This is a limited play demo version of Warlords II.
Warlords II is an eight player game of conquest and empire. Different worlds are provided as a stage for your ambitions, and as a test of your capabilities. In the quest for final victory, you will assemble vast armies, conquer and loot mighty cities, undertake perilous quests, make and break alliances, and wield magical artefacts of great power.
As a demo version, you are restricted to playing on one world, and for a maximum of 50 turns. Some pictures, such as the one displayed if you win a scenario, have been removed to save space, as has the music and speech in the demo. Additionally, saving and loading have been disabled.
2 . G E T T I N G S T A R T E D
Warlords II requires a color Macintosh capable of displaying 256 colors (8 bit), 4 Mb of RAM and running System 7 or greater. Warlords II needs 2.5 Mb of memory free to run. You can find out how much memory is free by choosing the About this Macintosh item from the Apple menu. If there isn't 2.5 Mb free before running Warlords II, then the program will not be able to run.
If there is between 2.5 Mb and 3 Mb free, then Warlords II will run, but with a smaller version of the Strategy Map in order to conserve memory.
If there is more than 3 Mb free, then music and the larger Strategy Map will be available, and the game will also run faster.
3 . S T A R T I N G T H E G A M E
Follow the instructions above for installing and starting the game. These tutorial instructions assume that you're running the demo on a 640 x 480 screen. If you're running on a 12" monitor, Color Classic, or on some Powerbooks, the windows that contain the control and stack items might be in a slightly different place, or somewhat truncated. If you're running the game on a monitor larger than 14", then the windows are also shifted around slightly, to make more efficient use of the extra screen area.
( a ) . S t a r ti n g t h e D e m o
After the intro and title screen, the first screen you see will be the game options screen. Since this is a demo version, you only get one world to play on. When you've selected your side, you can start the demo.
( b ) . Y o u r F i r st H e r o
Click on the turn number message when it appears to start your turn. On the first turn of every Warlords II game, a hero appears in your capital. A help screen appears with some info about heroes. Click on the Done button to make it go away, and then examine the hero dialog. You can rename your hero by editing the text box containing his or her name. When you’ve finished, click on the Hire button.
( c ) . P r o d u c i n g a n A r m y
After confirming the arrival of your Hero, your next job is to order the production for your city. Another help screen will pop up and explain this process. When you're ready, click on the Done button to make it go away, then examine the production screen.
Click on the army icon to choose it for production. The army icon will be highlighted, and the Current: line will show that the army will arrive in a number of turns. The details of your army are shown on the right hand side of the dialog. Click on the Done button when you have finished.
( d ) . S e l e c t i n g A r m i e s f o r M o v e m e n t
Once you’ve ordered production of a new army, it’s time to start moving the ones you already have. The help screen appears to explain how you select an army, or armies, for movement. Put away the help screen, and examine the map. On the large map you will see a castle, with an icon representing your hero standing on the castle. Move the cursor directly over the hero. It will change into a circle with a dot in the middle. This indicates that you can select the army beneath it. Click on the hero icon.
Another help screen appears to explain moving armies, which is what you will do next. Click when you have finished, and look at the screen. Your hero icon is surrounded by a moving highlight, indicating that it has been selected for movement. Looking at the small box at the bottom of the map, you can see the hero icon displayed again. It is highlighted, indicating that any movement orders will apply to that army.
Just to the right is another icon. It is greyed out and has a highlight ring that is yellow rather than white. As it stands, this army won’t be affected by any movement orders you give.
Choose the Stack command from the View menu. This brings up the Stack Dialog. You can see that your hero has a +2 hero bonus. Hit the Group All button. Now both armies are highlighted, and will move together. Notice also that the other army gets the bonus added to its strength, as it is now grouped with the Hero. Hit the OK button.
