He hooked a finger through the rough homespun collar of the grey, non-descript tunic and pulled it away from his skin where it was chaffing his neck. A Prince of the Realm usually wore more comfortable clothing of silk or finely woven cotton. On the other hand, a Price of the Realm would never be sitting where he was sitting, in an equally rough and non-descript tavern on the edge of Quiefu. He signaled the inn-keep over for another round of the thin, watery ale after glancing at the man sitting across the stained wooden table. When the inn-keep had moved on, surreptitiously glancing at his companion’s garb… heavy leather, the well worn leather wrapped hilt of a unusually heavy sword, the scars on his arms and legs… they continued their conversation.

“So,” said the man, taking a swig of the beer, “you want me to run this new Baron Abeidi out of Anneyja before he can win the loyalty of the local nobles?” The Prince nodded in acknowledgement. “It might be a while” the man continued. “You know the road has been closed because of unseasonable rains for the past two months.”

The Prince smiled. “Yes. In fact, I’m fairly confident those unseasonable rains are the direct result of my dear brother’s pet magician. But, fortunately, he is not the only one of our family with those kinds of resources at his disposal. I can get you there, road or no road.”

The man frowned nervously. “You mean to teleport me? Couldn’t it wait until the roads are clear?”

“It can’t. Once Abeidi is declared Governor of the town, he will have the support of the local militia, and much harder to remove. Teleports are perfectly safe, and I have no doubt you will easily drive him off.” The man nodded this time. Abeidi was a hero in his own right, but more in the magical arts, and the old adage about difficulty casting spells with your head cut off was still very valid. “The only thing I must warn you about,” continued the Prince, “is that several other Crown Princes are not far from Anneyja. If any of them move there, you should be prepared.”

The man narrowed his eyes. “If you really want to be King, and one of your Brothers is nearby, it might provide a chance to narrow the field a bit if I bypass Anneyia and go directly to them…”

The Prince gazed at him coolly. The man didn’t know what he was suggesting. Each Prince had trained under the top blademasters in the Kingdom for most of their lives. The chances of getting close enough to attack his brother, never mind winning such an encounter, were almost laughable. The time for such risks might come, but not this early in the game. “An offer I appreciate, but which is not needed. I have more than enough support from the Barons, and a number of Artifacts of the Ancients as well. Soon, I will be King, and your loyalty will be rewarded.”

After the man had left with his instructions and a heavy bag of gold, the Prince’s smile turned into a frown. Yes, he had the majority of the Baron’s votes, and several of the Artifacts that would weigh equally with the Kingdom’s nobles in deciding which of the King’s direct line should take the Throne. But his father, while ailing, was not feeble. His infrequent but not unheard of visits to the various providences invariably resulted in the replacement of the local Governor, along with a significant drain on resources to keep him and his entourage in the style suited for his position. His brothers were not unaware of his current advantage, and would take any opportunity that presented itself to “suggest” a visit to one of the towns he controlled.

Which left him with another problem to solve.

SIDION, DEATH OF THE KING

Sidion, Death of the King is a game of power, money, combat, and magic. As the King’s health fails, the eyes of the Kingdom turn to his many sons, one of which will take up the mantle of Sidion’s throne. The Archbishop will select the new King, but ancient tradition provides strict guidelines on selecting the successor. Each Prince must gather money, magic, and political favors to prove their worth, while spending them at the same time to install cronies in the important towns, intimidate people by winning epic battles, and collect ancient artifacts of past Kings in order to win the support of the nobles.

Installation

Download the self-extracting ZIP file Sidion.exe. It will unzip by default to C:\Sidion. Ensure you have Java 1.4.1 or better installed on your system (either JDK or JRE). You can get and install it from JRE 1.4 (if you have no preference, just download the windows version of the JRE from the JRE column under Download J2SE v 1.4.2_01).

You can run a six player game by double-clicking “createdemo6,” then “demo,” or an 8 player game by double clicking “createdemo8,” then “demo.” The game is automatically saved after every turn, so you can quit and restart later by double-clicking “demo” again. You may restart at any time by clicking “createdemo” again.

