Medieval Empires is a computerized version of the old SPI board game "Empires of the Middle Ages". In it you will become the leader of a medieval European kingdom and will attempt to expand your realm, power and influence. The game has seven scenarios ranging from 770 A.D. (when Charlemagne ascended to the throne of the Franks) to 1465 A.D. (shortly after Constantinople fell to the Turks). A campaign scenario covering the entire period is also included. As distributed, only the 1135 A.D. scenario is functional.
If you like this product and choose to register it with me, according to the instructions below, you will be sent a codeword which can be entered under the Register menu. This code will enable all scenarios as well as enable the Save Game and Open Game functions.
If you like the 1135 game at all, you'll want to register. You'll get Vikings, Mongols, the Black Death, and the opportunity to steer your kingdom from 770 to 1465! Find out whether or not Charlemagne could have conquered Britain! What more could life offer?
This game is shareware, so if you wish to keep it, please send $10 to:
John Willoughby
2001 Columbia Pike #508
Arlington, Virginia 22204
Sending your $10 will put you on the list of registered owners and allow you to upgrade free to any later versions. Of course, the codeword mentioned above will be sent to you so that you may enjoy full use of the game. To receive the UNCOMMENTED (and very kludgy) THINK Pascal TCL source code, users may send $25 and a 3 1/2" floppy disk (or $30 and no disk) to the above address. This will, of course, also enroll them as registered users entitled to free upgrades and the codeword. The source code is expensive because I'm ashamed of its spaghetti-like code, not because it holds the meaning of life. First-time OOP programmers may find it of interest, though. There IS an upgrade in the works, probably due in 1992 with color, large-screen support and faster execution.
I am available for questions, comments, and rude gestures on CompuServe and America Online. I'll get back to you much faster on AOL, since I don't check in on CompuServe much. Send E-Mail to:
America Online: Fenris
CompuServe: 70411,67
StartUp:
Now that that's out of the way, here's how to play. If the following instr uctions are too complex, just jump in. You'll figure it out before too long. You might want to check the Hints and Troubleshooting sections at the end of this file. Two quick short cuts: If you aren't sure where your Kingdom is, click on the name of the Kingdom in the upper right hand corner of the screen; clicking on the date in the upper left corner is a short-cut for ending your turn.
When the game starts up, you will be presented with a dialog asking you to choose a scenario. The buttons allow you to select the year that the game starts (770, 975, 1135, 1200, or 1385), a saved game, or a Campaign. Campaigns start in 770 and don't end until 1470. Until you register, only the 1135 button will start the game. Once the game begins, you'll be presented with another dialog asking you to select the player types. Each kingdom may be run by a human, the computer, or nobody (in which case it will disappear). The names of the kingdoms appear along the right-hand side, followed by the rating of their leaders. These ratings show up as three numbers, the Military rating, the Administrative rating, and the Diplomatic rating. (You can remember the order with the acronym "MAD"). These ratings range from one to nine, with nine being the best. Charlemagne was a 9-9-9, while King John of England was a 2-2-2. See what posthumous PR can do for you? Anyway, during the game rulers die a lot, so don't get too attached. After you have selected your player types, and click OK, the game begins.
Basics:
The Windows: Through most of the game you will only have to deal with four windows. The first is the Main Window, which displays a map of Europe. The second is the Message Window, which appears at the top of the screen. Information for the players is presented in this window. It will disappear after a certain time, which may be set by the Game Menu. The Province Window opens when a player clicks in the box representing a province in the Main Window. This window has more detailed information about the province. It also has a PopUp menu which allows the player to choose an action to conduct in or from the province. The final commonly used window is the "About Medieval Empires" Window, opened under the Apple Menu. It provides you with a copy of these instructions, as well as information about registering your copy and enabling all of its features.
The Menus: First, of course is the "About Medieval Empires" Menu, found under the Apple Menu. It is covered above.
The File Menu allows you to start new games, save and open games (if you've registered), print out copies of the Main Window, and quit a game.