( e ) . M o v i n g Y o u r A r m i e s
With a group of armies selected, the cursor will change to a pair of walking feet as you move it over the map. Pick a destination, and click on the map to send your group there. Your group will to the point where you clicked. If it can't reach your destination in the first turn, it will remember the path, and be ready to keep moving next turn.
( f ) . Y o u r F i r s t B a t t l e
You are looking for other castles to attack. Neutral castles are grey in color, and should be attacked at any possible opportunity, in order to take them and add them to your side.
With your army sitting outside a castle, move the cursor over the grey army inside. It changes into a sword, indicating that you can attack the castle. When the cursor is a sword shape, hold down the SHIFT key. The cursor changes into a question mark. Click with mouse button. A sagacious looking advisor will appear, and advise you on the odds for the coming battle. Click on the Done button. Move the cursor back over the defender and click. The combat dialog appears, and the results are shown and announced. You should win the battle.
( g ) . Y o u r F i r s t V i c t o r y
When you take a city, you have four options, as explained in the ubiquitous help screen. Put away the screen, and then click on the Occupy button in the dialog. You now get to specify more production for your newly conquered city. Read the help screen and then click on the army type that you wish to produce.
( h ) . W h a t T o D o N e x t
First, choose the End Turn command from the Game Menu. This will bring you to Turn 2. The help screen brings up some more advice.
You can use your heroes to search ruins, by moving them over the ruin icon on the map, and then choosing Search from the Hero menu.
If you meet monsters, they might fight you, or join your side. If you find a sage, you can be given a choice between being given some information about magical items or money. The choice is yours.
( i ) . D e a l i n g w i t h C o m p u t e r P l a y e r s
Always garrison your cities with at least three armies, and try to attack with a large stack. This may mean sitting around for a little while you build up your armies.
Choose the Ruins command from the View menu to see which sites are unexplored, and take your hero exploring. Make sure you take some armies along with him when you do.
When you are ready to attack the computer’s cities, use the advisor to check things out first.
( j ) . M e s s i n g A b o u t i n B o a t s
The movement routines automatically handle the process of moving over water. Boats can be got at any coastal city, port (indicated by an anchor symbol on the map), or bridge. If you give a group a destination that is over water, the routines will first move the group to the closest of these facilities, and transform your group into a boat icon. it can now move to any other coastal city where it can disembark (or attack if you don't own the city), port or bridge.
( k ) . W i n n i n g
If you hold most of the cities, your opponents will offer to surrender. If you accept the offer, you have won. If you don’t, you will have to take every enemy city on the board to win. Good luck!
4 . P L A Y I N G T H E G A M E
The screen in Warlords II is divided into five areas. These are the Menu Bar, the Playing Map, the Strategic Map, the Action Palette and the Info Area/Stack Palette.
( a ) . U s i n g t h e P l a y i n g M a p
The playing map is where you move your armies and make them fight. The map shows a close up of the world chosen for the scenario. As you move the cursor over the map, it changes in response to different conditions or key-presses. These changes give you feedback as to what is happening, and what commands you can issue.
The possible cursors are explained below.
This is the standard cursor. It appears in dialogs and over the menu Bar. It is also used to deselect an army.
This is the army selection cursor. It appears over armies that you own. Clicking on a stack will select a group for movement, and bring up the Stack Palette. See Chapter 7 for more details.
This is the city cursor. It appears over cities. Clicking on the city is the same as issuing the Production command from the View menu, and takes you straight to the production dialog. Clicking over enemy cities takes you to the city info screen for that city.
This is the combat cursor. It appears over enemy cities and stacks that you can attack. Clicking will initiate combat.
This is peace cursor. If the diplomacy option is on, you may be prohibited by convention from attacking certain forces. The heart shaped cursor replaces the combat cursor to remind you of your diplomatic obligations. Since no peace of paper can really stop a Warlord, you can still attack. However, if you do, you will pay a heavy diplomatic price for your dastardly actions.