General pieces in the game

Sidion consists of a set of Towns that are connected by paths or (on some maps) teleportals. Paths may be roads or waterways.

Towns produce economic wealth (gold), magical force (mana), and political influence (influence) in different quantities.

Towns may contain people that are significant in the succession of the King. This includes Princes, Heroes, and the King.

A Prince represents a player’s avatar vying for the throne. If the Prince dies, the player is out of the game. Prince death is very unusual, but can happen if a Prince is killed while not having any locked towns (explained below).

Heroes are individuals with unusual characteristics that make them “movers and shakers.” Heroes that have been recruited by a Prince are referred to as “cronies.”

The King is the guy everyone is waiting for to die. He moves around, taking production from nearby towns, kicking out local Governors, taking artifacts away from anyone in the town with him, and generally making a nuisance of himself.

A Prince may, by divine right, take some portion of the towns’ production for his own use. He may do this directly in a town in which he is located, or indirectly, through a crony in the town or by having the local Governor in his pocket (“locking” the town). The Prince and/or Cronies may actively support production in the town, or they may themselves gather resources.

Town production can be affected by the location of the King, as towns near the King are required to provide support for the King and his entourage. Individual hero production is not influenced by the King.

Ancient artifacts are sometimes available. Artifacts improve hero’s abilities, and count as victory points. Artifacts are covered in more detail below.

You influence the game by giving orders to your Prince and his cronies. These orders are summarized below.

The Gameboard

Game information is provided in the main display. The main display is broken up into the Control Panel, the Map, the Status Bar, and the King’s Health Bar.

The control panel allows you to display information on towns, people and connections, or bring up summary reports.

The Map provides the “big picture” on current status. Selecting a town in the map displays the town and its contents in the Control Panel, as well as highlighting the town in orange and displaying “teleport rings” showing what towns are within a Intel 1, 2, 3, and 4 teleport of the selected town.

The Status Bar shows the results of applying an order. If the order fails, a pop up dialog box describes the errors. Otherwise, the status bar shows that the order was committed successfully. Note that this doesn’t mean the order will work when the “real” turn runs; other player’s actions may cause your order to fail.

Control Panel

Map

The map displays current status for all of Sidion. Towns are displayed as squares. Paths between towns are indicated by lines with a square in the center; this square is the “handle” for the path if you need to select a path (for a “block path” spell, for instance). Ancient teleportals link towns across large distances. They are indicated by a short line radiating out from the town and pointing at the town to which the teleportal links it, with the town name at the end of the line. If a path or a teleportal is unusable due to a spell or other reason, it is shown in red.

The total number of significant people in the town is indicated by a large number in the center of the town. Information on “raw” town production is shown in the upper right hand corner, upper left hand corner, and lower left hand corner. A blue number in the lower left hand corner shows the loyalty of a unowned hero in the town (since low loyalty heroes are easy to recruit, this helps find them quickly).

Ownership is shown by color; “owned” or “locked” towns are colored with the owning player’s color. Unowned towns have a off-white background. Un-owned towns with a occupying player (some of the characters in the town are owned by a player) are indicated with a circle with the player’s color in the center of the town. Un-owned towns with unowned heroes in them are indicated by a circle with a grey background. If a town has un-owned and player characters in it, the circle is the player’s color. Finally, a town that is being “locked down” is indicated in red.

These are summarized below.

