Conquest of Elysium 3

Manual v3.16

Table of Contents

1 Introduction .....................................................1

1-1 Game Conventions ..................................1

1-2 Winning and Losing ................................1

1-3 Terminology ............................................1

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

2-1 Start New Game ......................................2

2-2 Load Game & Save Game ......................4

2-3 Network ..................................................4

2-4 Map Editor ..............................................6

2-5 Mods .......................................................6

2-6 Preferences ..............................................6

2-7 Open Manual ...........................................6

2-8 Credits .....................................................6

2-9 Quit .........................................................6

3 Game Interface ................................................7

3-1 Keyboard Shortcuts .................................7

3-2 Options and Overviews ...........................8

3-3 The Map Screen ......................................9

3-4 Menus ....................................................12

3-5 Recruitment ...........................................13

3-6 Commander Management .....................15

3-7 Movement .............................................18

4 Units ..............................................................19

4-1 Primary Statistics ..................................19

4-2 Weapons ................................................20

4-3 Spellcasting ...........................................21

4-4 Special Abilities ....................................21

4-5 Experience ............................................24

4-6 Rank ......................................................24

4-7 Battle Afflictions ...................................24

5 Armies ...........................................................25

5-1 Armies on the Map ................................25

5-2 Army Screen .........................................25

5-3 Placement Ranks ...................................25

5-4 Stealth and Scouting .............................26

5-5 Scouting Reports ...................................26

6 Combat ..........................................................27

6-1 Entering Combat ...................................27

6-2 Combat Screen ......................................27

6-3 Combat Sequence .................................28

6-4 Hit Mechanics .......................................29

6-5 Summoned Creatures ............................29

7 Weapons, Damage and Death .......................30

7-1 Weapons ................................................30

7-2 Death .....................................................31

7-3 Damage Display ....................................31

7-4 Damage Mechanics ...............................32

7-5 Special Damage ....................................33

7-6 Healing ..................................................34

7-7 Resistance Mechanics ...........................34

8 Magic ............................................................35

8-1 Overview of Magic ...............................35

8-2 The Disciplines of Magic ......................35

8-3 List of Spells .........................................36

8-4 Magic Items ..........................................37

9 Classes ..........................................................38

9-1 Baron .....................................................39

9-2 Necromancer .........................................40

9-3 Demonologist ........................................41

9-4 Witch .....................................................42

9-5 High Priestess .......................................43

9-6 Bakemono .............................................44

9-7 Barbarian ...............................................45

9-8 Senator ..................................................46

9-9 Pale One ................................................47

9-10 Druid ...................................................48

9-11 Burgmeister .........................................49

9-12 Warlock ...............................................50

9-13 Priest King ..........................................51

9-14 Troll King ............................................52

9-15 Enchanter ............................................53

9-16 High Cultist .........................................54

9-17 Dwarf Queen .......................................55

9-18 Voice of El ...........................................56

10 Command Line Switches ............................57

11 Game FAQ ..................................................58

Content, Organization & Editing

Esko Halttunen

1 Introduction 1

1 Introduction

Conquest of Elysium 3 (later referred to as CoE3) is a turn based strategy game where you play the role of a powerful warlord or wizard of your choice, controlling large and unique armies in a quest to conquer the fabled continent of Elysium.

1-3 Terminology

This section lays out some common terminology used in the game and in this manual. You will see these terms and acronyms often and some of them are often used interchangeably even though there may be differences depending on the context of the situation in question.

The game is turn-based, and can be played by up to eight players. If there are less than eight players, the computer can control some or all of the remaining players. The game supports team play over a network as well as hotseat play.

References to other sections in this manual are

(usually) made in the format of

See section [chapter name] [section number]

or

See section [section number] [section name].

1-1 Game Conventions

This list is not exhaustive.

1.3.1 Monsters and Armies

Unit = also called monster

Monster = any unit in the game

Commander = unit that can be moved on the map on its own. Not necessarily a leader.

Leader = commander who can lead units

Mercenary = unit or commander that can only be acquired through special recruitment.

Army = collection of non-commander units.

Cannot move without a leader.

Stack = all units under the command of the same leader. Often used interchangeably with Army.

Snake = 1) Snake; 2) Any wandering independent monster (or stack of them)

1.1.1 Time

It is a convention of the game that one turn equals one month. References to months mean game turns. Months and turns are used interchangeably in this manual.

The time frame of combat rounds is not defined, but can be assumed to be one or two minutes. It takes one full combat round to reload a crossbow after a shot, which historically took roughly a minute for a heavy crossbow.

1.3.2 Map

Shroud = Unexplored map area

Fog of War = Explored map area, under shadow where movement cannot be seen

Map structure = Any terrain on the map (castle, forest, mine, plain etc)

Resource = 1) special resource; 2) map structure that can be claimed / flagged

Special resource = Resource required to perform a magical ritual, e.g. fungi or gems

1-2 Winning and Losing

1.2.1 Winning the Game

The player who is last left standing wins the game. If the game was a team game, the last team standing wins (even if there is just one member left).

1.3.3 Magic

Ritual = magic that can be used only outside combat. Usually to summon monsters, but also for other things (upgrades, terrain changes etc.).

School = type of magic. Also Path or Discipline

Spell = magic that can only be used in combat

Spellcaster = any monster that can cast spells

1.2.2 Losing the Game

A player is eliminated from the game if he loses either all of his commanders or all of his citadels.

Only one of these conditions is required, so citadels should be guarded well and commanders should travel with sufficient protection unless they are considered expendable.

1.3.4 Common Acronyms

AP = Action Points

HP = Hit Points

MR = Magic Resistance

Mrl = Morale

Str = Strength

XP (Exp) = Experience Points

AN = Armor Negating (also an)

2 Main Menu 2

2 Main Menu

When Conquest of Elysium 3 loads, the Main

Menu screen comes up with the following items:

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Start New Game (s)

Load Game (l)

Network (n)

Map Editor (m)

Mods (d)

Preferences (p)

Open Manual (o)

Credits (c)

Quit (q)

2-1 Start New Game

The Start New Game option begins a new game of CoE3. First you must choose whether to create a random map or load a map created with the CoE3 Map Editor.

Loading a map created with the map editor skips directly to section 2.1.4 Choose Participants.

Creating a random map begins with choosing the world size for the game.

2.1.1 World Size

Choose one of five different world sizes:

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Tiny (30 x 20 squares)

Small (40 x 28 squares)

Large (50 x 36 squares) (default size)

Huge (60 x 44 squares)

Enormous (70 x 52 squares)

While the world sizes may seem small, do not let the numbers fool you. The relative size of the world will become apparent during gameplay when you move your troops around and the larger worlds are exactly as large as advertised.

2.1.2 Choose Society

There are six different societies to choose from.

The choice of society affects what kind of world you are to conquer. The choice can be random.

The first society is the Dark Ages when man first comes to Elysium. Ruins of long-dead civilizations lie scattered through the realm and dragons roam the lands. Fairy courts and dwarven cities are not yet destroyed. Human influence is weak and the forces of nature strong.

There are few cities and no libraries in these early times.

The second society is the Agricultural Period when man subdues the wild lands of Elysium.

Cities are rare, but hamlets and villages lie in every corner of the continent. It is a time of heroes, pioneers and cunning brigands.

The third society is the Empire, forged from the colonies of the pioneers. A great capital city is being built, and other cities founded to provide for the growing population. New military units are being developed to quell uprisings within the realm and to hunt down outlaws. The groups of brigands that were a scourge of the land in earlier times have been almost completely eliminated.

The villages of the empire are growing into cities and the forests are being cut down.

The fourth society is the Fallen Empire. The empire has fallen. Battlefields and ruins of the empire litter the lands. Few cities and villages remain. Human lands are in chaos, and bandits roam the countryside. Even worse, great acts of evil have been performed in the capital, which has turned into a stronghold of undead creatures and unspeakable horrors. Only a powerful leader will be able to rebuild the empire.

The fifth society is the Monarchy. Feudal lords rule their estates from towers of stone, gathering power and influence in service to the king. The land is more peaceful than previously and the taxes of villagers pay for troops to protect them from brigands. There are many fortresses and towers, but the cities of the empire have yet to be rebuilt.

The sixth society is the Dawn of a New Empire.

Cities are once again growing and the future of humankind looks bright and promising. The hard years are forgotten and the leaders of the land are hopeful.

For the purposes of setting up a game using command line switches (e.g. on a server), the society numbers are

0 Random

1 Dark Ages

2 Agricultural

3 Empire

4 Fallen Empire

5 Monarchy

6 Dawn of a New Empire

See section 2-3 Network and Chapter 11:

Command Line Switches for more information.

2 Main Menu 3

2.1.3 Advanced Options

Clustered start for allies

Allied players start very close together on the same side of the map and as far as possible from other teams.

Players can also be assigned to teams of allied players by clicking on the Team column. The default team for each player is none, but team numbers 1 – 6 can be set for each player. Allied players have advantages such as being able to move through allied map structures and armies and occupying same squares simultaneously.

Common Cause

A player is only defeated if no one on the team has a commander or a citadel. In other words, all members of a team must lose all commanders at the same time or all players on the team must lose all citadels.

The class of each player can be determined randomly (default) or selected from a list, which opens the Choose Class menu. There is a short introductory text for each class available from the

<info> button of the Choose Class screen. See

Chapter 9: Classes for more detailed information on the various classes.

This setting has no effect if there are no teams.

Disable southern terrain

When checked, there will be no jungle or desert on the southern portion of the map. Functionally this is the same as using the command line switch --northpart=100.

Enable score graphs

When checked, this option allows viewing score graphs during game. If not checked, score graphs can be viewed after the game is over.

The color of each player is listed next to the player slot. The colors are assigned in order according to player number. If you want to include a particular color in the game for some player but that color would require more players than intended, simply add all eight players to the game. Then delete the colors you do not want and leave the ones you do. See Table 1 for the player colors. Player colors can be altered with mods. See the CoE3 Modding Guide.

2.1.4. Choose Participants

There can be up to a maximum of eight players in a game. All can be set to either human controlled or computer controlled (AI, Artificial Intelligence).

Pressing the n key in the Choose Participants screen adds a new player. A player can be deleted by clicking the <del> text on the corresponding row. Player numbers are 0 – 7.

Players 8 – 9 are computer controlled special players. Player 8 is Independents and player 9 is

Special Monsters.

There are ten different levels of difficulty that can be assigned to computer controlled players.

Computer players of a higher difficulty level gain bonuses to gold, iron and special resource income, which allows them to recruit more troops, summon more allies and absorb losses much more easily and thus making them more difficult to defeat. The AI difficulty levels and their bonuses are listed in Table 2. The default AI difficulty level is Jester.

7

8

5

6

9

Player Color

0

Green

1

2

Red

Blue

3

4

Yellow

Teal / Cyan

Purple

Brown

Indigo

Light gray

Dark gray

AI Level Bonus

Piss Boy -25%

Jester 0%

Butler

Knight

25%

50%

Baron

Count

75%

100%

Marquis 150%

Duke 200%

King 300%

Emperor 500%

Table 2: AI Difficulty Levels

Table 1: Player Colors

On higher difficulties AI players may also get better troops.

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2-2 Load Game & Save Game

This function loads a previously saved game.

Saving the game is done from the File Menu

(press F10 / F11 / F12 in game to open the menu, see Chapter 3: Game Interface).

2-3 Network

This section deals with instructions on how to set up a game server for Conquest of Elysium 3 and how to connect to a game server.

The default port used by the game is 7272.

Saved game files are stored with their proper names, e.g. a saved game named Baron_test would appear with exactly that name in the save game directory. CoE3 does not accept spaces in savegame names. Spaces will be converted to underscores ( _ ).

2.3.1 Start Game Server

To start the game in server mode, select Start

Game Server. The game will prompt you for the port to use. The default port is 7272.

2.2.1 Deleting Saves

You can delete old save games by pointing the mouse at the file in the load screen and pressing

Delete. The game will prompt you to confirm the file deletion. Saves can also be deleted manually from the save game directory.

To set up a new game, select New Game or

Load Game after the server has been started.

When starting a new game, select either

Random Map or Load Map. Load Map loads a previously created map and generates the game on that.

2.2.2 Save Game Directory

The directory for storing saved games is different depending on the operating system.

When starting a new game on a random map, first select map size. In the next screen, player options are displayed, but cannot be altered.

Players connecting to the server must alter the game settings themselves.

Linux: ~/.coe3/saves

Mac: ~/.coe3/saves

The game server can be run in text mode using command line switches, in which case even the settings for the games played on the server can be automated (see Chapter 11: Command Line

Switches for more information).

Windows: %APPDATA%\coe3\saves

The %APPDATA% is an environment variable, which defines where the user data directories for any applications a Windows user has installed are stored. It points to the application data directory.

In Windows XP this directory is C:\Documents

and Settings\[username]\Application Data\

In Windows Vista and Windows 7 the directory is

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\

The directory is normally hidden, so you must have the viewing of hidden files and folders enabled to see it. Even if it is not visible, you can get to the directory. Just type the path

%APPDATA%\coe3 to Windows Explorer address bar and press Enter and the directory will open. You don’t need to use upper case letters either.

Once a game has started, the hosting server has little control over how the game is played and most of the power is transferred to the players.

See below for more information.

2.3.2 Connect to a Game Server

To connect to a game server, select the Connect

to a Game Server option in the Network menu.

The game will prompt you for the IP address of the game server you wish to connect to. The IP address must be known beforehand and it must be an address open to the public internet or an address in the local network that the computer can access.

2.3.3 How to Determine Your IP Address

If your internet connection has a static IP address, the information will be available from the documents your service provider has given you.

Most IP addresses are dynamic instead of static, which means that they will change from time to time, most likely when your internet connection has been switched off for a while.

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The easiest way to determine the public IP address you have is to go to a website which tells you the public (i.e. visible to the internet at large)

IP address you are connecting from. The easiest sites to go to are http://www.whatismyip.com

and http://my.ip.fi

The first site will tell you your IP address and whether you use a proxy and also has some basic information on many basic structures of the internet. The second site tells you only your public IP address and nothing else.

If the game is on a local network, the addresses will have been determined by the administrator of the network or randomly assigned from a pool on your network’s internal DHCP server. Most local area network addresses start with 192, 10 or 172.

In this case you must check the address of each computer participating in the game.

2.3.5 Disconnecting & Reconnecting

If your internet connection suffers an outage even for a moment, you will be disconnected from the game. If this happens, you can reconnect to the server and resume playing.

You should wait for five minutes before reconnecting. If you reconnect too quickly and the server has not yet noticed the disconnection, you will receive an error message. The error message will tell you that there is already a connection to the server with your serial key and to make sure that nobody else is using it or to wait for a moment before reconnecting if you just got disconnected. If the server disconnects, the game will not give you any error messages. It will simply hang, waiting for server response.

Note that you can also use the name of the server instead of just the IP address because the

DNS system that matches server names to IP addresses will find the IP address of the server for you if you know the server name.

When a player reconnects to an ongoing game on a server, it is possible to reenter the game as any non-AI player, not just the one you were playing. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this.

2.3.4 Configuring a Network Game

Once a game has been started by the hosting server and players have connected to it, they must select their player slot and class, determine classes for AI players and set up teams.

Being able to connect as anyone makes finding a substitute player easy, because the substitute can simply connect to the game and take over from the previous player.

This is done exactly like in a regular game, except the options to set players are

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It also means that a server should not be left unattended for long periods of time. When long games are played on large maps, at the end of a session the game should be saved, the server shut down and refired up at an agreed upon time when everyone can connect again.

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Open positions are human players who have not been selected yet.

Me sets that position under the command of the player who selects it.

Another Player is a position already chosen by another human player.

AI is a position given over to AI control.

Once everyone has selected their position and set the class and team options, hitting Start

Game will begin the game.

Theoretically the reconnection mechanics would allow for someone to enter a game as the other player to snoop, but this is difficult in practice.

The fast nature of network games also works against this possibility. For longer games with many players, the participants are expected to behave correctly and not snoop on each other.

The coordinator of the game (probably the person running the server most of the time) has a large role in this regard.

WARNING! Make sure you communicate with all players and hit Start Game only when everyone has acknowledged being ready! The game begins when anyone hits Start Game and it does not check whether all the players, classes alliances and other options have been set!

Communication is key here to coordinate the setup and avoid unnecessary server restarts and it is best done by a chat room or an IRC channel.

2.3.6 Going AI

It is possible to set disconnected players to AI control. This can be done at the end of turn when the game gives a notification that it is waiting for a disconnected player. Turning AI cannot be reversed later. Note that it is not possible to turn a player to AI control in single player games or hotseat games. This feature is only available in network games.

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2-4 Map Editor

This option starts the CoE3 Map Editor. See the separate Map Editor User Guide for instructions on how to create maps and scenarios. Return to the Main Menu from the Map Editor by pressing q or selecting Quit Map Editor

The first slider determines how visible the boxes around the game menus are. A value of 0 makes the menu borders invisible and the background inside the menu box totally transparent. Menu titles will not be visible, because they are transparencies in the box. A value of 100 means the menu boxes are highly visible and completely opaque. The default setting for GUI opacity is 90.

2-5 Mods

Mods are enabled and disabled from this menu.

2-6 Preferences

The Preferences menu governs the general game settings of CoE3.

The second slider sets the level of transparency for crosses and circles marking which units follow which commander. The default setting for cross opacity is 80. For optimal efficiency, values between 30 and 50 are often better than the default. The effect only applies in the Transfer

Units screen.

2.6.1 Next Commander Selection

Manual selection means you must use the n key to go to the next commander with unused Action

Points or find the commander you want on the map or select him in the Unit Overview (F1).

2.6.5 Volume for Sound Effects & Music

These two sliders with a value range of 0 – 100 control the volume of in-game sound effects (first slider) and music (second slider). The default settings are 90 for sound and 100 for music.

Select first commander automatically (default setting) means that the game automatically selects your first commander at the beginning of a turn, but once you’re finished giving him orders, you must manually select the next commanders.

2.6.6 Sound device

All sound device selection changes require CoE3 to be restarted before they take effect.

Always select next commander when out of

AP means that as soon as your currently selected commander has used up all of his Action

Points for the turn, the next commander with unused Action Points is automatically selected.

On Windows the sound options are

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No sound

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Autodetect sound device (default)

Direct Sound

Waveout sound device

2.6.2 Screen resolution and GUI visuals

These settings govern the full screen resolution and allow the choice of running CoE3 in either full screen or windowed mode. If the Fade Effect is enabled, menus fade in when opened.

