LSD Docs/LSD Docs.iso/FILEZ/lsd01.dms/lsd01.adf/16/16

Text File | 1990-09-06 | 41KB | 846 lines

                        THE CROWN OF ARDANIA

By THE MIDNIGHT MANIAC.  Edited by PARASITE.


INTRODUCTION
     The Crown of Ardania is a fantasy war game which combines the strategies
of Risk and other such games with the completely new aspect of MAGIC!

The game is played on a map which has 16 territories.  The object is to be
the sole ruler in the land by conquering all other opponents so that
you occupy all territories.  There can be up to four players.  Each player
takes on the role of a mage of great power who is battling to become the
King of the magical land of Ardania.  Each player commands troops in each
of the territories he or she controls.  These troops are made up of
soldiers, knights and wizards.

Soldiers are the main fighting force in Crown of Ardania (CA).  They are
average fighting men.  They have no special strengths except for their shear
number.
Knights are more powerful, skilled fighters and thus aid you in battle.  The
more knights you have in a territory the better that territory's fighting
ability.

Wizards benefit you in two ways.  First, like knights, they help you in battle.
But Secondly, and much more importantly, they generate the power (in the
form of spell points) that you use to cast your spells.  The more wizards
you have, the more spell points you will generate each turn.

In addition to troops, there are three other components to the game which are
very important: food, gold and spell points.  As mentioned above you acquire
spell points from your wizards (5 per wizard) at the beginning of each turn.

You acquire gold from your territories in the form of taxes.  The more
territories you own, the more taxes you will be able to demand from your
peasants each day.  However, the terrain of each territory also plays a part
in how much gold you will be able to get, more on this later.

Food is also produced by your territories.  The amount of food produced
depends on each territory's terrain.

STARTING A GAME
If you have not already done so, see the READ_ME_FIRST file, which should have
accompanied the game, for instructions on installing and booting Crown of
Ardania.

Once you have started CA, after a delay (while CA loads itself and all of its
data files) you will be presented with the opening screen.  There will be a
long elaborate introduction.  You can skip this introduction by pressing the
SPACE BAR at any time.

After the introduction you will see the map of Ardania appear.  The game
begins by each player entering their name.  Each person should note what color
wizard they are, so that they know which territories they own.

There can be up to four players.  If there are less than four playing, simply
press return when CA asks for the name of the next player.
With the 1MEG version you can also have the computer play any of the four
players by typing COMPUTER as the name of the player.  The Computer Player's
name will be its color, Red, Green, Blue or Purple.  There can be from 0 to 4
computer players.  If you would like to see a demo of the game, make all four
players the computer and it will play itself.  There is no computer player in
the 512K version.

After the players have entered their names,  the computer will ask if you want
to use the FAST game or NORMAL game options.  You need to click on the option
to use.

NORMAL GAME - with the NORMAL game option, each Player is randomly given one
territory at the start of the game, 40 soldiers, 8 knights, 2 wizards, 10
spell points, 100 food units and no spies.

FAST GAME - with the fast game all of the territories are randomly given to
players so that each player gets the same number.  Note that if there are
three players, there will be one empty territory leftover.  Also, a random
number of soldiers, knights, and wizards are placed on each territory.  Each
Player starts with 100 spell points, large quantity of food, and some spies.

After you have selected which type of game, if there is a computer player,
you will be asked if you want to see the computer players moves (1 MEG version
only).  If you select YES, you will see everything the computer player does
just as if it was a human player.  If you select NO you will only see the
computer player select menu options.

Not being able to see what the computer player does increases the difficulty
of the game.  It also speeds up the game quite a bit.

TERRITORIES & TERRAIN
The land of Ardania is divided into 16 territories.  Territories are IMPORTANT
You should own as many as you can at all times!  To own or occupy a territory
you need to have at least 1 soldier,knight or wizard in that territory.  If you
ever move all of your troops out of a territory (or they are all killed) that
territory will become "free".  Free territories are indicated by their brown
color.  Anyone can take a free territory by simply moving troops into it.

It should be noted here that the term TROOPS refers to all three classes of
men which you can control: soldiers, knights, and wizards.  It does NOT simply
refer to soldiers.

The terrain of each territory plays a very big factor in the game, and should
be kept in mind when playing CA.

