Adventurer Kings

Epic Adventures and Imperial Conquest

Game Design and Development: David Snell

Additional development: Roland Danard

Playtesting: Rich Eisenman, David Hunt, Bill Livesay, Bill Paxton, and others

Illustrations : D.R. Willis

 

Copyright 1991-1997 Ark Royal Games

Copyright 1992-2018 Productions Roland DANARD for the multi-language version and the email adaptation.

All rights reserved

Rules version 1.3 - August 1996

[1.0] INTRODUCTION

"Adventurer-Kings" is a game set in a medieval world filled with magic, treasure, monsters and armies. There are 8 to 12 players in each game. A player controls one King, his armies and treasures, and any Heroes which he hires to serve him. Each turn, a player sends in a set of moves for his "Adventurer King" (or Queen, for that matter) and his Heroes. These moves cover the King's activities for one year in the medieval world.

[1.1] Game Components

The map has (in a standarg game) a total of 162 provinces. Some of the land provinces are initially controlled by player Kings, and the remaining land provinces are defended by 1-4 armies and (usually) a Hero. These non-player-controlled Heroes do not attack you or go on adventure. Each player starts out with the ownership of one province. No King will start closer than three provinces away from another. Each province has a terrain type, native race, army type and tax base. As you explore the world, more sections of the map become known to you.

Terrain types are plains, deserts, forests, jungle, mountains, and seas. About half of the provinces are seas. Many of the provinces contain additional features, such as a dungeon, dragon lair, abandoned castle, pyramid, wizard's tower and so on. They are usually defended by a monster which guards a treasure.

Native races can be human, elven, dwarven, orcish, eagles, dragons or whales. Humans are by far the most common race. Each province may have one or two of the army types.listed in the Army Type Table. The taxation value of a province can range from 0 to 10.

When you come adjacent to a province, it will usually be described as Rich (7-10 tax), Prosperous (3-6 tax) or Poor (0-2 tax). If a province's wealth is not described, then for most terrains you can assume that it's Prosperous (but for Sea or Desert, assume Poor.) On average, a Rich province will be defended by 3 armies, Prosperous by 2 armies, Poor by 1 army (although sea provinces which are occupied by no races will still be undefended.)

[1.2] Kingdoms

Each player starts out with a King, a few subordinate Heroes, one province, some armies and a treasury of 10 gold. The province, Heroes and army are assigned to the player by the computer, but the player can select four skill levels for his King from the 15 available abilities.

[1.3] Character Actions

There are five action phases in each gameturn, corresponding to Spring, Early Summer, Late Summer, Fall and Early Winter. A player may give one order to his King and each of his Heroes per phase. He may choose from among the following actions:

[1.4] Turn Results

The turn results are informative, comprehensive and written in descriptive prose with supporting charts and tables. Here's what you receive each turn:

[1.5] Victory

Long ago, the world was reigned over by a great Emperor who enforced justice and maintained world peace. But the Empire was torn apart by the petty disputes of small-minded nobles, and the world plunged into a dark age of barbarism. After centuries of warfare, strong kings who dream of a second Empire have begun to emerge in different parts of the world. You are such a King. Your goal is to reunite the Empire under your rule, and to maintain the Empire by awarding high office to those men who have demonstrated the most merit for such an honor, regardless of their creed.

There are a total of 8 major Imperial Offices, each of which will be awarded at the end of the game to the character who has piled up the most Merit Points for the office. The highest office is World Emperor, awarded to the player who has the largest tax base support at the end of the game. Each office comes with a percentage prize share. The standing of the player in the game is decided by the prize share of the Imperial Offices he controls.

[1.6] Terrains

Terrain type Average taxation Basic exploration Length of battle line (in #armies) Random encounter chance
Plain 6 50% 5 - 10 10%
Desert 2 25% 5 - 10 15%
Jungle 4 10% 3 - 6 25%
Forest 5 15% 3 - 6 20%
Mountain 5 15% 1 - 3 15%
Sea 1 25% (*) 5 - 10 5%

(*) There is only a small chance of finding a feature in a Sea province.

The chance of encountering monsters applies to Move, Pursue, Trail, Explore and Search actions. It does not apply when a character Moves or Pursues with an army, and is halved when the character is within the boundaries of the Kingdom.

[2.0] CHARACTERS

Adventurer-Kings is centered on characters. Each character has skill in at least one ability. Skill in an ability is rated from level 1 to level 9. Secret special spells and abilities are attainable at high levels of ability (skill level 5+ ).

Some special abilities are fairly minor, others are average, and others are potentially quite powerful. The usual percentages increases for an ability may or may not continue, and sometimes they'll only be given when you reach certain levels. Some advanced abilities will allow you to override a rules restriction in some minor way, so if you get a report of another player doing something that normally isn't allowed, that could be the reason why. Also if a special ability gained by someone else seems too strong, it may be because there are limitations that only the other player knows about. The special abilities can also vary from game to game.

Characters can raise their skill by practicing, or by performing actions related to those abilities (see the Experience Table for more details.) Each character also has an aptitude for each ability which determines how hard he has to work in order to rise in that ability. If a character practices an ability, his chances of success are lessened if he is trying to attain a level beyond his natural aptitude.

Characters also have a race (Human, Elven, Dwarven, Orcish), an Alignment (Divine, Good, Druidic, Neutral, Pagan, Evil, Undead) and a Temper (Cowardly, Cautious, Brave or Berserk). Temper affects the character's conduct in personal combat. Characters get along better with other characters of their own race, and each race usually favors one army type and terrain (for example, Elven armies fight better as bowmen and in forests.)

Each alignment has its own special benefits, shown in the Alignment Table. Alignment also affects victory conditions (if you can't win, it will improve your standing in the game if a King of a similar alignment wins.) Lastly, alignment affects hiring. Neutral characters have an advantage because a King can rarely hire a character with an alignment more than two steps removed from his own alignment. Undead and Divine Kings, while powerful, are disadvantaged as only about 40% of heroes will serve these alignments. To explain the essential beliefs of the seven alignments:

Characters may move freely on land or sea, and can move through enemy or neutral provinces without fear of capture if unencumbered by armies (the code of honor of this game-world forbids such capture.) They may carry any number of magic items. Armies can move only if they are with characters. If a character is given an order to move, and the move would be illegal for any of the armies led by him, the move is not allowed. There are two kinds of characters: Kings and Heroes.

[2.1] Kings

The 10 or so lowest-numbered characters in the game are Kings. No more than one King of Divine or Undead alignment is permitted per game. At the start of the game, the player assigns the King's name, race, temper, alignment and four ability levels. The King can have four abilities start at level 1, or 2 abilities at level two, and so on, but can't assign more than 2 points to any ability. If a player picks Naval ability for his king, the King will be given the Fleet army-type and placed in a province next to the ocean. When a player picks a race, he is guaranteed to get the preferred army type of that race, listed with the Army Type Table. Orcish Kings will always be given Warg Riders as their second army type, unless they have selected Naval ability.

Kings also automatically get a +1 modifier to their skill in Melee, Archery and Sage, which reflects their royal training and education. A Divine King receives a +1 modifier to his White Magic skill, and starts with zero aptitude in Necromancy skill. An Undead King receives a +1 modifier to his Necromancy skill, and starts with an zero aptitude in White Magic skill. The starting aptitude of a King is always 2 higher than his initial skill, to a maximum of 5. Undead and Divine Kings cannot start with any ability in a skill in which they have zero aptitude.

[2.2] Heroes

Heroes start with an average of 2-3 ability levels. Kingdoms start with one hero of the same alignment as the king, and one hero of an adjacent alignment, except that a Divine king starts with heroes of Good alignment and an Undead King starts with heroes of the Undead and Evil alignment. Unemployed Heroes wander from one province to another, sometimes staying in the same province for a turn or more, until they are hired. They move at the end of a game turn, so if you are told the location of a Hero, you know he will stay there until the end of the turn. A King is notified when a Hero enters a province he owns, or may encounter him in other provinces of the world.

[2.3] Alignments

Alignment Reduction/ Alignment Difference Magic Aptitude Special Aptitude Special Abilities
Divine 20% None None 50% Fanaticism
+1 White Magic
Resurrection to Good Alignment
Pay heroes as if Divine=Good
Good 12% White Sage 40% Fanaticism
Druidic 15% Psychic Druid Automatic Treat
Neutral 20% Illusory Spy Order of Duelists
Pagan 15% Elemental Explorer Order of Magicians
Evil 12% Necromancy Thief 25% Fanaticism
Automatic Break
Undead 20% None None 100% Skeletal Fanaticism
Automatic Break Treaty
Necromantic Charm Spell
+1 Necromancy

At first glance, the Reduction/Alignment Difference column seems to favor Good and Evil characters, but counteracting this is the fact that Neutral characters are, on the average, closer to the other alignments and can hire characters of any alignment.

Under "Magic Aptitude" and "Special Aptitude" are listed abilities which characters of the given alignment are especially good at. Their starting aptitude is doubled for these abilities, up to level 5.

Special alignments:

The following rules apply to both alignments:

[2.4] Tempers

Temper Special Effects Flight from Combat Refusal
Berserk Rage
Intimidation		 Never Never
Brave Elan When odds seem unfavorable and the risk of receiving a death blow seems large Never
Cautious Parrying
Fleeing		 When the risk of receiving a death blow seems significant 1 - 50%
Cowardly Begging for mercy
Bluffing		 When death possible; may also flee after any harmful blow 50 - 100%

Rage: The Berserker does not really notice a damaging blow, and this psychological fortitude gives him 1-4 extra hit points.

Intimidation: Opponents are cowed and have less chance to hit in melee (Brave -5%, Cautious -10%, Cowardly -15%.)

Elan: The man with Elan is bold in combat and never hesitates to instantly take advantage of an opening in melee. He gets a +10% chance to hit.

Parrying: The Cautious man is expert at parrying, and his opponents have a -10% chance to hit.

Fleeing: 10% is added to the chance of success when attempting to Flee.

Begging for mercy: In addition to fleeing, a Coward may plead for mercy in order to escape death. Begging works best against Good characters and characters of similar alignment. On the average, it has a 50-50 chance of working.

Bluffing: In battle duels, the Coward makes excuses 2/3 of the time ("warhorse is sick", etc.), thus avoiding the 25% demoralization. The coward's "Bluff" ability is only used when the character actually enters the duel (in other words, when an "FL" is not at the start of his encounter plan.) It is used only when the coward has "refused to enter combat" according to the temper table.

Note: A cowardly or cautious King will never refuse combat, although they may well flee from combat after they take damage.

[3.0] ACTIONS

Each character is allowed 5 actions per game turn. If a player misses a turn, the computer generates Defend actions for his characters. Late turns will be accepted, but any moves that conflict with other players, and even attacks on non-player provinces adjacent to other player Kingdoms, will be disallowed.

The computer first does every character's first action, then it resolves every character's second action, and so on. The characters with the highest total ability levels (including all increases for magic items and sage discoveries) generally go first, with March ability counted three times.

One exception is that when a character is ordered to Defend, he will always go last.

Another exception occurs when two characters (A & B) are in the same province, and character B wants to do something non-aggressive for or with character A (such as Recruit, Leave or Pick Up armies, casting favorable spells, friendly Encounters and Giving magic items.) In this situation, character A will wait for character B. Also, when character A is coming into a province where character B has plans to do something for character A, even if character B has higher initiative, he will wait for the character A before performing the action. The characters must be of the same kingdom.

Another exception is when a character Pursues another character, and they are in the same province, the Pursuing character will go right after the Pursued character.

If two characters are tied after all this, the lower-numbered character goes first.

The following actions are now explained in detail:

[3.1] Move (MO)

The character Moves to an adjacent province. You cannot Move to a non-adjacent province. If the character has an army with him and the province is occupied by a enemy army, combat occurs. Moving into a province also counts as a partial exploration of the province, with half the effect of an Explore order. If a character Moves into a province for the first time, all unexplored adjacent provinces are described in general terms (terrain, race and ruler). This description counts as a 1% exploration. Unconquered non-player land provinces will usually be defended by 1 or 2 armies. Non-player sea provinces are undefended unless inhabited by whales or mermen. When an army leader Moves into an enemy province, any enemy armies in that province who had been ordered to move away and haven't yet moved out of the province, stay for the battle instead, unless they are sent to an adjacent province by a general who has Defend orders.

If a character is ordered to move to a hex number, but is not adjacent to it, he will move towards it (through friendly hexes, if possible.) The movement order will override orders in a subsequent phase only if the character is practicing in that phase.

The character will stop chasing the province if he can't find a legal way to move closer to it in one phase.

If there are two possible provinces that are both closer to the target province, the following priorities are used:

  1. Owned or Allied-player hex;
  2. Enemy-player hex;
  3. Hero-owned hex;
  4. Neutral-player hex.

[3.2] Explore (EX)

The character may Explore the province he is in, which allows a chance of finding a feature such as a dungeon or pyramid. There can sometimes be more than 1 feature in a province. The character is told the name of the feature, the treasure that legend says lies within, and the monster guarding the treasure. The Basic Exploration Number for each terrain type is listed in the Terrain Table. An exploration will result in (Basic Exploration Number x (Skill in Explorer Ability + 1))% of the province. A character must Explore 100% of the province to make sure that everything in the province has been found. Exploration also may uncover battlefields, in which case you will be informed which soldiers have fallen in the province. You can explore a province even if its been 100% explored, with the object of learning whether there are destroyed armies in the province. This is useful for the Skeletal Armies spell. Exploration does not reveal information on armies or leaders in the province.