On Linux the sound options are

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No sound

Autodetect sound device (default)

JACK sound server

PulseAudio sound server

ARTS sound server

ALSA sound device

OSS sound device

2.6.3 Delay for AI Moves

This setting is the delay in milliseconds during AI movement, so that human players can see the AI players move when visible. The default value is

700 and a value of 0 hides AI movement. The setting to show the movement of independents is toggled on and off with a check box. This only applies to single player games. Games with more than one player never show any AI moves.

On Mac OSX the sound options are

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No sound

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Autodetect sound device (default)

2-7 Open Manual

Opens the game manual (PDF file).

2-8 Credits

Roll credits. Hit Esc to exit back to Main Menu.

2.6.4 Opacity for Boxes and Crosses

The Graphical User Interface (GUI) opacity settings are controlled by two sliders with a value range of 0 – 100.

2-9 Quit

Quits the game and exits to desktop.

3 Game Interface 7

3 Game Interface

The game interface chapter gives instructions on the various components of the main game interface and how to use it when playing.

3.1.3 Map Screen

The keyboard shortcuts available from the main interface (Map Screen) are listed in Table 4.

3-1 Keyboard Shortcuts

The keyboard shortcuts for the various screens are listed here. They are also listed in their respective sections. Combat Screen shortcuts are listed in Chapter 6.

3.1.1 Movement

Table 3 shows how to use the keyboard to control movement on the map. The s key is not used for movement. See section 3.6.6 Orders.

q w e a d z x c

Table 3: Movement keys

Key Function

?

Display keyboard shortcuts

b

Burn forest

o p j n h i

L m

Hunt for Slaves (Priest King)

Trade administration

Raise levies (Baron)

View messages

Select prev. commander with AP

Select next commander with AP

Use location’s special power

Use commander’s special power

t v r s

Recruits units

Set commander to sentry mode

Transfer units

View selected commander’s stats

y

End turn

TAB

Hide armies when pressed

F1

F2

Unit Overview

Player Overview

F3

F4

F5

F6

Character class description

Map description (custom maps)

Score Graphs

List enabled mods

F9

Misc Menu

F10 – 12 Game Options

If you have Number Pad on your computer, the

NumPad keys can be used for movement instead of the keys shown here.

3.1.2 Map View & Zoom

Map keys are used to move the player’s view around the Map Screen. For diagonal scrolling, hold down the arrow keys for both vertical and horizontal scrolling at the same time.

Arrow keys

Scroll map

Page Up

Zoom in (also mouse wheel)

Page Down

Zoom out (also mouse wheel)

Home

Center map on home citadel

Map zoom is helpful when trying to locate a specific area of a map. When the map is zoomed out to the maximum, the screen will cover the entire area of a large map (50 x 36 squares).

Adjusted zoom levels are saved for each player and remain the same from turn to turn. The default zoom level is set by the map editor, so if you have used the editor, restarting CoE3 is recommended before beginning a new game.

Table 4: Map Screen Shortcuts

3.1.4 Transfer Units Screen

Table 7 shows the shortcuts for the Transfer

Units Screen.

Key Function

?

Display keyboard shortcuts

a

Select/deselect all units

s

Select/deselect all slow units

f

Select/deselect all fast units

l

Deselect all non-amphibian units

m

Select/deselect all units of the type the mouse is pointed at (same as double-click)

b

Select/deselect all units w/ battle afflictions

w

Select/deselect all wounded units

+ / –

Select/deselect 10 units of the type the mouse is pointed at

Shift Select a range of units

▲ ▼ Scroll up / scroll down

Esc

Exit screen

Table 7: Transfer Units Screen Shortcuts

3 Game Interface 8

3-2 Options and Overviews

For more information on commanders, see 3-6

Commander Management and Chapter 4: Units.

3.2.1 Miscellaneous Menu (F9)

The Miscellaneous Menu contains links to all the menus related to game options, overviews and tooltips available from the main game interface.

The options in the menu are

3.2.3 Player Overview (F2)

The F2 key opens the Player Overview screen.

The overview lists all players by color and name.

Computer controlled players are marked with the notation AI controlled. Eliminated players are marked as Eliminated. Currently the overview does nothing else.

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Unit overview (F1)

Player Overview (F2)

Character Class Description (F4)

Score Graphs (F5)

File Menu (F10/F11/F12)

Keyboard shortcuts for map screen (?)

List Enabled Mods (F6)

3.2.4 Character Class Description (F3)

This link opens the description of the character class of the player. See Chapter 9: Classes for the actual descriptions.

3.2.2 Unit Overview (F1)

The F1 key opens the Unit Overview list. The overview lists all commanders and the units under their command by type. The Action Points that commanders have left are also displayed.

3.2.5 Map Description (F4)

Show description of the map. This command only affects custom made maps that have a description. It has no effect on random maps.

3.2.6 Score Graphs (F5)

This link opens the score graph screen. On the top row there are the symbols for the various resources as well as the player colors.

Commanders appear in the order they were acquired. Units unassigned to a commander are reported in the order of the map squares where they are located, with the location closest to the coordinate origin reported first. The order is determined by y,x, with locations on the uppermost terrain row going first in the order of the x coordinate, followed by locations on the lower rows in the same manner.

Click on a player color to select or deselect a player whose graphs to view. All players are selected for viewing by default. Deselected player colors are faded out.

Click on a resource symbol to view the income for that resource.

Commanders in sentry mode are grayed out in the list. Left-clicking on a commander set to sentry activates him and cancels sentry mode.

3.2.7 List Enabled Mods (F6)

This link opens a list of the mods that are enabled for the current game.

Insane commanders are shown in light red.

After the commanders and their armies are listed, units stationed in various map locations (forests, farms, cities, villages etc.) are displayed. The garrison units are listed starting from upper right corner of the map and moving first horizontally and then down one line of squares.

3.2.8 File Menu (F10 / F11 / F12)

The F10 – F12 keys open the File Menu. The available options are Preferences (see section 2-

6 Preferences), Save Game and Quit Game. Exit the menu by clicking Ok or pressing the Esc key.

The option to load a saved game does not appear in the Game Options menu at this time.

Left-clicking on a commander or units centers the map on the square they are located in and making a commander active. Right-clicking on a commander displays commander stats. Rightclicking on a unit type displays the stats of the unit of that type with the highest (i.e. largest) individual unit number in that army. For more on unit numbers, see Chapter 11: FAQ).

The reason for F10 – F12 all opening the menu is that the keys have differing functions in different operating systems and not all computers have function keys F11 and F12.

3 Game Interface 9

3-3 The Map Screen

3.3.1 Coordinate System

Each CoE3 map is a grid of squares. The dimensions of the grid can vary in width and height. The maximum grid size is 159 x 159.

Squares owned by a player will be bracketed at the corners with the player’s color. Moving into a square switches ownership of the square to the player who moved into it (also known as flagging a square). If the square produces a resource that the player can gather or can otherwise be owned long term, it will stay in the player’s possession until conquered by another player (including independent monsters).

The origin (coordinates x=0, y=0) of the grid is located at the upper left corner of the map.

The order in which map objects appear in game menus (castle in Recruitment Menu etc) are determined by their map coordinates, with the location closest to the origin appearing first. The order is determined first by y, then by x.

When a square owned by a player is conquered by another player, a colored bar will be displayed over it during the previous owner’s next turn.

Armies appear as colored squares with a unit graphic. Hold down the TAB key to hide armies on the world map and show only terrain.

3.3.2 Beginning the Game

The main view of the game is the Map Screen, or the world map. At the start of the game the world map is centered on the player’s home citadel.

Armies moving into view from non-visible areas

(i.e. from inside the shroud or fog of war) will be rendered visible one square before they come into view. This behavior is not a bug.

When the game starts the player is located at his home citadel. In addition to the home citadel, the player often controls some other structure or terrain, which provides some needed gold, iron or special resources and is located within a couple of squares of the citadel.

3.3.4 Seasons

Each game turn is one month long. As the game progresses, the seasons change and can help or hinder the conquest by affecting the speed of armies and the availability of resources. The game begins in the season of Early Summer.

3.3.3 Visibility and Exploration

Surrounding the home citadel is the visible, explored area. Outside the explored area is the dark, unexplored area, the shroud. The shroud is removed from a square whenever a commander moves to a square adjacent to the shroud.

Winter makes movement slower and more difficult, but frozen rivers and lakes can be crossed. Winter and other seasons also affect resource gathering.

Seasonal resource income variation affects the following resources:

Once the shroud has been removed from an area of the map, that area will either be fully visible or covered by the Fog of War (FoW). Areas covered by the fog are visible, but slightly darkened as if under a shadow. The player cannot see any units moving in the fog, whether independents or other players.

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Gold: -80% in winter

Fungi: -100% in winter, +100% in autumn

Herbs: -100% in winter, +100% in summer

Weed: -100% in winter and spring,

+100% in summer, normal in autumn

Only squares adjacent to armies or resources owned by the player or an allied player are fully visible. Everything else is covered by the fog of war. Even in visible areas it is impossible to see units with certain special abilities unless a player has an army with countering special abilities within visibility range (1 square). Forests and swamps have a visibility range of 0 squares.

The income of iron, gems, sacrifices and hands of glory is unaffected by the seasons. See

Chapter 9: Classes for more information on special resources and gathering them.

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3.3.5 Map Structures

The world map contains many different terrains and structures that the player can move through and/or conquer to add to his domain. Farms, villages, towns, cities, castles, mines and more are there for the taking, though often defended fiercely by their original Independent inhabitants.

Different player classes have different needs and focus on what to conquer, so some of them seek areas that are useless for others.

Moving the mouse pointer over a square brings a terrain information popup to the bottom edge of the screen. The popup lists the properties of the terrain or structure.

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In general, map structures provide resources of some kind or another. The following list can be considered a rough, incomplete guideline:

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Gold: Farms, Villages and larger population centers, mines, some citadels

Iron: Mines, some citadels

Gems: Mines, some special locations

Herbs: Jungles, Forests and Swamps

Fungi: Swamps, Forests and Jungles

Sacrifices: Population centers

Hands of Glory: Population centers

Relics: Temples, population centers

Weed: Hoburg Villages, Ancient Forests

Other map structures may provide special powers such as scrying or other functions that an active commander can use. Map structures may also possess some or all of the following attributes (the list is not complete):

Defense Bonus is added to the armor of any units defending the square from attack.

(icon: tower shield)

Citadel (aka castle) structures are castles or other structures that can be used as the headquarters for running an empire. Recruiting troops and commanders is only possible in citadels and losing all citadels means defeat.

Note that some classes can use certain structures as citadels that are not available for that function for other classes. (icon: crown)

Trade Points allow a player to trade gold, iron or special resources. Towns, Ports and Cities provide trade points. See section 3.4.3 Trade

Administration for more information.

(icon: cart full of trade goods)

Vision allows the player controlling the location to see 2 squares around the structure instead of just 1. The structure must be occupied by the player’s troops. (icon: eye in a pyramid)

Fortification squares have structures designed to be defended against attack (Guard Towers,

Castles, Cities and Towns that have walls etc.).

Siege weapons can be used in battles that take place at fortified squares. Fortification is NOT to be confused with the defense bonus, but most fortifications provide a defense bonus of at least one point. (icon: catapult)

Library structures allow spellcaster commanders to learn new spells. Learning a new spell will take 1-9 months, during which time the commander will stay in the library square (Action

Points are automatically used up every turn until the commander has finished learning the spell).

Every time a library is used to learn a spell, there is a chance that it will be used up, after which point no one can learn spells there. Libraries increase the owning player’s chance to receive recruitment offers from wizards. The bonus to recruitment chance is not affected even if the library is used up.

Libraries are always guarded. The number of libraries owned is shown as an icon of stacked books in the recruitment screen.

Temples increase the owning player’s chance to receive recruitment offers from shamans and priests. Temples may or may not be guarded.

The number of libraries owned is shown as an icon of a cathedral in the recruitment screen.

Monster Lair structures spawn wandering stacks of independent monsters to roam around the map. The independent stacks are quite aggressive and will often attack player troops and even large armies.

Conquering a monster lair and flagging it will cause the square to stop spawning monsters.

Note that both conditions must be fulfilled. If the monster lair is conquered by independents, it will resume spawning wandering monsters, so garrisoning a flagged lair is advisable. There is no monster lair icon.

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The most common monster lairs are:

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Ancient Forests, which give birth to wandering stacks of animals. They do not spawn animals native to savanna, jungle or desert. Ancient Forests are always guarded. They cannot be flagged unless the player can gather herbs or fungi, use them as citadels or perform the proper ritual. Occupying an Ancient Forest without flagging it will not stop it from spawning animals, which will appear in adjacent squares.

Brigand Lairs, which spawn roving bands of brigands led by scouts. Brigands and scouts are stealthy and extremely aggressive and can be a nasty surprise for the unwary. Brigand lairs are often guarded, but if not, the inhabitants are probably somewhere close by. Brigand

Lairs can be flagged by everyone.

Graveyards, which spawn bands of lesser undead to menace everything in sight. Graveyards are always guarded.

Usually the guards are lesser undead, but it is not uncommon to find one or more of the far more dangerous greater undead guarding them. Graveyards can be flagged by everyone.

Haunted Cities, which give rise to bands of undead and horrors from the Void.

Haunted cities are always guarded and can be flagged by everyone.

3.3.6 Converts of El

Farms, settlements and other locations with a white cross on the tile indicate that the square has been converted to the worship of El. One third of the gold income for that square is always diverted to the coffers of the Church of El.

3.3.5 Independent Monsters

When a new game is created, the map is populated with independent monsters. Some of them will be guarding map features like mines and will not move. Others are randomly distributed in unpopulated squares. These independents will move around the map and may attack players. Wandering monsters may travel far from their original spawning location.

Monster lairs are not the only source of wandering monsters, merely the most prolific.

Independent monsters can be randomly spawned in the wilderness, though compared to monster lairs, this is an infrequent occurrence.

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3-4 Menus

There are several different menus that are used to manage various aspects of the game.

3.4.3 Trade Administration (i)

The Trade Administration menu allows trading gold, iron and special resources in a limited manner. Trade between players is not possible.

3.4.1 Kingdom Overview

The Kingdom Overview is located on the upper right section of the world map view and it is always visible unless the player enters another menu or screen.

The Kingdom Overview contains an overview of the player’s kingdom, with the player’s name on the topmost row. The kingdom menu lists the player’s current gold, iron, trade points and special resources as well as the monthly income for gold, iron and special resources.

Clicking the symbols on the menu gives more detailed information on the sources of each type of income. Some types of income vary by season, e.g. gold income is reduced by 80% in winter. Some special resources may have production boosts during specific seasons.

In the upper right corner of the menu there is a symbol that denotes the season (spring, summer, fall or winter). Mousing over the symbol brings a popup to the bottom of the main screen that tells the exact season (Mid Summer, Late Winter etc.).

All games start in the season of midsummer.

At the bottom of the Kingdom Overview there are commands for selecting

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Next Commander (n) Selects the next commander with unused Action Points who has not been set in Sentry mode.

Recruit Units (r)

Trade Administration (I)

Messages (m)

Misc Menu (F9) Opens list of menus

End Turn (y) ends the current turn and moves the game forward one month.

3.4.2 Messages (m)

The messages menu is automatically shown at the beginning of turn if there are any messages.

A message “[Season] is here.” is shown automatically when the season changes. Other messages appear as the result of random events and recruitment offers.

The amount of resources the player can trade is determined by the number of trade points he controls. Trade points are acquired from towns, cities, certain types of citadels and certain other special structures.

If a type of trade is selected, the player automatically makes the maximum possible number of selected trades when the turn ends.

The trade options are

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Don’t trade anything

Buy iron (1 gold / iron)

Sell iron (1 gold / iron)

Buy special resource (x gold / resource)

Sell special resource (x gold / resource)

Trading prices for special resources in gold are listed in Table 5.

Resource

Iron

Fungi

Herbs

Weed

Rubies

Emeralds

Sapphires

Diamonds

Sacrifices

Hands of Glory

Relics

Buy / Sell

1

1

1

2

2

2

2

2

2

3

3

Table 5: Trade Prices

Trading a resource costs trade points equal to the buying or selling cost of the resource. If there are insufficient trade points to make a trade, there is a percentage chance to succeed proportional to the points required. This means that it requires 2 trade points to trade 1 gem or sacrifice and 3 trade points to trade 1 hand of glory or relic.

For example: If the player has 2 trade points and

wishes to trade a hand of glory, there is a 66% chance of a successful trade. If he only had 1 trade point, the chance of a successful trade

would be 33%.

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3-5 Recruitment

The Recruit Units (r) menu allows the recruitment of units whose services can be bought for a price in gold. Buying better equipped or more durable units or specialist units also requires iron in addition to gold. Recruited units do not cost any further upkeep in gold, iron or special resources.

3.5.3 Special Recruitment

In addition to the basic recruitment list, other, normally unavailable units may appear for special recruitment from turn to turn. The availability of such units usually generates a Recruitment offer message at the beginning of the turn.

All units available for recruitment may be examined by right-clicking, but possible spells or items are not shown to prevent abuse.

Commanders are shown with their name.

Special recruitment offers must be acted on

immediately. They will no longer be available for recruitment on the next turn. The price of special offers may vary widely and some of them are very expensive. Hoarding gold for special recruitment is therefore advisable.

3.5.1 Recruitment Locations

Recruitment may be done in any citadel owned by the player. Select the desired citadel from the top of the menu. The location selected by default is the player’s home citadel. Right-click on a citadel in the list to center the map on it.

Units that appear in green text are called mercenaries and can only be recruited once per offer, but also allow other units to be recruited on the same turn. Note that commanders never appear in green text because they can always be recruited regardless of everything else. See section 3.5.6 Recruitment Rules for more information on recruitment limits.

It is also possible to directly select something other than the home citadel by pressing and holding down the right mouse button over a citadel on the world map until the recruitment menu opens. Troops cannot be recruited in the citadels of an allied player.

The order in which citadels appear in in the recruitment screen is determined by their map coordinates, with the location closest to the grid origin appearing first. The order is determined first by y, then by x. This means that citadels on higher up on the map appear first and citadels on the same row of squares appear beginning from the left.

Nbr Units

1 Scout

1 Captain

1 Assassin

1 Hero

1 Pyromancer

1 Hedge Wizard

1 Dark Wizard

1 Golden Wizard

1 White Wizard

1 Old Wizard

3.5.2 Basic Recruitment

Each class has a basic recruitment list that is available at all times.

Table 6: Standard Special Recruitment List

Table 6 contains the standard special recruitment list, which is available for all classes, with some minor exceptions.

