATION" you can see
how people are available.
In the park, the player discovers how much money he has to
pay for his armies and sailors each month ( total wages ).
He can see the salary of a unit for each month.
Underneath that he finds the chart of the composition
condition of the army which consists of the respective
races. This training condition determines the power of the
army. The training condition can be improved by training
in the castles.
Training:
The training happens only in castles. Here every part of
the army can be trained for different criteria. The
training costs money but it's worth it. The functions are
the same as in the store.
Weapons:
Here the player is able to equip his army with additional
weapons, in order to increase the fighting strength of the
units. He can purchase armours, weapons and other
equipment is much weaker than a perfectly equipped one.
Palace:
The player is only able to enter the palace when he is
attacked and conquered the plunder the treasury, i.e.
collect the peoples taxes. The taxes depend upon the total
city population.
Barracks:
The player is only allowed to enter the barracks when he
possesses a town. If he has taken a town, the other
caravans strive for the reconquest of this town. Therefore
the player should leave a part of his army in the
barracks, as as reinforcement for his newly conquered
town. The screen is again separated into halves. On the
left there is your own army, on the right, the town army.
Now you can transfer parts of your army to and fro. On the
right edge of the screen there are several beams which
describe the time delay after which the corresponding unit
joins the fighting when the town gets attacked. In this
way, the player can order his people to a defense plan of
the town, by setting up a strategy for the people's
action. It is, for example, wise for the artillery to
start shooting at once after an attack by the enemy. The
dragonriders should probably start a little bit later to
reach the enemy lines together with the infantry. The
further to the left the beam appears on the display, the
earlier the corresponding units start the fighting. When
the beam is on the far right side. The player's army waits
for the enemy attack. To develop a good fighting strategy,
it is useful to analyse the computer opponent and possibly
to go ahead in a similar way ( very difficult).
Stable:
In the stable, the player can purchase transportation for
his goods. A complete set consists of two horses and a
wagon. Each provides room for a maximum of 80 goods. The
user's control is the same as in the "store".
Pub:
Inside the pub, the player has a possibility of playing a
card game similar to "Black Jack".
The rules are as follows:
Ace (A)=11 Queen (D)=3 Ten =10 Eight= 8
King (K)= 4 Jack (B)=2 Nine= 9 Seven= 7
Double aces always wins.
Before taking a card, the player must place his bet. The
player has won when he has more points than the computer,
but not more than 21 ( the only exceptions are two Aces,
which always win). To reach that, he may take as many
cards as he likes. Should there be a equality of points,
the computer wins. The player always begins. He takes a
card by selecting from the stack of cards. If he thinks
that he has enough points, he must select the cancelled
deck of cards. He can decide the amount of his bet by
clicking on coins of different values. In case of a
victory, the player gets back twice the amount of his bet,
If he loses, his money goes to the bank. If he wants to
leave the pub, he must click on the door in the lower
right corner.
Temple:
In the temple, the player receives information about the
treasures, which is situated in the corresponding part of
the country. Unfortunately, the priests inside each temple
do not know the exact location of the treasure. Therefore,
you will only hear rumors about the possible location. The
actual place can sometimes differ considerably from the
named one. You will also just receive one geographical
coordinate. You can get two or more coordinates by
conquering another town inside the same part of the
screen. The player will get to know about this town in the
connected temple.
The player's second possibility of finding a treasure is
to find a big area with one coordinate and to search
through this area with his scouts.
If he has received all three coordinates, they will form a
triangle, with a treasure lying in the inner field. The
more coordinates you receive, the smaller the vicinity
search.
Furthermore, the player can get information about his
status in the temple, i.e. he receives information about
how many rings he has already and how many mines, ships
etc. he owns
He must also set the found rings in a five pronged star
inside the temple of his choice ( simply click on an empty
space). With every ring the player sets in the temple, he
will receive magic skills:
1st ring:
The player gets a display of his own strength
and the strength of the opponets's army during a fight.
Therefore, it is easier to find a strategy, as the player
can now see which unit is currently strong.
2nd ring:
The player gets to know which goods are produced in
which town. Therefore he also knows where to get which
product at the cheapest prices. This information is
displayed in the corresponding "TOWN INFORMATION". with
that, his trading becomes much more efficient.
3rd ring:
The player does not need any more scouts to explore the
surrounding country, i.e. he can see all enemies, not
depending on the distance and the number of the scouts he
has around him. Therefore traveling from town to town is
not as dangerous.
4th ring:
The strength of the player's army is increased by 50%,
i.e., his army is now 50% stronger than before. This is
very useful for the final fight against Medusa.
5th ring:
As soon as he sets in the fifth ring, the player calls
Medusa, who now accepts the final fight.
Jeweler:
Here the player can sell the precious raw materials which
he excavated in his mines. There are considerable price
differences. It is not useful to sell right beside the
mine, as the prices will be very low. The player should
instead transport the raw materials to a place where it is
not possible to find them. He cannot trade with raw
materials,i.e. they cannot be bought, just sold. Once
again, all adjustments are done like in the "STORE".