	Selected Town. By selecting a town, or a person in the town, or a person in the list of characters on the control panel, the town is highlighted with an orange circle in the background. Towns will either be a neutral color (unlocked), red (in the process of being locked), or a player color (locked). This town is locked and has three people in it. Some of the people may be unclaimed heroes. There are four paths to other towns
	A path between two towns. This path was blocked last turn as a result of a spell (it is red). If you click on the “handle,” the square in the center of the path, information on who cast the spell that blocked the path is displayed in the detail text box on the control panel. The path will not be blocked this turn unless another spell is cast to block it. A blocked path can not be used to move between towns. Johnoipur has two characters in it, neither of which is a Prince (since there is no read square around it). At least one of the characters is owned by a player (the circle around the number of players is a player color instead of grey). Ryoho is locked down by a player and has no characters in it.
	An unowned Town with a player’s Prince in it. There is only one person (indicated by the “1’), and the red border shows that there is a Prince in the town. This town has a 1 gold (upper left hand), 1 mana (upper right hand) and 1 influence production (lower right hand) indicated in each of the corners.
	An unowned Town with a teleportal. The Teleportal goes from town Random to Sorry; there is an equivalent yellow pointer from Sorry back to Random. Teleportals take 2 mana to traverse instead of 2 gold. They cannot be directly blocked, but are blocked by a teleport suppression on either side or by the automatic teleport suppression if the town is locked.
	An unowned town with the King in it. This is indicated by the heavy black square around it. The King doesn’t prevent movement, but prevents claiming the town. The town’s raw production is 1 gold and 1 influence, but the presence of the King will prevent it, and any towns to which it is connected, from producing.
	Another unowned town with a Prince in it, but in this case, with another person as well. The person may be neutral, or may be owned by the same player that owns the Prince. You can find out by clicking on the town and looking at the location display list at the top of the Control Panel.
	A town that is being locked (background is red). This town has one person it in, most likely owned by the player currently locking the town. The town is vulnerable to attack until the next turn. If you successfully move into the town the turn it is being locked, the lock is broken.

King’s health Panel

The King’s health bar indicates the King’s current health. The King’s health will start to deteriorate on turn 25. There is a 33% change of health degradation each turn thereafter. The health bar is split into five equal sections. When the fourth section is colored red, the king is one “health degradation” away from dying.

Reports

There are a variety of reports available from the report combo box.

People / Last Action – List of all characters, where they are, whether they have an artifact or not, and what they did last turn, sorted by player.

Town – List of all towns, by player, with raw production values

Economic Detail – Production and costs for a player the previous turn (the player displayed is selected with the Player Selector Combo Box)

Teleport Distance – Shows current teleport distance from the currently selected town to all other towns on the map for cases where teleport rings are ambiguous. Note that the teleport distance can be incorrect if someone throws a “teleport suppress” on the town during the turn.

NPC orders – Last turn’s goals for any characters owned by computer players.

Players – Shows players, whether they have submitted orders for the turn, the number of artifacts they own, and their current gold, mana and influence production.

Starting Position – Modifies the map display to show a color band around a town by closeness to a Prince’s starting position. This is an easy way to see the nominal “areas” for each of the Princes. Towns that are equidistant from two or more players have no border.

Winning

To win the game, you must meet the following conditions when the King dies.

1) The player with the most victory points at the end of the game wins, where Victory Points are scored as follows:

· The minimum characteristic for each locked town (i.e., a 0/0/0 town is worth 0, a 2/1/0 town is worth 0, a 2/1/1 town is worth 1, a 2/2/2 town is worth 2).

· 1 victory point for each artifact

· 1 victory point for every 100 resources of a single type; i.e. 99 gold = 0, 100 gold = 1, 199 gold = 1, 201 gold = 2, 99 gold and 99 mana and 99 influence = 0.

· [Optional] 1 victory point for every death point (described below)

1) If there is a tie between two players in victory points, the player with the most combined Gold, Mana, and Influence points wins.

Game Turn Sequence

Each game turn is done in the following sequence:

• King Moves
• Casting Teleport Suppression
• Casting Teleports
• Casting spells to block paths
• Movement
• Combat
• Alchemy
• Searching
• Recruiting
• Initiating a town lock
• Improving a town’s economy directly
• Improving a town’s economy via a spell
• Improving a hero via a Prince
• Improving a hero via study
• Trading with other players
• Productivity improvement (for a town or personal)
• Bidding on an Artifact
• Trading with other players
• Kings health check, artifact discovery
• Production
• Final town lock

Playing the game

You play the game by providing orders to your characters (your Prince and his cronies). Each character can do a single action (combat and retreat count as one action)

Characters have attributes that affect how well they can do each of these things.

Character Attributes

Characters have the following attributes:

• Wisdom – affects ability to gather gold from towns.
• Intelligence – affects ability to gather mana from towns and cast spells.
• Charisma – affects ability to gather influence points from towns.
• Strength – affects how the player performs in combat
• Loyalty – indicates the difficulty in enlisting the character in a player’s cause
• Initiative – indicates, within a single action type, which character will go first

Gathering Resources

Resources are gathered in two ways, from towns, and, optionally, from a Prince and his cronies.

