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HOW TO BECOME
AN
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by Wisisoft
(Version 1.15: 27th, december 1991)
a strategic game by Alois Felber
Playing Guide
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Table of contents:
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1................The Story So Far
2...............Starting The Game
3............Progress of The Game
4...................The Main Menu
5................Moving The Lords
6.....................The Battles
7..........Conquering Settlements
8..................Defence Values
9..................Casting Spells
10............The Inheriting Order
11......................The Titles
12.................The Settlements
13................Winning The Game
14....Some Remarks about Copyright
15.........Some Remarks about Bugs
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Ý1. The Story So Far
The Isle of Elmor was prospering for centuries under the government of the
imperial family. But the emperors died out because their last descendant,
Harry IV, refused to marry and instead of that he left Elmor to discover
new Worlds. From that time on a steward ruled the island. Many years later
as the steward died the knights of Elmor refused to accept his son as
follower in stewardship and the empire fell into 78 counties that were
each ruled by a knight. The rulers of the counties made war upon each other
and threw Elmor into Chaos.
Each one of these knights dreamed of reuniting the empire under his
government. But to conquer 40 of the 78 counties to be able to claim the
emperorship was a difficoult thing, which was nearly impossible to succed
in without allies. So they began to form alliances.
The players now take the role of one of those knights representing the four
most powerful aristocratic families of Elmor. Their goal is to have a lord
in their alliance that owns 40 counties. That goal can be achieved by using
different means as war, intrigues, magic, trade and so on. So at the end
it's not the players' original characters, that must become the emperor so
the players win. It has just to be one of their allies. If the players'
original characters die, they can go on playing as long, as they have other
allied lords left.
Ý2. Starting The Game
After loading the game by starting the file EMPEROR.PRG the screen will
display the following menu:
START A NEW GAME
LOAD AN OLD GAME
SAVE CURRENT GAME
EXIT TO DESKTOP
To start a new game move the mouse on START A NEW GAME and press the left
mousebutton. The game will ask you the amount of players which is from 1 to
4. After that you can type in the name and the sex of your knight as well as
the name of the county he or she shall rule. The default values are:
Sir Lancelot of Swordmania - Player 1
Sir William of Axeland - Player 2
Sir Gawain of Unicornia - Player 2
Sir Edward of Dustwood - Player 4
After that you will have to enter the amount of computer - enemies your
game will include.
Since version 1.1 it's also possible to play the game using variable starting
conditions. To use this feature simply answer the question "Do you want to
change the starting conditions?" with Y (yes).
To continue an earlier saved game you have to click on LOAD AN OLD GAME.
The screen will then display the Fileselect Box. Saved Games of HOW TO
BECOME AN EMPEROR use the extension SAV.
To save a game in progress, click on SAVE CURRENT GAME. A save-game-file of
HOW TO BECOME AN EMPEROR needs about 50 KBytes space on the disk.
EXIT TO DESKTOP quits the program.
Ý3. Progress of the game
At the beginning of each turn a new gameorder is chosen by random. Each
turn the players can move their characters using 40 MOVEMENT POINTS. When
the last player has finished his turn, the program will work up all events
that are caused by the players' moves. In this part of the program, first
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the outcome and results of battles are evalueted then the production of the
counties will start and after that the program will check for lacks of food
and famines caused by that.
Ý4. The Main Menu
At the beginning of each player's turn the game's MAIN MENU is displayed on
the screen:
MOVE LORDS
SHOW MAP
SHOW LORDS INFO
SHOW COUNTY INFO
SHOW RANKINGS
END TURN
LOAD/SAVE/END GAME
MOVE LORDS displays a list of a player's all allied knights in which the
player can choose the one he or she wants to move with.
SHOW MAP will display an overview map of Elmor. In the MAP MENU you can
switch between a political and a geografical version using CHANGE MAP. You
can also activate the display of the location of armies, citadels, keeps,
cities, villages, mines and towers.
SHOW LORDS INFO will display Information about a lord after having
specified one in a Menu that shows the location of the lords on the
overview map.
SHOW COUNTY INFO does the same with counties.
SHOW RANKINGS compares all the living lords and displays after a short
while a table listing the 20 at the moment most powerful lords. The lord
that is No 1 at the end will be the emperor.
Clicking on END TURN will conclude a player's turn and start the following
player's turn. When all the players have finished their turns, the working
up phase will begin.
LOAD/SAVE/END GAME will return to the menu described in Ý2.
