5. Units

A unit is any creature under the player's control other than peasants. Each unit will have an offence and a defence score which represents its strength in combat. Each unit will also have a cost per turn in maintaining it. This will be a certain amount of food and gold for normal units, a certain amount of gold in the case of heroes or a certain number of gems in the case of enchanted units. All maintenance costs are automatically subtracted from the player's city resources at the end of the Feed Order but before the Feed Event. Units will have 33% of their number disbanded if there is insufficient resources for their maintenance.

NOTE: The term unit refers to a single soldier in this game. Hence a shire with 80 Axemen in it has 80 units and will require 80 times the maintenance cost of one Axeman. The turn report will list the types of units which can be created by the player. The types of normal units (any units other than summoned or undead) available depends on the presence of certain buildings in the capital city or town. Each new unit created will have a cost in gold, wood, iron and/or mithril associated with it. Units are created by using the RECRUIT command. Each recruited unit (1 military person) causes the number of peasants in the city to be reduced by one. A maximum of 20% of a shire's peasant population may be recruited in any one turn (this maximum may be increased by certain buildings). This maximum appears in brackets after the total population in the turn report. If you attempt to recruit more units than allowed, the program will take the maximum amount available. Ships require one peasant per crew member while mounted and other unit types only require 1. There is a basic list of units which will be initially available to most players. These are Militia and Spearmen or a variation of these depending on the starting race. Other unit types will become available as the game progresses through the completion of various buildings.

5.1 STARTING UNITS

Each player will begin the game with a set number of basic units. The unit type will be decided by the starting race and city of the player
 

5.2 HEROES

Heroes are the individual champions of each wizard. They may lead armies, explore structures or use their special abilities for the greater glory of their lord. Each hero has a range of attributes, each initially ranked from 1 (hopeless) to 10 (awesome). The attributes are:

 

HERO ATTRIBUTES

ATTRIBUTE	DESCRIPTION
OFFENCE *	Attacking strength in combat.
DEFENCE *	Avoiding harm in combat.
ATTACKS *	The number of attacks the hero has each turn.
HIT POINTS *	Number of direct hits to be taken before hero will die.
AWARENESS *	Ability to detect traps and hiding enemy heroes.
STEALTH *	Ability to pass undetected.
INTELLIGENCE *	Used for solving puzzles.
DEXTERITY *	Used for avoiding undesirable obstacles.
LEADERSHIP *	Effect of the hero on allied units in combat.
SPELLCRAFT *	The degree of skill the hero possesses with the magic arts. The higher a hero's spellcraft, the more powerful the combat spells they are able to cast.
RESEARCH ABILITY *	The number of research points the hero generates each turn.
UNIT TYPE OFFENCE BONUS	Some Heroes can give an offence bonus to certain unit types. For example, a Knight gives a bonus to all mounted troops under his command.
UNIT TYPE DEFENCE BONUS	Similar to Unit Type Offence Bonus.
LAND OFFENCE BONUS	Some Heroes will give all units fighting on particular ground a bonus. For example, a Ranger may give a bonus to all units under his command when fighting in forest.
LAND DEFENCE BONUS	Similar to Land Offence Bonus
SPECIAL	Some heroes will be able to offer some sort of special skill.
COST	The price to recruit the hero.
MAINTENANCE	The price of the hero's services per turn. This increases with level but a turn's warning is given.

Note: * Means that the ability can increase above its original level with experience and also possibly with artifacts.

Heroes are the leaders of your armies. Although you can move units about the world and fight battles without a hero's leadership, there are compelling advantages to forming an army. All units in a hero's army receive the bonuses bestowed by that hero - a Ranger hero may increase the army's' defence when fighting in Forest. Heroes are also the tools used by wizard's to cast spells out in the battlefield. All heroes may have a spell set for the wizard to cast through them every time they enter combat (for example Fireball). The wizard can also cast spells that will affect their whole hero's army - casting Teleport will move the hero and their entire army to the desired destination. The TRANSFER command joins units to a heros' army. Armies move together so only a single command needs to be issued to move the hero - the entire army will move as well. Each hero will already have a small army when hired. These units are not recruited from the local population and come completely free. The army will stop moving as soon as any member of the army runs out of movement points.