There are four types of terrain: Flatlands, Swamps, Forests & Mountains.  Each
has its own effects, advantages and disadvantages.

FLATLANDS - There are only two territories in Ardania which are flatlands.
They are both very large and have a large population.  Therefore, each
of these territories will usually yield a large number of recruits each day.
However, the people who live here are extremely poor so you will not be able
to get much in taxes from them.  The flatlands make very good farm lands and
produce large quantities of food.  However, the flatlands are very hard to
defend!

SWAMPS - There are fewer people in the swamps so you will not get as many
recruits from here.  But they are slightly richer people. The swamps are
fairly good food producers and somewhat easier to defend than the flatlands.

FOREST - There are still fewer people in the forest territories.  But they
can make up for their lack of number with gold.  Plus the forests are fairly
easy to defend.  But, the food production is a bit lacking here.

MOUNTAINS - There are very few people in the mountains. But the few who are
there are extremely rich due to the extensive mining.  And while mountains
produce very little food, mountain passes are very easy to defend!

TURNS AND PHASES
The game of CA proceeds in a series of turns. (In the game, each Turn is
refered to as a 'day'.)  Turns are divided into two Phases: The Movement
Phase & The Action Phase.  The Movement Phase preceeds the Action Phase
in each turn.  There is a unique set of play options in each of the different
phases.  Each phase is divided into "player turns", one for each player.

During your turn, you can take as many moves as you like.  Your turn does
not end until you select DONE.  Note, there are some option which will
prematurely end your turn.  It is specifically stated in the description of
each of these options that they end your turn.

The order in which players get to take their turn in any given PHASE is
determined by the computer. Thus it is important to remember, even if
you get to go first in the movement phase, you might not go first in the
action phase!

The computer, much more often than not, will allow the LOSING player to go
first and make the winning player go last.  But DO NOT depend on this!
If some players are of ABOUT equal "strength" it is somewhat random as to
what order those players will get to take their turns.

TAXES & RECRUITS
At the start of each Movement Phase each player receives his/her taxes,
recruits, food and spell points for that day(turn) as his/her player turn
occurs.

First, you are asked how much in taxes to demand from your peasants.  Your
advisors will suggest an amount which is consistent with the wealth of the
peasants in the territories you own.  You should choose wisely here.  If
you take more than your advisors suggest, your peasants will be upset
because they are being over taxed and you will get little or NO recruits
for that day.  If you take less than what your advisors suggest, your
peasants will be overly grateful and you get more recruits for that day.
If you take exactly the suggested amount you will get a "fair" number of
recruits.  Note that the extent to which your peasants are angered or
pleased about the taxation depends upon how much over or under the
suggested amount you demand.  For example if you take only one gold piece
more than what your advisors suggest, your peasants will not be overly
angered.  However, if you take twice the amount that your advisors suggest
(the maximum you can ever ask for) your peasants will not be happy, to say
the least, and you will probably get very few recruits!

At the beginning of the phase, a scroll will appear over the map of Ardania
asking you for the amount you demand.  Type in the number of gold pieces
you demand and press return.

After you have taxed your peasants you will be told how many spell points
your wizards have generated for you this day and how much food your
territories produced. (CA will wait for you to click on continue).  Next,
you will be told how many recruits have joined your army and be asked to
which territory you wish to assign them.  You must assign your recruits to
a territory WHICH YOU ALREADY OWN.  You cannot assign them to an empty
territory.  To assign your troops simply click on the territory you wish
to place them in.

FOOD & REST
Also at the beginning of each Movement Phase you will be warned if your
troops have become overly fatigued or if you have run low on food and your
troops are starving.  You should be very aware that both of these situations
can be very serious!

FOOD
Each and every member of your army must have one food unit each day to
survive.  If you begin to run low on food and cannot feed your troops they
will begin to perish!  The worse your food situation is, the more troops
that will die from starvation.  You should keep a close eye on your food
supply!

REST
As you select options in the game, your troops become more and more
fatigued. Afterall, it is not easy running from territory to territory
fighting all types of battles.  You will be warned if your troops start
to become fatigued and if you do not take a good rest, they will eventually
become so fatigued they will begin to die! Also remember, fatigued troops
could not possibly fight as well as troops which are well rested!