This is the land destination cursor. It appears when a group is selected and the cursor is over land. Clicking on the map sets a destination for the selected group.
This is the sea destination cursor. It appears when a non flying group is selected and the cursor is over sea. Clicking on the map sets a destination for the selected group.
This is scrolling cursor. It appears when you hold down the Option key. You can then move the map around for as long as the button is down.
This is the path create cursor. Holding down the Command key will bring up this cursor. Clicking will create a destination and the path to that destination, but the group will not move along that path. This allows you to check out the computer's movement decisions, without committing yourself.
This is the combat advisor cursor. If the Military Advisor option is on, then when the combat cursor is showing, holding down the shift key will change that to the advisor cursor. Clicking will then bring up the military advisor's estimate of your chances if you commit to combat.
This is the ruin cursor. It appears over ruins and temples and brings up the ruins dialog.
Balloon Help
Holding down the Control key and moving the cursor brings up Balloon Help information on just about any part of the game. You can get info on armies, cities, terrain, ruins, signposts, icons and buttons, towers and both maps to get information or reminders. You can also get help or reminder screens inside most dialogs. Just try it out to see how useful the system really is.
The Shift Key
Sometimes the cursor won't be in the right condition for a command that you wish to issue. For instance, if you have an army selected, and you move the mouse over another friendly army, the land destination cursor will appear. You may decide that you really want to select the second group instead. Holding down the shift key will cause the cursor to change to the army selection cursor, and you will then be able to select the new group.
The Command Key
The Command key brings up the path create cursor.
( b ) . Using the Strategic Map
This map shows the entire land at a reduced scale. Cities are shown by the shield of their owner, or grey shields if neutral. As the cursor moves over the Strategic Map, it changes to a magnifying glass.
Clicking on the Strategic Map will scroll the Playing Map to the square selected on the Strategic Map.
( c ) . U s i n g t h e A c t i o n P a l e t t e
The Action Palette contains a number of buttons which help you manipulate the map and your forces. The scroll pad moves the Playing Map. The center button in the scroll pad will centre the screen on the current group.
On small monitors, a smaller palette is used, with only five buttons.
The diplomacy button reports diplomatic proposals, and clicking on it will take you to the Diplomacy screen.
( d ) . T h e I n f o A r e a
The info area appears when there is no group currently selected. It shows the number of cities that you own, your wealth, your income for this turn and your current upkeep.
( e ) . T h e S t a c k P a l e t t e
The Stack Palette appears whenever a group is selected.
5 . M O V E M E N T
( a ) . G r o u p s a n d S t a c k s
A group consists either of a single army, or two or more armies that you have explicitly combined. Armies that you have grouped always move and attack together, until you explicitly separate them, or they die.
To select a group, just click on the group’s army icon on the Playing Map. A highlight will appear around the selected group. As you move the cursor away from the army, it changes into a pair of legs, indicating that you can now give a destination to the selected group, just by clicking on the map.
A stack consists of all the armies in a single square, regardless of how they are grouped. For instance, all armies in a square will defend together, regardless of their grouping. Units move and attack as groups, and defend as stacks. A maximum of eight armies may occupy each square on the map, although groups of armies may pass through each other in excess of this limit during movement.
( b ) . T h e S t a c k P a l e t t e
In the Stack Palette, at the bottom of the map, you are shown the currently selected group, plus any other groups that are in the same square. The display looks a little complex, but it has been designed so that you can manipulate groups and stacks without having to call up dialogs or clutter the screen.
The current group is shown by a green tick under the left-most army of the group. If there is more than one army in the group, they are displayed immediately to the right of the first army, and all armies in the group have background circles of the same color.
Units in the same square, but not in the current group, will have their icons greyed out. They themselves might belong to different groups, and thus might have more than one background circle color.
There are three operations that you can perform on groups; changing the current group, adding to the current group, and subtracting from the current group.
To change the current group, just click on the red cross icon of the group that you wish to make current.
