Strategic Studies Group is an Australian company that has specialised in making strategy games for Apple computers since 1983. It is now recognised as the premier Macintosh strategy gaming company, with eight Macintosh titles released so far.
Warlords is a strategic war game, fought out by eight different players, for the domination of the Kingdom of Illuria. It can be played by one to eight people, with the computer taking the remaining positions. For example, you could have one human versus seven computer opponents, or three humans versus five computer opponents; the mix of human and computer players is up to you.
Warlords runs on all Macintosh models, including the new Quadra and Powerbook. It runs in color on all color Macs, including the 12" LC. Requires System 6.0.2 or greater or System 7. Under System 6, the B/W version requires 1 Mb Ram, and color requires 2 Mb. Under System 7, the B/W version requires 2 Mb Ram, and color requires 4Mb
N.B. In this special demo version, you play the Elvallie, with all other players controlled by the computer at its lowest level of competence. (We want you to enjoy the demo). This demo versions have had some graphics and all sound effects and music removed.
Your objectives in Warlords are brutally simple: to eliminate all organized opposition to your rule. To do this, you will have to control all eighty cities in the lands of Illuria, and thereby eliminate all seven opponents.
There are many ways to achieve this, and brute force is just one of them. You might ally with dragons or wizards, or have your Heroes search out and wield magical swords that will tip the battle in your favour. Clever military tactics or even economic warfare are possibilities too!
The Kingdom of Illuria is roughly divided into eight parts, each one controlled by one of the eight empires. The contending empires are listed below, on color Macs the sides are also identified by color.
The Sirians (White)
The Storm Giants (Yellow)
The Grey Dwarves (Orange)
The Orcs of Kor (Red)
Elvallie (Green) (In the demo, this is you).
The Selentines (Dark Blue and Yellow)
The Horse Lords (Light Blue)
Lord Bane (Black)
PLAYING THE DEMO
This Warlords demo runs in both B&W and Color. To start the demo, just double-click on the Warlords icon.
STARTING THE DEMO
The game starts with some computer players having their first turn. When they have finished, a scroll appears announcing that it is Turn 1 for the Elvallie. Click on this scroll, and a message appears announcing the arrival of a Hero. This first Hero is supplied automatically at the start of the game. Edit the name if you wish, and hit the Okay button. The Hero will be placed in your capital. The production screen will then appear.
You have a choice of three armies to produce, Heavy Infantry, Elven Archers and Pegasi, each with its own button. Click on each button to see the details on each army. You will notice that the Elven archers cost only 4 GP. The Elven Archers take only one turn to produce. These are ideal for a quick expansion of your empire. Click on the Elven Archer button and then on the Done button to order their production.
It just so happens that there is a very weak neutral castle just up the road, and your Hero could almost certainly take the place just by turning up. However, as this is a tutorial, we will be a little more cautious. Choose the End Turn command from the Game Menu.
The rest of the computer players will have their first turn, and play will proceed into the second turn. The scroll announcing your second turn will appear. When you click on this you will see the map again centred on your capital city, Elvallie. The army you instructed to produce has now been made, and has been added to the stack in Elvallie. This stack now contains two units. The little flag over your Hero icon will now be a little longer to indicate this.
There are two units in the same square, but to get them to move and attack together, the two armies needed to be grouped, like objects in a drawing program. Click on the Hero icon. A cursor will appear around the unit on the map and the unit's icon will appear in the Info Area at the top of the Playing Map. Choose the Group Stack command from the Stack Menu. You will see that both units are shown in the Info Area, meaning that they have been combined into a single group.
N.B. Double clicking on a stack will bring up the Stack Info dialog box. This allows to you to see every unit in a square along with vital info on each unit. Units can be sorted into groups by dragging them together in the dialog, and the current group chosen by clicking on its radio button. This dialog is a very useful way of maintaining precise control over your troops.
Now its time to do over the neutrals down the road. Click on the new group if it is not already selected. Position the cursor over the group. The cursor will change into a pair of feet, indicating that movement orders can be given to the selected group. Click on the group, and while holding down the mouse button, drag the group at a 45 degree angle towards the road above the castle i.e drag the unit both up and to the right.
As you drag, a shadow of the group icon will move with the cursor, indicating that you will be moving to the new location, and a series of hollow dots will appear on the map, showing the path the unit will take. Keep dragging the group along the road until it reaches the point where the road turns toward the top of the map. Release the mouse button. The group will move along the indicated path until it reaches its shadow.