Towns that are owned (locked) or occupied (have a Prince or Crony in them) or both produce for the associated player. Town production is affected by two things, as listed below.

(a) If a town is occupied by the King, or connected by a path to a town occupied by the King, it produces nothing

(b) If a Prince or Crony chooses to enhance the town’s productivity, it is affected as indicted below.

If, at the end of a turn, your Price or Crony chooses to do personal productivity (that is, resource gathering), they will produce their raw production for you.

A town that has a Prince or Hero enhancing it’s productivity produces resources for the player based on the town’s raw production and the character’s attributes. If a player has more than one character in a town that is enhancing productivity, it is the MAXIMUM attribute that is used. For instance, if a player has two characters in a town, his Prince and a hero, and they are both enhancing the towns productivity, resources gathered would be as follows:

Raw Town Production	Prince Attributes	Hero Attributes		Production
2 Gold	2 Wis	1 Wis	2 x 2	4 Gold
1 Mana	2 Int	3 Int	1 x 3	3 Mana
1 Inf	2 Cha	1 Cha	1 x 2	2 Influence
	Prince Prod: 0	Hero Prod: 0		Town Prod: 9

If the Prince or Hero did personal productivity, the result would be Price Prod: 6, Hero Prod: 5, Town Prod: 4.

Towns that are locked by a player (see “Lock Town” order below) produce resources for the owning player each turn regardless of whether there is a hero in the town or not.

Combat

If, after teleportation and movement, different player’s characters are in the same town, combat occurs. Heroes in the town that have not yet performed orders are forced to defend the town against the attackers, unless the town has militia (is locked) or the hero is a Prince.

To determine the winner, strength (STR) + 1 for each of the player’s characters in the town are added together. Thus, a 0 Strength hero and a 3 Strength Prince would add up to (0 + 1) + (3 + 1) = 5. A random value generated on a standard distribution curve is added (roughly 33.3% chance < 0, 33.3% chance = 0, 33.3% chance > 0; if it is less or more than zero there is a 50% chance of it being a +/- 2 or greater instead, etc) and added to one of the summed strengths. These are compared, and the losing player’s characters are forced to leave. In the event of a tie, a player that began the turn in the town (either had a hero there first, or locked the town, or was locking the town) wins.

A locked town has Militia. It adds the town’s highest characteristic * 2 + 2 to the defending player, even if the town is unoccupied. This is divided in half if an artifact is used in the attack. For instance, a hero with a STR of 1 and an artifact with STR +1 teleports into an enemy locked town that is 2/1/0. The hero has 1 for STR, +1 for the artifact, +1 for himself = 3. The town has a defense of 2*2 + 2 = 6, but this is reduced to 3 because the attacking hero has an artifact. A -2 is rolled; the town loses, the hero remains. At the end of the turn, the town lock is broken (it goes neutral) and the hero’s artifact is destroyed.

Characters that are forced to leave may retreat to any neutral town, or town occupied by the owning player, if the path is not blocked, by paying 2 gold. If there are no connected towns owned by the player and no neutral towns, or the player doesn’t have the 2 gold, the hero is eliminated from the game. Princes, if no other option is available, will teleport to a randomly selected locked city but will be injured and take damage (all characteristics are reduced by 1). Note that Prince retreats, including teleports, are free. Note that conflicted towns (those that were attacked the same turn as the retreat) are not considered neutral towns unless they are locked and the lock is not broken during the turn. Note that town occupied at the beginning of the turn are considered to be biased towards the player starting in the town until the beginning of next turn and thus are not neutral.

