Cream of the Crop 11/Cream of the Crop 11-2.iso/extra/fesg0911.zip/FE.SG

Text File | 1996-01-07 | 150KB | 2,551 lines

                          Falcon's Eye Strategy Guide
                 By: Justin Verduyn @ Xenophobia [phone]

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                     Just what exactly is Falcon's Eye?                    │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
Set in a medieval world, Falcon's Eye gives you extensive control
over a feudal state.  You must learn to balance the various needs of your
empire, while competing with other states to acheive greatness.  The
game is designed around one basic premise.  It is that an online game must
emphasize interaction between the players.  The opportunity that online games
offer of competing with other, human opponents must be utilized.  Because of
that, Falcon's Eye offers interaction in every possible way, including
warfare, trade, magic, and diplomacy, and communication.  This tends to bring
out the most competitive spirit and a strong dedication from the you,
immensely adding to its entertainment value.
  Falcon's Eye takes this interaction to an even higher level.  Through
InterBBS warfare, Falcon's Eye allows you to interact with people
throughout the world.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                               Choosing a Race                             │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
A very important decision indeed.  This will greaty affect the rest of your
game.  If you would like to experiment for awhile, then download a copy of
Falcon's Eye and set it up on your computer, and play every race.  Then see
which race does the best for your particular strategy.  Here is a description
of each race, and then a comment on each:

Humans
    Humans - Humans are often described as the jacks-of-all-trades.
    While they are not particularly inefficient in any area, they are not
    noticably skilled either.  Humans are used as the standard by which
    all other races are measured.  Diplomatically skilled, people of other
    counties tend to approve of the human race.  The Paladin provides
    pride and honor to the human race, symbolizing the good in the world,
    through virtues such as honesty and honor.  The Cleric gives the
    human army the benefit of healing wounds in war.  Clerics, while not
    particularly effective fighters, are able to revive many other fighters
    which normally would have been lost in combat.
    Adjustments:
                 Popular amongst all other empires
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 None
My personal opinion of the humans is that they aren't too good.  Unless you
like the Falcon's Eye (see The Falcon's Eye) I wouldn't use them.  They would
be a good race if you were playing in InterBBS mode and were the nation's
coordinator, since having most people naturally like you is good.

Barbarians
  Barbarians - Exceptionally strong and stupid, barbarians are a
    race of raw power.  Their size and strength gives them additionally
    combat power, but their lack of wisdom causes their productivity to
    drop in all areas.  The barbarian social upbringing also does not
    stress magic as highly as other races.  The Monster provides a
    strong offensive unit with the ability to break down opposing defenses.
    The Mammoth serves as a complement with strong defensive
    capabilities and the ability to force attackers into confusion.
    Adjustments:
                 115% Combat effectiveness
                 Armoureres work at 80% efficiency
                 Druids work at 70% efficiency
                 Builders work at 75% efficiency
                 Scientists work at 75% efficiency
                 Wages 80% of normal
                 -1 Total Spell Books
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 150% Combat effectiveness
I like the Barbarians since their Combat effectiveness is high.  Merchants
are the definate choice for money makers on this one, since the Armourers
are already at a disadvantage.  Recommended action for magic would be making
friends with someone who is either an Elf or a Solarian.  This race should
definately be used as one of the primary attack counties in InterBBS mode.

Halflings
    Halfings - The Halfling is a small, but noble race.  Their small size
    gives them the ability to create smaller structures and be more
    efficient in construction.  However, naturally, it also reduces their
    combat abilities.  In the Halfling education system, Magic is considered
    a powerful tool, and stressed highly.  The Dragon provides the
    Halflings with a strong offensive and defense military force.  It also
    has a special attack capable of breaking down enemy defenses.  The
    Magician provides a worthy offensive unit whose magic can
    also confuse the opposing attackers.
    Adjustments:
                 85% Combat effectiveness
                 Builders work at 140% efficiency
                 Druids work at 125% efficiency
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 75% Combat effectiveness
These guys don't really have anything wrong with them, except they aren't the
best in combat.  However, the Druids work at a slightly higher rate than
normal, so that is good.  This is the race that I chose when I was first
introduced to the game.  Finding that I was falling behind others, I have not
chosen this race again.  The 140% efficiency of Builders doesn't mean a lot,
since not many Builders are required in the first place except in the
beginning.

Dwarves
    Dwarves - Mountain dwellers at heart, dwarves are extremely talented
    constructors.  Their size provides a natural disadvantage in combat,
    though, and their education system leaves more to be desired.  The
    practices of alchemy and magic are lacking, while construction is
    stressed as the heritage of the Dwarf race.  The powerful Golem, a
    creature of solid rock, provides the dwarves with a solid defensive
    and offensive unit.  The rock attack is able to effectively penetrate
    through defenses.  The Centaur also provides a solid defensive unit
    for a low price.
    Adjustments:
                 90% Combat effectiveness
                 Builders work at 250% efficiency
                 Druids work at 80% efficiency
                 Alchemists work at 75% efficiency
                 Blacksmiths work at 110% efficiency
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 85% Combat effectiveness
I think that I might have chosen this race once, when I was experimenting.
Nothing is really fantastic about this race, except for their extremely high
efficiency in their Builders.  This race may be a significant help in
InterBBS mode since many an opportunity is lost by not having the right
building at the right time.  A lot of money could be made by this race if
you played the market right, and always had a large quantity of blocks for
sale at a low rate.

Elves
    Elves - A powerful race, elves are known for their impressive abilities
    in many aspects.  Strong magic traditions, efficient Silver production
    techniques, and natural combat ability make the elves a dangerous race to
    compete against.  However, elves have a natural tendency to overwork
    themselves, insuring every detail to be perfect.  Because of this,
    everything they do is noticably more expensive as well.  The Wizard,
    while not extremely powerful, has the magic ability to negate special
    powers of opposing units.  The Griffin provides the elves with an
    additional offensive unit.
    Adjustments:
                 110% Combat effectiveness
                 Builders work at 50% efficiency
                 Armourers work at 50% efficiency
                 Druids work at 150% efficiency
                 Alchemists work at 120% efficiency
                 Wages 175% of normal
                 +1 Spell book
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 125% Combat effectiveness
One of my favorites, the Elves have the ability to possess the knowledge of
every Spell book.  This can be done by building the Cathedral, and then
destroying it and building the Temple and subsequent buildings.  This race
has both good Combat and Druids effectiveness.  However, they require more
money than normal, simply because they are performing better.  This race
also has a large advantage in local mode, but in InterBBS mode the
advantage is not as great for Mehul Patel (author of FE) has restricted the
number of InterBBS Spells that can be cast.

Trolls
    Trolls - A race of travellers, Trolls have become excellent at warfare,
    but have never successfully mastered the art of advanced civilization.
    Silver production, and Magic ability are both lacking, but strength and
    size make them talented Builders.  The Hammerhead gives the Trolls a
    strong defensive force to protect their cities.  The War Troll, while
    not quite as strong, has the unique capability of combatting Knights
    extremely effectively.
    Adjustments: 110% Combat effectiveness
                 Druids work at 80% efficiency
                 Alchemists work at 70% efficiency
                 Builders work at 130% efficiency
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 125% Combat effectiveness
The Trolls are a slightly higher than mediocare race.  I wouldn't necessarily
pick them, except for their Builder's and Combat effectiveness is somewhat
high.  They have no real outstanding attibutes that I would consider
important in the overall scheme when compared to other races.

Orcs
    Orcs - The most evil of all races, Orcs have no honor whatsoever.  This
    however, gives the Orc race extra military might, by improving their
    internal morale as well as through using unorthodox fighting methods.
    The lack of honor, however, causes Silver production to drop as Orcs steal
    from their own for personal gains.  In addition, people from other
    counties, including other Orc counties, tend to dislike and distrust the
    Orcs. The Minotaur provides an adequate offensive unit with the
    additional ability to penetrate enemy defenses more effectively.  The
    Orc Lord, while not very powerful, is capable of cutting through
    Foot Soldier forces extremely effectively.
    Adjustments: 125% Combat effectiveness
                 Alchemists work at 85% efficiency
                 Unpopular amongst all other empires
                 Cannot have Non-Intervention Pacts
                 -1 Spell book
                 Cannot research Life Spells
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 160% Combat effectiveness
Some people will swear by this race, myself, I don't.  While their combat
effectiveness is really good, their inability concerning their Spells probably
offsets their Combat effectiveness.  This decision is something that you will
have to make.

Solarians
    Solarians - The race of the unknown.  No one really knows too much
    about the history of Solarian people; they are perhaps the most unique
    of all the races.  Strong fighters, the Solarian military structure
    not only develops combat skills, but also provides a sense of honor which
    creates strong internal morale.  Magic is regarded as one of the greatest
    powers a Solarian can achieve, and every Solarian Druid strives to be the
    greatest in the land.  Their one flaw is money.  While not as efficient
    in Silver production, the Solarian people demand extremely high wages,
    causing problems to every Solarian government.  The Champion provides
    a worthy multipurpose fighting unit, while the Unicorn provides a
    magic attack capable of weakening opposing defenses and serves as a
    healer to revive otherwise lost units.
    Adjustments: 125% Combat effectiveness
                 Builders work at 125% efficiency
                 Alchemists work at 80% efficiency
                 Druids work at 130% efficiency
                 Wages at 300% of normal
    Adjustments prior to .910:
                 160% Combat effectiveness
When the above says their wages cause problems to Solarian governments, it's
not kidding.  Immediately after registering FE I created a County of
Solarians thinking that their wages wouldn't really matter much.  I was
wrong, it matters a lot more than one thinks.  It is really crippling in
the beginning, especially if your SysOp or League Coordinator has set the
wages to high.  Other than that, they are a really good race.  Think of them
like you would a jumbo jet, slow to start but when it gets moving, it gets
moving.

Overall, I chose the Barbarians or the Elves as my race depending on which
strategy I would like to play for the game.  Though strongly discouraged by
SysOps, a duplicate account could be setup with the other race being played.
The only way this might slide is if the FE game is in InterBBS mode and the
SysOp is active.  I don't encourage this, but it a possible solution to your
problem of which race to pick.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                               The Main Menu                               │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
──────────────────────────────[Main Menu]───────────────────────────────
(-) Take Turn           (6) Foreign Affairs      (I) International Room
(1) Labor               (7) Communications       (T) Technology
(2) Defense             (8) War Room             (*) Private Chambers
(3) City Improvements   (C) Council Room         (0) Quit
(4) Mystic Circle
(5) Commerce
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
(-) Take Turn
    Take Turn - Falcon's Eye is a turn-based game.  Each turn is the
    equivalent of one month, while the entire day is a year (there are not
    necessarily 12 months a year).  Each month, you will produce goods and
    incur various new expenses.  You are required to immediately pay 25%
    of your total expenses; if you cannot afford this, your County may go
    through some turbulence. You will then be offered the opportunity to
    pay the remaining costs for your County.  Each month, unpaid expenses
    cost you in interest added to your total remaining expenses, so it is
    highly recommended you pay immediately.  However, by not paying, you
    are essentially taking out a loan.
    NOTE: You may automatically pay all maintenance costs each month
      through a Toggle Option in the Private Chambers menu.
That really takes care of everything that there is to say about taking a turn.
Just make sure to know what turn you are on at all times, as this will affect
some of your decisions.  Some things should be done every turn, others only at
the beginning or end of the year.  They will be covered later in the guide.

(.) Pay Maintenance
    Pay Maintenance - Should you not pay off all maintenance expenses during
    the take turn option, you may cover those expenses here.  It is most
    useful if you do not have enough Silver or food at the beginning of the
    turn but are able to acquire them before the turn is over.
This is really useful for if you do not pay your expenses eventually your
people will move out causing an upset in your labor distribution, but also
by taking land with them they will reduce the chance of you gaining the lost
people back.  Where they go or where they come from is unknown, but people
are good and to lose them for simply not paying your mainetance is bad FE
etiquette and a poor gaming habit.

(1) Labor
    Labor - Labor serves as the production capability for your County.  At
    this menu, you may assign your workers to different occupations (more
    information is available on each when selected) to produce food, Silver,
    Weapons, Stone Blocks, or Runes, or to conduct scientific research. When
    a worker is placed in an occupation, they start at a 5.0 skill level.
    (Except on your first turn in the game - all initial workers start at
    7.0 skill)  Each month, the skill level of all of your workers will rise,
    until they reach the maximum of 10.0.  A 5.0 skill worker can only produce
    1/2 of a 10.0 skill worker; when you fire a worker to place him/her in
    another occupation, that worker will start again at a 5.0 skill level, so
    it is in your best interests to keep people mostly in their own
    occupations.  Your people also demand monthly wages, an expense you will
    have to deal with each turn.
    NOTE: You should never leave people unemployed - they still
      consume food, although they do not require wages.
The distribution of your people is also very important.  However, this is a
topic within itself, and will be discussed later.  Right now, just remember
that you should never allow a month to go by without employing all of your
people.  Your people are the core of your County, if they are happy you're
happy, if they aren't then you aren't.

(2) Defense
    Defense - The defense menu is where you train your military units for
    battle.  To train a unit, you must supply a certain number of Weapons,
    as listed in the menu.  You may get information on the defense and offense
    capability of a unit by selecting the Unit Information option from the
    menu.  If a unit has a special ability, you can get more information on
    his abilities in the Race Help for your race.
    NOTE: Military units require both food and Silver to maintain, so
      be careful when buying a military.  All units require the same amount
      of food, but Silver is based on their strength.
A controversial question on the defense is this: At the beginning of the
game, you have x number of Weapons.  Without the Barracks to halt their decay,
you will lose approximately 3% of your current Weapon supply.  It will take
about 20 months for you to lose half of your Weapon supply, and another 16 to
be down to a mere 1/4 of your original starting supply.  On the other hand,
there is the maintenance fee of whatever unit you would decide to train. So
the question is this, is it better to train your units, or to let your
Weapons dwindle... A chart will be provided later to show the maintenance
costs of each unit.