It should be one square away from the gray castle, and still selected, with 4 movements points left in the Group Move value shown in the Info Area. If it isn’t adjacent to the castle with a least two points left in the group move, just end the turn, and move it to the correct position next turn, then go on with the tutorial.
You should now be in a position to attack the castle. Click on the group, and move the cursor over the castle. The cursor will change to a sword, indicating combat is possible. With the cursor over the castle, click the mouse button and the combat will start. A dialog will appear and with luck the three defenders will be killed without loss to your side. Click again to acknowledge the combat result, and if you have won, you will be placed automatically into the production dialog. There is only one choice, which is already chosen for you, so just click the Done button.
If the combat didn’t work out, just start the tutorial over again. Now that you own two castles, there are only seventy eight to go! The object early on is to grab as many neutral castles (the ones with the invitingly open drawbridge) as possible, before the other guys can. There is a cluster of three to the Northeast of the one you have just captured. Head for those straight away, and produce as many armies as quickly as you can to get the other neutral castles around the place.
MOVING ARMIES
There are number of ways of moving your armies. For all but the first method you must have selected the group already. In all cases, the group will move as soon as you have issued the command. You can prevent this by holding down the Control key (or Caps Lock key on keyboard without a Control key). If you do this, then a path will be defined, but no movement will take place.
• Drag the group around the map. A path will be traced, showing the path you want the army to move along. As soon as you release the mouse button the group will move as far it can along the path, until it runs out of movement points.
• Use the numeric keypad or arrow keys to move the group step by step. The group will move as long as it has movement points left.
• Hold down the Command key and click anywhere on the Playing Map. The computer will work out a path and the group will move as far as it can along that path.
• Hold down the Command key and click anywhere on the Overview Map. The computer will work out a path and the group will move as far as it can along that path.
• If a group is selected, the movement cursor will appear over all adjacent squares, unless a mouse click could mean something else, like production. Clicking will move the unit one square.
Movement Paths
If you move a group further than its Movement Points will allow, or hold down the Control key when you setup the movement, then a path is defined for further movement. This path will be remembered from turn to turn. Dots with a cross through them indicate those portions of the path that you cannot reach this turn.
A group can be made to move along a defined path by either clicking on the walking feet button above the Playing Map (in the Action Palette), or by selecting the “Move Current Group” item from the Stack menu.
A path can be cleared with the Cancel Path item in the Stack menu, or by the Clear key on the numeric keypad.
Deselecting Groups
To deselect a group, click anywhere on the Playing Map when the cursor is an arrow (outside a one square area around the group).
Movement Control
Remembering where all your conquering armies are, and what they were up to can be difficult. We strongly recommend that you make use of the movement control system provided. The buttons for this are found in the Action Palette, with equivalent menu items in the Stack menu.
Next Group (Arrow)
This command takes you to the next group capable of moving, and selects it. You can loop through all your units as often as you like, or until none are left capable of moving.
Leave Group (Exclamation mark)
This command will leave the current group out of the Next Group loop until the next turn. It is useful when a group is positioned where you want, and you don’t want it coming up in the Next Group loop while you move the rest of your units.
Defend (Crossed swords)
This takes a group out the Next Group loop for this and subsequent turns, until it is selected by clicking on the group’s icon on the map. This is very useful for garrison troops who are not intended to move.
Move Group (Walking feet)
If the selected group has a current path, selecting this command will cause the group to move along that path. It’s useful when you have pre-planned movement, or a group has a path from a previous turn.
ARMIES
Armies play a very large part in Warlords. 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.
Stacking
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 again of the top flag.
Stacks and Groups
While up to eight armies may be in a single square, they are not necessarily in the same group. Check the Info Screen against the flag lengths or double-click on the stack to bring up the stack info dialog.
PRODUCTION
Production is the training, recruiting and building of armies to prepare them for battle. Each city may produce one army at a time, or it may choose to produce nothing. Each of the eighty cities in the lands of Illuria has different armies that it can produce, with each army having individual statistics.
Setting production for a city is simply a matter of moving the cursor over one of your cities. The cursor will turn into a tower, and clicking will bring up the production dialog.
Once an army type has been chosen for production, you can arrange to have it transferred automatically to another of your cities as soon as it has finished building. The transfer of the army will take an additional two turns. Click on the Send To button, and then move the mouse cursor to the Overview Map. The cursor over the map will change to a pointing hand . Now click on the city you wish to send the army to. The name of the destination city will be printed as part of the current production.
