Momaw
Knight
Here's something I've been working on for a few days. Mostly just gathering up all kinds of information from the forums and trying to put it together into a nice document. This is intended to a "full" manual, a reference document, not something to read cover to cover before you even play. As such, I don't step through each and every button with helpful illustrations.
Note that, currently, it's all just text. There are no hyperlinks to jump sections. To navigate easily, copy the text into Notepad or similar and use its Search feature. Major headings have # signs (#Character#), while minor headings have * signs (*Careers*). A finalized version will be hyperlinked.
If you have comments on the manual as it stands, please follow this template:
__________________________
Character
-careers
-attributes
-skills
-weapon proficiencies
-appearance
Controls
-moving on foot
-moving on horseback
-other controls
Horse
-types
-buying and selling
-using
Inventory
-equipped items
-equipped armor
-encumberance
Party management
-hired troops
Merchants
-trade routes
Taverns
Prisoners and slavery
Combat
-weapon types and traits
-damage
-fighting in melee
-fighting at range
-fighting with a lance
-fighting from horseback
The world map
-parties
-speed
-tracking
Battles
-missions
-tactical advantage
-commands
-losing
-winning
NOTE: This manual is correct as of the current version (v0.711). Any aspect of the game can change at any time without warning in future versions. Accuracy is not guaranteed. Also, any controls or instructions assume default settings.
#CHARACTER#
The most important thing you own is yourself. Over the course of time, with practice and better equipment, your playing character can become one of the most powerful and people in the land. But it is essential that you have some kind of plan as you roam around battling evil, or you'll quickly find yourself battling alone with no horse, no money, and no friends. To develop a plan, you need to understand the different ways that you can improve your character.
Your start at level one, a raw recruit, with 4 attribute points to spend, a number of skill points based on your starting intelligence (based on career), and a number of weapon proficiency points based on your agility (again, based on career). Experience, or XP, is what you will use to advance your character. XP can be gained by defeating enemies in battle yourself, or by commanding your army when they do so; by fighting in the arena; and by completing quests or missions given to you. At certain thresholds you will earn a new character level, where you will get one attribute point, one skill point, and ten weapon proficiency points. Spend these wisely.
Read each section to learn what the different aspects of your character do.
*Careers*
The first thing you have to decide when you start a new game is what sort of career you have followed up to this point in your character's life. Different careers will give you different starting abilities and skills, and different equipment. None of them is really 'better', they are all playable. They just have different ways of playing. Choosing a career that most closely matches what your plan is though, because this gives you a good start: a nun can become an expert swordswoman, it just takes a lot longer than somebody who can already pick up a blade. The different careers are as follows.
Male:
- Squire. Normally selected from among the younger noble-born, squires help their master to arm and disarm, tend their equipment, and defend them if they become wounded. Once they reach a certain age and level of experience, they set out to perform their own great deeds. You are well on your way to becoming a melee powerhouse with high marks in strength and weaponry. Your master has gifted you with a worn but servicable sword and some basic armor. Your horse is probably more fit for glue than combat, but it does carry you until you find something better.
Strength: 10
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 4
Charisma: 6
Starting skills: Ironflesh (2), Power Strike (3), Weapon Master (2), Shield (1), Riding (1), Tactics (1), Prisoner Management (1), Leadership (1).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (47), Two-handed (50), Polearms (4
, Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (37).
- Hunter. These solitary men roam through the vast wilderness of the unsettled land, following game using their intimate knowledge of tracking and powers of observation. Some hunters are charged with feeding a village or city, others hunt for the furs they know the nobility will buy at excellent prices. They are expert marksmen with the bow from a lifetime of careful and patient shooting. You are well on your way to becoming a master of ranged combat and selective battles, with your knowledge of the wilds and your keen eye. You own an old but loyal horse, a bow made by your friend Kerin the bowyer, and a useful hatchet. The clothes on your back you've made yourself from animal hides, and a bundle of animal furs in your pack should net you a nice profit in the city.
Strength: 8
Agility: 8
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 5
Starting skills: Power Draw (3), Athletics (3), Tracking (2), Pathfinding (2), Spotting (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (65), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Priest. Many choose to enter the monastary, and not all out of devotion. Criminals flee to escape the headsman, power-hungry men seek to gain control and rank. But most are pious and hard working, as they go about tending the humanitarian affairs of the land. Priests copy and store books, tend to the ill, and distribute food and care to the needy. While your body has suffered from a soft life of study and meditation, your mind is sharper than ever. Troops will gladly follow a man of God, and you are ideally suited to leading them given your knowledge of medicine. You start on foot with no more than the robe on your back, the staff given to all shepards, and a bag of grain from the monstary's fields.
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 9
Charisma: 6
Starting skills: Ironflesh (2), Wound Treatment (3), Surgery (2), First Aid (3), Leadership (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (40), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Merchant. A land without merchants would be a far more dismal place. They carry goods far and wide that would otherwise never make it further than the next town. Merchants are also, puzzlingly, often a key in keeping the peace since their armed bands draw out and eliminate marauders. Your life as a merchant gives you great experience with trade, the handling of cargo, and the best ways to hire and maintain mercenary guards. You start with an extra pack horse and a load of goods to sell in the city. Your personal combat skills are lacking, though you have some familiarity with the crossbow, mace and dagger, and are used to wearing a heavy coat for some small protection.
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 7
Charisma: 8
Starting skills: Riding (2), Pathfinding (1), Inventory Management (3), Leadership (3), Trade (3).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (39), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (33), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
Female:
- Court lady. Born to a life of privilege, some ladies put their time toward learning the arts of embroidery, song and dance. Others, like yourself, are willful and active, spending more time on your horse than you do at your sewing. Your lord father has payed well to please your various interests. You take great pride in tending your magnificient courser, and carry the best dagger that money can buy.
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 7
Starting skills: Weapon Master (1), Riding (2), Tactics (1), Wound Treatment (2), First Aid (2), Leadership (2), Trade (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (40), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Hunter. Same lifestyle as the male hunter.
Strength: 7
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 6
Charisma: 4
Starting skills: Power Draw (3), Athletics (3), Tracking (2), Pathfinding (2), Spotting (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (65), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Nun. Same lifestyle as the male priest.
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 11
Charisma: 5
Starting skills: Athletics (1), Wound Treatment (4), Surgery (2), First Aid (4), Leadership (1).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Merchant. Same lifestyle as the male merchant.
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 7
Starting skills: Riding (2), Pathfinding (1), Inventory Management (3), Leadership (3), Trade (3).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (39), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (33), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
*Attributes*
Your character has four major Attributes, which affect what you can do in very profound ways. When you make a new character, you will get four points to spend on attributes, and at each level-up, you will recieve one more. These choices cannot be changed once committed, so be sure.
The attributes are:
- Strength: For every two points of Strength you have, you will get a bonus hitpoint for your character. Also, some weapons and armor have a minimum strength requirement.
- Agility: Every point of Agility increases your attacking speed by 0.5%, and gives you an additional 5 weapon proficiency points to spend as you like.
- Intelligence: Every point of Intelligence gives you an extra skill point to spend as you like.
- Charisma:
*Skills*
There are many skills in the game, each of which has a governing attribute. A skill cannot be raised higher than one third of the governing attrribute: for example, Tactics, which is govered by Intelligence, could not be raised past 3 if your Intelligence was 9. You must first allocate more points to Intelligence if you want to raise skills that are hitting this bottleneck.
The skills are:
- Ironflesh (strength): each point gives you an extra 2 points of health in addition to the bonus granted by strength.
- Power strike (strength): each point adds 5% damage to each hit with a melee weapon.
- Power throw (strength): each point adds 7% damage to each hit with a thrown weapon. Some thrown weapons require a point in power throw to use (axes, jarid).
- Power draw (strength): each point adds 10% damage to each hit with a bow.
- Weapon mastery (agility): each point adds 40 (starting from 60) to the maximum level you can boost each weapon proficiency to using weapon proficiency points; note that you can increase your proficiency past the level indicated through practice.
- Shield (agility): each point reduces the damage your shield takes by blocking a hit, by 25%. This is reiterative (75%, 56%, 42%), not cumulative (75%, 50%, 25%).
- Athletics (agility): increases how fast you can run on foot.
- Riding (agility): some horses have a minimum riding requrement; also increases speed and agility while mounted.
- Horse archery (agility): reduces accuracy and damage penalties for using a ranged weapon from a moving horse; despite the name, it also affects thrown weapons.
- Inventory management (intelligence): each point adds an extra 6 inventory slots to your party.
- Wound treatment (intelligence): each point adds 30% to your party's healing speed; also allows crippled horses to be healed automatically if they are in your inventory pool.
- Surgery (intelligence): each point adds a 5% chance that a party member, when struck down, will be knocked unconscious instead of dying. Note that hero characters cannot be killed, only minions.
- First aid (intelligence): each point will allow your hero characters to regain 7% of the health they've lost during a particular mission or battle.
- Tactics (intelligence): for every 2 points, your party's tactical advantage will be increased by 1 before a mission.
- Leadership (charisma): every point adds an extra slot to your party, reduces the cost of troop wages by 10%, and raises the maximum size of the party by 5.
- Prisoner management (charisma): every point adds an extra slot to your to your prisoner train, and increases the prisoner capacity by 5.
- Trade (charisma): every point reduces your selling penalty by 10%.
*Weapon proficiencies*
There are six weapon proficiencies that each cover a different family or type of weapons. If you plan to do much fighting, you're going to want to increase one or two these to a high level to fight effectively. Which is best? They are all equally useful, and depend more on play style. A higher level of proficiency will let you attack and defend with a melee weapon more speedily, or be more accurate with missile weapons.
At each level-up, you will recieve 10 additional weapon proficiency points to spend as you like. Unless you have one or more points of the Weapon Mastery skill, you cannot spend proficiency points on proficiencies that have passed 60, but these can still increase through practice. As you get to higher degrees of skill, a proficiency will require more than one point to increase by one degree: that is, if you're One-handed Weapons proficiency is at 104, it will take 2 proficiency points to get to 105 instead of 1. Higher degrees of skill also take much more time to increase through practice.
- One-handed weapons: Anything you can swing or stab with using only one hand.
- Two-handed weapons: These tend to inflict more damage and let you strike an enemy from a great distance; but they also disallow a shield and are slower for the unskilled.
- Polearms: Some kinds of polearms are single-handed allowing a shield, while others are not. Everything in this category has excellent reach. Polearms are also used from horseback to perform charging attacks.
- Bows: More properly HAND bows, a bent stick with a string between the ends. Hand bows are more difficult to use than crossbows but can fire more quickly.
- Crossbows: These are easier to use than a hand bow but are slower. They come in several sizes of increasing power.
- Thrown weapons: Missiles propelled with old-fashioned muscle power. Rocks, knives and daggers, javelins, and throwing axes.
*Appearance*
Strictly cosmetic, this allows you to change your character's face to whatever you like. Play as yourself, somebody you know, or the ugliest monster you can imagine.
#CONTROLS#
*Moving on foot*
The default keys for moving are the familiar WASD combination:
- 'W' to walk forward
- 'S' to walk backward
- 'A' to sidestep left
- 'D' to sidestep right
You can sidestep and walk forward/backward at the same time for diagnonal movement.
Use the mouse to look around. If you are walking, then using the mouse will change your direction. If you are standing still, using the mouse will turn right around your character so you can see their face and behind them.