Units that are are in the recruitment list for the class but that do not have a 100% chance of appearing every turn will be available for recruitment if the dice roll for the chance succeeds, but do not necessarily generate recruitment offer messages unless the unit in question is a commander.

Scouts and Captains are not available for all classes, because some classes have their own specialized units for the same tasks.

See Chapter 9: Classes for the class specific lists and unit costs.

Units from both the standard and class specific special recruitment lists do not have a fixed price in gold. Their gold cost can vary quite a bit. In addition to gold, hiring a Hero costs 5 iron.

Heroes always possess one magic item and wizards very often possess one or more magic items when recruited.

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3.5.4 Recruiting Commanders

Commanders can only be recruited by special recruitment. The recruitment offers of some mercenary commanders cause extra units (or even extra commanders) to become available.

Example: The offer of a Goblin Chieftain makes

10 Goblins (or possibly other kinds of goblins) available. Crystal, Garnet, Jade and Onyx

Sorceresses make Priestesses and Amazons of

the same type available for recruitment.

Some commanders appear in blue color in the recruitment screen. These commanders are able to gather special resources (e.g. herbs) and may provide an opportunity to unlock previously unavailable strategic options (new rituals etc).

For more information on gathering special resources, see Chapter 9: Classes.

Besides special recruitment, the only other ways of acquiring commanders are as the result of rare random events and through ritual summoning.

3.5.6 Recruitment Rules

Each citadel can make one standard recruitment, e.g. 5 spearmen for 50 gold. In addition to that, any number of commanders and mercenaries may be recruited. Mercenaries are shown in green text.

If something appears in black text despite being only available for that turn (i.e. being less than

100% , it counts toward the recruitment limit and will vanish from the list after being bought at any citadel.

Example: Alaric the Barbarian gets recruitment offers for a Soothsayer, a Goblin Chieftain and an Onyx Sorcererss. His recruitment list includes the Barbarian basic recruitment plus:

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1 Goblin Chieftain (commander)

10 Goblin Spearmen (mercenaries)

1 Onyx Sorceress (commander)

1 Onyx Priestess (commander)

8 Onyx Amazons (mercenaries)

1 Soothsayer (commander)

3.5.5 Dwarf Queen Recruitment

The Dwarf Queen class has a recruitment system that differs from all the other classes. Each

Dwarf Queen, or Dvala, produces one Dwarf

Worker per month. A Dvala who has performed the Ritual of Mastery to become a Daughter of

Dvalin produces three workers per month.

If Alaric has enough gold and iron in his treasury, he could recruit all of the commanders and mercenaries at the same citadel and complete recruitment by hiring a unit from his basic list.

If he does not recruit these special offers, the opportunity will pass and the units will no longer

available at the beginning of the next turn.

Dwarf Workers can be converted to more powerful and specialized dwarves by spending iron and sometimes a little gold. Usually the conversion is done in batches of 5 workers.

Partial batches can be converted if you have less than 5 dwarf workers, but the price will be the same as for 5, so it is not recommended.

3.5.7 Temples and Libraries

Temples and Libraries increase the chance of receiving recruitment offers from priests and wizards. The number of temples and libraries owned is shown in the recruitment screen.

The bonus for each structure is small and varies both by class and by the type of commander.

Thus the Dwarf Queen’s recruitment is restricted not by the available gold but by the number of workers present at the recruitment location and the amount of iron in the treasury. The Dwarf

Queen is also the only class that can gain commanders through normal recruitment, but even she is restricted to one Dwarf Commander per turn regardless of how many citadels she has.

Dwarven Rune Smiths can convert standard dwarf warriors and guards to different types of elite warriors and guards by using gems.

For example, the bonus to recruit an Old Wizard is less than the bonus to recruit a Pyromancer and these bonuses may be greater for one class than for another.

Example: A Witch receives an increased chance to recruit apprentices from temples and increased chance to recruit wizards from libraries. A Necromancer receives an increased chance to recruit both apprentices and wizards

from libraries and no effect from temples.

See Chapter 9: Classes for more information.

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3-6 Commander Management

Commanders are units that can be moved around the map and are required to lead armies.

Non-commander units cannot move on their own.

Leadership as the capacity to lead troops is distinct from the special abilities of Leadership (x) and Local Leadership (x) possessed by some commanders, which boost the effectiveness of an army by increasing its morale.

Managing commanders correctly is crucial to succeeding in the conquest of the land. This section gives an overview of commanders and what they can and cannot do.

3.6.3 Acquiring Commanders

Each player (except the Troll King) starts with two commanders: The main class player character and an apprentice or other type of lesser follower.

3.6.1 Commander List

On the upper left corner of the world map view is the commander list box if a square containing commanders has been selected. When a square containing only one commander is selected, that commander is automatically selected as the active commander. When a square containing multiple commanders is selected, the first one in the list is automatically selected as the active commander. Clicking a different commander makes him the active commander.

There are only a few ways of acquiring more commanders: Random events (very rare), special recruitment (see 3-5 Recruitment), magical summons and charm spells.

3.6.4 Action Points

All units in the game have Action Points (AP), which determine how much or little they can do on a given turn. Action Points are used for everything from movement to magic rituals or using the special powers of a map structure.

Commanders may be selected individually or grouped together. Ctrl-click allows adding commanders to a group with the active commander or removing them from the group.

A normal unit has 3 AP. A slow unit has 2 AP and a fast unit has 4 AP. Slow (icon: snail) and Fast

(icon: moose) as unit special abilities only have meaning on the world map and in relation to

Action Points. They have no effect in combat.

The background of each commander tile in the box gives information on the commander in question. The background of the selected

(active) commander is highlighted in white. If multiple commanders are grouped together, the active commander’s name appears in black and the names of the others in the group are grayed out. Brown background denotes a commander without orders. Black background means a commander set to sentry status and must be manually selected to activate him again. Pink background (or red, if not active) means the commander is suffering from insanity and refuses to accept any orders during the current turn.

3.6.5 Commanders and AP

The Action Points available to a commander are shown in the commander list as diamonds in the commander background. Light gray means AP available for actions. Dark gray means that the commander has not used up that AP, but he is leading troops who have already used some AP or are slower than him and cannot move anymore that turn. The dark gray AP can be used for other things such as special powers , though. Black diamonds denote used AP.

Group slow units with a slow commander and fast units with a fast commander to get the maximum benefit out of the available AP.

3.6.2 Leadership

A commander is not automatically a leader. Most commanders can lead troops, but some of them cannot. Commanders who cannot lead troops often have special abilities that benefit the entire army if that commander is with them. Some commanders are fighting heroes or spellcasters, but they act as individual warriors and mages, not leaders of soldiers and thus others must lead the rank and file troops. Leaders with troops under their command have a sword icon on the lower left of their commander background. Non-leader commanders have a red X.

Transferring units from a commander who has already moved to a commander who hasn’t restricts the second commander by the amount of

AP the transferred units have already used up.

Some non-movement actions may require more

AP than a commander has, in which case the commander may perform that action if he has not moved and the AP that go over the limit will be deducted from their AP allowance the next turn.

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3.6.6 Orders

The Orders dialogue box appears on the lower right corner of the world map whenever a commander is selected.

The following (and other) commands may appear in the Orders box:

UNIT SPECIFIC ORDERS

Burn Forest (b) is a command available to armies with Pyromancers or Warlocks of Fire, some fire breathing units or commanders who carry the magic item Infernal Torch and units who know certain fire spells (e.g. Combustion).

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Sentry (s)

Transfer Units (t)

Use Special Power (p)

Use Location’s Special Power (o)

Burn Forest (b)

Unit specific commands (varies)

Sentry sets the selected commander to sentry mode, removing him from the list of commanders selected by choosing next commander (n).

Commanders in sentry mode also lose their colored background, making them less visible on the world map. To remove a commander from sentry mode, select him manually from the map or from the Unit Overview (F1) screen.. Note that setting an active commander to sentry when he is grouped with other commanders sets ALL of the grouped commanders to sentry mode.

Transfer Units opens up the unit transfer screen.

This order does not appear for commanders who cannot command troops (e.g. Old Weapon

Master or Unexpected Hero).

Use Special Power opens up the menu for the special power specific to the commander. This command only appears for the commanders who possess special powers. See section 3.6.9 Use

Special Power.

The burn forest command requires one AP and sets the forest on fire. Forest fires can also spread to adjacent forest squares. Burning a forest transforms it to a dead forest once the fire has burned out. Forests cannot be burned in winter. Any army that contains units possessing the Fire Aura special ability at a strength of 5 or more will automatically set a forest or jungle on fire upon entering the square.

Convert Terrain (c) is a command available to the Burgmeister and Horticulturist commanders of the Burgmeister class. The command requires

3 Action Points and 20 gold and can only be performed at a farm. It converts the farm into a

Hoburg village, increasing its gold income and providing the Burgmeister a source of the Weed special resource (if he has horticulturists who can gather it). See Chapter 9: Classes for more on special resources.

Hunt for Slaves (h) is a command available to

Priest King and Tribal King commanders of the

Priest King class. The command requires 3

Action Points and summons a number of Slaves

(very weak infantry units). The command can only be performed in a settlement the size of a hamlet or larger.

DONE WITH ORDERS

Use Location’s Special Power activates the possible special power of the map location the commander is standing in, if it has one.

Unit specific orders are specific to particular commanders and their effects vary.

If you have no orders for a commander for the current turn, but do not wish to have him appear in the next commander selection, press the

SPACEBAR key when you have him selected.

This will set the commander’s orders as “Done” for the current turn, but the next turn he will be active again like all non-sentry commanders.

3.6.7 Renaming Commanders

If Conquest of Elysium is started with the command line switch --rename (see Chapter 11:

Command Line Switches for more information), it is possible to rename most commanders by viewing their statistics and pressing the n key.

The main commander and some other special commanders cannot be renamed.

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3.6.8 Transfer Units (t)

The Transfer Units menu governs army management. It displays the commanders and units in the square and how the units are divided among the commanders. Simply right clicking on an army opens up the Army Screen, which is otherwise similar to the Transfer Units menu, but does not give any information on what units are assigned to which commander. Right-clicking units will still show their stats, though.

3.6.9 Use Special Power (p)

The Use Special Power menu is primarily only available for the player’s main Class character and his or her possible apprentices or specific commander types. The Use Special Power menu is different for each class. For more specifics, see Chapter 9: Classes.

The Treasury section displays current reserves of gold, iron and special resources as well as their monthly growth rate.

The active commander is marked by a green circle over his graphic. Other commanders are marked by a white circle.

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Special Options contain possible class specific options on the use of special resources or other arcana. This section varies by class and does not appear for all classes or commanders.

Units assigned to the active commander are marked by a green X over their graphic. Units assigned to other commanders are marked by a white X. Units belonging to an allied player are marked with a red X and cannot be assigned.

Unit assignment works in the following manner:

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Left-click on a unit to select / deselect it and assign it to (or remove it from) the active commander.

Left-click on a unit assigned to a nonactive commander to move it from that commander to the active commander.

Double-click on a unit to select/deselect that unit and all identical units (e.g. all spearmen or all archers).

For other options, see Table 7.

Right-click on a unit to display its stats.

Left-click on a non-active commander to place a blue X over him. The commander is removed from the commander list in the main menu and will move with the active commander as if he were a unit in the active commander’s army. Any units assigned to the commander are reassigned to the active commander.

Left-click on him again to return him to active status in the commander list. This will not return his previous units to him, however. This is useful for managing multiple commanders, especially when one of them is assigned to permanently provide a some kind of benefit for the entire army.

Key Function

?

Display keyboard shortcuts

a

Select/deselect all units

s

Select/deselect all slow units

l f

Select/deselect all fast units

m w

+ / –

Deselect all non-amphibian units

Select/deselect all units of the type the mouse is pointed at (same as double-click)

b

Select/deselect all units w/ battle afflictions

Select/deselect all wounded units

Select/deselect 10 units of the type the mouse is pointed at

Shift Select a range of units

▲ ▼ Scroll up / scroll down

Esc

Exit screen

Table 7: Transfer Units Keyboard Shortcuts

The Rituals section lists the rituals available for that commander. Performing a ritual usually requires 1 Action Point from the commander, but some time consuming rituals require more Action

Points. Rituals are usually fueled by the special resource specific to the class. The rituals that do not require a special resource usually have other prerequisites and possible penalties.

Most rituals summon monsters or other allies to serve the player. Rituals of Mastery upgrade the character, making them more powerful and possibly opening up new abilities and spells.

The Army Transfer Screen also has a number of keyboard shortcuts that make army management much easier. The shortcuts are listed in Table 7.

Some classes have the option to control how much special resources they are willing to put into the ritual, thereby increasing or decreasing the chances of success. Using less resources may be outright hazardous.

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3-7 Movement

This section covers movement on the world map and the inputs used to give movement orders as well as the limitations of army movement.

3.7.1 Movement Controls

When an active commander is selected, clicking on a map square next to him moves him and his army there. You can also use the movement keys in Table 5 to give movement commands.

The s key is not used for movement. See section

3.6.6 Orders for more details on the s key.

3.7.3 Sea Movement

Seafaring and oceangoing ships are foreign to the inhabitants of Elysium. The only ships are small fishing boats unsuited to transporting troops. Only Aquatic and Amphibian units such as sharks and water elementals can cross coastal and sea terrain. Sometimes islands are discovered off the coast, but wherever the inhabitants came from and how is unknown and the arts of navigation and shipbuilding are as lost to them as to the Elysians of the continental mainland.

3.7.2. Movement Costs

Different terrains cost a different number of AP to move into. Moving to any terrain costs 1 more

AP in winter than in other seasons. Rivers and lakes can only be crossed in winter or traversed by Amphibian or Aquatic units otherwise. Some movement costs are listed in Table 8.

3.7.4 Movement and Insufficient AP

If a commander (and his army) have insufficient

AP to move to a terrain, they can still move there, but the missing AP will be deducted from their AP allowance on the next turn(s). Moving to mountains in winter will cause slow units to lose the entire next turn even if they had full AP.

Special abilities may reduce movement costs, but they only apply if the entire army possesses them. All units under the same commander pay movement cost according to the slowest unit in the army. See Chapter 4: Units for more details.

Example: A commander has 3 AP and moves one square to a plain, costing 1 AP. He then moves to a mountain, costing 3 AP, but he only has 2 AP left. His army makes the move to the mountain and uses up the remaining 2 AP and he starts his next turn with 1 AP already used up and only 2 AP left.

Terrain

Plains

Forest

Hills

Mountains

Swamp

Jungle

Savanna

Desert

Mesa

(Frozen) Lake*

(Frozen) River*

Sea

Coal Mine

Silver Mine

Winter

* no w inter penalty

1

2

3

3

2

2

AP

1

2

2

3

2

3

2

2

+1 AP

If he has slow units in his army, he will not be able to move at all the next turn, because those units will have used 1 AP out of 2 available before the move and 2 AP will be deducted the next turn. The commander can still use any special abilities even if he cannot move, though.

WARNING! Moving an army to a frozen lake or river in the season of Late Winter will cause any non-amphibian units and commanders in the army to drown when the ice melts in Early Spring!

In case your commander drowned and you had amphibian units in the army, you can go back and pick them up next winter. If your units drown, you receive a message.

3.7.5 Moving to an Occupied Square

Moving to an occupied square will initiate combat unless the occupying army belongs to an ally.

Table 8: Movement Costs

The rule of thumb is that moving to a map structure costs as many AP as moving into the basic terrain of the underlying type (e.g. mines are in mountains or hills, farms on plains etc.).

Initiating combat will instantly use up all the APs of an army and its commanders and terminates movement for the turn. Combat is then resolved at the end of turn. See Chapter 6: Combat.

4 Units 19

4 Units

Right-click on a unit in the Army Screen or a commander on the World Map to enter the Unit

Screen to view that specific unit’s statistics. Right clicking the various weapons, special abilities, spells etc. will (usually) give more information.

Rank Front, mid or back. See section 4-6 Rank for more information on what the placement rank means and how it functions.

Kills: The number of enemies the unit has slain.

Item slots: Most units have at least some item slots where they can carry magic items. There are several types of item slots.

The top of the unit screen shows the name of the unit. If the unit is a commander, it will show the name of the commander followed by his creature type, e.g. Falco the Captain.

4-1 Primary Statistics

Below the unit name are the primary statistics, which are explained below.

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Magic weapon

Magic helmet

Magic body armor

Magic gauntlets

Magic boots

Magic miscellaneous items

Hit Points (HP): The amount of damage the unit can take before dying. Once Hit Points reach zero, the unit dies.

Magic items on a unit are shown as small icons after the primary stats. The item’s effects are added to the stats, magic and abilities of the unit.

Applicable weapons (those wielded in the hands, e.g. broadsword) are replaced.

Strength (Str): Strength affects the damage the unit does in combat. Strength is also used to resist some special attacks and spells. The typical human has a strength of 4, a troll a strength of 8 and a giant or other large, powerful monster a strength of 10 or more.

Any unit may use a magic item if it has the correct item slot.

Human sized humanoid beings have all item slots. Cavalry units do not have a boot slot.

Giant sized humanoids have a weapon and two misc item slots. Most other monsters have two misc slots. Basic elementals have no item slots.

Morale (Mrl): Morale indicates how courageous the unit is in combat. Units with low morale are likely to be easily disheartened and susceptible to fear caused by spells and hideous monsters and may run away from combat as a result. Units with high morale are less likely to do so.

Mindless units, lacking the capacity to think or worry about anything, have a morale of 99 and are immune to fear.

Some items have an activated power that can be used, but in this instance the unit using the item must be a commander. If the commander cannot use the activated power and tries to do so, there will be a message to that effect (e.g. a non-mage trying to use a spell scroll item).

Magic Resistance (MR): MR indicates how likely the unit is to resist a hostile spell or special effect that can be resisted by MR. Average human units have an MR of 4, animals have an average MR of 2 and mages have a typical MR of

5 to 8. Highly magical creatures may have even higher MR.

Items can be transferred from unit to unit by clicking on the item slot where the item is located.

This opens the Army Screen, where clicking on the target unit transfers the item to that unit. If the target unit does not have the appropriate item slot or the target’s applicable item slots are full, the item will stay with the current owner and the transfer fails without an error message.

Armor: The amount of damage subtracted from all successful attacks against the unit. If the attack negates armor, this value is ignored.

XP (Experience Points): Experience points are an indication of how experienced the unit is. See section 4-5 Experience for more information.

If the bearer of an item dies in combat, surviving commanders pick up the items. If no there are no commanders left or their item slots are full, surviving units pick the item up if they have the slots. Items are lost only if there are no units capable of picking them up after the bearer dies.

