Game Killer/Game_Killer.bin/424.WLREADME.DOC

Text File | 1991-01-14 | 18KB | 404 lines

INTRODUCTION
Warlords is an eight player game of the struggle for supreme
power in the fabled Kingdom of Illuria. Warlords requires
640K, VGA or EGA card and can be mouse controlled.  This is
a special limited play demo version of the game.

This demo works with 640K, VGA graphics and mouse only. The
demo version is limited to 40 turns play as a specific
player against computer opponents of varying ability. The
real game can run to hundreds of turns, and the computer
opponents can be much more powerful. The title screen and a
number of other graphics files have been ommitted to keep
the demo to a reasonable size for transmission over BBS
systems.

For more information about the game, contact Strategic
Studies Group at the adresses below.

Strategic Studies Group Inc
1747 Orleans Ct
Walnut Creek, CA 94598
USA
[phone]
Compuserve [71620,1617]

Strategic Studies Group P/L
P.O. Box 261
Drummoyne 2047
Australia
[phone]
Compuserve [72040,34]

Your objectives in Warlords are brutally simple: to
eliminate all organized 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.

STARTING THE DEMO/TUTORIAL
The demo can be run from floppy or hard disk, though hard
disk is preferred. Change to the disk or directory
containing the demo and type WARDEMO (RETURN). The demo will
start. After loading, you will see the computer players
making their first moves, then it will be your turn.

A message about the demo game will appear, click the mouse
to acknowledge. 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, elven archers at one turn/four gold pieces and
Pegasi at six turns/sixteen gold pieces. Click on the elven
archer icon and then click on the PROD button. You have just
told the castle to produce one elven archer per turn.

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, we will be a little more cautious.
Choose the End Turn action from the Turn Menu.
The computer players make their second move, then it will be
your turn. Click to start the turn. A message will announce
the arrival of the "Elvallie 1st Elven Archers", and asking
if you wish to keep producing them. Click the YES button to
keep producing your troops.The army will be added to your
Hero, making a stack of two.

An army icon, either the Hero or the 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 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. 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, Production details will appear.
Click on the Light Infantry icon and then the Prod button.
Choose the End Turn command. 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 your opponents 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 castles around
the place.  Your Heroes should also explore as many ruins
and other areas as possible, in order to find treasure,
battle artefacts or allies.

A Reminder About Stacks and Armies
It is important to realize 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.

GAME COMMANDS
This is a short explanation of the most necessary game
commands. Most functions will be self evident.

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. A small cursor will appear around the selected army.

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.

MOVE ARMIES
Once a single army or a stack has been selected, moving the
cursor around the Playing Map and click the mouse button
once at their destination. The armies will move to this
point using the most efficient route possible. You can use
the arrow keys to scroll the map.

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. 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 issue
the PRODUCTION command, click 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. 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, double
click on its picture.

To direct a city's production to another location, select
the army from the available types on the on the left, but
instead click on the LOC button. You can now click on any
other friendly city, and the army will appear there instead.
A maximum of four cities may direct their production to any
one 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.

INFORMATION
When no army is selected, and the cursor is over an empty
location, it will change to a question mark. Click the
button to give you information about that location. If you
want information about a location underneath an army, hold
down the shift key while you click.

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.

ATTACK
You can only ATTACK when you are next to an enemy army, an
enemy city, or a neutral city. Select the unit (or stack)
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 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.

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.

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, a selected army must be in the city when you
issue the RAZE command.

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. Use the dialog to choose the
item to TAKE. Note that when your Hero finds something, he
does not automatically pick it up. You must use the TAKE
action to do this.

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. Move the hero into the location to
be searched, and issue the SEARCH command.

ARMIES
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. Armies at a location need not be of the same
type. 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.

There are three different ways of getting these armies:
production, alliance and hiring. Production is used to get
ordinary armies. Ordinary armies are Light Infantry, Heavy
Infantry, Elven Archers, Giant Warriors, Dwarven Legions,
Cavalry, Wolf-riders, Navies, Pegasi and Griffins. Alliances
are made when a hero searches a special location (a temple
or a ruin) and 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.

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. 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.

The defence points of cities 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.

Neutral cities 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.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 Artifacts.
Cities and towers aid defense while certain terrain types
can help (or sometimes hinder) the different army types.

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 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!

Strategic Studies Group Inc
1747 Orleans Ct
Walnut Creek CA 94598
USA
[phone]
Compuserve [71620,1617]

Strategic Studies Group P/L
P.O. Box 261
Drummoyne 2047
[phone]
Compuserve [72040,34]