Your character can wade through water easily, and skid down slopes. Trying to go uphill is much slower, and you may have to take the slope at an angle.
*Moving on horseback*
While you are mounted, movement is handled a little bit differently:
- 'W' to increase speed
- 'S' to decrease speed
- 'A' to turn left
- 'D' to turn right
Your mouse will change which way you are looking but not which way the horse is moving, it's important to remember that.
You can stop your horse by decreasing your speed until you halt. Or if you're walking the horse backward, press 'W' to increase your speed from backward to halt.
For a quicker way to stop, use the key combination 'Ctrl+R', which signals your horse that you want him to Rear. That is, to stand up on his hind legs for a second. This will stop you instantly, but you cannot turn until the horse puts his legs down again, so don't try it when the enemy is breathing down your neck.
Horses are not nearly so good at climbing as men on foot, so pay attention to hills. They also don't turn as well, and can collide with trees and obstacles if you're not paying attention.
*Other*
- left mouse button (press): make an attack with the current weapon.
- left mouse button (hold): begin aiming with a ranged weapon or to start and hold a melee stroke.
- Ctrl+left mouse button (press): sends the item under your cursor to the other side of the table when trading or looting.
- right mouse button (hold): defend yourself.
- right mouse button (press): while aiming, cancel the shot.
- 'F': perform an action, when you see a keyword in orange text. ie, open a door, talk to somebody.
- TAB: leave current area.
- Shift (hold) zoom in, useful for sizing up the enemy from a safe distance or aiming ranged weapons.
- 'I': open your Inventory window.
- 'P': open your Party window.
- 'C': open your Character window.
- 'F6': toggle between a first person mode and the normal third person view.
- Spacebar (press): jump your character or horse.
- Spacebar (hold): time passes normally on the world map.
- ']': cycle to your next equipped weapon. If you change to a single-handed weapon and have a shield equipped, the shield will be readied automatically.
- '[': put your shield away or take it out manually, useful if you have a bastard sword, which can be used with one or two hands.
- '1' thru '5': gives commands during a mission of a battle. See "Battles: Commands".
#HORSE#
Getting around on foot is not only slower, it's much more dangerous. With the greater agility of a mount, you are able to choose your own ground against slower ground troops. You gain a tactically and psychologically important height advantage against men on foot, and if you have a horse trained for combat, they become a weapon in their own right as they bulldoze through enemy formations. A person's social rank could often be determined by the kind of horse they owned, and a knight's mount could be just as costly as his weapons and armor.
*Types*
There are several kinds of horses at various price points, some better suited to a task than others. An archer will not be served best by riding a lumbering armored warhorse, and a lancer should feel rather embarrased trying to fight from the back of a cheap riding mount.
- Sumpters, or mules, are cheap animals bred for the lower class, as riding or working animals. Often used in caravan trains.
- Saddle horses are fairly cheap mounts bred for a placid disposition and a smooth gait. A good travelling horse for a low price.
- Steppe horses are bred by the nomads of the plains, small and with fiesty personalties. They are somewhat of a middle ground between the slowish riding horses and fast coursers.
- Coursers are light mounts originally meant for message carrying and interception, with wiry muscles and excellent running speeds. While their low strength doesn't allow for much armor, they are fast and agile, and can run circles around most other animals.
- Hunters are the animals of nobility, with most of a courser's speed and some of a warhorse's strength and endurance. They are bred for their ability to handle rough terrain at speed during a hunt.
- Warhorses are slower than other types of mount, but are much stronger, allowing them to wear chainmail armor for protection. The mount used by cavalry, they are trained to trample over enemies rather than stop or dodge around, making them extremely dangerous to men on foot.
- Chargers are the largest type of horse, used by heavy cavalry and wealthier knights. They are bred for size and power, allowing a knight to spit enemies on his lance through any amount of armor, and crushs enemies even more effectively than a warhorse. Heavily protected by elaborate plate armor, and very expensive.
*Buying and selling*
Horses can be bought at the merchant in various cities, who will each have a selection of mounts to choose from. Hover your mouse over a horse to see what kind it is, and what kind of abilities it has. The toughest animal isn't always the best choice you could make, since you may have to sacrifice speed to get protection. If a horse is armored, said armor comes with it, you don't need to buy the armor seperately. Nor can you add or remove armor from the horse.
Often you can find horses that are injured in some way, or just plain old. These are usually cheaper, but be aware that they come with problems. Likewise you can find horses that are exceptional specimens, better than the rest of their class, but they carry a hefty price.
Sometimes you can capture the mounts of fallen enemies after you've won a battle, so it pays to hit the man instead of his animal if that's an option. Horses are sold just like other trade goods, but it pays to have a spare available. Even the slowest mule is going to be faster and more agile than a warhorse with a broken ankle.
*Using*
When you get a horse you want to ride, click on it and drag it into the box to say that this is your chosen mount. If you are drawn into a battle, you will begin the battle already mounted on this horse.
To dismount, use the mouse to look down at the horse when stopped and hit the 'F' key when you see the word "Dismount". Mounting works the same way: look at the horse, and 'Use' it. Note that mounting and dismounting takes a few seconds, during which you are extremely vulnerable. You can start the horse moving as soon as you put a foot in the stirrup, but you can't attack as you haul yourself up into the saddle.
If you have additional horses, they are shown in your inventory. These horses are considered baggage animals, and can help carry your party's equipment. If you're carrying a lot of weight, having an extra horse around can help your speed considerably when travelling on the world map. Horses in your inventory pool are tethered a safe distance back when you join in a battle, so you can't get a new horse mid-battle from your inventory.
You should be careful on horseback, because they can be injured by falling or sliding much more easily than you would on foot. If you fall too far you might make your horse lame, with heavy speed and agility penalties, or even kill it. If a horse is lamed, you can eventually heal it if you have points in the skill Wound Management, but note that if it was a special kind of horse before being injured (spirited, heavy), it will now be a plain horse.
Most of the time, if you are knocked off your horse, the animal itself will be fine and you can collect it at the end of the battle. But there's still a chance that the horse will be crippled or slain.
#INVENTORY#
Your party's inventory is not a backpack, but rather a representation of everything you own, packed onto horses or carried by people in the party. There is no weight limit, but there are only a limited number of inventory slots available. You can increase the amount of space you have to store things by increasing your Inventory skill.
*Equipped items*
Your character has 4 slots for equipped weapons. You also have a place to specify your chosen mount, and one for food.
- Weapons placed in your equipped slots are on your person, in quivers and sheaths and harnesses. Anything that is equipped is immediately accessible whether you are in town or in the middle of a battle. Weapons must be equipped before they can be used. If you want to use a shield, it should be equipped in one of the weapon slots. If you're an archer, you can put multiple bags of arrows or bolts in the weapon slots to have more ammunition available during a battle.
- Your equipped mount is the one that you plan on riding, and is the horse you'll be riding if you join a battle.
- Equipped food is used to show what you want the party to eat. If you do not provide food, your world map speed will slow down as your party stops to forage, plus some of your troops may start to desert you. Food is gradually used up, based on how many people you have. Obviously the more mouths to feed, the faster you use up food.
*Equipped armor*
You have 4 slots for equipped armor: body armor, leg armor, helmet, and gloves/gauntlets. The body, legs and head are each seperate areas that you can potentially be hit on. Your gloves simply provide general protection. It's a good idea to buy the best armor for a given weight range that you can afford, being careful to keep your encumberance manageable.
Armor cannot be "used up" or damaged beyond the condition you found or bought it in. That Tattered Leather Jacket may be tattered, but it's not going to fall apart (any more) on you.
*Encumberance*
The more protective your armor and the bigger your weapons, generally the more it will all weigh. Your current Encumberance is shown below the armor ratings for the armor you are currently wearing. The more you are carrying on your own person, the slower your on-foot running speed will be. There is a tradeoff between wearing a lot of armor, and being fast enough to not get hit in the first place. Increasing your Athletics skill can increase your running speed, thus negating some or all of the encumberance penalty. Items carried in your inventory do not contribute to your personal encumberance, but they can slow your party down during travel on the world map.
#PARTY MANAGEMENT#
Sooner or later you're going to come across a massive band of people that want to kill your (or at least redistribute your equipment and wealth to themselves), and you're going to think: "Wow, I wish I has some help." The good news is, help is out there! Building up your own massive band of intimidating warriors is not only possible, it's a very good idea.
A party is composed of two types of people:
- Heroes: Yourself and anybody else of skill and renown that you can convince to join your side. Heroes have individual names, and you can determine how each of them will level up by spending points on character development, the same way you can for your own character. To do this, "talk" to them.
- Minions: Those people you hire or rescue, who are, unfortunately, sword fodder. Nameless and faceless, it's best not to get too attached to these guys (or gals). They can gain experience and level into more powerful versions of themselves, but you cannot specify how they they spend their stat and skill points.
The party window is accessed by pressing 'P'. On the list in the top right corner, you can see a number of seperate slots. Each of these slots can contain one hero, or any number of one type of minion. Your maximum party size is also shown. If you have two slots free and a maximum size of 20, you can opt for 19 crossbowmen in one slot, or 5 crossbows in one and 14 milita in the other.
You can talk to party members from the party window, but only if you are on the world map. Exit out to the world map first if you are not there, then the Taklk button will be enabled. Talking to a minion can be useful to see what level they are or what skills they have. Talking to a hero lets you tell them how they should spend their level-up points, or you can give them new equipment to use.
Heroes can also seperate from your party and form their own party seperate from yours. If you do this, they will roam the world map on their own, fighting and capturing. If you like, you can even give a hero some of your own party's troops to help them: just walk your party up to theirs on the world map, and use the dialogue menu.
All active members of a party (those who aren't prisoners) can either be fit or wounded. If a hero is wounded, you will see their current health after their name as a percentage. Low numbers are bad. If a hired minion is wounded to the point of being unfit for duty, they will not be sent into battle. Instead, the number of troops who are fit is shown as a different number than the total number you have hired. If a slot's label reads "Farmer 3/5", then you have 5 farmers total, only 3 of whom are in a condition to fight.
*Hired troops*
Minions cost denari to hire, and more to pay their wages. They don't fight for you because they like your sparkling personality. They are payed weekly. The cost of your party's wages are shown in the bottom right corner of the party window. Be sure to have enough hard currency on hand to pay them between trade runs or hunting expeditions. Better soldiers require a higher wage: you can hire a small army of farmers with clubs and pitchforks for the same cost as a single armored knight ahorse, but you should consider the power and ability of the units in question.
Troops can be gotten from a town's Tavern, just ask about it. You can also attempt to gain new troops by freeing them from enemy parties. This negates their hiring cost, but also means you have to fight off their captors.
When you see the message "Some troops are ready to upgrade", you should open the party screen and see what your options are. Any troops with a + sign after their name have enough experience to upgrade into a more powerful troop. Click on their slot to see how many are ready to upgrade (they gain experience individually), and what you can make them become.
Sometimes you will have a choice of two different kinds of soldier that a given minion can become: for example, milita can become either footmen or skirmishers. Consider what kind of party you're building before upgrading, because you can't undo.
You do not have to upgrade troops as soonas they are able, or even at all if you don't want to pay for their higher wage. Another reason not to upgrade right away is so that the entire stack can gain experience and upgrade together, thus keeping them all in one slot.