Sometimes you get rumours of previously unheard-of features in your turn reports. About half of these rumours are true, but the rest are false in some respect: the treasure may not actually be there, and/or the feature may be in a different province (although its usually at least next to the rumoured province.)

Monsters are described when they are first discovered, as follows:

Weak 7-12 hit points
- 13-19 hit points
Large/Strong 20-29 hit points
Powerful 30-44 hit points
Very Powerful 45+ hit points

If a monster has an exceptional ability, such as a Melee ability of 2 or higher, it is described as the next highest level than its hit points would ordinarily justify. Monsters can have abilities not described in your turn report. For example, swordsmen can also have some minor magic. You can expect many intelligent or magical monsters to have magic too.

Note: You can explore a province even if it’s been 100% explored, with the object of learning whether there are skeletal armies in the province.

[3.3] Search feature (SE)

A character may Search any feature that has been discovered by his kingdom, or that he hears about from another King. When a character Searches a feature, he must face the guardian monster first. He specifies an Encounter Plan. If he defeats the monster, the treasure in the feature is his.

Searching a feature can also trigger a special event: for example, a character may scout a magic pool, drink its waters and be blessed with increased ability, or perhaps be cursed (though this is less likely). See Scout encounter tactic [5.8]. You can Search a feature to Scout it even after the monster has been killed.

A character may Search a feature in a province he does not own, or a feature they have not discovered yet, if they know the location and feature number.

Characters must Search features as individuals; it is a point of honor to defeat a monster in single combat. Armies may not Search features, although a character may Search a feature while leading an army.

You can Search a feature to scout it even after you have killed the monster.

[3.4] Recruit army(s) (RE)

With each Recruit order, a character must specify the army types he will Recruit and the character who will lead the armies. Any character in the province may lead the armies, or they can be placed under the garrison commander. Each province has 1 or 2 army types that can be recruited from the populace. Garrison units may also be recruited, and a character may recruit mercenaries if any are located in the province. You can Recruit armies from the populace only if you own the province, but mercenaries can be Recruited in any province by any character, even a King who owns no provinces. If a character recruits an army type in a province, and there is an Average or higher quality mercenary army of that type in the province, then the mercenaries are hired. Otherwise an army is levied from among the populace, and will be of the same race as the province's population.

Normally, only one army of each type may be recruited per province per turn. There are two exceptions. First, in a King's home province two of each type can be recruited per turn. Second, Garrison units may be recruited in any province populated by humanoids, up to a limit of two per game turn. Within these limits, one order can be used to Recruit any number of armies.

If you can't recruit an army type in a province because the natives don't have that type, you can still recruit it IF the recruiting leader, or the leader you are recruiting for, has an army of that type under his command. The army will start out at the normal quality, but will cost DOUBLE to recruit (because the required armament for that type is rare in that province and you have to pay more for it, or pay to "have it shipped in.") You still only recruit the same number of armies: if there is only 1 army type in the province, you can recruit only 1 army. If there are 2 types, you can recruit 2 armies of any type that your leader commands. Another example: in your home province, you could recruit 4 armies of one native army-type, and the second two armies would be double-cost (but still Average quality.) You can only recruit types that make sense for the province's race (for example, you can't recruit Dragons in a Human province or vice versa.) You CAN recruit any humanoid army type in any humanoid province (humanoids being men, elves, orcs and dwarves.) A recruited army will always be of the provincial race, not the race of the armies led by the recruiting character.

An army is paid when it is hired (the sign-up bonus), and the King must pay the same cost to maintain it at the end of a turn. You can never Recruit armies belonging to another kingdom or defending a non-player province.

A character is allowed to recruit an army in a province belonging to his ally. The recruiter pays 1 gold to his ally for each recruited army. In this way, a vanquished king can hope to get on his feet again.

When you recruit units in an ally's territory, the computer always makes sure that in any given phase, the owner of the territory has the right to recruit there before you do. Also, if you are recruiting in your former home province which is now your ally's province, you can recruit 4 units, and they will start as Average units.

In order for you to Recruit in your ally's territory, he MUST issue a "Treat" order with you (even though you may already be allied.)

[3.5] Hire Hero (HI)

Any character can attempt to Hire a Hero in the same province. The character offers a payment of 1-4 gold to the Hero. If the pay required by the Hero is equal to or less than the offer, the Hero will enter the service of the Kingdom at the pay required by the Hero (which may be less than the offer.) The Hero is paid when he signs up and at the end of each game turn.

The pay required by a Hero varies from King to King depending on how much liking he has for your Kingdom, and is unrelated to the ability of the Hero. It helps if the Hero has the same temper, same race and similar alignment. A King can rarely Hire Heroes with an alignment more than two steps removed from his own alignment (for example, a Good King can't usually Hire a Pagan Hero.) You may give a hired Hero orders starting with the action phase after the phase in which he is hired. You can't Hire a Hero who rules his own province.

[3.6] Disband army(s) (DI)

Releases the army(s) into mercenary status. A King may Disband any army at any time. A character can Disband an army only if he is in the same province. The disbanded army(s) will wander around as unemployed mercenaries until hired by another character. To disband all armies led by the character, write "(DI)sband All".

If there are mecerenary armies in a province when a general passes through it, they may follow that general instead of staying behind.

[3.7] Fire Hero (FI)

Releases the Hero into private life. A King may Fire a Hero at any time. A character can Fire a Hero only if he is in the same province. The Hero will wander around until hired by another King.

[3.8] Leave Army(s) (LE)

The specified army(s) stay in the province instead of accompanying the character. If you Leave an army in an ally's province, the army then belongs to the ally. To leave all armies led, write "(LE)ave All". You may leave your armies to garrison the province, or give them to another leader, if the leader is in the province at the time the leave order is executed.

Also, let's say one of your characters and one of your armies are in the same province, but the character does not lead that army. That character is still allowed to "Leave" the army to another character, or the garrison commander. Therefore, the "Leave Armies" order becomes an all-purpose "Transfer Armies" command.

When you use the "Leave" as this transfer command, if you "Leave All", it will still only leave units that you directly lead, not units under other commanders or the garrison command.

[3.9] Pick Up Army(s) (PI)

Picks up the specified army(s), which will then follow the character around.

You can Pick Up an army led by a co-located character. You can't use the Pick Up order to pick up a unit for another character. You can't use the "Pick Up" order on an army in the same turn that the army is recruited. (exception is Pick Up All).

To Pick Up all UNLED armies (with Garrison Commander) in the province, write "(PI)ck Up All".

[3.10] Cast Spell (CA)

The character can attempt to Cast a spell in a Magical ability that he has some skill in. The spell must be an Action Spell, not a personal-combat spell. The chance of success is 15% plus 15% per level. Be careful that you don't use the Cast Spell command to use a magic item.

[3.11] Use Magic Item (US)

The character Uses a Magic Item to cast a spell, specifying the ID number of the magic item. A spell cast from a magic item is automatically successful.

[3.12] Encounter Character (EN)

The character attempts to Encounter another character in the same province, to talk to him, steal from him or engage in personal combat.

If a character wants to Encounter another character with combat in mind, there are some limitations. Heroes who don't lead armies can always be Encountered by other Heroes, but evade encounters from Kings 50% of the time. Kings only accept a non-peaceful encounter if both King and challenger attempt to Encounter each other in the same province in the same phase. Heroes who lead armies also do not accept encounters.

If the encounter plan has no combat tactics or personal combat spells (including Charm), these restrictions do not apply. If the Steal tactic is used in such a restricted encounter, the chance of success is halved.

[3.13] Practice Ability (PR)

If 2 or more characters are in the same province and all characters Practice the same ability in a phase, and one character has a higher skill in the ability (unmodified by magic items he possesses), the character(s) with the lower skill in the ability will rise in skill 1 level (provided he has sufficient aptitude, explained below.) If the characters have the same skill level, there is a 10% chance of rising 1 level for each character. A character who Practices alone has a 5% chance of rising 1 level.

When a character Practices an ability with another character, and one character has higher skill because he possesses a magic item that raises his skill level, that magic item does not count and both characters have only a 10% chance of improving.

A character's chance of rising 1 level is halved for each level beyond his natural aptitude. For example, if a character has a natural aptitude of 1, he has no trouble attaining level 1 in an ability, but has only a 50% chance of attaining level 2, a 25% chance of attaining level 3, and a 12.5% chance of attaining level 4. This applies even when the character is learning from a character with a higher level. The chance to increase by experience is affected by aptitude in the same way.

Aptitude may increase if a character is due to rise in level, (either from practicing or experience), but can't because of low aptitude. The chance of an aptitude increase depends on the current skill level:

0 0%
1 10%
2 25%
3 50%
4 100%
5 80%
6 60%
7 40%
8 20%

[3.14] Spy Province (SP)

A character Spying on a province will report on its owner, owners of adjacent provinces, taxation of the province, army types recruitable there, and whether the province is the capital province of the Kingdom.

When a character spies on a province in a phase, he will have a chance of knowing about any events that occur in the province in that phase. These events will be described in the General Intelligence Report, which is separate from the character's spy report.

There is also a chance of finding out what Sage Discoveries the spied-on Kingdom has, and obtaining them for the use of your Kingdom. Sage ability also has something to do with spying out inventions. If a spy sees an invention, some Sage ability will help him figure out how to get it for your kingdom. Sage level 1 will be more than enough to understand all common inventions, but higher ability may be needed for inventions of obscure design. The chance for discovering an invention by spying is limited to twice the chance of discovery by Sages.

Once per game turn, a spy will also report on the military forces and characters in the province. If a character spies on a province, moves to an adjacent province and spies there, the King will get this military report for both provinces.

Spies always give accurate reports of the events occurring in a province, but military reports, taxation values and army types are subject to a margin of error which decreases with increasing skill in Spy ability. A character may only Spy on a province he is actually in.

[3.15] Defend (DE)

A general ordered to Defend will be able to react to enemy invasions of adjacent provinces for the rest of the turn. For example, if you order a general to Defend as his first action, and an enemy general invades an adjacent province as his fifth action, your general will move his army to that province and his troops will fight with the defenders in the battle. This movement does use up movement points, and if an army uses up its movement points it can no longer react to an invasion.

Your Defending general will act fairly intelligently. For example, if an enemy sends armies into a Defended province and two adjacent provinces, the Defending general will go to the aid of one adjacent province with a part of his forces if he is strong enough; if not, he will stay to defend the province. If he wins a battle, he will Pursue the general who invaded an adjacent province. Note that in order to move to one province to defend it, then move back across to the other adjacent province, he would have to move three times, in which case he would have to have armies with a speed of at least 3, or good March ability.

A general will not react to the invasion if his army can't move there because the terrain does not allow it. For example, a general in a land province who leads 1 Fleet and 3 Bowmen doesn't have enough transport to move into a Sea province if it is invaded, and can't move to a land province because a Fleet may not move directly from one land province to another.

You can order your general to Defend an area of 7 provinces, centered on any province up to two provinces away. However, he will only react to an invasion of a province if that province is adjacent to both the province the general is currently in and the province he was assigned to Defend. Note that you can use this rule to limit the provinces you want to Defend.

A general with Defend orders may use the rest of his actions to practice, explore, etc. If he receives a Move, Pursue or Trail order, the Defend order is canceled.

A character's Defend order is canceled if he loses a battle, to prevent further needless defeats.

A "Defend" order will include defending your ally's territories, but only if you are Enemies with the player who attacks your ally.

[3.16] Pursue (PU)

A character can be ordered to chase after another character for the rest of the turn. For example, if you order a character to Pursue as his first action, he will keep moving from province to province until he arrives in the province occupied by the targeted character. You can specify other actions on phases 2 through 5 which will be attempted if the pursuit is resolved before the end of the game turn. All rules listed under the Encounter action apply to Pursuit encounters.

If both characters lead armies, the pursuing character will attempt to run him down and defeat him in battle. If the Pursuing character does not lead any armies, then an encounter plan must be specified which will be executed if they meet. If the scent is cold, this may take time, so it is best if you move the character to where the targeted character was last known to be.

If the Pursuing character leads an army and the pursued character doesn't, or visa versa, the Pursue order is ignored. If you Pursue or Trail character who belongs to your Kingdom, and both characters start in the same hex, the Pursuing character will perform the action after the man he's chasing.

And...

"Characters On Patrol" (Police Academy 7?!): This is like the Defend order, except whenever the character hears of an intruding character, he chases him down.

Write this order by having the character "Pursue" his own character number. This means the character will track down any detected Enemy character who enters a hex next to the character. The evasive skills of Thieves and Spies still operate normally.

The "Patrol" order works differently in some important respects from the Defend order, while in other respects they are quite similar:

  1. Only leaders not leading armies may Patrol, and they chase only characters not leading armies.
  2. They patrol the current hex they are in and all adjacent hexes.
  3. They only intercept enemy characters.
  4. The Patrol stays active until the next Move, Trail or Pursue order; other orders after the Patrol order are used if there is no current threat to be intercepted by the Patrol.
  5. A Patrol may be unable to detect an enemy character if he is using his Spy or Thief ability that game turn.
  6. A Patrol will only intercept in owned or Allied territory.
  7. A Patrol will only attempt to pursue intruders whose best skill in Archery, Melee or Magic is equal to or less than the Patrol's best such skill.
  8. If there are more than one such intruders, the most threatening one is intercepted, by "highest skill" as defined in point (g).
  9. The "Spy Table" is still used: When intercepting a character in an adjacent hex, if the Patrol has no Spy skill, there is a 50% chance that the character will wander into a random hex rather than intercept the intruder.

