Realms of Adventure/AD&D.bin/ad&d/lords/lreadme.txt

Text File | 1994-10-19 | 23.0 KB | 486 lines

LORDS OF THE REALM DEMO -- INSTRUCTIONS
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Welcome to Lords of the Realm!  In this playable demo,
you'll be able to try many of the features of Impressions'
new medieval simulation.  But before we go into what you can
do, let's start with a list of what the demo CAN'T do:

* You can only play for a limited number of turns; the game
  will automatically end after several YEARS of play.
* In this demo, you can only control TWO counties (of the
  thirty-two on the map); if you try to capture a
  third, a message will appear claiming that it is "too far
  away" for you to rule.
* Games cannot be saved or loaded in this demo.
* Castles cannot be designed or built in this demo.  In the
  full game, unique castles can be designed and built using
  over a dozen types of castle-components, and historical
  castles can be constructed in your counties.
* The Siege screens are not present in this demo (as there
  are no castles to siege!).  The full game includes a turn-
  based siege simulation.
* For space reasons, some of the battle graphics have been
  removed, so the colors of the two armies in a battle will
  NOT match the colors of two opposing sides.
* This demo only supports Sound Blaster-compatible cards
  that are set to the default settings (Address=220,
  IRQ=7).  If your sound card is set differently or is not
  Sound Blaster-compatible, the demo will run but no sounds
  will play.  (The full version of the game supports other
  sound cards and settings.)


INSTALLING AND RUNNING THIS DEMO
--------------------------------
If you're reading this, then you should have already
decompressed this demo and are ready to play.  To start the
demo, simply type LORDS.

Lords of the Realm requires 640K conventional memory; it
requires between 580K-590K of it to run.  The game can also
use XMS memory to make it run faster.


BRIEF TUTORIAL
--------------
The rest of this document is a brief tutorial for trying out
the game, it will take you step-by-step through the most
important aspects of gameplay.  The best way to use this
tutorial is to print it out, and read it as you first play
the game.

SET UP YOUR GAME
When you begin a new game, a series of setup panels will
appear. Set them as follows:

* Select START A NEW CONQUEST.
* Set ECONOMY LEVEL and WARFARE LEVEL to Novice and LIMITED
  VISIBILITY to Full.
* Set the number of human players to One.
* The next screen shows six shields, each a different color,
  and a rectangular box. Type a name for yourself in the
  box, then pick the color that you want to represent you in
  the game.
* The computer will display a roster of the six players,
  showing the color of each and the order in which they will
  play. The five computer opponents you will face each have
  different attitudes and personality which will affect
  their actions. When you are done reading the player
  roster, right click to end the set up and begin playing.

YOUR FIRST TURN
Lords of the Realm begins at the end of the spring season in
the year 1268 A.D. Each turn represents a season of the year
(three months of time); during each turn, you will view the
events that happened in your lands in the season just past
and make plans for the season which will follow.

The first screen you will see after you complete the game
set up will be the MAP OF THE REALM, which is an overview of
the entire game map.  Find the county with your own flag in
it (your flag will be the same color as the shield you chose
during setup.), place the scepter over it and click. This
will take you down to the first of the two action levels of
the game: the Kingdom level.

THE KINGDOM MAP
When you first move to this screen, you will see a banner
appear telling you which season has just passed. If you are
not the first player on the turn roster, you may have to
wait a few moments while the nobles who are ahead of you
make their moves. You can tell who is acting by watching the
box in the lower right corner of the screen, which will
change to display the name of the current player. The shield
icon just to the left of that box will also change to show
the current player's shield.

On the Kingdom Map, you should be able to see your county,
with its borders marked in gold and one or more tan roads
running through it. Somewhere on one of the roads should be
the town cross, shown as a small building with a cross on
top and your flag flying beside it. (A town cross without a
colored flag shows a neutral county, uncontrolled by any of
the nobles.) This is the point which must be reached and
conquered in order to seize control of the lands. As soon as
possible, you need to raise an army to defend your town
cross and keep one of the other nobles from taking your
county, but you can't do that right now because your county
is too poor. (However, it is unlikely that your enemies will
reach you before the demo ends, so you are fairly safe.)

Much of your county will be covered with wild grass and
possibly forest, but near the town cross will be sixteen
fields, the tilled lands that support the people living in
that county.  You can also see a small house somewhere in
the county, which represents the people living there. As the
population of the county grows, more houses will appear.

By moving the scepter to an edge of the screen, you can
cause the Kingdom Map to scroll in that direction to reveal
more of the Realm.

ON THE COUNTY LEVEL
To get to the County Level, place the scepter anywhere
within the borders of your county on the Kingdom map, and
click.