MOVEMENT PHASE
During the Movement Phase there are nine options which you can select to
do.  Most of these you can do repeatedly without ending your turn.
However, there are some which you can do only once each Movement Phase.

     The Movement Phase options are:

     I.    MOVE TROOPS
     II.   VISIT A TERRITORY
     III.  ADVERTISE FOR TROOPS
     IV.   REST (DONE)
     V.    VISIT TREASURY
     VI.   HIRE SPIES
     VII.  CAST A SPELL
     VIII. ALLOCATE SPIES
     IX.   BUY FOOD

I. MOVE TROOPS
     This option allows you to move any number of your troops from a
territory you own to another territory you own OR to an empty territory
in order to take that territory.  First you must select one of your
territories to move troops FROM then select a territory to move troops
TO.  The two territories you select MUST be adjacent.  You can then move
as many troops as you like between the two territories.  Note, however,
if you move all of your troops out of a territory that territory will
become free for anyone else who wishes to take it.

Moving Troops TO AN EMPTY TERRITORY ends your turn.  However, you can
move troops between territories you already own as much as you like.

THE TROOPS ALLOCATION REQUESTER:
When ever you need to move or allocate troops in CA you will be presented
with the Troops Allocation Requester.  This requester looks something like
this:

         FROM      ->      TO

     <<   100  soldiers   10  >>

     <<    10  knights     0  >>

     <<     5  wizards     1  >>

         CANCEL        DONE

To allocate the troops to be affected by whatever option you are
currently in, you can click on the numbers to the right to move troops
over ONE AT A TIME.  Or you can click on the numbers to the left to
move troops back one at a time. Likewise, You can click on the double
arrows ( << , >> ) to move troops over or back TEN AT A TIME.

When you are finished allocating your troops click on DONE.  Or,
if you no longer wish to take this action, you can click on CANCEL.

Whenever you are presented with the Troops Allocation Requester, a second
smaller scroll will always appear telling you what you are allocating
troops for.

II. VISIT A TERRITORY
This game option does NOT actually have an entry in one of the Movement
Phase or Action Phase menus.  You activate this option by simply clicking
on any territory you wish to visit.

It is possible, when playing CA, to keep the number of troops you have on
each territory fairly secret from the other players.  In fact this can be
an effective strategy to follow.  In this way you can "hide your numbers"
or fool the other players into believing you have more troops than you
actually do.  Because of this strategy the Visit A Territory option can
be used in two ways.  First, if you forget how many troops you have on a
territory you can use this option to see what you have.  Second if you
hire spies (more below) you can spy on an enemy territory and find out
how many troops your opponent has there.

III. ADVERTISE FOR TROOPS
Just as in the real world, ADVERTISING WORKS!  Using this option, you
can increase the number of recruits you will get the next day by paying
advertisers to recruit for you.  You can pay as little or as much as you
like for this advertising.  But keep in mind no matter how much you pay
it is only for advertising ONE  day.  You will get your recruits from
this advertising at the start of the next day and that's it.  To get
more recruits (over what you would normally get) you will have to
advertise again.  One hint: Also as in the real world, good advertising
is not cheap!

IV. REST (DONE)
As stated in the FOOD & REST section, if your troops become overly
fatigued they will begin to perish!  To prevent this you must give your
troops a good rest.

To truely rest, you must select rest as the VERY FIRST option in a phase.
This is stressed by the fact that this option will only say REST in the
menus of the two phases if you have selected no other option.  As soon
as you select an option other than rest, this option will change to say
DONE.  In otherwords, in order to rest your troops you must do nothing
but rest for an entire phase!

You can rest both during the Movement Phase and during the Action Phase.
Resting during the Movement Phase is only a very light rest and will do
little to actually relieve the fatigue of your troops. However, it will
impress the locals that you are kind to your troops and you may get more
recruits the next day.

Resting during an Action Phase is a good rest and will relieve the
fatigue of your troops quite well.  However, if you have pushed your
troops to the point of dying from fatigue it may take more than one
Action Phase rest to get them totally back to normal.

Resting always ends your turn. If you do other things in a phase besides
rest, this option becomes the means by which you end your turn.  When
you are finished with your turn select this option (DONE).

V. VISIT TREASURY
If during the Movement Phase you need to find out how much gold, spell
points, food, spies or troops you have, you can use this option.  You
can also use this option to find out how much gold and spell points an
opponent has if you hire some spies.  As with troops it is a good idea
to keep the amount of gold and spell points you have under wraps as best
you can.