(3)City Improvements
    City Improvements - As your County grows, you will want to build new
    improvements to strengthen your empire.  Several of the buildings have
    prerequisites so that you will only be able to build them after you have
    built others.  Each improvement consumes some acreage of your lands; as
    soon as construction is started, these lands "disappear" from your scores,
    as they cannot be captured by opponents.  The only way to destroy
    another player's improvement is through an Earthquake Spell.  Also, you
    can only build one improvement at a time, so pick carefully.
    Additionally, at this menu you can buy new lands.  Your land serves as a
    location for people to live, so obtaining land is in your best interests,
    as it directly expands your population.
    NOTE: Buying improvements shrinks your available land supply for people
      to live on, so when building improvements, you may lose people if you
      do not buy new lands as well.
Another important menu to go to on your first turn, the City Improvements'
menu allows you to purchase more land.  More land means a lower population
density; a lower population density means more people will immigrate; the
immigrants mean more labor.  And labor is always good, until your density is
too high, then you have to buy more land since then your people will emigrate
and that's not too good.  Another thing that can be done here is telling your
people to build improvements.  Another section will deal with which
improvement to build first, but be sure that you start something on your
first turn.

(4)Mystic Circle
    Mystic Circle - The Mystic Circle is where your Druids cast their Spells.
    Most races can learn up to 3 Spell books without any difficulties.  You
    should choose these books wisely, as you can't change later on.  Some
    races' special benefits or disadvantages and building certain
    improvements can change the exact number of books your race may learn.
    Each Spell cast requires a certan amount of Runes, whether successful or
    not.  In addition, some Spells are much easier to cast than others.  The
    number of Druids per acre of land in your County (as of the end of the
    last month) is the main factor in determining whether a Spell is
    successful or not; the larger the ratio, the more effective casting for
    your County.  In Spells against opponents, their ratio also determines
    the amount of success your Druids will have.
    NOTE: Each time a Spell is cast, the cost to cast it again in the
      same year triples as accessing those same powers becomes more difficult,
      except for the Wizards' Eye whose cost is constant.  Therefore, you
      should consider carefully whom you wish to cast Spells upon.
Unfortunately, the Circle is basically useless until you are out of
protection.  Your Runes will decay with time, and I usually put all of my
Runes on the market to be sold so that none deplete, and a financial gain is
possible.  Since your Druids cannot cast Spells until you are in your freedom,
I would recommend not choosing any Spell books since you won't be able to use
them.  The Circle is where Spells are cast either on your own County, and the
counties of others in your nation.  It is very important that you keep a high
ratio of Druids/acre as that will determine the success of Spells that you
cast, plus the more Druids that you have the more Runes you will produce.
Spells require a certain amount of Runes before they can be cast, so it is
important to figure out before hand which Spells you want to cast, and which
you would rather leave until later.

(5)Commerce
    Commerce - The commerce menu is an area from which you can trade goods
    with other players.  Through trade, you can make deals to get things you
    need or just send out assistance to other counties.  You can also buy and
    sell on a common market, where your Merchants will try to find the best
    available price out there.  If no other player has goods for sale, you
    always have the option of buying from a general market, but the price
    may be very high.
    NOTE: If you have a lot of excess of any good, you may wish to attempt
      to sell it on the market.  However, once your goods have been placed
      for sale, you cannot recover them, so it might help to advertise that
      things are for sale in messages to other players.
    NOTE: When trading military forces, the quality of those forces
      drops to 50% of their initial value.  Also, while food, Weapons, and
      Runes are in private trade deals, they tend to slowly decay with time.
      Should a trade deal not be answered within 72 hours of the time you
      sent it, it will be returned to you, unable to complete its mission.
A good menu to use when you are more powerful than your ally for you will be
able to send parts of your resources to aid his/her County.  If you don't
want to give your resources away, you can sell them to anyone in the general
market.  One feature about FE's market is that it will automatically sell your
goods when someone wants to buy goods from the market.  For instance, if
County A were to put 100,000 Weapons for sale at 100 Silver/Weapon, County B
could go to the Market, and purchase the 100,000 Weapons for 10,000,000
Silver.  Then, if County B wanted more Weapons, it would be given the option
of purchasing the total amount of Weapons at the next lowest price.  So if
County C has 50,000 Weapons for sale at 125 Silver/Weapon, County B could buy
those 50,000 Weapons for 6,250,000 Silver.  It is easy to tell if you are
buying goods from another County, for FE puts an asterick "*" in front of the
price.  Since County A's Weapons were sold, the player for County A would
receive this message: "100000 Weapons were sold for 10000000 Silver"
While mastering the Commerce Market is not essential to a successful County,
it will surely benefit it.

(6)Foreign Affairs
    Foreign Affairs - Maintain relations with other counties is vital to
    building a strong empire.  While your County can propose various pacts to
    others, your people also maintain their own feelings toward different
    players.  By going to war with a friend of the people, you will anger
    them; however, over time, they will learn to dislike your enemies and
    like your friends.  In the meantime, though, plan carefully as when your
    people are unhappy, your approval tends to drop.
Another place that is good to visit in your first month, Foreign Affairs is
where you can propose pacts to other counties.  Different pacts do different
things, and if you accidently propose the wrong pact don't worry about it
since you can cancel your proposal to that County.  Only one pact at a time
per County is effective, so sending every pact to your ally will only result
in one being accepted.  If someone declines your proposal, then your approval
will drop, the same is true on the flip side of the coin so be sure to propose
pacts that the proposee will accept.  If your people do not like your allies,
then you can not send anything to them, in order to improve your standing
with them propose cultural alliances.

(7)Communications
    Communications - This menu allows you to talk with other players about
    anything you would like.  We ask that, because this game has all sorts of
    players and messages can be sent to other BBSes, you keep foul language
    out of the game at all times.  Beyond that, enjoy communicating!
Not to be underestimated by the limit of choices, this aspect is important
too.  Good communication is important to success with any team.  If you are
not able to talk amongst yourselves, then you are already at a disadvantage.
Remember, a cord of three strands is not easily broken...

(8)War Room
     War Room - The war room is the center from which you conduct your
    attacks.  You have several options of what to target, and you may attack
    any County whom you have declared war on.
    NOTE: In your attacks, you may set different attack strategies and attack
      objectives.  It is recommended that you hit ? to learn more
      about the different options at their respective menus.
    NOTE: Each time an attack is made, the forces return with a lower
      quality rating than when sent.  This means that it is better not to
      send too large excess of forces in attacks, as you only will hurt the
      quality of your military.
This is a really good menu, but like the mystic circle is useless until you
are out of protection.  This is where you are able to use the military that
you have been creating in order to benefit your empire.  There are three
different attack types, and those will be discussed later.  About the only
thing that I'll mention now is to make sure not to send too much.  For
instance, if you are attacking a County with only 1 Peasant, then sending
1000 Peasants would be a big mistake.  Be sure to send the appropriate
amount.

(C)Council Room
    Council Room - The Council Room is a central area from which you can
    monitor all aspects of your County.  You can get information on your
    agricultural and budget situations to see where how your expenses are
    distributed.  Also, you can learn how productive your people are and
    get a general status of your County.  It is recommended you visit here
    often to make sure everything in your empire is functioning properly.
This room will tell you many interesting things that are important to both
you and to your County, such as informing you of problems that might arise
before they actually do.  Be sure to visit here frequently so that your
County will remain healthy.

(I)International Room
    International Room - This is the menu from which you can interact with
    all the other BBSes (nations) in the game. The Magic and Trade menus will
    function just as from the main menu.  The War and Message menus have
    additional options which are self explanatory.
    NOTE: At the magic menu, you will not be able to cast Spells affecting
      only yourself from this menu, so the number of Spells available here
      will be lower than those at the regular Mystic Circle menu.
This Room is a reflection of the Main Menu, and is available only in InterBBS
Mode.  Some things are different with these selections than with the others,
the main difference being the time it takes before you know what effects
occured due to your actions.

(P)Presidential Court
    Presidential Court - Having been elected President for your nation, you
    have additional abilities and responsibilities on your BBS.  You are in
    charge of setting relations standards with other nations.  In addition,
    you set the defensive strategy for your nation against group attacks from
    opposing nations to your entire country.
This is available to only one County per nation.  I would recommend browsing
through here if you happen to be the president.  Being the president should
be given to the most level-headed person, and also the best FE player in your
nation.  If you know of a player who is good but isn't the president then
write messages to the other players asking them to vote for him/her.  To vote
for your president go to your private chambers and hit (-) then proceed with
the instructions.

(T)Technology
    Technology - The technology menu allows you to change the concentrations
    of your Scientists. Initially, they work solely on decreasing maintenance
    costs for the County.  Here, you are allowed to change their work to
    specialize in any of the many areas available.
Here you can set what area your Scientists will concentrate on.  By either
lowering or raising the level of the chosen area, your Scientists will either
lower costs, or raise the effectiveness of the area whichever is appropriate.
So if you had a lot of Scientists concentrating in maintenance, eventually
your maintenance costs would go down.  The areas raise and lower on a curve
that can never reach 0.

(*)Private Chambers
    Private Chambers - This is the miscellaneous menu, where you can set
    different preferences for the game and view news and scores.  In InterBBS
    games, you also can vote for your nation's President here.
Your Chambers is a good place to go when you are planning attacks against a
local County, or to read the news file to see whom to attack or send aid to.
The Chambers should be visited on your first turn, not only to turn
Auto-Pay Maintenance to a Yes, but to check the options and remember them for
future use.

(0)Quit
    Quit - Quits the game until you want to play later.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                              The Labor Menu                               │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Key Type            Employed  Skill   Key Type            Employed  Skill
(A) Farmers                0    7.0   (H) Blacksmiths            0    7.0
(B) Armourers              0    7.0   ( ) Unemployed             0
(C) Builders               0    7.0   (.) Fire Workers
(D) Alchemists             0    7.0   (/) Labor Advice
(E) Scientists             0    7.0   (-) Worker List
(F) Druids                 0    7.0   (?) Help
(G) Merchants              0    7.0   (0) Quit
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

(A)Farmers
    Farmers - Farmers are the agricultural source of your County.  While
    it is possible to rely on the market for food, it is generally cheaper
    to maintain your own production.  One farmer working at 100% productivity
    can produce 1 Bushel of food per month.
Farmers are the people that grow the food for your County.  A vital part to
any County, and a definate priority when hiring people.  When one first
starts a County I would recommend hiring first 25 people, and then going to
your Council Room and checking with your Secretary of Agriculture to make
sure that you are going to produce enough food.  If you are a little below
par don't worry about it since your Farmers will become more skillful as
time passes, allowing them to produce more food per farmer.  However, be sure
that you have at least one farmer per unit required; this will assure that
you will be able to provide for your population.

(B)Armourers
    Armourers - Armourers produce Weapons with which you can arm
    military units.  The "Weapon" is the basic unit with which military
    is bought (ie, a Foot Soldier might cost 3 Weapons).  Armourers work
    without additional lands or supplies, making them a good choice for
    empires with limited lands.  One Armourer at 100% productivity will
    produce one unit of Weapons per month.
Personally, I like the Blacksmiths better, as they have more building
improvements than the Armourers.  At the beginning of the game though, the
Armourers are better naturally, unless the race you chose reduces their
effectiveness.  However, when you begin to have a good number of Armourers
(about 1000) I would fire them and switch to Blacksmiths.  Both the Armourers
and Blacksmiths are a necessity to any nation, even if you are planning to go
the Magical route. I like to have about 1/5 - 2/5 of my people at either
Armourers or Blacksmiths.  This should ensure a good number of Weapons per
month will be produced, while still leaving room for your people to fill
other important roles too.

(C)Builders
    Builders - Builders are needed to create structures in your County.
    Builders gathers and prepare Stone Blocks for use in construction work.
    All buildings and houses are built using Stone Blocks only.  Each
    Builder will, at 100% productivity, ready 1 Stone Block per month.
In the beginning, I would recommend hiring the remainder of your people as
Builders.  After covering your food and Silver maintenance, you should have
people left over.  These should be Builders because you need Stone Blocks in
order to build City Improvements.  If you don't have enough Stone Blocks,
then obviously you can't build the building.  You can not pay for your
building on a lease or a loan, FE will only accept an upfront payment.  In
the beginning Weapons aren't important because you're in protection and can't
be attacked or attack.  What is more important is to get your County
self-sufficient.  When you are able to do that and start to have excesses
being produced, then you are ready to hire other people but not till then.
A good supply of Stone Blocks is nice to have because they sell for a fairly
high price on the market.

(D)Alchemists
    Alchemists - Alchemists are experts in changing metals into Silver.
    Silver is required to maintain your County, and can serve in
    miscellaneous functions such as buying food.  Each Alchemist can produce
    100 Silver per month, working at 100% productivity.
I don't really use the Alchemists because there isn't enough buildings that
will improve their productivity.  If your race utilitizes the Alchemists more
than usual, perhaps they will be better suited for you than Merchants.  Once
again however, I don't use them.

(E)Scientists
    Scientists - Scientists work on developing better methods of
    doing things.  In the long run, strong scientific research can lead to
    lower expenses and greater productivity.  Each month, Scientists
    develop bits and pieces of research that affect various technologies.
    Because these new methods must be implemented throughout the County,
    the power of science is also based upon the size of the empire.  A
    larger empire must maintain more Scientists to maintain equal
    monthly scientific research.
I feel that my people can be used elsewhere better than discovering and
improving the various technologies.  I like to hire more Blacksmiths and have
them them produce more Weapons per turn than having a higher military level.
That is only my personal preference though, I haven't done complete testing
to see which is more effective unfortunately.

