INTRODUCTION .................................1

ON THE RIGHT PATH..........................1

The Main Menu .............................2

The Game - The Commands ..........5

The Map.........................................6

The Castle ......................................7

Constructing Buildings ...................8

Constructing Roads ........................9

The First Serfs ...............................11

Demolition...................................11

Saving and Ending the Game.......12

THE TRAINING GAMES .....................13

♦ Training Game 1 – Land ..................13Building a Guard Hut, Guard Tower, and Garrison ..................................13The Overhead Map.........................14

♦ Training Game 2 – Creating Construction Materials .....................16

Building a Forest Ranger’s Hut,Lumberjack’s Hut, Sawmill, andQuarryman’s Hut............................16

♦ Training Game 3 – Making Food and Transporting It ...........................18

The Fisherman, Farmer, Miller, Baker, Pig Farmer, and Butcher.........18Transporting Food and Constructing Roads .........................19

♦ Training Game 4 – Mining and Using Gold, Iron, and Coal ..............21

Mines and Foundries.......................21

♦ Training Game 5 – Making Tools and Weapons...................................24

The Ship Maker, Blacksmith, and Tool Maker ..............................24The Warehouse ..............................25

♦ Training Game 6 – Attack and Conquer Enemy Buildings................27

Knights ..........................................27Frontier Strategy..............................28

THE ECONOMY .................................29

The Economic System .........................29

Your First Serfdom – Mission One .......30

About Statistics ....................................31

The Warehouses..................................35

Statistics On Buildings and Flags .........36

The Distribution Menus.......................38

RULES OF COMBAT ...........................39

The Knight Menus ...............................39

The Other Menus ................................42

Messages and Preferences ...................43

Replaying a World...............................46

Demo and Team Mode .......................47

The Options.........................................47

Special Functions for the Map .............48

HINTS .................................................49

The Most Important Rule – Be Observant............................49

Hints and Tips on Professions..............51

The Behavior of Your Opponents ........53

Need Help? .........................................54

The End of the Game...........................54

REFERENCE MATERIAL.......................55

Jobs .....................................................55

Resources and Tools............................56

Buildings .............................................57

TABLE OF CONTENTS

In order to conquer the enemy castles,you need many knights. To keep theirmorale up you need gold, and for theweapons you need iron and coal. Ironand coal are found in mines. Minersmust be fed and ore must be refinedand smelted in a foundry.

The food supply is provided by the fish-ermen, farmers, and pig farmers who,like most other workers, need tools.These tools are made by blacksmiths. Tobuild huts, houses, and mines you needconstruction materials and workers.

You won’t have to remember all this for the moment. Everything will beexplained along the way. We recom-mend that you play the training gamesand follow along in this manual as yougo. Enjoy playing SERF CITY!

The Main MenuBefore beginning play, all the prelimi-nary parameters appear on the mainmenu. A maximum of four groups ofserfs can participate in the game. Agroup of serfs is controlled by: theplayer, the computer, or two playersworking as a team.

To choose a game mode, left-click onthe second icon from the left. Theicon’s graphic and the text indicatesthe game mode chosen from the fol-lowing options:

Mission: Orders are fixed for one or two players (in a team) against computer-controlled opponents.

Training: Orders are fixed forone or two players in a team.

One player: One or twoplayers compete as a teamagainst computer opponentsthat may be modified beforethe beginning of the game.

Two players: Two players com-pete against each other andagainst computer opponentsthat may be modified beforethe beginning of the game.

Demo mode: You are only anobserver here. You watch thecomputer create serfdoms.

In the lower half of the screen, you seethe participants of the game. The left-most character is yours. The remainingimages represent your opponents.

The different computer-controlled oppo-nents have their own personalities, andcan be aggressive or reserved, ready totake risks, or preoccupied with theirown safety. You may find additional personality quirks as you play.

INTRODUCTIONCongratulations and welcome to SERF

CITY: LIFE IS FEUDAL! You’ve purchaseda unique computer gaming experi-ence that tests you mentally andprovides you with hours of entertain-ment and enjoyment.

Our serfs do as you command; historynever saw serfs that worked so effi-ciently and happily. Our serfs haveoccupations; they can be bakers, farm-ers, knights or any of a number ofdifferent working types.

In SERF CITY you are the omnipotentleader of a group of serfs. You leadyour serfs in the creation of a village,and if you prove to be wise enough,that village will grow into a great city(we like to think of them as serfdoms).Command your serfs to constructbuildings, grow food, attack enemies,collect minerals, or whatever else youthink is necessary.

The road to success isn’t easy. Youhave to allocate your resources effi-ciently and fend off enemy attacks oryou will see your serfdom go up inflames. Miners must be fed, knightsmust be paid, workers need tools, fac-tories need coal, and buildings needwood and stone. . . .

Enjoy the challenge that awaits you inSERF CITY: LIFE IS FEUDAL!

ON THE RIGHT PATHIn SERF CITY you rule over a group ofserfs and try to expand your serdom.You decide where you want your serfsto construct buildings, how the roadsare made, where to search for rawmaterials, and which enemies to attack.You can modify numerous parametersthat affect the behavior of your serfs.

The computer handles the execution ofyour decisions, sending the commandsto your numerous serfs. The serfs buildhouses, cut down trees, work in themines, construct weapons and tools,and dispatch construction materials inthe places where they are needed. Theydefend their castles against enemyknight attacks, provide the miners withfood, and do many other things!

The goal of the game is to build a pros-perous, well-organized city and gaincontrol of the enemy cities. This soundssimple to do, but in reality it is com-plex. If you consider all the game’schallenges inversely, that is from theend of the game first, you may betterunderstand the game.

21

On the Right PathIntroduction

We recommend that you do not try themission orders right away, but rather trythe training games and read along inthis manual first. In training gamesthere are no passwords. You can selecteach available training game by usingthe arrows.

In one player, two player, and demomode you can modify numerous param-eters. The size of the world is displayed

in the center. To modify it, left-click on the small or the largeplanet. (Novices should proba-

bly not play worlds with a size greaterthan 3, due to the complexity of events.Try larger worlds as you get better atplaying the game.) You can modify alldata concerning a group of serfs:

❖ the blue bar for the stocks

❖ the green bar for the intelligence (with computer-controlled opponents)

❖ the red bar for the growth rate

❖ the button to activate or deactivate the computer-controlled opponents

❖ the image of the computer-controlled adversary, to choose another adversary

The initial data is chosen randomly. Ifyou are a novice, we recommend thatyou change the parameters to youradvantage, especially where the sup-ply levels are concerned, because alarge supply of materials and workersis very important.

The combination of numbers displayedto the right is a randomly chosen num-ber for the creation of a world. Thiscombination decides the location ofmountains, lakes, deserts, forests, etc. inthis world. The same combination ofnumbers always produces the sameworld. To change worlds, left-click onthe icon with the question mark foranother combination of numbers.

To start the game, left-click on theSTART icon. The screen fades to blackas the computer creates a world for you.

To reload a previously saved game,select the LOAD option. A windowappears with a list of files saved on thehard disk. Left-click on the name of thesaved game and then on LOAD toload the game, or on EXIT to cancel.

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On the Right Path

On the right side of each image, yousee three colored bars.

The blue bar indicates the state of thesupplies of a serfdom (city) at the begin-ning of the game. A large stock allowsfor rapid expansion and provides cer-tain advantages. A short supply createsproblems when the city begins toexpand. If you are a novice, make surethat the blue bar is always above the50% level.

The green bar indicates the intelligencelevel of the computer-controlled play-ers. This level affects how rapidlycomputer-controlled players act andreact. (For human players, the green baris always at its maximum.)

The red bar represents the growth rate.The higher it is, the faster your serfdomsproduce, and the faster you can expand.Novices should try to keep this barabove the 50% level.

According to the game mode chosen,you can modify certain other parame-ters. To start off, we recommend thatyou try Training Game 1.

If you choose to play a Mission, in themiddle of the screen you see the cur-rent level (beginning 1), the password(at the beginning the password isSTART), and two arrows.

When you successfully complete a mis-sion, the program displays the passwordthat allows you to restart the game at thesame level. Left-click on the passwordand enter the new password. Rememberto press the Return key to confirm. If thepassword is incorrect, the messageFALSE appears on the screen. If thepassword is correct, you see the level.

Your aim in SERF CITY is always to“grow” faster and more efficiently thanyour rivals. During the missions youencounter progressively harder oppo-nents. Depending on the stage you’vereached, your enemies become smarter,your beginning supplies may be lower,and the landscape becomes rougher. It is a mighty feat to complete every mis-sion, but once you do, you can consideryourself the Ultimate Serf City Ruler.

The arrows displayed to the right ofthe password return you to the levelsalready completed. You can activatethe team mode by left-clicking withthe mouse in the left frame.

3

On the Right Path

The MapIn the middle of the menu, you see a“map” icon. Left-click on this icon withthe mouse. A new window appearsshowing an overview map of the gameworld. On this map, the grasslands areindicated in green, the deserts in yellow,the lakes in blue, and the mountains(according to their height) in brown andwhite. If you left-click somewhere on themap, your screen moves to the corre-sponding area and the map disappears.

A world is “endless,” which is to saythat if you continue moving to the leftyou eventually return to your point ofdeparture. The world, therefore, doesnot have any “edges.” You will under-stand this better if you select the mapagain and left-click on the icon locat-ed second from the right on theoverhead map screen. You see slantedand horizontal lines that define thesize of the world.

For example, if you have selected size3, you notice that the world is repre-sented four times on the map, andsixteen times for a size 1 world. Thedifferent sections are connected toeach other and this is why the game’sterrain has no limits. The size 5 worldfits perfectly in the map section. Thesize 7 world is enormous. You will onlysee a small piece of the entire world onthe overhead map at a time! With size 3and larger worlds, you can move boththe map and the screen by pressing theright mouse button and dragging in thedesired direction. Remember that thismovement is not possible for smallerworlds (as they adapt themselves to thesection of the map).

The lower right corner of the overheadmap menu serves as a “zoom” feature.Left-click here to either “zoom in” onthe map or “zoom out.” The other iconsdisplayed at the bottom of the map arediscussed further in “The OverheadMap” on page 14.

6

On the Right Path

The Game - The CommandsYou can play alone or with/againstanother player. All functions remainidentical. The only differences are that intwo-player mode the screen is divided intwo, the image of the world is smaller,and the icons are closer together.

After starting the game, you see part ofthe world on the screen: perhaps somegrass with some trees or a lake. To sim-plify future explanations, this part of theworld is called the “screen.” At the bot-tom of the screen are five differentround icons that have different func-tions. They are called the “Menu.”

As we have already mentioned, youonly see a part of a world on the screen.According to the size of the screen, theworld can range from 10 to 1200 timesthis size for larger worlds. To movearound in a world, press the rightmouse button and drag it in the desireddirection. When you arrive at thedesired destination, release the mousebutton. Look at the scenery for amoment. You see deserts, lakes, forests,mountains, and many other things.

You might have noticed your pointerin the middle of the image when youstarted the game. It is made of a cen-

tral symbol andsix surroundingpoints. You posi-tion this pointerwhere you want to

activate one of the game options. If,for example, you want to construct ahouse or a road somewhere, you mustfirst place your pointer on this area. Toplace the pointer on the desired area,just left-click on the screen. The point-er’s central icon, which is alsodisplayed in the lower left of themenu, will usually change. We discussthis in the following paragraphs.

SPECIAL-CLICK: In this manual theterm “special-click” means hold downthe right mouse button and left-click.

Pressing P during the game pausesplay; no actions are available until youpress P again.

5

On the Right Path

found, or if you are going to find themat all. Your serfs may have to find themlater in the game.

The castle is a large structure that mustbe placed on a relatively flat and grassyarea. To do this, left-click anywhere onthe screen; the pointer will be placed onthis area. If a castle appears in the centerof the pointer, you made a good choice.