VI. HIRE SPIES
As mentioned above, if you hire spies you can find out some very important
things about your opponent.  Spies can be very useful AND important to have.

Spies work in the following way.  First, you must hire them to do a task
for you.  Spies cost one gold piece each to hire.  After you have hired
spies, you can use them in one of three ways.  Each of these options takes
a certain number of spies to complete the task.  After this, these spies
have satisfied their debt to you and will leave your service.  You must
then hire more spies to do another task.  Note that you can hire a surplus
of spies and use them as needed.

The three uses for spies are with the Visit Territory, the Visit Treasury
and the Combat options.  To use spies with the Visit Territory option, you
simply click on an opponents territory.  If you have enough spies, you will
be told how many troops your opponent has on that territory.  It takes five
spies to spy on an opponents territory.

If you select Visit Treasury and you have spies, you will be asked if you
wish to visit YOUR treasury or if you want to spy on an opponent.  Spying
on an opponents treasury takes 10 spies.

Probably the most important use of spies is during combat.  Use of spies in
combat will be discussed in the COMBAT section below.

VII. CAST A SPELL
Magic is the one thing which gives CA its twist. And, magic is very
important in the game.  Your strategy should include the CAREFUL use of it.

Magic in Ardania exists as spells which you, as a great mage, can cast.
Casting a spell costs spell points, which are generated by your wizards.
The greater the power of the spell the more spell points it costs.

There are three important things to remember about spells.  First, with few
exceptions, spells are cast on a TERRITORY not on the troops in that territory.
The spell will last for its entire duration regardless of WHO occupies the
territory.  Second, Spells can be cast on ANY territory!  Lastly, the duration
of a spell begins during THE TURN YOU CAST IT.  Example, a Magic Sword lasts
for 2 turns: the turn you cast it and the next turn.  Below is a list of the

Movement Phase spells, including cost and duration of each.

SPELL         COST(sp pts)    DURATION(turns)
Detection         3               *
Magic Swords      5               2
Magic Shields    10               2
Fear             10               2
Magic Hammers    15               3
Magic Traps      15               -
Teleport         20               *
Dust to Gold     25               *
Gold to Dust     50               *

* = instantaneous
- = special, see text

SPELL DETAILS

DETECTION - Some spells' effects last for several turns.  The detection
spell lets you find out what spells are currently active on the
territory you cast it upon.

MAGIC SWORDS - Magic Swords cause the weapons of whatever troops are in
the affected territory to become enchanted.  This allows the troops
to ATTACK better in combat.  Magic Swords does NOT aid in defense of a
territory.  Note that Magic Swords is a low level spell.  It will not
make an outstanding difference in battles.  But it could give you that
extra edge!

It should be noted here that only ONE spell of a given type can be cast
on a territory at any given time.  That is, only one Magic Swords can be
cast on a territory.  Casting a second Magic Swords on the same territory
would have no additional affect except to extend the spells duration.
Example, if you cast a Magic Swords on a territory (duration 2 turns), then
immediately cast a second Magic Swords on the same territory, you now have
a territory with a Magic Swords which will last four turns!

You CAN cast two different spells on the same territory.  For example, you
could cast a Magic Swords AND a Magic Hammers on the same territory and have
both spells in effect and their effects will be additive!

MAGIC SHIELDS - This spell enchants the armor of the troops in the affected
territory helping them to defend.  It has no effect during attacks.  (NOTE:
attacking and defending will be discussed in detail in the combat section.)

FEAR - This spell causes the troops in the affected territory to be afraid
of whoever they are facing in combat and to fight poorly against them.  This
spell affects both attacking and defending.  You should bear in mind that
if you use this spell in an offensive way, and you attack and take the
territory BEFORE the duration of the spell has expired, the troops you move
into that territory will be affect by this spell!

MAGIC HAMMERS - Like Magic Swords this spell enchants the weapons of the
troops in the territory this spell is cast upon.  However, Magic Hammers is
a more powerful version of the spell AND it affects both attacking and
defending.  It also has a longer duration.

MAGIC TRAPS - This spell causes traps to be set in the territory it is cast
upon.  For a detailed explanation of traps see the LEAVING TRAPS option in
the combat section.