[3.17] Trail (TR)

The character follows and spies on a character, gaining information on the character's Actions, race, temper, alignment, treasures owned and armies led.

If the character is a King, some information may be gained concerning the finances, alliances, enemies and controlled provinces of the Kingdom. Like the Pursue order, the Trail order ends when the character finds and has spied on the character for one phase. Further Trail orders would be needed to maintain the spying. A character leading an army may not be ordered to Trail.

[3.18] Give (GI)

A character may Give a magic item to another character. List the ID number of the magic item and a co-located character who will receive it. The characters may belong to different kingdoms. If so, you may specify that the gift will be made only if the recipient Gives you a specified magic item in the same phase.

You can give limited amounts of gold to other Kings. Only a King may use this "Give Gold" order. The King does it by using the Give command together with a specified amount of gold, giving it to another player's character (King or Hero) located in the same province. A King may give out in a game turn no more than 10% of the size of his treasury at the start of the game turn (although he may always give out at least 10 gold if he has it in his treasury.) Be careful that you don't "Give" an amount of gold that equals a magic item I.D. number carried by the King.

[3.19] Gaining experience

Action Chance to Improve Ability
Move (on land, with armies) 10% Forced March
Move (by sea, with fleets) 10% Naval
Explore 10% Explorer
Recruit or Hire 5% Druid
Pick Up or Leave Army 5% Forced March
Pick Up or Leave Naval units 5% Naval
Cast Action Spell 10% in related Magical Ability.
Spy/Trail/Pursue 10% Spy
Supreme Commander at battle 15% Tactical or Naval
Lead some units at battle 10% Tactical or Naval
TA-lk to opponent 10% Druid
FI-re arrows 10% Archery
ME-lee 10% Melee
CA-st combat spell 10% in related Magical Ability
ST-eal 15% Thief

[4.0] ABILITIES

Characters have abilities which can help their chances of success in attempting actions. You don't necessarily need skill in an ability in order to attempt an action related to that ability. For example, you can attempt to steal even if you have no Thief ability. The two exceptions are using archery and casting spells, which require the Archery ability and Magical abilities respectively. Abilities of characters are as follows:

[4.1] Martial Abilities

Martial abilities aid a character in moving armies, fighting battles and fighting in personal combat. There are 5 Martial abilities:

[4.1.1] Tactical (TA)

Tactical ability increases strength of the land and air armies led by the character by 20% per skill level. If the character is at level 1, the strength of his troops would increase by 20%.

[4.1.2] Forced March (MA)

The Forced March ability allows a character to move a land army further than the number of provinces given in the Army Table. Also, when invading an enemy province, the character with Forced March ability has a better chance of uniting with another character invading the same province for the battle against the defenders. The March Table gives further details on these benefits. March ability applies to units moving from one land province to another.

Extra moves for... Contingents Unify %
Distance to 2nd force:
Ability level Speed 1 - 2 Speed 3+ 0 1 2
0 0 0 80 50 20
1 0 1 90 60 30
2 1 1 100 70 40
3 1 2 100 80 50
4 2 2 100 90 60

Eagles and Dragons are not affected by March ability.

Contingent Unify shows the chance that two leaders invading a province will join together for the battle, depending on whether they invade from the same province, adjacent provinces or non-adjacent provinces.

[4.1.3] Naval (NA)

Increases the strength of the fleets led by the character by 20% per level and the speed of naval movement by 1 province per level in a manner similar to March ability. Also, when invading a province, the character has a better chance of joining with another character who is invading the province for the battle with the defenders. Naval ability applies to moves to or from a Sea province.

[4.1.4] Archery (AR)

This ability allows a number of free attacks equal to the level of the archer. For example, a character with an Archery skill of 2 gets 2 free attacks. The base chance to hit is 30%, plus 10% per Archery level, and the damage is 1-6 hit points. Monsters sometimes get free attacks because of archery or other missile weapons.

[4.1.5] Melee (ME)

In melee combat, this ability increases the character's chance to hit and decreases the opponent's chance to hit by 10% per difference in level, and increases or decreases the damage by 1 hit point per difference in level. Example: if your skill in Melee is 3 and your opponent's skill is 2, you have a 60% chance to hit and +1 damage, and he has a 40% chance to hit and -1 damage.

[4.2] Magical abilities

Every Magical ability has five basic spells. A character with a skill of one or higher in a Magical ability knows those spells. A character may use a Magical ability to cast one Action spell per game turn (at level 3, this increases to two Action spells, and at level 4, three Action spells). A character with skill in two or more Magical abilities may use each ability to cast spell(s) in a game turn. A character may use a Magical ability to cast one Combat spell per encounter (at level 2 this increases to two Combat spells).

The same Combat spell cannot be cast more than once in an encounter.

The spellcasting limits for Action and Combat spells are separate.

A character may cast a spell in a Magical ability only if he has a skill level of 1 or higher in that ability. The chance that an action spell will succeed is 15% plus 15% per level. Combat spells have a 30% + 15% per level chance of success. If the spell fails, nothing happens.

Combat spells work exactly as described, with no other major effects. For example, the Psychic Blast spell does not increase your chance to hit in melee, nor does it allow you to flee the combat.

A Pagan kingdom, whose leaders possess minds which are especially sensitive to magical forces, is aided by an Order of Magicians. All Pagan characters controlled by the King have a +10% modifier to their spellcasting attempts, except for White Magic spells.

[4.2.1] White Magic (WH)

The player may cast these White Magic spells:

  1. Resurrect character (RE) (Action spell)

    A spellcaster in the same province as a deceased character may attempt to bring the character back to life. If the spell is successful, the character returns to life with all of his former abilities, but not his former possessions, and becomes employed by the King who resurrected him. A character may be resurrected at any time after his death. When a Divine king resurrects a hero, his alignment becomes Good, thus enabling the King to gain a character at reduced pay. A Divine King can cast resurrection on one of his own living heroes to turn him into a Good character. Undead characters can be resurrected if they die, in which case they become the same alignment as whoever resurrected them (except for an Undead King.)

    After your King dies, you can cast a Resurrection spell on your Royal Heir and get your old King back (you're actually casting the spell on the bones carried around by the Heir.) If another player casts a Resurrection spell on your Royal Heir, you still get your old King back. But as soon as you assign your Heir his new skill levels, or improve any of his abilities by practice or experience, you lose the resurrection option. If the Heir dies, his abilities don't replace the abilities of the dead King for the purposes of this rule.

  2. Part Sea (PA) (Action spell)

    A sea province is transformed into a plains province for the rest of the turn. Fleets or Whales may not enter or leave but land units including Mermen may. Only the province the caster is in, or an adjacent province, can be affected.

    Land units may only enter the Parted Sea from an adjacent land province or Parted Sea. They may leave the Parted Sea only to an adjacent land province or Parted Sea. A land unit which entered a Parted Sea in a previous game turn will find that the Parted Sea must be re-parted in order for the unit to move.

    "Part Sea" cancels the effects of "Flood", and vice versa.

  3. Bless Province (BL) (Action Spell)

    The tax base of any one province is increased by 60% for one turn. Multiple Bless spells have no cumulative effect.

    A Bless spell can remove buried skeletons permanently (the chance is (White-skill x 10%) + 10%.)

    Armies "Paroled into population" in a battle are not eligible to become skeletons.

  4. Holy Symbol (HO) (Personal Combat spell)

    The Holy Symbol invokes Divine protection. It reduces an opponent's chance to hit in archery or melee by 10% per skill level. For example, at skill level 1 an opponent with a 50% chance to hit will have his chance reduced by 5% (50% x 10% = 5%).

    When used against an undead character or monster such as a vampire or ghost, or an anti-holy monster such as a Demon, the spell reduces its chance to hit by 20% per skill level and inflicts 1-4 damage points per skill level.

  5. Spiritwrack (SP) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster utters holy words which cause the spirit and body of his opponent to undergo weakening convulsions. The victim can't cast spells or use archery, and the damage he does in melee is reduced by 1/2 hit point per level of ability of the caster, rounded up or down randomly. The spell does not work against undead monsters or characters, or mechanical monsters because they have no spirit, and its effects are halved against monsters with animal intelligence.

[4.2.2] Psychic Magic (PS)

Allows the use of spells having to do with powers of the mind:

  1. Charm (CH) (Action spell OR Personal Combat spell)

    When cast on a Hero in the same province who leads no armies, allows the caster to hire the Hero at no cost (however, maintenance costs must still be paid.) Otherwise, it allows the caster to befriend his opponent and escape from combat unharmed.

    When cast by an Undead character, the Charm spell is a Necromatic spell (not a Psychic spell.) When an Undead King (not a hero) Charms a hero (as an action spell only), he also turns Undead. An Undead King may Charm his own heroes in an attempt to turn them to undead. Heroes with advanced skills are more resistant to being turned undead (although the cast chance itself is not lessened.) For these heroes, corruption occurs gradually: alignment will change by 1-3 steps per spellcast.

  2. Oratory (OR) (Action Spell)

    The caster may cast the spell on himself or a co-located character. All armies that travel with him are heartened by the oratory and have their quality increased by one level for the rest of the turn. Green armies become Average, Average armies become Veteran, and so on. Casting this spell more than once does not produce a cumulative effect.

  3. Clairvoyance (CL) (Action Spell)

    The spell is cast on a character in any province in the world. Everything that happens to that character for the rest of that turn becomes known to the caster. A character can only cast one Clairvoyance spell per game turn. A subsequent Clairvoyance spell will nullify the one currently in effect.

  4. Psychic Blast (PS) (Personal Combat spell)

    The spellcaster projects a blast of mental energy which stuns the enemy and allows the caster 2-5 free attack rounds.

  5. Telekinetic Storm (TE) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster creates a telekinetic storm centered close to the victim which seizes small objects and whirls them in all directions at great speed. The spell does 4-16 hit points to the monster, and some objects will also strike the caster. If he is at melee range, he takes 4-16 hit points; at bow range, 2-8 hit points; and at spell range, 1-4 hit points. This spell does not work against underwater monsters.

[4.2.3] Illusory Magic (IL)

Allows the spellcaster to become invisible or change the appearance of terrain or his armies.

  1. Illusory Terrain (IL) (Action spell)

    The spellcaster causes the province he is in (or an adjacent province) to appear to be of a different type of terrain. You select the terrain the illusion will mimic. The illusion has a 15% chance of dissipating per game turn. The spell only affects someone viewing the province from an adjacent province. Someone who enters it will detect the illusion, but it will still affect armies somewhat: the strength of armies will be halfway between their strengths for the real terrain and the illusory terrain.

  2. Phantasmal Armies (PH) (Action spell)

    This spell causes armies of illusory soldiers to travel with the spellcaster (or co-located character) for the rest of the turn, which increases the strength of the armies he directly leads at a battle by 15% per level of the spellcaster. Casting more than one Phantasmal Armies spell does not have a cumulative effect.

  3. Hide Feature (HI) (Action spell)

    A specified feature in the province occupied by the character becomes invisible to any explorer, although a King who already knows the feature is there will not be fooled by the illusion, nor will the Heroes in his employ be fooled. The illusion has a 10% chance of dissipating per turn.

    If a monster is currently raiding one of your provinces, then casting this spell on his feature will stop him for as long as the spell lasts.

  4. Invisibility (IN) (Personal Combat spell)

    The spellcaster becomes twice as hard to hit by archery or melee attacks for the duration of the combat. If you cast an Invisibility spell in your encounter plan before you steal, it's worth a +15% modifier to the stealing attempt.

    The Invisibility spell also allows a +30% chance to Flee an encounter.

  5. Mirror-Image Phantasm (MI) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster creates a mirror-image illusion of his opponent and sends the phantasm into combat. To his opponent, the phantasm is real and initially has exactly the same characteristics as when the spell was cast. The two mirror images then fight it out, while the caster must concentrate on his illusion, performing no other actions. If another Mirror-Image spell is cast while the illusion is fighting, both illusions will dissipate.

    Before each combat round, there is a chance that the victim will disbelieve the illusion, in which case the illusion loses its power. The chance of disbelief for each type of intelligence level is listed below. 15% per level of the spellcaster is subtracted from the listed chance.

    Divine or Superhuman 120%
    High Human 100%
    Medium Human 80%
    Low Human 60%
    Animal 40%
    Mechanical 20%

    If the mirror image loses, the caster must continue the fight at the current combat range. If it wins, the real monster is mentally slain and falls to the ground. The illusion then turns on its master, who is in such a deeply involved trance-state that his own sense of reality is distorted. The illusion must be disbelieved (at a bonus of 25% above Medium intelligence) or slain. If the illusion wins, it fades out, and the real monster revives and slays the fallen illusionist. If the illusion loses, the caster automatically finishes off the mentally-slain monster and claims the treasure.

[4.2.4] Elemental Magic (EL)

Allows casting of spells which draw on the four elements of fire, air, water and earth:

  1. Flood Province (FL) (Action spell)

    This can only be cast on a co-located or adjacent non-mountain land province. It immobilizes all land armies in it for the rest of the turn. No land armies may enter the province. Naval and air movement and transport is unaffected.