If the burden of paying for some of your troops is just becoming too great, you can also choose to disband their unit. They leave instantly and permanently.
#MERCHANTS#
At cities and locations, you can usually find one or more people who are willing to do business with you. To talk to a merchant, just walk up to them until you see the "Talk" label, then press the Use key. You will have several options available, one of which will be to buy and sell things.
When you're shopping for goods, you have your own inventory on the right side, and that of the merchant on the left. You can arrange a deal by dragging things from his side to yours, or vice-versa. If you change your mind about the deal or an item, just look for things with a "Reclaim" or "Return" price instead of "Buy" or "Sell" and put them back on the other side. A faster way than dragging is to hold down the Ctrl key and click on the item. The cost or payment of the total offer is shown near the bottom-center of the screen. Merchants only accept hard cash or goods in barter, no credit.
All merchants will buy all types of goods, but not sell. The smithy has one person selling weapons and ammunition, and another selling armor. The city trading merchant sells horses and bulk goods.
Unless you have some skill in Trade, you will be forced to sell goods at a much reduced price than for what they would sell for. Hey, it's used! Trade is a party skill, meaning that as long as one of the heroes in your party has it you get the benefit.
*Trade routes*
At each city, there is generally one import product, and one export product. If you talk to the merchants in the cities, they will give you an idea of what they export and the best place to sell it, and what they will pay top denar for. Making a tidy profit on trade routes is as simple as finding a place that exports what another city imports: buy it cheap, sell it dear. Trade goods are heavy and bulky though, so you should either have enough spare horses to carry all your merchandise easily, or hire some guards for protection. Ideally both.
#TAVERNS#
It will cost you 1 denar per 3 people in your party to sleep at the tavern. If it's some time in the day, you can sleep until evening; or if it's night, you can sleep until morning. Sleeping is useful if you dislike one time or another, for healing up after a battle that didn't go according to plan, or even just staying somewhere safe while waiting for that huge party of enemies you barely outran to go somewhere else.
The other major function of the tavern is to offer troops for hire. Mostly these are just commoners who are offering themselves out due to financial troubles or because they have a romantic vision of war. Well, they'll learn soon enough. Sometimes you'll find some real soldiers available too. Select the type of troop you want to hire and click Hire to to sign them up one at a time. See the section on Parties for more information about hired troops.
#PRISONERS AND SLAVERY#
Since the land you live in has frontage on a sea, there is a fair amount of shipping traffic. And shipping traffic means galley slaves to row ships into harbor, or when the wind is not blowing the right way. There is a man in Zendar who will buy slaves from anybody who cares to offer them, if you don't have any moral problems with selling people into an ugly and probably very short career. They also have needs of slaves for grueling work at the Salt Mines.
To take somebody as prisoner, first you will need at least one point in the Prisoner Management skill. If you do not have this skill you will not be able to have any prisoners at all. In battle, you should use a weapon that does "blunt" damage, like clubs and hammers. These weapons will knock an enemy unconscious instead of instantly killing them. After the battle, if you win, you will be given a chance to take all unconscious enemies as prisoner.
If you have any prisoners in your party, you can drag them back to one of the two locations that buy slaves and turn them in for 20 denars per head. When you talk to the slave buyer, just say that you have some merchandise to offer. Click on the type of person you want to sell down in the lower-right corner to highlight their, and use the Sell button to release them one by one.
#COMBAT#
At some point, you're going to want to really hurt somebody. Or somebody is going to want to really hurt you, and you have to return the favor before you wind up dead. You should engage in battle only when strictly necessary or when you're confident of the outcome. Sending men into a battle when you're not reasonably certain to win is wasteful of lives and money. But if you must fight, fight well. You should have a good understanding of the weaponry available and how to use it before you venture out into the realm. Be sure to talk to the trainer in Zendar, as he has a lot of experience with teaching would-be adventurers how not to die.
*Weapon types and traits*
Each of the weapon proficiences has a different family of supported weapons that you can choose from. Which proficiency you choose will ultimately depend on which you enjoy playing the most. Some particular kinds of weapons also have special behaviours.
- One handed weapons: These offer the best mix of striking power and attacking sped. Some weapons have very limited reach, like a dagger or hatchet. These generally also do not allow you to parry with them because they are so small. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Two handed weapons: More reach, more power, less speed. Better on the attack than the defense, it will only take one or two hits by most of these to flatten an opponent. A two-handed weapon of note is the bastard sword: using both hands the weapon does more damage, but you can also choose to equip a shield and use it with one hand. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Polearms: These are all very long, giving the agile user a definite advantage against users who have weapons with less reach. They fall into two general categories: first, purely stabbing weapons like a spear, and second, polearms that perform other attacks like the glaive or quarterstaff. Some kinds of polearms require both hands to use them, especially longer or more unwieldy ones. Others can be used with one hand or two as you prefer: if used with both hands, they can chop and slash as well as stab, but you can also choose to equip a shield in which case you can only use them to stab. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Bows: A hand bow allows the user to launch arrows far beyond the accurate reach of a thrown missile. They come in many sizes, increasing in power with length or materials used. The hand bow is a faster and superior weapon to the crossbow, but also requires much more training to use effectively. Better bows have a minimum requirement in the Power Draw skill to use them.
- Crossbow: A crossbow allows a relatively unskilled user to aim accurately instead of relying on experience and intuition as with the hand bow, and is ideal for those who wish ranged capability without devoting the extensive time needed to master the hand bow. The crossbow must be reloaded manually after each shot: simply use the Attack button a second time to begin reloading. Note that you cannot move while reloading or the process will be aborted. More powerful crossbows will require more Strength to use them.
- Thrown weapons: All of these require only one hand, so are unique among the ranged weapons in that they allow you to use a shield at the same time. The compromise is that, while they can do a lot of damage, your throwing range and speed is much less than that of a bow or crossbow. Heavier thrown weapons will require points in the Power Throw skill.
*Damage*
Damage comes in three types:
- Cutting damage is applied by weapons with some kind of sharp blade, like sabers and axes.
- Piercing damage is applied by weapons that come to a fine point, like spears, thrusting swords and arrows. Piercing damage is generally more effective versus armor.
- Blunt damage is applied by things that batter and break but do not penetrate, like hammers and clubs. Blunt damage will knock an enemy unconscious without killing them, so they may be taken prisoner.
If you turn on the option "Show Damage", then when you score a hit (or recieve one,) you will be shown how much damage you applied and to whom.
*Fighting in melee*
The first thing to know if you're fighting with a melee weapon is how to defend yourself. By holding down the Right Mouse Button, you will raise your shield so that you block your opponent's strike. A shield can block all types of strokes that are coming from ahead of you, and can intercept incoming missile weapons. Pay close attention to your shield's durability, it takes damage with every hit it absorbs. Your shield is repaired automatically, but only after the fight is over. If it's wrecked during the fight.
However if you don't have a shield, then you can only use the Right Mouse Button to parry. Parrying can only block one type of stroke at a time, like an overhead chop, or a slash from the side. You can't stop missile weapons unfortunately. When you're parrying you should watch your opponent to see what kind of stroke he is starting to make, and quickly block once he starts his stroke. A quick weapon is better on defense than a big and heavy one. Don't try to parry too soon, or he will just change to a different type of stroke and bypass your defense.
Defense is almost always more important than attack. As long as you can keep an opponent's blade out of your body, then you can wait as long as it takes for the right moment to attack. When that right time comes, there are two key things to consider.
First, what kind of stroke do you want to try? When you're looking at an opponent you will see a yellow arrow pointing at him from some direction: if you use the Left Mouse Button to attack, this is the direction you'll attack from. A downward arrow means an overhead chop; a left-pointing arrow means a right-to-left slash, likewise for a right arrow. An upward pointing arrow will give you a thrusting or stabbing action. Not all weapons support all types of attack: stabbing somebody with a club wouldn't do much anyway. Stabs and overhead chops are harder to hit with, but may do more damage or a different kind of damage if your weapon has a sharp point; slashes are easier to hit with.
You choose which way you want to attack based on where you are looking relative to your opponent: if you are looking to the left of them, you get a left arrow and slash from right to left. Just as with your own defense, enemies parryng with their weapon can only block one stroke at a time, so if you change your mind quickly you can bluff your way past their guard. You can also try landing a hit on somebody using a shield by striking them just as they are about to strike you; they have to move their shield to attack. This is another case where a fast weapon has an advantage. Some weapons do different kinds of damage based on how you attack with them.
Second, how far away are they? The longer the weapon, obviously the farther away you can hit someone with it. A lance can poke somebody carrying a hatchet long before they get close enough to hack at you. You can use rapid movement to get yourself into range of your weapon when you are ready to attack, and then step back quickly before they can recover and hit you back.
*Fighting at range*
If you're carrying a ranged weapon, you can attempt to hit the enemy before they can hit you back. Unless of course, they also have a ranged weapon. Users of the bow and crossbow cannot use a shield since their weapon requires both hands. If you have a thrown weapon you can use a shield if you like.
To launch a missile from a ranged weapon, turn to face the target and hold down the Left Mouse Button. This will cause the targeting indicator, a large white circle, to shrink down as you aim. You should release the button promptly when the indicator is at its smallest. If you wait too long, muscle fatigue sets in and your aim will wander. A high level of skill can increase the amount of aiming time you have. Crossbows allow you to aim as long as you like, since you are not constantly fighting the bowstring while trying to aim. If at any time you wish to stop aiming your shot, click the Right Mouse Button.
The amount of ammunition you have left is shown just above your remaining health. Missile ammunition is refilled for free, automatically at the end of a battle. But during the battle you are limited to whatever you have in your quiver, unless you go back to your inventory and retrieve more if you have it. A good tactic for characters who depend heavily on ranged weapons is to carry more than one bag of ammunition in their equipped weapons list.
The missile from a ranged weapon can go anywhere inside the target indicator when you release it. Characters who are not very good with a bow will have to depend pretty much on luck to hit anything until they get more practice. Trying to use a ranged weapon from a moving horse is also very difficult, and you'll not be very accurate unless you have skill points in the Horse Archery skill.
Missiles also have some amount of arc to them: that is, the farther away from your target you are, the more you need to aim over their head so that the projectile falls down to them when it reaches that distance. The Zoom key can be invaluable here (hold Shift) because you can watch your shot to see where it lands in relation to the target and adjust your aim. Thrown weapons have a much more dramatic arc than arrows and bolts, which limits their effective range.
If you are shooting at an enemy with a shield, and he realizes it, he will simply block your projectile with his shield. You can get around this by having an ally distract the enemy so that he's not facing your direction. Shooting somebody in the back isn't perhaps very honorable, but trust us: he'd do the same to you. If you're confident of your abilities and only facing one opponent, you could also wait until he gets within with range and lowers his shield to attack you. You then have a very brief window of oppourtunity to get a shot in before they gut you. You can break a shield with many ranged hits, but it will require a lot of ammunition.
A last note, it is wise to pack a backup weapon unless you are very confident of your own capabilities and your party's ability to distract the enemy. If you run out of ammunition, or a melee enemy starts landing hits on you, a ranged weapon is no use at all.
*Fighting with a lance*
Lances and most other kinds of polearms can be used from horseback in a special kind of attack. This involves getting up to a high enough speed, "couching" your weapon (grasping it firmly under your arm), then running it through an enemy. This type of attack can deliver tremendous damage, and cannot be blocked with a shield, but is tricky to pull off.