TELEPORT - Using this spell you can teleport troops from one territory to
another.  This is the only spell which cannot be cast on just any territory.
You can only use this spell to move YOUR troops from a territory you own to
another territory you own OR to an empty territory.  You cannot teleport an
enemy's troops.  The Teleport spell works very similar to the Move Troops
option except that the territories do not have to be adjacent.  This spell
is very useful if you get blocked into a small area of the map by your
opponents.

DUST TO GOLD - This spell is cast on yourself and NOT on any particular
territory.  While you could cast this spell on an opponent, that would
not be the smartest of moves.  This spell is greatly affected by the number
and terrains of the territories you occupy.  This spell allows you to create
gold from the dust of the earth.  And it requires a great deal of dust.
Because of this, dusty territories such as the flatlands or the mountains
will create much more gold than the wet swamps or the forests.  But keep
in mind that this spell is very unpredictable.  And just because you have
flatlands or mountains does not mean you will rake in the gold.

GOLD TO DUST - This spell is cast on a player and not on a territory.
However, you still need to select a territory to indicate which player
will be affected by the spell.  When you cast this spell on a player, ALL
of that players gold will be instantly turned to dust and be worthless.

VIII. ALLOCATE SPIES
This option will be explained in the combat section.

IX. BUY FOOD
If your territores are not producing enough food to support your troops,
you will need to buy food.  You can buy food at a rate of 3 food units
for each gold piece.

ACTION PHASE
There are seven options in the Action Phase.

     I.   ATTACK A TERRITORY
     II.  CAST A SPELL
     III. BUILD FORTRESS
     IV.  REST (DONE)
     V.   SUMMON DRAGON
     VI.  VISIT TREASURY
     VII. VISIT TERRITORY

I. ATTACK A TERRITORY
This is by far the most important option in CA since attacking and taking
territories is how players overcome their opponents.

While the mechanics involved in attacking a territory are fairly simple
the factors affecting combat are numerous and complex.  A few of these
factors are given in the COMBAT section below.

COMBAT
Combat in CA is based on the principle that there is an Attacker and a
Defender in each battle.  The attacker is the active player who selected
the option and is threatening to take the Defending player's territory.
The Attacker selects one of his territories to attack from (the attacking
territory) AND an opponent's territory to attack (the defending territory).
These two territories must be adjacent.  The attacking territory is the
territory that the attacker can draw his troops from to create an attacking
army which then moves into the defending territory and engages in battle.
The defending army is made up of ALL of the troops on the defending territory.
If the Attacker wins he/she claims the defending territory as his/her own
and the troops which remain alive in the attacking army are placed there
as that territory's occupants.  The Attacker cannot move any more troops
there until the next Movement Phase.  One thing the attacker should
remember is that fighting battles is very draining on troops and that
the attacker's troops will be building up fatigue at a much greater rate
then normal.  Also, this fatigue will affect the ability of the army to
fight.

If at any time the attackers army is defeated the defender remains owner
of the defending territory.  Note that the Attacker can never loose a
territory UNLESS the attacker places ALL of the attacking territory's
troops into his attacking army.  In this case, whether the attacker wins
or loses, the original attacking territory becomes a free territory!

THE MECHANICS OF ATTACKING
This section describes in detail how a battle is carried out.

The first thing the attacking player must do after electing to attack a
territory is to select a territory to attack FROM, then a territory to
attack.  The attacker will then select his/her ATTACK MODE.  After the
attacker has selected an attack mode, the defender will select his/her
DEFENSE MODE.

There are five attack modes and six defense modes.  These attack and
defense modes should be selected in secrecy!  So while the attacker is
selecting his/her attack mode the defender should turn away from the
screen and visa-versa when the defender selects a defense mode.  The
attack and defense modes are discussed in detail below.

After the battle modes have been selected the outcome of the battle will
be resolved.  Note that certain combinations of attack and defense modes
will NOT result in any actual fighting.    If fighting does occur, the
players simply sit back and watch as their troops perish in the onslaught.
The winner is the player who has troops surviving at the end of the
battle.  Note that it is possible for BOTH armies to be completely
destroyed in the melee. If both armies are destroyed then the defending
territory becomes a free territory.