First, the Event panel will appear, to tell you what unusual
event happened in your county last season (if any) and let
you know what the weather was like. Click any mouse button
on this panel to make it disappear and bring up the General
county screen.

The General county screen is the first of six screens
available on this level. At the right edge of the screen are
seven icons, one for each of the screens, plus the last one,
which is the Doorway icon that will take you back up to the
Kingdom level. On many of these screens there is a colored
border that indicates the season which is ending: light
green for spring, green and gold for summer, gold and red
for autumn, and blue and white for winter.

On the General screen, notice the name of your county, plus
the season and the year, shown at the top. Just underneath
that are three very important statistics: the Population of
the county, the Happiness of the county, and the Health of
the county. YOUR FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE IS TO
GET ALL THREE OF THOSE STATISTICS TO AS HIGH A LEVEL AS IS
REASONABLY POSSIBLE.

Population is shown as two numbers; the first is the current
number of people in the county, and the second the change in
population since last season (in black if the population
increased, in red if it decreased.). Current Happiness in
the county is shown in hearts, on a scale from zero to
forty, with forty being the best. As with population, the
change from last season is shown after the current rating.
Current Health is shown just below Happiness, and is rated
on a scale from Diseased to Perfect Health.

FEAST OR FAMINE?
First, you need to set the ration level for your population.
If you set a lower than normal ration, your population will
grow more slowly (or possibly even shrink), your people will
become less healthy over time, and their happiness will
drop. If you set a higher than normal ration level, all
these things will increase, but your food stocks will drop
more quickly. Your ration level should already be set at
Normal; if not, find the pair of up and down arrows in the
lower middle section of the General screen and click through
the selections until you find the right one.

For this tutorial, your people are going to farm some cows
and grow some grain. Your county will probably begin with
some of each type of food: a few head of cattle, some sacks
of grain, and a small flock of sheep. Since you don't plan
to raise sheep, you will want to eat the sheep and save as
many cows and sacks of grain as you can.

In the middle of the General screen is a tricolor sliding
bar you can use to determine what kind of food (grain,
sheep, or cattle) your people will eat during the next
season. Click and drag the borders between the colored
sections to adjust their sizes until as much of the bar is
blue as possible. If there are enough sheep, you may be able
to fill the entire bar with blue. If not, make the blue
section as large as you can, and then fill the rest of the
bar with green, for grain.

Below the slide bar is a small table which will show you
exactly how your food stocks will be used in the next
season. The third column, Eat, tells how many cows, sheep,
or sacks of grain your people will eat at the current ration
level and food bar setting. The first column is how many of
each you have available, and the second column is how many
you will have left over after the next season ends. Check
and see whether or not there will be any sheep left, and
remember this. (You'll want to know for the next section.)
Notice that under this table is a display showing how many
people can be fed solely on the dairy produce from your
cattle herd; this food is always automatically eaten first,
and does not appear on the bar.

FIELDS AND FLOCKS
Go to the Fields screen by clicking on the Fields icon in
the column at the right of the screen (second icon from the
top.) You will see all the county's fields displayed with
the various crops (sheep, cattle, or grain) pictured.

Fields appear in one of four states: farmed, fallow, barren,
and weather-damaged.

* FARMED fields are those which are producing food for your
  peasants, either sheep, cattle, or grain.
* FALLOW fields show wild grass in the field square. These
  fields are being left unplanted to rest and regain
  nutrients to keep the field fertility high.
* BARREN fields are shown as rocky bare ground. These fields
  are not good for farming and nothing can be grown on them.
  A barren field can be made fertile again over time by
  assigning serfs to fertilize them and dig up rocks.
* WEATHER-DAMAGED fields will appear either flooded or
  drought-stricken. If you have the game's economy setting
  on the lowest difficulty level, you will not see these
  often, if at all. A damaged field is temporarily barren
  until the weather changes.

Underneath the fields squares, to the left, is a display
showing you the current fertility level of your fields.  The
number of animals displayed in each field box will change as
the number of total animals in the herd changes.

For the first year, you are going to farm one field of cows
and two or three of grain. TO REASSIGN A FIELD TO A NEW
CROP, click on the field you want to change and a panel will
pop up offering you a choice of grass (fallow), cows, sheep,
or grain. Click on the new type of field that you want.

Under the fields, at the left side of the screen, is a table
you can use to allocate labor to your fields. The Now column
shows how many men are assigned to each of four tasks:
farming sheep, farming cattle, working the land (Serfs), or
growing grain. If the number in this column is shown in red,
more men are needed to get the most benefit from those
fields. The number in the Need column shows how many men are
optimal for each task. If there are enough men Idle (shown
at the bottom of the table), you can make the Now column
match the Need column by clicking on the Need number in each
row.