In the lower left of the menu you see the“construct a castle” icon. If, after severaltries, you have not found an area toconstruct your castle, use the “construc-tion help” feature. Special-click on theleftmost menu icon (it does not matterwhat is displayed); the construction helpfunction becomes active. All areaswhere a castle can be constructed areindicated on the screen. Left-click onone of these areas and the “Construct acastle” icon appears in the lower left.Left-click on this symbol and your castleis constructed in a few seconds. A flagwith the player’s color now flies in frontof the castle.

The castle is the only building that is“freely” given to you. All the otherhouses are built by your serfs. At a cer-tain distance from the castle, you see abarrier of black and white poles, or ofred posts in the water. This visual barri-er indicates the limits of your kingdom;you may only build buildings withinyour kingdom.

Constructing BuildingsYou have taken the first step and yourcastle has been constructed. Now yourserfs can build other houses. If youplace your pointer somewhere withinthe limits around your castle, the cen-tral icon tells you the type of buildingsthat you can construct (if any):

Two arrows: You cannot construct here.

Flag: You can onlyplace a flag here.

Hut: You can construct any ofthe different typesof huts (smallbuildings).

Castle: You haveenough space forall the buildings.

Mine: You canbuild a mine (onlyin the mountains).

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On the Right Path

The CastleYou begin by constructing your castle,which serves as your headquarters. Thearea where you place this castle is ofutmost importance for the rest of thegame. If you are a novice and you havea large amount of stocks, you will notrun into any immediate problems andthe location of the headquarters is notterribly important. However, if youhave limited stocks, a poorly placedcastle can be fatal. To illustrate the mostimportant aspects, we have establisheda list of conditions that are favorable to the construction of your castle:

❖ Avoid narrow valleys in themountains. Look for relatively flat areas.

❖ Choose an area with raw materi-als that are close to the castle forthe construction of new houses(trees and rock formations).

❖ Choose an area that has a largeamount of underground riches.

The first two points can easily be veri-fied on the screen. If there are a fewtrees and some granite and if the envi-ronment is not too inhospitable, theseconditions are fulfilled.

The underground riches are also veryimportant. These include gold, iron,coal and granite. Except for granite,which is often located above ground aswell as below, these materials are foundonly in the mountains. To see theunderground riches in the zone dis-played on the screen, ask the geologistto give you an overall estimate of thearea’s riches. The second menu iconfrom the left on the menu represents thegeologist. Left-click on this icon toobtain information on what riches arepresent in the current map zone.

All the values do not need to be at amaximum, but if there is no coal, iron,or gold, or only small quantities of thethree, look for another area. Left-clickon the Exit icon to back up a step.

The importance of the undergroundriches also depends on your strategy.Often with the size 1 worlds, it is possi-ble that certain riches do not exist at all,or that there are no mountains (andtherefore no riches). In this case, do notdesperately look for another area; justforget about the riches. With the geolo-gist, you only have an estimate of theriches in the area, but you do not knowexactly in which mountains they are

7

On the Right Path

the flag in front of your castle. Left-clickon one of the two flags. Select the con-struction icon in the lower left of themenu. The pointer contains two newsymbols. You are now in “road con-struction” mode.

The different symbols around the point-er have the following significance:

❖ Zone hatched in red and yellow:you cannot construct roads in this direction.

❖ Different slope symbols that rangefrom red (very steep ascents anddescents) to yellow (moderatelysteep ascents and descents) togreen (flat): you can constructroads in this direction.

❖ UNDO symbol: if you left-clickon this icon, you destroy the lastpart of the road made.

If you left-click on one of the slopeicons, a section of new road appearsand the pointer contains new symbolsfor building the next section of road.Repeat this operation until the roadmeets the other flag. The star in thelower left disappears and the pointertakes its initial form. The road is con-structed and you quit the constructionmode. The first serfs begin to leaveyour castle.

The color of the slope icons indicatesthe slope of the road. Red indicates asteep slope, yellow a moderate slope,

and green means flat or almost noslope. The flatter the terrain, the fasterthe merchandise can be distributed.This is because the serfs tire quickly onsteep slopes.

If you construct a road and thendecide that you no longer want it, left-click on the highlighted icon. You quitthe “road construction” mode and theroad is erased.

If you want to branch off from analready existing road, you must place aflag on the road. Left-click on thedesired area. If it is possible to place aflag there, a flag appears on the pointer.If you can’t place a flag there, use the“construction help” function. It may beimpossible to put a flag down on a roadbecause the road is too short or a tree isin the way. If you can create a newintersection, you see the “place flag”icon in the menu. Left-click on this iconto construct the new intersection.

You can also construct water ways. Twoflags must be on the banks of a lake fora water way to be built. Construct awater way between the two flags in the same way you construct a road.Remember to connect this water waywith your network of roads. The waterway is used for transporting merchan-dise. Only transporter serfs with boatscan use waterways.

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On the Right Path

How do you decide which type ofbuilding can be built and where it canbe placed?

First, all buildings must be built on yourland and there must not be any trees orboulders obstructing the area. All hous-es, huts, and guard buildings must bebuilt on a green surface and mines builtin the mountains (but not in the snow).

The type of building that can be con-structed depends on the slope of theterrain. For large buildings, the groundmust be level; their construction isimpossible on steep slopes. If you arelooking for an area that is appropriatefor a large building, the “constructionhelp” option helps you avoid clickingall around the screen to find a goodlocation. Special-click on the left menuicon. You immediately see the areaswhere you can construct a building onthe screen. Choose an area and special-click again on the left menu icon todeactivate the construction help.

The left menu icon changes to reflectthe type of item that can be constructedin the selected map area. For the mostpart, the icons represent the followingfunctions: “place a flag,” “construct ahut,” or “construct a large building.”When you left-click on these options,the icon is highlighted along with a newwindow with a choice of buildings. Insome cases, not all available buildingscan be displayed at once in the menu,so you can scroll through them by click-

ing on the “change page” icon. Chooseone of them and left-click on it to givethe order to construct. The window dis-appears and you see the first stone of theconstruction or a cross on the screen.The first stone means that a house willbe built in this place. The cross meansthe same except that the ground mustfirst be leveled to provide a solid foun-dation for the large building.

If you decide not to construct a buildingon the chosen area, left-click on thehighlighted icon and quit the construc-tion mode. Your new building mustconnect with your current network of roads before it receives supplies for its construction.

Constructing RoadsThe serfs need roads so that they canaccess the different areas of the king-dom. These roads always run from oneflag to another. Your network of roads isvery important. A good network ensuresthe rapid transfer of goods. The flagsserve as intersections. Six roads canbegin at each flag to lead to other flags.There is a flag in front of each one ofyour buildings, as well.

You must connect all your newly creat-ed construction sites to your maincastle via roadways. You see a flag infront of the construction site, just like

9

On the Right Path

Demolishing buildings: Left-click on the desired building.The second menu icon from

the left transforms into a ruin. Special-click on this ruin to set the building onfire and burn it down. If a serf lives inthe building, he returns to the castleand waits for a new job.

Demolishing roads: Left-clickanywhere on a road and the“demolish road” icon appears

in the menu. Special-click on this iconto remove the road. The transportersthat worked on this road return to thecastle and wait for new work. The otherserfs on this road run toward the nextflag and continue on their way.

Demolishing flags: You can demolish a flag. Left-click on the flag that you want to remove and a ruinappears in the menu (if the flag’sdemolition is possible).

Urban renewal: If you want to con-struct a new building in the place ofanother, select the old building andthen select the construction icon inthe menu. A new menu with a list ofbuildings that can be built on theconstruction site appears. Special-click on the building you want andthe old building is burned down andthe new building is built.

Saving and Ending the Game

In two-player mode, theseoptions can only be activatedby the player on the left. Left-

click on the right menu icon and newoptions appear. For now, do not payattention to the upper icons, but onlyto the SAVE option and END at thebottom of the screen.

To quit the current game, left-click onthe END option. The program asksyou to confirm. If you have been play-ing for more than one minute or if youhave not saved the game after morethan one minute, the program asks youto confirm a second time. You thenreturn to the main menu. To exit toDOS, click on the small button at thetop left of the menu.

The SAVE option allows you to accessthe saved game menu. The list of savedgames appears on the screen. To savethe current game, left-click on one of theten areas and then on the “New name”option to enter a new name. If you wantto save a game with the same name as agame already saved, you don’t have toenter a new name. Be careful! The gamealready saved is erased by the newgame. Left-click on the SAVE option tosave the current game.

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On the Right Path

The First SerfsWhen the road leading to the first con-struction site is built, the first serfs beginto leave your castle.

The first serf who leaves the castle is atransporter. He takes 100 steps on thenew road and looks to see if there issome merchandise that needs to betransported. As soon as he sees somemerchandise on the road to transport,he takes it to the next flag.

At the beginning of the game, you havetwenty serfs. Some of them alreadyhave jobs, others are waiting for jobs.

If you want to build a large building, aserf with an orange helmet and a shovel(the leveler) arrives and walks towardthe construction site. Once there, helevels the ground. When he has fin-ished, the cross on the site becomes abuilding foundation and the serf returnsto the castle. A construction worker thengoes to the site to finish the building.

If you want to build a small building, aserf with a yellow helmet (constructionworker) arrives and looks for his workarea. He then waits for the constructionmaterials to arrive so he can beginbuilding the house.

Another serf distributes the constructionmaterial from the castle to the construc-tion site; this is always wood andeventually may include stones (depend-ing on what type of building is beingbuilt). The construction worker immedi-

ately begins working and you soon seescaffolding; eventually, the buildingitself is finished. Small huts are builtvery quickly; larger buildings takemuch longer.

The construction worker returns to thecastle as soon as he finishes his job. Anew worker then arrives to start work inthe new building. The occupation ofthe worker who moves in depends onthe type of house that you built for him.The functions of each worker and ofeach building are explained further on.

If you construct a water way, a serf with aboat leaves the castle and walks towardthe new water way. This serf is able touse the water way to move merchandise.

You do not have to wait for the con-struction of your house to be finishedbefore giving orders to construct otherthings (houses, roads, etc.).

Your serfs go about their tasks automati-cally when adequately supplied withresources. This is true not only for thetransporters and the construction work-ers, but also for all the other serfs thatyou see later in the game.

DemolitionYou may want to demolish a building,road, or flag for a number of reasons. Toavoid demolishing something by inad-vertently pressing a mouse button, aspecial-click is required to use thedemolish function.

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On the Right Path

For the garrison and the guard tower, aleveler begins by leveling the ground.You have to have the constructionmaterials transported. While the hutrequires only one delivery of wood andstones, the garrison requires at least ten.

As soon as the guard hut is built, aknight leaves your castle in order tooccupy it. When the first knight arrivesin a guard hut, guard tower, or garrison,your rural property grows. Look and yousee the property limits have expanded.This is how your kingdom ‘grows’ andincreases its geographic area.

To inform you of this growth (if youwere looking elsewhere in the world),you hear a noise telling you that youhave received a message. Left-click onthe piece of paper (located in the lowerleft of your screen) and you learn that abuilding has been occupied by aknight. Next, some gold is brought tothe hut.

A white flag flies in front of the guardhut. Later, flags are flown on the guardtower and on the garrison towers. Theflag’s height indicates the building’soccupation rate. A hut can house up tothree knights, a guard tower can houseup to six knights, and a garrison canhouse up to twelve knights.

The icon on the flag indicates anenemy’s distance. The white flagsignifies that there is no enemycolony nearby and that there isno danger of being attacked inthe immediate future. If youlater you play against computer-controlled opponents or anotherplayer, other symbols appear on theflags. When the enemy gets closeenough, a black stripe appears on theflag. As the enemy approaches, thestripe changes to a black cross. Whenthe enemy is right outside your door, theflag has a very thick black cross. (In thelatter case, you should definitely pre-pare for an attack.)