FACTORS WHICH AFFECT COMBAT
Besides the attack and defense modes selected by the attacker and
defender, there are many other factors which can affect the outcome
of a battle.  Several of these factors are listed here.

Terrain - The terrain of the DEFENDER'S territory plays a big role in
combat.  As mentioned above in the TERRAIN section, the terrain of
a territory determines how difficult or easy that territory is to defend.
Only the defender's territory is considered in combat because the attackers
are thought to be rushing into the defending territory.

Spells - The spells cast on both the attacking AND defending territories
are considered for combat.  The spells cast on the attacking territory
affect the attacking army and the spells cast on the defending territory
affect the defending army.  The affect that spells have on the battle
are discussed in their respective sections.

Fatigue - How fatigued the armies are will affect how well they can fight.
The more fatigued an army is the worse it will fight.

Fortresses - A fortress built on a defending territory will help the
defender greatly.  Fortresses on the attacking territory have no effect.

Troops - Aside from the number of soldiers in an army the number of
knights and wizards dictate that army's strength.

ATTACK & DEFENSE MODES
The first three attack modes and the first three defense modes are all
simple battle strategies to use in actual fighting.  All other battle
modes are special actions that can also be done in a combat situation.

BATTLE STRATEGIES
The three attack strategies are:

Sneak Attack - The attacking army is silently entering the defending
              territory in an attempt to surprise the defender.

Normal Attack - The attacking army is marching in formation into the
                defending territory hoping their number and battle skills
                will be sufficient to win.

Ferocious Attack - The attacking army is rushing forward in a berzerking
                   rage.

The three defense strategies are:

Ambush - The defenders are in hiding, waiting to surprise the attacking army
         as it enters the territory.

Stand Ground - The defenders are in formation ready to take the attackers
               head on.  Counter Attack - The defenders, in a wild burst,
               rush forward in hopes of catching the attackers off guard.

Below is a table which shows how these battle strategies correlate to each
other to determine which side has the advantage.  This table was
constructed to be fair not necessarily to make sense in a real life battle
situation.  However, with a little imagination the entries in the table
can make sense.  For example, attacking ferociously has the advantage
over a defenders ambush because the attackers rush in surprising the
defenders before they can hide.

    E - Even, no advantages, strategies cancel
    A - Attackers advantage
    D - Defenders advantage

DEFENDER:     AMBUSH  STAND GROUND  COUNTER ATTACK
Attacker:

Sneak Attack     E         A               D

Normal Attack    D         E               A

Ferocious        A         D               E
Attack

OTHER ATTACK MODES

SPREAD RUMORS - This is a total fake out.  You can select this option if
you want to only pretend you are attacking your opponent.  While you can't
take a territory using this mode, you can reap some benefits from it.
If the defender does not realize you are bluffing and plans a defense
anyway his/her troops will become disgruntled and the defender will get
very few recruits next turn. Because the defender was a poor general.
You, on the other hand, will look very good and may get extra recruits.
These bonuses and penalties can be quite large if the defender does
something really extreme such as retreats from the territory.  Keep in
mind though, there is an 'It's only rumors' defense mode.

SEND BANDITS - You may, if you have the money, choose to hire bandits
and rogues to fight for you.  This way, you do not have to endanger
your own troops in combat.  However, you cannot take a territory with
hired warriors.  If your hired army wins they will simply leave the
territory unoccupied.  Bandits are used mostly to chop away at the
opposing army's troops.

Bandits can be hired at one gold piece each.  Keep in mind that these
are not the greatest fighting men.  They will be at a natural disadvantage.

OTHER DEFENSE MODES

LEAVE TRAPS - Leaving traps is a way of retreating but at the same time
take one last stab at the enemy.  With this mode, as your troops retreat
from the territory they setup dangerous traps.  Then when the enemy enters
the territory they will set off these traps causing a significant number
of the attacking troops to perish. Note, if the traps are not set off
by the attackers (such as when the defender leaves traps but the attacker
spreads rumors), or if magic traps are set, the traps will remain until
someone moves INTO the territory.  Moving out of a territory does not set
off traps.  Keep in mind that it costs gold pieces to build these traps,
25 g.p. to be exact. If you do not have 25 g.p. then leaving traps will
automatically become a retreat!  You WILL NOT be told that you do not have
enough gold.  And, you will NOT get the chance to change your selection.