4.3 Castle:
Besides the towns there are also a few castles, which
all have the same purpose of educating the player's army
and to improve his state of training. To get inside a
castle, it must be attacked or conquered.
5.0 The palyer's army can fight against opposing armies,
ships, castles or towns.
Therefore, the following configurations are possible:
5.1 Fight Army <-> Army
If you bump into an opponet's figure with your own
figure, it comes to a fight between the two parties. The
player's army is on the left side, the opponent's on the
right side. Unfortunately, the number of soldiers the
opponent owns is not known. Because of that, you get asked
at the beginning whether you want to send out your scouts
to learn about the opponent's strength. This cost a lot of
money, but it is well worth the engagement. If you do not
own any scouts, this is of course not possible. To learn
about the exact calculation of the fighting strength,
refer to the section "PARK" in this manual.
When the fighting starts, the player has two
possibilities:
1) He can send single units into the fight (select unit
and click on attack) or he can call them back (select unit
and click on retreat). During the attack, the armies start
moving forward,which the player can follow on the upper
edge of the screen. Only when units of his own army meets
units of the opponent's army, can a proper fight proceed.
The unites involved in the fight are shown in red. If
there are casualties, they depend on the players own
strength and the opponent's strength, as well as on the
number of the player's own soldiers and the opponent's
soldiers.
One exception is the artillery. If it gets the order for
an attack, it opens fire at once, which directly results
in casualties for the opponent. The same goes, of course,
for the opponent's artillery and the player's own
casualties.
The fighting continues one army has lost, i.e. has no more
people. If the player should lose the fight, he loses
everything he has with him, except his wagon.
Nevertheless, the bank is so kind to hand out the starting
loan of 3000 again. An already existing bank-account will
not be touched! If the player wins the fight, he will
receive all the money which the opponent's caravan
possesses.
2) The player avoids a fight. This happens by clicking
on the "negotiations". With the help of that, he can start
negotiations, but he has only one chance. Failed
negotiations cannot be started again. One possibility:
Either he uses a bluff and he boasts that he is the
strongest, or he bribes the opponent with money ( adjust
with "Increase" or "Decrease"). The opponent sometimes
falls for the bluff, but not always. This depends on the
opponent's own superiority.
During the bribery, the player should not be to tight with
his money. When he loses a fight, all the money will go to
the enemies anyway. The amount of the bribery also depends
on the number of the player's army and the opponent's
army.
If the player has attacked a caravan more than five times,
he is no longer able to enter the caravan's home town, as
it will no longer trade with him.
The same goes for the situation in which a player has
attacked a town directly.
5.2 Fight army <-> Town or Town<-> Army
If the player attacks a town or a castle, the same rules
apply as in 5.1 "Fight Army<->Army". Should the player
win, he takes over the town/castle.
Naturally, not every castle or town is the same size. The
size of a town or a castle can be recognized in the screen
graphics, but also in the "TOWN INFORMATION." Big towns
have of course more soldiers to defend themselves than
smaller towns.
If a player's town is attacked by an opponent's army the
player does not have any influence on the outcome. He can
only rely on his strategy (see BARRACKS) and hope that he
will win.
5.3 Fight Ship <-> Ship
If 2 ships bump into each other on the map, a sea battle
begins. In this case, the out come is dependent upon how
many canons are at the players disposal. The battleships,
of course, have an advantage over the merchantmen. The
p[layer now faces one ship representing the opponent's
fleet.
His task is now to hit this ship as often as possible.
This can be influenced by two things: the shooting angle
and the powder amount. The shooting angle can be changed
by clicking on the canon in the centre of the screen.
On the right centre of the screen , you can see a section
of the canon. First you must fill the cannon with powder,
this happens by clicking on the powders barrel on the left
side.
The powder now must be visible inside the section. The
powder must be stuffed by clicking on the stuffer on the
far left side. This action must also be visible in the
cross-section. If you want to increase the shooting
distance, the canon must be stuffed and filled with more
powder. If you have filled in enough powder, the ball
will be loaded by clicking it on. Now the canon should be
ready for shooting, which is made visible by by a fuse. If
no fuse is visible, something has been done wrong (e.g.
not stuffed etc.). But if everything has been performed
properly, he can now fir the canon by clicking on the
flame and firing the slow-match. Unfortunately, the player
has to act in a limited space of time, in which he
should try to score as many hits as possible. When the
time is over, the final results will appear on the
screen. As the player has shot with one canon as a
representative of all the canons, the number of hits is
multiplied by the number of canons. This results in the
total number of hits received by the opponent's fleet.
Each ship needs 10 hits to sink. Therefore, one can
ascertain in this way how may of his own and how many of
the opponent's ships have been sunk. If all of the
player's own ships have been sunk by the opponent, his
game is over because he drowns. If the player has
destroyed all of the opponent's ships, he receives some
money or maybe even a ring.