THE OVERHEAD MAP

Familiarize yourself with the overheadmap. Left-click on the map icon and themap appears. You see several blue dotswhere your buildings (finished or stillunder construction) are located. The lefticon activates the map presentationmode in one of 3 ways:

scenery

scenery + property

property

Left-click on this icon. After the first left-click, the map’s image changes just alittle. Around the blue dots (your build-ings), you now see a surface with dots

14

The Training Games

After beginning the game, choose alocation to build your castle. You don’tneed to worry about the fertility of thesoil or the trees. Give the order to con-

struct the three required buildings andwait (use the help functions for con-struction if you cannot find a goodlocation right away).

13

The Training Games

THE TRAINING GAMESYou now know the game’s basic principles and can begin with the first traininggame. Each building is explained and the program tells you where you should becareful. Each training game contains orders which are specified in the instructions.You can play and follow the game’s progression on the screen.

In the training games, you are supplied with many tools, food, construction materi-als, and serfs.

When certain important events occur, you are informed by a sound and a small blink-ing icon that looks like a piece of paper; it appears in the bottom left of the menu. Ifyou left-click on the piece of paper, a message is displayed on the screen and the com-puter moves the screen to where the event is taking place. If you left-click on thecheck mark in the window the message disappears.

Training Game 1 – LandOrders: Have your serfs construct a guard hut, a guard tower, and a garrison.

BUILDING A GUARD HUT, GUARD TOWER, AND GARRISON

Guard Hut Guard Tower Garrison

This time, you have to watch thescenery very closely. Choose an areawith trees and, more importantly, a fewslabs of granite (the large gray boulders)and place your main castle next to it.

You must obtain stones and wood.These materials are necessary for theconstruction of buildings and are gener-ally the first things that you must takecare of in a new serfdom. The stonescome from granite that a quarrymanlooks for in rock formations. The woodis a little more complicated. You need alumberjack to cut down trees and asawmill worker to transform the trunksinto boards so the wood can be used.The forest ranger is described in thissection because he plants new trees.

The forest ranger is constantly in theprocess of planting new trees. After awhile, the trees grow and can then be

cut down. If you cut the trees downwithout planting new ones, you quicklyfind yourself with a shortage of wood.

You can place a forest ranger next to alumberjack. The two complement eachother very well. If there is no lumber-jack next to the forest ranger, you willsoon have a new forest, but no woodfor construction.

Place a lumberjack’s hut near the trees,preferably in the middle of a small for-est, and a quarryman’s hut somewherenear the slabs of granite. Look for anappropriate location for the sawmill(which is a large building) and place theforester’s house where there aren’tmany trees. Connect the buildings withroads. If you have done everything cor-rectly, your work is finished. The rest isdone by your serfs!

16

The Training Games

that indicate the size of your property. Ifyou left-click again on this icon, thescenery disappears completely. Onlyyour property is still displayed in blue,and the buildings are represented by lit-tle white dots. If you left-click a thirdtime on this icon, you return to themode that you started with. If you areplaying against other players or againstthe computer, their property is dis-played in their color.

Return once again to “property” mode(no more scenery) and left-click on thesecond icon from the left. You see yournetwork of roads on the map. If youleft-click again on this icon, the roadsdisappear. The third icon from the rightallows you to activate or deactivate thebuildings on the map. Quit the map byleft-clicking on the highlighted icon.

Let’s see what your serfs are doing.When the buildings are completed, awindow appears to let you know thatthe order was executed. You can con-tinue with this game or move to thenext training game.

15

The Training Games

Forest Ranger’s Hut Lumberjack’s Hut Sawmill Quarryman’s Hut

Training Game 2 – Creating Construction Materials Orders: Fabricate at least five units of wood and five units of stone.

BUILDING A FOREST RANGER’S HUT, LUMBERJACK’S HUT, SAWMILL, AND QUARRYMAN’S HUT

Your fisherman needs a lake locatednear the castle. Your farmer needs alarge area for his farm so he can growwheat. You do not need any under-ground riches or other raw materials yet.

To allow your serfs to work during thefollowing explanation, construct the sixrequired buildings and continue read-ing while the structures are being puttogether. Build:

❖ the farm (a large building), prefer-ably with a lot of free space, as thefarmer needs land to plant wheat

❖ the fisherman’s hut, as close aspossible to the lake

❖ the pig farm, the bakery, thebutcher’s shop, and the windmillin the locations of your choice

If you connect the buildings with roads,be careful not to build roads on thebanks of the lake because the fishermandoes not fish from the road. He doesnot want to hinder the transportation of merchandise.

You have three methods of obtainingfood:

❖ The simplest method is by fishing.A fisherman goes fishing and hisfish can be used as food. Onedrawback: you need a lake, andwhen there are too many fisher-men on a little lake, it is quicklycleared of fish. As long as thereare fish, they reproduce. Avoid“over fishing” if you want to con-tinue fishing for a long time.

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They build huts and level the groundfor the sawmill. The workers arrive afterthe construction of the buildings. Thelumberjack goes to his hut and leaves ita little while later to find a tree to cutdown. After cutting it down, he lops offthe branches and brings the trunk to hishut. He then rests a while before return-ing to work. A transporter sees the trunkand comes to take it. As your sawmill isprobably still under construction, thetrunk is temporarily stored in the castle.

The quarryman climbs on a boulderand hammers it with his pickax until heextracts a few stones. He puts them infront of his hut where a transportercomes and takes them to the castle (ifthe stones are not needed on a con-struction site).

The sawmill is the last building to becompleted as it is the largest of the four.The sawmill worker goes to thesawmill and waits for the tree trunksthat are brought from the castle or bythe lumberjack. The sawmill workerthen cuts them up and puts the boardsin front of the mill. These boards arestored in the castle until they are used.

As soon as you have fabricated thematerials asked for, you will haveaccomplished your mission.

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Windmill Bakery Pig Farm Butcher Shop

Training Game 3 – Making Food and Transporting ItOrders: Fabricate five units of each of the following foods: fish, meat, and bread.

THE FISHERMAN, FARMER, MILLER, BAKER, PIG FARMER, AND BUTCHER

Fisherman’s Hut Farm (Wheat)

❖ It is possible to construct twoparallel roads between two flags.When one of the roads is crowd-ed, another one can be used totransport the merchandise. Thissolution is not necessary if youconstruct several crossover roads,but it is very important to have agood network. If certain lanes oftransport are crowded and themerchandise begins to pile up,your serfs are intelligent enoughto transport the merchandise onanother, less crowded, road — aslong as it exists! The least effi-cient type of network is the onein the shape of a star beginning atthe castle. In this case, all mer-chandise is transported on one ofthe star’s branches and will haveto pass in front of the castle inorder to access another branch.An efficient network is a “grided”network that looks like a piece ofgraph paper. To simplify things,construct several connectionsbetween the buildings so thatyour city grows more quickly andwith less effort. If you display theroads on the map in “property”mode, you clearly see the placeswhere the “crossover” connec-tions are missing.

Let’s look at our game again and theserfs at work:

The fisherman sits on the bank of thelake and begins fishing. Depending onthe number of fish living in the lake, hefishes more or less rapidly. He may notcatch anything. Fish are taken to the cas-tle and stored to later feed the miners.

The farmer spreads his wheat seeds, letsthem grow, and then harvests the wheatwhich is then taken to the windmill, thepig farmer, or stored in the castle.

As soon as the wheat is received, themiller grinds it and delivers the flour insacks to the baker. The baker kneadsthe dough and makes bread.

The pig farmer uses the farmer’s wheatto feed his pigs, and he will soon beable to send some of the pigs to thebutcher. The butcher cuts up the meatand hangs it up for storage.

As you have seen, the farmer providesthe pig farmer and the miller withwheat. His production may at times beinsufficient and he may not be able todeliver his wheat to both of them,even though they are continuallyawaiting a new delivery. In this case,build another farm.

Wait for all the food to be fabricatedbefore moving to Training Game 4.

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❖ The second method is by makingbread. The farmer grows thewheat. When the wheat ismature, it is harvested and atransporter takes it to the miller(in the windmill), who transformsit into flour. The sacks of flour arethen taken to the baker who usesthem to make bread. Note thatthis method requires morepatience, but its return is better.

❖ The third method takes as muchtime as the previous method, butrequires less space. The farmerprovides the pig farmer withwheat, who then uses it to feed hispigs. When the pigs reproduce,the farmer removes a pig from hisfarm. It is taken to the butcherwho uses it to make meat.

Food is used to feed the miners whowork in the mountains. They strike ifthey don’t have anything to eat. Providethe food that is easiest for you to supply.

TRANSPORTING FOOD ANDCONSTRUCTING ROADS

Let’s use this occasion to look at someuseful information concerning roadconstruction. This is not very importantfor your current serfdom, but itbecomes crucial when you have builttwenty or more houses.

There is often a lot of circulation infront of the castle. Later on, when youhave constructed several buildings, youwill have to place them strategicallyand build roads in a practical manner.For example, the transportation ofwheat on a road between the farm andthe mill that passes in front of the castleis likely to slow down the transportationof construction materials. Group allrelated buildings together and build asystem of roadways that does not passin front of the castle. Put a sawmill neara lumberjack’s hut, for example.

It is also very important to have a goodnetwork of roads. To accomplish this,take several factors into account. Theconstruction of an additional small con-necting road can considerably improvethe transportation of merchandise. Theexperience that you acquire after a fewgames helps. We will, nonetheless, giveyou a few tips:

❖ Avoid red (steep slope) sections of road; it is better to make adetour by using two other roadsections because the speed withwhich the merchandise is trans-ported on a road always dependson the slowest section of the road.

❖ Do not clog up a flag’s six possi-ble branches with a road that, forexample, goes halfway aroundthe flag. You will have a hardtime enlarging your network ofroads. In this case, try to constructa straighter road.

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The Training Games

You must place a flag somewhere in themountains. Connect this flag to the restof the network and special-click on it. Awindow with a few symbols appears.Disregard them all except for the geolo-gist’s head, at the bottom.Left-click on the geologist and hetells you that he has received his orders.He then leaves the castle and heads offtoward the mountains. Once there, heexamines the ground and takes a fewsamples. If he finds any riches, hejumps for joy and plants a sign in theground to indicate what he has found.

This sign shows a small circle if thereare small quantities of undergroundriches and a large circle if there arelarge quantities. The circle can be oneof four colors: yellow for gold, red foriron, black for coal, and light gray forgranite. If the geologist does not findanything, he plants a blank sign. Whenhe finds underground riches for thefirst time, you receive a messagebecause you may not be there towatch him work.

You can send the geologist toward anyflag (as long as it is connected to thenetwork of roads) and even toward theflags in front of buildings. The geologistexamines the area and returns home ifhe does not find any mountains.

To accomplish the goal of your trainingmission, you must find coal, gold, andiron. Do not hesitate to send severalgeologists into the mountains and toexpand your property by constructingguard huts if underground riches arenot nearby. You have probably noticedalready that the guard huts cannot beconstructed in the mountains. You willhave to “surround” the large mountainswith guard huts if you want to find themost underground riches.

Begin constructing a mine as soon asyou have found a likely location. Assoon as the mine is connected to thenetwork of roads, a construction workerarrives and goes to work.

If you have given the order to constructat least one mine for the exploitation ofgold, one for iron, one for granite, andone for coal, you must now beginthinking about building some foundries.Select a location near the castle andhave your serfs construct the gold andiron foundries.

Your workers construct the mines andthe foundries while the miners arelooking for the necessary raw materi-als. Food is brought from the castle tothe mines. The raw materials that youfind are taken to the foundries wherethe unrefined gold is transformed into

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The Training Games

Underground riches are extracted fromthe mountains. Raw ores are transport-ed from the mines to the foundrieswhere the ore is refined into pure gold,iron, and coal. Iron is an importantraw material because it allows you toforge new weapons and tools. Gold isalso very important because it raisesthe morale of the knights. When theknights think about their future for-tune, they fight with more vigor. Coalis very important too. You need coalfor the casters in the foundries and the blacksmith needs coal to forgeweapons. Granite is the least impor-tant raw material; however, if there isno source of granite on the surface, thesituation could change as you need

stones for all the large buildings.Granite is the only raw material foundboth above and under the ground.