Heroes will gain experience and improve their abilities as they serve a wizard. They will gain experience points for personal combat, leading armies into battles, casting spells and conquering special places. The number of experience points gained is related to the difficulty of their endeavours. Heroes can also gain experience from dueling. Two heroes must be in the same shire, and have the same owner or allied owners. One player only issues the order. The two heroes then duel, and gain experience in the process. The losing hero does not die. Heroes can only perform one special action per turn whether it is dueling, exploring, moving, etc.

Some heroes have the special ability to MOVE or ATTACK (the two commands are the same in this case) unseen into enemy/allied territory. These heroes known as espionage heroes, are not blocked by the presence of enemy units. There is a chance that an espionage hero will be discovered when in enemy controlled shires. The chance of being discovered is determined by the espionage hero's stealth, present enemy heroes' awareness and the number of normal units in the shire. Heroes remaining unseen in enemy territory receive bonus experience points. If discovered a battle will automatically take place. Espionage heroes cannot control shires or attack enemies without an army and are not counted as a presence for spells which require this.

Heroes are offered in the player's city every now and again. This is random but chances may be increased by holding a TOURNAMENT. These heroes that are offered can be recruited during the next turn by using the HIRE order. Note that these heroes are on offer for one turn only. Once a hero has been recruited the hero can have their name set, using the NAMEHERO order. To get current information on the hero, such as experience, artifacts, and numerous other attributes, the INFO order can be used. Note that all these three orders can be processed in one turn. e.g. HIRE 22 HERO, NAMEHERO 22 "Hand of Death", INFO 22 HERO.

5.3 ARTIFACTS

During the course of the game, heroes are likely to acquire certain artifacts. Each artifact has certain abilities and can increase the Hero's attributes significantly. However it is not realistic for a hero to have three magic swords and get the combined total. The hero can only wield one weapon at a time. A hero can carry as many artifacts as they like but they will only use the best available of each artifact type.

Each artifact is classified as a particular type. The hero can have one of each of these artifact types in effect at any one time. The heroes may of course carry others in their saddle bags.

The different types of artifacts are:

• Armour
• Boots
• Gloves
• Helm
• Shield
• Weapon
• Miscellaneous

When you get info on an artifact it will mention what type of artifact it is. The one other artifact type is Miscellaneous. You can have as many of these as you like in effect at any one time. They are usually magical objects that are used in spell casting or in various other capacities.

5.4 SHIPS

All towns and cities situated in a region that has an exit to an ocean region can build ships, once they have built docks. There are three basic classes of ships, but some ship types may fall into more than one class at once. The classes are transport, fishing, and war.

Transport ships can carry units and heroes from one location to another. The TRANSFER order is used to get heroes and units on and off ships. You may also transport allied units.

Fishing ships will automatically fish whenever they are in an ocean shire that they control.

War ships are designed just for war and are good at protecting your transport and fishing ships.

A ship is constructed using the CONSTRUCT order. Constructing a ship will reduce the town's population as peasants are used for crew. The ships can be named using the NAMESHIP order. To get further information on the ship itself use the INFO order.

The maintenance cost for a ship may be calculated in the following manner;
 * GOLD	Maintenance for a ship is 10% of the construction cost.
 * Food	Maintenance is one food	for each member of the crew.
 * 5% of other construction resources are required to maintain the ship.

The turn after a ship has been constructed you will receive the specific ship number which can be used to move the ship or transfer units on or off the ship. A ship can move across shires of the region type ocean and into or out of coastal shires. A ship's movement ends after moving into a coastal shire. A ship can not move from one coastal shire to another coastal shire, it may only move from ocean shires to coastal shires or vice versa.

Note that you will gain access to more ship types as you build more buildings in the docks' shire.

5.5 APPRENTICES

Apprentices may be recruited like any other unit, once the proper structure is built. Apprentices cost a large number of gold coins per turn in maintenance. Each apprentice increases the number of Research Points (see magic section) produced per turn by 1. Players may recruit as many apprentices as they can afford to, once they become available. Apprentices can move around the world like any other unit.

5.6 BUILDERS

Builders may be recruited like any other unit. Builders can build 3 resources (like 3 peasants) to any unfinished building when they are placed in a central shire. Builders will always be used before peasants to BUILD structures. Builders can not PRODUCE. Players may recruit as many builders as they can afford to, once they become available, but keep in mind that they require WOD and STN for maintenance.