Ý5. Moving The Lords
Having chosen a lord using MOVE LORDS the player can travel with him or her
through Elmor's landscape. If the chosen knight is in a settlement in that
moment, the screen will display the following menu:
PROPOSE TO A LORD (only if there are other knights present)
RECRUIT A LORD ( " " " " " " " )
TRADE/EQUIP ARMY
VISIT THE WIZARDS (only in towers)
PRAY TO THE GODS (not in towers and mines)
LEAVE THE ...
MOVE OTHER LORD/EXIT
PROPOSE TO A LORD and RECRUIT A LORD are means to get new members of one's
alliance. PROPOSE TO A LORD will cause one's lord to propose to another
lord that is present in the settlement. If this lord agrees to a wedding
and the proposer has enough gold with him to pay the feast, he or she will
automatically join one's alliance. Married female lords can get children,
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who will also be controlled by the player controlling their mother. Since
they own no county when they are born, they bear only the title of Master
or Mistress.
If you want to make allies without marrying them you have to use RECRUIT
LORDS. Related knights will always join your alliance without asking for
gold. Other though will demand a certain amount of that precious yellow
metal to help you.
TRADE/EQUIP ARMY is used to exchange all "items" a knight can carry around
with a settlement as long as the settlements belongs to that knight's
alliance. If the settlement is neutral or belongs to an enemy only WAR
EQUIPMENT, FOOD and HORSES can be bought or sold using gold.
To exchange items you have to move the mouse over one of the three arrows
that point in the direction you want the exchange to happen. From the left
to the right the arrows exchange 100, 10 or 1 item(s).
You can combine certain items with others in order to get another kind of
items. The combinations are:
1 MOUNTED SOLDIER <=> 1 UNMOUNTED SOLDIER + 1 HORSE
1 UNMOUNTED SOLDIER <=> 1 MAN + 1 WAR EQUIPMENT
So if you want a knight to get UNMOUNTED SOLDIERS from a settlement, but
there are none of them left, the programm automatically combines WAR
EQUIPMENT and MEN and forms UNMOUNTED SOLDIERS.
VISIT THE WIZARDS is only avaiable in the magic towers of Elmor. In those
towers there live wizards, powerful magical beings, who will cast for each
knight one spell per turn if he visits them. If the tower is controlled by
the player's alliance, they will do it without asking for gold. Else you
must pay their aid. Casting a spell is quit dangerous because it can be
reflected.
PRAY TO THE GODS will cause a knight to visit a church and pray the gods to
bless the county he's in at the moment. Blessings influence a county's
fertility in a positive way.
LEAVE THE (settlement) causes the lord to leave the settlement. (What did
you think?)
MOVE OTHER LORD/EXIT finally returns to the list of allied lords.
Outdoors the screen displays the surroundings of the active knight from his
sight. In this part of the program you have to use the keyboard to play it.
The numbers are used to move around:
[8] move forward
[4] move left [6] move right
[2] move back
[7] turn 90ø left [9] turn 90ø right
[M] will display the overview map as described in Ý4.
[I] displays a short description of what the knight can see in the square
in front of him.
[E] will return to the list of allied lords.
Stepping on a square costs MOVEMENT POINTS that are subtracted from the 40
that each knight gets at the beginning of a new turn. Different types of
landscape will cost a different amount of MOVEMENT POINTS:
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PLAINS 2 MP
WOODS 4 MP
FOOTHILLS 6 MP
MOUNTAINS 10 MP
If a lord's army consists only of MOUNTED SOLDIERS (no UNMOUNTED SOLDIERS,
no MEN and no WOMEN) the moving on a adjanctient square will cost only
half the amount of MPs. Hosts that consists only of cavalry therefore are
twice as fast as normal. Exceptions are the entering of settlements that
costs always 2 MPs as well as the crossing of water that needs 20 MPs.
Only one square of water can be crossed.
Stepping on a square on which there is a settlement, a knight can decide
whether he will enter it or rather stay outside. If the settlement is
neutral or belongs to the alliance a knight can always enter it. If it
belongs to an enemy, he or she must allow it first. If you answer the
question DO YOU WANT TO ENTER THE (settlement) pressing on the NO button,
the screen displays the question DO YOU WANT TO ATTACK THE (settlement) if
it is an enemy or a neutral settlement. If your answer is YES you start a
siege.
Ý6. The Battles
If a knight meets enemy or neutral troops or settlements he can decide
whether he wants to attack them. In a battle any amount of knights can come
into action and let their troops fight on the side of the attacker or the
attacked. If a lord meets an enemy army outdoors the game will ask the
player whether he wants his lord to attack this army, support the attacked
or retreat to where he came from. Armies of the same alliance as the
attacked one will always defend so it doesn't matter which button ATTACK
or DEFEND is pressed.