4 Units 20

4-2 Weapons

The weapons of a unit are listed after the primary statistics. Some units may have the same weapon more than once, indicating that they are skilled enough to make multiple attacks in one round with the same weapon. Barbarian Leaders and High Lords are examples of such units.

4.2.1 Weapon Types

There are several weapon types. See Chapter 7 for more information on weapons and damage.

Melee Weapons without separate qualifiers are melee weapons.

Melee# Either this melee attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round.

Ranged weapons are used from the back rows.

Ranged* This ranged weapon may be used in melee instead of other attacks.

Ranged** This ranged weapon can also be used in melee and in addition to other attacks.

Ranged# Either this attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round. This ranged weapon can be used in melee.

Cast Spell Spell attacks are difficult to execute in melee and should preferably be used from a back row.

Cast Spell– Only one of these spell attacks may be used per round.

Cast Spell** This spell attack may be used in melee and in addition to other attacks.

Cast Spell# Either this attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round. This spell attack can be used in melee.

Siege weapons are only used when attacking fortified structures like cities or guard towers.

4.2.2 Weapons & Magic Items

Some magic items are weapons and grant the unit wielding the weapon a new one to replace the weapon they would normally have. For example, giving a spearman a Sword of Heroes will replace his normal Spear (1d5 piercing damage) with a Magic Sword (1d10 slashing damage). Many units have natural weapons like claws and bite, which cannot be replaced.

Some weapons that can be replaced by a magic weapon item are:

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Axe

Bane Blade

Battle Axe

Broadsword

Club

Dagger

Fist

Flail

Glaive

Great Maul

Greatsword

Halberd

Hammer

Mace

Obsidian Clubsword

Obsidian Glaive

Pickaxe

Pike

Pitchfork

Poison Dagger

Poison Glaive

Poison Spear

Scepter

Serpent Staff

Shortsword

Sickle

Sickle Sword

Spear

Staff

Trident

This list is contains the most common such weapons, but is not exhaustive. The Modding

Guide contains a more detailed but still incomplete list. Refer to separate supplementary documentation for further information.

See Chapter 7 for more information on how switching weapons and a unit’s damage bonus are related.

Usually the only weapons which can be replaced by a weapon from a magic item are weapons that could be wielded by hand. Most units who do not have such weapons do not have an item slot for weapons either.

4 Units 21

4-3 Spellcasting

Both commanders and normal units may have spellcasting skills in some path of magic. There are a total of 45 different disciplines of magic with a wide variety of spells.

4-4 Special Abilities

The various units in the game have a wide variety of special abilities that affect their performance in combat, how quickly they move and how quickly they heal (if at all), among other things.

Magic skills are listed by discipline below the weapons. The initial spells of each discipline are listed by level and spells that were learned later are listed in the order they were acquired.

4.3.1 Spell Memorization

A spellcaster can only keep a certain number of spells memorized simultaneously even if he knows many more. Only memorized spells can be cast in combat. The Feebleminded battle affliction reduces available memory slots by one.

Special abilities are shown as a row of small icons below the attacks (or in the case of spellcasters, below the spells spells) of the unit.

Spells act like weapons in combat and their effects only last the duration of the battle unless they cause permanent effects (e.g. disease). For the specific effects of a spell, right click on it to view more detailed information. The primary weapon of spellcasters is Cast Spell level x, which allows them to cast spells of that level or lower. Some spellcasters can cast more than one spell per combat round, but they are rare.

Some of the significant and most common special abilities are listed here. The list contains most abilities in the game, but not necessarily all of them. The players are left to discover the rest on their own.

4.4.1 Movement Abilities

Movement abilities affect how many AP a unit has and how many AP it takes for it to move to various terrain on the world map. Some movement abilities even allow moving to squares denied to other units. Normal units have 3 AP.

Slow units have 2 AP (icon: snail)

Fast units have 4 AP (icon: moose)

Immobile units cannot move. (icon: statue)

Aquatic units cannot move on land (icon: shark)

Amphibian units can enter water squares.

(icon: salamander) If fewer spells than the maximum are memorized, random spells from the caster’s spellbook will be memorized to fill up the empty slots when the player exits the Unit Screen.

Flying units can enter any land terrain at the cost of only one AP. (icon: wings)

If more spells than the maximum are memorized, random spells will be unmemorized when the player exits the Unit Screen.

Floating units can enter any land terrain at the cost of only one AP, except mountains, which cost two AP. (icon: jellyfish)

It is simply not possible to memorize fewer/more than the maximum number of available spells.

4.3.3 Scripting Spellcasters for Combat

In combat, a spellcaster will cast spells randomly from among the spells they have memorized.

They will not cast totally useless spells. Some examples of totally useless spells would be trying to use fireballs on Lesser Devils (immune to fire) or casting Fire Ward to grant the caster’s own army fire immunity when faced with an army consisting entirely of spearmen (no fire attacks).

Giant Sized The AP cost of entering any square is reduced by 1 AP, to a minimum of 1.

(icon: elephant)

Mountain Move: The AP cost of entering a mountain square is reduced by 1.

(icon: mountain goat)

Swamp Move: Moving to a swamp square only costs 1 AP. (icon: hippopotamus)

The memorization and scripting mechanics are

deliberate design decisions intended to reduce the reliability of magic, reduce the abuse potential of certain spells and to make it more beneficial to learn more spells.

Stupid units cannot be controlled and will move on their own and without the need for commanders. (icon: donkey)

4 Units 22

4.4.2 Stealth & Scouting

Stealthy and invisible units cannot be seen on the world map by armies without the requisite special abilities. Stealth and invisibility have no effect in combat, only on the world map. If an enemy enters the same square as the stealthy or invisible unit, there will be combat. The special abilities related to stealth and detection are:

Vulnerabilities increase the damage suffered from a type of attack. The icons for the vulnerabilities are the corresponding damage type icons crossed over with a red X.

Fire Vulnerability Double damage from fire. If the unit is set on fire, it burns for longer.

Cold Vulnerability Double damage from cold.

There is no shock or poison vulnerability.

Stealth: A stealthy unit can only be seen by a unit that has the Acute Senses or Spirit Sight ability. (icon: hooded cloak)

Forest Stealth: The unit is stealthy in a forest or jungle. (icon: hooded cloak behind leaves)

Invisibility: Invisible units can only be detected by Spirit Sight. (icon: outline of an empty cloak)

Acute Senses: Can see stealthy units.

(icon: open blue eye)

Spirit Sight: Can see stealthy and invisible units. (icon: open red eye)

For more on stealth and scouting concerning armies, see Chapter 5: Armies.

Blunt Resistance Half dmg from blunt weapons

Pierce Resistance Half dmg from piercing wpns

Slash Resistance Half dmg from slashing wpns

Other damage reduction abilities:

Shield 20 percent chance to reduce damage of incoming attack by 4. (icon: round shield)

Large Shield 30 percent chance to reduce dmg of incoming attack by 4. (icon: tower shield)

Air Shield (x) x% chance of taking no damage from normal non-magical missile attacks.

(icon: human covered by a curving magic shield)

Ethereal 75% chance of taking no damage from non-magical attacks. (icon: blue cloaked figure)

Bad Sight 33% chance to miss each attack

(icon: open blue eye with white pupil)

Luck 50% chance of not taking any damage from an attack. (icon: four-leaf clover)

4.4.4 Damage Reduction & Immunities

These special abilities affect the amount of damage or the effects suffered from attacks.

Resistances reduce the damage suffered from an attack type. The icons for the resistances are the same as for the corresponding damage types

(hammer, spear, sword).

4.4.5 Auras & Final Strikes

Aura abilities are abilities that affect other units for good or ill. Final Strike abilities are triggered when the unit is killed and usually cause damage to any nearby enemies.

AURAS

Leadership (x) The unit provides a bonus of x to the morale of units under his command. The units must be assigned to this commander.

(icon: red standard with crown)

Immunities provide total immunity to specific attack types. The icons for elemental immunities are the same as for the corresponding damage types (flame, icicles, lightning bolt, drop of green

liquid). Other immunities have their own icons.

Local Leadership (x) The unit provides a bonus of x to the morale of all other units in the same row of the army where the unit itself is placed.

The other units need not be under the command of this unit. Stacks with bonus from Leadership.

(icon: red standard)

Fire Immunity Immune to fire damage

Cold Immunity Immune to cold damage

Shock Immunity Immune to shock damage

Poison Immunity Immune to poison damage

Charm Immunity Immune to charm attacks

(icon: old male head)

Sleep Immunity Immune to sleep spells

(icon: Zz z

)

Mindless Immune to fear and morale reduction

(icon: a pale, drooling face)

Invulnerable units are immune to blunt, piercing and slashing damage, both normal and magical.

(icon: a suit of armor)

Causes Fear The unit strikes terror into the hearts of enemies. If the unit is in the first row of the army, every enemy in the first row must pass a morale check vs 1d7 fear damage every combat round or flee. (icon: screaming face)

Awe (+x) Enemy units attacking this unit must pass a morale check (with a penalty of x) in order to successfully land an attack. Awe does not affect large area attacks. (icon: halo)

4 Units 23

Fire Aura (x) Any enemy attacking this unit in melee will take some fire damage. They may also be set on fire, suffering more fire damage every turn until the fire goes out. Units with Fire

Aura (5) or greater will automatically set forest and jungle squares on fire upon entering them.

(icon: flaming silhouette of a man)

4.4.6 Healing & Sanity

Healing abilities have an effect on how fast the unit heals and sometimes allow it to heal battle afflictions (see section 4-7 Battle Afflictions).

Never Heals All damage done to the unit is permanent. (icon: drop of blood)

Cold Aura (x) Any enemy attacking this unit in melee will suffer some armor negating cold damage unless immune to cold.

(icon: swirling snow)

Fast Heal The unit will be fully recovered from any non-fatal damage in at most two months and will heal battle afflictions over several months.

(icon: snake wrapped around a staff)

Poison Aura (x) Any enemy attacking this unit in melee will be poisoned unless immune to poison.

(icon: hydra silhouette inside a dark green cloud)

Shock Aura (x) Any enemy attacking this unit in melee will take some armor negating shock damage unless shock immune.

(icon: man surrounded by lightning)

Disease Aura Any enemy attacking this unit in melee will be diseased unless it succeeds with a magic resistance check or is undead.

(icon: vomiting face)

Regeneration The unit heals roughly 10% of its

HP every combat round. Battle afflictions take at least a month to heal. A regenerating unit killed in battle may rise from the dead unless it suffered at least 125% of its HP worth of damage.

(icon: two-headed hydra)

Immortal units will reform at the home citadel when they are killed. Reforming can take a few months, during which time they cannot act.

Immortal units heal battle afflictions at the rate of roughly one affliction every two months.

(icon: phoenix rising from a pyre)

Petrification Any enemy attacking this unit in melee risks being petrified (MR check to avoid

1d999 points of magic damage).

(icon: head of a medusa)

Diseased units have their Strength lowered by 1 and have a 50% chance of taking 1 point of damage each month. This check is applied every month until the unit dies or the disease is cured.

Disease is considered a battle affliction for the purposes of healing. (icon: pockmarked face)

Blood Vengeance (+x) Any enemy damaging this unit must succeed in a MR check or suffer the damage himself while the target is unharmed.

The bonus (+x) is the penalty to the MR check.

(icon: man bleeding from his side)

Insanity (x) Insane commanders have x chance of refusing to follow orders on any given turn.

Certain types of actions and spells inflict insanity.

(icon: gray bearded face)

FINAL STRIKES

Fire explosion on death (x) When this unit dies it will explode in a ball of fire. The fire will hit everyone in the front row, both friends and enemies.

(icon: broken fiery snowflake)

4.4.6 Other Abilities

Special abilities in this category don’t fit well into any of the other categories.

Army Trainer +1 experience point per month for every unit in the same army.

(icon: sword diagonally over a red standard)

Poison Explosion on death (x) When this unit dies it will explode in a cloud of poisonous fumes.

The poison will hit everyone in the front row, both friends and enemies.

(icon: broken green snowflake)

Berserker units will go berserk if they are hit in combat. Going berserk grants bonuses of +1 strength, +10 morale and +20 percent extra HP.

(icon: berserking warrior)

Shard explosion on death (x) When this unit dies it will explode in a hail of sharp fragments.

The shards will hit everyone in the front row, both friends and enemies.

(icon: broken white snowflake)

Corpse Eater (x) This monster can reproduce quickly by devouring corpses. X is the chance of devouring a corpse each month.

(icon: ribcage and bone)

4 Units 24

4-5 Experience

As they spend time traveling and fighting battles, the player’s troops gain experience. Experience points (XP) are displayed in the primary statistics of a unit and accumulate at the rate of 1 XP per turn plus 1 XP per battle. The only other source of XP is a commander with the Army Trainer special ability.

Mindless units do not gain experience at all.

Once a unit gains a sufficient amount of experience, it becomes experienced and gains bonuses. Experience bonuses are denoted by star icons on the row of special abilities. The maximum experience level is four stars.

Experience bonuses are listed in Table 9.

4-7 Battle Afflictions

Battle afflictions are permanent injuries and disabilities that the unit has suffered as a result of being wounded in combat. Battle afflictions cause the unit to have various penalties to primary statistics or otherwise hinder its performance. Battle afflictions do not heal over time like regular wounds unless the unit has a special ability that allows healing afflictions as well (e.g. Fast Heal, Regeneration or Immortal).

There are no spells or rituals that heal battle afflictions. See Chapter 7 for more on healing.

Cursed units have a greatly increased chance of suffering battle afflictions when wounded.

Battle afflictions appear as red hearts on the row of special abilities, one heart for each affliction, except for disease, which has its own icon.

Some battle afflictions and some of their effects can be found in Table 10.

Lv XP Bonus

1

20 +1 HP, +1 Mrl

2

60 +1 HP, +1 Str

3

120 +1 HP, +1 Mrl

4

200 +2 HP, +1 MR

Table 9: Experience

The strength bonus from two stars increases a unit’s damage modifier by 1 or the die size of the unit’s natural weapons by 1 due to the increased strength. See Chapter 7 for more information.

Affliction Effect

Battle Fright

Feebleminded

Mrl -2

MR -2, Mrl +2, Casting lv -1

Never healing wound Max HP -20 %

Chest wound Max HP -20 %, Str -1

Disease

Str -1, suffers 1 dmg per turn on map (50% chance)

Lost an eye Misses 10% of attacks

Blind (lost both eyes) Attacks almost always miss

Temporary Insanity Cannot move on world map

4-6 Rank

Units in CoE3 armies have three placement ranks, which determine where the unit is placed in the army organization and when it acts in the combat sequence. See Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 for more information on army organization.

Back rank units are usually “pure” mages or noncombatant leaders and are always placed in the rearmost rows of an army.

Middle rank units are units that (usually) possess a ranged weapon or a spell as their primary mode of attack, but also include commanders who do not lead from the front. They are placed behind the front line units in the army.

Front rank units are units whose primary attack is a hand to hand weapon. These units are placed in the front rows of the army.

Table 10: Some Battle Afflictions

The affliction of Temporary Insanity renders the unit 100% insane until it heals. There is a chance to heal from Temporary Insanity every turn.

Note that it is possible for regenerating or immortal units afflicted with temporary insanity to heal from the affliction immediately on the next turn, but they will still be unable to move.

This is because at the beginning of the turn the unit is insane and will refuse to accept orders during that turn. Healing checks for afflictions occur after the insanity check, so the unit is still recovering even though the affliction disappears.

It will be able to move normally the next turn.

This means that normal units will also lose one turn when they finally heal from this affliction.

5 Armies 25

5 Armies

This chapter deals with managing armies on the world map and gives some tips on what certain types of units can do. See also Chapter 4: Units.

5-1 Armies on the Map

Armies on the world map appear as colored squares containing a graphic of some of the units in it. The graphic may be of one of the commanders leading the army, an especially powerful monster in the army or of the unit that makes up the greatest portion of the army. The wise general looks more closely before engaging.

The color of the army corresponds to that of the controlling player. The armies of Independents have a light gray color. The armies of Special

Monsters have a very dark gray color. The armies of Horrors have a very dark red color.

5-2 Army Screen

Right click on an army on the Map Screen to open the Army Screen. The screen displays all the units in the army that the player can see.

Right-clicking on a unit will display its stats. For more information, see Chapter 4: Units.

Hold down TAB to hide armies on the world map.

5.2.2 Army Ranks (Rows)

The army is organized into rows (or ranks) in the

Army Screen. There are 20 normal sized units in each full row. Large units (e.g. Elephants) take the space of two normal sized units. Armies can have several rows, but only 17 fit in the screen.

The arrow keys can be used to scroll the Army

Screen up and down to manage larger armies.

The first row of an army is its front line, the melee units who engage in hand to hand combat with the enemy. Any melee units behind the first row will act as a reserve and will not participate in combat until they are pushed into the first row to replace losses or have long weapons, which can strike enemies from the second row.

For more on how unit placement is determined, see section 5-3 Placement Ranks.

Commanders are not automatically placed in the rear ranks, but according to their placement rank.

Some commanders are very melee oriented and will be found on the front lines of the army (e.g.

Unexpected Hero, Barbarian Leader) while others lead from among the archers in the rear ranks (e.g. Captain) or even from behind the entire army (e.g. Senator).

5-3 Placement Ranks

Units in CoE3 armies have three primary placement ranks: Back, Middle and Front.

Back rank units are usually “pure” mages or noncombatant leaders and are always placed in the rearmost rows of an army.

Middle rank units are units that (usually) possess a ranged weapon or a spell as their primary mode of attack, but also include commanders who do not lead from the front. They are placed behind the front line units in the army.

Front rank units are units whose primary attack is a hand to hand weapon. These units are placed in the front rows of the army.

The placement ranks are independent of the presence of spellcasting ability, ranged weapons or melee attacks available to the unit.

A unit with nothing more than melee attacks can belong to the Middle placement rank and will thus be placed in the middle rows with the ranged units (e.g. Captain or Centurion, who do not lead from the front line).

Similarly, Front rank units may possess ranged attacks or spellcasting ability, but they are still placed among the front lines and will only use ranged weapons or spells according to the restrictions governing those weapon types. This means that they will only use ranged weapons from the back rows and will use spellcasting from the front row if they are able to do so without interruption, which is infrequently.

NOTE: The order of units of same rank (front, middle, back) is randomly determined and cannot be changed.

5 Armies 26

5-4 Stealth and Scouting

Normal armies are visible on explored areas of the map in the immediate vicinity of armies or structures owned by the player. Explored areas farther away are shrouded by the Fog of War and it is impossible to see armies moving there.