The Edit Menu is only usable with Desk Accessories.
The Game menu allows the player to shade the Map according to Ruler, Province Name, Religion, or Language. Beginning players may find it very useful to switch the Map to "By Name" and print out a copy. After they have a copy they may switch back to "By Ruler", which is the most interesting. The Game Menu will also allow the delay of messages to be set from "Short" to "Wait For Response" (The message will display until you click somewhere). Finally, under Options, the Game Menu will allow you to change the types of the players. For instance, if you're playing England and the computer-controlled French are giving you a hard time, you may select "Change Kings" and, at the end of the turn, you may change the English to computer-controlled and take charge of the French yourself.
The Player Menu violates most of Apple's guidelines. The three items on the menu have no effect when selected; they're purely informational. The first line represents the current player's attributes (Military-Administrative-Diplomatic). The second lists the number of Endeavors remaining to this player in this five-year round. The third line states the amount of gold remaining in the player's treasury. The first menu item below the dividing line is "Tax", which allows a player to tax his kingdom. Taxing may only be done once per turn! The final item on the menu is "End Turn", which passes control to the next player. A short cut for this item is to click on the date at the upper left hand corner of the map.
The Register Menu is only visible if this copy of the game has not been registered. Use it to enter the code word that I will send you when you register the game. This will enable the Save and Open Game menus, and allow you to play any scenario. You only need to register the game once.
The Game:
Sequence of Play: Each turn cycles through a number of phases: Events, Raiders, Magnates, and PlayerTurns. In Events, random events occur which could benefit or harm the players. Raiders appear only before 1100, and represent the Saracens, Vikings, and Magyars who pillaged Europe during the Dark Ages. Magnates are short-term (usually) Non-Player kingdoms which can arise from time to time. Player Turns take place in an order determined by the sum of each ruler's attributes at the beginning of the turn. The order is lowest-to-highest, with lowest moving first. It is more advantageous to move later in the turn. At the end of the turn, each King with remaining endeavors is checked for death and each province's Social State is checked to see if it moves closer to its norm. The next turn then begins.
The Random Events:
In Events, various random events that can help or hurt the players occur. These include Year of Plenty/Famine, which raise or lower the Social States in groups of areas; Epidemics or Plagues, which can affect the Social States of kingdoms or all of Europe; Outbreak of Heresy, in which one of your more troubled Christian areas becomes heretical and revolts; Leader dies Heirless, always a bad thing (some of your areas may revolt, but your Court will relocate to the richest area of the same language still in your kingdom); Recognition of Claim gives you a claim to an area you possess without claim (choosing the highest Social State); Dynastic Inheritance allows you to take possession of an area that you have a claim to (Major Dynastic Inheritance can give you a whole group of adjacent areas, if you have claims to all of them); Influence in Church Hierarchy, which gives that kingdom five extra votes in the next Parley (only); Diplomatic Coup, which will remove a foreign tie to one of your areas; Enlargement of King's Personal Desmense (Domain, in modern English), which automatically gives you one extra gold every turn (delivered at Tax time); Weapons Advance/Tactical Breakthrough, assists you Combat abilities until the next time that you get a negative result in combat. Missionary Fervor affects the rate your court religion spreads into Pagan areas.
The Raiders:
The Raiders phase only occurs in the years from 770-1100 A.D. In this phase the Saracens, Vikings and Magyars assault various provinces and generally trash Europe. The Vikings (800-1000) will not raid if both Norway and Denmark are not independent or Christian. The Magyar (900-1000) won't raid if Hungary is occupied and/or Christian. The Saracens (770-1100) are a real pain in the rump, they can't be stopped, but on any given five year turn there is a 1/3 chance that they won't show up. The effectiveness of these Raiders varies over their active periods.