Use the arrows to set the Now value for each row equal to
the Need value, if you have enough men.  If there are men
left over, and you have one or more barren fields, assign
all the extras to Serf duty. They will begin to work on
reclaiming the barren fields (this will probably take more
than one season.) If you have no barren fields, leave the
men idle for the time being.

The demand for labor in your fields will change from season
to season, so you will need to return to this screen every
season for the first few turns to make sure everything is
being tended to properly.  Note that it is possible to have
the optimal number of men assigned to tend the cattle and
still have a net loss of cattle for the season.  If you
decide to put more fields into grain, change them after the
winter, as the grain is sown in spring. Remember that if the
current season is winter, you are making decisions for the
NEXT season, spring.

CHECK SUPPLIES
Next, click on the icon for the Trade screen, which is
fourth from the top of the icon column and shows two men
shaking hands. From this screen, you will be able to trade
goods with merchants when they come into your county. There
will not be any merchants in any of the counties during the
first turn -- they will gradually arrive from overseas until
all twelve of them are in the realm. Even without a merchant
around, however, you can use this screen as an inventory.
Under the boxes picturing each type of goods (cattle, sheep,
grain, wool, ale, iron, stone, timber, and weaponry/armor)
is a small number saying how many units of that commodity
you have available.

END YOUR FIRST TURN AND START YOUR SECOND
From any one of the county screens, you can click on the
Exit icon (last in the column, the Doorway) to return to the
Kingdom Level. Once there, click on the shield icon to end
your turn. You will see the shield change as each of the
other players completes his or her turn. When the end of the
roster is reached, the season will change, and the playing
will continue until it is your turn once again. You may get
a message from one of your rivals at the start of your turn.

When it's your turn, return to the county level in your
county. You will want to play through several turns at this
point while simply keeping an eye on your population and
food stores.  Check the trade screen again each turn to see
if a merchant has arrived in the county.

BARTER AND BANTER
You can tell when a merchant arrives in your county by
watching for the little peddler's wagon which will appear at
the town cross on the Kingdom level or on the Map of the
Realm. When a merchant finally arrives, buy as much grain
from him as you can afford; click on the price in the Buy
row under the picture of the grain sheaves, then use the up
and down arrows in the pop-up panel that appears, then press
the "thumbs-up" icon.

You can also click on the button marked Gossip? to see if
the merchant has any interesting news from other counties.

THE TREASURY
To check on your current funds and adjust tax rates, you
need to visit your Treasury. From the Kingdom level, click
on the icon at the bottom of the screen which shows a group
of gold coins (third icon from the left.) The Treasury
Screen will appear.  In the top right corner of the screen
is the phrase Seasonal Tithe and a set of up and down
arrows; this allows you to set the tax rate for all your
peasants. It is set at the start of the game at a reasonable
rate, but you may want to experiment with it.  When you are
finished, right click to exit the screen and go back to the
Kingdom map.

DEFEND YOUR LANDS
When all your fields are fertile, your people are well-fed
and fairly happy, and your population is above 800, you can
risk raising a 50-man peasant army to defend your county's
town cross. To create an army, go to the Create Armies
screen on the county level by clicking on the Knight icon
(fifth from the top of the icon column). If there are
mercenaries available in the county for you to hire, a panel
will pop up telling you about them; click past this as you
probably won't have enough money for them.  Use the arrow
buttons next to the different fighter-types to build your
army (until you buy or build arms, you will only be able to
select peasants), and select "Raise this Army" to confirm
your selections.

When you return to the kingdom map, you will see a small
figure of a knight standing next to the town cross,
representing that army. Move him on top of the cross so he
can defend it if trouble comes; click on the Move Army icon
(pictured as a knight and an arrow), select the army, then
move the pointer over the town cross and click.

CONTINUING THE GAME
In further turns, you will want to continue as you have
been, tending to your county and trying to keep it healthy
and growing.  If, while you are on the Kingdom level, you
see the pointer change to an animated gold lion on a brown
shield, it means that an army is marching somewhere on the
map; click the right mouse button, and the map display will
jump to show you the army that is moving. Another noble's
army will appear as a knight marked with the noble's color;
an army of outlaws peasants will appear as a peasant
carrying a torch. (When peasant armies are moving, the
shield icon at the bottom of the screen will display a brown
shield with a pitchfork instead of a noble's shield.)