To add to the current group, click on the greyed out icon of the army you wish to add. The army will be highlighted, and its background circle will change color to that of the current group.
To remove an army from the current group, click on its icon. The army will be greyed out and placed in a new non-current group of its own.
( c ) . M o v i n g A r o u n d
To be moved, a group must be selected by clicking on it, and only the currently selected group will be moved. A glance at the Stack Palette before selecting a destination will ensure that the right armies get the orders.
Once a group is selected you can use a number of techniques to move them. Most techniques involve the creation of a path. This is shown on the Playing Map as a line of hollow dots.
The arrow keys, or the numeric keypad keys, or the Q, W, E, D, C, X, Z, and A keys will also move the army one square at a time and the 5 or S keys will center the screen on the current army.
Remember the last move can always be undone, provided you haven't performed another action, or haven't exposed part of a hidden map, or conducted a combat.
( d ) . D e s e l e c t i n g G r o u p s
A group may be deselected by clicking on the deselect icon, a flag with a cross, in the Action Palette. Shortcut = Escape key.
( e ) . M o v e m e n t C o n t r o l
As your empire grows, you will have greater numbers of armies in far flung parts of the world. To keep track of these forces we strongly recommend that you use the movement control commands provided in the Action Palette.
( i ) . M o v e G r o u p
This button is only active if the current group has a path defined. Clicking on the button will cause the group to move along that path. Shortcut = END key or Command-M.
( i i ) . N e x t G r o u p
This command takes you to the next group available for movement, and selects it. You can loop through all of your armies as often as you like, giving orders until none are left capable of moving. Shortcut = Return or Enter key or Command-N.
( i i i ) . L e a v e G r o u p
This command will leave the current group out of the Next Group loop until the next turn. It is useful when a group still has movement points left, but is already positioned where you want it. When a group runs out of movement points, or does not have enough points to move, the Leave Group command is automatically issued for that group. Shortcut = Tab key or Command-L.
( i v ) . D e f e n d
This command takes a group out of the Next Group loop for this and subsequent turns, until it is selected again by clicking on the group’s icon on the map. This is very useful for garrison troops, who will not be moving, and who only clutter up the Next Group loop.
If a group is outside of a city or ruin, and it is given a defend order, and it remains stationary for one full turn, then at the start of its next turn, it will be considered to be encamped. The group's icon is replaced by a small tower, and it receives a +1 bonus in defence. Shortcut = Command-;.
( v ) . S h o w A r m y D e s t i n a t i o n
This command toggles the main map between showing the currently selected group and its destination. Shortcut = Spacebar key.
( v i ) . C a n c e l P a t h
This command cancels the current path. Shortcut = Del, Backspace or Clear key.
( v i i ) . M o u s e a n d K e y b o a r d I n f o
This command brings up a series of screens which summarise all important mouse and cursor commands, along with shortcuts and key modifiers.
( f ) . Undoing Movement
Any of the above movement commands are undoable, using the Undo command from the Edit menu. If your last command moved a group on the map, then this movement is also undoable. However, movement cannot be undone after a combat, or if the move has exposed part of a hidden map. Shortcut = Command-Z.
6 . A R M I E S
( a ) . I n t r o d u c t i o n t o A r m i e s
Armies play a very large part in Warlords II. Without them you could not take over cities, or defend yourself from your marauding opponents. There are three main types of armies; ordinary armies such as infantry and cavalry, special armies such as dragons and wizards, and heroes.
( b ) . S t a c k i n g
Up to eight armies may be in the same location at the same time. This will be indicated by the length and location of the army flags. The first four armies in a stack are indicated by the increasing length of the top flag. A fifth army is indicated by a short bottom flag, and a short top flag. Thereafter, the sixth, seventh and eighth armies of the stack are indicated by the increasing length of the top flag. Thus, stacks with four or less armies have only one flag, those with five or more have two.
