************************************************************************ LORDS & EMPIRES ************************************************************************ Lords & Empires (L&E) is a strategy game in a fantasyworld for 2-4 players. About compatibility and memory requirementsub The game is for Amiga 1200 and 4000 only. The game is hard-disk installable and needs about 1.5 Mb of free diskspace. Troubleshootingub If the game fails to load then try closing all unnecessary windows and applications such as virus-killers, cachefont the WB clock etc. If you for some reason don't use the enclosed hard-disk installer you may have forgotten to assign the disks (in which case the system will ask you to insert the game disks). Assign the disks and the game will run. How to playub The game is divided in two parts (ie. seasons); the summer and the winter season. In the summer you move your armies and conquer new land. During this process you will most likely do battle with your foes as well as with the local people unwilling to see you confiscating their land. In the winter you rearrange your forces which means recruiting new soldiers, giving them subsistance and organizing them in armies. You can also build ships and fortresses, do some diplomacy and a few other things during this period. Winning the gameub There are two ways to win the game, depending on which mode you have selected in the main menu. - "Conquest" mode: you can only win the game by defeating all of the other players. - "Quest" mode: either by defeating all of the other players or by gathering three artefacts. This by completing your quest and vanquishing the guardians of two more artefacts. When the game loads you start at the main menu: MAIN MENU --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | PLAYERS | | | | GAMETYPE Northmen START | | Southlendings | | Quest Highlanders Equal | | Conquest Easterlings Random | | | | LOAD GAME HISTORY SOUND | | Load Slot #1 INSTRUCTIONS | | DEFAULT Sound on | | ---------------------- Sound off | | QUIT TO DOS | < Selected map > | | | ---------------------- QUEST | | SIMULATED Select Map | | TORTURE Show Map Visible | | (C) 1994 START GAME Hidden | | -------------------------------------------- | | | < Selected load slot > | | | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMER SEASON During this period movement and conquering takes place, leaving the strategy to be planned in the cold days of winter. Organizing the armiesub All players receive a number of soldierpoints (SP) and baggagepoints (BP), depending on which option, "EQUAL" or "RANDOM", you have choosen in the startup menu. The minimum number of soldiers in one army is 200 and maximum is 1500. Each army can be given BP for 6 turns maximum. Without BP the army will suffer from starvation and a risk for deflection will occur. The maximum number of armies for each player is 18 at a time. SP and BP is shared between the armies in the army-organizer. Once this episode is done you have to place your armies at the game map, where the following actions of the summer season is taking place. GAME MAP --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | < GAME MAP > | | | | | | | | | | | | | |-------------------------------------------------------------------- | | |Scout Find Stats | | LORDS & EMPIRES | | | |--------------------------||Search Ashore Info | | | | | | < Infowindow > | |Raze Map End turn | --------------------------------------------------------------------- Scrolling the map There are three different ways of scrolling the map. Firstly there is the compass at the bottom of the screen. Click with the left mouse button in the appropriate direction to scroll. Alternatively you can scroll with the arrow-keys on the keyboard or by holding down the right mouse button on the borders of the map (the mouse pointer will change to point in the direction in which the map will scroll). Baggage Each army consumes a Baggagepoint(BP) during each turn. If an army starts a turn in a Village, Fortress, Oasis or a City, the local people supplies the army with baggage. Depending on its size the settlement will supply as follows. bVillage 1 Armyub bFortress 1 Armyub bCity 2 Armiesub bCapitol 4 Armiesub bOasis 5 Armiesub EXAMPLE: If there are more than one army in a location where only one army is supplied with baggage then a requester will ask which army that should be supplied. REMEMBER: Without BP the army will suffer from starvation and a risk for deflection will occur. Information window Placed in the left bottom of the screen, the info window shows the current player, month, year and the order of the participants. The order is randomized every season. Ranger Using "SEARCH" you have the possibility to find a ranger. A ranger helps an army to pass rivers, mountains and swamps without losses. The ranger stays for the rest of the summer season. Once a ranger has joined an army the army's current colourcode will be changed to