Some armies may have units with the special abilities Stealth, Forest Stealth or Invisibility in them. Such units remain undetected even when viewing the enemy army in the Army Screen. It is also possible that an entire army is composed of units with these properties, effectively rendering them invisible to enemies until they attack or the enemy blunders into them by accident.

For more information on stealth related special abilities, see section 4.4.2 Stealth and Scouting in Chapter 4: Units.

To counter stealthy units and armies, most armies (or at least competently led armies) employ scouts. Scouts are specialist units who possess both Stealth and Acute Senses, allowing them to detect stealthy armies while remaining hidden at the same time. Scouts are available through special recruitment.

Units with Spirit Sight are far less common and the means of acquiring them vary more widely.

Most often they are summoned.

NOTE: Scouts are not commanders! Their function is to serve as the eyes and ears of an army, not hare off on their own and get killed when a larger army blunders into them by accident. Exploring the world requires an actual commander, with or without an army. If you send a commander to explore without troops, make sure he is expendable.

5-5 Scouting Reports

Moving the mouse cursor over a visible army gives a report of its composition. The report is of the form “There is/are [unit type] here.” If an army is composed of two different types of units, they are listed. If the army is composed of more than two types, the reports are more vague, generally listing the most prevalent unit type and the second most common unit type. If an army report is vague, the wise commander takes a closer look through the army screen. Engaging an army based on a report of just a few weak units only to discover them to be accompanied by a beholder is a certain recipe for disaster.

6 Combat 27

6 Combat

This chapter discusses combat in the game.

6-2 Combat Screen

6-1 Entering Combat

In CoE3, combat is initiated whenever two armies that are not allied move into the same square.

Whoever moves into the square occupied by the army of another player, independent or special monsters is the attacker. Initiating combat uses up all of the army’s remaining Action Points.

6.2.1 Information Strips

At the top and bottom of the Combat Screen, there are information strips. The top information strip lists the following information:

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Defender (e.g. Independents)

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The number of defending units

Terrain the combat takes place in

Defense bonus (if any)

Playback buttons and status (paused etc)

A special case of initiating combat is when more than two different factions are involved. The armies of allied players can move through the same squares and stay in the same square and will defend the square against enemy attacks as a single force.

In single player games and hotseat games you can defend together with your ally but you cannot attack together. In network multiplayer games it is possible to attack together with your ally.

The bottom information strip lists the attacker and the number of attacking units.

6.2.2 Battlefield

The middle of the screen is the battlefield, which has a black background. Both the attacking and defending armies are displayed there, facing off.

The defending army is at the top of the battlefield, displayed just like in a regular Army Screen. The attacking army is at the bottom and displayed in mirror image of the regular Army Screen.

Key Function n s

?

f z

Display keyboard shortcuts

Toggle speed (normal / fast fwd)

Normal speed

Increase speed by 1 level

Slow motion

q

Skip battle

▲ ▼

Scroll CID up / down

SPACE Pause

When a unit dies, it is removed from the battlefield. If the dead unit was in the front row and there are reserves, a unit from the reserve will fill the gap in the front row after the remaining front row units have made their attacks. Ranged units and spellcasters are not pushed to the front row as long as there are melee units left.

Table 11: Keyboard Shortcuts in Combat

Whenever an army enters combat, a symbol of crossed swords is placed over the square until the end of the player’s turn when combat is resolved. This makes it possible to move several armies to attack a single enemy army simultaneously.

A maximum of 17 rows of units on each side can participate in combat at once. If there are more units in an army, those units cannot act before they are brought forward to replace losses (but are still subject to battlefield wide damage).

Combat can be initiated unintentionally if an army moves into a square containing stealthy or invisible units that it cannot see. For this reason keeping scouts or other units with Acute Senses or Spirit Sight in an army is important.

6.2.3 Combat Information Display (CID)

At the lower left corner of the battlefield, there is a box bordered in light gray. This is the Combat

Information Display (CID for short). The CID displays a log of the battle and shows the actions of different units and their results. Spellcasting, successful magic resistance checks, damage taken, etc. are all listed here.

Combat resolution is displayed in the Combat

Screen. unless the --battlereports command line switch was used to start the game, in which case the player gets a message and a chance to view the combat at the beginning of his next turn.

Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to scroll the CID to inspect events that have already scrolled off the screen. Hit SPACEBAR to

pause the combat if you wish to peruse the CID logs or inspect the various units during the course of combat. For a full list of keyboard shortcuts in the Combat Screen, see Table 11.

6 Combat 28

6-3 Combat Sequence

The combat sequence section describes what happens once combat begins and in what order.

In combat, the defender always acts first. Both sides follow the same sequence. The side currently acting is referred to as the Active Side.

Combat ends when only one side remains on the battlefield.

6.3.2 Assassination

Assassination attacks take place at the very beginning of combat, before any other attacks and are only available to the attacker.

Spellcasting is very difficult in melee and (most) spellcasters are automatically placed in a back row if possible. The chance to successfully cast a spell while engaged in melee is 25%.

The effects of spells are applied immediately

(subject to possible magic resistance, strength resistance or morale checks). Some spells cause effects that are applied over several rounds of combat. See also section Units 4-3.

6.3.1 Prebattle Effects

Prebattle effects take place before the battle begins and are applied before any other actions.

6.3.6 Middle Ranks (Ranged Weapons)

The middle rank acts after the back ranks. Units with spells will cast them and units with ranged weapons will fire them at the enemy. Different ranged weapons have a different rate of fire.

Bows and longbows are fired every combat round. Crossbows are slower and crossbowmen must use one combat round between shots to reload their weapons.

6.3.3 Siege Weapons

If the battle takes place in a city, castle, guard tower or other similar fortified structure and one or more sides in the battle has siege weapons, the combat sequence is altered. In siege situations, siege weapons are used exclusively for the first ten rounds of combat and siege weapons on both sides will fire (up to) five times before any other units act.

It is impossible to fire normal ranged weapons in melee, so if middle rank units are left without an infantry screen and are pushed to the front row, they will use their secondary weapons (usually dagger or other less powerful wepaon) to defend themselves.

After the siege weapons phase, the combat will proceed according to the normal sequence.

For this reason you should make sure your ranged units always have plenty of infantry cover.

Garrisons should always recruit front line infantry first for the same reason.

6.3.4 Cause Fear

If the Active Side has units that cause fear in the front row, Fear is applied to all units facing them, i.e. to the first row of the enemy, at the beginning of the combat round. Any units that fail a Morale check will run away from combat and will be immediately removed from the battlefield. Any units on the victorious side that ran away from combat will return after the battle. Any units from the losing side that ran away are lost.

6.3.7 Front Ranks (Melee)

Front rank melee attacks take place after ranged weapons have been fired. Units in the front row will strike at a random enemy in the opposing front row.

Melee units will attack as many times as they have weapons. Each weapon may strike a different unit in the enemy line.

This means that fearsome units are an important tactical asset and may win a battle for a small force facing many times its own number.

6.3.5 Back Ranks (Spellcasters)

The units in the back placement ranks take action immediately after fear has been applied. Any spellcasting commanders and units in the back ranks on the Active Side will cast a spell in their repertoire if they are able. Others will use ranged weapons, if available, or do nothing.

Some units may have special ranged weapons that they can use in close combat instead of their melee attacks. Some units may even have special ranged weapons or spellcasting options that they can use in melee in addition to their regular melee attacks.

NOTE! In combat units will make attacks even when the enemy is completely immune, in which case the attacks cause no damage at all.

6 Combat 29

Example: A dispossessed spirit attacks a

soulless. The spirit’s weapon, Touch of the

Dead, causes cold damage. Soulless are

immune to cold, so even if the spirit hits and gets

a lucky open-ended die roll (see Chapter 7:

Weapons, Damage & Death), all damage is

reduced by 100% and the target suffers no

damage at all.

6-5 Summoned Creatures

Some spells summon monsters to aid the caster in combat. Some magic items may also act as summoning spells and summon monsters to aid the bearer, either at the beginning of combat or even every combat round.

6.3.8 Battle Fatigue & Stalemate

After round 75, all units start taking Battle Fatigue damage. Damage is applied against each unit on the battlefield and starts from 1d2 armor negating magic damage on round 76. On round 77 the damage is 1d3 AN magic and the die increases by 1 on every subsequent combat round. The last army with surviving units on the battlefield wins combat.

Summoned creatures appear instantly and any surviving summoned creatures will vanish after the battle is over.

Summoned creatures do not act immediately.

They do nothing on the round they appear and will only take their proper place, as determined by their placement rank, at the end of the round they appear. The summoned creatures only begin to act on the round after they appear, at which point they are indistinguishable from other units and act according to the normal combat sequence.

This means that battles between very large armies may last long enough for battle fatigue to kick in and everyone will begin suffering damage.

The Battle Fatigue mechanism also ensures that it is impossible for units that are mutually immune to each other’s attacks to cause the game to be caught in an infinite loop of unresolvable combat.

If such units face off in combat, the battle will be resolved by battle fatigue damage after round 75 and the most likely winner is the monster with the highest HP.

6.3.9 Resurrection

Regenerating units on the side that won the battle have a chance of rising from the dead unless they suffered at least 125% of their HP worth of damage when they were killed.

Regenerating units on the losing side cannot return from the dead, since the winners make sure they are sufficiently dismembered to prevent any revival.

6-4 Hit Mechanics

Attacks always hit, unless they are modified by a battle affliction or special ability that makes them miss. Afflictions that can cause attacks to miss are lost eyes and blindness. Special abilities that can cause attacks to miss are Ethereal, Awe,

Luck, Air Shield, Displacement and Bad Sight.

7 Weapons, Damage and Death 30

7 Weapons, Damage and

Death

This chapter discusses weapons, damage and death in the game in more detail.

7.1.2 Damage Types

Weapons can do several different types of damage. Each type may be normal or magical

(e.g. magical or non-magical blunt damage).

7-1 Weapons

The weapons of a unit are listed after the primary statistics. Some units may have the same weapon more than once, indicating that they are skilled enough to make multiple attacks in one round with the same weapon. Barbarian Leaders and High Lords are examples of such units.

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Blunt (icon: hammer)

Piercing (icon: spear)

Slashing (icon: sword)

Fire (icon: flame)

Cold (icon: icicles)

Shock (icon: lightning bolt)

Poison (icon: drop of green liquid)

Acid (icon: drop of purple liquid)

Magic (icon: blue-white starburst)

Fear (icon: screaming face)

Charm / Enslave (icon: none)

Special (usually a magical spell effect)

For the purposes of combat and damage mechanics, spells function exactly like weapons and spellcasting is only limited by the restrictions of a particular Cast Spell type weapon.

Armor subtracts from damage received unless the attack causes armor negating (AN) damage.

7.1.1 Weapon Types

There are several weapon types:

Melee Weapons without separate qualifiers are melee weapons.

Melee# Either this melee attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round.

Ranged weapons are used from the back rows.

Ranged* This ranged weapon may be used in melee instead of other attacks.

Ranged** This ranged weapon can also be used in melee and in addition to other attacks.

Ranged# Either this attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round. This ranged weapon can be used in melee.

Cast Spell Spell attacks are difficult to execute in melee and should preferably be used from a back row.

Cast Spell– Only one of these spell attacks may be used per round.

Cast Spell** This spell attack may be used in melee and in addition to other attacks.

Cast Spell# Either this attack or the following attack will be used, but both cannot be used on the same combat round. This spell attack can be used in melee.

Siege weapons are only used when attacking fortified structures like cities or guard towers.

7.1.3 Area of Effect

All weapons have an area of effect. Most weapons affect a single target and the attack will hit a target in the front row of the enemy army.

However, there are weapons that affect multiple targets. Weapons that affect multiple targets can affect either three or five targets, an entire row of targets or even all targets on one side or even all targets on the battlefield.

Spells have the additional area of effect possibilities of self (caster only) and two, three, four, five or twelve random targets, in which case the effects can hit targets all over the battlefield without regard to where they are placed.

Weapons that have an area of effect of more than one target but less than an entire row may not hit the maximum number of targets if there are gaps in the targeted line or if one or more of the targets are large monsters, which take up more space than a regular infantry unit and count as several targets for area of effect purposes.

The area of effect may also extend beyond the end of a row, in which case less targets than the maximum would be affected even if there are seemingly valid targets available.

7 Weapons, Damage and Death 31

7.1.4 Additional Weapon Attributes

Weapons may have additional attributes that modify their behavior to differ from a standard weapon. The most common additional attributes are described below.

Extra Effect if Hit: if the weapon hits the target, the target suffers an additional effect, which may be different type of damage (e.g. poison from a venomous bite) or possibly special damage. This attribute is a recursive weapon, which could theoretically have a recursive effect of its own.

Recursive weapon is the most common additional attribute for weapons.

Armor Negating weapons ignore all armor values, defense bonuses and shields of the target.

Assassination weapons are used before the battle begins to make a free attack on the enemy.

Assassination attacks may only be used by the attacking player. Assassination weapons are also modified by all other additional attributes.

Drain In addition to causing damage to their targets, life draining attacks add an equal amount of Hit Points to the attacker, healing them of damage already suffered or augmenting their Hit

Points beyond the normal maximum. The maximum amount of HP gain is twice the unit’s normal maximum HP. This limit is affected by reductions of maximum HP due to afflictions.

The HP augmentation wears off with time.

Long weapons may be used to strike from the second row on the battlefield.

Negates Shields Damage from this attack cannot be reduced by the Shield or Large Shield special ability.

Siege weapons are only usable in battles that take place in a square that is considered to be a fortification, such as a city, guard tower, castle or similar structure. See Chapter 6: Combat for more details on siege mechanics.

Strikes anywhere This weapon may strike anywhere on the battlefield.

Strikes rear This weapon always strikes a target in the rearmost enemy row. Typically only a property of assassination weapons.

7-2 Death

When the Hit Points of a unit reach 0, it dies.

Death is permanent, unless a unit is immortal.

Immortal units reform at the home citadel after they are killed. If the home citadel is lost, even immortal units die permanently when slain.

Dead units cannot be brought back to life by any means. The only exception is if a regenerating unit on the winning side of a battle is killed but suffered less than 125% of its HP in damage. In this instance the unit has a chance to return from the dead, but it is not guaranteed.

There are some manners of instantaneous death, the most common of which is for non-amphibian units to drown in Early Spring if they ended their movement on a frozen lake or river in Late

Winter. In these instances a unit is simply eliminated without a normal damage process, since the event happens outside combat.

7-3 Damage Display

Damage taken by units in combat is displayed as floating numbers that rise up from the unit and fade away on the battlefield. Damage is normally displayed as floating red numbers.

If the unit suffers from special damage as an ongoing effect such as decay or burning or receives damage from striking an enemy with a protective ability such as Fire or Cold Aura, the damage is displayed in a different color.

The colors for strikeback and ongoing damage effects depend on what type of damage the unit has suffered. Healing effects are displayed with a plus sign.

Red

Yellow

Blue

Blunt, piercing, slashing

Fire

Cold

Light Blue Shock

Green Poison

Pale Purple

Acid

White

Purple

Magic

Decay

7 Weapons, Damage and Death 32

7-4 Damage Mechanics

7.4.1 Boolean Damage

Some damage effects are boolean in nature, meaning that they either affect the target, in which case the target suffers the full effects of the damage, or they do not affect the target at all.

Boolean damage is often subject to a resistance check, usually against magic resistance or strength and sometimes both attributes can be used to resist the effect. Many special damage effects, especially if caused by spells, are boolean in nature.

7.4.2 Open Ended Dice

Most weapons and damage dealing spells in the game inflict a variable amount of damage (for example, 1-5 points of piercing damage from a spear).

7.4.4 Damage Bonus

If a unit has a damage bonus, the bonus is not added directly to a the result of the open-ended die roll. Instead, the damage bonus increases the size of the open-ended die. The damage bonus is displayed as 1dX + Y, but in actual fact the effect is a damage value of 1d(X+Y). The damage bonus is displayed this way for aesthetic reasons and because some weapons can be replaced by weapons from items, in which case the damage bonus is applied to the new weapon.

Example: The Troll King has a damage bonus of

25, so his Club (1d3 damage) actually does 1d28 damage. A hoburg soldier has a damage bonus of -2 so his spear (1d5 damage) only does 1d3

points of damage.

7.4.5 Immobilized Targets

Immobilized units (stunned, paralyzed etc.) take

1 extra point of damage from every attack.

Damage in Conquest of Elysium is inflicted on the basis of an open-ended die. This means that when damage is rolled, if maximum damage is rolled, another die of additional damage is rolled.

An additional die is rolled every time the last one comes up with the highest possible value.

Thus a lucky hit can cause massive damage far in excess of normal.

Weapons with a damage rating of 1 have a 20% chance of having the damage rating increased to

1d2 and becoming open-ended.

All additional dice have 1 point subtracted from the result of the roll.

Example: A spearman hits a target and rolls damage: 1d5 (oe), with results 5, 5, 5, 4. The

actual result is 5 + 4+ 4+ 3 = 16.

7.4.3 Semi-Open Ended Dice

Semi-open ended dice function like open-ended dice, but only the first result is counted in full. All of the additional dice rolls are first reduced by 1 and the sum of the additional dice rolls is halved before adding it to the result of the first die. All fractions are rounded down.

7.4.6 Damage Calculation

Damage from a successfully landed attack is applied through the following steps:

(1) Roll total damage, open-ended dice

(2) If the damage type was elemental (fire, cold, shock, poison) and the target has a vulnerability to that element, double the damage total

(3) Add 1 if the target was immobilized

(4) If target is defender and there is a defense bonus, add the bonus to target’s armor

(5) Subtract the armor value from the damage total unless the attack was armor negating

(6) Subtract 4 if the target has a shield and a shield check was successful, unless the attack was armor negating or negates shields

(7) If the damage type is blunt, slashing or piercing damage and the target has the relevant resistance, apply the resistance reduction (50%) to the damage total

(8) If target has immunity to the damage type, apply 100% reduction to the damage total

(9) If the resulting damage value is greater than 0, subtract the result from the target’s

Hit Points.

Example: A semi-open ended die roll of 1d5, with results 5, 5, 5, 4 would have an actual result

of 5 + (4+ 4+ 3) / 2 = 10.

All fractions are rounded down.

Damage reduction may result in the target not taking any damage at all. For more information on the various damage reduction abilities, see section 4.4.4 Damage Reduction and Immunities.

7 Weapons, Damage and Death 33

7.4.7 Poison Damage

Poison damage works differently from other types of damage. The amount of damage suffered is determined normally, but it is applied differently.

When a unit is inflicted with a total amount of poison damage, it takes 10% of the total every round (rounded up to the nearest whole number) until all the poison damage has been suffered.