IT'S ONLY RUMORS - If you are pretty sure that the attacker is only
spreading rumors (such as when your spies tell you), you can select this
option and turn the tables on them.  If they really were only spreading
rumors then you will look like a great general and may get a significant
number of extra recruits.  And your opponent will look foolish and get a
penalty to his/her recruits.

However, if the attacker really wasn't spreading rumors your troops will
be confused and unprepared when the invaders rush in and many of them will
die before they can regroup well enough to fight.

RETREAT - If you are hopelessly outnumbered, you do not have enough gold
for leaving traps, but you want to save your troops, you can retreat.  When
you retreat (OR leave traps) the computer will  ask you which territory
you wish to retreat to.  If you do not own  a territory ADJACENT to the
defending territory your troops will simply be killed in hostile enemy
lands!

USING SPIES IN COMBAT
If you have hired spies you can allocate some of these spies for use in
combat using the ALLOCATE SPIES option in the MOVEMENT PHASE.  It is
important to remember to do this in the movement phase before the Action
Phase when you actually need the spies or you are out of luck!

There are two things you need to allocate spiesfor, offense and defense.

Offensive spies will help you when YOU attack a territory.  They will not
help you when you are ATTACKED.  If you have offensive spies, when you
attack, these spies may tell you what defense mode your opponent selected
and you will get a chance to change your attack mode accordingly.  Note
however, in a tense battle situation it may be difficult for spies to
survive the dangerous task assigned them or for them to tell exactly what
the opponent's field movements actually mean.  Thus, there is the
possibility that your spies will not give you any response.  Or if they
do, it will be an incorrect answer.  To overcome this problem,  you can
set more spies to the task.  In fact the more spies you allocate to
offense, or defence, the better your chances that you will get a response
and the better the chance that that response will be correct.

The opposite of offensive spies, deffensive spies aid you when you are
attacked by telling you what attack mode your opponent has selected.
Keep in mind that after you have selected your defense mode, if the
attacker has spies he/she will get to reselect his attack (if his spies
give an answer), but you will not get a second chance!  This can make
selecting a defence mode quite tricky, but, "that's the way the battle
is fought!"

Finally, spies allocated for attack and defence will remain active until
they are actually put to use.  That is, offensive spies will not actually
leave the players service until the player makes an attack.  Likewise,
defensive spies will not leave until the player is attacked.  Until the
player is envolved in combat these spies will remain turn after turn.
Also, the spies do not leaveuntil the END of the Action Phase in which
the spies are used.  So if, for example, a player is attacked twice
during a phase and that player has defensive spies, those spies will be
a benefit for BOTH attacks.  Then the spies will leave the players
service at the end of the phase.  The player should then consider hiring
more spies and allocating new defensive spies during the next Movement
Phase.

II. CAST A SPELL (Action Phase)
There are eight additional spells which can only be cast during the Action
Phase.  Here is a list of their costs and durations.

SPELL               COST      DURATION
Wall of Ice          20           3
Wall of Fire         20           1
Lightning Strike     30           *
Summon Army          30           -
Plague               40           4
Demote               50           *
Anti-Magic Shield    50           3
FIRESTORM           200           *

WALL OF ICE - This spell creates an impenetrable wall of ice completely
encircling the territory you cast it upon.  No troops (yours or anyone elses)
will be able to move in or out of this territory, except with a teleport
spell.  Nothing can destroy a wall of ice before its duration has expired
except for a FIRESTORM spell!

WALL OF FIRE - Although this spell has a very short duration (the turn
you cast it), it is a very good defensive spell.  This spell creates a
searing wall of flames surrounding the territory.  ANYONE passing through
these flames will be burnt!  Keep in mind that this spell lasts only
during the Action Phase in which you cast it.  So if you are the last
player to take his/her turn during the Action Phase casting this spell
would be foolish.  However, if you are the first player to take his/her
turn in the Action Phase (which possibly means you are losing) this can
be a very effective defense.

LIGHTNING STRIKE - This spell does serious damage to a single territory
by destroying a significant number of the SOLDIERS there.  The larger
the number of soldiers in the territory, the more effective the spell.

SUMMON AN ARMY - This spell instantly creates 100-200 soldiers on the
territory in which you cast it.  Keep in mind, however, that you must
feed all of these men you are suddenly conjuring into existense.