Magnates are short-lived (usually) little kingdoms which arise in independent areas, OR IN PLAYER AREAS THAT ARE IN UNREST! They get five Endeavors, just like players, but they don't tax their areas or pay for endeavors. They have a Combat Endeavor of five. They always save at least one card for their defense. After the year 1000 A.D. Magnates arising in Syria will be more common, and some of them will have Combat statures of nine. Worse yet, are the Mongols. They may show up on the Steppes in the years from 1200-1300 A.D. They receive ten Endeavors per turn, and have a Combat stature of nine. Neither the Mongols nor the Syrians suffer any negative effects from attacking areas with differing religions or languages. They're very sociable, and they're coming to your neighborhood soon!
The Province:
Each kingdom is composed of one or more provinces. These are represented by the boxes that appear on the map. When the game starts up, the boxes are shaded according to which kingdom rules them. A province may be examined by clicking on it during your turn. A window will open showing the relevant information about the province. This info includes the Population (-3 to 4), the Social State (-3 to 4), Fortifications (0,2, or 3), the Religion, the Language, Ruler, Unrest, Sea Faring, Claims, and Ties. Some of these are self-explanatory, others are described below. Population over one, in addition to less obvious effects, makes an area harder to conquer as do Fortifications. Social State represents the wealth of an area and is represented in a #a/#b format. "#a" is the current Social State, while "#b" represents the normal Social State. A Social State will tend towards its norm. The taxes a province can pay are equal to its positive Social State. Any province with a Social State above -3 can be pillaged or plundered, though! Language and religion determine how similar areas are. It is easier to perform operations in a province if it speaks the same language as you do. Unrest is "yes" if the local population is rebellious, and "no" otherwise. Claims and Ties are lists of the kingdoms that possess legal claims or diplomatic ties to a province. The word "Sea Faring" will appear if the people of the province have a strong nautical tradition. This means that naval expeditions launched from these areas can be cheaper and travel farther.
The Kingdom:
A collection of provinces under one ruler is a Kingdom. Each Kingdom has one capital province called its "Court". When a Court is captured, another area in the same kingdom with the same language becomes the Court. A kingdom collapses when it loses all areas of the same language as its Court. On his turn the ruler may perform up to five actions called "Endeavors". When a province is selected, a ruler may choose an action from the PopUp "Options" menu at the bottom of the window. Certain options will be greyed out if they are not relevant. (Irrelevant may mean that the ruler does not have enough money, or that the ruler is out of Endeavors, or that the option is just plain impossible. You can't rule somebody else's province, for instance, or try to attack a province that you already control.) Executing an option can have positive, negative, or neutral effects. If a negative effect occurs in a province in Unrest, the province may revolt (become independent).
The Endeavors:
Ruling: This is the only way that a ruler can increase the Social State of a province that he or she owns. It will also subdue any unrest in that province if there is no negative result. NOTE: A Social State can only rise to a level two higher than its norm. It will not rise farther. Ruling is free, but you will probably want to spend gold to increase your odds. Ruling is positively affected by the ruler's Administrative rating, and if the current Social State is negative. It is adversely affected by a positive current Social State and by a language and/or religion different from the Court.
Fortification: This is the construction of castles and forts within a province that a ruler owns. One successful Fortification endeavor builds a Fort, Level 2. Another success builds a Fort, Level 3. Further success has no effect. Fortification always costs at least 2 Gold. Positive Modifiers: ruler's Administrative rating, current Social State (+ good, - hurts), high population. Negative: Differing language or religion from the Court.
Diplomatic: This means you are using diplomacy in an attempt to woo the local leaders. You may conduct a diplomatic endeavors against any province on the map, except someone else's court. You may receive a Tie to an area (which may turn into a claim later on), or actually "conquer" the area diplomatically. If the province that you just conquered is owned by another ruler, then a Parley will be called. This allows players to vote on whether the original owner should have to give up the province. Players receive a number of votes equal to their diplomatic rating, plus five if they have influence in the Church. The Byzantine ruler receives extra votes if the province in question is Eastern Orthodox. The winner of the Parley receives the province. If you obtain a Tie to a province that you possess, and no other player has a Claim to that area, you receive a Claim in addition to the tie. Diplomacy always costs at least 1 gold. Positive Modifiers: ruler's Diplomatic rating, Social State of the ruler's Court. Negative: Owner's diplomatic rating (3 if unowned, or 5 if the province is Venice), differing language or religion from the Court.