Put your castle in a mountainous regionand remember to ask for the geologist’shelp. Place your castle close to an areawhere you find coal, iron, and gold.Immediately construct guard huts in thearea in order to expand your rural prop-erty and prospect further into themountains to find underground riches.We can now move on to the first geo-logical prospects.

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The Training Games

Gold Coal Iron Granite Gold IronMine Mine Mine Mine Foundry Foundry

Training Game 4 – Mining and Using Gold, Iron, and CoalOrders: Search for the underground riches and find

at least five units of gold and of iron.

MINES AND FOUNDRIES

This training game allows you to createfour new buildings: the shipmaker’sshop, the blacksmith’s shop, the toolmaker’s shop and the warehouse. Youlearn how to fabricate objects with thematerials that you have extracted in thepreceding section. The blacksmithmakes weapons with iron but he needscoal. The tool maker makes varioustools from wood and iron that are usedby the other serfs. The ship maker onlyneeds wood to construct his boats. Heis the least used worker and is general-ly needed only in worlds containinglarge expanses of water.

This time, you can choose a locationwithout worrying about the richness ofthe ground because you already havethe necessary materials stored in yourcastle at the beginning of the game.Choose any location that providesenough space for several large build-ings. Construct an iron forge, a shopfor the tool maker, a naval shipyard,and a warehouse.

Give wood to the ship maker; he deliv-ers the first boats as soon as he is done.The workers can then take these boatsto the banks of the lake and transporttheir merchandise on this water way.This method of transportation is oftenquicker than the land routes.

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gold and the iron ore into iron. As youdon’t immediately need either of theseraw materials for your city, they arestored in the castle. You are givensome additional information while thegame progresses.

If your network of roads has been poor-ly constructed, you will see it in thistraining game. If the mines produce toomany raw materials, and if you have setup only one road (which may also besteep) between the mines and thefoundries, you will have trouble withthe transportation of merchandise.Build other roads to clear congestion.The new roads are used instead, andthe merchandise gets to its destinationmuch more quickly.

Underground riches are, naturally, limit-ed. When a deposit starts to run low, theminer finds fewer raw materials. Youreceive a message as soon as a mine hasbeen stripped of raw materials.

Too many mines can be a problem ifyou’re not producing enough food. Ifyour food stocks are low and youcan’t obtain it quickly enough, demol-ish the excess mines. A miner whodoesn’t receive food strikes andbegins marching in front of the mineto show his anger.

The geologist’s signs disappear withtime. You can, however, ask for a newinspection at any time to see if there areany remaining underground riches inthe areas surrounding an existing mine.

If you are not in a hurry to build themines, wait until the geologist plantsseveral signs so that you can be sure tofind a profitable deposit. On the otherhand, if you are playing against otherplayers or against computer-controlledopponents, you should construct themines as soon as you think a depositmay exist because each minute counts.

If the program ever denies your requestfor a geologist this means that you donot have any more workers or toolsavailable. You must wait a few secondsbefore asking for another geologist.

To conclude, here is a tip to better placeyour flags in the mountains. When you place a flag for a geologist, it isbecause you plan to construct a mine inthis location later on. If there are under-ground riches, left-click on the con-struction help function and choose alocation to build your mine. Next placethe flag next to this location, in thelower right. Later, you can construct amine next to the flag; you won’t need anew road or a new transporter, and themine will be built more rapidly.

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The Training Games

Shipmaker’s Shop Blacksmith’s Shop Tool Maker’s Shop

Training Game 5 – Making Tools and WeaponsOrders: Make at least ten weapons, ten tools, and five boats.

THE SHIP MAKER, BLACKSMITH, AND TOOL MAKER

Evenly distribute the warehouses to avoidall this. The warehouse offers practicallyall the same benefits as your castle:

❖ When you receive new serfs, theyare divided up between the castleand the warehouse.

❖ Excess merchandise was broughtto the castle up until now. It isnow taken to the nearest ware-house, thereby cutting down onreturn trips.

❖ Merchandise (on a constructionsite for example) is ordered fromthe nearest warehouse having therequired materials, so the distanceto the site is reduced.

❖ A worker no longer returns to thecastle after his work is finishedbut goes to the nearest warehouseand waits for his next job. The tripfor your workers to their worksites is reduced.

❖ If a building requires the presenceof a new worker, he is hired fromthe nearest warehouse, so his tripis shorter.

These various points demonstrate thatan even distribution of warehouses isessential. As soon as your warehouse isbuilt, you receive a message.

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The Training Games

Supply the blacksmith with coal andiron. He forges swords and shields thatyour knights need to guard your castleand attack the enemy. The weapons aredelivered to the castle where each newknight can take what he needs.

Supply the tool maker with wood andiron to make nine different tools: ham-mer, saw, hatchet, shovel, scythe, pick,fishing pole, pliers, and butcher’s knife.These tools are delivered to the castleand used by the workers. Dependingon their professions, they need differenttools. Some workers (for example, thebaker) don’t use any tools, but mostjobs require at least one tool while oth-ers need two:

❖ leveler – shovel

❖ fisherman – fishing pole

❖ butcher – butcher’s knife

❖ farmer – scythe

❖ lumberjack – axe

❖ sawmill worker – saw

❖ miner – pick

❖ quarryman – pick

❖ construction worker – hammer

❖ ship maker – hammer

❖ geologist – hammer

❖ tool maker – hammer and saw

❖ blacksmith – hammer and pliers

You may wonder why you must makethe tools when the workers automati-cally leave the castle with their toolsin hand. It is because at the beginningof the game, you had a certain supplyof construction materials, food, andtools. For the early training games youhad a large stock to start off with andtherefore did not have to fabricatetools or merchandise.

THE WAREHOUSE

The warehouse isused to store mer-chandise. It is also aplace where serfswait for new work (as

at the castle). This is why the ware-house is, with the castle, one of themost important buildings. In a relativelylarge city, the castle quickly reaches itscapacity without an additional ware-house. As soon as the warehouse isbuilt, a serf leaves the castle and goes tothe warehouse. You thereby have a sortof “second castle.” The expansion ofyour city can be difficult to control ifyou only have a castle. The workerstake too much time to go from the cas-tle to the construction site, or theyproduce so much merchandise that itwill start to pile up on the road to thecastle and the transporters can nolonger do their job.

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The Training Games

mine or warehouse is in flames, thenyour serfdom’s stability may also begoing up in smoke.

When you have built your first guardhuts and they are occupied by knights,you see flags with a thick cross. Allguard huts that are located near theenemy’s territory and that can be target-ed for attack are marked by this cross.

Special-click on any enemy buildinghaving a thick cross on its flag. A newwindow appears allowing you to enterthe number of knights you want tohave attack it. The four numbers in themiddle indicate the number of avail-able knights, and then numbers forknights in the surrounding areas, faraway, or very far away. The distance isnot an essential factor but the knightswill need more time to reach theenemy. If all the numbers are zeros,there are not enough knights in yourbuildings. You should know that all theknights that enter a building cannot besent into battle because you need someto defend the building should it beattacked by enemies.

Launch a new attack; two arrows allowyou to modify the number of knightsthat attack the enemy.

If you have sent all your availableknights into combat, you cannot launchother attacks. You see, however, otherknights immediately leave your castle toreplace those who have left for battle.

When you seize an enemy building,you receive a message.

Enemy knights engage each other shouldthey, by coincidence, meet somewhereon the map.

If the enemy attacks you at an importantcorner of your serfdom, look for theenemy garrison nearest the battle andgive the order to attack this building. Ifyour knights meet the enemies on theirmarch, they attack the troops wherethey meet them. Of course, the enemiesmust be visible; if there are hills separat-ing the soldiers, they can march parallelto each other and be totally unaware ofthe other.

FRONTIER STRATEGY

Here’s a final point that does not con-cern the knights, but rather your ruralproperty: do not construct civilianbuildings near the enemy frontier. If theenemy constructs a guard hut near thefrontier at the same time you startbuilding there, but he finishes beforeyou do, he will burn down any of yourunfinished construction.

Garrisons situated near the frontier areof no help to you because constructiontakes too long. You can try to finishguard huts before your opponents do,or place your buildings in safer loca-tions to begin with. Naturally, you canuse this strategy against your opponentsif they had the bad idea of constructinglarge buildings too close to the frontier.

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The objective of this training game is toconquer certain buildings with yourknights. Left-click on the overhead mapand examine the locations of theenemy’s buildings. Choose a locationclose to the enemy so that you do nothave to travel very far to attack.

Construct guard huts around yourfrontier. While your serfs are working,we can take a look at the knights.

There are five kinds of knights in thegame. When you receive a new knight,he starts at the lowest level. He can,however, receive training in the maincastle (or later in a warehouse) andchange levels. A knight can also receivetraining in a guard tower or in the gar-risons, but he progresses very slowlybecause he has to work at the sametime. However, during his service hewill not improve his skills if he sits in aguard hut.

The advantages and disadvantagesare clear: if you leave the knights inthe castle, they become well-trained,but your city will be poorly guarded.If you send your knights outside, your

buildings will be well-guarded butthe enemy may have more powerfulknights that could pose problems foryou. If you have built several towersand guard huts, your knights will goto them. In this training game, how-ever, your opponents are defenseless.

You only attack castles, garrisons, guardtowers, or guard huts belonging to theenemy. A knight won’t attack a farmer,fisherman, nor any other civilian serf.When you attack, your knights marchtoward the enemy building(s). An enemyknight comes out of the enemy buildingand a combat ensues, leaving one knightvictorious; there are no ties in combat.

After a while, either the attackers or thedefending knights in the enemy build-ing are eliminated. If there are noknights in the enemy building, theattacker is victorious and takes controlof the building. The frontiers of yourcity are consequently modified. Thevictorious knights burn any otherunguarded enemy buildings that theycan. Such a defeat can be devastatingfor a city. If, for example, your only coal

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The Training Games

Training Game 6 – Attack and Conquer Enemy BuildingsOrders: Conquer several enemy buildings.

KNIGHTS

Your First Serfdom –Mission OneIt is essential to build an “active” city.To do this, you need all the buildings.

When you select the first mission,notice that you do not have a largebeginning supply level, so be careful.The first thing to do is to find a goodlocation for your castle; refer to the sec-tion “The Castle” on page 7 earlier inthis manual. Try to expand your ruralproperty immediately.

Place two to four guard huts near thefrontier. The construction of guard tow-ers and garrisons requires more timeand slows down your expansion. Makesure that you have enough constructionmaterials to avoid big problems build-ing the necessary buildings.

Place a lumberjack, sawmill, and quar-ryman’s hut in appropriate locations.

After completing these three tasks, the game becomes more complex.Depending on the layout of your land,you can do certain things. As soon aspossible, send the geologists into themountains. Based on their findings,construct mines in the appropriate loca-tions. Construct a gold or iron foundry,and a forge or a tool factory (based onthe underground riches found).

If you can rapidly fabricate weapons,you gain an advantage during combat.

As soon as the geologists start prospect-ing in the mountains, think about themine workers and their food. If there isa lake in the area, build a fisherman’shut. The fish he catches can be storedbefore the first mines are built. Meatproduction and the fabrication of breadtake some time. When the castle’swheat reserves (for the pigs and thewindmill) run low, you need to wait fora farmer to plant and harvest morewheat. If no lake is in the area, build afarm as quickly as possible. You canchoose between meat or bread,depending on the situation. If the ene-mies are still far away and you possessa lot of land, choose the bread becauseit is faster. Place windmills and bakersclose to the farms.

Bread is the most efficient source offood. If you don’t have enough space,we recommend pig farming. You needonly one farmer to supply the pig farm-ers with wheat.