To summarize:

• Heroes can retreat to unowned towns.
• Blocked paths block retreats.
• Conflicted towns cannot be retreated to unless they are locked
• Towns that are marginally owned (someone held it at the beginning of the turn and abandoned it) may not be retreated to except by the marginally owning player.
• Attacks force heroes in a town to defend, except for Princes, unless the town is locked.
• Defense counts as an action except in a locked town and/or for Princes (that is, in a locked town, they still add to the attack factor but their orders are not interrupted)

Killing heroes and injuring or killing a Prince gives a player “Death Points” as follows:

Killing a hero: 1 point

Injuring a Prince: Prince’s STR in points (that is, 3 the first time, then 2, then 1)

Killing a Prince: 4 points

[Optional] Death Points equals a victory point. Death points are displayed in the Player Report by player.

Orders

Default Order

If you do not give an explicit order to a Prince or Crony, they automatically default to personal productivity as described below.

Special Orders

Occasionally (33% chance each turn after turn 20 randomly assigned) a player “gets the King’s ear.” That turn, the player must move the King to any town that is not within a single move of the King’s current location and does not belong to the last player to be affected by the King. The King does the following in whatever location he is in:

– Any heroes in the same town at the end of the turn with artifacts must give them to the king

– If the town is locked, the lock is broken and it reverts to a neutral town

– The town, and any connected town, no longer produces.

Prince Only:

Search – Find a hero in an unoccupied town. If you spend gold, chances improve you will find someone better than your run-of-the-mill hero. The hero is only found, that is, he is unowned, but may be recruited next turn.

Recruit – Enlist a hero in your cause. Your chances of enlisting someone improve with gold and are based on loyalty as indicated in the following chart. If a recruit attempt fails, the hero’s loyalty is reduced by one (thus making him easier to recruit in the future)

Gold spent	0 Loyalty	1 Loyalty	2 Loyalty
0	33%	16%	8%
5	66%	33%	16%
10	84%	66%	33%

Improve Hero – Improve one characteristic of a hero you control. The hero must be co-located with the Prince. Cost is:

To improve a characteristic from 0 to 1: 6 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 1 to 2: 8 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 2 to 3: 10 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 3 to 4: 12 Gold

Note that, unlike towns, your Prince can improve heroes above his own level of 2.

Trade – Trade with another player. Note that trades are one way, that is, if you agree to a trade and give the other player gold, mana, or influence, and they do not submit a trade order in return, your “trade” (now a gift) still goes through.

Hero Only:

Lock Town – Install the hero as the Governor of the surrounding countryside. This costs influence points:

For a town that produces 0 influence: 10 influence points

For a town that produces 1 influence: 20 influence points

For a town that produces 2 influence: 30 influence points

However, if you have a connected town that is already locked down, the cost is reduced by 2 for each raw influence production point for the connected town.

When the hero is “promoted” to Governor, they are no longer a piece in the game. If they have an artifact, the artifact is lost. It takes a full turn to lock the town down. During this turn, if the town is occupied by another player, the new hero is discredited and the town reverts to neutral status.

When the hero is promoted to Governor, any un-owned heroes in the town (recognizing which side the bread is buttered on) automatically become owned by the locking player.

After a turn, when the town becomes locked down, a teleport suppression is in effect (see teleport suppression order) and a militia is formed that provides a defense of 2 times the town’s maximum production characteristic + 2. If a hero with an artifact attacks, the militia’s effectiveness is divided in half. If the invading force wins, the lock is broken and the artifact is destroyed. Your own Prince and Heroes can enter your locked towns at any time. Your characters can still improve locked towns and study at locked towns.

Study – Improve a character’s abilities. The town’s raw production must be higher than the hero’s current capability. If the hero is improving Strength, the town’s maximum single raw production is used. This costs the cost of improvement by a Prince + 1 gold, but only ties up the character, not the character and the prince.

Teleport – Move a character between intervening towns magically. Note that blocked paths do not affect teleports. Teleport range is based on actual town location; some towns that are connected may be in teleport range, while others may not be. The range is the distance from the teleporting person (not the caster) to the town; the caster can be anywhere on the map. You may teleport into a locked town but it will require a higher level teleport due to the teleport suppression field around all locked towns.