Normally battles will go on to the bitter end. So it will not end ere all
soldiers of one side are slain. But a knight can also retreat earlier if he
thinks he's going to lose the battle. Retreat from a battle in progress
will cost 20 MPs.
If all of a knight's soldiers are slain in battle it's possible that he
himself will die too.
Ý7. Conquering Settlements
If a knight attacks a settlement, all enemy armies that are on the same
square as the settlement will defend. In this case lords that later join
the battle can also decide whether they want to support the attackers or
the attacked settlement.
If the attackers win the settlement will belong to that knight, that first
attacked it. A conquered settlement must be assigned to a county which it
shall supply with food (if it's a village) or by which it shall be supplied
with food (if it's anything else).
If the conquered settlement is a citadel, the whole county is conquered too
and all settlements of that county, that have been conquered before again
suply or are supplied by it.
Ý8. Defence Values
The success of defending armies depends on what kind of landscape or
settlement they defend. The best defence value has the citadel the worst
plains, which is quit logical.
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worst PLAINS
WOODS, VILLAGES
FOOTHILLS
CITIES, KEEPS, MOUNTAINS
best CITADELS
Ý9. Casting Spells
The wizards of Elmor know the following spells:
DEATH
PARALYSE
FEAR
PLAGUE
EARTHQUAKE
STERILITY
DEATH will cause the poor victim to get a heart attack and die.
PARALYSE turns the victim for one turn in a statue of marble, so it can't
move.
FEAR causes a victim's army to become terribly anxious and partly run away.
PLAGUE will kill a certain amount of a chosen county's population
EARTHQUAKE shakes a county and destroys a few settlements.
STERILITY will lower a county's fertility value and perhaps lead to famine
and revolution.
All spells can be reflected on the caster or guided on a random county, so
casting spells is dangerous.
Ý10. The Inheriting Order
When a knight gets killed, all his possessions will be inherited by a
related lord. The inheritor is decided by the following order:
1. husband / wife
2. related knight of the same alliance
3. related knight chosen by random
4. not related knight chosen by random
If a child is born, it will get a coat of arms that is composed of the two
heraldic figures that can be found in the upper left part of it's father's
and mother's coat of arms. So the male descending line is inherited.
Ý11. The Titles
In Elmor the titles of lords depend only on how much counties they own. At
the beginning of the game each lord owns exactly one county, what makes him
or her a SIR or a LADY. If a lord loses his last county he is only allowed
to bear the title MASTER or MISTRESS. This is the exact list:
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Title: Counties owned:
----------------------------------------
MASTER 0
SIR 1
COUNT 3
BARON 6
DUKE 10
KING 20
EMPEROR 40
Ý12. The Settlements
In every kind of settlement there live people, eating and reproducing.
List of settlements:
1. CITADEL
The citadels is where the knights live and rule their counties.
Therefore they must be conquered to conquer a whole county.
2. KEEP
The keeps are just fortifications to guard the county's borders.
3. CITY
People of the cities are craftsmen that produce WAR EQUIPMENT and pay
taxes in GOLD.
4. VILLAGE
The people of the villages produce FOOD for the whole county and breed
HORSES. HORSES will only reproduce in villages.
5. MINE
People working in the mines produce gold.
6. TOWER
In the magic towers live wizards that can cast spells. See Ý9.
The production of a county depends largely on the county's fertility value
that can be influenced positively by praying and negatively by casting the
STERILITY spell.
Ý13. Winning the Game
The game ends when a lord has conquered his 40th county or all players are
eliminated. In the second case nobody has won. (Well, that's logical, isn't
it?). In the first case the game will first display a short message about
the winner and then return to the menu described in Ý2.
Ý14. Some Remarks about Copyright
HOW TO BECOME AN EMPEROR is Public Domain and can therefore be copied
by anyone who get's it for any amount of times he or she wants. It's
absolutely forbidden to sell this program or to change anything in it.
Crackers listen! There is no kind of copyprotection included in this
program, so there is no need to crack it!
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Ý15. Some Remarks about Bugs
Please report bugs you discover or send suggestions for improvement of the
game, money to show how much you enjoy playing this game, or anything
else (please no bombs or old socks) to the following address:
Alois Felber
Feerstrasse 17
5000 Aarau
(Switzerland)
You may also just send me a postcard from your hometown, so I can see how
far away it's come by the time you get it.
End of Playing Guide
originated by Wisisoft using 1st Word Plus v3.15. 27th, december 1991.
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