First, the prerequisites. You need to be on a horse, capable of a moderate speed of 6 or more. So don't try lancing from the back of a lame mule. A high Agility is also a desirable trait for your horse since it makes maneuvering for and landing your hit easier. You also need a polearm. Lances, spears, military forks, and many more are all suitable weapons. A longer weapon is usually more desirable than one that does higher damage, because it means you can hit the enemy before he can take a swing at you (or your horse).
Get some distance between you and the enemy forces, then slow and turn around to face them. Spur your horse up to its maximum speed. If your mount is fast enough, you will drop your weapon from an upright carrying position to a horizontal killing position. DO NOT TOUCH THE ATTACK BUTTON: The lancing attack is automatic, provided you have enough speed and a suitable weapon. What you need to do is turn your horse as you come up on the enemy, so that your weapon's point impales them. It's easiest to aim the lance if you position your camera view so that you're looking down the lance instead of from one side or the other. If you're attacking troops on foot, you will need to look down at them slightly or the point will pass over their head. On the other hand, if you're attacking other horsemen, keep your view fairly high so that the lance hits the man and not the horse (unless you are actually trying to kill it).
*Fighting from horseback*
There are some special things to note when you're fighting from the back of a horse, both for melee and for ranged weapons.
For one- or two-handed weapons (not polearms), note that you can swing either to the left or right of the horse. Which way you are looking will determine which side you swing on. If you are halted, then you will also be able to stab or chop. When striking at a person on foot, the best tactic is to hold the attack button to draw back your weapon as you get close, but hold your stroke and release a split second AFTER you pass them, not just as you are passing; looking off to the side as you ride by can show the proper time best until you get used to it. Also, with a horse, you can knock the person down, which is extremely useful if they are carrying a shield or are braced to parry your stroke. Simply maneuver the horse to have its shoulder collide with the person. Note that this doesn't work well against foot soldiers with polearms, because they can sometimes get a hit at your horse before they are knocked down.
For ranged weapons, first, your accuracy and damage will suffer a great deal if you do not have the skill Horse Archery and attempt to launch your missile while moving. An unmoving horse does not have this penalty but you are obviously easier to hit like this. Hand bows can only shoot to the left side of the horse, because you're holding the bow with your left hand. Sorry, no option for left-eyed archers. Crossbows can fire to either side, but note that only the Hunting and Light crossbows can be reloaded on horseback; the others can be fired, but not reloaded.
#THE WORLD MAP#
The world map shows the entire region, and is how you will move to different cities and locations. To get to the world map, just press Tab if you're currently controlling your character; menus will have a way to get out of them. Once you're there, moving your party on the world map is as simple as clicking the left button where you want to go, and waiting while your party is in transit. Time will pass normally for everybody while you are moving, but you can pause time at any point by pressing Spacebar. Time will also pause automatically when you reach your destination.
*Parties*
Yours is not the only group in the world; as you travel, you will see other parties moving around the map as well. Some friendly, some hostile, and some totally disintersted in you.
The number above a party indicate how many people are in that party. If there is a second number after a plus sign, like "+8", this shows how many additional prisoners are being held by that party. Hold your cursor over a party to get a detailed rundown on what kind of units are in that group. Just because the party name says it's one thing, doesn't mean that the entire group is all the same type of unit.
The distance you can see other parties at is adjusted by the party skill Spotting. If you have several ranks in this, you can see enemies before they see you and maneuver appropriately, a valuable benefit. Note that travelling at night will reduce the Spot radius of all parties on the map.
*Speed*
Your world map speed is influenced by four things:
- The kind of troops in your party. Mounted troops are obviously faster than unmounted. If your entire group is Horsemen, then you'll be galloping along at a much better clip than rank-and-file Footmen can sustain.
- The amount of weight in your inventory. This is mostly a factor if you're trading bulky goods. If you're trading or just carrying a lot of 'stuff', and would rather not bog down to walking speed, consider purchasing some cheap horses to serve as baggage animals: they only have to be in the party inventory (or in the inventory of another hero) to help your speed.
- Terrain. Moving over clear ground at daylight is fastest. You will suffer a speed penalty if you are travelling through a forest, or at night.
- The party skill Pathfinding adds 3% to your speed per rank.
Depending on the type of party you have assembled (or haven't assembled!), speed can be the deciding line between life and death. Unless you have the men to fight off anybody who takes an interest in your group, then travelling slower than potential enemies in your area is a bad idea.
*Tracking*
On the world map, if you have anybody in the party with the Tracking skill, you will see colored arrows on the ground. These arrows indicate tracks or signs of movement that a party has made as they travel through this area. The color shows how old the track is (red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue) and the size shows roughly how big the party was. And which way they went obviously. Move your cursor over a tracking arrow to get more information. If your skills are high, you get a gradually better estimate of how many people were in the party, and eventually even who they were.
#BATTLES#
When two hostile parties meet on the world map, you will be shown the battle screen after you talk some smack at eachother. Here you will be given several choices depending on the parties involved.
- Leave the battle: Run away! Nobody exchanges any blows so there are no casualties on either side. This option is not always available, especially if you are the slower party or outnumbered.
- Send your troops in: If you have some men under your command, you can opt to stay back from the fight and send them in without you. This should be used with caution. Generally your troops will not fight so well without you on the line beside them, but it can save time and hassle if the fight looks to be a slaughter. The other advantage here is that if you take the field personally, you cannot leave until all enemies are defeated or you yourself are. If you have a large party, you can wear down enemies through sheer attrition. You will be shown a summary after the mission of the result of your troop's efforts.
- Attack the enemy: Charge! Lead your men into battle personally. Which units you actually deploy with into the mission is random, but based primarily on their placement in your party list: units that appear sooner on the list have a higher chance of appearing. Use the "Move up" and "Move down" buttons in the party window before entering the battle to influence what units you will fight alongside.
If you have joined a battle that was already in progress and one side is hostile to you, instead of fighting alone you join your allies' cause and fight the battle with a mixed force of their troops and your own.
If you have joined a battle and neither side is your enemy, your only choice will be to not get involved. The battlefield is not the appropriate place to make a political statement by joining one side or the other on a whim.
*Missions*
A battle is fought over the course of one or more 'missions', based on the option "Battle Size" in the options window. "Battle Size" dictates the maximum number of troops can be deployed by either side into the mission, so if you set it to 20, then you can only mop up 10 enemies per mission. A large party will take quite a while to grind through, be it yours or theirs.
Troops that are killed or wounded in one mission will be dead or wounded for all remaining missions in the battle. Likewise, the health levels of heroes is carried over from one mission to the next. You can disengage from a battle after a mission if you want to, but by doing this you forfeit all battlefield salvage from enemies you have defeated up to that point.
Over the course of a mission, troops will continue to arrive in the area. Enemy reinforcements as well as friendly can arrive after a mission has begun. Only those parties that started the mission can have reinforcement waves: another party cannot join from the world map.
A mission is over once one side's troops including reinforcements are entirely defeated (dead or unconscious). A battle is likewise over when one party is entirely slain or wounded.
You can abort a mission once it's started by pressing the Tab key if you are far enough from enemy forces to escape. Not all of your men may be so lucky: some may be killed or wounded as they try to disengage. Only try to retreat if things are looking very grim.
*Tactical advantage*
Choosing the right time to attack and the right ground to attack on is often just as important as picking and equipping the right men. Before you deploy into a mission you should see what the current tactical situation is. The number here indicates how much an advantage or disadvantage you are at if you choose to begin this mission.
Normally, a mission is split down the middle between friendly and hostile forces if the two combating parties are roughly equal in number. If your maximum battle size is 20, then there will be a maximum of 10 friendlies and 10 hostiles in the mission. Tactical advantage modifies this division in a good or bad manner. A positive modifier means that the balance of power will be shifted in your favor: you will be able to deploy more troops into the mission than your opponent. Negative modifiers mean you will be outnumbered during the mission. Your tactical advantage is modified by the party skill Tactics, and by the total number of troops that are in the parties of the combatants.
This isn't always a cause to immediately panic. If you have three armored knights and they have a dozen guys wearing skins and throwing rocks, it won't really hurt to be outnumbered since your men will carve theirs up like so much ham. Other times, a negative tactical advantage is an indication that you should be looking for the nearest escape route unless you're very skilled in combat.
*Commands*
As the leader of your party and a hero of promising skill, you will always be given command of the allied forces on a mission. Choosing the right commands to give your men can very often be the dividing line between victory and defeat.
- Hold this position: '1' key. Instructs your men to stay within a short distance of where you are currently standing. They will fire ranged weapons if they have one, but will not move to engage the enemy in melee unless the enemy comes close enough. Most useful to have your men stay on defensive ground of some kind, for example, if you have mostly foot soldiers then you could have them hold position near a steep incline to help protect them from cavalry charges.
- Follow me: '2' key. Your men will fall in around you, or travel to wherever you are, and stay close as you move.
- Charge: '3' key. Give your men permission to break ranks and pursue the enemy individually.
- Dismount: '4' key. Sometimes you will want your mounted troops to fight on foot, usually if the mission's terrain is not conducive to cavalry.
- Mount: '5' key. Reverse the Dismount decision, all troops who arrived on a horse will return to their mount and climb aboard.
*Losing*
The enemy was too powerful. The sun was in your archers' eyes. The meat was undercooked and you spent half the night at the latrine. You hate Mondays. Whatever went wrong, we understand. Nobody can expect to win all the time in a sport so complex and unforgiving as combat, and the sooner you can analyze what went wrong and patch your men up, the sooner you can exact revenge.
- If you sent your men in without you, and they were all defeated, then you can withdraw and hope that the enemy force doesn't pursue you.
- If you went into battle personally and were defeated, but you still have troops in your party in fighting condition, they will drag you out and patch you up as best they can. At that point you can choose to flee, or to engage the enemy again.
- Finally, if you are defeated and there are no troops left to rescue you, the battle is over and you have lost. The enemy may take some or all of your troops as prisoners, and will help themselves to the supplies and equipment carried by your baggage train. You will keep your experience for personal kills during the battle, but no more will be awarded.
*Winning*
If on the other hand, your forces are victorious, you will gain three key things when the enemy party is defeated.
First, you may help yourself to anything that the enemy troops carried. Usually it will be pretty beat up but sometimes you can find pristine eqiupment. Weapons, armor, ammunition, even their food and mounts are yours for the taking. Note that you'll never be able to salvage absolutely everything, but only a random selection. Looting the battlefield works just like buying goods at a merchant, but here there is no cost.
Second, you can take any unconscious enemies as prisoners and later sell them as slaves. Remember that to knock an enemy out without killing them, you need to use a weapon that does 'blunt' damage. If you sent in your men without you, sometimes they can manage to beat an enemy or two into submission for you, but if you take the field they will geneally be more bloodthirsty and kill enemies outright unless they are equipped with blunt weapons.
And last, you will get a large amount of experience above and beyond whatever you personally earned for enemies defeated. This experience is shared amongst the entire party, so you will not get all of it unless you fought alone. As commander, you get the largest portion: 7 shares of the available experience. Other heros in your party get 3 shares each. Lastly, hired minions get 1 share each. For example. If you have six minions in your party, there are 13 shares: 7 for you, and 6 for the minions. If the party earned 1000 experience for the battle, then you get 7/13ths (53, and your troops get 1/13th each (77).