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The Economy

THE ECONOMY

The Economic SystemIt is essential to know the economicaspects of each building type and how that building is tied into the “grandscheme” of your serfdom. Here is a summary.

THE FOOD CHAIN

The food chain refers to the productionof fish, meat, and bread. The fishermancatches fish for immediate consump-tion. The farmer plants and harvestswheat that is taken to the pig farmerwho feeds his pigs with it. The pigsreproduce and can later be slaughteredfor meat. Or, the farmer’s wheat can beground by the miller in his windmilland transformed into flour for the bakerto make bread. In either case, you cre-ate food for your workers.

MERCHANDISE

Merchandise refers to tools, weapons,boats, gold, and construction materialsfor buildings. The tools, weapons, andboats are stored in the warehouses. Thegold is guarded in the castle, the gar-risons, the guard towers, and the guardhuts. The tool maker needs wood andiron. The wood comes from the sawmillwhere the tree trunks furnished by thelumberjack are cut. The iron is purifiedin a foundry. The caster needs ore andcoal for the forge. These two materialsare extracted from the mines. To fabri-cate weapons, the blacksmith needsiron and coal. The ship maker needswood for his boats. For the constructionof your buildings, you need (in mostcases) wood and granite. The use ofiron, coal, and wood for the fabricationof tools has already been discussed.The granite is found either aboveground in rock formations, or belowground in a granite mine. The unrefinedgold is extracted from the mines. Thegold is refined by a goldsmith fromunrefined gold. What follows gives youa better understanding of the numerousfactors that affect the game.

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The Economy

Left-click on the right icon, in the center.You see various heads and numbers. Thestatistics concern your serfs. Each headrepresents a profession, with the numberof people practicing this profession. Thehead with a question mark (in the lowerright) indicates the number of serfs thatdo not have a profession yet. A goodplayer tries to have a minimum of unem-ployed serfs in order to increaseproduction and yield. The last number inthe lower right indicates the total num-ber of your serfs. To quit these statistics,left-click anywhere in the window.

Left-click on the left icon, in the center.These statistics represent your supplies;they show the type and quantity of mer-chandise stored in your warehouses.The merchandise stored in the ware-houses is not immediately important,but a large reserve of wood and graniteis a good sign because you will haveenough materials for your constructionprojects. On the other hand, if you havea lot of iron ore in your warehouses,and you do not have enough ironfoundries or coal in your city. . . . Youmust always stay one step ahead.

THE STATISTIC CURVES

The statistics of comparison and of production

In the statistics menu, left-click on the bottom icon inthe center. You see the com-

parison statistics. The color of the

curves corresponds to the differentplayers. Your color is sky blue, thesame as your serfs’. The vertical scaleranges from 0 to 100%, and the hori-zontal scale represents time. The curvechanges over time, from left to right.The unit used is the hour (.5 hour = 30minutes). You can choose the displaymode for the statistics in the lower leftof the screen: upper left = overall com-parison; upper right = comparison ofrural properties; lower left = compari-son of the buildings; and lower right =combat power.

In the lower right, you see four othericons that correspond to the time. Thefour positions correspond to .5 hours, 2hours, 10 hours, and 50 (!) hours.

The comparison of the rural propertiesonly indicates the size of your landcompared to that of your opponents’.The buildings are evaluated accordingto their size and type, and not justaccording to their quantity. The combatpower depends on the number, type,and motivation of your knights. Theoverall comparison is based on all threeof these values.

These statistics are the only way toobtain precise information about youradversaries. You know who has themost powerful army and who possessesthe most land. If the curves rise veryquickly at the beginning of the game,do not worry. It is not an error. The

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The Economy

Remember that lumberjacks cut downtrees constantly, and unless you planahead this may leave you without a sin-gle standing tree. Try to have forestrangers plant trees as soon as possible.

If the region contains large lakes, takeadvantage of the speed of the waterways. You will eventually need a shipmaker if you are short on boats.

Above all, remember to build ware-houses. They alleviate congestion onthe roads and speed your progress.

The guard towers and garrisons areessential to protect important buildings,especially the warehouses. Dependingon the progression of the game, a mineor a tool maker could also be veryimportant (especially if you only haveone of them)! Place your garrisons inthese areas. Don’t let the enemy destroyyour economic system because of asmall victory!

Watch the enemy closely! Find a freemoment in your schedule to see whatyour adversary is doing. Is he already inthe process of making weapons? Howfar away is he? Which lands should youoccupy before the enemy annexes them?Which locations are poorly protectedwhere an attack could be successful?

Your first attempt to construct a citywith several huts and different housesmay not be entirely satisfactory. Don’tbe discouraged. The next time, you canbetter plan your city without makingthe same mistakes. Experience helps.

About StatisticsTHE FIRST STATISTICS

There are statistics for serfs, buildings,and warehouses. They allow you toquickly get an idea about importantareas. At the beginning of the game, thestatistics are not very interesting; youdo, however, have to look at them reg-ularly during the course of the game tosee, for example, when you are shorton supplies such as wood or food.

To see the statistics, left-clickon the second icon from theright in the main menu. Eight

other icons are displayed. Each icon cor-responds to specific statistics. If youleft-click on the middle icon, the build-ings’ statistics appear. They indicate thenumber of each type of building that youhave in your serfdom. All buildings can-not be displayed on one page; thebottom icon allows you to scroll throughthe pages and see the other types ofbuildings. If the number is followed by a+ and another number, then buildings ofthis type are under construction. 2 + 1means two buildings are completed andone is under construction. These statis-tics also allow you to foresee certaindifficulties. For example, if you have tenlumberjacks, they cut down a largequantity of trees; one sawmill may notbe enough to cut all the wood, and youmay even run out of trees for them tocut. Adjust your resources for optimumreturns. To quit the statistics and return tothe eight icons, left-click on EXIT.

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The Economy

profession in the direction of the arrow.The diagram is presented as follows: thefarmer (in the upper right) delivers thewheat to the miller and the pig farmer.The miller delivers the flour to the bakerwho, in turn, delivers the bread. Thepig farmer delivers pigs to the butcherwho delivers the meat. The fisherman(in the lower left) delivers the fish. Thebread, meat, and fish are the threefoods that are delivered to the mines.The pointers are important in this dia-gram. There are two types:

1. This is the supply pointer (forthe pig farmer or the miners, for exam-ple). The dial is, from left to right: red(no supply), yellow (good supply), andgreen (excellent supply). This dial indi-cates the supply of the professions; themore merchandise they receive, thebetter off they are. The pig farmerprefers having a lot of wheat to feed hispigs, rather than a meager, or non-exis-tent, supply.

2. This is the activity pointer (forthe miller or butcher, for example). Thisdial is, from left to right: red (no work),green (a lot of work), and yellow (toomuch work). This means that the idealsituation for the person receiving themerchandise is to receive neither toomuch nor too little. If the miller doesnot receive enough wheat, he has nowork and his windmill is useless. If hereceives a normal delivery, his mill is

active and he is busy. If he receives toomuch wheat, however, he is unable tokeep up with the work. The mill turnsconstantly, but the wheat arrives tooquickly and begins to pile up. After awhile, you have to put this surplus in awarehouse. If you build another wind-mill, you can produce more flour. Later,when you have ten millers, you can seethe average activity rate for all thewindmills. You see if the mines arewell-supplied, and if the pig farmer isreceiving enough wheat to feed hispigs. Don’t be surprised if you don’t seea pointer at the beginning of the game,as the food supply for a mine cannot beindicated if it does not exist.

Merchandise StatisticsThese statistics are identical tothose for food, except thatthey represent all merchandiseexcept food. The suppliers of raw mate-rials are indicated to the left (miners, forexample). The intermediate professionsare in the center (casters, for example).The users are to the right (knights, forexample).

The arrows indicate the direction of thedelivery, as explained above. The oth-ers function as per the food chain. Theonly difference is that certain profes-sions (casters and blacksmiths) cannotdo anything if there is iron but no coal.

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The Economy

player who places his castle first ismomentarily the only person to possessland and a building (100%).

To see the production statistics concern-ing all players, left-click on the lowerleft icon. These statistics indicate thetype and quantity of merchandise pro-duced. The vertical scale correspondsto the quantity, in units. The horizontalscale represents the time.

In these statistics, the time counted isaround two hours. At the beginning ofthe game, these statistics are at zero(you have not produced anything yet).Later on, however, you can choose atthe bottom of the screen the merchan-dise that your serfs produce. From treesto tools, you find all the different typesof merchandise.

If you have, for example, selected thetrees at the bottom and the red surfaceof the vertical scale stays at one, thismeans that your lumberjacks are cut-ting down about one tree per minute.

This may seem rather confusing, butyou will learn to interpret these statisticsbetter with practice.

THE SUPPLY STATISTICS

In these three statistics, small pointersindicate the state of your supply. Thefood chain and the flow of merchandiseare the most important statistics if yourcity is relatively large.

Professions StatisticsLet’s begin with the statisticsabout the professions. Left-click on the upper right icon.

As with the statistics for the serfs, all theheads appear, but with pointers. Thepointers indicate the availability of serfsthat you can use for the correspondingprofession. If none are available, thepointer stays in the red. It is in the cen-ter if you have three serfs, and to theright if you have twenty or more serfs.

Before building a forge,look at the statistics. If youneed a blacksmith and the pointer isred, no serf is available, or perhaps atool that he needs is not available inthe warehouses. The number in thelower right indicates the number ofserfs who are waiting for work. If thisnumber is ten or greater, and a profes-sion’s pointer is in the red, you lacktools for this profession.

Food Chain StatisticsLet’s look at the food chain. You see adiagram with heads, merchandise,pointers, and arrows. Each head repre-sents a profession. The merchandise isdelivered by one profession to another

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The Economy

You sometimes have problems whenunemployed serfs are in the ware-house and the weapons and tools arestored elsewhere. In this case, yourserfs automatically go to a warehousewhere tools are stocked and wait therefor work. You have similar problemswith the tools when the pliers are inone warehouse and the hammers inanother. No blacksmith can set upshop, as he needs both tools. Thisholds true for the tool maker (saw andhammer) and for the knights (swordand shield). In this situation, the toolsand weapons are automatically takento the other warehouse.

Statistics On Buildings and FlagsThe statistics give you an overview ofyour total development. You might, forexample, want to know specific thingsabout the state of the supplies in a par-ticular building. The statistics give youthe available information for the build-ings. This information is alwaysactivated with a special-click.

If you special-click on a constructionsite, you see the building that you are inthe process of constructing.

If you special-click on one of yourmines, you immediately see the mine’syield. The calculation is made as a

function of the number of trips theminer makes into the mine (with mer-chandise). Remember that it requiresseveral trips into the mines before youcan use this information. It is useful indetermining the future demolition ofthese mines, because if a mine nolonger has a yield, the miner still eatsfood (which can become scarce,depending on the progression of thegame). You also see the food stock thata mine has at its disposal. The mineraccepts fish as well as bread or meat;the meat icon indicates this quantity. Ifthere is no food, the hungry miner goeson strike.

If you special-click on a castle, garri-son, guard tower, or guard hut, you cansee the position of your knights. Mostimportantly, you see the strength of thebuilding to be defended. As with themines, you also see the state of thesupplies, but this time it concerns thegold. The guard huts receive a maxi-mum of two units of gold, the guardtowers receive a maximum of fourunits, and the garrisons receive a maxi-mum of eight units.

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The Economy

The WarehousesYou already know how to build awarehouse. If you special-click on a warehouse (if there are none, use a castle), a window appears indicatingthe state of the stock in this ware-house. By changing the page with thearrow, you see the serfs that are in thiswarehouse. The third page containstwo icons having different symbols.The upper icon concerns the mer-chandise, the lower icon concerns theserfs located in this warehouse.