(F)Druids
    Druids - Druids are the masters of magic.  Spells require an
    assortment of Runes to be cast.  Druids work each month to produce
    those Runes, which can then be stored for later use.  One druid is
    capable of producing 1 rune per month at 100% productivity.
Your Druids are good people to have around, but not at the beginning.  Since
you can't use the Runes the Druids produce, and can't be attacked by any
Spells until you are out of protection they really aren't that good.  The
more Druids that you have, the better your chances of successfully casting
Spells and of repelling Spells cast against you.

(G)Merchants
    Merchants - Merchants travel throughout different counties trading
    goods and making profits.  The more Merchants there are throughout the
    nation, the less profits each will be able to earn.  However, the more
    in your County, the more effective each will be as they can effectively
    cooperate to gain the greatest profits.  A single merchant is able to
    bring in 115 Silver per month at 100% productivity.
The choice income for me, I like the Merchants a lot.  They have many
buildings to improve their productivity, and they earn more than Alchemists.
If you are going the Merchant route, then that will change your building
plans, but that will be covered later.  Merchants are good overall, and I use
them a lot in my games, I would recommend at least looking into using them
for awhile even if you prefer Alchemists.

(H)Blacksmiths
    Blacksmiths - Blacksmiths work to improve the quality of Weaponry.  In
    large numbers Blacksmiths tend to be most effective as they work together
    in designing new products.  In small numbers Blacksmiths aren't quite as
    capable as the average Armourer.  At 100% productivity, a lone Blacksmith
    can produce 0.9 Weapon per month.
My choice for Weapon production, the Blacksmiths are good producers of
Weapons when they have all of their improvements.  Until then, I would choose
the Armourers until you've built some improvements to enhance the
Blacksmiths' productivity.

( ) Unemployed
The number of people that you haven't hired yet.  It is important that you
hire everyone before proceeding to your next turn.  If you leave your people
unemployed they will still require food but won't give you anything in
return.  FE will warn you if you are about to take a turn and have
unemployed people.

(.) Fire Workers
If you would like to fire people from one occupation and hire them in another
occupation this is how you do it.  This isn't where you hire workers to fight
fires (Seriously I've been asked that), this is to allow you to more people
around.  For instance, if you have a lot of Weapons being produced per month,
but don't have enough Silver being produced to pay maintenance costs, then
you could fire your Blacksmiths/Armourers and hire Merchants/Alchemists.  The
only downfall of this is the new people are unskilled at their jobs and
therefore have a lower productivity level, if you return them to their old
jobs they've forgotten how to do them and require to be retrained in them
too.  As you can see, moving your people around every turn does not enhance
your overall productivity and should only be used if you need the extra
resources.

(/) Labor Advice
This will have your Secretary of Labor give you a report on the productivity
levels of each labor type, how much each individual is producing, and the net
production for that labor type.  Very useful when trying to make ends meet or
when comparing different types of labor.

(-) Worker List
If you need online instant help, then this function will give it to you.
However, it will be in a list not the help database so it may take a little
longer to find the information that you're looking for.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                             The Defense Menu                              │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
───────────[Military Training]───────────
Key Name         Cost (Training)    Owned
(A) Peasants                   2        0
(B) Swordsmen                  6        0
(C) Bowmen                     6        0
(D) Knights                   10        0
(E) Special One            15-60        0
(F) Special Two            12-50        0
(Z) Defensive Strategy
(.) Remove Military
(*) Unit Information
(0) Quit
─────────────────────────────────────────
Due to the different nature of The Defense Menu, a chart has been provided
in order to more clearly explain the different options.  Here it is:
╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│Name            Networth    Silver / Unit    Attack/Defense  Food Per Unit │
│Peasant            2             0.2              2/2            .025      │
│Swordsman          6             0.6              6/3            .025      │
│Bowman             6             0.6              3/5            .025      │
│Knight            10             1.0              8/6            .025      │
│Special Unit    Unit Cost   1/10 of Unit Cost                    .025      │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
(Z)Defense Strategy
Aggressiveness
    Aggressiveness - Aggressiveness is a measure of how forcefully your army
    battles with opponents in war.  With a high aggressiveness, your attack
    power increases, but your ability to defend your forces drops. In battles
    lost, you will do more damage to your opponent.  In battles won, however,
    you lose more of your military.  A low aggressiveness serves the opposite
    effect.  Sacrificing your attack capabilities, you position your forces
    more effectively on the defense.  This way, in battles lost, you do less
    damage to your enemy, but in battles won, you lose less forces in combat.
    A higher aggressiveness also increases the fatigue of your forces,
    lowering their quality rating more than normal.  A lower value will do
    the opposite.
If you are like me, then you don't mind sacrificing some military units in
order to win a battle.  If you are the conservative type then stop for a
moment and consider what you are doing by setting it to Low.  You are not
willing to risk units which are trained by simply letting time pass in
exchange for gaining land, people, or other resources with which you might
even capture more than you lost.  That is why I always set my Aggressiveness
to high, the same is true if I'm the President of my Nation.

Battle Length
    Battle Length - This factor controls how long your forces will
    fight before retreat.  By setting this to a higher value, you increase
    your chances to win a battle.  However, whether you lose or win, you may
    suffer greater damages.  With a low setting, you will lose less forces,
    but also lose more battles.  A higher battle length also increases the
    fatigue of your forces, lowering their quality rating more than normal.
    A lower value will do the opposite.
The same principles from Aggressiveness apply here.  I set my Battle Length
to High so that I can win the battle.  Especially in InterBBS Mode when it
takes days to get attacks back.  The County/Nation which you are attacking
can increase dramatically in Networth in the amount of time it takes your
forces to get there.  If you've set your Battle Length to low, then you risk
having sent your forces in vain and you'll only lose when you could have
conquered.  I also set my Nation's Battle Length to High when I'm the
President too.

(.)Remove Unit
If you would like to convert your unit to another, and can't find an ally who
you can trade with, or want to simply reduce costs, this will allow you to
"untrain" your units and receive 1/3 of their cost back.  So if you want to
return a Knight you'll receive 2 Weapons back.

(*)Unit Information
The following is a chart that displays some information about each unit. This
chart should influence your decision when you are choosing military units to
hire.
                         Attack           Resistance      Cost     Special
Unit Name  Race    (Swords) Per Weapon (Shields) Weapon (Weapons)  Ability?
──────────══════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Peasant    All        2       1.00       2        1.00      2         No
Swordsman  All        6       1.00       3        0.50      6         No
Bowman     All        3       0.50       5        0.83      6         No
Knight     All        8       0.80       6        0.60     10         No
Paladin    Human     10       1.00       5        0.50     10         No
Cleric     Human      2       0.13       2        0.13     15        Yes
Monster    Barbarian 20       0.80       5        0.20     25        Yes
Mammoth    Barbarian  8       0.32      10        0.40     25        Yes
Dragon     Halfling  18       0.30       9        0.15     60        Yes
Magician   Halfling  12       0.40       2        0.67     30        Yes
Golem      Dwarf     15       0.30       6        0.12     50        Yes
Centaur    Dwarf      7       0.28       8        0.32     25         No
Wizard     Elf        8       0.13       4        0.67     60        Yes
Griffin    Elf       12       0.60       2        0.10     20         No
Hammerhead Troll      8       0.17      12        0.27     45         No
War Troll  Troll     10       0.50       6        0.30     20        Yes
Minotaur   Orc       12       0.60       4        0.20     20        Yes
Orc Lord   Orc        6       0.30       4        0.20     20        Yes
Champion   Solarian  14       0.56       5        0.20     25         No
Unicorn    Solarian   2       0.17       2        0.17     12         No
──────────══════════───────────────────────────────────────────────────────

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                        The City Improvements Menu                         │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
───────────────────────────────[Construction]────────────────────────────────
Key Name                Cost (Stone)  Key Name                  Cost (Stone)
(1) Land                 4035 Silver  (9) Pub                             75
(2) Library                      100  (.) Destroy Improvement
(3) Town Square                  200  (/) Improvement Council
(4) Barracks                     400  (*) Improvement List
(5) Smithy                       250  (=) Improvement Chart
(6) Temple                       400  (-) Descriptions
(7) Church                       650  (?) Help
(8) Farm                         100  (0) Quit
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Here's the Improvement Chart:
╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│Library──> School──> Museum──> University                                  │
│                └──> Artists' Hall                                         │
│                                                                           │
│Town Square──> Trade Fair──> Farmers' Market                               │
│          └──> Town Hall──> MarketPlace──> Merchants' Guild──> Bank        │
│                                                                           │
│Barracks──> Fighters' Guild──> Training Grounds──> *Colliseum              │
│                          └──> *Dungeon       └──> Town Walls──> Towers    │
│                                              Palace <──Stronghold <──┤    │
│Smithy──> Armoury──> Armourers' Guild           Castle <──Fortress <──┤    │
│     └──> Waterwheel──> Cotton Mill                    War College <──┘    │
│     └──> Mine     └──> Sawmill                                            │
│                                                                           │
│Temple──> Pyramid──> Oracle──> Wizards' Tower                              │
│                                                                           │
│Church──> Cathedral──> Jesters' House     Farm──> Irrigation──> Water Tower│
│                                             └──> Granary──> *Caravan      │
│                                                                           │
│*Fairy Garden                              Pub──> Theatre──> Circus        │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
* = Have other requirements as well
By pressing (*), FE will display the Improvement List which changes depending
on how many Stone Blocks that you have.  If you have a lot of Stone Blocks
then the required number of blocks for each building will rise.  I don't have
the exact formula for it as of yet, but I may have it published in my next
release of this.  For now, just remember that the more blocks that you have
sitting around, the more you'll have to give.  The Improvement List will show
you how long each building will take and how many acres of land it needs
(which doesn't change), and how many Stone Blocks are required to build it
(which does change).

(/)Improvement Council
The Council tells you which improvements you currently have, and what one
you're working on and how long that improvement has left before it is built.

(.)Destroy Improvement
This will cause an improvement of your choice to be destroyed.  When you
destroy and improvement you'll receive 1/2 of the initial invest in land
back.  So if you built a Pub and decided that you didn't want it, you would
receive 10 acres of land back for the 20 that you spent.  You don't receive
any of the Stone Blocks back though.  This is used if you build the Church
then the Cathedral learn the Spell book that you receive, but yet you want to
build the Temple in order to have the Pyramid and other things that the
Temple allows.  You can do this if you want but it takes 60 acres of land and
25 months. Useful if you are the Elves and want every Spell possible, or if
you just want another Spell Book.  Remember, when you do this you lose all of
the Stone Blocks and half the land.

The following is every building that FE currently allows and a short comment
about each one, the list is in the order the buildings are listed on the
Improvement Chart.

Library
    Library - The Library serves as a center from which Scientists can
    study and learn new techniques.  The Library increases the productivity
    of Scientists by 20%.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: School
The Library isn't all that good except that it leads to other good
improvements that are good.  Build this if you have some extra time, but not
right away.

School
    School - A School system helps train workers in their respective fields,
    increasing productivty in all areas of work by 5%.  It also serves as a
    requirement for higher education.
    Requirements: Library
    Allows: Museum and University (Registered Only)
Useful because it improves the productivity of everyone, the School would be
a nice addition if your County is running smoothly.  Not direct enough to
help you in time of need, the School will add to your County, not solve your
problems.

Artists' Hall
    Artists' Hall - Bringing to the County a respect for the arts,
    the Artists' Hall serves to build approval for the government.  Each
    month, approval rises by 1 point.
    Requirements: School
A very, very nice addition to your County.  This will help your approval
rating a lot because unlike the other improvements which raise your approval
yearly, the Artist's Hall will raise it every month!

Museum
    Museum - A Museum helps to bring together people of the County to see and
    experience the past.  It brings a small sense of pride to the populace,
    adding 2 points to your Approval Rating.
    Requirements: School
Having a good Approval Rating is important to your County, and anything that
will add to that helps.  This is another "extra" for your County.

University - Registered Only
    University - By preparing workers for their professions with advanced
    Schooling, the County is able to start new workers at 7.0 skill in their
    professions (instead of the normal 5.0), allowing people to change
    jobs without as much productivity loss.
    Requirements: School
The University is nice because it allows you to change your people around and
not lose a lot of time waiting for them to become productive.  This will help
your County in time of need since you can move people from one type of labor
to another relatively easy.

Town Square
    Town Square - The Town Square serves as a center from which to build new
    improvements for the County.  The square houses markets, guilds, and
    fairs for the County.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: Trade Fair and Town Hall
Not adding anything directly to your County, some claim it is useless.
However, it is important indirectly for it allows 6 other buildings to be
built.  This should be built on your first turn though, it isn't that
important.

Trade Fair
    Trade Fair - A simple improvement, the Trade Fair takes advantage of the
    Town Square to build a simple market for trade.  Given a locale to sell
    their goods, Merchants gain a 8% productivity boost.
    Requirements: Town Square
    Allows: Farmers' Market
A fairly good improvement and worthy of being built in the 7 years, it adds
8% productivity to your Merchants' productivity.  The Trade Fair is only good
if you are using Merchants as your Silver producers.

Farmers' Market
    Farmers' Market - By having an alternative market to the standard
    nationally supported one, you are able to buy food at the market at
    prices 80% of normal.
    Requirements: Trade Fair
Good if you don't have enough Farmers, or are planning a large offensive
movement and need to keep the troops at home for awhile, the Farmer's Market
provides a good discount on food.  Basically it says Buy 4 get the 5th one
free, which isn't too bad of a deal.

Town Hall
    Town Hall - The Town Hall helps give the people a sense that they can
    contribute in their government, boosting your approval by 3 points.  It
    also sets the stage for more organized markets for Merchants.
    Requirements: Town Square
    Allows: MarketPlace
Approval Rating is always good to improve, and the Town Hall allows the
MarketPlace, one of the principal improvements for Merchants.  Usually built
in the first couple of days in my games.