Already poisoned units can become more poisoned by repeated exposure to poison attacks. The new value is added to the existing total poisoning so far.

7.5.2 Fear

Fear damage is applied against morale. If the damage roll from fear exceeds the morale of the target, the target panics and runs away. Fear attacks may sometimes be resisted with magic resistance, in which case the fear attack is negated and fear damage is not applied.

Sleeping units are not affected by fear. They will have nightmares instead, but this does not have any effect. It is simply an indication that the condition of being asleep protected them.

Poison Immunity grants immunity to new poison damage, but does not negate prior poisoning.

Example: A Witch hits an Elephant with the spell

Venom and poisons the Elephant for 13 points of

damage. Over the following combat rounds the

Elephant suffers all 13 points of poison damage in increments of 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 and 1

points at which point the total has reached zero.

7.5.3 Debuffs

Debuff effects weaken the target’s combat effectiveness, make it more vulnerable to damage, cause damage over time or cause permanent disabilities. Debuff effects have separate icons, which are often something other than pentagrams.

Cursed units have a greatly increased chance of receiving battle afflictions when they are hit.

(icon: black demon head inside a red pentagram)

7-5 Special Damage

Some types of attacks do special damage, whose effects are not immediate or which will have an impact on a unit’s performance. Special damage that causes an effect will produce an icon in the unit’s row of special abilities. Most special damage icons are pentagrams in various colors.

7.5.1 Charm & Enslave

Enslaved units immediately switch sides and attack their former comrades. Charmed units switch sides but do not join the enemy army until after the battle. A charmed unit is killed if its new side should fail to win the battle.

Decay Units suffering from decay take 1 point of damage per combat round until they die. Decay cannot be reversed. (icon: hourglass)

Disease Diseased units have their Strength lowered by one point immediately, but take no extra damage in combat. After combat, they have a 50% chance of taking 1 point of damage every month until they die. Disease is considered a battle affliction for purposes of healing. (icon: pockmarked face)

Weakened units have their Strength and damage reduced by 2. (icon: purple pentagram)

Charmed units retain their previous status, which means a charmed commander will still be a commander in the service of his new master.

7.5.3 Immobilization

Immobilization effects render units immobile and cause them to take one extra point of damage from all attacks.

After the battle, charmed commanders will be placed under the command of the commander who charmed them and will be inactive until activated from the Transfer Units screen. See section 3.6.8 Transfer Units for more information.

Confused units do nothing (50% chance) or damage themselves (25% chance, damage is strength dependent) until they pass a magic resistance check against 1d30.

(icon: pale green pentagram)

Enslaved units lose their commander status and become regular units. Enslaved mage commanders do NOT lose their spellcasting abilities, but can no longer learn new spells or use rituals. Enslaved units are automatically assigned to the commander who enslaved them.

Earth Grip Earth gripped units are immobilized until they pass a strength check vs 2d6. Passing a strength check vs 1d5+7 will have the unit break free and attack in the same round.

(icon: brown pentagram)

There is no icon for charm/enslave.

7 Weapons, Damage and Death 34

Entanglement Entangled units are immobilized until they pass a strength check vs 1d8. Passing a strength check vs 1d5+5 will have the unit break free and attack in the same round.

(icon: green pentagram)

7-7 Resistance Mechanics

This section explains how resistance rolls work.

Effects that can be resisted with more than one attribute check against both attributes. The target is only affected if both checks fail.

Imprisoned in Ice Units imprisoned in ice are immobilized and gain 2 points of Armor, but take

1 point of cold damage every combat round until the effect wears off (20% chance each round).

(icon: pale blue pentagram dripping icicles)

Paralyzation Paralyzed units are immobilized and cannot do anything until the effect wears off.

(10% chance each combat round).

(icon: light gray pentagram)

When resistance checks are made, the targets do not get opposed dice rolls that are added to the attribute value used to resist the effect.

7.7.1 Magic Resistance

Magic resistance checks come in three varieties:

Easy, normal and hard. They are often referred to respectively as easymr, mr and hardmr when discussing different kinds of checks.

Sleep Sleeping units are immobilized. The unit sleeps until it is hit or awakens on its own.

(5% chance each combat round)

(icon: blue pentagram)

All MR checks are rolled against the target’s magic resistance. If the roll is equal to or greater than the magic resistance, the target fails to resist and the effect is applied. MR checks use semi-open ended dice rolls.

Stun Stunned units are immobilized and cannot do anything for one combat round.

(icon: dark gray pentagram)

Easy MR 1d5 < MR = resisted

Normal MR 2d4 < MR = resisted

Hard MR 2d6 < MR = resisted

7-6 Healing

Wounded units heal damage at the rate of 10% of their maximum HP per month (rounded up), unless they have a healing special ability such as

Fast Heal or Regeneration that allows them to heal faster. All damage done to Never Healing units is permanent. The only way for them to heal is through life draining attacks, though only few such units possess them.

7.7.2 Strength Resistance

Effects that are resisted with strength (such as the stun effect from the Gust of Wind spell) work exactly like magic resistance checks, but the determining attribute is strength instead of MR.

7.7.3 Special Damage Resistance

Resistance checks against special damage are semi-open ended dice rolls against strength or

MR, with rolls equal to or greater than the attribute meaning the check fails.

Confusion

Usually MR to resist

1d30 vs MR to break free

Earth Grip

2d6 vs Str to break free

1d5+7 vs Str to break free and attack

Entanglement

1d8 vs Str to break free

1d5+5 vs Str to break free and attack

8 Magic 35

8 Magic

8-1 Overview of Magic

Magic plays a major role in the conquest of the land and using available magical resources correctly can make the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat.

There are 48 different disciplines of magic, each with its strengths and weaknesses. Many disciplines bear similarities to each other, yet they have a different focus. Different disciplines may share spells, but spells of the same name cast by mages of different disciplines may differ in their efficacy.

Most mages only know the magic of one discipline. Some rare spellcasters may know two, but they are usually limited to the lower levels of knowledge. Certain very rare mages or powerful spellcasting monsters have mastered multiple disciplines of magic and can wreak havoc on the unprepared because there is never a certainty of what they will throw at their enemies.

8-2 The Disciplines of Magic

A short introduction to the disciplines of power.

Serpent Magic This magic deals with deadly snakes and venom.

Silver Arcana Sorceries of light, air, the sun and banishment, bane of the undead

Solar Magic Favor and fury of the sun

Spiritism The calling of ancestral spirits

Troll Magic Monsters and curses, pestilence and terror and the slumber of the stones

Witchery Charms, curses and poison

Wizardry A collective name for the magic of wizards who have learned their magic in a place of learning with many teachers and good access to books of magic. Different wizards may know wildly different spells, but the spells they know are often very powerful.

Element Magic Spells of the four Elements of

Air, Earth, Fire and Water. Practicioners of this discipline are apprentices of all Elements and masters of none.

Geomancy Magic of earth and stone

Hydromancy Magic of water and the sea

Pyromancy Magic of fire and flame

Storm Magic Magic of air and storms

Frost Magic Magic of cold and ice

Crystal Sorcery Sorceries of wind and fortune

Garnet Sorcery Sorceries of fire and blood

Jade Sorcery Sorceries of venom and healing

Onyx Sorcery Sorceries of death and stone

Black Magic Magic for curses and killing

Blood Magic Power through bloodshed

Command The Master shall command the and the slaves shall obey!

Dark Magic Power of shadows and darkness

Dark Prayer Prayers to Ba’al

Deep Magic Magic of the stars and the Void

Druidism Power over beasts and plants

Dwarf Magic The magic of the dwarves is varied and has protective spells as well as spells that confuse or kill enemies.

Enchantment Magic of protection and alteration

Fortune Magic The dazzling smile of Lady Luck

Foul Magic Plague, pox and pestilence

Golden Arcana Sorceries of fire and the sun

Hedge Magic A collective name for the magic used by many shamans and witch doctors who have learned magic on their own.

Illusionism Trust not what thy senses tell thee!

Infernal Magic Power of blood, pain and hellfire

Kuro Do The dark path. This path is full of wild and destructive magic.

Mysticism The mysteries of death and rebirth

Necromancy Magic of death, decay and terror

Sage Magic Riddles, confusion and slumber

Invocations of the Land Blessings and power over beasts and healing

Invocations of the Rain Blessings and the fury of rain storms

Invocations of the Moon Blessings and magics of the night and the moon

Invocations of the Sun Blessings and the fiery power of the sun

Nahualli Magic Curses, wounds and pestilence

Maladies Afflictions, curses and malevolence

Beast Wards Summonings of animal totems

Warrior Wards Blessings of the warrior spirits

8 Magic 36

8-3 List of Spells

There are 48 different disciplines of magic taught within these walls, each with dozens of spells.

What joy is there in power acquired for no cost, knowledge gained for no effort? None, I say!

Therefore, but for the tomes you have penned yourself during your apprenticeship, the library of grimoires shall remain closed to you, now that you have finished your training.

Go forth, young apprentices, stretch your wings and master the disciplines of magic through the blood, sweat and tears of your work! Solely through hard struggle is mastery gained and only when you stand on the pinnacle of power that you have climbed unaided from the very bottom, will you truly appreciate all that you have achieved!

Curse me now as much as you like, but you will yet thank me in the end, mark my words.

*****

It is difficult to disagree that our teacher was a demanding and harsh taskmaster, but there was no convincing my former friends of any of that.

Always with them it was “My achievements, my glory, my power!” Mine this and mine that and little care for anything but their own wounded pride and grievances.

Perhaps the master should have been a little less harsh on them, for I fear they have started down dark paths indeed. However, coddling their sense of entitlement could hardly have turned out any better, I suspect.

The torn page from Barras’s journal I found in his hastily vacated quarters is disturbing. His prediction about Calthus is more likely than not prescient, since Calthus rarely even bothered to reach the exacting standards even the basics require.

~ Veren Aldren, Master of the Archmages’

Citadel, speaking to journeymen upon the

completion of their apprenticeships

*****

Barras himself...that burnt charnel stench he tried to mask with incense, I’ve smelled it once before and I had hoped never again. He has embarked upon the path of Necromancy. Nothing good can come of the secrets of that black art and so we are enemies now, he and I.

Miserable bastard! For years I have toiled for him, slaved and worked my fingers to the bone, and all he gives me are scraps and crumbs, the bones tossed under the table for the dogs! He feasts on power and knowledge while he leaves us starving in the dark and rubs our faces in it!

We have had enough of him, but he will hear about us yet, oh yes, he will! I will take his words to heart and will make him eat them when I come back, after I have learned all that he refused to teach me and the others.

It is good that I had not yet chosen a new master to serve during my journeyman studies, because now my own path is clear. It matters little to me whether I wear the robes of gold and red or silver and white. Golden Arcana or Silver, both are deadly to the unholy creations of necromancers, though the latter is more suited to my nature, I believe. Now to see if Master Norwanian has yet an opening for a student of the Silver Order...

~ From the journal of Darrin of Cathis, White

Wizard of the Order of the Silver Arcana

Darrin is a fool to still hang on to that miser’s robes, there is nothing he will get but kicks and scorn. Calthus is even more a fool, to think there is future in demonology, the summonings he has practiced in secret. One day he will call something that will little like him and devour him in revenge. And it’ll be sooner, rather than later, mark my words! There are other masters to learn from, those who know the path to immortality and the spirits who serve them...

~ A page torn from the writings of Barras, Veren

Aldren’s former apprentice

8 Magic 37

8-4 Magic Items

The land of Elysium is home to powerful wizards, beguiling witches, dangerous monsters and mysterious locations. There are many kinds of treasures to be found for the intrepid explorer and among them are magical items ranging from useful trinkets to artifacts of great power.

8.4.4 Generic Item Powers

Most items give the bearer one or more benefits.

Magic weapons replace the bearer’s normal weapon with a different, magical weapon and may provide other benefits, such as stat increases or special abilities.

8.4.1 Magic Item Types

Magic items come in six different types:

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Most other types of items grant stat increases and special abilities relevant to the item type, such as armor bonuses and resistances for armor, movement abilities for boots and almost anything for miscellaneous items.

Magic weapons

Magic helmets

Magic body armor

Magic gauntlets

Magic boots

Magic miscellaneous items

The item types correspond to the item slots of units and a unit must have the correct type of item slot to be able to use a magical item. As a rule, items can be used by any unit with the correct item slots, not just commanders.

8.4.5 Summoning Items

Summoning items summon creatures to aid the bearer in combat. The summoning occurs either at the beginning of the battle when the bearer first acts or it occurs every round. Summoning items with constant summons are much rarer than items that only summon creatures at the beginning of combat.

8.4.2 Transferring Items

Items can be transferred from unit to unit by clicking on the item slot where the item is located.

This opens the Army Screen, where clicking on the target unit transfers the item to that unit. If the target unit does not have the appropriate item slot or the target’s applicable item slots are full, the item will stay with the current owner and the transfer fails without an error message.

The behavior of summoned monsters in combat is described in section Chapter 6: Combat.

8.4.6 Magic Boosting Items

Magic boosting items increase the spell casting skills of the bearer. Magic boosting items come in two varieties: Generic magic boosters and path boosters.

Generic magic boosters increase the bearer’s spell casting level in every magic path by one, with a commensurate increase in the spell memorization capacity for all paths.

If the bearer of an item dies in combat, surviving commanders pick up the items. If there are no commanders left or their item slots are full, surviving units pick the item up if they have the slots. Items are lost only if there are no units capable of picking them up after the bearer dies.

Path boosters only increase the spell casting skill and memorization for a particular magic path, such as Necromancy or Pyromancy.

When items are picked after combat, the player receives a message that “<commander name>

has found <item>”. If a non-commander unit picks up an item, the name in the message is

John Doe.

If a unit is generated already in possession of a magic boosting item of the correct type, it will possess knowledge of spells according to its boosted level instead of the normal. It will still require possession of the item to cast them.

8.4.3 Activated Items

Some items have an activated power that can be used, but in this instance the unit using the item must be a commander. If the commander cannot use the activated power and tries to do so, there is a message to that effect (e.g. a non-mage trying to use a spell scroll item).

8.4.7 Spell Scrolls

Spell scrolls are miscellaneous items with an activated power. They disappear after they are used. Each spell scroll permanently adds a new spell of the scroll’s level into the user’s spellbook.

High level scrolls may also add lower level spells in addition to the high level spell.

9 Classes 38

9 Classes

This chapter gives a short description of the 17 classes in the game. A general overview of things common to the various classes is presented first, with the introductions to the particulars of each class following.

Table 12 contains a detailed breakdown of the availability of special resources to the different classes. Resources that appear in italics are not available to that class initially, but will become available later through special recruitment or ritual summoning of commanders who can gather and use them.

Many classes have access to special powers and bonuses. Many of the special powers involve magical rituals and the rituals require special resources to perform. Some classes have no access to magical rituals or special powers at all and some of them do not have access at the beginning of the game.

Some classes need resources that (almost) nobody else can use. Some special resources are highly sought after by all classes. Gold and iron is needed by everyone and often locations that provide one or the other also provide some other special resource.

The special resources that a player collects are determined by what kind of commanders he has.

Only resources that one or more of a player’s commanders can use are gathered. If a player does not have a commander required to gather a special resource, he cannot even see what locations would provide that resource and in what quantity. If a player acquires a commander who can use a special resource normally not accessible to the player’s class, that resource becomes accessible and visible on the map.

Class

Baron

Resource

None

Necromancer Hands of Glory

Demonologist Sacrifices

Witch

Priestess

Bakemono

Fungi, Hands

Sacrifices, Hands

Sacrifices

Barbarian

Senator

Pale One

Druid

Hoburg

Warlock

Priest King

Troll King

Enchanter

Herbs

None

Gems

Herbs

Weed, Gems

Gems

Sacrifices

Fungi

Gold & Iron

High Cultist Sacrifices

Dwarf Queen Gems

Voice of El Relics

Table 12: Special Resources by Class

The income of some resources is affected by the seasons:

Example: The Necromancer’s special resource is Hands of Glory and he can gather them from all locations that provide them. The Warlock uses magical gems and can see them, but has no knowledge of or interest in Hands of Glory. If the Necromancer were to acquire a Warlock or a

Warlock’s Apprentice in some manner, he would be able to gather gems from that point forward.

Conversely, if the Warlock were to gain the services of a Necromancer or a Necromancer’s

Apprentice, he would also be able to gather

Hands of Glory for the use of his new minion.

WARNING! If a player loses all commanders who can gather a specific resource, he loses the ability to gather more of that resource until he manages to recruit another commander who can.

The resource will disappear from the Treasury list, but the amount gathered to date is not lost. It will become visible and available for use again when a new gatherer is acquired.









Gold: -80% in winter

Fungi: -100% in winter, +100% in autumn

Herbs: -100% in winter, +100% in summer

Weed: -100% in winter and spring,

+100% in summer, normal in autumn

NOTE! All of the tables and class introductions in this chapter introduce the classes as they are at the beginning of Turn 1 of the game. There may or may not be surprises and possibilities for change later on in the game, but that is left for players to discover on their own.

The world map contains many different terrains and structures that the player can move through and/or conquer to add to his domain. Farms, villages, towns, cities, castles, mines and more are there for the taking, though often defended fiercely by their original inhabitants.

9 Classes 39

9-1 Baron

9.1.1 Class Attributes

The frontiers of the human realm were defended by human landowners known as Barons. Some

Barons were warlike and restless. As humankind spread over Elysium and became dominant, these Barons tried to usurp their masters’ power and waged war on their neighbors. The large, well-trained forces at their disposal made them formidable foes. They were soon in control of large parts of the human territories. However, not all humans were content with this. The sorcerers of Elysium gathered armies of their own and nonhuman warlords called out for vengeance.

The Barons must once again subjugate Elysium.

The Baron has a wide variety of human troops and huge siege engines at his disposal. Knights are formidable units who can inflict additional damage by charging enemies in the initial phase of a battle. Heavy infantry units are strong, but move slowly. Fast cavalry units under the leadership of mounted commanders work as a highly mobile force.

The Baron knows how to keep his subjects in line and can cow peasants into obedience. All farms and villages under the Baron’s rule are required to send a levy of soldiers to the baron each year.

This muster consists of simple spearmen from farms and at least one knight from each village.

Large towns and cities do not contribute soldiers.

The Baron can also form local militias to defend villages and cities. The larger the settlement, the stronger the militia.

Abilities:











Starts with a very well fortified castle

25% increase to gold income

25% increase to iron income

Conscription yields soldiers from all farms, hamlets and villages every year.

The Baron and High Lords can raise levies (immobile defenders) in villages and towns.