There are three different settings forthe merchandise in the warehouse. A checkmark confirms the current setting. If the checkmark is at the top,merchandise is brought to this ware-house. When the checkmark is in themiddle, no more new merchandisewill be stored in the warehouse. Whenthe checkmark is at the bottom, thewarehouse is emptied of its merchan-dise and nothing else can be storedthere. For the serfs waiting for work inthe warehouse, the settings are practi-cally the same: when the checkmark isat the top, they must go to the ware-house after work. If it is in the middle,no new serfs are accepted. If it is at the

bottom, all the serfs mustleave the warehouse. Youmust special-click to activatethe two latter options.

What are these options for? If the enemyapproaches your warehouse and you canno longer defend your position, he couldwipe out your warehouse and you wouldlose all your merchandise. Only certainserfs are able to escape. You have to beable to retreat and fight if you want tominimize your losses. Remember thatyou need time to empty a warehouse orevacuate the serfs. If you fight back toolate when retreating, you can save only afew serfs. The warehouses are, moreover,crucial for your economy. If a warehouseno longer accepts merchandise or serfs,the others are stocked instead.

The evacuation of the merchandise andserfs has a negative effect. Think beforedeciding if it is better to retreat than tofight. Do not build your warehousestoo close to the enemy, or if you do,protect them with garrisons. If a ware-house appears to be in danger, stop thereception of merchandise before theenemy crushes the building and all thegoods inside.

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The Economy

The Distribution Menus In the next six pages, we dis-cuss the menus in detail. Themenus allow you to modify

various parameters and to influencethe life of your city. To activate themenus, left-click on the lower icon.As with the statistics, you may acti-vate several menus and return to themain selection.

In each menu, a default button allowsyou to reset all the parameters back tozero. The first three menus are distribu-tion menus for merchandise. There areseveral types of merchandise (food,wood, iron, coal, and wheat) which aredelivered to the different professions.The tree trunks are delivered to thesawmills, while iron is delivered to theblacksmiths and tool makers.

Your iron stock may sometimes be low,and you may want to fabricateweapons rather than tools, or viceversa. You can modify these parametersin the distribution menus. Left-click onthe top left icon. You see the differentfoods displayed at the top of the screen,with the mine below, each with a “sup-ply bar.” These bars show the foodsupply received by each mine.

If you have a very short supply of foodand you want to supply the iron andcoal mines in order to continue fabri-cating weapons, lower the supply barfor the other mines to zero (left), andraise the supply bar of the iron and coalmines to the maximum (right).

The second menu allows you to orga-nize the wood and iron deliveries.Wood is used for construction sites,tools, and boats. If you have a shipmaker and you don’t want him to con-struct any unnecessary boats, stopdelivering wood to him.

The iron is delivered to the blacksmithand tool maker. If you are short of iron,priorities are established according toyour evaluation of the situation and thecondition of your supplies.

The third distribution menu concernscoal and wheat. Coal is delivered tothe foundries and the blacksmiths.There too, the distribution depends onthe situation of the game. If you areshort of coal, decrease deliveries to thegold foundry.

Wheat is delivered to the pig farmsand mills. Your preferences shoulddepend upon your city and your planof distribution.

If you set one of the parameters at zero,the type of building selected does notreceive any merchandise. If a bar is twotimes longer than another one, it meansthat the building receives twice asmuch merchandise as the other one. Ifa piece of merchandise is rare, yourserfs only deliver it to the most impor-tant building concerned. If your stock islarge enough, then they also deliver tothe less important buildings.

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The Economy

You see the supplies for all of the fol-lowing buildings:

❖ Ship maker’s shop (wood)

❖ Sawmill (tree trunks)

❖ Pig Farm (wheat)

❖ Butcher’s shop (pigs)

❖ Windmill (wheat)

❖ Baker (flour)

❖ Iron foundry (iron ore and coal)

❖ Gold foundry (unrefined gold and coal)

❖ Blacksmith’s shop(iron and coal)

❖ Tool maker’s shop (iron and wood)

The lumberjack huts, forest ranger’shuts, fishermen’s huts, quarrymen’s huts, and wheat farms do not supply thesame information because they delivermerchandise. They don’t store any sup-plies to operate.

Special-click on any intersection. A flagis displayed. In each direction from theflag, where a road branches out fromthe flag, you see a check mark or a line.If everything is normal, you see a checkmark. If you left-click on a flag wherelarge quantities of merchandise arebeing transported, you can uncovertraffic problems. They are indicated bylines. In other terms, there is a lot ofmerchandise to distribute in this direc-tion, but the serfs cannot get by, and thetraffic jam will disappear after they havedistributed all the merchandise that isblocking the road. You might try to findother solutions, such as making adetour, so that the serfs can distributethe merchandise. In high traffic loca-tions, take a close look at the networkof roads and think about constructing anew warehouse. Do not wait until sev-eral flags are blocked up by themerchandise.

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The Economy

“full/minimum” settings, all knightsleave the building to attack the enemy,except one. Of course, this means thatyour building is poorly guarded. Youcan use such settings for the buildingslocated in the inner-serfdom if you haveknights available.

Try not to use settings that could bedetrimental. If you don’t have all theknights you need, your guard huts, etc.are emptied sooner or later. To changethese settings, left-click on the + and -signs. The upper setting (ideal numberof knights) logically cannot be smallerthan the following one (number ofremaining knights). Change the secondsetting. Remember: It is very importantto immediately change these parame-ters. If you change the occupation ratesetting from “full” to “minimum” in thegarrisons located on the front-line, allyour knights will leave, except one.Think first, and click later.

When your knights leave their homes toattack the enemy, they are immediatelyreplaced by new knights from the ware-houses or main castle, as long as moreknights are available.

The second knight menuallows you to change severalother parameters. Left-click on

the lower central icon. The “knights’rate” appears in the upper left corner ofthe screen. The default rate is 30%,

which you can modify as you like. Thisrate shows the number of serfs that canbecome knights, provided that youhave enough swords and shields. If youchoose a medium setting (bar in themiddle), half of your serfs becomeknights. If you set the bar all the way tothe left, you do not receive any knights.

The lower icons allow you torecruit unemployed workersto form new knights. The

number of serfs available for recruitingis displayed to the right. This numberdepends mostly on the number ofweapons available in your warehouses.You also need enough unemployedserfs, of course.

Another icon allows you to choose theknights who attack the enemy. With thedefault settings, the weaker knightsattack the enemy, while the strongerones stay in defense. You can also sendthe stronger ones to attack and keep theweak ones to defend your buildings.

Both options have advantages anddrawbacks. It is usually better to sendthe weaker knights in combat and tomaintain a good defense in your forts.You decide which strategy is best.

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Rules of Combat

RULES OF COMBAT

The Knight MenusTwo icons in the statisticsmenu allow you to modifyvarious parameters for the

knights. Left-click on the lower lefticon in the menu. A new windowappears with four icons on the left, andtwo texts relating to each icon. The leftimage shows the castles in variouspositions based on their distance fromthe frontier:

❖ On the front line: Your guard towers, your garrisons, and guard huts located right on the frontier with the enemy are indicated by a thick black cross on their flag.

❖ On second line: The guard towers, etc. located behind the front are indicated by a normal black cross on their flag.

❖ On third line: The guard towers,etc. located far from the frontierare not immediately threatened.Their flag bears a black stripe.

❖ Within the inner-serfdom: Theenemy is not visible, and theguard tower’s, etc. flag is white.

In each case, you decide how manyknights are placed in these buildings(garrisons, watchtowers, and guardhuts). The optimal occupation rate isindicated next to the four images. Thebuildings located on the front lineshould be full, the ones on the secondline should be well occupied, the oneson the third line moderately full, andthe garrisons deep in the inner-serfdomshould be nearly empty. Thus, your bor-ders are optimally protected.

The second word shows the minimumamount of troops to be left behind,should you decide to use knights toattack the enemy: “good” for the frontline, “average” for behind the front,“weak” for the third line, and “mini-mum” for the inner-serfdom. Here aresome examples: if you read “full/good,”this means that all buildings must beoccupied to the maximum and if yourtroops attack the enemy, you only sendout a few knights, keeping enough ofthem inside to maintain a “good” occu-pation rate. If you choose “full/full,” theknights occupy the buildings equally,and none of them leave for an attack.Your front-line will thus be protected tothe maximum. But in this case, theknights remaining in remote buildingsneed more time to get to the front-line,as the road to travel is longer. With

39

Rules of Combat

number of knights defending the castleis displayed at the bottom of the screen.You can change this number by left-clicking on the arrows. If you think yoursituation is hopeless, you can left-clickon the white flag to quit the game.

You can attack an enemy castle, butremember the enemy may have leftmore knights than usual in his castle. Ifyou conquer the castle, it is burneddown. Just like the warehouses, the win-ner strikes a decisive blow on hisopponent, causing him or her to lose themerchandise and serfs held in the castle.Furthermore, your knights’ morale rises,while the enemy knights’ drops.

If you think you can easily conquer acastle, launch an attack. If you lose acastle, don’t give up. Enough well-trained knights can help you recover,but it is not easy!

The attack menu allows you to specifythe number of knights remaining inthe castle to defend it. Remember thatthe castle is important not only foryour troops’ morale, but also becauseit is the only storage location protect-ed by knights, and thus much saferthan the warehouses you constructlater in the game.

The Other Menus

TOOL FABRICATION MENU

In the menu, left-click on thecentral left icon. The nine dif-ferent tools are displayed with

a bar showing the number of toolsmanufactured by your workers. Thedefault settings show high rates forhammers and picks and low rates forscythes and pliers. Tool makers, geolo-gists, blacksmiths, and constructionworkers all need hammers, but onlyfarmers need scythes.

You can modify the tool fabrication rateduring the game. For example, if youurgently need a specific tool (you mayhave enough hammers, but you needpliers for a new blacksmith), you canspeed up the manufacturing rate for thepliers while reducing that rate for theother tools. Remember to change thesesettings later on in the game or you willwind up with more pliers than you everneeded or wanted.

The length of the bars shows the num-ber of manufactured tools. If thehammer bar is twice as long as the sawbar, this means that your workers willmanufacture two hammers for eachsaw. As long as you don’t have a black-smith, this menu is not useful. If youwant to avoid having to set priorities forthe tools, manufacture as many tools aspossible as soon as you can.

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Rules of Combat

The icon to the right allows you to orga-nize your knight relief force. If theoccupation rate is high enough, whenyou left-click on this icon one or moreknights leaves his fortification and goesto the closest warehouse. New knightsreplace those that leave.

The advantage of this is that the weak-est knights go back to the warehousesto receive more training, while thestronger ones take their place. Beforeusing this option, you must consider thefollowing factors:

1. If you fear an attack in theupcoming minutes, wait. You will prevent a sudden drop in the occupation rate of your buildings for a moment.

2. Make sure you have enough well-trained knights in your warehouses. If not, changing the settings is not useful.

Your knights’ strength depends on theirtraining level, and their motivation isincreased by the amount of gold storedin their city. The more gold stored, thehigher their motivation.

At the beginning of the game, it isextremely difficult to win a battle. Youhave no gold extracted and your knightsare not trained enough. If you want towin, the strength ratio should be at least4:1. Your losses may, of course, be high-er than your opponent’s, so you mustcarefully choose the place of the attack.If your attack allows you to take controlover an enemy gold mine or sole foodproducing building, even with heavylosses, you can profit from the following:

1. The enemy will suffer heavy economic damage, and

2. The enemy knights who are weak at the beginning of the game have a hard time recapturing their lost territory.

As soon as you have enough gold, yourknights become more motivated. Youcan then contemplate the completedestruction of your enemies. Be carefulif you play against several opponents.

You can check the motivation level ofthe enemy knights from the attackmenu. Each gold unit stocked in a garri-son, watchtower, or guard hut has apositive effect. While in transit, gold isnot considered stored.

You have probably noticed the attackmenu displays not only the combatstrength, but also the total number ofgold units owned by the player. The

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Rules of Combat

❖ A geologist discovered newunderground riches.

❖ A mine which yields no more ore must be demolished becausethe miners consume food but produce nothing.