Conquest: This means that you are launching an attack from this province. You may select any target on the heirarchial menu that appears. If you select the By Sea option at the bottom of the menu, you will be presented with targets that you can reach by sea. Attacks by sea tend to be more expensive and less effective than direct land attacks. If you attack from a Sea Faring area (see above), these penalties are reduced. One success will conquer an area with a population less than two. Otherwise the ruler must get a number of Conquests equal to the population of the target area. If conquered, a province enters Unrest (You didn't expect them to thank you, did you?), and any Fortifications are degraded one level. If a ruler attempts a Conquest against a province that someone else owns, then they may Defend it (see the Defense Endeavor). Conquest always costs at least 2 gold. Positive Modifiers: ruler's Military rating, and the Social State of the area the ruler is attacking from. Negative: Social State of the target, Fortification of the target, differing language or religion from the attacker's Court, and any Defender's military rating.
Pillage: Is similar to Conquest, except the ruler is trying to get gold. The most gold that can be seized is three, so spending more than this on the endeavor is kind of pointless. Any area with a Social State of -3 cannot be Pillaged. There is nothing left to take! Pillage may not cost any gold. Positive Modifiers: ruler's Military rating, Social State of the area that the ruler is attacking from, and a high population in the target area. Negative: Social State of the target, Fortification of the target, having the SAME language or religion as the attacker's Court, and any Defender's military rating.
Defense: This endeavor may only be used during somebody else's turn. If any ruler attacks one of your areas, if you have any endeavors left and at least one gold, you will be presented with a dialog. This dialog will give you the option of defending your province. You may decide how much gold to spend. Your military rating is subtracted from the attacker's chance of success. For this reason, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO SAVE SOME GOLD AND ONE OR MORE ENDEAVORS IN CASE YOU ARE ATTACKED! If you move first out of six players and use all of your endeavors and/or gold, then all five other players will have the chance to attack your provinces and you will have no defense! If you choose to defend, you will pay at least 1 gold. The only factor in Defense is your Combat rating.
Choosing an Endeavor:
Select your endeavor from the PopUp menu in the Province Window. Remember, for Conquest and Pillage, use the province that you're attacking FROM. Once you choose an Endeavor, the window will change and show the cost of the Endeavor and your effectiveness. You may increase your effectiveness by adding gold to the cost, using the Add Gold PopUp menu. Odds less than five aren't very likely to have positive effects, odds of zero or less have NO chance for any positive effects. Odds of nine or above ar the most likely to succeed. The only reason to pay gold for odds higher than nine is if you are conducting a military endeavor and you expect a defense to lower your odds. You may cancel the endeavor at any time by using the "Cancel" button, or execute the Endeavor by clicking the "Execute" button. (No, this button does not allow you to Execute your opponents!) You will be informed of the results of your actions in the message window at the top of the screen. It is very easy to really mess up your kingdom by performing a lot of low-odds actions. Gold is the answer. With enough gold, any action can succeed.
The Treasury:
Taxation, the Sport of Kings. When a ruler selects the Tax option, a dialog is presented showing one of the provinces in the ruler's kingdom. If the province has a Social State over zero, then that much gold may be taxed. However, as you tax it, it will make a rebellion check. This check is at a level equal to the number shown as "Rebel Value" PLUS the number of gold taxed. The more you want, the more likely the province will revolt. If it doesn't revolt, it might enter Unrest, but you receive your taxes anyway. If an area's Social State is below 1, but greater than -3 you may plunder it. It will check for revolt IF it was already in Unrest. It will make a revolt check as if you wanted three gold, and if it doesn't revolt you will receive from zero to three gold. The province automatically enters Unrest. This is not a good long-term taxation strategy, but if you desperately need the cash, go for it. You may always tax your Court province without chance of rebellion. You may also skip a province by clicking the "Skip" button. You can come back to it later. "Done" finishes taxation for this turn, you can't come back! If you tax all of the provinces that you can, the dialog will close automatically.