MarketPlace
    MarketPlace - The MarketPlace is an organized center for Merchants to
    trade goods.  It reduces the effectiveness of the Trade Fair, but
    increases the productivity of Merchants by 15% itself.
    Requirements: Town Hall
    Allows: Merchants' Guild
One of the better improvements in the game, the MarketPlace increases the
productivity of the Merchants by 15%!  I've tried to do some testing to see
how much it actually lowers the effectiveness of the Trade Fair, and because
the Merchants' Productivity changes every turn, I wasn't able to get a good
estimation of it.  I would say that it lowers the Trade Fair to be able half
as effective, but I'm not sure of that exact number.  Even if the MarketPlace
reduced the Trade Fair to nothing, the MarketPlace would still enhance the
productivity of the Merchants.

Merchants' Guild - Registered Only
    Merchants' Guild - The Merchants' Guild gives your County the ability to
    buy goods from the national market at reduced prices.  Through the guild,
    the Merchants find better sources of goods, giving you a 20% discount
    on Stone Blocks, Weapons, and Runes.
    Requirements: MarketPlace
    Allows: Bank
By having both the Merchants' Guild and the Farmers' Market you are able to
reduce your expenses from purchasing items from the national market.  It does
the same thing as the Farmers' Guild, only on Stone Blocks, Weapons, and
Runes instead of Bushels of Food.

Bank - Registered Only
    Bank - Creating a Bank for your County provides a source of development
    for small businesses.  Through loans, Banks are able to make a profit on
    your stored Silver.  Each month, you will earn 2% interest on your stored
    Silver, up to a maximum of 100,000 coins, each month.
    Requirements: Merchants' Guild
A nice addition to have the Bank will give you up to 100,000 coins every turn
as long as you have 5 million Silver, otherwise it will give 2% of your total
Silver.  The benefits of this are obviously more money at no risk.  If your
Bank is destroyed then you don't lose the money that you have since you can't
really store your Silver there.  If you are actually storing your Silver
there, then it is transparent because you can spend your Silver from anywhere
and no where does it mention how much you have stored in the Bank.  Building
the Bank does not automatically add an option to the Main Menu, instead your
interest is calculated at the beginning of each turn on the first line of
your Monthly County Report, you'll see how much money you made in interest.

Barracks
    Barracks - The Barracks is vital for any successful military.  Naturally,
    Weapons tend to decay with time.  Providing a Barracks as a storage site,
    however, halts that decay, allowing a County to stockpile Weapons without
    creating a military.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: Fighters' Guild
The third building that I build every game, the Barracks halt the decay of
Weapons, enabling you to build a large military force, without having to pay
maintenance on it.  You can build your force in the form of Weapons and right
before you are ready to attack simply train your forces.  Granted, their
quality will not be very high, but you can have enough attack points to
overcome the lower quality rating.  The Barracks are a really good
improvement to have.

Fighters' Guild
    Fighters' Guild - A training center for combat, the Fighters' Guild
    allows 1% of your Peasants to be trained into Swordsmen each month.  Over
    time, this allows you to produce military at substantially lower costs.
    Requirements: Barracks
    Allows: Dungeon (with Pyramid) and Training Grounds
A good investment, the Fighters' Guild allows you to get Swordsmen for 1/3 of
their cost.  Every month the Fighters' Guild is able to train 1/3 of your
Peasants into capable Swordsmen saving your 4 Weapons.  If you had 100
Peasants, then 3 would become Swordsmen on the next month, and another 3 the
month after that, and so on.

Dungeon
    Dungeon - Creating a Dungeon allows you to imprision and retrain
    criminals from your society.  Out of the Dungeons, you'll be able to
    train 100 extra Peasants a turn for your army.
    Requirements: Fighters' Guild and Pyramid
100 extra Peasants isn't all that much, but it does give you free military
which is nothing to sneeze at.  I usually don't hold my breath until I get
this improvement because it takes a long time to get it, 59 turns in fact and
that's assuming that you have enough Stone Blocks and acres of land to hold
all of the other improvements that come first.

Training Grounds
    Training Grounds - The Training Grounds provide a location for Swordsmen
    to train and improve upon their combat skills.  With the grounds, each
    month 1% of your Swordsmen are converted into Knights.
    Requirements: Fighters' Guild
    Allows: Colliseum (with Circus) and Town Walls
I like the Training Grounds, but usually don't start building them until I
have my County self-sufficient first.  The reason for this is simple, the
improvements that come after the Training Grounds are relatively large and
require a long time to build.  The Training Grounds are not only good
themselves, but lead to even bigger and better things.

Colliseum
    Colliseum - Attracting thousands to watch gladiators duel, the Colliseum
    brings a form of entertainment rarely found in these medieval
    communities.  By spending to serve the people, the Colliseum boosts your
    approval rating by 2 points.
    Requirements: Training Grounds
Again another improvement that boosts Approval Rating, the Colliseum is a
good item to have if you have the time and resources to build it.  I usually
save it because I would rather build something that will affect my County
more drastically.

Town Walls
    Town Walls - By enclosing your primary lands in walls, you are able to
    more effectively prevent theft by enemies. The Town Walls serve to reduce
    enemy capture of land, people, and resources by 10%.
    Requirements: Training Grounds
    Allows: Towers
The Town Walls are really good because they reduce the amount of resources
that can be captured, possibly detouring other counties from attacking you. A
misconception is that the Town Walls improve your defense, they don't improve
your defense at all but reduce the amount of resources lost in battle. A good
improvement if you are at war with another County that can beat you.

Towers
    Towers - By placing your Bowmen in Towers, they are able to attack and
    resistance damage much more effectively while defending your lands.  The
    Towers make your Bowmen 20% more effective than normal.
    Requirements: Town Walls
    Allows: War College, Stronghold, and Fortress
The Towers are good, but only when defending your County.  Since you can't
take them with you into battle, they will not help you there.  They are
pretty good if you have Bowmen, but would be a complete waste they weren't a
requirement for other improvements.

Stronghold
    Stronghold - The Stronghold serves as a center of defense for the County.
    It bolsters the combat ability of all troops by 5% while defending the
    County by organizing and controlling the battle.
    Requirements: Towers
                  No Fortress or Castle
    Allows: Palace
I never build the Stronghold nor the Palace, I prefer to have more military
might than good relations.  If you look ahead at what the Palace does, you'll
see my reasoning behind that.  Just ignore this one, unless you're not like
me and would rather have good relations, or if you're hurting for approval
points then this would be something good because it leads to the Palace which
improves relations with other counties which in the end affects your Approval
Rating.

Palace
    Palace - The Palace is an inspirational structure that both provides the
    government a home as well as helps bolster respect for your empire around
    the country.  All other counties see their people improve relations with
    yours each month.
    Requirements: Stronghold
The Palace would be good if you are the President of your Nation and were
Humans, then the other people would have a hard time hating you, and perhaps
the Orcs would even respect you.  I don't build the Palace because I have
Cultural Alliances with the counties that I want to be allied with.

Fortress
    Fortress - The Fortress provides a small location from which to stage a
    rally during a battle defending your County.  Because of its size it only
    provides a 2% increase in the capabilities of your army, but sets the
    stage for the construction of a larger, more effective Castle.
    Requirements: Towers
                  No Stronghold or Palace
    Allows: Castle
I build the Fortress every time because it allows the Castle, which is good
for me because I like military might.  I don't really like losing battles and
anything that can help me with that is good.  The Stronghold is better for
that than the Fortress, but the Castle is a lot better than the Stronghold.

Castle
    Castle - A powerful, central station for your armies, the Castle allows
    your troops to function 10% more effectively defending your County by
    forcing enemies to first scale walls and cross moats.
    Requirements: Fortress
With the Castle to protect your empire, and the Town Walls to further reduce
pillage, you are almost guaranteed to successfully defend your County.  A
favorite of mine because it lasts forever (unless an Earthquake comes), the
Castle improves the defensive value of your entire military.

War College - Registered Only
    War College - Specializing in military training, the War College teaches
    professional and most advanced skills to people willing to learn.  The
    college trains 100 Knights per month to add to your army.
    Requirements: Towers
By the time you build this, you'll be receiving 100 free Peasants, 1% of them
will be trained into Swordsmen, and 1% of the Swordsmen will be trained into
Knights; when you add the War College into the equation you are getting a
good deal of free military.  The War College is a very expensive improvement
though and should only be built if you have the time and resources for it.

Smithy
    Smithy - The Smithy serves as a workplace for your Blacksmiths.  With
    the Smithy, Blacksmiths can produce Weapons at 10% higher productivity.
    It also is necessary in the creation of other, more advanced structures.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: Armoury, Waterwheel, and Mine
A definate favorite of mine, the Smithy enhances the Blacksmiths by 10%.
This is good for it allows your Blacksmiths to produce more Weapons per turn,
thus allowing a bigger military with which you can defeat bigger counties.
However, it shouldn't be the first improvement built because you probably
won't have enough Blacksmiths to benefit from its full potential.

Armoury
    Armoury - The Armoury is a central location at which the condition of
    Weapons can be maintained and improved.  Battle tends to affect the
    quality of one's military, and the Armoury doubles the rate at which your
    quality rating rises each month.
    Requirements: Smithy
    Allows: Armourers' Guild
Good to have in time of war, the Armoury doubles the rate at which your
quality rises each turn.  This is great because it allows your force to be
better trained.  A small but well-trained force can defeat a larger
undisciplined force.  Look no further than the Battle of Britain for proof of
this.

Armourers' Guild
    Armourers' Guild - By providing a place for Armourers to gather and
    coordinate the designing and developing of higher quality Weapons and
    armor, the Armorers' Guild increases the productivity of your Armourers
    by 15%.
    Requirements: Armoury
I don't build the Armourers' Guild until last because by the time I can build
it, I've already transferred all of my Armourers into Blacksmiths.  I don't
use it, but if you have a lot of Armourers then this would enhance them.

Waterwheel
    Waterwheel - The Waterwheel provides Blacksmiths with a source of power
    which helps automate their repetitive portions of their work.  By saving
    time in this aspect, the Blacksmiths are able to work more on the new
    creations, boosting their productivity by 5%.
    Requirements: Smithy
    Allows: Cotton Mill and Sawmill
Another improvement that betters the Blacksmiths, the Waterwheel adds another
5% productivity to the Blacksmiths.  Plus, the Waterwheel allows two other
productivity-enhancing improvements.  With the Smithy and the Waterwheel, the
Blacksmiths are producing 15% higher that without them.

Cotton Mill - Registered Only
    Cotton Mill - The Cotton Mill makes possible a multitude of products
    previously unthinkable.  The effects are wide-ranging, bringing about an
    increase of productivity in all areas by 3%.
    Requirements: Waterwheel
Much like the School, but not quite as effective, the Cotton Mill raises the
productivity of everyone by 3%.  A good improvement that adds to your County.

Sawmill
    Sawmill - While construction ability is generally measured in terms of
    Stone Blocks, a great deal of wood is also required and included with
    the Stone Blocks.  The Sawmill makes wood production much more efficient,
    increasing the productivity of Builders by 10%.
    Requirements: Waterwheel
Helping with the rising costs of Stone Blocks for the larger buildings, the
Sawmill makes the Builders 10% more efficient.

Mine - Registered Only
    Mine - Mining brings out better metals for use in Weapon design and
    construction.  This metal is most important to Blacksmiths, improving
    their production capability by 10%.
    Requirements: Smithy
The Mine does the same thing as the Smithy and Waterwheel, except the total
productivity added to the Blacksmiths is 25% by now.

Temple
    Temple - Giving the people a source of organized religion, the Temple
    boosts the popularity of your government.  So long as you have the Temple
    your Approval Rating will rise by 1 point per year.
    Requirements: No Church, Cathedral, or Jesters' House
    Allows: Pyramid
    Disallows: Church
A good but costly improvement, the Temple is good for your Approval Rating
and even better than that, allows the Pyramid.  While the Requirements for
this may seem complex all it really means is if you build the Temple then
you can't build the Church, or anything that the Church allows, and can't
have anything that the Church allows built when you want to build the Temple.

Pyramid
    Pyramid - The Pyramid, adding to the mystical nature of your County, is
    used by Druids as a storage site for created Runes.  Naturally Runes tend
    to decay with time.  With the Pyramid, however, all rune decay is halted.
    Requirements: Temple
    Allows: Oracle
Halting Rune decay, the Pyramid is a must for Elves or Solarians because it
allows you to store your Runes for awhile in order to cast a barrage of
Spells at a County.  The Pyramid however, requires 20 turns to be built and
therefore is not built right away.

Oracle
    Oracle - Building a stronger mystical presence in your County provides
    your Druids with an additional source from which to learn and work.  The
    Oracle notably increases the success rate of your Spell casting.
    Requirements: Pyramid
    Allows: Wizards' Tower
By increasing your success rate with Spells, you are able to save yourself
Runes and can cast more Spells against a County than you could if your Spells
fizzled.  A good thing to have if you are into casting Spells.

Wizards' Tower - Registered Only
    Wizards' Tower - The Wizards' Tower serves as an additional source of
    rune production.  Practicing wizards are attracted to the tower, and
    together, they produce 150 Runes per month for the County.
    Requirements: Oracle
150 Runes really isn't all that much, but it's nice to have something for
free.  This would probably be saved until the last 5 buildings or so need to
be built.

Church
    Church - The Church establishes religion in your County.  Because it is
    County sponsored, it preaches approval of the County, increasing popular
    acceptance by 2 points per year.
    Requirements: No Temple, Pyramid, Oracle, or Wizards' Tower
    Allows: Cathedral
    Disallows: Temple
The Church is better than the Temple, but the improvements that the Temple
gives makes the Church my second choice.  The Church is good if you want to
build the Cathedral to get the extra Spell book, but other than that, if
you're into casting magic the Church isn't really an improvement to your
County.