❖ You are attacked.

❖ You conquered an enemyguard building and gained new territories.

❖ One of your buildings has beentaken over by the enemy.

❖ The enemy placed a hut nearyour territory, and you lost some land.

❖ Same as above, but you lost landand one or more buildings.

❖ The construction materials stockin your castle is too low. Anemergency program is started,and the only construction works to receive materials are the lumberjack huts, thesawmills, and the quarries.

❖ The emergency program isstopped, the construction worksmentioned above have been pro-vided with materials, and theirdeliveries have been carried on.

You don’t need to read all the messagesthe moment they arrive. The programmemorizes more than fifty of them, soyou have time to finish what you arecurrently doing.

To view a message, left-click on theflashing message icon in the menu. Ifthe message displayed doesn’t interestyou and there are more, left-click onthe sheet to view the next message. Anarrow allows you to come back to theprevious message.

SENDING YOURSELF MESSAGES

SERF CITY includes other messageoptions. For example, you can sendyourself a message. This option is infact a “recall” option which you canuse in two ways:

1. Call yourself to a certain placeafter a specified length of time.

2. Call yourself to a menu or a warehouse after a specified length of time.

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Rules of Combat

MERCHANDISE PRIORITIES MENU

Click on the central icon to open themerchandise priorities menu. You see alist of merchandise and icons. Thismenu allows you to define priorities formerchandise; some of them are trans-ported in priority by your transporters.

The wood has the first priority in the default settings because it is veryimportant for construction work, andmust be delivered as soon as possible tothe sawmills. Gold has a lower prioritylevel; even if it strengthens your troops’morale, its transportation is less urgent,and has less effect on the game. Youmay also have your own strategy, soyou can change these priority settings.Left-click on the desired merchandise.The small arrows allow you to lower or raise the priority level, and the largearrow places the merchandise at the top or bottom of the priority list. Theupper left icon allows you to return tothe initial settings.

If you are fighting against the enemy,weapons should generally be a transportpriority before construction materials.However, the choice is yours.

EVACUATION MENU

Another important menu is the evacua-tion menu. It allows you to evacuatemerchandise; activate it by left-clickingon the central right icon. If the enemygets too close to one of your warehous-es and you decide to evacuate it, itwould be a pity to save more wheatthan gold. In this menu, you decide theevacuation priority of the merchandise.This option works like the delivery priorities menu.

Messages and PreferencesDuring the game, you always know of important events from the messagesdisplayed by the program. You canalso send yourself messages to keepyourself informed.

GAME MESSAGES

This section is related to the variousmessages sent during the game.

You receive messages for the following:

❖ A new guard building is occupied for the first time by a knight. You thus annex new territories and are able to plan your city’s expansion.

❖ A new warehouse has been constructed.

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Rules of Combat

Replaying a WorldBack to the main menu. In one andtwo-player mode and in demo mode,an icon appears in the center of thescreen. We did not discuss this iconearlier in this manual. As you alreadyknow, the sixteen digit number affectsthe world’s appearance. Thus, thesame number always produces thesame world. If you left-click on thisicon, the same combination is used foryour opponents.

What is the real advantage of this? For example, say you choose the6355174823325876 combination anda size 4 world. At the end of the game,if you found that this world was inter-esting and challenging, you can givethat combination and the world size toa friend. They can play the same gameusing the arrow icon, because theworld and opponents data are alwaysbased on the digit combination andworld size.

The sixteen digits (between 1 and 8)allow about 270,000 billion combina-tions (some are more interesting thanothers). Examine your opponent’s abili-ties carefully, and decide if you want toaccept this game or not. If you want to

play another game, left-click on thearrow to obtain a new combination,then left-click again on the bottomarrow. You can do this as many times asyou want.

If another player gave you a combina-tion, left-click on the dialogue box andenter the combination, which mustinclude all sixteen digits. Remember tonote the world size and the combina-tion if you want to pass the game toanother player.

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Rules of Combat

The different watches in the mainmenu allow you to specify the lengthof time with brackets of 5, 10, 20, 30or 60 minutes. When this time hasexpired, you receive a message and are automatically called back to thedesired place or menu. Here are a fewexamples of this option:

❖ You urgently need a certain typeof tool and you decide to halt the manufacture of other toolswith the production menu. If youforget to change the productionsettings later on, no other tools aremanufactured, and you can easilyforesee the consequences. . . .Left-click on a watch while in the tools menu. After the specifiedlength of time, you are informedthat you still have something to do in this menu.

❖ Your mine workers are on strikeand you urgently need food. Youcan modify the delivery prioritiesfor the merchandise. Fish, meat,and bread are delivered in priori-ty, before the constructionmaterials. When the problem isresolved, the recall option allowsyou to change the settings againand set new priorities.

❖ You want to build new huts forfishermen in a certain place, butyou have not yet annexed theland and the guard huts are stillunder construction. Specify thedesired length of time after whichyou want to check on this placeagain. The situation may be different later on.

❖ You realize that the enemy is suddenly constructing manyguard huts, and you want to keep an eye on him. Just set thelength of time after which youwill be called to a certain place to check on the situation.

Sometimes it is useful to use the recalloption if you want to change the mer-chandise and/or serfs’ settings againlater on in the game.

You must also consider this: if you playin team mode with another player (blueserfs), the right player on the screenmay not use the watches, because allthe messages arrive to the left player.But you’re playing as a team, right?

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Rules of Combat

Special Functions for the MapThe map includes a special option:Display the map and special-click onthe buildings icon. A new window withbuildings appears. This window is iden-tical to the statistics window.

The change page icon allows you tosee the other buildings. Choose a build-ing and left-click on it. The buildingswill disappear and the map appears.

A new icon is displayed at thebottom of the screen. The

map only displays the selected build-ing. This option allows you to quicklysee where your warehouses, etc. arelocated. In very large worlds, thisoption is very useful. The buildings cur-rently under construction are displayedfor your convenience, allowing for bet-ter planning. For example, if you arelooking for the right spot to place a newbaker, you check for where you placedyour windmills. When you close themap, the option is still active.

To return to normal mode, left-click“normally” on the icon. To select anoth-er type of building, special-click again.

You can use the flag to selectthe type of buildings displayed

on the map. Left-click on the flag. Anew icon appears below the map. Allflags will not be displayed, only theones where all roads are not used. Thisallows you to see if your network isjammed by the transport of merchan-dise. There are three reasons why aroad is not being used:

1. You just built a road and a transporter hasn’t arrived on it yet.

2. There is a traffic jam at this crossroad.

3. There are no more workers available, so there are no newtransporters for the road.

Another special option, the magnifyingglass icon, is often useful because itallows you to zoom in on the game map.

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Rules of Combat

Demo and Team ModeIn demo mode, you can watch a gameentirely controlled by the computer.Even if you only watch the game, SERF

CITY is entertaining and interesting. Indemo mode, the statistics, the menus,the map and the usual buildings infor-mation are available as in a normalgame. You may change some menusand statistics options, but you cannotchange the settings or construct build-ings or roads.

Relax and watch the computer oppo-nents fight for control of the land.

The team mode allows two players toplay together against computer-con-trolled opponents. Both players controlthe same serf group (the blue ones).Team play has an advantage: you havemore time to think and decide. Butthere is also a drawback: you mayexperience some coordination prob-lems from time to time. In team mode,the game is slightly different. Both play-ers cannot simultaneously activate themenus, the attack option, or the geolo-gist. But this is a minor constraint,because the players are supposed toinform each other of any change in thesettings anyway.

The OptionsYou can define several extraoptions for each player. Theseoptions are activated when

left-clicking on the icon on the mainmenu or the play menu.

Messages: the game includes four dif-ferent message display modes.

0. No messages are displayed.

1. Only important messages are displayed (attacks, victories,defeats, building losses, and the emergency program).

2. All messages are displayed,except the messages concerningnewly constructed buildings and geologists.

3. All messages are displayed.

Scrolling when building roads: If youget close to the edge of the play-screenwhile building a road, the world scrollsautomatically and you hear a sound.

Fast construction click: If you left-clicktwice on the pointer, this has the sameresult as left-clicking on the construc-tion icon. Left-click twice on a flag tobuild a road, or on an empty place toconstruct a building.

Fast map click: Double-click on theright mouse button to display the map.Double-click again to close it.

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Rules of Combat

have enough tools to allow this, or doyou have more urgent problems tosolve in this area? What will you do tohave a sufficient stock of wood? Didyou train enough forest rangers? Willyou be able to solve the crisis morerapidly by cutting the trees down in anew forest? If there is no forest around,a new guard hut will allow you toannex new lands if you need to. Youwill always find new tasks in SERF CITY

because each game is different.

Carefully examine your opponent’sstrengths; look at his territory and guesswhat he is trying to do. Determine hisweak points so that you can attack him.Has he built only one iron mine?Destroying that would allow you todeprive him of his raw materials. Is oneof his warehouses easy to take, or lackingfood? Could you interrupt his food, mer-chandise, and/or building production?The problems you face are the same thatyour opponents face. There are severalways to freeze up his economy.

Depending on the size of the world, thenumber of serfs is limited as follows:

world size number of serfs

1 500

2 1,000

3 2,000

4 4,000

5 8,000

6 16,000

7 32,000

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Hints

HINTS

The Most Important Rule – Be ObservantAs soon as you change one of the settings, your serfs (small groups or hun-dreds of them) act differently in order tofollow your new instructions.

A small change may have profoundeffects. It is wiser to carefully plan yourconstruction schedule and your strategy,rather than build things haphazardly andconstantly attack your enemies. Examinesituations carefully and analyze thembefore making decisions. The winner ofthe game is not the one who clicksquicker on the icons, it’s the one whodevelops the best tactics and strategies.

You already know how to choose agood location for your castle, butobserve the positions of your opponents’castles as well. Avoid placing yourselftoo close to a powerful adversary. Thecomputer-controlled opponents canactually fight amongst themselves anddestroy each other.

Look at your statistics from time to time,analyze your development mistakes orthe negative results of an operation, andfind the best solution. You can solve aproblem in many ways.

Let’s take an example: your construc-tion work halts because your wood(boards, not tree trunks) supply isexhausted. As long as you have enoughlumberjacks, build a sawmill. In case ofa grave crisis, demolish a few roads toreduce merchandise deliveries to cer-tain areas in your city. Are someworkers are using the wood needed foryour construction works? Reduce wooddeliveries to the ship makers or toolmakers until the crisis is over. Do you

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Hints

Ship Maker: For large lakes use waterways to quickly transport merchandise.Make sure that the ship maker does notuse up all your wood to build a fleet ofboats. As soon as he has finished hiswork, stop giving him wood.

Transporter: When you demolish a road,you interrupt the transport of merchan-dise passing in that direction. Try tofigure out a way to leave roads intact,and do not destroy important connectingroads. Merchandise has to wait for thearrival of a new transporter before beingtransported on a new road. Any modifi-cation of your network affects thetransportation of merchandise. Constructa well-organized network of roads rightfrom the start.

How do the serfs choose the road onwhich to transport the merchandise? Itis a rather complicated procedure. It isimportant to know where the merchan-dise is needed. A mill can be very closeand contain a lot of wheat, even thoughthe stock of another mill that is furtheraway is dried up. Moreover, certainmerchandise is distributed according tothe menu parameters.

When a destination has been found forthe merchandise, the serfs take theshorter route. The essential element isthe number of roads that the merchan-dise has to pass by; a very long roadbetween two flags is faster than ashorter voyage with an intermediateflag. You have, therefore, a great

advantage, because you can influencethe choice of roads for transportation.Here is an example: you have placed aflag on each side of a warehouse and aroad to connect it to your network. Allmerchandise that must travel throughthe warehouse is already keeping thecrossroads very busy. The merchandisetransported from one flag to the other,and in both directions, blocks trafficeven more. On the other hand, if youcreate a new connection between thetwo flags (even if it makes an apparentdetour around the warehouse), thetraffic no longer passes in front of thewarehouse, but by the new road thatallows you to avoid it. This principleallows you to construct complex net-works around important warehousesor castles, which, in turn, allows youto transport merchandise more rapidly.