brown in the info menu accompanied with an 'R'. Colour codes Colour: Status: White The army is untouched this turn Yellow The army has scouted or razed Red The army has searched or moved (no movement left) Brown The army contains a ranger Blue The army has embarked a ship Browsing the land At the beginning of the game the only explored territory is around the capitols. Explored territory is marked with the explorers heraldic shield. From now on you have to explore as much land as possible hoping to find settlements which will bring gold to your treasury. Beware though as not all of the settlements will obey your commands without battle. You may also encounter foes of other kinds such as ogres and pirates during your journey. Terrain There are different types of terrain in the game. Mostly the terrain is no obstacle for your movements, but there are exceptions. Rivers, mountains and swamps are dangerous areas to tread while others like exetremely huge mountains are impossible to force. Obviously to travel at sea you got to have a ship of some sort. Movement After activating the selected army, all the possible directions for the army to move will be lit with a dot. Press the dot in the appropriate direction. To deactivate, just press the activated army again. If there's more than one army present in the square then a requester will ask you to choose the one to be moved. A square can hold up to five armies but a ship can carry no more than one army. At sea there can be no more than one ship in each and every square. Battle As you engage in battle, you choose your tactics carefully since a poorly planned attack will suffer heavy losses. There's a possibility to choose tactics by 1-2-3 on the keyboard or the keypad, allowing you to keep your choise of tactics secret from your opponent. After the first battleround a board of results will be shown. Now the attacker have the opportunity to choose whether to re-engage in battle or not. Next, the defender will be asked the same question. A withdraw from battle might fail, in that case there will be yet another round of battle. If the withdrawal is successful, the army will be asked to select which adjacent owned square to retreat to. There's a chance the army won't have an owned square to which they may retreat, if such's the case the army will be scattered. If the battle has contained more than one of your armies, you will be asked to decide a suitable number of armies, men and baggage for the survivors. Please observe: * If you intend to launch more than one army into the battle, the attacking armies MUST be in the same square. * During naval battles there is no possibility to retreat after engaging. Income, upkeep and balance You will not win the game without an eye no the economy. It is extremely important that you balance the number of soldiers with your income form settlements. Otherwise you will end up with never ending deflections due to this matter. The upkeep is one gold coin for every 200 soldiers. The income is as follows: bVillage 1 gold bFortress 2 gold bCity 3 gold bCapitol 5 gold A razed settlement does not produce any income, but they may be rebuilt and prosperous again. You gain income every turn during the summer season if your income is greater than your upkeep. If the upkeep surpasses the income gold is taken from your treasury to compensate the losses. If the treasury is running low of gold than soldiers start deserting. This is a very bad situation and you are advised to avoid this scene as long as you want to win the game. NOTE: In the beginning of a game your economy probably will be a bit poor. Do not worry though as this is the purpose. It is your task to build a prosperous empire with happy inhabitants and a loyal army... Conquering a capitol If you manage to conquer an enemy's capitol, well excellent one less to worry about and big step towards your goal. The capitol gains you an extra five gold every turn and if the defeated player owned an artifact it becomes yours. The defeated player is obviously out of the game, the armies is shattered and all the settlements that belonged to that player will become independent. Artifacts If you are playing in QUEST mode than one way of winning the game is by gathering three artifacts. One of them can be won by solving the personal quest, which all players got. Two more artifacts is to be won from the guardians of the land. These guardians can be: the dragon, the black knight, the pirate's haven or the necropolis. For each game the guardians is changed randomly, but hints about them can be found among the local people in some settlements. The artifacts also blesses the owner with a gift of some sort. These gifts vary depending on the artifacts nature but all of them certainly can help in the purpose of winning. WINTER SEASON During this period a host of actions may be executed, mostly strategical ones such as building, recruiting and diplomacy. WINTER MENU --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | | ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Recruitment | | Sabotage | | Diplomacy | | | ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- | | ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Build ship | | Recovery | | Construction | | | ----------------- ----------------- ----------------- | | SHOW MAP QUIT GAME | | EXIT | --------------------------------------------------------------------- HINTS AND TIPS Ships * Ships never lose there strength-value except when they got smashed up. This means that a war-ship with a strength of 500 after a battle always got a value of 500 regardless of how damaged it was during the battle (all that counts is that it survived!). * Ships are a terrifying weapon and could (should!) be used in a lot of ways. You may use them as decoy, which could be really hair-tearing for your opponents, or make them doing an assualt right in to the enemies weak spots. They are also a terrific tool when you are about to move into new areas to expand your empire. Summer * When enemy forces penetrates your defence it is often a good idea to raze the settlements before they are in the hands of the enemy. Doing this and continually retreating may lead to your enemy halting because of lack of food. At the worst they have to rebuild your settlements which is a costly affair. * Fortresses provides an excellent protection against enemies, especially in strategic places like at the end of bridges and narrow mountain-passages. Winter * The order is not randomly chosen at winter season as it is in the summer. You should notice a system and be able to tell which year you have the benefit of playing as last player. Use this situation with all your wits as all your opponents already have placed their forces on the map. This often prove to be the perfect occasion to change the game in your favour. Equally, when you are playing among the first you better play rather safe, without exposing your territory too much. Failing in this matter will surely put you in some really nasty situations. Start START There are two options to choose between in the game setup. Either "EQUAL" where the number of soldier and baggage points are the same for all players or "RANDOM" which randomizes the conditions of the players armies. Gametype GAMETYPE You can choose between - "Conquest" mode: you can only win the game by defeating all of the other players. - "Quest" mode: either by defeating all of the other players or by gathering three artefacts. This by completing your quest and vanquishing the guardians of two more artefacts. Sound SOUND "Sound on" allows wonderful soundeffects to be played during the game "Sound off" toggles them off. Quest QUEST If you are playing in "QUEST" mode you can either choose to have the position of the quests visible or hidden. Its obviously harder to play with the quests hidden. Select map SELECT MAP Choose between 15 available maps by clicking the "SELECT MAP" button. The first five are developed for FOUR player games, the following five are for three player games and the last five for two player games. The name of the current map is shown above the select map button. Players PLAYERS To add players, highlight the races by clicking them. This allows you to play four player maps with two/three players BUT not four/three players on a two player map. In this case some players are not selectable. If you want to discard a player simply click it a second time. Load game LOAD GAME There are 10 slots available to save your game into. When you click the "LOAD SLOT" button a comment for each slot will be shown in the box at the bottom of the menu. To load the selected slot simply click the load game button. History HISTORY This allows you to behold the pre-historic victorious Lords of the game. After each game played to the end, the winner will be added to the scrolls of history. If nothing happens when you press the button then no history is available. The scroll comprehends: Name The name of the successful Lord. Map The place in which the campaign took place. Opp. Number of opponents defeated. Pct. Shows the Lords territory in percent of the map. Show map SHOW MAP Shows an overwiev of the current map. Default DEFAULT Resets the main menu to the original (default) state. Instructions INSTRUCTIONS Brings workbench to the front displaying the LORDS & EMPIRES manual in guide-format. Quit to dos QUIT TO DOS Quits the game, bringing you back to workbench. Start game START GAME Simply starts the game... Scout SCOUT An army must be activated before you can use scout. To scout simply click on the button "SCOUT" and then on the destination square (choose from the highlighted ones surrounding your activated army). This allows you to get information about possible settlements in the selected area. Armies can scout and move during the same turn, but the scout MUST be done before movement. Search SEARCH Click the "SEARCH" button