Cathedral
    Cathedral - Expanding the religious influence of the Church, the
    Cathedral provides Druids a center from which to increase their mystical
    research.  This allows your Spell casters to learn 1 additional book of
    Spells.
    Requirements: Church
    Allows: Jesters' House
If you have the Elves, this will allow you to learn every Spell book possible
a real advantage is war.  If you build the Cathedral in order to learn the
Spell book and plan on destroying it, make sure that you've learned the
Spell book before destroying the Cathedral, otherwise your time and resources
will be spent for nothing.

Jesters' House
    Jesters' House - Supported by religion, the Jesters' House is a house for
    the poor and sick.  By helping the less fortunate, in times of crisis or
    anger, your people are more reluctant to challenge the government.  In
    months of falling approval, ratings will decrease at a rate of only 50%
    of normal.
    Requirements: Cathedral
Nice if you are having problems keeping your Approval Rating high, the
Jesters' House lowers the rate at which people dislike you.  However, it does
not make people like you more by itself, the Church does that.

Farm
    Farm - By creating a County supported farm in the County, you are able to
    naturally produce an additional 50 Bushels of Food per month, regardless
    of standard food production.  It is especially useful in smaller empires,
    where a large number of private Farmers may not be available.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: Irrigation Ditch and Granary
Finally, the improvement that I build first because it allows the Granary and
Irrigation Ditches, the Farm is really important to your County.  In my
opinion providing enough food for your County is one of the worst
requirements.  Being that a Farmer usually produces only one food unit at
100% productivity, a large amount of Farmers are necessary.  The Farm gives
you free food, which lowers the amount of Farmers that you need.

Irrigation Ditches
    Irrigation Ditches - An irrigation system in the County helps reduce
    Farmers' dependence on the weather.  By controlling the water supply
    to the farm lands, Farmers are able to increase their productivity by 10%
    Requirements: Farm
    Allows: Water Tower
Anything that can help the Farmers is good, and the Irrigation Ditches do
just that.  The Irrigation Ditches reduce the number of Farmers that you need
by 9%, and that's good because that 9% can be used elsewhere.  Another
building that is built in the first 7 years of gameplay.

Water Tower
    Water Tower - An expansion to the irrigation system, the Water Tower
    helps give Farmers the tools necessary to maximize food output throughout
    the County.  The Water Tower improves farmer productivity by 15%.
    Requirements: Irrigation Ditch
Maximize food output is right, the Water Tower is awesome because fewer
Farmers are needed again.  The Water Tower is yet another building high on
the list to be built first.

Granary
    Granary - The Granary serves as a storage site for your food surplus.
    While food supplies tend to decay normally, the Granary prevents the
    decay allowing you to store supplies indefinitely.
    Requirements: Farm
The Granary is so immensely important to your County that I don't think that
I can stress it enough.  The second building that I build every game, the
Granary halts food decay and that is good because it is one less thing to
worry about depleting.  A very important building, definately good.

Caravan
    Caravan - Developing the Caravan allows goods to remain fresh during
    trade deals.  While Food, Runes, and Weapons normally would decay during
    trade, they are maintained in good storage with the Caravan.
    Requirements: Granary, Smithy
If you trade frequently then I would recommend building this improvement.  If
you tend to stay to yourself though then this improvement is not a good use
of your time.  You must decide for yourself if the time and resources spent
building the Caravan are worth it.

Pub
    Pub - Providing Pubs throughout your cities increases approval around the
    County by 3% each year.  However, because the military tends to use these
    Pubs as well, combat effectiveness is reduced by 5%.
    Requirements: None
    Allows: Theatre
You'll have to decide for yourself if the Approval gain is worth a 5%
reduction in combat effectiveness.  The Pub is a cheap way to gain a higher
Approval Rating and should be used in a crisis.  3% a year is a pretty big
deal to raise the Approval Rating.  However, during war when your people
rally behind you anyway, the Pub tends to eat away at your County so much
that it might be destroyed since it was so easy to construct the first time.

Theatre
    Theatre - The Theatre brings to your people a County supported form of
    pure entertainment.  Sensing that your government cares for its people,
    your approval rises by 1% yearly.
    Requirements: Pub
    Allows: Circus
A building with no strings attached, if you've already built the Pub and are
still in need of a higher Approval Rating, the Theatre will do just that.

Circus
    Circus - The Circus is a great way to build approval throughout the
    County, as it attracts every sort of person.  Each year, the Circus will
    bring about a 2% increase in approval.  However, as people spend their
    time visiting the Circus, their productivity suffers a 5% drop.
    Requirements: Theatre
An even worse trade off than the Pub, the Circus will only raise your
Approval Rating 2% not 3%.  However, when these 3 improvements are built,
you'll experience a 6% rise in Approval Rating a year, notice that it isn't a
month like some would expect, but a year which translates into a day of your
time.

Fairy Garden
    Fairy Garden - The Fairy Garden is a magical and mystical garden in your
    County where fairies often visit.  It is unknown just what powers these
    fairies possess, but they often bring various opportunities for your
    County.
    Requirements: Irrigation and Training Grounds
The Fairy Garden provides random gifts being given to you by the Fairies.
When the Fairies visit you, it is recorded in the news file, but not what
they give you.  Not be counted upon in time of crisis, but good to have
when you have the time and resources to build it, the Fairy Garden will
sometimes give you either resources, or aid you in other ways like
restoring your magical abilities, meaning any Spells that you've cast that
tripled the requirement to be cast again will be brought back down to their
original requirement.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                             The Mystic Circle                             │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
─────────────────────────────[Mystic Circle]──────────────────────────────
Key Name             Cost (Runes)    Key Name                Cost (Runes)
(1) Wizard's Eye              100    (-) Spell Descriptions
(.) Research New Spells              (?) Help on a Spell
(/) Mystic Advice                    (0) Quit
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
(1)Wizard's Eye
    Wizard's Eye - All Spell Books
    The Wizard's Eye is your source of knowledge of your opponent.  The Eye
    gives you access to all of another County's status information, to do
    with as you wish.  However, once the Eye is recalled, it is up to you to
    remember that knowledge, as to retrieve it again will require another
    Spell.
This will let you into the other County's Council Room if you are casting it
in local mode, if you are in InterBBS the Wizard's Eye will only tell you how
many total people, resources, and how many of each military unit.  Not nearly
as much information as in local mode but still better than nothing. Something
new with .910 is that the Wizard's Eye won't triple in price like all of the
other Spells.  This is excellent because you can now cast the Wizard's Eye
four times when before you could have only cast it twice, or seven times when
you could have only cast it three times, etc.