Teleports have different levels. A hero can only cast a teleport level that is equal to or less than his intelligence. The higher the level, the most expensive it is, but the wider the range of the teleport. A teleport level of 5 can reach anywhere on the board. A teleport level of 4 can reach 2/3s of the board. A teleport level of 3 can reach a third of the board. A teleport level of 2 can reach a 6^th, and a teleport level of 1 can reach 1/12^th. In practice, the order panel shows you the towns that you can reach at a given level or lower and clicking on a town will display teleport “rings” to demonstrate what towns are in range. You should pick the lowest level that reaches the town you want to reach.

Cost for a level 1 teleport: 5 mana

Cost for a level 2 teleport: 14 mana

Cost for a level 3 teleport: 30 mana

Cost for a level 4 teleport: 50 mana

Teleport Suppression – Makes a town more difficult to teleport to by one level (that is, a town within a level 1 teleport would require a level 2 teleport instead). Costs 15, and may only be cast on a town in range of the Magic User (within the appropriate teleport circle for the MU’s intelligence). Note that the teleporting player may force the teleport to a higher level than required to successfully teleport anyway. Because the teleport suppression cancels magical energy in the town, towns with Teleport Suppression cannot have production magically improved during the turn. Teleportal use is also suppressed for all users, even the player casting the spell.

Alchemy – Convert mana to Gold or Influence Points. The number converted can be 1 to 12 mana points. The ratio for the conversion is dependent on the MU’s intelligence.

1 Intel: Converts 3 mana to 1 gold or influence

2 Intel: Converts 3 mana to 2 gold or influence

3 Intel: Converts 3 mana to 3 gold or influence

4 Intel: Converts 3 mana to 4 gold or influence

5 Intel: Converts 3 mana to 5 gold or influence

Block Path – Blocks a connection between two towns for that turn. It also prevents retreats. Costs 5 mana.

Bid on Artifact – Occasionally an Artifact owned by a prior King becomes available. The hero may bid any combination of Gold, Mana, and Influence to become the owner. The highest bid wins. You only pay if you win the bid. Each artifact counts as a victory point (that is, is equivalent to a locked town) but also improves the bearer’s abilities. A Hero may only have one artifact. They can not trade, drop, or switch artifacts. If the hero dies, or is used to lock a city, the artifact is lost. If the hero ends his turn in the same city as the King, he must give the artifact to the King.

Improve Economy Spell – Improves a town’s raw production like the “Improve Economy” action described below. It takes 3 times the cost of a Improve Economy in Mana for the spell. The MU may not improve a town characteristic any higher than his INT. The town must be in range for the MU’s INT, that is, within the appropriate teleport circle.

All Characters

Move – Moves from one town to the next via a path or teleportal. Movement along a path costs 2 gold, except for Princes, who move free. You may not move on a blocked path. Movement along a teleportal costs 2 mana, except for Princes. You may not move on a blocked teleportal. Teleportals can be blocked with a teleport suppression spell or the automatically teleport suppression produced by a locked town. Unlike regular teleports, where the owner of the locked town is not affected, the teleportal is unusable by anyone.

Improve Economy – Improves a town’s raw production. A character may not improve the economy in any area more than his basic characteristic in the area, that is, may not improve Gold production more than his wisdom, Mana production more than his Intel, or Influence production more than his Charisma. Note that you can improve a Hero to a level higher than your Prince's level of 2, then use the Hero to improve a town above a level of 2.

To improve a characteristic from 0 to 1: 6 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 1 to 2: 8 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 2 to 3: 10 Gold

To improve a characteristic from 3 to 4: 12 Gold

Productivity – Enhance productivity. If the “personal” checkbox is checked, the hero produces his base values in raw resources. If it is not, the hero multiplies his base values against the town’s base values. See “Production.”

The King

Each turn after turn 20 there is a 33% chance that a randomly chosen player will have the King’s ear. The player may move the King to any town that is not adjacent the King’s current location and is not owned by the last player “hit” by the King. The player must move the King. The King breaks locks in any town he is in. The King takes artifacts from any hero in the same town he is in. The King eliminates production from any town he is in and any town adjacent to that town. The King cannot be recruited, blocked, or teleported.

Cost Summary

Gold, Mana, and Influence can all be used to bid on Artifacts.