PLAGUE - This spell causes a horrible unknown blite to descend upon a
territory.  This blite causes several bad effects:

  - troops will die
  - the territory will produce NO food
  - it will produce less gold
  - the wizards on the territory will produce NO
    spell pts
  - in their weakened state the troops there will
    not be able to defend the territory very well

All in all, not a good situation to be in!

DEMOTE - This spell instantly removes the special fighting skills of all
the knights on a territory reducing them to mere soldiers.

ANTI-MAGIC SHIELD - This spell, when cast on a territory, will cancel
any attempt by your opponent to cast a spell on that same territory.
It does not affect any spells which you attempt to cast on that territory.
Anti-Magic Shield, however, only has a 80% chance of stopping a FIRESTORM
spell.  This is due to the shear power of the FIRESTORM.

FIRESTORM - If all else fails NUKE 'EM! This spell will instantly destroy
everything on a single territory!  It kills all troops, destroys any
fortress and negates any other spells which are currently active on the
affected territory!  BUT BE WARNED! The FIRESTORM spell is so powerful
that it is very hard to control.  There is a chance that it will
backfire!!!  Casting a FIRESTORM spell ends your turn.

III. BUILD A FORTRESS
Building a fortress on a territory can greatly aid in defending that
territory.  And fortresses are fairly inexpensive for the defensive
capabilities they give.  They start at about 60 gold pieces to build one
on a flatlands.  And go up to 120 to build one on a mountain territory.

The only thing which can destroy a fortress once it has been built is a
FIRESTORM spell.

You should take care and defend your fortresses well.  For if your
opponent should take that territory, then you will have to fight
against your own fortress to regain it.

IV. REST (DONE)
Resting was covered in detail under the Movement Phase Rest option.

V. SUMMON THE DRAGON
Three times, and only three times during the course of an entire game,
each player can summon The Great Dragon to aid in their struggle.
The Dragon is extremely chaotic and unpredictable.  So there is no
way of knowing what type of aid he will give.  It could be anything.
He could give you more soldiers, knights, or wizards, or all three!
He could give you more spell points, gold, or simply a good rest.  He
may even take an opponents territory away and give it to you with all
the troops still there! But whether the dragon gives you something
so-so or something great, it will always be good.  The dragon will
never harm the person who summons him.

One thing to remember about the dragon, he is very sympathetic.  He
tends to give the most help to players who are in trouble, but not
always!

If The Dragon gives you troops of any kind, he will distribute these
troops evenly over all of your territories.  This prevents an opponent
from immediately destroying all of The Dragon's gift by attacking
or firestorming a single territory.

Summoning the dragon ends your turn.

VI. VISIT A TERRITORY
This option is identical to its Movement Phase counterpart.

VII. VISIT TREASURY
This option is identical to its Movement Phase counterpart.

SAVING & RESTORING GAMES
     It can take a very long time to finish a game of Crown of Ardania
(anywhere from four to six hours)!  For this reason a method of saving
games so they can be restarted later has been included.

To save a game you can press the ESC key at any time.  To show that
you have selected the save option, the word 'SAVE' will appear in the
upper left corner of the game map.  Then at the beginning of the next
turn a small scroll will appear with a requester asking you for a name
to save the game under.  At this point you should put the disk to
which you want to save the game in a drive, then enter a name and press
return. You SHOULD include the entire path in the name.

     Example:  df0:MyGame
          OR:  df0:CofAGames/MyGame

Disk number one of the CA set has a directory called CofAGames on it so
that you can save games to this disk.  WARNING: you should backup this
disk before saving anything to it!!

Note that saving a game does not end that game.  The game will continue
as usual after the game has been saved.  Thus saving a game is like
taking a snap shot of the game at a particular point.

To restore a previously saved game, restart Crown of Ardania and
type RESTORE as the name of the first player.  You will be presented
with a similar requester as when you saved the game.  You can then
type the name of the saved game (including the entire path) to restore
that game.  The game will then continue at the beginning of the turn
which was about to start when you saved it.

ENDING A GAME
If you wish to end a game before the conclusion of that game, either
because you have saved the game or because you are simply tired of
playing, hold down the Right-Amiga key and press the period '.' key.
The game will terminate and return you to the WorkBench screen.

End.