(.) Research New Spells
This will let you research new Spells that allow you to cast different Spells
that can either aid your County or hurt others.  Different Races can learn
different amounts of Spells and the Orcs can't learn the Life Spells.  Be
sure that the Spell books you pick are the ones that you want since you can't
change your mind later.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Sorcery Spells                                                              │
│    The Book of Sorcery - The Sorcerers' book is the most diverse of all the│
│    Spell books.  Unlimited in nature, the sorcerer has a wide range of     │
│    capabilities.  Sorcery is the only known form of magic capable of       │
│    capturing tangible items and returning them to your County, serving as   │
│    an alternative to traditional warfare.                                  │
│    Spells: Sword Strike, Capture People, Capture Silver, *Curse*           │
│The Sorcery Spells are pretty nice Spells and are useful for local mode.    │
│Usually I choose this Spell book because of the Spells that it offers.      │
│                                                                            │
│Sword Strike                                                                │
│    Sword Strike - Sorcery Spell                                            │
│    This Spell enchants every swordsman in your command, strengthening the  │
│    blade of the sword.  The enchantment will last for several months and   │
│    will aid every swordsman's offensive combat skills.                     │
│Sword Strike will last for two years, and is good if you have Swordsmen.  If│
│you don't have any Swordsmen then you really don't need this Spell and it's │
│a waste of your Runes.                                                      │
│                                                                            │
│Capture People                                                              │
│    Capture People - Sorcery Spell                                          │
│    An agressive Spell, Capture People sends an illusive wind through an    │
│    opponent's County, carrying back part of its populace, and allowing     │
│    them into your County for your own work.                                │
│The capture people Spell is nice if you have a lot of land in which you can │
│house your people.  If you have too many people then you won't be able to   │
│keep them and they'll emigrate.  Using the capture people Spell is a nice   │
│way of gaining people and you aren't limited in the number of times it can  │
│be cast a year, so theoretically you can take an entire County's population │
│if you have enough Runes.  The capture people Spell will capture 2% of the  │
│population.                                                                 │
│                                                                            │
│Capture Silver                                                              │
│    Capture Silver - Sorcery Spell                                          │
│    An agressive Spell, Capture Silver sends an illusive wind through an    │
│    opponent's County, carrying back part of its Silver supply,             │
│    conveniently depositing the Silver into your own treasury.              │
│Much like the capture people Spell, the capture Silver Spell will take part │
│of the County's Silver 10% to be exact.  Useful if the County has a lot of  │
│Silver that you're in need of.                                              │
│                                                                            │
│Curse - Registered Only                                                     │
│    Curse - Sorcery Spell                                                   │
│    By cursing a County, you cause little things to go wrong throughout the │
│    empire.  To account for these problems, Silver maintenance costs for    │
│    the County are 10% higher for the next year.                            │
│This is good if you are going to attack someone and are preparing to attack │
│them.  The curse will eat at their income, and that is good to do because   │
│then the County can not spend their money on buying land or resources.      │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Nature Spells                                                               │
│    The Book of Nature - Druids specializing in this book learn to call upon│
│    the powers of nature to cast their Spells.  The Spells of nature vary in│
│    effect, both benefitting your own County and damaging others.  The       │
│    Earthquake Spell is often considered to be the most powerful of all     │
│    known Spells.                                                           │
│    Spells: Create Calm, Create Food, Call Storm, *Earthquake*              │
│The Nature Spells are good because they have Spells that will both help you │
│and hurt others.  I usually choose them too for that reason.                │
│                                                                            │
│Create Calm                                                                 │
│    Create Calm - Nature Spell                                              │
│    This Spell calms your populace's attitude towards other counties.  It   │
│    has the benefit of improving your people's stance with unfriendly       │
│    counties.  However, it also has the disadvantage of hurting relations   │
│    with good friends, as your people also feel less strongly toward them.  │
│    Create Calm is most beneficial when your people have negative feelings  │
│    for many other counties.                                                │
│Good if you have a lot of negative feelings toward a lot of the counties in │
│your nation.  Having good relations with them is important in order to not  │
│only help your Approval Rating, but to trade with them.                     │
│                                                                            │
│Create Food                                                                 │
│    Create Food - Nature Spell                                              │
│    A County often finds itself lacking in food, especially if recently     │
│    assaulted by opposing forces.  In emergencies, this Spell often can save│
│    a County, creating a large portion of the month's agricultural needs of  │
│    the County.                                                             │
│You can use the create food Spell to earn some extra money in the market, or│
│to save yourself from turmoil if you don't have enough Farmers for that     │
│month.  If you don't pay your maintenance then eventually your people won't │
│like you and revolt, taking both themselves and the land they lived on with │
│them.  Be sure to pay your maintenance costs.                               │
│                                                                            │
│Call Storm                                                                  │
│    Call Storm - Nature Spell                                               │
│    Accessing the powers of mother nature, this Spell brings a looming storm│
│    over an opposing County for several months.  This storm ruins farming   │
│    efforts and drastically reduces the amount of food produced during this │
│    time.                                                                   │
│The storm is powerful because it reduces the amount of food produced for a  │
│period of 3 months.  The farmer's productivity is cut in half.  The benefits│
│of this are great because the County suddenly is concerned with things      │
│besides attacking you.  I use the call storm a lot, however, it is only good│
│one at a time.  By this I mean that if you send one against a County, then  │
│want to send another one you'll only affect them for the same 3 months.     │
│                                                                            │
│Earthquake - Registered Only                                                │
│    Earthquake - Nature Spell                                               │
│    Reaching into the deepest powers of the mystical universe, this Spell   │
│    calls upon the forces of nature to shatter an opposing empire.          │
│    Unleashing an earthquake throughout an enemy's County, the Spell is     │
│    capable of destroying housing and improvements as well as shaking       │
│    popular confidence in the government.  However, during the course of    │
│    one year, a County may only suffer up to one earthquake.                │
│The Earthquake Spell is powerful because it will destroy an improvement     │
│that the other County has spent both time and resources on.  The good thing │
│about this Spell is that it really makes the person mad, which can cause    │
│him/her to act irrationally and wasting his/her resources foolishly.  Almost│
│any attack against a County will do this, but if you destroyed a County's   │
│Pyramid that would hasten the process.  You are only supposed to hit by a   │
│maximum of one a day, but you can still be hit by more.                     │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Life Spells                                                                 │
│    The Book of Life - Emphasizing the powers of life, this book provides   │
│    Spells designed to benefit one's own County rather than hurt others.    │
│    The powers of life can prove essential in times of crisis, pulling a    │
│    County from the brink of disaster back to normalcy.                     │
│    Spells: Protection, Create Confidence, Falcon's Blessing,               │
│                *Aura Of Majesty*                                           │
│A group of Spells that I always learn, the life Spells are able to pull a   │
│County through in time of need.  Plus, they help you after a lot of nasty   │
│of nasty Spells are rampaging through the County.  Some of the Spells even  │
│add to the productivity of your people.                                     │
│                                                                            │
│Protection                                                                  │
│    Protection - Life Spell                                                 │
│    The Protection Spell embodies each of your forces with a mystical shield│
│    for several months.  In every battle your armies fight, they will have  │
│    an increased defensive strength.                                        │
│This is good during war times, or threat of war because it gives your army  │
│with an increased defensive strength.  This might allow you to win the      │
│battle that you would have lost without it.  The Spell is relatively cheap  │
│to cast and not very expensive either.  I use this Spell a lot as do the    │
│counties that I'm fighting.                                                 │
│                                                                            │
│Create Confidence                                                           │
│    Create Confidence - Life Spell                                          │
│    Your people's approval of you is based on their confidence both in you  │
│    and the direction the County is headed.  This Spell instill a sense of  │
│    confidence, boosting the approval of your people.                       │
│Boosting your Approval Rating, this is a good Spell.  The Approval Rating   │
│is not guaranteed to stay high, but will help a recovering rating.  If your │
│people are emigrating rapidly, then it is probably because you don't have a │
│high Approval Rating, which is caused by a lot of different things.         │
│                                                                            │
│Falcon's Blessing                                                           │
│    Falcon's Blessing - Life Spell                                          │
│    The Falcon's Blessing Spell disSpells any enemy enchantments upon your  │
│    County.  By accessing the powers of life, it is able to ward off the    │
│    evil Spells such as the Black Wind, which sit upon your County otherwise│
│    uncontrolled.                                                           │
│If you are hit by some Spells such as call storm, the falcon's blessing will│
│disSpell it.  This is great any time for it allows you to concentrate on    │
│other things instead of worrying about your available food.  The falcon's   │
│blessing will disSpell all evil Spells against you in one casting and that  │
│feature realy adds to it.                                                   │
│                                                                            │
│Aura Of Majesty - Registered Only                                           │
│    Aura of Majesty - Life Spell                                            │
│    The Aura of Majesty instills in your people a strong sense of pride in  │
│    their work and abilities.  During the next few months, your people will │
│    work at higher than normal productivity levels, giving the County extra │
│    assets.                                                                 │
│This Spell is great and adds 25% of the current productivity to each labor  │
│type.  So if the Farmer's were producing at 100% then they would producing  │
│at 125% after their Aura of Majesty was cast, however if your Blacksmiths   │
│were producing at 148% then the would be working at 185% after the Spell was│
│cast.  The Spell lasts for one year and should be cast in the first month of│
│every year in order to have the Spell last its full potential.  Don't worry │
│if you don't cast it in the first month, FE will remember how many months   │
│you have left to benefit from the Aura of Majesty and give you the months   │
│during the next year.                                                       │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Death Spells                                                                │
│    The Book of Death - Accessing all the evils of the world, the Book of   │
│    Death contains Spells aimed at hurting one's enemies.  The opposite of  │
│    the Book of Life, this book can bolster an attack with an array of      │
│    Spells capable of crippling one's enemy.                                │
│    Spells: Create Anger, Food Decay, Disease, *Black Wind*                 │
│Possessing some of the most malevolent Spells known to man, the Death Spells│
│are a good group of Spells to learn.  All have a good point and are useful  │
│in war, but useless in peace.  I usually learn these too, remember when     │
│playing the Elves you can learn 4 Spell books, and the above 4 are usually  │
│the ones that I learn.  The Chaos Spells are a nice extra, but aren't really│
│necessary to the County, and thus are only chosen after building the        │
│Cathedral.                                                                  │
│                                                                            │
│Create Anger                                                                │
│    Create Anger - Death Spell                                              │
│    This Spell sends a sense of anger and hatred throughout an opposing     │
│    County's people.  It will worsen their relations with all other counties│
│    in the game, potentially destroying important relationships.            │
│Make sure that the person on whom you are casting this isn't already at bad │
│relations with everyone.  For instance, if you were to cast this on Orcs you│
│might not receive the same effect as if you were to cast it on Humans.  A   │
│good Spell to cast on a County who is the President of an opposing Nation,  │
│the Create Anger Spell causes the other counties to hate that County.       │
│                                                                            │
│Food Decay                                                                  │
│    Food Decay - Death Spell                                                │
│    Casting Food Decay causes an opponent's food stores to melt away,       │
│    destroying a significant portion of his or her supply.  A County reliant│
│    upon past production could be forced into internal turmoil with well    │
│    timed Food Decay Spells.                                                │
│Food Decay will ruin half of the available food the County has.  When       │
│coupled with the Call Storm Spell, you can literally tear a County apart.   │
│The Food Decay is powerful because it can change the strategy of a County   │
│and severly limit the options that the County can do.  If you destroy all of│
│its food then it can't build a large military force against you without     │
│first supplying food and money for it.  If you can cause enough damage to   │
│start hurting the County's people, then you've done a good job.             │
│                                                                            │
│Disease                                                                     │
│    Disease - Death Spell                                                   │
│    This Spell brings about a plague throughout an opposing County.  The    │
│    plague spreads throughout the County, killing a portion of your target's│
│    work force before a cure is found.  Each plague is unique, disallowing  │
│    the possibility of medical vaccines or other protection.                │
│The Disease Spell will kill 5% of the County's population.  This can cause  │
│massive damage to the County if you've upset the balance of labor and the   │
│County is not producing enough food or Silver to pay its maintenance.       │
│However, by killing people you are lowering the County's population density │
│and are therefore allowing the County to gain people back.  That is         │
│something to keep in mind before casting the Disease Spell.  You can cast   │
│this as many times as you have Runes because of the nature of the Spell.    │
│                                                                            │
│Black Wind - Registered Only                                                │
│    Black Wind - Death Spell                                                │
│    Powerful and long-lasting, this Spell places an eerie black wind        │
│    circling your target for up to 3 years.  As long as this wind blows     │
│    through the empire, it has a negative effect on the total populace,     │
│    reducing the maximum people in a County by up to 20%.  This is most     │
│    effective against empires expanding to incorporate additional workers.  │
│After casting a Disease Spell against a County, be sure to cast the Black   │
│Wind Spell as this will lengthen the amount of time it takes for that       │
│County to recover.  The Black Wind Spell will last for 3 years but can be   │
│disSpelled with the Falcon's Blessing.                                      │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Chaos Spells                                                                │
│    The Book of Chaos - Little is known about the nature of the Book of     │
│    Chaos, except that the Spells tend to be aimed at creating uncertain    │
│    from certain, abnormal from normal.  The Spells are diverse, serving    │
│    both to help your own County and harm opposing ones.  While they tend   │
│    to be not as powerful as other Spells, Chaos Spells are fairly easily   │
│    cast and produce a higher success rate.                                 │
│    Spells: Flaming Arrow, Create Fear, Drain Magic, Silver to Ashes,       │
│                *Invisible Magic*                                           │
│The Chaos Spells are not Spells that I place on the top of my list.  The    │
│Chaos Spells have only 2 Spells that I use anyway, so that lowers the       │
│priority of it.  If you use Bowmen however, then it would be a good book to │
│learn.                                                                      │
│                                                                            │
│Flaming Arrow                                                               │
│    Flaming Arrow - Chaos Spell                                             │
│    Magically engulfing every bowman's arrow in flames, this Spell boosts   │
│    the potential of your Bowmen's offensive skills.  The flames last for   │
│    several months before burning out.                                      │
│The Flaming Arrow will last for two years before burning out.  It is only   │
│good if you have a lot of Bowmen since that is what the Spell is expressely │
│designed for.  It is useless if you have a small amount of Bowmen.          │
│                                                                            │
│Create Fear                                                                 │
│    Create Fear - Chaos Spell                                               │
│    When people are confident in their County, Approval Ratings naturally   │
│    increase.  However, when the opposite is true - when the people are     │
│    filled with fear - they lose confidence.  This Spell plays upon that    │
│    fact by bringing a sense of fear to an opponent's people, lowering their│
│    support of their leaders.                                               │
│A Spell that lowers the Approval Rating of another County is definately good│
│and that is what the Create Fear Spell does.  This Spell can be cast more   │
│than once because it has an immediate affect.  It lowers their rating which │
│can cause emigration, a goal of your attack.  Since emigrations weaken the  │
│County, it is nice when you can make that happen to another County.         │
│                                                                            │
│Drain Magic                                                                 │
│    Drain Magic - Chaos Spell                                               │
│    Using your own magical power, Drain Magic calls upon the forces of      │
│    darkness to destroy an opponent's Runes.  It is the most evil of Spells │
│    as it calls upon magic to destroy magic; however, because of its        │
│    effectiveness, it is also widely accepted.                              │
│Able to destroy 25% of a County's Runes at once, it is nothing to glance at.│
│If you can destroy the County's Runes then you are able to reduce the       │
│chances of getting attacked back by the County.  In order to personally     │
│avoid having this happen, I always spend all of my Runes before I'm done    │
│for the year.                                                               │
│                                                                            │
│Silver to Ashes                                                             │
│    Silver to Ashes - Chaos Spell                                           │
│    A sudden flash of smoke, and a portion of your target's Silver reserves │
│    will no longer exist.  In its place will lie a pile of ashes.  That is  │
│    the power of the Silver to Ashes Spell.                                 │
│The Silver to Ashes will convert 25% of a County's Silver to ashes.  This is│
│good because it reduces another spot the County could have been counting on │
│in time of need, plus it's just nice to have a poor enemy instead of a rich │
│one.                                                                        │
│                                                                            │
│Invisible Magic - Registered Only                                           │
│    Invisible Magic - Chaos Spell                                           │
│    In general, when a Spell is cast upon another County and fails, that    │
│    County learns of your fizzled attempt.  However, with Invisible Magic,  │
│    the target County will learn only that a Spell was cast, but not whom   │
│    it was cast by.  The Invisible Magic Spell is an enchantment which will │
│    last for several months before losing its effectiveness.                │
│A good Spell, the Invisible Magic allows you to hide while still weakening  │
│a more powerful enemy.  This is good because then the enemy County won't    │
│know which County to attack unless he/she casts a Wizard's Eye on each      │
│County to see who has the Invisible Magic cast.  I like this Spell, but I   │
│wouldn't chose this book of Spells just for this one Spell.                 │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The following chart lists all of the Spells, their corresponding key, book,
if it helps your County or hurts another, the base amount of Runes, and the
Score received when it is successfuly cast.  Keep in mind that you don't
receive any Score if the Spell fails.
╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│Key Spell               Book     Type    Starting Runes  Score│
│1)  Wizard's Eye       All      Benefit        100          0 │
│4)  Sword Strike       Sorcery  Benefit        200        700 │
│5)  Capture People     Sorcery  Attack        1500       1600 │
│6)  Capture Silver     Sorcery  Attack        1500       1200 │
│7)  Curse              Sorcery  Attack        1500       1200 │
│A)  Create Calm        Nature   Benefit        300        600 │
│B)  Create Food        Nature   Benefit        500        500 │
│C)  Call Storm         Nature   Attack        1000       1000 │
│D)  Earthquake         Nature   Attack        2000       1500 │
│G)  Protection         Life     Benefit        100        500 │
│H)  Create Confidence  Life     Benefit        500        800 │
│I)  Falcon's Blessing  Life     Benefit       1200        500 │
│J)  Aura of Majesty    Life     Benefit       1000       1200 │
│M)  Create Anger       Death    Attack         300        500 │
│O)  Food Decay         Death    Attack         400        800 │
│P)  Disease            Death    Attack        1000       1200 │
│Q)  Black Wind         Death    Attack        1600       1200 │
│U)  Flaming Wind       Chaos    Benefit        200        400 │
│V)  Create Fear        Chaos    Attack         500        700 │
│W)  Drain Magic        Chaos    Attack         600       1200 │
│X)  Silver To Ashes    Chaos    Attack        1000        800 │
│Y)  Invisible Magic    Chaos    Benefit       1600        900 │
╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                             The Commerce Menu                             │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
─────────[Commerce]───────────
(1)Trade with other Counties
(2)Visit the Market
(3)Place Goods on Market
(0)Quit
──────────────────────────────
(1)Trade with other Counties
This will allow you to give resources to your allies or anyone else in need.
You can also trade military units too, but their quality rating will go down.
You won't be able to trade with a County that your people dislike.  If this
happens you'll need to find a way to make your people like that County, or
perhaps there is another County that is willing to let your goods flow
through it, for a percentage of course.
(2)Visit the Market
Here you can visit the national market and purchase unlimited amounts of one
of the following resources: Bushels of Food, Stone Blocks, Weapons, or Runes.
If another County is selling goods then an asterick will be placed in front
of the price to let you know there is a limited quantity of that resource at
that particular price.  If purchase all of the resources, then the next
lowest price will be shown with a limited number of resources at that price
too.  Eventually the national market's prices will be shown and you can
purchase an unlimited number of those.
(3)Place Goods on Market
Allowing you to place you own goods on the market, this option is a good way
to make some money if you have extra goods.  You must sell every item for one
gold minimum, and a maximum of whatever you want.  However, your goods won't
be sold first unless they're the lowest pricest.  An advisor will assist you
in finding that information.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                          The Foreign Affairs Menu                         │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
(1) Peace Treaty            (A) View Relations
(2) Free Trade Pact         (B) View Popular Relations
(3) Cultural Alliance       (C) Cancel Proposal
(4) Protectorate            (/) Relations Advice
(5) Military Alliance       (-) Treaty Help
(6) Non-Intervention Pact   (?) Help
(8) Denounce a County       (0) Quit
(9) Declaration of War
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
(1)Peace Treaty
    Peace Treaty - The Peace Treaty serves primarily as a transitional
    treaty.  If two nations are at war, Peace must be agreed to before any
    other treaty may be established.  Beyond this, it serves little
    purpose.  A County may have an unlimited number of peace treaties in
    effect at any given time.
The peace treaty's purpose is to officially declare a war between two
counties over.  Until peace is agreed nothing else can be proposed.  Other
than that they are totally useless.

(2)Free Trade Pact
    Free Trade Pact - Free trade is crucial to building economies.  They
    lower wages which must be paid to workers.  However, if one of the two
    economies is notably larger than the other, only the larger one
    benefits.  Lower wages naturally create a dislike between the people
    of the two empires, and an imbalance in economic size may lead to loss
    of Approval Rating for the larger County.  A County may only have 3
    of these agreements at one time.
I have tried to see how much the free trade pacts will lower the wages, and
haven't had much success.  I've suspended further testing so that I can
release this Strategy Guide in a timely manner.  With what I've tested so far
the wages are lowered 6 Silver, however there are probably other variables
that I've not accounted for in my testing.  The free trade pacts however will
lower your wages, which is good, the only problem is that they create a rift
between the two allied counties.