Main Hero: Baron

Secondary Hero: High Lord

Starting Citadel: Castle (type 1)

Starting Resources: 2 Farms, 1 Hamlet

Starting Army:



6 Spearmen



5 Archers



5 Cavalrymen

Bonus: +25% gold and iron income

Special Resource: None

Special power: Raise levies

The Baron is able to raise levies in villages and larger settlements that will defend his holdings for free. Levies are low quality troops who will not leave their home.

9.1.2 Rituals

The Baron has no access to magical rituals or spells at the beginning of the game.

9.1.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult

4 Longbowmen

60

50

10

0

5 Pikeneers

5 Halberdiers

5 Zweihanders

5 Tower Guards

50

50

5

5

50 10

50 15

3 Cavalrymen

4 War Dogs

1 Trebuchet

1 Ballista

50 20

25 0

50 50

25 25

9.1.4 Special Recruitment

The Baron has access to the standard special recruitment list. He also receives offers to recruit

High Lords and knights. The Baron is often offered normal troops and siege engines in larger quantities than normal at a substantial discount.

Temples have no effect on the Baron’s recruitment and libraries increase the chance of being offered to recruit wizards.

9 Classes 40

9-2 Necromancer

9.2.1 Class Attributes

Necromancers are sorcerers who are adept at the dark art of Necromancy, the summoning and creation of the living dead.

The Necromancer can raise the buried dead or those that have fallen in battle as undead troops to strengthen his army. This practice is forbidden by the gods and Necromancers who are foolish enough to disturb the dead will lose their sanity in the process. Only dead humanoids can be raised as undead and once they are destroyed they cannot be raised a second time because by that time their bodies are too broken.

The other aspect of Necromancy is the harvest of hands. On stormy nights darkly robed men collect the left hands of hanged murderers.

These are called the Hands of Glory. The burnt flesh of such hands is pleasant to ghosts and evil spirits who can aid the Necromancer in his horrible art. However, the hands can be used in even worse ways. When enough Hands of Glory are burnt, spirits from the darkest realms can be called to instruct the Necromancer how to turn his body into that of a living dead.

The Necromancer has very weak troops at the start of the game. It is essential for him to quickly find a battlefield or a graveyard. The ritual of

Dark Knowledge is important in this search. The animated dead are weak and they never heal wounds sustained in battle, which makes them unreliable in the long run.

Main Hero: Necromancer

Secondary Hero: Necromancer’s Apprentice

Starting Citadel: Dark Citadel

Starting Resources: 1 Farm, 1 Gallows

Starting Army:



10 Spearmen



3 Crossbowmen

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Hands of Glory

Special power: Raise Dead, Summon Undead

Raise Dead allows the Necromancer to animate longdead and soulless undead to add to his army in locations where he senses the presence of the dead. Reanimation comes with price, however:

Each reanimation inflicts 6 points of insanity on the Necromancer.

9.2.2 Rituals

Dark Knowledge Reveals sites of the dead

Minor Summoning Lesser allies

Major Summoning Greater allies

Summon Legion (requires Battlefield)

Transform into a Vampire (requires Old Castle)

Transform into a Lich (requires upgrade +

Temple or Ancient Temple)

Transform into a Demilich (requires lichdom +

Temple or Ancient Temple)

Travel the Stygian Paths (Demilich)

Ritual of Necromantic Mastery Upgrade

9.2.3 Basic Recruitment

Use the apprentice to animate undead.

Otherwise you will go mad and lose the ability to take rational action. Summoned undead require

Hands of Glory, which can be found in villages, towns, cities and gallows. The ultimate goal of most Necromancers is to transform into a powerful undead creature and live forever!

Transforming into a lich will make you immune to insanity and vampires can cure insanity by eating villages.

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50

50

50

0

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult 25 50

Abilities:



Necromancers can sense the presence

 and rough number of the dead

Necromancers can raise the dead.





Necromancers collect Hands of Glory from large villages and towns.

Necromancers can use Hands of Glory to summon more powerful undead beings.

9.2.4 Special Recruitment

The Necromancer has access to the standard special recruitment list. He also receives recruitment offers from goblins. Temples have no effect on the Necromancer’s recruitment and libraries increase the chance of being offered to recruit apprentices and wizards.

9 Classes 41

9-3 Demonologist

The Demonologist is a mage-priest who summons the denizens of the Abyss and the

Inferno. The spirits of these realms are powerful and horrible to behold. They crave human flesh and can only be bound to service if they are sated. The greatest of these demons are insatiable and cannot be bound unless the

Demonologist is very lucky indeed and the sacrifice is enormous. If the Demonologist fails the binding ritual, the demon will attack and try to devour the weakling human who had the temerity to attempt to rob the fiend of its freedom.

The forces at the Demonologist’s disposal are truly powerful. Lesser demons are physically powerful and some of them have magical power the equal of any magic user. Greater demons are even more powerful and the mighty demon lords are practically unequaled in the scope of their magical abilities as well as in physical combat. Many demons use fire to damage their opponents and fire resistant troops in an enemy army may pose a problem for the unwary

Demonologist.

Abilities:



Demonologists collect sacrifices from

 villages and towns.

Demonologists can summon and attempt

 to control demons.

Demons have many different powers.

Demonologists summon demons through human sacrifice. They may elect to use the normal amount of sacrifices to appease the Infernal denizens they summon or to sacrifice less than is traditional. Lesser sacrifices make it harder to control the summoned creature. Even a normal sacrifice may not be enough to control a summoned creature, so it is best to have sufficient forces at hand to protect the summoner in case things go wrong.

A Demonologist may also elect to summon demons without any sacrifices at all, but controlling a summoned creature that has not been appeased is very difficult or even impossible if the creature is too powerful.

The Cultist (apprentice Demonologist) can only summon lesser demons and greater demons and can only use small sacrifices, making the attempts riskier.

An accomplished Demonologist who has performed a Ritual of Demon Mastery can sacrifice generously when summoning demons, thereby increasing his chances of controlling the summoned creatures.

9.3.2 Rituals

Summon lesser demon

Summon major demon

Summon demon lord

Ritual of Demon Mastery Upgrade

9.3.1 Class Attributes

Main Hero: Demonologist

Secondary Hero: Cultist

Starting Citadel: Citadel (Vision 2)

Starting Resources: 2 Farms, 1 Hamlet

Starting Army:





10 Swordsmen

3 Crossbowmen

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Sacrifices

Special power: Summon Demons

9.3.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult 25 50

9.3.4 Special Recruitment

The Demonologist has access to the standard special recruitment list.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting cultists and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 42

9-4 Witch

9.4.1 Class Attributes

In the ages long before the arrival of man, beings of tremendous power roamed Elysium. These beings were the unchallenged lords of the as yet unnamed realm. In time they tired of exploring the land and melded into the earth to sleep.

They slumbered for ages and other beings came to the realm. The sounds and laughter of these new inhabitants disturbed the Sleeping Ones and sometimes one of them woke to punish the newcomers. As a result, the Sleeping Ones came to be feared and worshiped by the people of Elysium. The adherents of this old faith are called Witches and are feared by troll and man alike.

Main Hero: Witch

Secondary Hero: Witch’s Apprentice

Starting Citadel: Tower

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:



5 Androphag Spearmen





5 Androphag Archers

1 Androphag Cavalry

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Fungi / Mushrooms

Special power: Summon Monsters

Witches summon monsters through the power of brewing potent mystical fungi. When brewing potions, they may elect to use the traditional amount of fungus or to use the fungus sparingly for weaker potions or freely for more potent ones.

Witches collect fungi from the marshes and forests of Elysium and use them to brew a decoction pleasant to the Old Ones. The smell of the cauldron makes them hungry and reminds their slow minds of the Time Before, when all was quiet and the land was theirs. In rage and hunger the Old Ones and their servants follow the Witch to reclaim their lands from the noisy, quick interlopers.

Less potent brews make it harder to control the summoned creature while more powerful potions make it easier. Even when using fungi freely, it is not guaranteed that the summoned being is amenable to the Witch’s cause.

The beings at the Witch’s disposal are physically strong and easy to obtain, but they lack ranged attacks. Archers are a crucial supplement. The

Witch’s ability to collect fungi from forests and swamps provides her with excellent scouting capabilities. The more fungi she uses for summoning monsters, the greater the chance of controlling the summoned creature. It is prudent to use plenty of fungi when summoning an Old

One, for they are very dangerous if angered.

9.4.2 Rituals

Minor Summoning Lesser allies

Major Summoning Greater allies

Summon Old One Very powerful allies (requires

upgrade + swamp)

Ritual of Witchcraft Mastery Upgrade

9.4.3 Basic Recruitment

The basic recruitment list of the Witch consists of

Androphags.

Abilities:



Witches collect fungi from forests and

 marshes.

Witches can use fungi to summon and control monsters.

Nbr Units Gold Iron

5 Androphag Spearmen 50 0

4 Androphag Archers 60

2 Androphag Cavalries 60

0

5

9.4.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list

(with the exception of scouts), the Witch receives special recruitment offers from, Androphag Lords,

Androphag cavalry commanders who are warriors of high stature. The dreaded Manflayers offer their services more rarely and possess some of the secrets of Necromancy. Temples increase the chance of apprentices and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 43

9-5 High Priestess

9.5.1 Class Attributes

Long ago in the land of Terra the god Baal was incarnated into a physical form and made humans taste fear and destruction. The moon turned red as blood and snow fell for three years.

To placate this horrifying god, men began to sacrifice their fellow men in rites of blood. This pleased the Dark God, who consumed the souls of the sacrificial victims. Baal withdrew back into the world from whence he came and feasted upon slaughtered souls. Ever since, mortals have worshiped the Horror God and sacrificed their own kind to him. From time to time Baal has even honored the prayers and sacrifices of his devotees by his very presence.

Main Hero: High Priestess

Secondary Hero: Hierodule

Starting Citadel: Cathedral

Starting Resources: 1 Village

Starting Army:



10 Ba’alite Spearmen



5 Ba’alite Archers

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Sacrifices

Special power: Summon monsters

When the Martyr of El came to Terra and called out to the poor and the famished, Baal sent his subjects to war against him. The Children of El were hunted down and exterminated and fled into the promised land of Elysium. The cult of Baal was weak in Elysium, beset by the Empire on one side and the followers of the Old Ones on the other and also opposed by the sorcerers who had come to Elysium earlier. It was only with the fall of the Empire that the faith of the Dark God became established and during the turmoil of the

Interregnum it has come into its power.

The High Priestess can summon a variety of powerful monsters in service to Baal. A High

Priestess high in the favor of Baal can summon

Baal himself by sacrificing herself along with a massive number of sacrifices.

9.5.2 Rituals

Simple Ceremony Lesser allies

Grand Ceremony Greater allies

Blood Feast Very powerful allies

Invoke Baal Summon God (requires upgrade)

Ceremony of Mastery Upgrade

Now, with the dawn of a new empire rising from the night of the old, El has once again risen to challenge Baal for supremacy. It is the duty of the High Priestess of the Dark God to hunt down and eradicate the heretics until the entire land of

Elysium kneels before the glory of Baal Revealed and spills the blood of men in devotion.

The High Priestess of Baal performs ritual sacrifices in order to please her God and be rewarded by his favor. The hideous beings whose service she can receive in return for a large sacrifice can be nearly as powerful as demon lords and need not be controlled, for they fear their Dark Master too much to disobey his command to serve mortals. This makes the High

Priestess a very powerful and reliable contender for the throne of Elysium. The greatest ritual the

High Priestess can perform is to sacrifice her own body so that Baal can use it to enter Elysium in all his terrible splendor.

9.5.3 Basic Recruitment

The basic recruitment list of the High Priestess consists of the various types of military units fielded by the tribes of men who follow Baal.

Nbr Units

5 Ba'alite Spearmen

5 Ba'alite Archers

5 Ba'alite Zealots

5 Ba'alite Heavy Infantries

1 Catapult

9.5.4 Special Recruitment

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

0

5

50 25

25 50

In addition to the standard special recruitment list, the High Priestess receives recruitment offers from Gibborim. Gibborim are large, powerful men who possess Rephaite and Anakite blood in their veins, though much diluted through the generations.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting

Hierodules and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 44

9-6 Bakemono

The Bakemono were once slaves of the Oni, demons from the Netherworld of Bakemono legend. The entrance to this Realm was on the top of a great mountain that the Oni made their fortress and where they enslaved the Bakemono.

When the gate to the Realm of the Oni was closed through trickery and the last of the Oni kings died, the Bakemono took over the mountain fastness of their masters and set out to carve a kingdom of their own and to make slaves of all lesser creatures.

Bakemono Sorcerers summon beings of power through human sacrifice. They may elect to use the standard amount of sacrifices to appease the monsters they summon or to sacrifice less or more than is traditional. Lesser sacrifices make it harder to control the summoned creature while greater sacrifices make it easier. He may also summon beings without any sacrifices at all, but controlling a summoned creature that has not been appeased is difficult or even impossible.

The Bakemono live in a tribal society ruled by the most powerful of their kind. Usually this is a

Bakemono Sorcerer, a powerful spellcaster who is rightfully feared by most others. Powerful

Bakemono Sorcerers have been known to make themselves immune to death by hiding their hearts away in secret places.

Bakemono Sorcerers may also hide their heart and become immortal, which makes it impossible to kill them permanently unless they lose their home citadel.

9.6.2 Rituals

Summon lesser being Lesser allies

Summon greater beings Greater allies

Summon kings Very powerful allies

Hide Heart Become immortal

Ritual of Mastery Upgrade (req. immortality)

Bakemono Sorcerers can perform blood sacrifices in order to summon Oni demons and spirits of the wilderness to their aid. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the chance that the being will serve the Bakemono Sorcerer. The summoning can also be performed without any sacrifices, but this will anger the spirit or demon being summoned and the more powerful demons should not be trifled with.

Abilities:



The Bakemono Sorcerer can use

 sacrifices to summon spirits and demons.

The Bakemono Sorcerer can use sacrifices to hide his heart and become

 immortal.

Mountain Strongholds and mountain mines produce Bakemono warriors automatically.

9.6.1 Class Attributes

Main Hero: Bakemono Sorceror

Secondary Hero: Bakemono General

Starting Citadel: Mountain Stronghold

Starting Resources: 1 Coal Mine

Starting Army:





11 Bakemono Sho (10 +1 from citadel)

10 Bakemono Spearmen



5 Bakemono Bowmen

Bonus: Mines spawn Bakemono automatically

Special Resource: Sacrifices

Special power: Summon beings of power.

9.6.3 Basic Recruitment

The Bakemono Sorcerer has limited basic recruitment, but comparatively more opportunities for special recruitment.

Nbr Units

10 Bakemono Soldiers

Gold Iron

50

10 Bakemono Archers 50

10 Bakemono Swordsmen 50

0

0

5

9.6.4 Special Recruitment

The Bakemono Sorcerer gets frequent opportunities to recruit O Bakemono, Dai

Bakemono and Dai Bakemono Archers. These opportunities are not announced and are available only at the citadel where they are taken advantage of. Taking the opportunity will complete recruitment at that citadel.

The Bakemono Sorcerer also receives recruitment offers from Bakemono Shamans and various creatures allied with them. These offers generate a recruitment message.

Temples increase the chance of shamans and witch doctors and libraries increase the chance of

Bakemono Sorcerors and human wizards.

9 Classes 45

9-7 Barbarian

9.7.1 Class Attributes

Since ancient times, Barbarian hordes have plundered the lands of Elysium. Of unknown origin, their sudden arrival at the fringes of civilization sends tremors through the realms.

Some speculate that they hail from small villages in secluded regions while others say they come from the Netherworld. The Barbarian threat is always present and only with a united show of force can the tide be turned.

Main Hero: Barbarian Leader

Secondary Hero: Mounted Chief

Starting Citadel: Barbarian Camp

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:



20 Barbarian Warriors



5 Barbarian Bowmen





5 Barbarian Cavalry

1 Totem Pole (Immobile)

Barbarians are physically more powerful than normal men, but they are also more vulnerable to magic. The Barbarian Warlord cannot buy advanced weapons like siege engines, but may sometimes recruit werebears or the fierce warriors of the amazon tribes and their magic wielding leaders. Werebears look just like ordinary Barbarians until they reveal themselves in combat, where their strength and rage make them far more powerful than a common

Barbarian warrior. Barbarians also have access to Spirit Guides who use magical herbs to contact ancestral spirits and summon them to join the armies of Barbarians again. More powerful Spirit

Guides are called Enarie.

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Herbs

Special power: Summon Ancestral Spirits

Spirit Guides and Enaries can summon the ancestors of the barbarian clans from the

Netherworld to fight alongside their descendants.

9.7.2 Rituals

The Barbarian does not have access to magical rituals or spells at the beginning of the game.

Spirit Guides can summon ancestral spirits a few at a time. Enarie can summon greater ancestral spirits and larger numbers of common ancestral spirits. The most powerful Enarie can call forth entire armies out of legend.

Abilities:



Barbarian troops are cheap and strong.



Barbarian camps are defended by a





Totem Pole inhabited by spirits.

Spirit Guide and Enarie collect magical herbs.

Spirit Guide and Enarie can call upon spirits.

9.7.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

7 Barbarian Warriors

Gold Iron

50 0

7 Barbrian Bowmen 50

7 Barbarian Swordsmen 50

4 Barbarian Cavalries 50

4 Barbarian Lancers 50

0

5

0

5

9.7.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list, Barbarians receive recruitment offers from the tribes of Crystal, Garnet, Jade and Onyx

Amazons and from various shamans, spirit guides and soothsayers. Temples increase the chance of recruiting soothsayers and spirit guides and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

Recruitment offers from Amazons always include a Sorceress, a Priestess and 8 Amazons of that tribe and each of these may only be recruited once. Recruiting them does not end recruitment at that citadel.

9 Classes 46

9-8 Senator

9.8.1 Class Attributes

During the rise of the Empire, new tactics and troops were developed to crush human dissidents and eliminate the Barbarian threat.

These tactics gave birth to the soldiers called legionnaires who were usually equipped with large shields and javelins. Newly recruited legionnaires were placed next to veterans to learn the art of war. This system was very effective against the humans the legions were supposed to fight, but its success against other forces present in Elysium has been more varied.

Main Hero: Senator

Secondary Hero: Centurion

Starting Citadel: Outpost

Starting Resources: 1 Town

Starting Army:



10 Velites



10 Hastati



5 Principes

The legionnaire is a formidable soldier by human standards. Their large shield is more effective than most shields found in Elysium and the javelin can be used from a distance, which is very effective for large squads of legionnaires. The well-disciplined legionnaires can use simple wooden watchtowers as citadels in addition to the sturdy stone guard towers used by all other warlords.

