Battles¶

The path to the throne will almost certainly be a bloody one. Those who would dare to deny your right to rule must face your wrath on the battlefield. Open ground (non-siege) combat begins immediately when:

One army attacks another or the paths of two opposing armies cross.
An army attacks the county town of a neutral or computer controlled county. (When an army attacks a castle, combat occurs only after a siege, see page 86).

Before combat begins, a panel will inform you of the impending bloodbath, display the comparative troop numbers of both forces, and ask you if you would like to take the field.

If you choose not to take the field, the battle will be calculated automatically. You may want to do this if, after viewing the size and makeup of each army, you believe either winning or losing is a foregone conclusion. You never have to the take the field if you dont want to, but when you decline you waive the opportunity to use your tactical wizardry to your advantage. With some practice, you may be able to defeat forces much larger than your own!

To take command of the battle, click on the thumbs up gauntlet and the engagement will begin.

Taking Command¶

When the battle begins, you will see a top-down view of the battlefield. Your main screen view shows a portion of the field. Consult the overview map in the upper right corner for a birds eye view of the entire field. You may scroll your main view around just as you do on the main map screen. You may also jump to a new location by clicking on the overview map while no units are selected.

The main screen will show the various terrain features of the battlefield: rocks, rivers, bridges, forests, etc. The troops of both sides will also be visible: attacking army at the south (bottom) end, and defending army at the north (top).

Each soldier figure wears the color of its kingdom (the soldiers of neutral counties wear brown). Each figure represents a unit of a certain type.

Ordering Units¶

To Select a Single Unit To select a single unit, click directly on it. When a unit is selected, a status bar will appear next to its figure on the battlefield, and a symbol will appear in the control panel. To Select a Group of Units To select a group of units, click and drag a rectangle around the units you would like to select. A status bar will appear next to each selected unit, and an icon for each selected unit will appear in the control panel. To Deselect a Single Unit To deselect a single unit, click on the units icon on the control panel (or select another unit). To Deselect a Multiple Units To deselect multiple units, right click on any empty space on the battlefield (or select something else). To Move a Selected Unit or Units To move a selected unit (or units), click on a destination on the battlefield, or on the overview map. All selected men will move to the indicated spot.

To Order an Attack To order a selected unit (or units) to attack, place your mouse pointer over an enemy unit so that its appearance changes, and click. Archers and crossbowmen will be able to fire from a distance, all other units are hand-to-hand units which must attack at point blank range.

Unit Size¶

Each soldier figure on the battlefield represents a unit. Unit size will vary from battle to battle, depending on the overall size of the forces involved. In one battle, a unit may be four men, in another it may be 16 men.

The status bar that accompanies each selected unit shows the number of men that unit currently has, relative to the battles unit size. The icon that appears in the control panel for each selected unit shows the actual number of soldiers in that unit.

For example: picture two selected archer units, one with a fully green status bar, and one with a half red/half green status bar. The icons in the control panel indicate that the fully green unit contains eight archers, while the half red unit contains four archers.

You now know that, in that particular battle, a unit consists of eight men. When you select an enemy unit, you can guess how many men it contains by looking at the status bar: if it is fully green, it probably contains eight men; if it shows a bit of red, it may contain six or seven men.

By looking at the number of figures on the field, and the status bars of each unit figure, you can get a pretty good idea of the relative sizes of the opposing forces.

The precise size of each army is shown above the appropriate shield at the bottom of the control panel.

You may, for example, see that the number of figures on each side is about the same. But if all of your figures have a status bar that is half red, and the enemy’s are all fully green, you will know that are outnumbered two to one (or thereabouts).

When a unit’s status bar is completely red, it contains no men, and is wiped out.

Battlefield Controls¶

Pause: Starts and pauses the battle. When a battle begins, it will be paused. To begin the battle, click on the hourglass button. You may pause the battle at any time by clicking this button again. You may select units, but not move them, when the battle is paused.

Retreat: Click on this button to order all your men to retreat from the field. When you do so, your army will not escape without casualties but it will escape complete annihilation. You may want to give this order if you are far out numbered at least part of your army will survive to fight another day!

Lower Castle Drawbridge: This command will only work when you are defending a castle with a drawbridge during a siege battle. Lowering the drawbridge will allow your men to exit and enter the castle, but it will also allow the enemy to get in if your leave the entrance undefended.

Mop-up: This button gives a general order to your army to attack and engage the nearest enemy. You may want to issue this command after you have positioned your troops effectively for an all out attack, or when the battle is nearly decided and you wish to end it quickly and easily.

Autocalculate: Calculates the battle automatically. Choose this option if you do not wish to command the battle.

Advanced Commands¶

Advanced players may use the keyboard to issue advanced commands to troops. You may, for example, assign multiple units to groups that will answer commands together. To create a command group, select all the units you would like to group together, and hold down the control key while pressing any number key from 1 to 9. Hitting that number key by itself at any time during the remainder of the battle will select that group of units. You may then command all units at once.

You may also order multiple units into formation. Press the Hkey to order the selected units into a horizontal line. Press the V key to order selected units into a vertical line.

Combat¶

Before you begin a battle, survey your army and devise a strategy. Consider the size of your army, its composition, the battlefield terrain, and other features such as rivers or bridges.

Once a unit is engaged, it will remain so until it annihilates the opposing unit, it is annihilated itself, or you command it to disengage.

Figures will fall dead on the battlefield as units are killed off. The number of remaining soldiers for each army appears on the control panel. Watch the numbers fall to evaluate the battle in progress. An army wins a battle when one of two things happens:

It kills all the soldiers in the other army.
The other army retreats.

When a battle ends, a panel will show the new unit breakdown of each army. Even victories can be costly if a large portion of your army is killed. Click on the exit arrow at the bottom right of the panel (or right click) to return to the main map. If the losing army was destroyed in the battle, only the winner will remain on the map.

If the battle has won a new county for the victor, a flag with the winner’s color will appear over the newly won county town.

Peasant Revolts¶

In addition to battling with rival armies, your troops may at times be called upon to put down peasant uprisings.

When any county’s happiness rating drops below 25 and stays there for more than four seasons, its population will revolt. The ruling noble will be stripped of power and a band of brigands will set out in search of food.

Peasant revolts will appear on the main map as torch carrying figures. They will reduce the happiness of any county they wander into.

To put down a revolt, send one of your armies to attack the band of rebels just as you would attack another army. The battle will play out as usual. You should do your best to ensure that your counties do not revolt. Are your people getting enough food? Are they healthy? Have you set taxes or conscription too high?