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Richard the Lionheart is building his forces for the Third Crusade - your men are scattered throughout the forest of mediaeval England, and Prince John's army is tracking you down.

On the screen, you will see lettered squares representing your crusaders - to collect a group, you need only move onto the square which they occupy by pressing the cursor keys. You may collet them in any order, but the higher lettered squares represent a greater number of men. To proceed to the Holy Land, you need to leave England via the bottom right hand corner of the screen with at least 450 men - the number you have with you at any time is displayed at the top left. Some groups may at first be surrounded by dense forest, through which you cannot pass.

Prince John's army, however, pursue a scorched earth policy, destroying the forest as they home in on you, and you can turn this to your advantage to create a route to your trapped men by using yourself as bait, luring the prince's forces onto the patches of forest which are obstructing you. You must be careful not to attract the prince's forces onto a square occupied by the men you are seeking, as they will be destroyed.

Prince John's army will also defeat you in battle if they occupy a square next to your town. the enemy army will be exhausted when they destroy their tenth plot of forest, but a fresh army will emerge to challenge you. You can throw Prince John's army off your trail temporarily by passing north or south of him. You will be asked to choose a skill level for this phase of the adventure - 1 is the most difficult - and this will affect the speed at which Prince John's army homes in on you. You should bear in mind that your choice of skill level will also be taken into account when assessing your performance in the Holy Land.

Move by pressing the keys for North, South, East or West.

On the opposite side of the river, you will see the Sultan's castle. At present, your strength is insufficient for you to attack it. The coloured square at the top right assesses your chances of success in storming the castle - we'll leave you to judge the meaning of the three colours. The other symbols represent villages, food stores and caves, which you visit in turn in an attempt to find means of increasing your army's number and strength. Strength is affected by the number of men in your army, its equipment, and the skill level you chose in phase one.

You can obtain a list of current equipment by pressing Inventory. Among your equipment on arrival is a boat, with which you can re-cross in future. If you become involved in a battle, press the Spacebar to stop the fight as frequently as you wish, then choose a course of action from those offered. In the final battle, press the Spacebar to enact each round of the fight. There is no retreat.

CLOAD (ENTER)
RUN (ENTER)