Armies in a group need not be of the same type; for instance you could have one cavalry, one giant, a dragon and a hero.
( c ) . S t a c k s a n d G r o u p s
While up to eight armies may be in a single square, they are not necessarily in the same group. Check the Stack Palette or use the Stack command from the View menu to make sure of the composition of a stack.
( d ) . A c q u i r i n g A r m i e s
There are twenty eight different army types in Warlords II, and three different ways of acquiring them; production, alliance and hiring.
All cities in Warlords II start off by being able to build one or more army types. These can be produced through the production routines. You may also elect to build a production type, paying a large sum of money for the privilege, which may then be produced as normal. See Chapter 12.
Alliances are made when a hero searches a ruin, and its guardians decide that they wish to join him, rather than fight him.
Heroes in Warlords II are only available for money, apart from your first hero, who arrives free of charge. Heroes offer themselves from time to time, if you have the money for their hire. Heroes who are hired will also bring at least one special creature as an ally. See Chapter 15.
( e ) . D i s b a n d i n g A r m i e s
The Disband command from the Order menu is used for disbanding your armies and removing them from the game. Use this command when a single army or a group is selected. It is particularly useful for getting rid of excess troops, so that you no longer have to pay any upkeep for them. You can disband an unwanted Hero.
7 . A T T A C K I N G
( a ) . D e s c r i p t i o n o f A t t a c k i n g
Attacking is defined as the act of trying to physically destroy an enemy army (or stack) by moving a group into the same location as the enemy. You cannot move onto or through an enemy army, you must fight it. If you wish to attack with every army in a square, they must be in the same group, otherwise your attack order will only apply to some of the armies present. It’s probably a good idea to check the Stack Palette just before an attack.
Attacking is also the only way of capturing cities. If you attack an enemy city and all of the enemy armies are destroyed, or none were present, then you will have captured that city.
If you can attack an adjacent stack or city, the cursor will change to a sword when you move it over the enemy. Clicking on the enemy will then initiate the attack.
( b ) . S t r e n g t h P o i n t s
Each army has a number of strength points. This is an indication of how well that army fights. The minimum basic combat strength for an army is one, the maximum is nine. The Stack command from the View menu shows you the strengths of all armies in a stack. As well as their basic strengths, armies can be given bonuses in the form of extra strength points for a variety of reasons. These are shown in brackets after the basic strengths. Obviously, these can vary throughout the game, depending on what armies are in a stack.
( c ) . C o m b a t B o n u s e s
The path to victory in Warlords II lies in using combat bonuses so that armies fight at more than their basic strength. There are a number of ways of doing this. Some add to the basic strength of an army while others are conferred by other armies in the group.
( d ) . B r i e f D e s c r i p t i o n o f C o m b a t
When a combat occurs, each side lines up its armies according the order specified in the Fight Order command of the Order menu. The default is weakest armies (crossbow fodder) first. The first two armies square off, and fight till one is killed. The next army on the losing side steps into the breach, and a new fight starts. Combat always continues until one side is completely destroyed.
A few important points arise from this. It is very unlikely that the first armies in a stack will survive any but the most trivial combats. Also, if you lose a combat, you lose everyone.
The combat system favours quality of army more than it does quantity. Be warned, however, the lowliest light infantryman is capable of destroying the fiercest dragon! Just don’t count on it. The bias towards quality is somewhat reduced if you use the Intense Combat option (see Appendix B for more details).
( e ) . H o w t o W i n C o m b a t s
The key to combat in Warlords II is the combat strength bonuses. Careful application of these makes poor troops strong, and good troops stronger. However, no stack can be considered unbeatable.
The best strategy is to structure attacking stacks around heroes and special armies. Heroes can carry the various artefacts that give bonuses, and can also generate their own bonuses as they increase in experience. Special armies give a bonus to all armies in a stack, or remove bonuses from enemy stacks. These are very valuable and should be included whenever possible.