  2. Tornadoes (TO) (Action spell)

    When cast against an enemy province which the caster is in or adjacent to, each army there has a 10% chance per level of being sucked up and scattered to the four winds.

  3. Earthquake (EA) (Action spell)

    Wipes out the tax base of an enemy land province adjacent to or co-located with the spellcaster for the current game turn.

  4. Fireball (FI) (Personal Combat spell)

    When used in personal combat, does 1-8 hit points of damage, plus 1 hit point per level. The spell does not work against underwater monsters.

  5. Ice Suspension (IC) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster may suspend the victim in a magical shell of ice, or at least slow it down for a few rounds. The caster may suspend a monster which has up to 4 remaining hit points per level of the caster in Elemental Magic.

    If the spell successfully suspends the victim, the caster will gain whatever magic items are not being carried by the victim, and may choose between fleeing (with automatic success) or waiting for the ice to melt enough for the victim to start breaking out, in which case the caster will gain 3 free attack rounds (starting at whatever range is best for his next combat tactic.)

    If the spell is not completely successful, the caster will gain 1-3 free attack rounds, depending on the percentage of the monster encased in ice. For example, if the victim has 16 remaining hit points and the caster has a skill of 1 in Elemental Magic, he gets 1 free attack (4/16 hit points, multiply by 3 maximum attack rounds and round up, and you get 1 round.)

    Of course, this spell does not work against ghosts, demons and similar creatures which exist only partly in the material world. Also, it works differently against flying monsters. If the spell is cast on a flying creature, it will do 5-10 hit points of damage when the creature crashes into the ground, and gains the caster 1-3 free attack rounds.

[4.2.5] Necromancy (NE)

Allows casting of the following Black Magic spells:

  1. Skeletal Army (SK) (Action spell)

    If the character is in a province where a battle was previously fought and some armies were destroyed, he may recruit a horde of skeletons who rise from their graves and pick up the weapons they perished with on the battlefield. One army per level of ability can be raised, provided that enough armies have perished on the battlefield on previous turns. There is no recruiting cost, but maintenance costs must be paid at the end of the turn. The caster has no control over which army type will answer his call. There is a limit of 350 armies allowed in the game (both dead and alive) so after the first few turns, about 10% of the previously destroyed armies will rot away each turn. The oldest destroyed armies will rot away when the 350 army limit is exceeded.

    The Skeletal Army is identical in all respects to whatever army was defeated on the battlefield, and has all of its movement points. Skeletal armies controlled by an Undead Kingdom have a 100% chance of fanaticism. An Undead King also starts the game with one of his armies being Skeletal. A Skeletal Army can be raised in an enemy-controlled province, which will provoke a fight with whatever forces are defending the province. If a character tries to leave the Skeletal Armies or transfer them to another character, other than an Undead character, they will dig their own graves and go to sleep once again.

    When a Skeletal army dies (but not a non-skeletal army), it is reduced in quality by one level.

  2. Kill Enemy (KI) (Action spell OR Personal Combat spell)

    In order to cast this spell, the necromancer and his victim must be in the same province. The spell may not be cast on a monster guarding a feature except as a Personal Combat spell. The caster makes a figurine of the opponent he wishes dead, then "kills" the figurine by a method such as sticking pins in it. If the spell is successful, the victim is killed in the same way the figurine was destroyed. If the spell is unsuccessful, the intended victim will attack the caster with a Berserk temper, tracking him down that very phase if necessary.

    This spell does not work against undead monsters or characters, ghosts, demons and similar creatures which exist only partly in the material world. Also, it has half the normal chance of working in an encounter in a feature or against a Hero who leads an army because there is so much guesswork in making the figurine. A necromancer can't use it to defend himself in an encounter because of the time needed to prepare the figurine. Kings are invulnerable to this spell.

    If you cast a Kill Enemy spell as an action, the victim may instead “fall into a deathly coma and become an imbecilic shadow of his former self” with no skill levels and no chance of rising in skill. In this case, a resurrection spell can restore the skills.

  3. Plague (PL) (Action spell)

    The caster names a province to be afflicted. it must be the same province the caster is in or an adjacent province. If successful, each army in the province has a 10% chance of being destroyed, plus 10% per level of the spellcaster.

    If a unit survives a plague, it's immunized from dying in future plagues (it may instead drop a level in quality.)

    Only the four humanoid races are affected.

    Be careful! The next phase, there is a 15% chance per adjacent province that the plague will spread, and it can spread further each phase after that. Casting more than one Plague spell does not have a cumulative effect.

  4. Hand of Death (HA) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster makes squeezing motions with his hand, which magically causes his opponent to feel his heart (or other organ of the caster's choice) being squeezed to a pulp. The caster may not cast spells or attack while using this spell, and defends in melee at his Necromancy skill level, not his skill in melee. Each attack by the caster does approximately 1 damage point plus 1/2 damage point per level of ability. The victim can't cast spells or use archery, and his chance to hit in melee is halved. When the caster is hit in melee, his concentration is broken and the spell ends. The spell has no effect against undead characters or monsters, or mechanical or anti-holy monsters.

  5. Control Undead (CO) (Personal Combat spell)

    The caster may control any undead monster or character with this spell for enough time to drive a stake through its heart (or otherwise incapacitate it.) Unfortunately, the consequence of failure of this spell is the instilling of a maniacal rage in the intended victim, which has the effect of increasing its hit points by 50-100%.

[4.3] Special Abilities

[4.3.1] Sage (SA)

The Sage is a historian, scientist, and engineer. The Sage ability allows discovery of new devices. When a Practice Sage Ability action is performed, there is a 5% chance per level of inventing or discovering a useful device. You might discover the compass, which will help your Explorer ability, or create a mighty war engine to help you in battles. Some devices aren't really scientifically possible, but are included just for fun. If a level-4 Sage practices Sage continuously, he will make a discovery an average of once a year.

[4.3.2] Druid (DR)

Druids specialize in attaining harmony with all other natural life forms. With each level, Druids gain the ability to lead armies of races other than their own, as listed in to the Druid Table. If a character attempts to lead an army when

If a character attempts to lead an army when he has insufficient Druidic ability, the quality of the army suffers a decrease equal to his shortfall in Druidic ability. For example, if a character with no Druidic ability attempts to lead an army of Whales, which requires a Druidic skill of 2, the quality of the army is reduced by two levels (from Average down to Depleted, or from Veteran down to Green, etc.).

If a unit is under the garrison commander of a province, and is of a different race than the King, then the King's druidic ability is used when figuring the unit's modified quality.

With regard to the Talk tactic in encounters, some monsters can only be conversed with by Druids. Monsters with at least human intelligence and a humanoid voicebox, and also dragons, can be Talked to by anyone. Druids gain additional Talking abilities at each level according to the Druid Table.

Druid Level Gains ability to lead armies of... Can talk to...
1 Humans
Elves
Dwarves
Orcs
Mermen
Werebeasts		 Avians
mammals
2 Whales
Trolls		 Reptilians
sea creatures
3 Eagles
Ents		 Insectoid monsters
4 Dragons All monsters

[4.3.3] Spy (SP)

The spy is capable of compiling reports on the strength and disposition of enemy forces and characters, and spying out the inventions used by other Kingdoms. On game turns when a character at some point performs a Spy or Trail action, the character has a reduced chance of being noticed by other Kingdoms throughout that entire game turn. The Spy ability gives you greater success when performing the Spy action, and if a character has a Spy ability of at least one, he may contribute something to your General Intelligence report even if you don't order him to spy.

The Spy ability also determines the chance of success when Trailing or Pursuing another character. See the Spy Table for more details.

Spy level Chances of Escaping Notice Margin of Error of Spy Reports Chance to Pursue or Trail
0 0% 70% 50%
1 50% 55% 100%
2 75% 40% 150%
3 88% 28% 200%
4 95% 15% 250%

Note: The chance to Pursue or Trail is multiplied by two if the target leads an army. The chance to pursue is then divided by the distance (in number of provinces) between the two characters.

If the pursued character is of the same Kingdom as the pursuer, then the chance of success is 100%.

[4.3.4] Explorer (EX)

Increases the amount of province explored in one Exploration action by the Basic Exploration Number per level. Basic Exploration percentages are shown in the Terrain Table.

[4.3.5] Thief (TH)

Increases chance of success when stealing by 15% per level. Also, a Thief has the Spy's ability to escape notice when he attempts thievery in a game turn.

[5.0] ENCOUNTERS

Encounters can occur between characters and monsters as a result of the Search action, between characters in an Encounter action, or at a battle as a duel between the two commanders. An encounter can never involve more than two characters.

Both characters have an Encounter Plan. In general, a character can attempt to steal, negotiate, or attack his opponent. An Encounter plan basically is a listing of tactics that you want to use in the Encounter, listed in your order of preference. Whenever a character goes into an encounter without a plan, or runs out of tactics, the computer will generate them. In personal combat, two combatants alternately attack each other in combat rounds, inflicting damage points with each attack, until one combatant is killed because the damage points he sustains equals or exceeds his hit points. The victor can then loot the vanquished foe for his treasure.

Whenever aggressive tactics follow negotiation tactics in an encounter plan, this is interpreted to mean that those aggressive tactics will be used only if the negotiation tactics fail.

The character with the greater skill level relevant to the tactic he is using generally goes first in the combat round. For example, a Psychic magician with a skill level of 3 casts his spell before a level-2 archer fires his arrow. If the skill is the same, the characters go in random order.

There are three ranges in combat: Spell range, Bow range and Melee range. Spell range is the greatest distance, and only spells can be used. At Bow range, Spell or Fire attacks can be made. At Melee range, only Spell or Melee attacks may be made. Encounters normally start at Spell range. Two exceptions to the combat initiative rule should be mentioned: At Spell range, Spell attacks come before closing to Bow range, and at at Melee range, Melee attacks always go first.

In combat, all characters have 10 hit points. Monsters may have anywhere from 7 to 50 hit points.

Neutral Kingdoms are aided by an Order of Duelists. All Neutral characters controlled by the Kingdom are experts at dueling other characters, and fight with a +1 modifier to their Melee and Archery abilities. This also applies to encounters with humanoid monsters, such as renegade swordsmen in a feature, and also in random encounters.

The following rules sections list the combat tactics available.

[5.1] Cast Spell, Use Magic Item (CA-XX, US-#)

A spell can be cast at any range. Any given combat spell can only be cast once in a combat.

Some spells protect a character in personal combat from being hit. When more than one such spell is cast on a character, the effects are multiplied. For example, if a spell reduces an opponent's chance to hit by 50%, and another spell reduces his chance to hit by 50% again, the opponent's chance to hit is 25% of what it would normally be (50% x 50% = 25%).

Some spells stun or delay an opponent for a few rounds. If the opponent is delayed long enough for the caster to move out of spell range, the Flee tactic will work automatically. These types of spells do not assist in Stealing.

In combat, whenever a character attempting to cast a spell takes damage or is stunned, the spell is checked for disruption. If it is disrupted, the caster loses a turn. For example, 3 hit points will disrupt your spell 50% of the time, while a missed swing will disrupt you 30% of the time because you may lose your spell-concentration while evading the blow.

Some magic items can cast spells in combat. The effects are similar to the spells themselves. A spell cast from a magic item is automatically successful.

If a character has two magic weapons, he can use the "Use Magic Item" order to specify which weapon he will use. This does not use up a round.

[5.2] Fire Arrow (FI)

You can have a number of free attacks equal to the level of archery skill. For example, a character with an Archery skill of 2 gets 2 free attacks. The base chance to hit is 30%, plus 10% per Archery level, and the damage is 1-6 hit points.

If two characters with archery skill fight each other, they will both get about double their usual number of free attacks. However, there is some random chance involved, and the superior archer may actually be unable to fire off any attacks before melee combat begins! Monsters may get free attacks because of archery skill or other long-range weapons.

If a character is ordered to Fire attack at Spell range, he closes to Bow range, which uses up his round, and Fires the next round. If he is ordered to Fire at Melee range, he uses the next tactic instead.

[5.3] Melee (ME)

You can enter melee even if you have no skill in melee combat. When you order melee, your character will close to Melee Range and swing away at his opponent. A character has a base chance to hit of 50%, and does 1-6 damage points per swing.

If a character is ordered to Melee attack at Spell range or Bow range, he closes to the next closest range, which uses up his round. He will Melee after he closes to Melee Range.

A character's Temper affects melee according to the Temper Table, shown on the Quick Reference Card.

[5.4] Negotiations (TA-lk, SA-y, FU-lfill)

When Talking to a monster defending a feature, it will either attack you, ignore you or propose some agreement (such as a quest which will be rewarded by the gift of a magic item). When Talking to an unemployed character, you gain an estimate of the character's Alignment and Temper and find out what it would cost to hire him.

If a character of Druidic alignment succeeds in talking to a monster, it may be more willing to assist him than a non-Druidic character.

A character may Say whatever words you specify, up to a limit of 160 characters. This action consumes no time in combat. The character's next tactic is done in the same combat round as the Say tactic. You can use the Say tactic to enhance the turn results. For example, if you're about to cast a Fireball spell on an Ice Devil, you could Say "Here's a hot-dog for you, icicle-beak!" You can't say your phone number or any other contact information in a Say tactic.