After you create an army, if you still have extra men
available who aren't needed to farm, you can put them to
work producing iron (for making armor), or stone and wood
(for building castles).  You do this by selecting the Labor
icon on the County Screen (third from the top -- shows a man
hoeing).  For this tutorial, use the slider bars on this
screen to put any extra men on duty mining iron -- you can't
build castles anyway.  The small bar to the right of the
labor bars will fill in slowly with red; when it is filled,
a unit of goods has been completed.  When you have iron, you
can assign armorers to convert it into weapons.

As the game progresses, your treasury should increase and
your peasants should start producing useful goods. At some
point, you will want to send your armies out to take over
other counties and expand your power base. If you are
managing your county well, other counties may offer
themselves up to your rule the moment your army crosses
their border. In other cases, you may have to march your
army to the town cross and take it (see below).

MARCHING TO BATTLE, AND THE BATTLE SCREEN
Whenever two armed forces meet, or you attempt to capture a
neutral county's town cross, a ground battle may take place.
Any time a ground battle begins, you can have the game
automatically compute the battle results, or you can direct
the battle yourself in detail.  When you choose to take
charge, you will be taken to the Ground Battle screen.

Most of this screen is filled by the battlefield display
itself. The terrain is mostly grass, but there are marshes
which can slow your army's progress and hamper their
fighting ability if you march into them. The battlefield is
a scrolling display which is twice the length and width of
the area you can see, so either set of troops may not be
visible when the screen first comes up. To scroll the field,
move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen in the
direction you want to move.

Both sets of troops are marked with different colors.  Each
army is organized into groups, and each group is represented
by a number of small human figures armed with the
appropriate weapons (peasants are armed with pitchforks).
Each group can be directed individually during the combat.
Each single figure represents a number of men.

At the left edge of the screen is the information column.
The box at the top of the column shows you how many men each
figure represents, displays the shields of the two
combatants (unallied peasants or outlaws have a brown shield
with a pitchfork), and shows the total army size of each
side under each shield. Under the shields are eight icons
which allow you to control your army:

* RANK/COLUMN: Changes the formation of the selected group
  from a horizontal line to a vertical one and back again.
* HOURGLASS: Starts and stops the battle. (See below.)
* MOVE ARMY: Lets you direct a group's movement. (See
  below.)
* ARCHER: Lets you designate targets for any group with
  missile weapons. (See below.)
* BATTLEFIELD: This changes the scrolling battlefield
  display to an overview.  Click on a part of this screen to
  zoom to that location on the battlefield.
* FACE: This four-way toggle can be set to show the
  following things for each unit: troop type, morale, number
  of men, or nothing.
* SOLDIER WITH FLAG: Orders your army to retreat and ends
  the battle.
* HANDS WITH FLAG: Allows you to offer quarter (mercy) to
  the enemy.

When a battle first begins, no troops are moving. You can
move around and survey the field at your leisure, then issue
your orders. When you are ready, you can click on the
hourglass icon and time will progress, and your men will
begin to follow your orders. Whenever you wish to change
your orders, you can either click on the hourglass again and
stop time passing while you act, or simply issue them while
the battle is raging.

To give orders to your troops, you must first select a group
by clicking on it, which will cause your flag to appear as a
marker on that group. To direct that group to move in a
certain direction, click on the Move Army icon, and the
mouse pointer will change to a dagger. Click again on the
position where you want your soldiers to go.  Soldiers
wielding hand weapons can be targeted at an enemy group by
simply moving them up to the group you want them to attack.

Soldiers with missile weapons (crossbows or longbows) are
moved in the same way, but to assign them a target you need
to select a group and then click on the Archer icon. The
mouse pointer will change to the dagger; select a target
group of the enemy as above and click. Your archers will
then fire their weapons at the target group, as long as that
group is in range.

You can select more than one unit at a time to move or to
aim, and can deselect any chosen unit by clicking on it a
second time. If you select multiple units, they will all try
to go to or attack the same place (be sure that there is an
army there for them to attack).

You can order a retreat or offer quarter to the enemy at any
time by clicking on the appropriate icon, although you may
suffer some casualties during a retreat. If the size of your
army becomes too small before a retreat is called, the
casualties taken during the retreat may wipe the army out
entirely and cause it to disappear from the map. If the
retreat causes your army's morale to drop to zero, the
entire army may rout, which will also cause it to disappear.
Mercenaries always leave an army after a retreat.

When the battle is over, a summary screen will appear
telling you who won and what casualties were suffered. Right
click to exit this screen and go back to the kingdom map.

ENDING THE GAME
If you wish to leave the game, you can exit from the
scrolling map by pressing ALT-X.

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Copyright (c) 1994 Impressions Software