ATTACKING
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. Attacking costs two movement points. You cannot attack with less than this number remaining. You cannot move onto or through an enemy army, you must fight it. If you wish to attack with every army in square, they must be in the same group, otherwise your attack order will only apply to some of the armies present.
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.
Every Army has a number of strength points. This is an indication of how well that unit fights; for example a unit of Light Infantry will generally rate about three points, Cavalry will rate about six points, while Dragons will often rate nine points.
Armies fight much better when in groups, but be warned; even four heavy infantry armies each of strength five will find it tough going against one army of dragons with nine strength points. In other words, the combat system favours quality of army more than it does quantity.
There are two distinct cases when attacking cities: enemy cities and neutral cities. Both types have defence points. These are a measure of how good the city’s defences are; e.g. how strong and high the walls are.
When attacking enemy cities, it is necessary to defeat all enemy troops within that city. Attacking any portion of a city involves all troops that are located in that city.
Neutral cities fly a grey flag and have a poorly committed garrison inside. Whenever you attack a neutral city, there is a chance that it will fall, and a chance your army will be killed. You can increase the odds in your favour by improving the quality and the number of your troops.
In general, you should be aware that combat bonuses are available for stacks which include flying armies (pegasi, griffins or dragons), special armies (undead, wizards, etc.), and heroes. Further bonuses are awarded to heroes who possess Battle or Command Artefacts. Cities and towers aid defence while certain terrain types can help (or sometimes hinder) the different army types.
Obviously, a small set of notes with a demo disk cannot hope to tell you everything you need to know about the game. We do hope that this demo gives you some idea of flavour of Warlords, and the pleasure to be found in playing the game properly.
Strategic Studies Group Macintosh Games
Reach For The Stars - A four player game of the exploration and conquest of the galaxy. Starting on just one planet, you must extend your control in cut-throat competition with three other would be space tyrants.
Halls of Montezuma - A battle history of the United States Marine Corps. MacWorld Magazine Strategy Game of the Year. The battles of Mexico City, Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Inchon, Pusan and Hue are recreated.
Rommel - The campaign in North Africa ranged over thousands of miles and many countries. One man was acknowledged as the master of desert warfare. General Irwin Rommel handled his often outnumber Afrika Korps with such skill that he became known as the Desert Fox. Rommel is your chance to match wits with the Desert Fox, or famous opponents like Patton and Montgomery.
Gold of the Americas - In Gold of the Americas, you play one of the four great colonial powers contending for control of the New World. As a representative of England, France, Spain or Portugal, you must carve out your own Empire. Fearless Explorers must map the trackless wastes, new colonies defended and trade protected. Naturally, you'll avoid as much tax as possible, and trample your competitors underfoot as you make a grab for total power.
Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume One. - The American Civil War was a military as well as a political revolution. The small forces that began the war rapidly evolved into mass armies of unparalleled power. Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume One uses a unique and powerful game system to simulate the challenges of Civil War combat. You command entire armies, like Lee or Grant, and make your own history.
Warlords - An epic eight-player fantasy/strategy game of empires, castles, armies, Heroes, monsters, dragons and mayhem. The years of peace in Illuria are over, and eight mighty empires contend for supreme power. You will need all your skills to outwit the cruel and wily opponents in struggle for total control.
Panzer Battles - Experience the ebb and flow of warfare on the Russian Front, in a series of gruelling battles that will test your skills to the limit.
Decisive Battles of the American Civil War: Volume Two - The critical battles of Gaines Mill, Stones River, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and Chatanooga are simulated in SSG's award winning Decisive Battles system.
WarPlan™ and WarPaint™
All of SSG's historical wargames include our WarPlan™ and WarPaint™ utilities. WarPlan is a wargame construction kit that allows you to alter existing scenarios or create new battles from scratch. WarPaint is SSG's complete graphics editor, and allows you to create game maps or easily alter individual game icons. The scenario included with this demo was created with these utilities, and you can do the same.
SSG publishes its own magazine called Run 5. Run 5 contains extra scenarios that can be created using WarPlan and WarPaint, game replays and reviews, hints and tips and general support for SSG games.
Recommended Retail Price for Warlords in the US is $60.00. For more information, or a free catalog of all of our Mac titles, please contact Strategic Studies Group at the following addresses.