Note that, currently, it's all just text. There are no hyperlinks to jump sections. To navigate easily, copy the text into Notepad or similar and use its Search feature. Major headings have # signs (#Character#), while minor headings have * signs (*Careers*). A finalized version will be hyperlinked.
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Character
-careers
-attributes
-skills
-weapon proficiencies
-appearance
Controls
-moving on foot
-moving on horseback
-other controls
Horse
-types
-buying and selling
-using
Inventory
-equipped items
-equipped armor
-encumberance
Party management
-hired troops
Merchants
-trade routes
Taverns
Prisoners and slavery
Combat
-weapon types and traits
-damage
-fighting in melee
-fighting at range
-fighting with a lance
-fighting from horseback
The world map
-parties
-speed
-tracking
Battles
-missions
-tactical advantage
-commands
-losing
-winning
NOTE: This manual is correct as of the current version (v0.711). Any aspect of the game can change at any time without warning in future versions. Accuracy is not guaranteed. Also, any controls or instructions assume default settings.
#CHARACTER#
The most important thing you own is yourself. Over the course of time, with practice and better equipment, your playing character can become one of the most powerful and people in the land. But it is essential that you have some kind of plan as you roam around battling evil, or you'll quickly find yourself battling alone with no horse, no money, and no friends. To develop a plan, you need to understand the different ways that you can improve your character.
Your start at level one, a raw recruit, with 4 attribute points to spend, a number of skill points based on your starting intelligence (based on career), and a number of weapon proficiency points based on your agility (again, based on career). Experience, or XP, is what you will use to advance your character. XP can be gained by defeating enemies in battle yourself, or by commanding your army when they do so; by fighting in the arena; and by completing quests or missions given to you. At certain thresholds you will earn a new character level, where you will get one attribute point, one skill point, and ten weapon proficiency points. Spend these wisely.
Read each section to learn what the different aspects of your character do.
*Careers*
The first thing you have to decide when you start a new game is what sort of career you have followed up to this point in your character's life. Different careers will give you different starting abilities and skills, and different equipment. None of them is really 'better', they are all playable. They just have different ways of playing. Choosing a career that most closely matches what your plan is though, because this gives you a good start: a nun can become an expert swordswoman, it just takes a lot longer than somebody who can already pick up a blade. The different careers are as follows.
Male:
- Squire. Normally selected from among the younger noble-born, squires help their master to arm and disarm, tend their equipment, and defend them if they become wounded. Once they reach a certain age and level of experience, they set out to perform their own great deeds. You are well on your way to becoming a melee powerhouse with high marks in strength and weaponry. Your master has gifted you with a worn but servicable sword and some basic armor. Your horse is probably more fit for glue than combat, but it does carry you until you find something better.
Strength: 10
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 4
Charisma: 6
Starting skills: Ironflesh (2), Power Strike (3), Weapon Master (2), Shield (1), Riding (1), Tactics (1), Prisoner Management (1), Leadership (1).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (47), Two-handed (50), Polearms (4
, Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (37).- Hunter. These solitary men roam through the vast wilderness of the unsettled land, following game using their intimate knowledge of tracking and powers of observation. Some hunters are charged with feeding a village or city, others hunt for the furs they know the nobility will buy at excellent prices. They are expert marksmen with the bow from a lifetime of careful and patient shooting. You are well on your way to becoming a master of ranged combat and selective battles, with your knowledge of the wilds and your keen eye. You own an old but loyal horse, a bow made by your friend Kerin the bowyer, and a useful hatchet. The clothes on your back you've made yourself from animal hides, and a bundle of animal furs in your pack should net you a nice profit in the city.
Strength: 8
Agility: 8
Intelligence: 5
Charisma: 5
Starting skills: Power Draw (3), Athletics (3), Tracking (2), Pathfinding (2), Spotting (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (65), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Priest. Many choose to enter the monastary, and not all out of devotion. Criminals flee to escape the headsman, power-hungry men seek to gain control and rank. But most are pious and hard working, as they go about tending the humanitarian affairs of the land. Priests copy and store books, tend to the ill, and distribute food and care to the needy. While your body has suffered from a soft life of study and meditation, your mind is sharper than ever. Troops will gladly follow a man of God, and you are ideally suited to leading them given your knowledge of medicine. You start on foot with no more than the robe on your back, the staff given to all shepards, and a bag of grain from the monstary's fields.
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 9
Charisma: 6
Starting skills: Ironflesh (2), Wound Treatment (3), Surgery (2), First Aid (3), Leadership (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (40), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Merchant. A land without merchants would be a far more dismal place. They carry goods far and wide that would otherwise never make it further than the next town. Merchants are also, puzzlingly, often a key in keeping the peace since their armed bands draw out and eliminate marauders. Your life as a merchant gives you great experience with trade, the handling of cargo, and the best ways to hire and maintain mercenary guards. You start with an extra pack horse and a load of goods to sell in the city. Your personal combat skills are lacking, though you have some familiarity with the crossbow, mace and dagger, and are used to wearing a heavy coat for some small protection.
Strength: 6
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 7
Charisma: 8
Starting skills: Riding (2), Pathfinding (1), Inventory Management (3), Leadership (3), Trade (3).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (39), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (33), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
Female:
- Court lady. Born to a life of privilege, some ladies put their time toward learning the arts of embroidery, song and dance. Others, like yourself, are willful and active, spending more time on your horse than you do at your sewing. Your lord father has payed well to please your various interests. You take great pride in tending your magnificient courser, and carry the best dagger that money can buy.
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 7
Starting skills: Weapon Master (1), Riding (2), Tactics (1), Wound Treatment (2), First Aid (2), Leadership (2), Trade (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (40), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Hunter. Same lifestyle as the male hunter.
Strength: 7
Agility: 9
Intelligence: 6
Charisma: 4
Starting skills: Power Draw (3), Athletics (3), Tracking (2), Pathfinding (2), Spotting (2).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (65), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Nun. Same lifestyle as the male priest.
Strength: 4
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 11
Charisma: 5
Starting skills: Athletics (1), Wound Treatment (4), Surgery (2), First Aid (4), Leadership (1).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (15), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (17), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
- Merchant. Same lifestyle as the male merchant.
Strength: 5
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 7
Starting skills: Riding (2), Pathfinding (1), Inventory Management (3), Leadership (3), Trade (3).
Weapon proficiences: One-handed (39), Two-handed (19), Polearms (16), Archery (33), Crossbow (17), Throwing (22).
*Attributes*
Your character has four major Attributes, which affect what you can do in very profound ways. When you make a new character, you will get four points to spend on attributes, and at each level-up, you will recieve one more. These choices cannot be changed once committed, so be sure.
The attributes are:
- Strength: For every two points of Strength you have, you will get a bonus hitpoint for your character. Also, some weapons and armor have a minimum strength requirement.
- Agility: Every point of Agility increases your attacking speed by 0.5%, and gives you an additional 5 weapon proficiency points to spend as you like.
- Intelligence: Every point of Intelligence gives you an extra skill point to spend as you like.
- Charisma:
*Skills*
There are many skills in the game, each of which has a governing attribute. A skill cannot be raised higher than one third of the governing attrribute: for example, Tactics, which is govered by Intelligence, could not be raised past 3 if your Intelligence was 9. You must first allocate more points to Intelligence if you want to raise skills that are hitting this bottleneck.
The skills are:
- Ironflesh (strength): each point gives you an extra 2 points of health in addition to the bonus granted by strength.
- Power strike (strength): each point adds 5% damage to each hit with a melee weapon.
- Power throw (strength): each point adds 7% damage to each hit with a thrown weapon. Some thrown weapons require a point in power throw to use (axes, jarid).
- Power draw (strength): each point adds 10% damage to each hit with a bow.
- Weapon mastery (agility): each point adds 40 (starting from 60) to the maximum level you can boost each weapon proficiency to using weapon proficiency points; note that you can increase your proficiency past the level indicated through practice.
- Shield (agility): each point reduces the damage your shield takes by blocking a hit, by 25%. This is reiterative (75%, 56%, 42%), not cumulative (75%, 50%, 25%).
- Athletics (agility): increases how fast you can run on foot.
- Riding (agility): some horses have a minimum riding requrement; also increases speed and agility while mounted.
- Horse archery (agility): reduces accuracy and damage penalties for using a ranged weapon from a moving horse; despite the name, it also affects thrown weapons.
- Inventory management (intelligence): each point adds an extra 6 inventory slots to your party.
- Wound treatment (intelligence): each point adds 30% to your party's healing speed; also allows crippled horses to be healed automatically if they are in your inventory pool.
- Surgery (intelligence): each point adds a 5% chance that a party member, when struck down, will be knocked unconscious instead of dying. Note that hero characters cannot be killed, only minions.
- First aid (intelligence): each point will allow your hero characters to regain 7% of the health they've lost during a particular mission or battle.
- Tactics (intelligence): for every 2 points, your party's tactical advantage will be increased by 1 before a mission.
- Leadership (charisma): every point adds an extra slot to your party, reduces the cost of troop wages by 10%, and raises the maximum size of the party by 5.
- Prisoner management (charisma): every point adds an extra slot to your to your prisoner train, and increases the prisoner capacity by 5.
- Trade (charisma): every point reduces your selling penalty by 10%.
*Weapon proficiencies*
There are six weapon proficiencies that each cover a different family or type of weapons. If you plan to do much fighting, you're going to want to increase one or two these to a high level to fight effectively. Which is best? They are all equally useful, and depend more on play style. A higher level of proficiency will let you attack and defend with a melee weapon more speedily, or be more accurate with missile weapons.
At each level-up, you will recieve 10 additional weapon proficiency points to spend as you like. Unless you have one or more points of the Weapon Mastery skill, you cannot spend proficiency points on proficiencies that have passed 60, but these can still increase through practice. As you get to higher degrees of skill, a proficiency will require more than one point to increase by one degree: that is, if you're One-handed Weapons proficiency is at 104, it will take 2 proficiency points to get to 105 instead of 1. Higher degrees of skill also take much more time to increase through practice.
- One-handed weapons: Anything you can swing or stab with using only one hand.
- Two-handed weapons: These tend to inflict more damage and let you strike an enemy from a great distance; but they also disallow a shield and are slower for the unskilled.
- Polearms: Some kinds of polearms are single-handed allowing a shield, while others are not. Everything in this category has excellent reach. Polearms are also used from horseback to perform charging attacks.
- Bows: More properly HAND bows, a bent stick with a string between the ends. Hand bows are more difficult to use than crossbows but can fire more quickly.
- Crossbows: These are easier to use than a hand bow but are slower. They come in several sizes of increasing power.
- Thrown weapons: Missiles propelled with old-fashioned muscle power. Rocks, knives and daggers, javelins, and throwing axes.
*Appearance*
Strictly cosmetic, this allows you to change your character's face to whatever you like. Play as yourself, somebody you know, or the ugliest monster you can imagine.
#CONTROLS#
*Moving on foot*
The default keys for moving are the familiar WASD combination:
- 'W' to walk forward
- 'S' to walk backward
- 'A' to sidestep left
- 'D' to sidestep right
You can sidestep and walk forward/backward at the same time for diagnonal movement.
Use the mouse to look around. If you are walking, then using the mouse will change your direction. If you are standing still, using the mouse will turn right around your character so you can see their face and behind them.
