Warlord ======= A. Setting And Objective ------------------------ The game is set in the 'Kamakura' period in Japan and the year at the start of play is 1201. You are the ruler of a small coastal village which supports itself by slave labour and upon the fruits of raids against other villages. You in turn are always liable to attack from other villages or by pirates and weak rule or too many military defeats will lead to your overthrow or murder. Your force comprises troops of your own village. Samurai who are retained by yourself and mercenaries whom you are able to hire. Your objective is to survive and rule as long as possible. The criteria for success are given in section C (below). B. The Play ----------- The game is played in years and divides into two distinct parts; the opening phase during which you make the decisions for the rule of your village furing the year, and the battle phase during which you may be attacked and the results of any of your own raiders become known. The central reference point is the Option Menu which allows access to your statement of resources at the start of each year. These figures will always vary slightly each game and you are also given your tally of victories and defeats. B1. Opening Phase ----------------- To start the game you must select your level of play (1-3). The game plays similarly at each level but the two higher levels allow for some of your opponents to start with large forces and to have improved fighting efficiencies, whereas some of your opening resources may be reduced. At the start of each year, your Treasury receives an income of 400 Mon p.a. but this will reduce to 200 Mon after year 1219. B2. Option Menu --------------- At the beginning of each year you will be asked to make any or all of the following decisions. Once made, a decision cannot usually be altered and the sequence in which decisions are made may affect your course of action with other options. "Option no longer available" indicates that this option will not become available again during the current year, and sometimes it may be unavailable for the rest of the game. a. Troops - Your troops but not your mercenaries form a part of your total population figure. You cannot train troops if the total of troops exceeds 1/3rd total population. The cost is 2.5 Mon each to train. b. Build Ships - Your merchant ships have a limited carrying capacity and are used to import and export food. They are liable to attack by pirates but may be used to carry up to 50 troops per ship to attack pirates. Cost 30 Mon each to build. c. Hire Samurai - Samurai are maintained as a separate force and always fight independently of your army and will only fight against other Samurai. They are used in combat challenge. d. Attack Pirates - Limit imposed on the size of the force, and the troops are away for the full year. The reward is to remove the risk of pirate attack, capture ships, money and mercenaries. The risks are casualties, loss of ships and a weakened army for that year. e. and f. Food - The purchase and selling prices of food vary each year. Money and food units are altered immediately on import/export without having to wait until the end of the year. At the year end you may discover that your fleet has been attacked by pirates who may capture some of your ships and the whole of the cargoes being carried. The the case of imports, this means that the food originally credited will now be deducted but the Mon you have paid remains as your loss. For exports, the good is lost to your stores but the Mon already credited to your treasury must be repaid to the purchaser and is deducted. g. Make a Raid - These can be made for one of three prizes, food, slaves or gold. Raids can fail and casualties may result. The amount of the commodity you capture is determined by the size of the force of troops which you send, not all the commodities give as profitable a return. The troops are absent for the whole year. g. Hire Mercenaries - At the start of each year you can accept up to 1/2 of the mercenaries you currently retain into membership of your village. The advantages are: i. You do not have to pay troops but you do pay mercenaries 1 Mon per year. ii. Mercenaries are more likely to desert. iii. Mercenaries suffer heavier casualties. iv. Mercenaries have lower fighting efficiency. The disadvantages is that you have to feed the extra troops but do not need to feed mercenaries. To hire additional mercenaries you must make an immediate payment of 1/2 Mon per man. Victories will bring additional mercenaries into your forces, free of charge, but all mercenaries must be paid 1 Mon each at the end of the year. If you have insufficient money then all your funds will be dispersed among the mercenaries and a large number will rebel and leave your employ. s. Status Report - Gives access to your statement of resources on which all your changes from the above options are shown. x. To Proceed - Gives access to the second phase of the game, with a safety check to ensure that you don't accidentally progress before all your decisions have been made. B3. Food Production ------------------- All members of your population not undergoing army training or service or building ships are available to grow food on three qualities of land. A - Best land, variable acreage but guaranteed yield of 1.5 units of food per worker. B - Middle grade, variable acreage and variable yield per worker. C - Poorest land, fixed acreage, guaranteed yield of 7 units of food per worker. Note: If workers exceed land available then some workers cannot be used. A second safety check allows you to alter the allocation of workers before progressing to the Battle phase. You will generally find it very difficult to *grow* sufficient food to feed your population. Insufficient food will lead to starvation which will reduce both your population and army and will normally lead to a challenge to your leadership. B4. Battle Phase ---------------- During the course of each year, it is likely that you will be attacked by armies of varying size. It is your decision in each case whether to fight or not and, if so, on the size of army you are prepared to commit to the battle. The consequences of choosing not to fight will soon become apparent and this will be reflected in the number of defeats in the display at the beginning of each year. If you fight and lose, the consequences will be more severe. e.g. casualties, tribute, etc. When you win, you will suffer casualties but more mercenaries will join you and you will gain tribute. To assist your decisions, there is a current tally of your Troops (T), Samurai (SAM), Food (F) and Money (MON) displayed on the screen. You will also find that you may have the option of attacking one of your opponents, in this case the enemy cannot refuse to fight. Each of the enemy armies have differing fighting efficiencies which vary each game and also vary with the level of play. After the battle the enemy also suffers casualties and when his forces falls below 100 he will surrender rewarding you with additional food and population. (In all Combat and Battle graphic displays your force is always on the left of the screen.) B5. Combat Challenge -------------------- Three of the opposing Warlords have Samurai forces who may challenge you to combat. Acceptance or refusal is similar to the Battle Phase above with tribute and casualties. However, you have no option to attack these forces, and refusal does not increase your tally of defeats. B6. Leadership Challenge ------------------------ Under certain circumstances such as outlined in para B3 (above), your poor leadership may result in a challenge from one of your own Samurai. You cannot refuse this personal combay and on each occasion within the game your chances of victory are reduced. If you are victorious, the dead challenger will be deducted from your total of Samurai. Note: In Combat Challenge you must always use your total Samurai force. In Battle with opposing armies it should be noted that if you fight with a force that is *smaller* than your opponent's, then: i) if you fight with less than 1/6th of your *total* of Troops and Mercenaries, then the enemy will attack your entire army. ii) if you fight with between 1/6th and 1/4 of your *total* of Troops & Mercenaries then this will be treated as a refusal to fight and Tribute must be paid. This latter can be used as an escape from Battle where you have the Option of attacking an opponent. C. Criteria for Success/Failure ------------------------------- Game end is signalled by: a. Success. You have defeated all the opposing Samurai forces and all your opponent's armies have surrendered. b. After 30 years without a clear-cut result you will die of old age. c. Peace. If all your opponent's armies have surrendered but you have insufficient Samurai to conquer the opposing Samurai then a truce will be declared. d. Killed in combat in a Leadership Challenge, or in Combat Challenge. D. Loading ---------- CLOAD "WL" (RETURN) The game will load and run automatically.