(3)Cultural Alliance
    Cultural Alliance - By bringing together the people of two different
    areas, Public support between the two counties grows.  By creating
    Cultural Alliances, counties are able to bring together people, no matter
    what their past relations.  However, often this transition takes time.  A
    County may have up to 3 of these agreements at one time.
Cultural alliances are really good for improving the people's relations with
each other.  As they forget their past differences they begin to respect each
other and eventually have Powerful Respect for the other, which is better
than Extreme Hatred.  Be sure that as soon as your counties' people both like
each other that you propose a different agreement since you are limited to
only 3 at one time.

(4)Protectorate
    Protectorate - By offering to be a Protector, you are volunteering
    20% of your defenses to assist the Protectorate (your partner) when
    attacked.  In exchange, your partner will pay 10% of his monthly income
    to you.  In the Protector-Protectorate relationship, popular relations
    tend to polarize; if the people of two counties dislike each other, they
    will probably move towards greater dislike, and vice-versa.  At any
    given time, you may only have a total of 1 protector/protectorate
    treaty.
I've proposed numerous protectorate treaties, but they Protectorate to be
never receives the proposal.  Hopefully Mehul Patel will fix this in future
versions of FE, until then I can not comment on the effects of this treaty.

(5)Military Alliance
    Military Alliance - The Military Alliance is an agreement in which
    if either you or your partner is attacked, the other will assist in
    defense by providing 20% of his military force.  Note that popular
    relations between two counties tend to polarize.  If the people of the
    two counties like each other, relations will tend to improve and vice-
    versa.  A County may have up to 2 of these pacts at any time.
A good treaty to propose after your cultural alliance, the military alliance
bonds your two armies together and allows a portion of your forces to defend
his County.  This benefits both him, and when you're attacked it will benefit
you.

(6)Non-Intervention Pact
    Non-Intervention Pact - The Non-Intervention Pact is a statement
    declaring that the two counties will, under no circumstances, combat each
    other.  This pact overrides any Military Alliance two counties may have.
    If a County is supposed to come to the aid to defend another, but has
    this pact with the agressor, no aid will be given.  A County may have
    an unlimited number of these pacts.
Personally I've never proposed any treaties of this type, I haven't found a
reason to do so, and until I do I would rather have a different treaty with
a County.

(8)Denounce a County
    Denounce a County - Coming out and Publically criticizing a County
    affects what every other County's people think of both them and you.
    Counties that have good popular relations with yours tend to dislike the
    other County and trust you more, especially if they already disliked the
    target.  However, the opposite may be true in counties that do not
    like your people.  In general, this is an effective method of hurting
    an opponent, but it may hurt your own progress as well.  You may
    denounce 1 County per year.
A way to hurt another County's popularity, the denounce a County option isn't
a treaty, but instead is a Public statement against a County.  Useful for the
Orcs if you need popularity, the denounce a County is a weapon that you
should use wisely as it can only be used once per year.

(9)Declaration Of War
    Declaration of War - A Declaration of War is a Public statement
    declaring all relations with a given County to be void.  Depending on
    previous popular relations, it can affect both counties' Approval Ratings
    and Public relations.  War must be declared before a County is allowed
    to attack another.
Before you can attack someone you must officially declare way.  Be careful
about doing this, because your Approval Rating can drop dramatically if your
people like that County; if they hate that County then your Approval Rating
will rise.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                          The Communications Menu                          │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
──────[Messages]─────
(1) Read Messages
(2) Write Messages
(0) Quit
─────────────────────
(1) Read Messages
By choosing number 1, you are going to be able to read any and all messages
written to either you or that are marked public.  This is useful is you
didn't read them all when you first started.

(2) Write Messages
Here you can write a message to anyone in your nation.  If you would like to
write to another nation, then you will have to visit the InterNational Menu
and do it from there.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                                The War Room                               │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
────[War Objectives]───
(1) Capture Land
(2) Capture People
(3) Capture Resources
(?) Help
(0) Quit
───────────────────────
(1)Capture Land
  Capture Land - Land is an essential resource for any County.  Land
    provides terrority for constructing various buildings and housing
    projects.  This attack option allows you to fight to capture enemy lands
    as your own, destroying their construction works in the process.
Definately my favorite, and probably the best overall attack, the Capture
Land Spell will take 10% of the County's acres from that County and add that
land to your County.  This is really good because you will gain more people
since you've lowered your population density.  Even though it mentions that
you will destroy the improvement the County is working on, in my testing I've
not found this to be the case, it doesn't even affect the number of months
left on the improvement.

(2)Capture People
  Capture People - People are the heart of any empire.  Without them, your
    County would be nothing more than barren lands.  Without them, you'd have
    no one to work and support the County.  By selecting this option, you can
    set up an attack to capture your enemy's people and put them to work in
    your own County.  Initially, these new workers won't approve of your
    actions, but slowly they will learn to adapt and become normal citizens
    in your County.
I don't like attacking to capture people unless I have enough land to hold
them.  If you have an higher population density than normal, and you capture
a lot of people then the people are going to emigrate because the density is
too high.  Thus rendering your attack useless, except that it will upset the
balance of labor in that County by capturing 10% of the labor force.

(3)Capture Resources
  Capture Resources - Counties tend to stock up on supplies such as Silver,
    Food, Weapons, Stone Blocks, and Runes for future use.  This option
    allows you to raid their stores and capture these essential resources.
    While you're unable to do long term permanent damage, it may boost your
    own County to a greater future.
Perhaps the most useless attack of all, the capture resources allows you to
capture 15% of each type of resource.  It is really useful only if the County
has a large number of resources.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                              The Council Room                             │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
─────[Council Room]─────
(A) State of the County
(B) Budget Office
(C) Sec. of Agriculture
(D) Sec. of Labor
(E) Improvements
(F) Foreign Affairs
(G) Mystic Square
(H) Research Status
(I) Sec. of War
(0) Quit
────────────────────────
(A) State of the County
This screen will tell you three main topics: items about your people, your
inventory, and your total military strength.  It will also tell you if your
approval is expected to rise, or fall and by how much.

(B) Budget Office
This will give you information on your financial matters by showing your
current treasury, production, and the result of that.  It will also give you
a breakdown of your maintenance, and tell you if you will have a net loss or
gain next month.

(C) Sec. of Agriculture
The Secretary of Agriculture will tell you your current food stores, food
production, and the total food stores.  He/she will also show your how your
food consumption is being consumed.  He/she also can tell you if your going
to make enough food to pay your expenses next month, and how by how much.

(D) Sec. of Labor
The Labor Department is useful because you can compare which labor type is
more productive than another; it will also show you the total units produced
by each labor type.

(E) Improvements
The Improvements' Report displays the improvements that you've built and how
many months you have left on the current report that your building.

(F) Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs gives you a listing of every nation and if your relations
are going to improve next month.

(G) Mystic Square
The Mystic Square will list all of the Spells that are currently affecting
your County and how many months until they expire.

(H) Research Status
The Science Department will show you how your Scientists are coming along in
each of their research areas.

(I) Sec. of War
The Secretary of War will tell you where you military is, and the total of
each military unit.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                          The International Room                           │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
────────────────[International Room]────────────────
(1) View Rankings            (8) Send Message
(2) View Relations           (9) Go to War
(3) View Defense Strategies  (L) List of Nations
(5) Cast Some Magic          (T) Travel Times
(6) Send Trade Deal          (0) Quit
────────────────────────────────────────────────────
(1) View Rankings
View Rankings will rank your nation and individual counties by 8 different
criteria such as: total score, net worth, and land.  This is useful for
finding a nation to attack, or an ally to propose to.

(2) View Relations
This will tell you what nations you're friends or enemies with.  It will also
tell you if you're at peace with them or just don't have any relations with
them at all.

(3) View Defense Strategies
Your President sets your defense strategies which are used for group attacks.
I usually set mine to High, High.

(5) Cast Some Magic
This will allow you to cast some International Spells.  Notice that the
Spells that you can cast in your Mystic Square are not all available to be
cast here.  However the effects of Spells are the same.

(6) Send Trade Deal
Here you can send items to your allies in other nations in order to share your
wealth.  The trade deal will be automatically accepted on the other end, and
you can not demand anything from them in return.  So be sure that if your
trading with someone that you've made previous arrangements.

(8) Send Message
You can send International Messages in four different types.  You can send
them Public, to multiple nations, to everyone in the world, or just to another
nation's national President.

(9) Go to War
Ah, a good part of the International Operations is attacking other counties
and taking their resources, people, or land.  There are three different types
of attacks for International attacks.  They are as follows:

    Individual Attack
        Individual Attack - The Individual attack is the most efficient way
        of attacking an enemy.  After selecting the military to send, your
        attack will immediately be sent on its way to the opposing target.  In
        addition, you are able to capture more from your opponent than would a
        group attack.
An individual attack will give you 30% of the County's land, 15% of the
County's people, and 20% of the County's resources.

    Start Group Attack
        Start Group Attack - The Group Attack is a second alternative to the
        individual attack.  It allows multiple counties to join out in
        attacking the opponent, which may be either an entire nation or a
        single County.  The disadvantage is that amount that can be captured
        from the opponent is less than an individual attack.
A group attack will capture 10% of the nation/County's land, about 10% of
their people, and 15% of their resources.  It doesn't matter if the group
attack is against the entire nation or just one County, each County will lose
the above amount of whatever your goal is.

    Join Group Attack
        Join Group Attack - This option allows you to add your forces to a
        group attack started at an earlier time.
The real purpose of a group attack is to involve other counties, and this is
where they can put their forces into the attack.  If you are battling against
a larger foe, many counties that are united can often bring one large County
down.  It is a simple matter of teamwork and cooperation, and that is
accomplished by joining forces here, in a group attack.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                                Technology                                 │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
───[Research Priorities]───
Military                 0%
Food Production          0%
Maintenance Costs        0%
Magic Power              0%
Alchemy                  0%
Construction             0%
───────────────────────────
Military
Here you may change how effective your military strength is, good for fooling
the enemy into thinking that you aren't as powerful as you really are because
he/she/they can only see your networth, and military.  If you've got a local
enemy though, then he/she can send a Wizard's Eye against you and see how
effective your Scientists have been.

Food Production
How much more efficient would you like your Farmers to be, change that here.

Maintenance Costs
In order to reduce your maintenance costs, simply enter the level of
concentration for this field.

Magic Power
I'm not sure exactly what this is, but I'd bet money that it affects your
Druids' production of Runes.

Alchemy
This is for your Alchemists, if you don't have any Alchemists then this would
be completely useless to you.

Construction
Improves how many Stone Blocks each Builder can produce.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                             Private Chambers                              │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
─────[Private Chambers]─────
(#) Abdicate
(1) Auto-Pay Maintenance  No
(2) See Scores
(3) See Today's News
(4) See Yesterday's News
(G) Game Setup
(H) Help Database
(I) Instructions
(M) Create Macros
(-) Vote for President
(0) Quit
────────────────────────────
(#) Abdicate
Abdicate: To relinquish an office, power, or right (Webster).  That basically
sums up what this option does.  It is suicide and there is no way to bring
you back from the dead.  FE will ask for confirmation on your selection, but
then you're dead.

(1) Auto-Pay Maintenance
I always change this option to a Yes.  I can not imagine why you would not
want it to be that way.  Enabling this option will cause FE to automatically
deduct from your resources the amount necessary to pay maintenance for one
month, much the same way that automatic Bank payments are completed.  If
there aren't enough resources to pay your maintenance, then Auto-Pay will be
disabled for that month.  Once your current expenses have been payed off it
will be re-enabled.

(2) See Scores
Lists the Names, acres of land, Score, and Networth of all counties in your
nation.  Nice for planning alliances or attacks.  Also if you watch the score
closely you can find who is casting Spells upon you, even if they've cast
Invisible Magic.

(3) See Today's News
Simply scrolls Today's News across the screen.

(4) See Yesterday's News
Displays the news from yesterday.

(G) Game Setup
This is interesting because you can see how the major points of the game are
setup.  Of course not everything is listed but everything important is.

(H) Help Database
A friendly online help, the database is quite knowledge about facts, but
doesn't provide much in the way of strategy.  The database is divided into
groups by topic.

(I) Instructions
Starts the process of listing the author's instructions for FE.  Quite a
lengthy file, I recommend reading it once you are familiar with the major
aspects of the game, as it will be more meaningful after having some
experience.  It does allow you to stop reading after every page though.

(M) Create Macros
Can you imagine how nice it would be to play one turn in two key strokes, and
do virtually unlimited things?  That is the purpose of a macro.  For instance
I have made Control-D go to the Labor Menu and hire all available workers as
Blacksmiths, and then proceed to the City Improvements menu to purchase all
the land that I can afford.  Finally it takes another turn.  Not too bad for
only two keys, huh?

(-) Vote for President
Obviously this won't vote for the President of the United States, but it will
cast your vote for President of your nation.  The votes are tabulated daily,
so if you change your mind the results will come back the next day.  The
President doesn't have any perks, but he/she can decide on your national
defense strategies, and other such things.  He/She is generally considered to
be one of the most level-headed, politically minded players that your nation
has, as those are the tasks that he/she must fulfill.


╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                           Miscellaneous Topics                            │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
------------------------Networth and Maintenance Chart-----------------------
This chart explains many different things and how they are related.
Hopefully this will answer some questions on how much different items are
worth and what it costs to maintain them.
╒══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│Name          Networth   Silver / Unit   Attack/Defense Food Per Unit │
│Peasants       2.000          0.20            2/2        0.025        │
│Swordsmen      6.000          0.60            6/3        0.025        │
│Bowmen         6.000          0.60            3/5        0.025        │
│Knights       10.000          1.00            8/6        0.025        │
│Special Units Unit Cost  1/10 / Unit Cost                0.025        │
│                                                                      │
│Person         4.000          0.00                       8.000        │
│Acre of Land   4.000          0.00       ┌───══ Not Applicable ══───┐ │
│Weapon          .010          0.02       │                          │ │
│Stone Block     .010          0.02       │                          │ │
│Rune            .010          0.02       │                          │ │
│Silver          .001          0.00       │                          │ │
│Food            .001          0.00       └───────────»  «───────────┘ │
╘══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛

------------------------------Popular Relations------------------------------
One question you may have as you play is what causes popular relations to
rise or fall.  Here is a list of the factors that can affect relations
between the people of two counties:
  1) Humans are skillful in maintaining positive relations with other
     counties.
  2) Orcs naturally tend to have trouble maintaining good relations.
  3) Relations tend to balance out.  If A's people like B's people more than
     B's like A, the two will move toward each other until they balance.
  4) Larger counties tend to have inherent problems, as their people begin
     to look at others as weak or uncivilized.
  5) Treaties are the best way to maintain good relations.  By being at war
     with another County, your people will think negatively of them.  Peace
     helps to remove any anger between two groups of people.  Various
     alliances tend to benefit relations, bringing two counties closer
     together.
  6) If a County rejects your trade deal, your people will feel some
     resentment toward their County.

-------------------------------Approval Rating-------------------------------
It is critical to the success of your County to maintain a strong approval
rating with the people.  A higher Approval Rating increases the number of
people willing to live in your County, so a strong rating gives you a larger
potential labor pool.  Sometimes, it may be difficult to gauge why your
approval rises or falls; here are the factors that affect your rating:
  1) Pride helps to increase approval of the County.  A strong month of
     growth helps to raise your ratings, while a loss in networth may hurt
     approval.  In times of crisis, however, you may find that your approval
     jumps as your people rally behind their leader.
  2) The people of Falcon's Eye tend to be neither cynical nor trusting.
     Approval tends to naturally move towards the 50% mark.
  3) Larger counties tend to be more demanding of their leaders and naturally
     will have lower approval.
  4) Overcrowding tends to decrease approval.  This is a self-correcting
     problem, as higher approval leads to higher population (overcrowding)
     which will come back and lower approval.
  5) Your diplomatic relations are the single most powerful determinant of
     Approval Ratings.  Being allied with counties your people dislike, or
     being enemies with friends of your people, hurts your popularity.
     Similiarly, being enemies with your people's enemies tends to help
     your ratings.
  6) Having trade deals rejected lowers your Approval Rating, as your people
     see you as having made a bad deal.
If you've controlled all of these factors and still your Approval Rating is
falling perhaps the best thing to do is just wait it out.  You will lose some
people but then they will start coming back.  If you have a Black Wind
floating around your County then you need to cast the Falcon's Blessing and
get rid of it.

----------------------------Definitions for Combat---------------------------
There are some terms used in the military aspect of the game which you should
understand:

  Quality Rating - The quality rating of your army.  This value helps
    determine how effectively your troops can fight.  When military is used
    in combat or traded in trade deals, their quality rating drops.  Quality
    naturally rises as troops remain at home.  Therefore, it is wise to wait
    between attacks, giving your forces time to recover from their last
    battle.
  Resistance - Resistance is a measure of the ability of an army or unit to
    survive.  An army with a strong resistance means they are difficult to
    kill.  A unit with a strong resistance will survive through many more
    battles than one with a lower resistance value.
  Attack - Attack ability is a measure of the ability of an army or unit to
    damage an opposing army.  An army with a strong attack value means it is
    effective at killing opponents.
  Offense - Being the offensive army refers to the army that is actually
    attacking the opponent away from his/her own lands.
  Defense - Being the defensive army refers to the army that is standing
    on his/her own ground defending a County.

In war, there are many benefits given by magic or building improvements that
refer to the different definitions above.  In war, a strong resistance means
that an army is going to take less damage overall; a strong attack value is
necessary, however, to kill an opposing army.

-----------------------------The Falcon's Eye--------------------------------
The Falcon's Eye is a glass eye from a famous sculpture of a falcon.  Each
year, it is awarded to the most popular County in the game, based upon how
each County's people look upon that County.  In order to be awarded this
honor, you must, through relations management, work to give your County's
people positive relations with other counties throughout the game.  While
you have the Falcon's Eye, you gain the following benefits:

        100% success on the Wizard's Eye Spell
        Each month, your Approval Rating will rise
        All workers have 10% higher productivity
        Scientists work at an additional 30% higher productivity

However, having the Falcon's Eye makes others jealous of your people, causing
popular relations with your County to slowly drop.  This has the added benefit
of causing the Falcon's Eye to circulate.

--------------------------------Yearly Events--------------------------------
Random events occur every year that aid various aspects of your County or
nation.  There are two different events that would benefit one item.  In the
first example "Merchant Bonus" either the strong economy or agressive buying
would improve the Merchants productivity.  The following is a complete list:
Merchant Bonus
 A strong economy helps boost merchant sales this year!
 Agressive buying spurs stronger merchant productivity for the year.

Blacksmith Bonus
 Rare iron discoveries increase Blacksmith productivity for the year!
 Fasicnating new metals boost the productivity of Blacksmiths for the year!

Farmer Bonus
 Splendid weather during the growing season has helped increase farmer
   output!
 New farm equipment helps farming everywhere!

Druid Bonus
 Mystic forces have blanketed the nation, improving Druid capabilities for
   the year!
 This year, the Year of the Mystic, provides boosted Druid capabilities!

Approval Bonus
 Travelling fairs throughout the nation have helped to raise confidence in
   governments!
 Declared the Year Of Trust, people are forgetting past anger and coming out
   to support their leaders!

Relations Bonus
 A national festival this year should bring people closer together, improving
 relations!  The country has a vast celebration, allowing people to forget
 some of their past differences!

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                        List Of Run-Time Errors                            │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
Here is a list of FE's run-time error codes and what can be done about them.
ALWAYS check PROBLEMS.LOG to see if it has any info on the problem.  This file
will be located in your FE directory.

2 - File not found
    Check the RESOURCE.DAT and other configuration files to make sure
    that all the files exist (check for misspelled directory names too).
3 - Path not found
    Make sure (in the configuration files) that all the directory names
    are right.  This is reported when FE tries to write a file to a
    directory that does not exist, or if the filename is invalid.
4 - Too many open files
    Try increasing the FILES= statement in your CONFIG.SYS file.  If this
    problem persists, it may be a bug.  (FE Betas 1, 2, and 3 had a bug
    of this nature.)
5 - File access denied
    Be sure none of your FE data files are marked "read only".  Also,
    when specifying score and news files in RESOURCE.DAT be sure you
    put a file NAME, not just a directory.
6 - Invalid file handle
    This should never occur.  It means DOS is badly corrupted; check
    for viruses and run CHKDSK (SCANDISK) on your hard disk.
100-Disk read error
    This usually indicates either a bug in the game or a bad inbound
    IP game packet.
101-Disk write error
    This usually means the disk is full.
102-File not assigned
    This should not occur -- please report it as a bug.
103-File not open
    This should not occur -- please report it as a bug.
104-File not open for input
    This should not occur -- please report it as a bug.
105-File not open for output
    This should not occur -- please report it as a bug.
106-Invalid numeric format.
    This usually means that in one of your configuation files, you have
    put text instead of a number.  The most common place this occurs is
    in the node list -- if you have an extra blank line somewhere, FE
    will read the blank line as the BBS name and then the BBS name as
    the BBS number, and the name is not a number, so this error occurs.
    Check all the configuration text files to make sure it matches the
    format required by FE.
=============================================================================
The following errors indicate a problem with your hardware, and not with FE.
150-Disk is write protected
    This means that the disk that FE is trying to write to is write
    protected and the write protection needs to be taken off.
151-Unknown unit
152-Drive not ready
    The drive is not ready.  This may just be a one-time problem, but if it
    happens more than once, check your cables that are connecting the
    drive to other parts of the system. It might be happening because
    the computer is tired and needs to be turned off for a minute.
153-Unknown command
154-CRC error in data
    This means that the file that FE is trying to read from has a CRC error.
    Try running ScanDisk if you are using DOS 6.0+.
155-Bad drive request structure length
156-Disk seek error
157-Unknown media type
    The media type on your drive is unknown.  If you are using a non-IBM
    compatible then this might come up, or it the media byte may be
    corrupted.  If you are using DOS 6.0+ try running ScanDisk.
158-Sector not found
    This is a problem with your hard-drive.  If you are running DOS 6.0+ try
    running ScanDisk to try to fix the problem.
159-Printer out of paper
    Try putting some more paper in your printer, or push your tray in because
    it may be ajar.
160-Device write fault
    For some reason FE can't write to the device it is trying to write to.
    If this is the hard-drive and you are using DOS 6.0+ try running
    ScanDisk.  If it is not your hard drive, you will have to figure out what
    the device is and why FE can't write to it.  (Check your modem cords)
161-Device read fault
    For some reason FE can't read from the device it is trying to read from.
    If this is the hard drive and you are using DOS 6.0+ try running
    ScanDisk.  If it is not your hard drive, you will have to figure out what
    the device is and why FE can't read from it.  (Check your modem cords)
162-Hardware failure
    This means that somewhere along the line you have a hardware failure.
    Good luck!
=============================================================================
200-Division by zero
    Please report this as a bug.
201-Range check error
    This can happen when your players' empires get larger than what FE
    can handle.  It can also occur when corrupt IP packets arrive.  This
    is the main "the numbers are too big" error.  If you have run FE
    PLANETARY, and this occurs, to salvage your game, delete the inbound
    packets.  :(
202-Stack overflow error
    Please report this as a bug.
203-Heap overflow error
    This indicates that the system has run out of conventional memory.
    FE does not use EMS or XMS for data; it _can_ use EMS for swapping
    the program out, but empire data is stored in conventional memory.
    Try removing some device drivers or TSRs; also, check your BBS software
    to see if it can swap itself out before running door games.
204-Invalid pointer operation
    This should never occur - please report it as a bug.
205-Floating point overflow
    This rarely occurs, but if it does, it means numbers are too big
    for the game (or the math chip) to handle.  This also is caused by
    huge empires.
206-Floating point underflow
    This should never occur.  Report it as a bug.
207-Invalid floating point operation
    This means that the numbers are too big for the game (or the math
    chip) to handle.  This is also caused by huge empires.
╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                    How to deal with Bugs and Problems                     │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛
Q: I can't figure out why I keep getting an error, what should I do?
A: First try replacing the GAME.DAT in the FE GAME directory ([Path to game
   directory\GAME\) with the GAME.DAT in the BACKUP directory ([Path to game
   directory\BACKUP\).  If this doesn't work write a message in SRGAMES for
   some help, or write to Mehul Patel or Justin Verduyn.  (see end of guide)
   If you are SURE that nothing can be done then you will have to reset the
   game.

Q: PROBLEMS.LOG says STATUS.PAK or some other file like that is missing, what
   should I do?
A: Try replacing GAME.DAT (more detail above) with the backup GAME.DAT.

Q: Does FE have any errorlevels?
A: Yes, it has one.  1.  If the game exits any time it's not supposed to,
   then it exits with an errorlevel of...  Yep you guessed it... 1.

Q: Why does FE kick me back to the board if I send out a large attack?
A: Sending too many forces in one attack (or putting too much in a group
   attack at one time) will cause FE to get overloaded when it tries to
   calculate the cost of the attack. This generally happens when you have a
   large amount of land and a large army. Try sending your stuff bit by
   bit (about 20 million swords at a time) in group attacks.

Q: Why don't my attacks come back?
A: There can be several reasons for attacks not coming back.
      - MIT (Missing In Transit) FE will return your forces after a set
        amount of days if it does not receive the results of your attack.
        Often these problems are caused by poor routing, attacks to other
        continents that take too long to return, accidential deletion of
        packets, and other problems that cause packets to get misplaced.
      - PROTECTED. If FE reports back to you saying that your target was
        protected, it means that the target you sent your attack against was
        under protection and cannot be attacked. Try attacking someone that
        is out of protection (usually denoted by a score in the 10,000's)
        until your original target is out of protection.
      - TARGET NOT FOUND. If FE reports this back to you, either the County
        you sent your attack to abdicated or was killed by your teammates.
      - VERSION DIFFERENCES.  The SysOp of another BBS may not have the same
        version of FE that your SysOp does.  Sometimes this can cause errors
        resulting in lost packets, or even worse corrupt packets.  If this is
        the case make sure that your SysOp has the correct version for the
        league that you are participating in.

╒═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╕
│                         Notes & Acknowledgements                          │
╘═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╛

* This is being done for free, so if there are any grammar or spelling
  problems, I'm sorry about it, but you can live with it.

* I've written a few programs for BRE and I think that they're quality
  products.  If you would like to check them out they should be available
  on Xenophobia (701-239-9737) for download using the GUEST;GUEST account.
  Please call and look at my Bulletin Board.  The latest version of this
  Strategy Guide will also be available there too as
  FESG(Latest Major FE Version).ZIP

* Send your strategies, questions, answers to questions, basic facts that
  people should know, etc, to me at one of the following places:

  Justin Verduyn:
    SRGAMES echo
    1:2808/5 (FidoNet)
    [e-mail] (InterNet)
    Call Xenophobia at [phone] logon as GUEST;GUEST and leave a message
      for Mildred.
    US. Mail: Justin Verduyn
              2831 23rd St. S.
              Fargo, ND   58103-5805

* How to contact the author of Falcon's Eye:

   Mehul Patel:
    [e-mail] (InterNet..  Most likely to be read..)
    SRGAMES echo
    1:106/900@fidonet

* Small parts of this text are derived from Xangel's and Zarkas BRE FAQ.