When a monster proposes some agreement, you may Fulfill it after you have met its terms. Usually the monster will reward you with gold or treasure. The monster may not always live up to its end of the bargain, especially if it's an evil monster and/or there is a great difference in alignment between monster and character.

Some of you will run across riddling monsters in your adventures searching features. Helpful hint: When you return to their lair to answer the riddle, you can take as many guesses as you like in your "SA-y" tactic.

You may not use both the Talk and Fulfill tactics in the same encounter plan.

[5.5] Steal (ST)

The character attempts to Steal some treasure from his opponent. He will either succeed and get away with some gold or magic item(s), or the monster will attack him. The base chance of success is 15%, plus 15% per level of the thief. If the thief is going after a King or a Hero who leads an army, the chance of success is halved. If you go after a king, you may be able to bag a certain percentage of his treasury (try it to find out how much).

If a thief fails in an attempt to steal, he wont necessarily get caught (the chance to avoid capture rises with each level of thief). If the thief fails and is caught, there are three possible results. If the thief is a Hero who tried to steal from a King or another Hero who leads an army, he is executed. If the thief is a King who tried to steal from another King, he loses half the gold in his treasury as a ransom. If the King has no gold, he is executed. If the thief is a character who tried to steal from a monster or a Hero who does not lead an army, personal combat ensues, at a randomly determined range. Steal, Talk and Fulfill are mutually exclusive and only one of these tactics may appear in any encounter plan.

Even if the thief is successful, the monster involved has a chance of hiding a magic item (e.g. sleeping on it). A creature of average intelligence would have about a 10% chance of hiding a magic item per stealing attempt, whereas a smarter monster would have a 25-50% chance.

[5.6] Flee (FL)

The character can say that he will Flee rather than undergo combat. His chance of fleeing from fast monsters is 20%. Fleeing from medium-speed monsters or other characters is a 50-50 proposition, and slow monsters can be escaped from 80% of the time. A character with a weak Temper may flee without being ordered to flee, regardless of his tactical plan. Cowardly and Cautious characters other than the King may even refuse your command to encounter a character or monster, depending on how strong the opponent is. See the Temper Table for more details.

[5.7] Give (GI)

In an encounter plan, you may GI-ve any number of items to whomever you encounter. This supplements the "GI-ve" Action, and allows you to give more than one item in a phase, but does not allow you to trade one item for another. NEVER use the Give tactic in place of Fulfill.

[5.8] Scout (SC)

When searching a feature, a character can use the "Scout" tactic to explore the feature looking for any special function or event. These "Specials" can be of a beneficial or detrimental nature. A Scouting character may also gain information on what treasure is in the feature.

It makes no difference where you put the Scout tactic in your encounter plan. The Scout tactic has no effect on the success of your other tactics, and the computer will simply do your Scout tactic after all other encounter tactics are completed.

When the Scout tactic is part of an encounter plan which calls for Talking, Fulfilling or Attacking, or if there is no monster there, an attempt will be made to discover any special function or event (usually after concluding any dealings with the monster, whose permission may be needed to Scout around.) If you use some other type of tactical plan, you may be told that the Special is there, but not find out what it does. For example, if you Steal and Scout, there is a 33% chance of not finding out. If you Flee and Scout, this chance is 67%.

Suggestion: if you've attacked and looted some features already, try Scouting them to see what special function you might get. And, a final note of caution: These special functions may be usable only once per phase or year, and may act differently depending on the searching character's alignment or other characteristics.

[5.9] Victory and Death

If a character survives combat, he regains all hit points immediately. Magic items are sometimes gained from a vanquished foe as a result of combat.

They perform a wide variety of functions. Usually they cast a spell or enhance an ability. The magic items that cast spells are invoked by a "Use Magic Item" order, and they have a limited number of charges; after the charges are used up, the magic item disintegrates. Magic items which don't cast spells operate automatically and need not be invoked by a command.

When a character dies, any magical treasures he used in the combat go to the victor. Magical treasures not usable in combat are assumed to be in safekeeping and are willed out to his heir. If the deceased character is a King, his eldest son takes over for him in the province where the King died. His son will start with four ability levels chosen by the player, three of which must be within the skill of the former King. No more than two of these four levels can be applied to any ability. A new temper and/or gender may be selected, but not a new alignment.

The following table is a partial listing of monsters that you may encounter:

Melee Missile
Monster Average Hit Points Skill Damage Skill Damage Speed
Gryphon 25 2 1 - 6 0 - Fast
Giant 25 1 1 - 7 1 1 - 7 Medium
Gargoyle 15 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Demon 30 3 1 - 8 0 - Fast
Troll 25 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Spectre 20 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Elasmosaurus 25 2 1 - 7 0 - Fast

[5.10] Special Encounter Plan

In addition to character actions, players may specify a Special Encounter Plan for each character. This plan has two purposes, depending on whether a character leads an army or not. If the character does not lead an army, the plan will be used at all Encounters which are initiated by another character, or in random encounters.

At a battle, the Special Encounter Plans of the two supreme commanders determines whether there will be a duel between them. The Talk, Fulfill and Steal tactics are not allowed in a special encounter plan.

If either supreme commander at a battle has a Special Encounter Plan with an aggressive action in it, and no "Flee" action, then that commander will challenge the other commander to a duel. If you want to refuse a challenge to a duel by an enemy commander, the FIRST tactic in the Special Encounter Plan must be a Flee. If it's any other place in the plan, the computer will assume you want to fight it out before fleeing. However, if you have a Flee tactic anywhere in your Special Encounter Plan, you won't challenge for a duel. The Flee tactic always works in a battle encounter, but if it is used, the troops are disgusted by their commander's cowardice and are reduced in strength by 25% (using a Charm spell to escape has the same effect.) Otherwise, one of the commanders will be slain in the encounter. His troops are disheartened and their strength is reduced by 25%.

With the Move, Explore, Search, Trail and Pursue actions, there is a chance of a random monster encounter. The percentage chance of a random encounter is listed in the Terrain Table. The character will use the Special Encounter Plan to defend himself.

Your characters are twice as safe if they are traveling through an friendly kingdom. If a character starts a phase in a province with any character who leads an army, and Moves, Pursues or Trails to the same province as this character, he is assumed to be traveling with the army and will not have random encounters.

[6.0] ARMIES

[6.1] Types of Armies

Each land province has 1 or 2 army types, and a King can recruit only these allowed types and Garrison units in that province. Garrisons cost 1 gold. Other infantry costs 2 gold, and most other types cost 3 gold. See the Army Type Table for exact unit costs.

An army has a quality level of Depleted, Green, Average, Veteran, Crack or Elite. A newly recruited army starts out as Green, except in the home province where they begin as Average armies. Green and Depleted armies always improve to the next level at the end of a turn. At the start of the game, all armies are Average.

When an army leader Practices Tactics, he is taking his armies on training maneuvers. Those armies may have a chance to rise in quality:

Depleted ⇒ Green 100%
Green ⇒ Average 25%
Average ⇒ Veteran 5%
Veteran ⇒ Crack 1%
Crack ⇒ Elite 0.2%

In order for an army to rise to a higher quality, an existing army of that quality must be there to train and inspire it. For example, if a leader has mostly Average armies under his command, there has to be at least 1 Veteran army there if the Average armies are to have any chance of rising in quality. The Veteran army need not be of the same type as the Average armies.

If two leaders Practice Tactics together, their armies are pooled into the same training maneuvers.

[6.2] Movement and Transport

Armies can't move without characters, but may be left in a province to defend it. An army's speed determines how far it can move in a game turn. For example, an army with a speed of 3 can move 3 provinces in one game turn. If any army moves into a province occupied by another enemy army, there is a battle. The army must use up an extra movement point after conquering an enemy land province or fighting a naval engagement. If an army BEGINS a phase in an enemy province and can still move, it uses a movement point to force a battle. The increased army-movement allowed by the March and Naval abilities is always calculated at the moment an army moves.

Land armies can move only on land, unless they are carried by fleets. However, they can be left at sea since it is assumed that each sea has some islands. They will defend the sea province, even against invading navies.

Whales and fleets can enter and exit land provinces, but can't move directly from one land province to another. A fleet can transport two infantry armies (including Trolls and Werebeasts), or one mounted army. Camels and Elephants are considered mounted units for transport purposes.

Mermen move like fleets, except they MAY enter and leave a Parted Sea. They can't transport other units, but may be transported by air units.

Ents may never be transported, and can enter a Sea province only if it has a "Part Sea" spell cast on it.

Air wings (Dragons and Eagles) can move by land or sea and can end a turn at sea. They can transport 1 infantry army apiece.

Armies can't use overland movement and be transported (by sea or air) on the same game turn.

[6.3] Army types

Army Type Code Strength Speed Pay Home terrain Adverse terrain Nemesis
Garrison GA 3/1 1 1 None None None
Bowmen BO 2 2 2 Forests, Jungles None None
Axemen AX 2 2 2 Forests, Mountains None None
Phalanx PH 3 2 2 Plains Forests, Jungles, Sea Legion
Legion LE 3 2 2 None Sea Heavy Cavalry
Light Cavalry LC 2 4 2 Plains, Desert None Chariots, Beasts
Heavy Cavalry HC 4 3 3 Plains Forests, Jungles, Mountains, Sea Chariots, Beasts
Chariots CH 3 3 3 Plains, Desert Forests, Jungles, Mountains, Sea Beasts
Elephants EL 2 - 5 2 3 Jungles Forests, Mountains, Sea None
Camel Corps CC 2 3 3 Desert Forests, Jungles, Sea None
Warg Riders WR 3 3 3 Forests Sea Eagles
Dragon Wing DR 6 5 4 None None Bowmen
Eagle Wing EA 4 5 3 Mountains Forests, Jungles Bowmen
Whales WH 5 4 3 Sea All other terrains Mermen
Fleet FL 3 2 3 Sea All other terrains None
Mermen ME 2 3 2 Sea, Jungles Desert, Mountains Bowmen
Ents EN 6 1 3 Forests, Jungles Sea, Desert Axemen, Dragons
Trolls TR 5 2 3 Mountains Sea Axemen
Werebeasts WE 3 3 3 Forests, Mountains Sea None

Speed: This speed is the number of Provinces an army can move per game turn. Speed also determines the chance of escape from a lost battle.

Strength: Garrison units have a strength of 3 when defending a province, but only 1 when attacking. Basic strength can be modified by the army's race:

If a unit fights in terrain which is listed as home terrain, it gets a +1 modifier to its basic strength. A unit's strength is halved in adverse terrain.

A unit's strength is 2/3 normal when fighting against its nemesis, a troop type which the unit is especially vulnerable against. A unit is a nemesis to it's opponent if it's on the front line or it's an air unit flying against a unit behind the front line. If more than one of your units are eligible to be a nemesis due to overflight or outflanking, one of them is chosen at random.

The actual strength of a unit is the strength multiplied by the quality level (Depleted = 0, Green = 1, Average = 2, Veteran = 3, Crack = 4, Elite = 5). There also exists the strength levels of Sub-Depleted, and Super-Elite. Even though Depleted and Sub-Depleted have a strength multiplier of zero, units still have a small intrinsic strength. Super-Elite signifies a strength multiplier of 6+ as a unit can have several additions to quality above Elite.

When a unit fights a battle in the starting home province of a player-King who owns the unit, it's quality is increased by 1 level.

If a character commanding at a battle has tactical ability, his units are increased in strength by 20% per level (see Tactical and Naval abilities.)

The strength of a defending army is multiplied by 1.25. The side with the better exploration of the contested province will also have up to a 25% advantage, if they have explored 100% of the province and the other side has not explored it.

To explain the events in battle reports, they are basically randomly determined as the turn is processed. Each random event can as much as double the strength of the affected force (but most only multiply it by a factor of 1.5 or less). The first random event affects the whole battle, while succeeding events affect a column of units in a battle line.

An army fighting for a Divine kingdom has a 50% chance of becoming fanatical, while an army fighting for a Good kingdom has a 40% chance of becoming fanatical, thus fighting at the next higher quality level. An army fighting for an Evil kingdom has a 25% chance of becoming fanatical. A Skeletal army fighting under an Undead character has will always be fanatical.

Elephants are unpredictable in battle and can have a strength of anywhere between 2 and 5.

"Beasts" are camels, elephants, werebeasts, wargs and dragons. Horses are frightened of these animals.

Camels: In a desert battle, one camel unit should be present (it sees double duty as as a supply train.) If not, all armies have their quality reduced by 1 level.

Werebeasts: Werebeasts are a collection of outcast Werewolves, Werebears, Were-rats, etc. When Werebeasts defeat the unit opposing them, there is about a 40% chance that the unit will gradually turn into a Werebeast itself. The change will take place after the game turn is over. Only the 4 humanoid races can be "bitten" and become werebeasts. Fleets are never affected by Werebeasts.

Trolls: If they die in battle, they can regenerate: their body parts just crawl back together, although they are reduced 1 step in quality. But since they're perturbed at their commander for getting them killed, they become mercenaries.

Whales: When fighting in any terrain other than Sea, they have zero strength. However, if they lose a battle in such terrain, they can retreat into a Sea hex automatically without fear of being destroyed.