and the square the army is currently occupying will be thoroughly examined. This will allow you to find things that will be of assistance such as saboteurs, rangers, gold, baggage, information and so on. Bad things could also occur. If you search an area your army can not move. Raze RAZE An activated army has the opportunity to raze the settlement it currently occupies. To raze simply click on the "RAZE" button. During the winter season it is possible to rebuild razed settlements for some gold. Armies are allowed to move after they have razed a settlement. Find FIND Locates your armies in order. Ashore ASHORE Used when you want to disembark a ship with an army. The ship has to have 1 movement left. If your army has destinations within reach they will be highlighted. Map MAP Shows an overview of the map with owned territories in appropriate colours. Stats STATS Here you can compare the amount of land, soldiers, income, upkeep and gold of the players. Obviously this reflects the balance of the game. Info INFO This screen is divided in several parts: EMPIRE - Facts about your empire Gold - The amount of gold owned Balance - Shows the income from your settlements compared to the upkeep for your soldiers Soldiers - The total number of soldiers in your empire Woods - Number of wood squares owned Settlements - Number of settlements in your empire Harbour - Shows 'YES' in case of a harbour, otherwise 'NO' Quest - Your current mission in the game SHIPS - Information about your ships current status ARTEFACTS - Shows gained artefacts ARMIES - Information about your armies current status. If a ranger has joined an army this will be shown with an 'R' at the right of the army. If an army has embarked a ship it will be shown by a corresponding 'S' next to the army. Colour codes is also used to describe the status of the armies. End turn END TURN Clicking here ends your turn. When all your forces has been moved the button turns red. Compass COMPASS Clicking this with the left mousebutton the map is scrolled in the appropriate direction. Infowindow INFO WINDOW In this window the current player, month and year continually is shown. Occasionally names on important places are also to be seen here. In this window you may also keep track of in which order the current season is played (very useful as the order is randomly chosen for each season). Sabotage SABOTAGE By sending your men to "SEARCH" cities, villages and fortresses you might find a saboteur, willing to offer you his services for gold. The saboteur is always sent on his mission during the winterseason. If you manage to obtain a saboteur you can burn ships, cause revolusion, poison soldiers or neutralize enmies saboteurs sent against you. After you have decided the saboteurs mission you select which opponent he is to be sent against. Diplomacy DIPLOMACY Here you can transfer money to other players, often used as bribes decided between players. You can also buy strategic squares owned by other players. Build ship BUILD SHIP In this menu you buy your ships. A player can have a total of three ships, each ship can carry one army. There are restrictions: to build a ship, you have to own a number of woodsquares depending on which ship you intend to build. You also have to own a settlement next to the coast. In the info menu you are informed about this "HARBOUR YES/NO". In case you don't have a settlement but a square next to the coast then there's the possibility during winterseason to build a fortress there. Shiptype There are three kinds of ship. Trade, Patrol and warship. Str Shows the ship and crews soldier-value. In case the ship carries an army then this value is added to the army's strength. Mov The ships movement. Wod The number of owned woodsquares needed to build the ship Price The price of the ship varies from one winterseason to antother. CURRENT SHIP These are the ships owned by you at the moment. Quit to menu QUIT TO MENU Ends the current game, takes you to the main menu. Autosave AUTOSAVE After the first summerseason, you will be asked to choose a save slot for the game. Name it and the following game will be saved automatically at the end of the summerseason. Recruitment RECRUITMENT Soldiers The number of soldiers in your army. Baggage The number of baggage in your army. Recruit soldiers "+/-" Increases/decreases number of soldiers. Buy baggage "+/-" Increases/decreases number of baggage. Current prices The amount of soldiers/baggage obtained for one gold. The price change during the years. Balance Your income and the upkeep of the soldier's wages. Recovery RECOVERY You are able to rebuild razed settlements for a minor cost. Since bridges cannot be owned, thoose may be rebuilt by any player. Construction CONSTRUCTION It's possible to build a fortress at the cost of 10 gold. You also may turn a village to a fortress at the cost of 5 gold. To exit the menu simply press any square not owned by you. Exit EXIT This ends the winterseason.