Remember that any construction,demolition, and transformation of roadsinitially has negative effects on thetransportation of merchandise. It is onlywhen the serfs adapt to the new situa-tion that the transportation ofmerchandise proceeds normally. Yourworkers often have to cross over enemyland to cut down trees or harvestwheat. In the mines, you can takeadvantage of this situation and stealunderground riches from the enemy.

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Hints

Hints and Tips on ProfessionsThis section contains some hints andtips for the various serf professions.

Butcher: The butcher works quicklyand, in spite of many deliveries fromthe pig farmers, he generally does nothave any problems with his work.

Caster: Casting takes a little while andthe caster cannot cast the ore of severalmines fast enough without fallingbehind. He can catch up as soon as thedeliveries slow down. Depending onthe size of his backlog, you need tohold back on new construction.

Construction Worker: The land forthe construction of large buildings israre, and consequently, expensive. Donot construct huts and small roads onland where you could construct alarger building.

Farmer: The farmer needs unoccupiedland in order to transform it into fields.Roads are not considered unoccupiedland, so do not construct too manyroads around a farm. To allow thefarmer quick travel to his fields, avoidbuilding farms on steep terrain.

Fisherman: A lake that is as big as the game screen contains enough fishfor three or four fishermen. Spread the fishermen out on the lake; if theyall fish in the same spot, they will notcatch anything.

Geologist: When the geologists returnhome after their prospecting, they stayin the warehouses with nothing to do.From time to time, send them back intothe mountains to look for new under-ground riches. You may discover a newvein of gold that you had missed before.

Lumberjack and Forest Ranger: Thesetwo complement each other perfectly.The forest ranger can replace the treescut down by the passing of the lumber-jack. Wood is the raw material with the highest demand, so use severallumberjacks and forest rangers. Theforest rangers cannot plant trees on the roads. Do not place them in thegeneral vicinity of the castle or near thewarehouses. Place trees on land that isnot perfectly flat and that cannot beused for other things.

Miller and Baker: One miller and onebaker are enough for several farms. Besure that the roads used for transportingtheir merchandise are not too long.

Miner: If he can no longer find any-thing, burn the mine down so he finds anew profession. In the mountains, con-struct a network of roads withnumerous branches to facilitate thetransport of raw materials to the valley.

Sawmill Worker: One sawmill is suffi-cient for several lumberjacks; as thegame progresses you may have to con-struct more.

51

Hints

Need Help?During the game, you can sometimesfind yourself in a “no-win” situation.For example, if you have lumberjacksbut no more wood, the construction ofa new hut can pose a serious problem.All is not yet lost, however, becauseyou can always send your knights intocombat. If you do not have any stocksat the beginning of the game, you mayend up quickly lacking materials. If youdo not watch your production closely,you may find that you lack one unit ofwood for the sawmill too late . . . andhave to restart at zero.

To avoid this, an “emergency program”is started at the beginning of the game.This program is, in fact, a reserve oftwo units of granite and seven units ofwood that allow you to construct alumberjack’s hut, sawmill, and quarry-man’s hut.

If you need materials, these construc-tion sites receive them as a priority,because these three buildings are nec-essary to continue the game. If all thehammers have been distributed to theconstruction workers and to the geolo-gists, you will not have any hammersleft for a new tool maker. The toolmaker is the only person who couldmake more! It is for this reason that atthe beginning of the game, certain serfstake the necessary tools.

The End of the GameThe game finishes when there is onlyone city remaining in the game’s world.You can quit a game by left-clicking onthe white, surrender flag in the attackmenu. If the computer-controlled adver-sary pleads for you to quit, you can stilldecide whether or not to continue thegame. There may be instances whenseveral cities remain in the game. In thiscase, the game is a draw. This situationcan happen when no city has enoughknights and all the deposits of ore andcoal are dried up, prohibiting the fabri-cation of weapons. In this case, there isno winner.

Early in the game, you will not have toomany problems. Everything has beenforeseen. But, later on, you become thesole person responsible for your suc-cesses and mistakes. Now that youknow everything about the program,your knowledge should be sufficient toconfront the computer or challengeanother player! Enjoy.

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Hints

Lady AmalieAmalie is an inoffensive,reserved lady, who goesabout her work peacefully.

Kumpy OnefingerKumpy is a very hostile character who loves goldabove all else.

Balduin, a former monkBalduin is a very discretecharacter who worries chieflyabout protecting his landsand his important buildings.

FrollinHis unpredictable behaviormay take you by surprise.Frollin “pilfers” away landsthat are not occupied.

KallinaKallina is a fighter who blocksher enemy’s food supply withclever tactics.

Rasparuk the DruidRasparuk’s tactics consist ofamassing large stocks of rawmaterials. He is a sly aggressor.

Count AldabaProtect your warehouses well,because Aldaba is aggressiveand knows exactly where hemust attack.

King Ralph VIIRalph is a prudent ruler, without any particular weakness. He tries to checkhis adversaries’ supply of construction materials.

Homen DoublehornHomen is the most aggressiveenemy. Watch your buildingscarefully, or he may take youby surprise.

Sollok the JokerSollok is coy and treacherous;he tries to stop the supply ofraw materials to his enemiesfrom the beginning.

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Hints

The Behavior of Your OpponentsAll adversaries have different personalities and playing strategies. Here is a brief pre-sentation of the principal character types:

Axe

Boat

Bread

Butcher’sKnife

Coal

Fish

Fishing Rod

Flour

Gold

Gold (Ore)

Ham

Hammer

Iron

Iron (Ore)

Pick

Pigs

Pliers

Saw

Scythe

Shield

Shovel

Stones

Sword

Tree Trunks

Wheat

Wood

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Reference Material

Baker

Blacksmith

Butcher

Caster (of Iron)

ConstructionWorker

Farmer (of Wheat)

Fisherman

Forest Ranger

Geologist

Leveler

Lumberjack

Miller (of Wheat)

Miner

Pig Farmer

Quarryman

SawmillWorker

Ship Maker

Tool Maker

Transporter(Water Ways)

Transporter (Merchandise)

Knights

2nd LanceCorporal

1st LanceCorporal

Corporal

Lieutenant

Captain

55

Reference Material

REFERENCE MATERIAL: Jobs REFERENCE MATERIAL: Resources and Tools

Guard Hut

Guard Tower

Iron Foundry

Iron Mine

Lumberjack’s Hut

Pig Farm

Quarryman’s Hut

Sawmill

Ship Maker’s Shop

Tool Maker’sShop

Warehouse

Windmill

58

Reference Material

Bakery

Blacksmith’s Shop

Butcher Shop

Castle

Coal Mine

Farm (Wheat)

Fisherman’s Hut

Forest Ranger’s Hut

Garrison

Gold Foundry

Gold Mine

Granite Mine

57

Reference Material

REFERENCE MATERIAL: Buildings REFERENCE MATERIAL: Buildings

CREDITS

Blue Byte Credits

Producer Thomas Hertzler

Project Manager Stefan Piasecki

Programming and Conception Volker Wertich

Graphics Christoph Werner

Music Haiko Ruttmann

Rule Book Writers Volker Wertich, Stefan Piasecki

PC Adaptation Alexander Jorias, Ingo Frick, Volker Wertich

Introduction Christoph Werner (Graphics), Ingo Frick (Program)

Playtesters Matthias Best, Frank Grimm, Michael Passmann, Birgit Krause

SSI Credits

Producer Bret Berry

Associate Producer and Rule Book Author Jason Ray

Rule Book Editors Eileen Matsumi, André Vrignaud, Joshua Cloud

Product Test Supervisor Glen Cureton

Product Tester Chris Lanka

Test Support Annette Grove, Rose Ramos

Rule Book DTP LOUIS SAEKOW DESIGN:Dave Boudreau, Leedara Zola

Rule Book Printing A&a Lithographers

QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS?Our main business number is (408) 737-6800. If you encounter disk or system related problems you can callour Technical Support Staff at (408) 737-6850 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Pacific Time, Mondaythrough Friday, holidays excluded. NO GAME PLAYING HINTS WILL BE GIVEN THROUGH THIS NUMBER. You canwrite to us for hints at: Hints, Strategic Simulations, Inc., 675 Almanor Avenue, Suite 201, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (includea self-addressed, stamped envelope for reply).

IBM COMPATIBLE COMPUTER INFORMATION:Many of our games will work on IBM compatible computers. If you own an IBM compatible computer we suggest that youconsult with our Technical Support Staff at (408) 737-6850 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., Pacific Time, Mondaythrough Friday, (holidays excluded) to see if an SSI game you're considering purchasing is compatible with your comput-er. If we have insufficient data to determine compatibility, you may wish to purchase the game and test for compatibilityyourself. If the game proves to be incompatible, you may return it within 14 days with your dated receipt and we will refundyour money. Or, if you return the game within 30 days, you may exchange the game for another.

Always make sure to include your name, address, and daytime telephone number with any correspon-dence. We will do our best to see that any problems are corrected as soon as possible.

STRATEGIC SIMULATIONS, INC. LIMITED WARRANTY Strategic Simulations, Inc. (“SSI”) warrants that the diskette(s) on which the enclosed program is recorded will be free from defectsin materials and workmanship for a period of 30 days from the date of purchase. If within 30 days of purchase the diskette(s) provedefective in any way, you may return the diskette(s) to Strategic Simulations, Inc., 675 Almanor Avenue, Suite 201,Sunnyvale, CA 94086-2901 and SSI will replace the diskette(s) free of charge. In addition, if the diskette(s) prove defective atany time after the first 30 days, return the diskette(s) to SSI and SSI will replace the diskette(s) for a charge of $10.00 (each disk)plus $4.00 for shipping and handling. California residents, add applicable sales tax.SSI MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THE SOFTWARE PROGRAM RECORDED ON THEDISKETTE OR THE GAME DESCRIBED IN THIS RULE BOOK, THEIR QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FORANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE PROGRAM AND GAME ARE SOLD “AS IS.” THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THEIR QUALITY AND PER-FORMANCE IS WITH THE BUYER. IN NO EVENT WILL SSI BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIALDAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE PROGRAM OR GAME EVEN IF SSI HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OFSUCH DAMAGES. (SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR LIABILITY FORINCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.)The enclosed software program and this rule book are copyrighted. All rights are reserved. This rule book may not be copied, pho-tographed, reproduced, or translated or reduced to any electrical medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, withoutprior written consent from SSI. The program accompanying this rule book may be copied, by the original purchaser only, as neces-sary for use on the computer for which it was purchased. Any persons reproducing any portion of this book for any reason, in any media, shall be guilty of copyright violation and sub-ject to the appropriate civil or criminal action at the discretion of the copyright holder(s). 1994 Strategic Simulations, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU HAVE A DEFECTIVE DISKEach of our games undergoes extensive playtesting prior to its release. Through this process we hope to uncover and correct anyerrors in programming. However, due to the complex nature of our simulations, some program errors may go undetected until afterpublication. In addition to errors in the program, there are occasionally problems with the disk itself. We experience the industrystandard of approximately a 3 to 5% failure rate of duplicated disks. Before assuming that a disk is defective, make sure to checkyour disk drive. Up to 95% of the disks returned to us as defective will run fine on our computer systems. Often the problem is witha disk drive that needs servicing for alignment, speed, or cleaning.Should you have a defective disk, please return the disk only (keep all other parts of the game) to our Customer SupportDepartment, along with a note describing the problem you have encountered. A replacement disk will be provided upon our receiptof the defective disk.Should you uncover an error in the program, return both your game disk and any “save game” disks to our Customer SupportDepartment. Please enclose a description of what was taking place in the game when the error occurred. Upon correction of the pro-gram error, we will return an updated disk to you.