Summary of factors affecting army strength:

[7.0] BATTLES

When a character leading armies moves into a province occupied by an enemy army, there is a battle. In battles, fleets can be used on land (they disembark their marines for the battle) and armies can fight at sea. Sea battles are basically a series of boarding actions and therefore are somewhat similar to land battles. Battles are fought at the end of the phase, after all characters have taken their actions.

If you attack a neutral province, and another player attacks it in the same phase, or attacks while you are still contesting the province, either player may be first to battle the defenders. Your chances are proportional to how many armies you have.

[7.1] Supreme Commanders

The two supreme commanders at the battles are the characters with the largest troop contingents, the tiebreaker being the best Tactical ability.

If a character who leads no armies is present in a province where a battle occurs, he will appear at the battle to take over in case the supreme commander dies (but will not have to fight a duel). He will not appear if there is no supreme commander already at the battle for his side.

If the defending armies aren't led by a character, they are led by the "provincial garrison commander", who has no abilities and is present for that battle only.

Before the battle, the two supreme commanders may fight a duel. The armies which were led by the loser of the duel will become demoralized and will be reduced in strength by 25%. More details concerning duels are given in the Special Encounter Plan rules [5.10].

[7.2] Battle Lines

When a battle occurs, the armies of the two forces are lined up against each other. The line may be shortened by mountainous or wooded terrain on the flanks of the defender, so that the defending force only has to defend a small line (see the Terrain Table). The length of the line is limited to the line length of the smallest force. The two opposing forces place their best armies in the front of the line. The weaker armies usually line up behind the front line, and contribute 50% of their strength to the battle. If there are enough armies for a third line, they are only 25% of their normal strength, and so on. If a battle line is shorter than the terrain allows, the flanking second-line units of a force which is superior in numbers may outflank the enemy force. If they do that, they count as 100% strength instead of 50%.

Non-humanoid units (Eagles, Dragons, Whales and Mermen) can attack from above or below and contribute 100% of their strength to the battle. If there is an enemy unit behind the front lines for the non-human unit to attack instead of a unit on the front line, it will attack the rear unit instead (the non-human unit and the rearward unit will both be at 100% strength in this case.) However, if the non-human unit has low strength because its leader has insufficient Druidic ability, it will be held back and will throw its low strength into the attack on the front-line unit.

The reasoning for this rule is that the swooping attacks of air units and the underwater attacks of Whales and Mermen at sea would naturally carry them past the front lines, especially if the enemy is fighting in close-order formation. So a second-line unit should always be at 100% strength if an air unit is overflying or a sea unit is attacking underwater the unit ahead of it in the front line.

All non-humanoid units (air units, whales and mermen) become less effective when more than one is used in a column, or more than one is attacking a single enemy unit. A second non-humanoid unit attacking an enemy unit is at 1/2 strength, a third is at 1/4 strength, etc. Non-humanoid air units, non- humanoid sea units and humanoid units are considered three separate groups when halving strength in this way.

Generals are sometimes able to take account of elephant performance and the "nemesis" effect when lining up their units. The chance of being able to make a switch in any column is (Tactical-Ability / Line-Length). Switches can only be made within the same column, and the defender always gets the last chance to switch. The switch will only be made if the army strength of the current front-line unit is less than the strength of a rearward unit, after adjustments are made for all nemesis effects.

There are several factors that modify or affect the strength of units in battle. These are detailed beneath the Army Type Table. For Druidic Kingdoms, if a monster in a province where a battle is being fought is closer in alignment to Druidic than the player he is fighting, it may come to help the Druidic cause. A very powerful monster in a 1-column battle in mountains may even have a better effect than the fanaticism sometimes given to armies of Good alignment.

There is then a number of contests equal to the length of the battle line. The strengths of the combatants are totaled up and compared. A 4:1 ratio is needed to assure victory, while a 1:1 ratio gives a 50% chance of winning. The side that does best in these contests wins the battle. The computer decides which armies were eliminated in the battle by comparing the strengths of the armies fighting in the contest. Fleets fighting on land provinces would generally be reduced to Depleted status instead of being eliminated.

[7.3] Pursuit

After the battle, the faster units in the victorious army can pursue and possibly destroy some of the losing armies. In this pursuit, army speed is the most important factor in catching the defenders or evading the pursuers. Retreating units fight with the 25% bonus given to defenders, but suffer a -1 quality penalty due to their demoralized state.

Generally speaking, about 25% of the victorious infantry and 75% of the cavalry will attempt to pursue the retreating armies. Especially fast units such as light cavalry and air wings can attempt more than one pursuit. If a retreating army is unable to fight the pursuing unit to a standstill in a one-on-one battle, it is destroyed.

[7.4] Retreat

If the defeated army has little hope of winning a second battle, it will retreat into an adjacent friendly province. If retreat is impossible, Green and Depleted units will be disbanded into the population, while Average and better units may disband into mercenaries, usually marching a few provinces away from their attackers at the end of the turn. You can not hire them that game turn.

If the attacker destroyed all defenders or forced them to retreat, the province becomes part of the attacker's Kingdom and it will pay taxes to its new King each turn. If the attacker was forced to retreat, his armies must retreat into the same province they invaded from, or a province adjacent to the province they invaded from. Retreats are conducted separately for each character who leads a contingent at a battle. This is important if the only retreat route is to the sea, and one leader has all the Fleets. If you kill an enemy general in a duel, the troops will usually carry his body with them in their retreat. That would be the reason why you don't see his grave in the province of his death.

[7.5] Aftermath of Battle

Armies of the winning force that did well in the battle may have their quality increased by 1 level, although most troops will never become Crack and very few will ever become Elite. Some armies in the losing force will probably have their quality level decreased by 1 level, although a defeated force that does not retreat can either improve or decrease in quality. The chance of rising or falling in quality decreases as armies gain in quality.

A unit has less than the normal chance to improve in quality if it is inadequately led. If it fought as a Green or Depleted unit because of insufficient Druidic ability, it has 60% and 20% (respectively) of the normal chance to improve.

Factors in a decision whether to give up the fight for the province, or stay to defend, are as follows:

[7.6] Contested Provinces

If an attacker invades a province but fails to destroy the defenders or make them retreat, the province still belongs to the defender, and is called a "contested" province. If the attackers still have at least 1 movement point for each army, they will be used to force another battle in the next phase. If not, both armies will encamp and wait for spring of the next game turn.

If you start a game turn in a contested province and don't move out, your armies will use up a movement point to fight a battle at the end of phase 1. The defending Kingdom can't force a battle in a contested province even if all its armies can move, nor is a battle caused by reinforcements sent to the defenders. If the province is conquered, the attacker uses another movement point.

The leader who invaded the contested province will execute his orders in the next phase, except that it's illegal to move from the contested province to an unfriendly province. You can, however, move from a province owned by a neutral player-King to an unfriendly province.

Let's take the example of an all-infantry army led by a Hero with March skill of 2. It moves into a province (using 1 movement point) and wins the first battle, destroying half of the defending armies in the pursuit. But the defenders decide they still have a chance. They stay, and in the next phase, the attackers use up a movement point to force another battle. They wipe out the defenders, use up another movement point to occupy the province, and are left with 0 movement points. They can move no further.

If your Move into a province uses up your last movement point, one battle is still fought that phase.

[7.7] Conquest

Conquering an enemy province slows an army down, counting as 1 province entered for purposes of movement. For example, let's say an army with a speed of 3 enters an enemy province. That army has used up 2/3 of its movement. It can enter one more province that turn, even if it is an enemy province, because the -1 movement deduction is applied after the move is made (an army may wind up with negative movement points only as a result of this rule). A move into a sea province uses up an extra movement point only if there is a battle in the province.

If you conquer a Hero's province, he will probably be more expensive to hire or even non-hireable. Only if the Hero is fairly compatible with your King, will he be likely to forget his defeat and offer his services at a low cost.

[7.8] Multiple Contingents

If two characters who are controlled by the same King (or, two characters employed by different Kings who are allied with each other) attack the same province in the same action phase, they may fight together in the same battle. If they moved from the same province in making the attack, the chances of uniting for the battle are very good, but if they attacked the province from opposite directions they probably will fight the defenders in separate battles.

[8.0] DIPLOMACY

There are three possible relations between Kings: Allied, Neutral or Enemy. All relations between Kings are Neutral on turn 1. All provinces not controlled by players are Enemies. At the end of any game turn, you may "Treat" or "Break Treaty" with other players.

[8.1] Relations

When two nations are Enemies, they may attack each other freely. If two Kings have Neutral relations, their armies do not attack when ordered to move into the other King's province; instead, they remain where they are (this rule is especially useful when two countries plan to take the same non-player province in a turn). When two Kings are Allied, their forces and their Heroes' forces won't attack each other when in the same province and will try to add their strengths when in combat against a non-allied army. A province conquered by an Allied force belongs to the King with the larger army after the battle.

Some interesting cases arise when King X is allied to Kings Y and Z, who are Enemies. For example, either ally can march through the territory of King X to attack the other ally. Also, When King X leads forces present at the end of a phase in a province owned by King Y which has been invaded by King Z, his forces fight with King Y. Or, if Kings X and Z have Neutral relations, King X will fight with King Y. In none of these cases can King X ever assist in an attack.

[8.2] Treating

A "Treat" order raises Enemy relations to Neutral, or Neutral relations to Allied, but only if both Kings "Treat" with each other on the same turn. The treaty lasts until broken.

When a Druidic kingdom Treats with another kingdom with which it has Neutral relations, the diplomats of the other kingdom will be swayed by the Druidic art of persuasion and doctrine of harmony. A treaty will be signed even without a reciprocal Treat order by the other King, unless the other King issues a Break Treaty order on the same game turn.

Druidics also ally more quickly. IF both a Druidic king and another king ally with each other, they become Allies before the turn begins, even if they were former enemies.

[8.3] Breaking Treaties

A "Break Treaty" order reduces the level of alliance one step (this gives an Ally a turn to reposition forces before war begins). When two Allies become Neutral and one player has some armies in the territory of the other, there is no combat. The armies may move to an adjacent Allied or Enemy province, otherwise they have little choice but to remain stranded where they are. If relations then become Enemy, there will be a battle unless one King moves his forces out of the province. If two Allies "Break Treaty" with each other on the same turn, they become Enemies.

An Evil or Undead King breaks a treaty at the beginning of a turn, not the end. Consequently, he may break a treaty with a Kingdom he has neutral relations with, and immediately invade it.

[8.4] Scientific Treaties

To exchange Sage discoveries, players need to have become Allies on a previous game turn. From then on, a mutual "Treat" order is interpreted as a scientific exchange. The only requirement is that at the end of the turn, the 2 Kingdoms are adjacent, or else a character from one Kingdom must be inside the other Kingdom. The two nations will exchange 1 secret for each mutual Treat order. Generally speaking, the secrets exchanged are the most military- oriented ones. The exchange takes place after finances are computed. The discoveries listed in your turn report will be shown in the order of their priority for scientific exchanges. If only one of the Kingdoms has a secret unknown to the other, one secret will still be given away.

[9.0] FINANCES

Each King starts with a treasury of 10 gold. This money can be used to hire armies or Heroes. At the end of a game turn, revenue is collected, then armies and Heroes are maintained.

[9.1] Revenue

Gold is earned in two ways: taxation and adventure. Each province has a taxation value. If a King controls a province at the end of the turn, the taxes are added to his treasury. A King may also gain gold by thieves or by defeating a monster in its lair and taking its treasure.

[9.2] Expenses

Heroes and armies are paid when they are hired and at the end of each game turn. Heroes get paid first, then armies. An unpaid army may be reduced in quality and may desert. If a Hero goes unpaid in a turn, there is a possibility of desertion, but some Heroes are so loyal that they will never willingly desert their liege lord.

A King may also lose gold in adventure. An unfriendly character may steal from the King, or a monster may venture from its lair and devastate a province, thus reducing taxes for that game turn. Monsters tend to grow bolder and devastate the province more often unless they are effectively attacked.

[10.0] VICTORY

[10.1] Imperial Offices

There are a total of 8 Imperial Offices, each of which will be awarded at the end of the game to the character who has piled up the most Merit Points for the office. Ties are broken first by amount of gold in the treasury, then by size of tax base. Each office comes with a percentage prize share. The standing of the player in the game is decided by the prize share of the Imperial Offices he controls. A prize fund is maintained equal to 10% of the turn fees paid by the players. When the game ends, a player gets a percentage of the prizes awarded proportional to the total prize shares of his Offices. For more details, see the Imperial Office Table.

During the game, each player is informed of his standing in the race for each office, stated as a percentage of points accumulated relative to the leading competitor for that office. When you gain an Office, a special ability may be given to you for as long as you hold it. There are also additional "Titles" that may be gained, with special abilities, but they do not give you any percentage prize share at the end of the game. A Hero may hold office. A character may hold more than one office. If a character dies (King or Hero), he loses 25% of his accumulated Office points.