Gold – For moving/retreating anyone, searching for Heroes, recruiting Heroes, improving Heroes, and improving towns. Moving/retreating costs 2 gold for a path or 2 mana for a teleportal. Your prince can search for a Hero in a town for free, but can improve the likelihood of the hero having better characteristics by spending increments of 10 gold. Recruiting attempts are also free, but the chances can be improved by spending 5 or 10 gold. Hero improvement costs 6/8/10/12/14 gold, depending on the level of improvement. Town improvement costs the same.

Mana – For teleporting anyone, blocking paths, and can be converted to Gold or Influence. Teleports cost 5/14/30/50/77. Blocking a path against movement (but not teleport) costs a Hero 5 mana. Teleport Suppression costs 20 Mana. Alchemy 1 to 12 mana (ratio is dependant on intelligence). Town improvement via a spell costs 3 times gold cost in mana, that is, 18/24/30/36/42 mana.

Influence – For locking down towns, at a cost of 10/20/30/40/50, 2 gold less per locked town producing influence next to the target town.

Notes on Strategy

Read the rules on locking towns… this is the key to the game. Remember that locking a town with an unowned hero in it converts that hero to your side. Recruiting “Zero Heroes” and using them to lock towns while converting a hero with points to your cause is worthwhile.

Zero heroes still make towns produce for you.

You may still improve a town after it is locked. It may be reasonable to lock a town with “0” influence for 10 points, then upgrade its influence production to 1, rather than having to pay 20 to lock it down. You must get each of your towns to at least 1/1/1 to score a victory point.

Generally, enhancing town productivity only makes sense if you have at least a “3” in raw production and the hero doing the enhancing has a “3” in the associated characteristic; otherwise personal productivity is more effective.

Intel is an important characteristic. It is usually worthwhile to get at least one hero up to a 2 or 3 Intel as near the end game teleports may be the only way to get to unowned towns, and you may not have the time to move heros to upgrade a town to a “1” in each category.

Remember that conflicted towns, unless locked, cannot be used for a retreat. Make sure you have enough adjoining towns that are empty or owned by you so that a “sacrifice” attack, attacking a town at impossible odds just to force it to conflicted state, doesn’t leave you without an escape route.

Remember that attacks can cause your heroes to defend. Since moves occur in initiative order, higher initiative teleports (magic user’s init) and moves can disrupt your plans.

Teleportals are good ways to move to a distant area to capture towns. Remember, however, that once either end of the teleportal is locked, the teleportal becomes unusable.

You may want to play a game where you just push the submit button and see what the NPRs are doing via the NPR report and Person / Last Action report.

Tutorial – The first turn

Double click “Createdemo6,” then “Demo.” The game starts.

Close the message window.

Scroll the map until you can see the lower right corner of the map. Click on the “P Player0 [Player0]” line in the Player’s Characters list. Note that the town Belainot is highlighted in orange and surrounded with teleport range rings. Also note that Prince’s characteristics are displayed in the “Detailed Description” box and appears in the “Move Order” panel. Player 0 is now selected for orders.

Use the Order Combo Box and select “Improve Town.” Notice the order panel changes to show a combo box that says “Gold.” Select “Mana” and press “Apply.” Note that the Player combo box that displays your current gold, mana, and influence now shows 7 gold instead of 15. You have spent 6 gold to improve the town to Mana level 2.

Select the hero “Rabbit” in the player character list box. Click on the town Bagamaf to the left of Belainot. Note that the order panel shows “Hero Rabbit” and “Bagamaf” as the destination of a Move order. Click apply. Note that Rabbit moves to Bagamaf and gold goes down by 2.

Press submit. Note that the orders given above take affect, but remember that in turns where you interact with other players, your orders may be affected by other player’s actions and may not work. Note that the turn now says “0” instead of “-1” and your gold / mana / int now read 6 / 2 / 3. Use the report drop down box and select “Economic Detail.” Note that the details of the turn expenses and production are displayed. Use the report drop down box and select “NPR assignments.” Note that the NPRs are smarter than you. Use the report drop down box and select “People / Last Action.” See the orders and results for each player.

Click the “Message” button. Note the prior turns start, end, and (possibly) other game based information are displayed. Combat and results are displayed in the messages box, so it is important to review it after each turn.