Your character can wade through water easily, and skid down slopes. Trying to go uphill is much slower, and you may have to take the slope at an angle.
*Moving on horseback*
While you are mounted, movement is handled a little bit differently:
- 'W' to increase speed
- 'S' to decrease speed
- 'A' to turn left
- 'D' to turn right
Your mouse will change which way you are looking but not which way the horse is moving, it's important to remember that.
You can stop your horse by decreasing your speed until you halt. Or if you're walking the horse backward, press 'W' to increase your speed from backward to halt.
For a quicker way to stop, use the key combination 'Ctrl+R', which signals your horse that you want him to Rear. That is, to stand up on his hind legs for a second. This will stop you instantly, but you cannot turn until the horse puts his legs down again, so don't try it when the enemy is breathing down your neck.
Horses are not nearly so good at climbing as men on foot, so pay attention to hills. They also don't turn as well, and can collide with trees and obstacles if you're not paying attention.
*Other*
- left mouse button (press): make an attack with the current weapon.
- left mouse button (hold): begin aiming with a ranged weapon or to start and hold a melee stroke.
- Ctrl+left mouse button (press): sends the item under your cursor to the other side of the table when trading or looting.
- right mouse button (hold): defend yourself.
- right mouse button (press): while aiming, cancel the shot.
- 'F': perform an action, when you see a keyword in orange text. ie, open a door, talk to somebody.
- TAB: leave current area.
- Shift (hold) zoom in, useful for sizing up the enemy from a safe distance or aiming ranged weapons.
- 'I': open your Inventory window.
- 'P': open your Party window.
- 'C': open your Character window.
- 'F6': toggle between a first person mode and the normal third person view.
- Spacebar (press): jump your character or horse.
- Spacebar (hold): time passes normally on the world map.
- ']': cycle to your next equipped weapon. If you change to a single-handed weapon and have a shield equipped, the shield will be readied automatically.
- '[': put your shield away or take it out manually, useful if you have a bastard sword, which can be used with one or two hands.
- '1' thru '5': gives commands during a mission of a battle. See "Battles: Commands".
#HORSE#
Getting around on foot is not only slower, it's much more dangerous. With the greater agility of a mount, you are able to choose your own ground against slower ground troops. You gain a tactically and psychologically important height advantage against men on foot, and if you have a horse trained for combat, they become a weapon in their own right as they bulldoze through enemy formations. A person's social rank could often be determined by the kind of horse they owned, and a knight's mount could be just as costly as his weapons and armor.
*Types*
There are several kinds of horses at various price points, some better suited to a task than others. An archer will not be served best by riding a lumbering armored warhorse, and a lancer should feel rather embarrased trying to fight from the back of a cheap riding mount.
- Sumpters, or mules, are cheap animals bred for the lower class, as riding or working animals. Often used in caravan trains.
- Saddle horses are fairly cheap mounts bred for a placid disposition and a smooth gait. A good travelling horse for a low price.
- Steppe horses are bred by the nomads of the plains, small and with fiesty personalties. They are somewhat of a middle ground between the slowish riding horses and fast coursers.
- Coursers are light mounts originally meant for message carrying and interception, with wiry muscles and excellent running speeds. While their low strength doesn't allow for much armor, they are fast and agile, and can run circles around most other animals.
- Hunters are the animals of nobility, with most of a courser's speed and some of a warhorse's strength and endurance. They are bred for their ability to handle rough terrain at speed during a hunt.
- Warhorses are slower than other types of mount, but are much stronger, allowing them to wear chainmail armor for protection. The mount used by cavalry, they are trained to trample over enemies rather than stop or dodge around, making them extremely dangerous to men on foot.
- Chargers are the largest type of horse, used by heavy cavalry and wealthier knights. They are bred for size and power, allowing a knight to spit enemies on his lance through any amount of armor, and crushs enemies even more effectively than a warhorse. Heavily protected by elaborate plate armor, and very expensive.
*Buying and selling*
Horses can be bought at the merchant in various cities, who will each have a selection of mounts to choose from. Hover your mouse over a horse to see what kind it is, and what kind of abilities it has. The toughest animal isn't always the best choice you could make, since you may have to sacrifice speed to get protection. If a horse is armored, said armor comes with it, you don't need to buy the armor seperately. Nor can you add or remove armor from the horse.
Often you can find horses that are injured in some way, or just plain old. These are usually cheaper, but be aware that they come with problems. Likewise you can find horses that are exceptional specimens, better than the rest of their class, but they carry a hefty price.
Sometimes you can capture the mounts of fallen enemies after you've won a battle, so it pays to hit the man instead of his animal if that's an option. Horses are sold just like other trade goods, but it pays to have a spare available. Even the slowest mule is going to be faster and more agile than a warhorse with a broken ankle.
*Using*
When you get a horse you want to ride, click on it and drag it into the box to say that this is your chosen mount. If you are drawn into a battle, you will begin the battle already mounted on this horse.
To dismount, use the mouse to look down at the horse when stopped and hit the 'F' key when you see the word "Dismount". Mounting works the same way: look at the horse, and 'Use' it. Note that mounting and dismounting takes a few seconds, during which you are extremely vulnerable. You can start the horse moving as soon as you put a foot in the stirrup, but you can't attack as you haul yourself up into the saddle.
If you have additional horses, they are shown in your inventory. These horses are considered baggage animals, and can help carry your party's equipment. If you're carrying a lot of weight, having an extra horse around can help your speed considerably when travelling on the world map. Horses in your inventory pool are tethered a safe distance back when you join in a battle, so you can't get a new horse mid-battle from your inventory.
You should be careful on horseback, because they can be injured by falling or sliding much more easily than you would on foot. If you fall too far you might make your horse lame, with heavy speed and agility penalties, or even kill it. If a horse is lamed, you can eventually heal it if you have points in the skill Wound Management, but note that if it was a special kind of horse before being injured (spirited, heavy), it will now be a plain horse.
Most of the time, if you are knocked off your horse, the animal itself will be fine and you can collect it at the end of the battle. But there's still a chance that the horse will be crippled or slain.
#INVENTORY#
Your party's inventory is not a backpack, but rather a representation of everything you own, packed onto horses or carried by people in the party. There is no weight limit, but there are only a limited number of inventory slots available. You can increase the amount of space you have to store things by increasing your Inventory skill.
*Equipped items*
Your character has 4 slots for equipped weapons. You also have a place to specify your chosen mount, and one for food.
- Weapons placed in your equipped slots are on your person, in quivers and sheaths and harnesses. Anything that is equipped is immediately accessible whether you are in town or in the middle of a battle. Weapons must be equipped before they can be used. If you want to use a shield, it should be equipped in one of the weapon slots. If you're an archer, you can put multiple bags of arrows or bolts in the weapon slots to have more ammunition available during a battle.
- Your equipped mount is the one that you plan on riding, and is the horse you'll be riding if you join a battle.
- Equipped food is used to show what you want the party to eat. If you do not provide food, your world map speed will slow down as your party stops to forage, plus some of your troops may start to desert you. Food is gradually used up, based on how many people you have. Obviously the more mouths to feed, the faster you use up food.
*Equipped armor*
You have 4 slots for equipped armor: body armor, leg armor, helmet, and gloves/gauntlets. The body, legs and head are each seperate areas that you can potentially be hit on. Your gloves simply provide general protection. It's a good idea to buy the best armor for a given weight range that you can afford, being careful to keep your encumberance manageable.
Armor cannot be "used up" or damaged beyond the condition you found or bought it in. That Tattered Leather Jacket may be tattered, but it's not going to fall apart (any more) on you.
*Encumberance*
The more protective your armor and the bigger your weapons, generally the more it will all weigh. Your current Encumberance is shown below the armor ratings for the armor you are currently wearing. The more you are carrying on your own person, the slower your on-foot running speed will be. There is a tradeoff between wearing a lot of armor, and being fast enough to not get hit in the first place. Increasing your Athletics skill can increase your running speed, thus negating some or all of the encumberance penalty. Items carried in your inventory do not contribute to your personal encumberance, but they can slow your party down during travel on the world map.
#PARTY MANAGEMENT#
Sooner or later you're going to come across a massive band of people that want to kill your (or at least redistribute your equipment and wealth to themselves), and you're going to think: "Wow, I wish I has some help." The good news is, help is out there! Building up your own massive band of intimidating warriors is not only possible, it's a very good idea.
A party is composed of two types of people:
- Heroes: Yourself and anybody else of skill and renown that you can convince to join your side. Heroes have individual names, and you can determine how each of them will level up by spending points on character development, the same way you can for your own character. To do this, "talk" to them.
- Minions: Those people you hire or rescue, who are, unfortunately, sword fodder. Nameless and faceless, it's best not to get too attached to these guys (or gals). They can gain experience and level into more powerful versions of themselves, but you cannot specify how they they spend their stat and skill points.
The party window is accessed by pressing 'P'. On the list in the top right corner, you can see a number of seperate slots. Each of these slots can contain one hero, or any number of one type of minion. Your maximum party size is also shown. If you have two slots free and a maximum size of 20, you can opt for 19 crossbowmen in one slot, or 5 crossbows in one and 14 milita in the other.
You can talk to party members from the party window, but only if you are on the world map. Exit out to the world map first if you are not there, then the Taklk button will be enabled. Talking to a minion can be useful to see what level they are or what skills they have. Talking to a hero lets you tell them how they should spend their level-up points, or you can give them new equipment to use.
Heroes can also seperate from your party and form their own party seperate from yours. If you do this, they will roam the world map on their own, fighting and capturing. If you like, you can even give a hero some of your own party's troops to help them: just walk your party up to theirs on the world map, and use the dialogue menu.
All active members of a party (those who aren't prisoners) can either be fit or wounded. If a hero is wounded, you will see their current health after their name as a percentage. Low numbers are bad. If a hired minion is wounded to the point of being unfit for duty, they will not be sent into battle. Instead, the number of troops who are fit is shown as a different number than the total number you have hired. If a slot's label reads "Farmer 3/5", then you have 5 farmers total, only 3 of whom are in a condition to fight.
*Hired troops*
Minions cost denari to hire, and more to pay their wages. They don't fight for you because they like your sparkling personality. They are payed weekly. The cost of your party's wages are shown in the bottom right corner of the party window. Be sure to have enough hard currency on hand to pay them between trade runs or hunting expeditions. Better soldiers require a higher wage: you can hire a small army of farmers with clubs and pitchforks for the same cost as a single armored knight ahorse, but you should consider the power and ability of the units in question.
Troops can be gotten from a town's Tavern, just ask about it. You can also attempt to gain new troops by freeing them from enemy parties. This negates their hiring cost, but also means you have to fight off their captors.
When you see the message "Some troops are ready to upgrade", you should open the party screen and see what your options are. Any troops with a + sign after their name have enough experience to upgrade into a more powerful troop. Click on their slot to see how many are ready to upgrade (they gain experience individually), and what you can make them become.
Sometimes you will have a choice of two different kinds of soldier that a given minion can become: for example, milita can become either footmen or skirmishers. Consider what kind of party you're building before upgrading, because you can't undo.
You do not have to upgrade troops as soonas they are able, or even at all if you don't want to pay for their higher wage. Another reason not to upgrade right away is so that the entire stack can gain experience and upgrade together, thus keeping them all in one slot.
If the burden of paying for some of your troops is just becoming too great, you can also choose to disband their unit. They leave instantly and permanently.