Title Prize % Merit Points Awarded
World Emperor 20 Largest tax base at end of game
Esteemed High Chancellor of the Imperium
(who art the wisest man in the Imperium, and thus First Advisor to the Emperor)		 10 For each level in Explorer, Spy and Sage abilities: +1
For each feature character was first to discover: +2
For each invention character was first to discover: +2
For each invention character obtained by espionage: +1
Imperial Treasurer
(who fondleth the Emperor's gold)		 10 Richest treasury at end of game
Imperial Grand Marshal
(who commandeth the Imperial Grand Army)		 10 For each land battle commanded:
If won battle, then for each unit in enemy force: +1
If lost battle, then for each unit in friendly force: -1
Imperial Grand Admiral
(who commandeth the Imperial Grand Navy)		 10 For each sea battle commanded:
If won battle, then for each unit in enemy force: +1
If lost battle, then for each unit in friendly force: -1
For each sea province with tax base of 2 or higher: +1
For each Naval skill level: +1
Lord High Defender of the Imperium
(who guardeth the Imperium against dangerous monsters)		 10 For each hostile monster slain:
Total hit points of monster
(Half points for neutralization by negotiations)
High Priest Palatine of the Empire
(who communeth with the Great Spirit and administereth to the souls of the people)		 10 For each Resurrection or Bless spell successfully cast: +1
For each level in Druid and White Magic abilities: +2
Arch-Mage Palatine of the Empire
(who weaveth great spells of magic for the benefit of the Empire) 		10 For each level in any magical ability (including White): +1
For each spell-casting magic item possessed: +1

The 10 remaining Merit Points are awarded for the owners of the following magic artifacts: Excalibur, Bow of the Elven Kings, Axe of the Dwarven Lords, Scimitar of Orc Mastery, Crown of Dragon Command, Feather of the Great Eagle, Horn of Neptune, Holy Sword, Invisible Sword, Shadow Sword. These points are not modified by an alignment difference with the Emperor.

Notes:

  1. The points awarded for Admirals for control of rich sea provinces are given to each character in the Kingdom.
  2. No points are awarded for the Imperial Defender office for Fulfilling an agreement. Often a character's efforts to negotiate with or damage a monster will persuade it to stop raiding your Kingdom, in which case half points are awarded.
  3. If you are tied with someone in the lead for an Office, the report will show you as being ranked #2 if you're losing the tiebreaker (the first tiebreaker for Offices is gold in treasury, next is size of tax base.)

[10.2] The World Emperor

The eventual World Emperor is the player who has the largest tax base support at the end of the game. The following is a description of the sequence needed to end the game.

At the end of any turn, when Kings owning more than 55% of the total World tax base call for an election, a "Vote for World Emperor" is held on the following turn. In the next turn each King can vote for their choice of the World Emperor. The eventual World Emperor does not necessarily have to be the player who has the largest tax base at the end of the game. Each King who votes gets votes equal to his tax base at the end of the turn. If one King receives more than 50% of the votes, he/she becomes the Emperor, and receives the 20 Prize percentage points for the Imperial Office of World Emperor. If one player does not receive a number of votes that exceeds half the total world tax base, the game continues, and another election may be called at any time. Because a vote for World Emperor occurs after an election is called, there can never be a vote held two turns in a row.

Each King retains possession of his lands, but the elected World Emperor has overall dominion over the entire world. The alignment of the newly elected Emperor determines the points for each player on their comparative alignment to the new Emperor. The Alignment Table gives a percentage reduction for each step you are removed from the Emperor's alignment. For example a Pagan King would lose 45% of his points if a Good King was elected World Emperor. The greatest "Adventurer-King" in the world and the winner of the game (not necessarily the World Emperor) is the player with the greatest adjusted prize share.

[10.3] Valhalla

If a character does exceptionally well in a game, he may be admitted into Valhalla. In Norse legends, Valhalla is the Great Hall of Odin, which only the bravest of the brave may enter. To enter Valhalla, a character must either be the winning King, or contribute 20 victory points toward the standings of his Kingdom, after points are reduced for alignment differences. Only one character may enter Valhalla from any one Kingdom.

When you enter Valhalla, you will join such legendary figures as King Arthur. These legendary figures, and characters who have won their way into Valhalla by their performance in a previous game, often visit the game-worlds of Adventurer-Kings! Each alignment from Good to Evil will be visited once in each five-turn period (if there are more than one players to be visited in an alignment, the choice will be made randomly.) They appear by the side of your King. When you get a visitor from Valhalla, you may plot his Actions for that turn. In turns 1-2, your visitor will perform 1 Action; this increases by 1 Action every 2 turns.

Undead and Divine Kings may enter Valhalla for Good or Evil, but do not receive visits from Valhalla.

If you go to Valhalla, you can take your magic items with you. You may also write up a description of what your character will say when he visits a King, including the character's history, friendly advice, bragging, etc.

[10.4] Time Limit

There will be a time limit for all AK games (the people of the world gradually put more pressure on the kings to resolve the political situation). On turn 25, you need 50% of the world's taxbase to become world emperor, call an election, or win a vote; this decreases by 5% each turn, so that by turn 30 you need only 25% of the world's taxbase.

[11.0] BEGINNING PLAY

You, the player, can choose your King's race, alignment, temper and four ability levels. Race and alignment can generally be chosen according to personal tastes, because the powers of the different races and alignments are fairly well balanced.

Ability levels may require some more thought. It really does help to have some good martial abilities to ensure that you can expand your kingdom quickly.

The most obvious way to do this is to choose Tactical ability. Melee, Archery and magical abilities can help you win duels with the opposing commander at a battle, which helps your chances of victory. These abilities also help in Searching out features. A pet strategy of some players is to pick two March skill levels, which enables infantry to attack a second province after they have conquered one province.

Another oft-ignored strategy is to take some Naval ability, which will help you master the vast oceans of the world. Druidic ability will help you lead armies of races other than your own. About half the world is Human, so if you pick a race other than Human, you should probably take one Druidic level. For Human Kings, the Druid skill is still very useful, but can be considered optional.

Don't forget that there are 7 Imperial Offices other than World Emperor. A good idea is to concentrate on one other office other than World Emperor, and to do whatever you can for the other six offices until it's clear that you've slipped too far behind.

Your temper should correspond to the abilities you've selected. Cautious and Cowardly are good neck-saving tempers for Kings with little melee combat ability. Brave and Berserk are good for powerful warriors. But remember, your starting heroes will probably be of similar temper.

[11.1] BEGINNER'S TIPS

When engaging in a campaign of conquest, remember that one additional move- point is used up when conquering an enemy province (rule [6.2]). An army with a speed of 2 will thus be able to conquer only one province in a game-turn; a cavalry force, or an army led by a leader with a March ability of 2 or higher, can try to conquer two provinces. Navies must use up this movement point only when they fight a battle in the province. If you attack on phase 4 or earlier, your armies can fight more than 1 battle.

A "beginner's tip" showing an example combat situation may do some good. Let's say you start with 2 Human Legion and 1 Heavy Cavalry, and you're thinking of attacking a Prosperous Forest province defended by Elven bowmen.

Usually, you should recruit 4 units with your 10 gold, giving you about 4 Average Legion and 3 Average HC. Now let's work out what your odds are if you attack that Elven province, using the "Summary of factors affecting army strength" on the Army Type Table.

First, the opposition. Since it's a prosperous (average) province, it will probably have 2 defending Elven Bow units. Each Bow unit has a basic strength of 2, +1 because Forest is home terrain for Elves, +1 because Forest is home terrain for Bow, and +1 more because Elves get +1 as Bowmen. Total modified strength per unit is thus 5. Multiply this by 2 because all units start as Average quality, giving 10 defense points. Then multiply by 1.25 for defense, 1.25 for exploration, and you wind up with 16 points per unit, for a total strength of 32 (this won't seem so complicated, once you get used to it.)

Now let's say you invade with all your units. Your first line in the battle will be 2 Human Legions, total strength = 16 (Legion strength = 3; +1 for Humans fighting as Legion; x 2 for Average quality; x 2 units.) Your second line of 2 Legions will have the same strength; their strength will not be penalized 50% because they will be able to outflank the enemy (as explained in section 7.6 of the addendum sheet.)

The next 2 cavalry will be penalized 50% however. Their total strength is 4 (HC basic strength = 4; x2 for Average quality; halved for adverse terrain of Forest; x 50% penalty; x 2 units.) The last cavalry unit will contribute 1 strength.

So the total attacking strength will be (16 +16 +4 + 1) = 37, against 32 defense. That's about 1.15 to 1 odds, which gives you about a 55%-60% chance of victory. That's not so good! You want to look for odds closer to 2:1. Check your other skills to see if you can improve your odds: some Tactical skill will make the odds more acceptable, or some spell(s) may help. If your leader is designed for personal combat, or you have the Neutral Order of Duellists ability, consider challenging the defending hero to a duel. You might also consider sending someone ahead to explore the province, especially Plains. Lastly, consider taking on a weaker province first. That may gain you some quick tax points to build up your army, and your units may gain crucial quality levels while beating up on weaker units.

At the start of the game, aim towards taking as many provinces as possible on each and every turn. You should try for at least two provinces per turn, three or four if you can manage it. You should recruit some armies on the very first turn to help you accomplish this. If you have a skill of less than 2 in March ability, you can divide your forces into a cavalry army and an infantry army, using the infantry army to conquer one province while the cavalry horde tries to conquer two successive provinces.

A King who has a fleet should also try to take 1-3 sea provinces. You can order a fleet to move into an unknown area, which is sometimes a good gambit.

When considering an invasion, weigh all the conditions which argue for and against success in battle. All of the modifiers to army strength are given with the Army Table. Also, remember that how many armies you have doesn't matter much in mountainous terrain because it may be that the battle will be fought in a narrow pass, allowing a frontage of only one or two armies.

After you conquer a province controlled by a neutral hero, consider hiring the hero in the same game-turn. It may be wise to wait a phase before hiring him, in case you need two battles to conquer the province.

When searching features, remember that using the Talk tactic can lead to considerable success. Some "monsters" may be willing to let you have their treasure for a simple favour, and even a vicious monster will hesitate to attack a Hero, so your chances of survival are quite good. Still, don't make risky attacks against monsters on early game-turns, and try to have a good supply of spare characters. When you make up an encounter plan which starts with a negotiation tactic, place a Flee and/or combat tactic after it, in case the negotiations fail.

Try for every Imperial Office. At the start of the game, think about which character will be your primary candidate for each office, and which offices will receive first priority. Towards the middle or end of the game, try to find out which characters are ahead of you for which offices and neutralise those characters. The winner of the game will probably be the King who explores the most avenues for advancement and takes advantage of every opportunity. Luck plays a large part in the game, so players will have to take many calculated risks to make the law of averages work for them.

If you are invaded and lose your Kingdom, it's not necessarily the end. You can fire your more expensive heroes, then travel around the world looking for mercenaries and battlefields where you can raise skeletal armies. Some features have magic items which will help you, or incredible amounts of gold to finance a comeback. Some Kings may help you in exchange for some training or a magic item, while others may have gaps in their defences which you can exploit by raising mercenaries and skeletal armies in the middle of their Kingdom!

[11.2] EXAMPLES OF MOVES FOR ADVENTURER-KINGS

Here's an example of a "moves sheet" which you can use to give orders to one of your characters:

Moves:
Character ID  Phase 1     Phase 2     Phase 3     Phase 4     Phase 5

1_________   (__)_______ (__)_______ (__)_______ (__)_______ (__)______
(Kyron______)(__________)(__________)(__________)(__________)(_________)
Enctr Plans: __________  __________  __________  __________  _________
Special Plan:__________

The first line is used to fill in the order, for example, "(HI)re_88___". The second line is for anything else that is needed to explain the order (for example, how much are you going to offer character 88 to join you?) The third line is for more notes, and for the plans for Encounter and Search actions.

The "Special Plan" line is for encounters with random monsters and duels at battles, and will be in effect for the entire turn. Here are examples of how to write moves for each order:

[3.1]       [3.2]       [3.3]       [3.4]       [3.5]       [3.6]
Move        Explore     Search      Recruit     Hire        Disband

(MO) NE 304 (EX) 304    (SE) 33     (RE) for 22 (HI) 88     (DI) 33,44,.
( Burgundy )( Burgundy )( Dungeon  )(LE,LE,HC  )( Lancelot )( 112,113  )
FI,ME                  for 3 gold            .

[3.7]       [3.8]       [3.9]       [3.10]      [3.11]      [3.12]
Fire        Leave       Pick Up     Cast Spell  Use Item    Encounter

(FI) 88     (LE) 8,9 to (PI) 33,34  (CA)-BL     (US) 19     (EN) 88    .
( Lancelot )( Garrison )(          )(on 304    )(Magic Wand)( Lancelot )
on 88       TA,FL    .

[3.13]      [3.14]      [3.15]      [3.16]      [3.17]      [3.18]
Practice    Spy         Defend      Pursue      Trail       Give

(PR) TA     (SP) 304    (DE) 304    (PU) 88     (TR) 88     (GI) 19    .
(          )( Burgundy )( Burgundy )(Lancelot  )( Lancelot )( to 88    )
CA-FI,ME                         .

You don't really have to include the names of provinces and characters in orders, since the computer operator will just type in the number. But it may be a useful note for you and sometimes serves as a double-check.

If you run out of space when writing an order, put an asterisk (*) and continue the order on the bottom of the moves sheet.

[11.3] EXAMPLES OF COMBAT PLANS

[11.4] TURNSHEET HINTS

[12.0] ADVENTURER KINGS VARIANTS

[12.1] SUPER-AK VARIANT

Here are the basic rule changes for the 20-32 player "Super-AK" variant. (These changes will not apply to the normal game verson.)