You can now fill out the stack with lesser armies, cheaper and quicker to produce, who can do the necessary dying but who will fight well because of the bonuses. You should also consider following your strong stacks with replacement stacks, containing your favourite crossbow fodder troops. These stacks do not fight, since they do not have any bonuses, but simply provide replacements for casualties in the main stack.
As the game goes on your opponents will be able to afford a better class of basic troops, and you will also have to start producing stronger troop types as the basis of your stacks.
Once players' economies are up and running, the best possible stack would look something like this; a Hero, carrying as many artefacts as possible, a Dragon to give a +2 stack bonus, a Devil to negate enemy non hero bonuses and an elephant to take -1 off the enemy stack. Round this out with tough armies that give good movement bonuses. If you are attacking an enemy stack containing a hero, an Archon, which would negate his bonuses would also be very useful.
8 . TROUBLE SHOOTING
Memory.
The first thing to do is to check that you have enough memory to run Warlords II. That is at least 4 Mb of installed RAM, with at least 2.5 Mb free before you run the game. If you don't have at least 4Mb installed, then you will not be able to run the game. If you do, your System and other software may still be taking up too much memory.
Check under the About this Macintosh item in the Apple menu in the Finder. If the figure quoted for Largest Unused Block is not greater than 2.5 Mb, then you will have to free up some more memory. You can do this by turning off various Control Panels and System Extensions that are not needed.
256 Color Graphics
Warlords II requires 256 color (or 256 gray scale) graphics to run. It cannot run in 16 colors. It can run at higher color depths, but doing this will slow the game down considerably, and the colors may not match those on 256 color screens.
System
If you aren't running System 7 or greater, Warlords II can't run.
Speed
Running the game with minimum memory will definitely cause it to slow down. If speed is a problem, try freeing up as much memory as possible. Having more than 3 Mb free will definitely improve execution speed. Examine the Read Me file for the latest on the exact memory requirements.
Also, running the game at color depths above 256 colors will also slow the game down.
System Extension Conflicts
It is literally impossible to predict the interactions of the various System Extensions, Control Panels and other software that users may be running on their Macs. If something unexplained occurs, the first thing to do is to restart the Mac with all System Extensions turned off. You do this by holding down the SHIFT key while rebooting your Mac.
(If you do turn off all System Extensions, you will turn off Quicktime, so that when the game runs, the title sequence and the music won't be able to play).
If turning off all System Extensions cures the problem, then try turning them back on by one to try and isolate which one is causing the problem.
Try another Mac
Sometimes things go wrong with floppy disks, or installations, or any one of a number of malign influences can get at your Mac. If it's possible, try installing the program on another Mac, and see if the problem is duplicated on the new Mac. This may help with diagnosis.
Reporting the Problem
This equation is very easy. The more you tell us about the problem, the easier it is to help, and the quicker the solution. When you contact SSG, please, please include the following information.
Your Computer Type - you know its a Mac, but do we? We constantly get messages of the type 'Program X crashes my computer. Help!'. Since there are now DOS and Mac versions of Warlords II, a message like that above is useless.
More About Your Computer Type - we'd like to know the model, the amount of installed RAM, the Largest Unused Block just before running Warlords II, and the version number of the System you are running. If you're using a Power Mac, are you running the native or the 680x0 version. If you're running a graphics card other than the standard Apple hardware, please let us know. Include anything else that might be out of the ordinary.
Error Messages
Please write down any error messages, and quote them fully when reporting the problem. These are the best way of diagnosing problems, so it doesn't make sense to leave information out.
General Description and Repeatability
Please include a detailed description, plus any ideas you have about how often the problem occurs, whether it's easily repeatable and if it seems to be triggered by anything in particular. If you create a save game which duplicates the problem, this may be a big help in fixing the problem. You don't have to send us the save game straight away, but do let us know if you have one.
The addresses for contacting SSG customer support are listed in the next section.