#MERCHANTS#
At cities and locations, you can usually find one or more people who are willing to do business with you. To talk to a merchant, just walk up to them until you see the "Talk" label, then press the Use key. You will have several options available, one of which will be to buy and sell things.
When you're shopping for goods, you have your own inventory on the right side, and that of the merchant on the left. You can arrange a deal by dragging things from his side to yours, or vice-versa. If you change your mind about the deal or an item, just look for things with a "Reclaim" or "Return" price instead of "Buy" or "Sell" and put them back on the other side. A faster way than dragging is to hold down the Ctrl key and click on the item. The cost or payment of the total offer is shown near the bottom-center of the screen. Merchants only accept hard cash or goods in barter, no credit.
All merchants will buy all types of goods, but not sell. The smithy has one person selling weapons and ammunition, and another selling armor. The city trading merchant sells horses and bulk goods.
Unless you have some skill in Trade, you will be forced to sell goods at a much reduced price than for what they would sell for. Hey, it's used! Trade is a party skill, meaning that as long as one of the heroes in your party has it you get the benefit.
*Trade routes*
At each city, there is generally one import product, and one export product. If you talk to the merchants in the cities, they will give you an idea of what they export and the best place to sell it, and what they will pay top denar for. Making a tidy profit on trade routes is as simple as finding a place that exports what another city imports: buy it cheap, sell it dear. Trade goods are heavy and bulky though, so you should either have enough spare horses to carry all your merchandise easily, or hire some guards for protection. Ideally both.
#TAVERNS#
It will cost you 1 denar per 3 people in your party to sleep at the tavern. If it's some time in the day, you can sleep until evening; or if it's night, you can sleep until morning. Sleeping is useful if you dislike one time or another, for healing up after a battle that didn't go according to plan, or even just staying somewhere safe while waiting for that huge party of enemies you barely outran to go somewhere else.
The other major function of the tavern is to offer troops for hire. Mostly these are just commoners who are offering themselves out due to financial troubles or because they have a romantic vision of war. Well, they'll learn soon enough. Sometimes you'll find some real soldiers available too. Select the type of troop you want to hire and click Hire to to sign them up one at a time. See the section on Parties for more information about hired troops.
#PRISONERS AND SLAVERY#
Since the land you live in has frontage on a sea, there is a fair amount of shipping traffic. And shipping traffic means galley slaves to row ships into harbor, or when the wind is not blowing the right way. There is a man in Zendar who will buy slaves from anybody who cares to offer them, if you don't have any moral problems with selling people into an ugly and probably very short career. They also have needs of slaves for grueling work at the Salt Mines.
To take somebody as prisoner, first you will need at least one point in the Prisoner Management skill. If you do not have this skill you will not be able to have any prisoners at all. In battle, you should use a weapon that does "blunt" damage, like clubs and hammers. These weapons will knock an enemy unconscious instead of instantly killing them. After the battle, if you win, you will be given a chance to take all unconscious enemies as prisoner.
If you have any prisoners in your party, you can drag them back to one of the two locations that buy slaves and turn them in for 20 denars per head. When you talk to the slave buyer, just say that you have some merchandise to offer. Click on the type of person you want to sell down in the lower-right corner to highlight their, and use the Sell button to release them one by one.
#COMBAT#
At some point, you're going to want to really hurt somebody. Or somebody is going to want to really hurt you, and you have to return the favor before you wind up dead. You should engage in battle only when strictly necessary or when you're confident of the outcome. Sending men into a battle when you're not reasonably certain to win is wasteful of lives and money. But if you must fight, fight well. You should have a good understanding of the weaponry available and how to use it before you venture out into the realm. Be sure to talk to the trainer in Zendar, as he has a lot of experience with teaching would-be adventurers how not to die.
*Weapon types and traits*
Each of the weapon proficiences has a different family of supported weapons that you can choose from. Which proficiency you choose will ultimately depend on which you enjoy playing the most. Some particular kinds of weapons also have special behaviours.
- One handed weapons: These offer the best mix of striking power and attacking sped. Some weapons have very limited reach, like a dagger or hatchet. These generally also do not allow you to parry with them because they are so small. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Two handed weapons: More reach, more power, less speed. Better on the attack than the defense, it will only take one or two hits by most of these to flatten an opponent. A two-handed weapon of note is the bastard sword: using both hands the weapon does more damage, but you can also choose to equip a shield and use it with one hand. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Polearms: These are all very long, giving the agile user a definite advantage against users who have weapons with less reach. They fall into two general categories: first, purely stabbing weapons like a spear, and second, polearms that perform other attacks like the glaive or quarterstaff. Some kinds of polearms require both hands to use them, especially longer or more unwieldy ones. Others can be used with one hand or two as you prefer: if used with both hands, they can chop and slash as well as stab, but you can also choose to equip a shield in which case you can only use them to stab. Some have minimum strength requirements to use them.
- Bows: A hand bow allows the user to launch arrows far beyond the accurate reach of a thrown missile. They come in many sizes, increasing in power with length or materials used. The hand bow is a faster and superior weapon to the crossbow, but also requires much more training to use effectively. Better bows have a minimum requirement in the Power Draw skill to use them.
- Crossbow: A crossbow allows a relatively unskilled user to aim accurately instead of relying on experience and intuition as with the hand bow, and is ideal for those who wish ranged capability without devoting the extensive time needed to master the hand bow. The crossbow must be reloaded manually after each shot: simply use the Attack button a second time to begin reloading. Note that you cannot move while reloading or the process will be aborted. More powerful crossbows will require more Strength to use them.
- Thrown weapons: All of these require only one hand, so are unique among the ranged weapons in that they allow you to use a shield at the same time. The compromise is that, while they can do a lot of damage, your throwing range and speed is much less than that of a bow or crossbow. Heavier thrown weapons will require points in the Power Throw skill.
*Damage*
Damage comes in three types:
- Cutting damage is applied by weapons with some kind of sharp blade, like sabers and axes.
- Piercing damage is applied by weapons that come to a fine point, like spears, thrusting swords and arrows. Piercing damage is generally more effective versus armor.
- Blunt damage is applied by things that batter and break but do not penetrate, like hammers and clubs. Blunt damage will knock an enemy unconscious without killing them, so they may be taken prisoner.
If you turn on the option "Show Damage", then when you score a hit (or recieve one,) you will be shown how much damage you applied and to whom.
*Fighting in melee*
The first thing to know if you're fighting with a melee weapon is how to defend yourself. By holding down the Right Mouse Button, you will raise your shield so that you block your opponent's strike. A shield can block all types of strokes that are coming from ahead of you, and can intercept incoming missile weapons. Pay close attention to your shield's durability, it takes damage with every hit it absorbs. Your shield is repaired automatically, but only after the fight is over. If it's wrecked during the fight.
However if you don't have a shield, then you can only use the Right Mouse Button to parry. Parrying can only block one type of stroke at a time, like an overhead chop, or a slash from the side. You can't stop missile weapons unfortunately. When you're parrying you should watch your opponent to see what kind of stroke he is starting to make, and quickly block once he starts his stroke. A quick weapon is better on defense than a big and heavy one. Don't try to parry too soon, or he will just change to a different type of stroke and bypass your defense.
Defense is almost always more important than attack. As long as you can keep an opponent's blade out of your body, then you can wait as long as it takes for the right moment to attack. When that right time comes, there are two key things to consider.
First, what kind of stroke do you want to try? When you're looking at an opponent you will see a yellow arrow pointing at him from some direction: if you use the Left Mouse Button to attack, this is the direction you'll attack from. A downward arrow means an overhead chop; a left-pointing arrow means a right-to-left slash, likewise for a right arrow. An upward pointing arrow will give you a thrusting or stabbing action. Not all weapons support all types of attack: stabbing somebody with a club wouldn't do much anyway. Stabs and overhead chops are harder to hit with, but may do more damage or a different kind of damage if your weapon has a sharp point; slashes are easier to hit with.
You choose which way you want to attack based on where you are looking relative to your opponent: if you are looking to the left of them, you get a left arrow and slash from right to left. Just as with your own defense, enemies parryng with their weapon can only block one stroke at a time, so if you change your mind quickly you can bluff your way past their guard. You can also try landing a hit on somebody using a shield by striking them just as they are about to strike you; they have to move their shield to attack. This is another case where a fast weapon has an advantage. Some weapons do different kinds of damage based on how you attack with them.
Second, how far away are they? The longer the weapon, obviously the farther away you can hit someone with it. A lance can poke somebody carrying a hatchet long before they get close enough to hack at you. You can use rapid movement to get yourself into range of your weapon when you are ready to attack, and then step back quickly before they can recover and hit you back.
*Fighting at range*
If you're carrying a ranged weapon, you can attempt to hit the enemy before they can hit you back. Unless of course, they also have a ranged weapon. Users of the bow and crossbow cannot use a shield since their weapon requires both hands. If you have a thrown weapon you can use a shield if you like.
To launch a missile from a ranged weapon, turn to face the target and hold down the Left Mouse Button. This will cause the targeting indicator, a large white circle, to shrink down as you aim. You should release the button promptly when the indicator is at its smallest. If you wait too long, muscle fatigue sets in and your aim will wander. A high level of skill can increase the amount of aiming time you have. Crossbows allow you to aim as long as you like, since you are not constantly fighting the bowstring while trying to aim. If at any time you wish to stop aiming your shot, click the Right Mouse Button.
The amount of ammunition you have left is shown just above your remaining health. Missile ammunition is refilled for free, automatically at the end of a battle. But during the battle you are limited to whatever you have in your quiver, unless you go back to your inventory and retrieve more if you have it. A good tactic for characters who depend heavily on ranged weapons is to carry more than one bag of ammunition in their equipped weapons list.
The missile from a ranged weapon can go anywhere inside the target indicator when you release it. Characters who are not very good with a bow will have to depend pretty much on luck to hit anything until they get more practice. Trying to use a ranged weapon from a moving horse is also very difficult, and you'll not be very accurate unless you have skill points in the Horse Archery skill.
Missiles also have some amount of arc to them: that is, the farther away from your target you are, the more you need to aim over their head so that the projectile falls down to them when it reaches that distance. The Zoom key can be invaluable here (hold Shift) because you can watch your shot to see where it lands in relation to the target and adjust your aim. Thrown weapons have a much more dramatic arc than arrows and bolts, which limits their effective range.
If you are shooting at an enemy with a shield, and he realizes it, he will simply block your projectile with his shield. You can get around this by having an ally distract the enemy so that he's not facing your direction. Shooting somebody in the back isn't perhaps very honorable, but trust us: he'd do the same to you. If you're confident of your abilities and only facing one opponent, you could also wait until he gets within with range and lowers his shield to attack you. You then have a very brief window of oppourtunity to get a shot in before they gut you. You can break a shield with many ranged hits, but it will require a lot of ammunition.
A last note, it is wise to pack a backup weapon unless you are very confident of your own capabilities and your party's ability to distract the enemy. If you run out of ammunition, or a melee enemy starts landing hits on you, a ranged weapon is no use at all.
*Fighting with a lance*
Lances and most other kinds of polearms can be used from horseback in a special kind of attack. This involves getting up to a high enough speed, "couching" your weapon (grasping it firmly under your arm), then running it through an enemy. This type of attack can deliver tremendous damage, and cannot be blocked with a shield, but is tricky to pull off.