  1. There will be about 28 players per game, 4 from each alignment. Players will need to pick an alternate alignment if the one they want is already filled. (You can even send two alternate setup requests, depending on what alignment you get.) The map will be 30x15 provinces, up from the current 18x9. There will be about 1000 armies, 250 leaders and 250 features. The features will sometimes attract another monster after its current occupant has been slain.

  2. In addition to the Imperial Offices, there are about 35 new "Royal Titles" such as "Lord of the Were-Beasts" and "Ranger of the Plains". Rather than reveal all of the specific titles, here are the major groupings:

    • 7 Titles for the leader of each alignment
    • 11 Titles for being the primary leader of each racial type
    • 6 Titles for protecting homelands of each terrain type
    • About 5 Titles related to military achievements
    • About 5 Titles related to personal combat
    • About 4 miscellaneous Titles

    Each Title would be worth 1-5 victory points. the way each Title is gained is up to you to discover. When elections are held, or in determining whether the 55% mark has been reached, you get added votes for Offices, Titles and Magic Items. Each victory point counts the same as five tax points towards reaching the needed percentage (your votes are not lessened if there's any difference in alignment between you and the leader of the race for World Emperor.)

    When you gain an Office or Title, a special ability may be given to you as long as you hold it.

    Each Title has 1-3 ways to aquire points for it. There's a certain minimum number of points to qualify you for each Title.

    When you reach that minimum, and your character has at least half the points of the leader for that Title, the Title will be mentioned in your Imperial Office Report. Each Office and Title now comes with a certain power which is given to you when you are number one in the race for it.

  3. When an alignment has conquered 55% of the world, a vote is automatically held the next turn. They can then elect one of their own if they want to, or continue to fight it out.

  4. For Scientific Treating (exchanging Sage Discoveries), you have a lesser chance of exchanging with a King of a different alignment (subtract 40% per step of alignment difference.)

  5. At the start of the game, players will be told which Kings are also of their alignment, but not where they are or who plays the position. You can get a team together to play the same alignment if you want, but your positions may be a little more scattered to make up for the advantage of knowing each other before the game begins. In any case, no two Kings of the same alignment will start adjacent to each other, and the alignments will be balanced on each continental land mass.

  6. Maps can be exchanged between members of the same alignment, if the two Kingdoms have encountered each other (that is, if their Kingdoms become adjacent, or if a character does a peaceful 'ENcounter" with a character of the other Kingdom.

[12.2] AK Europe

The "European" variant is a normal AK game, based on a map of Europe in the middle Ages. A player starts with the knowledge of the provinces surrounding his Kingdom, up to 3 provinces distant from his home province. Each player know the address and phone number of adjacent players at the start of the game.

  1. To reflect the improvement in Light Cavalry over the Greco-Roman era light cavalry (which serves as the model for light cavalry in Adventurer Kings), all Light Cavalry are increased in strength to 3, and cost of 3.

  2. Each Kingdom will get a special bonus to one or more abilities, reflecting their historical strength.

    The following positions will be available (if two players want the same position, the decision will be by random die-roll, so you should list the positions you want in order of priority):

    • Caliphate of Cordoba: Sage +2
    • Normandy: Naval +1
    • England: Naval +1
    • Germany: Druid +1
    • Papal States: White Magic +1
    • South Russia (Kiev): Explorer +1, Naval +1
    • North Russia (Novgorod): Explorer +1, Archery +1
    • Kingdom of Magyars: Necromancy +1
    • Byzantine Empire: Sage +1, Spy +1
    • Mongol Khanate of the Golden Horde: March +1
    • The Northern Seljuk Turks: Melee +1
    • Caliphate of Baghdad: Sage +1, Thief +1

[12.3] AK Earth

This is a Super-AK variant, played on a map of Earth in the prehistoric Ice Age, where 20 would-be emperors are drawn from different historical periods to square off against each other. You rule such an Empire in its initial stages, about to embark on a campaign to unify your region, then conquer the known world!

Special Rules:

  1. The Light Cavalry for the Earth game is modeled on the bow-armed cavalry of the Turks and Mongols in the 11th to 14th centuries. They were better armed and trained than the Greco-Roman LC that is used in regular games of AK. Their strength and pay is 3, not 2, and they have no adverse terrain.

  2. There are some sea areas with islands in them. Islands are shown on the map as land hexes with a blue fringe on each side. These provinces are considered to have two terrain types (one Sea, while the other type is some other terrain.) If an army is fighting in an island, it will normally fight at its Sea strength, but if that is adverse terrain, it will fight at its land strength. Supreme commanders use their naval ability, not tactical ability, in islands.

    Earthquakes are legal on islands. For all other purposes, islands are just like sea. Movement through is by sea, and if there is no battle when you conquer an island, no extra movement points are expended.

  3. When your map shows a blue zone between two non-island land hexes, there is sea between them, so that you can move naval forces between them, but not land forces, unless by transport. If the blue zone continues along two hexsides, you can sail from that land hex to the next land hex along the blue zone, but that's the only way you could move between land hexes. Only version 22 of IBM Saga will show the blue zones, so if you don't have it and can't get it, you need to receive printed maps by mail. A Part Sea spell on either side of a blue zone will enable crossing it overland, and prohibit entry from another land hex by sea units.

    On the map printouts, these blue zones along hexsides may sometimes appear to be partly blue, and partly connected by land. In this case, you should still assume that the entire hexside is impassable to land units.

  4. There are places on the map where you can move ships from one ocean, through an isthmus such as Panama, and then to the other ocean. Canals are always assumed to exist to allow this to happen, or else you can just look at your Fleets as being Viking longships, which can be portaged overland somewhat.

  5. The map wraps around on left and right edges, but is prohibited "Ice Cap" terrain at the top and bottom.

  6. Each nation gets a bonus in one or more historical abilities. The bonus applies to both ability and aptitude, with a maximum starting skill of 4 (for you and your starting heroes only.) You also may have some starting Sage Discoveries and perhaps other benefits, although the Elder Gods may not give you each and every Discovery that your Empire historically possessed.

  7. An element of mystery is added by randomly placing the "lost continent of Atlantis" in one of the ocean areas. One, maybe two players starts there, with little or no prior contact with the outside world.

  8. Some empires start 2 provinces away from each other, by design.

  9. You may change one of your king's starting abilities, after looking at the abilities you start with. If you realize your race is wrong for the terrain around you, that can be changed also. If the GM had to change your alignment to balance the game, you may change one additional ability.

  10. The nations are:

    • Persia
    • India
    • China
    • the Huns
    • the Mongols
    • the Manchus
    • Polynesia/Australia
    • Japanese Shogunate
    • Dutch East India Company
    • Rome
    • the Rus Vikings
    • Carthage
    • Egypt
    • the Zulus
    • the Norse Explorers
    • the Hudson Bay Company
    • the Indians
    • the Eskimos
    • the Amazon Queen
    • the Aztecs
    • the Incas
    • Atlantis

[13.0] APPENDICES

[13.1] Temper table

Temper Special Effects Flight from Combat Refusal
Berserk Rage
Intimidation		 Never Never
Brave Elan When odds seem unfavorable and the risk of receiving a death blow seems large Never
Cautious Parrying
Fleeing		 When the risk of receiving a death blow seems significant 1 - 50%
Cowardly Begging for mercy
Bluffing		 When death possible; may also flee after any harmful blow 50 - 100%

[13.2] Druid ability table

Druid Level Gains ability to lead armies of... Can talk to...
1 Humans
Elves
Dwarves
Orcs
Mermen
Werebeasts		 Avians
mammals
2 Whales
Trolls		 Reptilians
sea creatures
3 Eagles
Ents		 Insectoid monsters
4 Dragons All monsters

[13.3] Monsters table

Melee Missile
Monster Average Hit Points Skill Damage Skill Damage Speed
Gryphon 25 2 1 - 6 0 - Fast
Giant 25 1 1 - 7 1 1 - 7 Medium
Gargoyle 15 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Demon 30 3 1 - 8 0 - Fast
Troll 25 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Spectre 20 1 1 - 6 0 - Medium
Elasmosaurus 25 2 1 - 7 0 - Fast

[13.4] Alignment table

Alignment Reduction/ Alignment Difference Magic Aptitude Special Aptitude Special Abilities
Divine 20% None None 50% Fanaticism
+1 White Magic
Resurrection to Good Alignment
Pay heroes as if Divine=Good
Good 12% White Sage 40% Fanaticism
Druidic 15% Psychic Druid Automatic Treat
Neutral 20% Illusory Spy Order of Duelists
Pagan 15% Elemental Explorer Order of Magicians
Evil 12% Necromancy Thief 25% Fanaticism
Automatic Break
Undead 20% None None 100% Skeletal Fanaticism
Automatic Break Treaty
Necromantic Charm Spell
+1 Necromancy

[13.5] Spy ability table

Spy level Chances of Escaping Notice Margin of Error of Spy Reports Chance to Pursue or Trail
0 0% 70% 50%
1 50% 55% 100%
2 75% 40% 150%
3 88% 28% 200%
4 95% 15% 250%

[13.6] Forced march table

Extra moves for... Contingents Unify %
Distance to 2nd force:
Ability level Speed 1 - 2 Speed 3+ 0 1 2
0 0 0 80 50 20
1 0 1 90 60 30
2 1 1 100 70 40
3 1 2 100 80 50
4 2 2 100 90 60

[13.7] Experience table

Action Chance to Improve Ability
Move (on land, with armies) 10% Forced March
Move (by sea, with fleets) 10% Naval
Explore 10% Explorer
Recruit or Hire 5% Druid
Pick Up or Leave Army 5% Forced March
Pick Up or Leave Naval units 5% Naval
Cast Action Spell 10% in related Magical Ability.
Spy/Trail/Pursue 10% Spy
Supreme Commander at battle 15% Tactical or Naval
Lead some units at battle 10% Tactical or Naval
TA-lk to opponent 10% Druid
FI-re arrows 10% Archery
ME-lee 10% Melee
CA-st combat spell 10% in related Magical Ability
ST-eal 15% Thief

[13.8] Army types table

Army Type Code Strength Speed Pay Home terrain Adverse terrain Nemesis
Garrison GA 3/1 1 1 None None None
Bowmen BO 2 2 2 Forests, Jungles None None
Axemen AX 2 2 2 Forests, Mountains None None
Phalanx PH 3 2 2 Plains Forests, Jungles, Sea Legion
Legion LE 3 2 2 None Sea Heavy Cavalry
Light Cavalry LC 2 4 2 Plains, Desert None Chariots, Beasts
Heavy Cavalry HC 4 3 3 Plains Forests, Jungles, Mountains, Sea Chariots, Beasts
Chariots CH 3 3 3 Plains, Desert Forests, Jungles, Mountains, Sea Beasts
Elephants EL 2 - 5 2 3 Jungles Forests, Mountains, Sea None
Camel Corps CC 2 3 3 Desert Forests, Jungles, Sea None
Warg Riders WR 3 3 3 Forests Sea Eagles
Dragon Wing DR 6 5 4 None None Bowmen
Eagle Wing EA 4 5 3 Mountains Forests, Jungles Bowmen
Whales WH 5 4 3 Sea All other terrains Mermen
Fleet FL 3 2 3 Sea All other terrains None
Mermen ME 2 3 2 Sea, Jungles Desert, Mountains Bowmen
Ents EN 6 1 3 Forests, Jungles Sea, Desert Axemen, Dragons
Trolls TR 5 2 3 Mountains Sea Axemen
Werebeasts WE 3 3 3 Forests, Mountains Sea None

[13.9] Terrain table

Terrain type Average taxation Basic exploration Length of battle line
(in #armies)		 Random encounter chance
Plain 6 50% 5 - 10 10%
Desert 2 25% 5 - 10 15%
Jungle 4 10% 3 - 6 25%
Forest 5 15% 3 - 6 20%
Mountain 5 15% 1 - 3 15%
Sea 1 25% (*) 5 - 10 5%

[13.10] Imperial Offices

Title Prize % Merit Points Awarded
World Emperor 20 Largest tax base at end of game
Esteemed High Chancellor of the Imperium
(who art the wisest man in the Imperium, and thus First Advisor to the Emperor)		 10 For each level in Explorer, Spy and Sage abilities: +1
For each feature character was first to discover: +2
For each invention character was first to discover: +2
For each invention character obtained by espionage: +1
Imperial Treasurer
(who fondleth the Emperor's gold)		 10 Richest treasury at end of game
Imperial Grand Marshal
(who commandeth the Imperial Grand Army)		 10 For each land battle commanded:
If won battle, then for each unit in enemy force: +1
If lost battle, then for each unit in friendly force: -1
Imperial Grand Admiral
(who commandeth the Imperial Grand Navy)		 10 For each sea battle commanded:
If won battle, then for each unit in enemy force: +1
If lost battle, then for each unit in friendly force: -1
For each sea province with tax base of 2 or higher: +1
For each Naval skill level: +1
Lord High Defender of the Imperium
(who guardeth the Imperium against dangerous monsters)		 10 For each hostile monster slain:
Total hit points of monster
(Half points for neutralization by negotiations)
High Priest Palatine of the Empire
(who communeth with the Great Spirit and administereth to the souls of the people)		 10 For each Resurrection or Bless spell successfully cast: +1
For each level in Druid and White Magic abilities: +2
Arch-Mage Palatine of the Empire
(who weaveth great spells of magic for the benefit of the Empire)		 10 For each level in any magical ability (including White): +1
For each spell-casting magic item possessed: +1