How to Win:
Winning is mostly a perception that you've done well but, for those who like numbers, numerical scores will be presented at the end of the scenario. These scores are a function of the number of areas that you rule, their Social States, and Claims that you have to areas that you OWN. Claims count for a fair amount, so don't neglect them.
Differences From the Board Game:
First, a lot of decisions have been taken away from the player. When you receive a Recognition of Claim, for instance, the computer automatically selects what it thinks is the best choice to play it on.
Second, there are no Crusades or Colonization. They just seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. I do hope to include them if my upgrade ever makes it out.
Religious Conversion takes place in the background. Christianity spreads out from established areas into the pagan hinterlands automatically. Heretical Christians are "re-orthodoxed" as part of the same procedure. This was done because using the rules of the board game resulted in no one being converted. It was embarrassing to have half of Europe heathen in 1470. Iberian Moslem provinces still convert to Catholicism when conquered by a non-Moslem ruler.
Some language spread is taken into account. Wallachia will go Vlach at some point, Brandenburg will switch from West Slavonic to Old Saxon, and Austria and Bulgaria will switch from their non-IndoEuropean tongues to their more familiar languages. All of these shifts take place at reasonably historic points in time.
Provinces tend towards their Social State norms. At the end of every turn, provinces below their norms have a ten percent chance of rising one level while provinces above their norms have a five percent chance of decreasing. This was done to combat the general trend in the board game of all provinces to be at SocState -3 at the end of the game. The infamous Byzantine Money Machine, in which the Byzantine Player ruled all of his Hellenic provinces to their maximum social states and taxed them mightily (frequently obtaining treasuries of 150 gold) is also diminished by this rule.
Hints:
Rule your provinces until you have a guaranteed income of 3 or better before embarking upon the conquest of Europe.
Always end your turn with at least one gold in the bank and at least one endeavor if ANY of the players who haven't moved yet could attack you. This will let you defend.
Keep areas out of unrest by Ruling if at all possible. Areas in unrest can breed Magnates or Christian Heretics, and won't pay their taxes without a good chance of revolt.
Do what your king is good at. If you have a king who is a 9-1-1, ignore the above advice and go conquering. Pillage if you need money. Similarly, a 2-5-3 should Rule and Fortify, not Conquer. If your king is a 1-1-1, don't do anything. Tax your provinces and end your turn.
Troubleshooting:
When I tax my provinces, the ungrateful swine enter unrest or revolt!
This is because of high rebellion values. It is almost never a good idea to tax any province with a rebellion value greater than 3. You can lower rebellion value by putting down unrest (if the province is in unrest) by Ruling. A diplomatic Tie to the area will also reduce rebellion value, as will fortifications.
Where is my Kingdom?
Click on the name of your kingdom when it appears in the box on the upper right side of the Map. Your kingdom will flash. If the name of your kingdom never appears, then you have been conquered while you back was turned. Oops.
I can't get the options I want to choose from the province menu to highlight!
First, make sure that you have some gold in the treasury. Having less than 2 gold will limit your options considerably. If that isn't the problem, remember that when you want to Conquer or Pillage you must use the menu of the province that you are attacking FROM, not the target. You may never use diplomacy on somebody's Court.
The Execute button won't highlight!
You don't have enough gold.
I can't build a house on Marvin Gardens!
You must also own Ventnor and Atlantic.
My ruler stinks!
Wait for him to die. Seriously, tax what you can and wait for a better king.
I didn't get a chance to defend!
If you have no gold or no Endeavors, then you don't get to defend.