First, the prerequisites. You need to be on a horse, capable of a moderate speed of 6 or more. So don't try lancing from the back of a lame mule. A high Agility is also a desirable trait for your horse since it makes maneuvering for and landing your hit easier. You also need a polearm. Lances, spears, military forks, and many more are all suitable weapons. A longer weapon is usually more desirable than one that does higher damage, because it means you can hit the enemy before he can take a swing at you (or your horse).
Get some distance between you and the enemy forces, then slow and turn around to face them. Spur your horse up to its maximum speed. If your mount is fast enough, you will drop your weapon from an upright carrying position to a horizontal killing position. DO NOT TOUCH THE ATTACK BUTTON: The lancing attack is automatic, provided you have enough speed and a suitable weapon. What you need to do is turn your horse as you come up on the enemy, so that your weapon's point impales them. It's easiest to aim the lance if you position your camera view so that you're looking down the lance instead of from one side or the other. If you're attacking troops on foot, you will need to look down at them slightly or the point will pass over their head. On the other hand, if you're attacking other horsemen, keep your view fairly high so that the lance hits the man and not the horse (unless you are actually trying to kill it).
*Fighting from horseback*
There are some special things to note when you're fighting from the back of a horse, both for melee and for ranged weapons.
For one- or two-handed weapons (not polearms), note that you can swing either to the left or right of the horse. Which way you are looking will determine which side you swing on. If you are halted, then you will also be able to stab or chop. When striking at a person on foot, the best tactic is to hold the attack button to draw back your weapon as you get close, but hold your stroke and release a split second AFTER you pass them, not just as you are passing; looking off to the side as you ride by can show the proper time best until you get used to it. Also, with a horse, you can knock the person down, which is extremely useful if they are carrying a shield or are braced to parry your stroke. Simply maneuver the horse to have its shoulder collide with the person. Note that this doesn't work well against foot soldiers with polearms, because they can sometimes get a hit at your horse before they are knocked down.
For ranged weapons, first, your accuracy and damage will suffer a great deal if you do not have the skill Horse Archery and attempt to launch your missile while moving. An unmoving horse does not have this penalty but you are obviously easier to hit like this. Hand bows can only shoot to the left side of the horse, because you're holding the bow with your left hand. Sorry, no option for left-eyed archers. Crossbows can fire to either side, but note that only the Hunting and Light crossbows can be reloaded on horseback; the others can be fired, but not reloaded.
#THE WORLD MAP#
The world map shows the entire region, and is how you will move to different cities and locations. To get to the world map, just press Tab if you're currently controlling your character; menus will have a way to get out of them. Once you're there, moving your party on the world map is as simple as clicking the left button where you want to go, and waiting while your party is in transit. Time will pass normally for everybody while you are moving, but you can pause time at any point by pressing Spacebar. Time will also pause automatically when you reach your destination.
*Parties*
Yours is not the only group in the world; as you travel, you will see other parties moving around the map as well. Some friendly, some hostile, and some totally disintersted in you.
The number above a party indicate how many people are in that party. If there is a second number after a plus sign, like "+8", this shows how many additional prisoners are being held by that party. Hold your cursor over a party to get a detailed rundown on what kind of units are in that group. Just because the party name says it's one thing, doesn't mean that the entire group is all the same type of unit.
The distance you can see other parties at is adjusted by the party skill Spotting. If you have several ranks in this, you can see enemies before they see you and maneuver appropriately, a valuable benefit. Note that travelling at night will reduce the Spot radius of all parties on the map.
*Speed*
Your world map speed is influenced by four things:
- The kind of troops in your party. Mounted troops are obviously faster than unmounted. If your entire group is Horsemen, then you'll be galloping along at a much better clip than rank-and-file Footmen can sustain.
- The amount of weight in your inventory. This is mostly a factor if you're trading bulky goods. If you're trading or just carrying a lot of 'stuff', and would rather not bog down to walking speed, consider purchasing some cheap horses to serve as baggage animals: they only have to be in the party inventory (or in the inventory of another hero) to help your speed.
- Terrain. Moving over clear ground at daylight is fastest. You will suffer a speed penalty if you are travelling through a forest, or at night.
- The party skill Pathfinding adds 3% to your speed per rank.
Depending on the type of party you have assembled (or haven't assembled!), speed can be the deciding line between life and death. Unless you have the men to fight off anybody who takes an interest in your group, then travelling slower than potential enemies in your area is a bad idea.
*Tracking*
On the world map, if you have anybody in the party with the Tracking skill, you will see colored arrows on the ground. These arrows indicate tracks or signs of movement that a party has made as they travel through this area. The color shows how old the track is (red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue) and the size shows roughly how big the party was. And which way they went obviously. Move your cursor over a tracking arrow to get more information. If your skills are high, you get a gradually better estimate of how many people were in the party, and eventually even who they were.
#BATTLES#
When two hostile parties meet on the world map, you will be shown the battle screen after you talk some smack at eachother. Here you will be given several choices depending on the parties involved.
- Leave the battle: Run away! Nobody exchanges any blows so there are no casualties on either side. This option is not always available, especially if you are the slower party or outnumbered.
- Send your troops in: If you have some men under your command, you can opt to stay back from the fight and send them in without you. This should be used with caution. Generally your troops will not fight so well without you on the line beside them, but it can save time and hassle if the fight looks to be a slaughter. The other advantage here is that if you take the field personally, you cannot leave until all enemies are defeated or you yourself are. If you have a large party, you can wear down enemies through sheer attrition. You will be shown a summary after the mission of the result of your troop's efforts.
- Attack the enemy: Charge! Lead your men into battle personally. Which units you actually deploy with into the mission is random, but based primarily on their placement in your party list: units that appear sooner on the list have a higher chance of appearing. Use the "Move up" and "Move down" buttons in the party window before entering the battle to influence what units you will fight alongside.
If you have joined a battle that was already in progress and one side is hostile to you, instead of fighting alone you join your allies' cause and fight the battle with a mixed force of their troops and your own.
If you have joined a battle and neither side is your enemy, your only choice will be to not get involved. The battlefield is not the appropriate place to make a political statement by joining one side or the other on a whim.
*Missions*
A battle is fought over the course of one or more 'missions', based on the option "Battle Size" in the options window. "Battle Size" dictates the maximum number of troops can be deployed by either side into the mission, so if you set it to 20, then you can only mop up 10 enemies per mission. A large party will take quite a while to grind through, be it yours or theirs.
Troops that are killed or wounded in one mission will be dead or wounded for all remaining missions in the battle. Likewise, the health levels of heroes is carried over from one mission to the next. You can disengage from a battle after a mission if you want to, but by doing this you forfeit all battlefield salvage from enemies you have defeated up to that point.
Over the course of a mission, troops will continue to arrive in the area. Enemy reinforcements as well as friendly can arrive after a mission has begun. Only those parties that started the mission can have reinforcement waves: another party cannot join from the world map.
A mission is over once one side's troops including reinforcements are entirely defeated (dead or unconscious). A battle is likewise over when one party is entirely slain or wounded.
You can abort a mission once it's started by pressing the Tab key if you are far enough from enemy forces to escape. Not all of your men may be so lucky: some may be killed or wounded as they try to disengage. Only try to retreat if things are looking very grim.
*Tactical advantage*
Choosing the right time to attack and the right ground to attack on is often just as important as picking and equipping the right men. Before you deploy into a mission you should see what the current tactical situation is. The number here indicates how much an advantage or disadvantage you are at if you choose to begin this mission.
Normally, a mission is split down the middle between friendly and hostile forces if the two combating parties are roughly equal in number. If your maximum battle size is 20, then there will be a maximum of 10 friendlies and 10 hostiles in the mission. Tactical advantage modifies this division in a good or bad manner. A positive modifier means that the balance of power will be shifted in your favor: you will be able to deploy more troops into the mission than your opponent. Negative modifiers mean you will be outnumbered during the mission. Your tactical advantage is modified by the party skill Tactics, and by the total number of troops that are in the parties of the combatants.
This isn't always a cause to immediately panic. If you have three armored knights and they have a dozen guys wearing skins and throwing rocks, it won't really hurt to be outnumbered since your men will carve theirs up like so much ham. Other times, a negative tactical advantage is an indication that you should be looking for the nearest escape route unless you're very skilled in combat.
*Commands*
As the leader of your party and a hero of promising skill, you will always be given command of the allied forces on a mission. Choosing the right commands to give your men can very often be the dividing line between victory and defeat.
- Hold this position: '1' key. Instructs your men to stay within a short distance of where you are currently standing. They will fire ranged weapons if they have one, but will not move to engage the enemy in melee unless the enemy comes close enough. Most useful to have your men stay on defensive ground of some kind, for example, if you have mostly foot soldiers then you could have them hold position near a steep incline to help protect them from cavalry charges.
- Follow me: '2' key. Your men will fall in around you, or travel to wherever you are, and stay close as you move.
- Charge: '3' key. Give your men permission to break ranks and pursue the enemy individually.
- Dismount: '4' key. Sometimes you will want your mounted troops to fight on foot, usually if the mission's terrain is not conducive to cavalry.
- Mount: '5' key. Reverse the Dismount decision, all troops who arrived on a horse will return to their mount and climb aboard.
*Losing*
The enemy was too powerful. The sun was in your archers' eyes. The meat was undercooked and you spent half the night at the latrine. You hate Mondays. Whatever went wrong, we understand. Nobody can expect to win all the time in a sport so complex and unforgiving as combat, and the sooner you can analyze what went wrong and patch your men up, the sooner you can exact revenge.
- If you sent your men in without you, and they were all defeated, then you can withdraw and hope that the enemy force doesn't pursue you.
- If you went into battle personally and were defeated, but you still have troops in your party in fighting condition, they will drag you out and patch you up as best they can. At that point you can choose to flee, or to engage the enemy again.
- Finally, if you are defeated and there are no troops left to rescue you, the battle is over and you have lost. The enemy may take some or all of your troops as prisoners, and will help themselves to the supplies and equipment carried by your baggage train. You will keep your experience for personal kills during the battle, but no more will be awarded.
*Winning*
If on the other hand, your forces are victorious, you will gain three key things when the enemy party is defeated.
First, you may help yourself to anything that the enemy troops carried. Usually it will be pretty beat up but sometimes you can find pristine eqiupment. Weapons, armor, ammunition, even their food and mounts are yours for the taking. Note that you'll never be able to salvage absolutely everything, but only a random selection. Looting the battlefield works just like buying goods at a merchant, but here there is no cost.
Second, you can take any unconscious enemies as prisoners and later sell them as slaves. Remember that to knock an enemy out without killing them, you need to use a weapon that does 'blunt' damage. If you sent in your men without you, sometimes they can manage to beat an enemy or two into submission for you, but if you take the field they will geneally be more bloodthirsty and kill enemies outright unless they are equipped with blunt weapons.
And last, you will get a large amount of experience above and beyond whatever you personally earned for enemies defeated. This experience is shared amongst the entire party, so you will not get all of it unless you fought alone. As commander, you get the largest portion: 7 shares of the available experience. Other heros in your party get 3 shares each. Lastly, hired minions get 1 share each. For example. If you have six minions in your party, there are 13 shares: 7 for you, and 6 for the minions. If the party earned 1000 experience for the battle, then you get 7/13ths (53
, and your troops get 1/13th each (77).