The Senator can sometimes buy gladiators or net-wielding retiarii to supplement his legions.

Besides the ordinary wizards who may take service with any warlord, the Senator may hire

Augurs, priest-diviners of the Empire. Sometimes followers of the various esoteric cults extant in the Empire can also make their services available to bolster the Senator’s forces.

Abilities:



50% increase to gold income





50% increase to trade

Watchtowers can be used as citadels.





Augurs can use scrying to gain information from distant places.

Revelers can bring forth satyrs and maenads from ancient forests.

Bonus: Can use Watchtowers as citadels, +50% trade, +50% gold income

Special Resource: None

Special power: None

Senators are statesmen, the leaders of Imperial provinces. They have no magical abilities, relying instead on the power of imperial legions to maintain order.

9.8.2 Rituals

The Senator does not have access to magical rituals or spells at the beginning of the game.

Revelers can perform the ritual of Revelry in ancient forests to bring forth satyrs and maenads.

9.8.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Velites

5 Hastatus

5 Principes

Gold Iron

40

45

0

5

50 10

5 Triarius 55 20

5 Praetorian Guards 60 20

9.8.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list, the Senator receives recruitment offers from gladiators and the representatives of the various cults extant in the Empire. He also receives offers for larger detachments of legionnaires at a significant discount. Discounted legionnaires are mercenaries.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting

Serpent Acolytes and Serpent Priests and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 47

9-9 Pale One

9.9.1 Class Attributes

A strange race of one-eyed creatures has evolved in the dark caverns under Elysium.

Untouched by the sun, they have become known to humans as the Pale Ones. They dwell in cavernous, intricately carved halls in the depths of the earth. The Pale Ones have gills and also inhabit underground lakes and rivers. They have very good night vision and can see well in dark caverns where the only glimmer of light comes from the luminous mushrooms growing there.

However, in daylight their vision is abysmal by human standards, the sensitive eyes accustomed to pitch darkness blinded by bright sunlight. Pale

Ones never stop growing and ancient ones can grow to huge proportions.

Main Hero: King of the Deep

Secondary Hero: Pale One Commander

Starting Citadel: Huge Cave

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:



10 Pale Ones



5 Pale One Soldiers

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Gems

Special power: Summoning creatures of Earth

and Fire and the Pale One dead, Scrying.

9.9.2 Rituals

The King of the Deep does not have access to magical rituals or spells at the beginning of the game and needs to recruit an Earth Reader or an

Oracle to gain access to magic.

The wisest of the ancient ones are the Oracles, priest-mages of great power. The Oracles gather magical gems found beneath the earth and use them to divine the future and to summon allies in times of war. The leader of the Pale Ones is called the King of the Deep. He is a very old and therefore also a very large Pale One.

The Oracles are powerful earth mages and lesser mages of other disciplines. They are also able to summon creatures of the deep earth and fire as well as the dead of the Pale Ones to aid the King of the Deep in his conquest of the surface world.

Abilities:



The King of the Deep is very tough.





Oracles and Earth Readers gather gems.

Gems can be used for scrying and summoning.



Most Pale Ones have poor eyesight, which hampers them in combat.

9.9.3 Basic Recruitment

The Pale Ones’ basic recruitment list consists of normal sized Pale Ones.

Nbr Units

5 Cavern Guards

Gold Iron

5 Pale Ones 50

5 Pale One Soldiers 50

0

5

50 20

9.9.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list

(with the exception of scouts), Pale Ones receive recruitment offers from Earth Readers, Oracles and various types of ancient Pale Ones who are considerably more powerful than normal Pale

Ones.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting

Oracles and Earth Readers and libraries increase the chance of offers from human wizards.

9 Classes 48

9-10 Druid

9.10.1 Class Attributes

The Druid is a priest of nature and a caretaker of the land. When the lords of Elysium cut down forests and defile nature in their bid to colonize the untamed land, the Druids call forth the animals of the wilds to do battle with the intruders. The animals of Elysium are strong and have souls like men. The Druid aids them and makes decisions for their sake, seeking to preserve their pristine habitat. By collecting magical herbs and using them in strange rituals, the Druid can call beasts to fight by his side.

Ultimately he may even win the support of powerful beings of legend that can only be contacted through communion with the most ancient forests where the Soul of the Wild runs deep and untamed.

Main Hero: Druid

Secondary Hero: Druid’s Apprentice

Starting Citadel: Hut

Starting Resources: 2 Farms

Starting Army:



10 Barechested Warriors



5 Barechested Slingers



1 Barechested Scout

Bonus: +100% special resource in summer,

-100% special resource in winter

Special Resource: Herbs

Special power: Summon Creatures of the Wild

The Druid can summon animals and other beasts of the wild to do his bidding by using magical herbs. The types of animals the Druid summons with his rituals vary according to the terrain the ritual was performed in.

The kind of animals summoned depends on where the summoning takes place. Rabbits abound in the plains and wolves and great boars roam the forests. The stalking tiger may aid the

Druid in jungles and in the desert the click of scorpion claws on sand and stone heralds more allies.

Some animals are stronger than humans, but they lack ranged attacks. Beings of legend are powerful and may have ranged attacks and magical abilities.

9.10.2 Rituals

Lesser Summoning summon lesser beasts

Major Summoning summon greater beasts

Call Beings of Legend summon very powerful monsters (requires upgrade + Ancient Forest)

Ritual of Nature Mastery Upgrade

(requires Ancient Forest)

Abilities:



Druids collect herbs from forests.



Druids can use herbs to summon animals.

9.10.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Barechested Warriors

Gold Iron

50 0

5 Barechested Slingers 50

5 Barechested Swordsmen 50

3 Epona cavalries 50

0

0

5

9.10.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list, the Druid recruit Boar Warriors, Barechested

Scouts, Vergobrets and other tribal units. Offers of Boar Warriors and Hornblowers are unannounced, but all other offers generate a recruitment message.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting apprentices and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 49

9-11 Burgmeister

9.11.1 Class Attributes

The Hoburgs are a race of honest and well organized halfmen. They are famous for their great skill in farming and the manipulation of iron.

The Hoburgs have a strict hierarchy and at the top of the society sits the Burgmeister who leads a large and prosperous fortified settlement.

Below him is the Horologist, a Hoburg who can create mechanical wonders. Next in rank is the

Horticulturist, who knows the secrets of cultivating the enchanted weed Hoburgs are famous for. He also knows how to use the weed to summon woodland beings to the aid of the

Hoburg cause. Last among the leaders of the

Hoburgs are the Hogmeisters, military commanders who ride great boars and command the elite hog knights and other elements of the regular Hoburg armies.

Main Hero: Burgmeister

Secondary Hero: Hogmeister

Starting Citadel: Fortified Hoburg

Starting Resources: 1 Farm, 1 Hoburg Village

Starting Army:



10 Hoburg Soldiers



5 Hoburg Defenders



10 Hoburg Crossbowmen

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Weed, Gems

Special power: Convert Terrain, Summon

Forest Creatures, Create Gem Constructs

The Burgmeister or a Horticulturist can convert a farm to a hoburg village at the cost of 3 AP and

20 gold. As long as he has 1 unused AP, he can initiate terrain conversion and the remaining AP are deducted from the next turn’s AP allowance.

Though generally a peaceful and gentle people,

Hoburgs have a well developed military. They know that fighting is necessary to defend their villages and to secure new resources for their constructs. Crossbows play a very prominent role in the Hoburg army, because they enable the

Hoburgs to deliver serious damage even to much larger enemies despite their small size.

9.11.2 Rituals

The Burgmeister does not have access to magical rituals at the beginning of the game. A

Horticulturist can summon forest beings with weeds and a Horologist can make enchanted constructs from magical gems.

As a Burgmeister it is important to conquer mines. Mines yield iron, which is necessary to equip higher quality troops. They also produce gems imbued with the powers of the Elements for the Horologist to use. The Burgmeister and the

Horticulturist are able to convert regular farms to

Hoburg villages for added income and increased production of the enchanted weed.

Abilities:



Slow movement due to small size.





Burgmeister and Horticulturist can convert farms to Hoburg villages.

Horticulturist collects enchanted weed, which is used for summonings.



Horologist collects magical gems, which can be used to create enchanted constructs.

9.11.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

15 Hoburg Militias

15 Hoburg Slingers

15 Hoburg Crossbows

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

0

5

15 Hoburg Soldiers

15 Hoburg Defenders

50 5

50 10

10 Hoburg Pikeneers 30 5

10 Burgmeister Guards 40 10

5 Hog Knights

1 Catapult

50 10

60 10

9.11.4 Special Recruitment

The Burgmeister has access to the standard special recruitment list and receives recruitment offers from Hogmeisters, Horticulturists and

Horologists.

Temples increase the chance to recruit

Horticulturists and libraries the chance to recruit

Horologists and human wizards.

9 Classes 50

9-12 Warlock

Warlocks were among the first humans to arrive in Elysium. They discovered Elemental power trapped in the gems found in the mountains and hills of the land. By freeing this power, the

Warlock can create or attract Elemental spirits to serve him. Rubies contain the blazing power of

Fire, diamonds the turbulent power of Air and winds, sapphires the mercurial power of Water and emeralds the enduring force of Earth power.

When the energies of a large number of gems are released, more powerful Elemental spirits can be called forth, or a larger number of lesser spirits. Warlocks are also known to bind

Elemental forces to their own bodies, giving them powers and abilities beyond those of ordinary men.

Each Warlock specializes in one of the Four

Elements and cannot summon creatures of that

Element’s opposite Element. He can use the lesser summonings of the Elements not opposed to his own, however. Great Warlocks are barred from all Elements but their own.

Warlock’s Apprentices can perform the Lesser

Summonings of all Elements but cannot perform

Greater Summonings of any Element.

Each type of Warlock also has a special ability unique to his Element. Each Element is affiliated with a particular type of gem.

Element Gem

Air

diamond

Ability

Flying

Fire

Earth

Water

ruby emerald sapphire

Fire Immunity

Amphibian

Opposite

Earth

Water

Mountain Move Air

Fire

The Warlock can call upon a number of very strong and powerful beings to serve him. The

Kings and Queens of the Elements are almost as powerful as demon lords and can summon and command lesser Elemental beings. Giants and greater Elemental beings are strong, but often lacking in magical abilities. Elementals are comparable in power to lesser demons.

9.12.1 Class Attributes

9.12.2 Rituals

Lesser Elemental Summoning

Major Elemental Summoning

Summon King or Queen of Element (requires

upgrade)

Ritual of Elemental Mastery Upgrade

Abilities:



Warlocks collect gems from mines.



Warlocks can use gems to summon





Elemental beings.

Warlocks have different innate powers depending on which Element they are associated with.

Many powerful Elemental beings have the ability to summon other Elemental beings themselves.

A Warlock’s Apprentice who performs a Ritual of

Elemental Mastery becomes a Warlock of that

Element.

9.12.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult 25 50

Main Hero: Warlock

Secondary Hero: Warlock’s Apprentice

Starting Citadel: Magic Cave

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:





12 Spearmen

5 Archers

9.12.4 Special Recruitment

The Warlock has access to the standard special recruitment list.

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Gems (varies by Element)

Special power: Elemental Summonings

Temples have no effect on the Warlock’s recruitment and libraries increase the chance of being offered to recruit apprentices and wizards.

9 Classes 51

9-13 Priest King

The Priest Kings of Mictlan have only recently discovered Elysium and arrived there to acquire more slaves and sacrifices for the worship of the

God of the Four Faces. Before the discovery of

Elysium, the tribes of Mictlan had lived in isolation from other cultures and had not discovered the secrets of metal working, which has resulted in a technologically inferior culture when compared to the other nations found in

Elysium. The soldiers of the Priest King use archaic weapons that will undoubtedly have trouble penetrating the armor of modern knights and other heavily armed troops.

Abilities:



The Priest King and Tribal Kings can



 acquire slaves from towns and villages

The Priest King can summon sacred beings through blood sacrifices.

The Priest King can sacrifice entire towns

 or villages to get improved blessings.

The Priest King's troops have inferior armaments.

9.13.1 Class Attributes

The Tribal Kings who serve the Priest King use slaves to form the sword fodder of their armies.

Slaves are taken from towns and larger villages and can be very useful against smaller armies despite their low morale and lack of proper equipment. acred warriors who serve the temples of the Four Faces of the God are better equipped and benefit from the blessing of the god, making them more powerful in combat if the

Four Faces hold them in favor.

Main Hero: Priest King

Secondary Hero: Tribal King

Starting Citadel: Temple City

Starting Resources: 1 Farm

Starting Army:



10 Tribal Warriors



10 Jungle Warriors

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Sacrifices

Special power: Slavery, Summons, Blessings

The Priest King and his Tribal Kings can hunt (h) for slaves to fill his army with weak, expendable infantry units. A slave hunt costs 3 AP.

The Priest King and his fellow Priests who serve the Four Faces of the God can perform blood sacrifices to summon creatures beloved of their bloodthirsty master. These beings are often sacred, which means that they enjoy their god's protection. The Priest King and his cohorts can gain the attention of the Four Faces by butchering entire settlements and if the god approves, the power of all blessed creatures will increase as the favor of the Four Faces smiles on them.

The Priest King’s blessing starts out as a bonus of +1 to morale. The blessing gains more power as he gains favor with his gods.

9.13.2 Rituals

Minor Summoning Lesser allies

Major Summoning Powerful allies

Sacrifice Entire Town Increase favor with God

(requires settlement to perform and reduces it by one level of population (e.g. town becomes

village, village becomes hamlet etc))

The Priests of the Four Faces each have

Invocations of power to aid them and their followers in battle and the nature of the invocations is tied to the aspect of the Face the priest serves. Priest Kings, as custodians of the

Land, serve the Bountiful Face of God and have power over the beasts and can grant healing powers to their soldiers. Rain Priests serve the

Wrathful Face of God and can call the fury of torrential rains against the enemy. Moon Priests serve the Dream Face of God and theirs is the power to confuse and terrorize through manipulation of the border between the waking world and the dream world. Sun Priests serve the Watchful Face of God and they can call the fiery gaze of the sun to burn their enemies.

9.13.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

7 Tribal Warriors

Gold Iron

50 0

5 Jungle Warriors 50

5 Feathered Warriors 50

5 Jaguar Warriors 50

0

5

5

9.13.4 Special Recruitment

The Priest King receives offers to recruit Tribal

Kings, Nahualli magicians and Priests and

Attendants of the Rain, Moon and Sun Temples.

Moon and Sun Warriors are not announced.

9 Classes 52

9-14 Troll King

9.14.1 Class Attributes

The Troll King is the most physically powerful warlord of all, capable of conquering entire towns on his own. His hide is very tough, making him almost immune to attacks from weaker beings like Hoburgs or poorly armed humans. Should the Troll King be wounded, his powers of regeneration allow him to heal at an extraordinary rate during battle just like his main companions, the trolls. All trolls have very keen noses and can detect stealthy units like brigands without trouble.

The Troll King’s mother is a very old and magically proficient crone. She and the goblin shamans and witch doctors under her tutelage can use fungi to make magical brews that give them glimpses of the surrounding areas. She can also turn ordinary forests into troll forests where the plants and trees themselves will attack anyone foolish enough to enter the woods.

Those who die in troll forests become animated by the plants and these carrion beasts will wander about and kill anything that gets in their way.

Abilities:



The Troll King is very tough.





The Troll King’s mother and goblin shamans and witch doctors collect fungi.

Fungi can be used for scrying and

 creating troll forests.

Ancient Forests can be used as citadels

Main Hero: Troll King

Secondary Hero: None

Starting Citadel: Troll Pit

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:



10 Goblins

Bonus: Can use Ancient Forests as citadels

Special Resource: Fungi

Special power: Create Troll Forests

Troll and Goblin Shamans can wither forests or turn normal forests into troll forests, which fight intruders on their own and animate wandering carrion creatures.

9.14.2 Rituals

The Troll King does not have access to magical rituals at the beginning of the game. The magics of ancient troll-kind are unlocked later

9.14.3 Basic Recruitment

The Troll King has very limited basic recruitment.

He is only guaranteed to have 15 goblins available every turn. Everything else from this list appears as unannounced special recruitment.

Usually from one to three options are available each turn.

Nbr Units

15 Goblins

15 Goblin Spearmen

10 Goblin Archers

10 Wolf Kins

7 Wolf Kin Reavers

1 Ogre

1 Troll

1 Forest Troll

1 Rock Troll

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

50

50

25

50

50

50

0

10

0

20

10

60

9.14.4 Special Recruitment

The Troll King has fairly frequent opportunities to recruit various trolls, giants, ogres and other allies to his cause, thus compensating for his limited basic recruitment. The Troll King’s special recruitment options are often powerful and thus also commensurately expensive.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting troll shamans, goblin shamans and goblin witch doctors. Libraries increase the chance of recruiting human wizards.

9 Classes 53

9-15 Enchanter

The Enchanter has learned the art of making constructs. These constructs are magomechanical creations, partly magical, partly mechanical. There are many types of constructs, such as living statues, animated armor and weapons and great golems. The constructs are often huge and can withstand massive amounts of damage before being destroyed. With the help of these enchanted, mechanical giants the

Enchanter can crush even the mightiest of armies. However, these titans are extremely expensive to build, requiring entire mines’ worth of minerals and ore. Lesser constructs are not as costly and are more commonly used when building armies.

The Enchanter will have troops with enormous hit points. Since it costs vast amounts of money to build these constructs, the Enchanter often lacks the funds to pay for regular troops. However, even a few golems can crush powerful armies.

Constructs do not heal damage suffered in combat, but they have many and varied resistances, making it very difficult to harm them.

The building and enchanting of constructs is a very time-consuming process and requires several Action Points.

Abilities:





The Enchanter starts with a very well fortified Crystal Tower.

The Enchanter can build constructs.

9.15.1 Class Attributes

Main Hero: Enchanter

Secondary Hero: Enchanter’s Apprentice

Starting Citadel: Crystal Tower

Starting Resources: 1 Coal Mine

Starting Army:



10 Swordsmen



3 Crossbowmen

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Gold & Iron

Special power: Animate Constructs, Create

Portals

9.15.2 Rituals

The Enchanter has access to a staggering number of rituals to build a wide variety of constructs. The constructs are artificial and cannot be healed, so they will inevitably require replacement when sufficiently damaged.

Nearly all of the rituals require gold and iron in large quantities. Most also require a specific location (e.g. an iron mine or a forest) to perform the ritual and provide raw materials. With few exceptions, the location is destroyed or changed to a different terrain after the ritual is complete.

A few of the lower level rituals require specific things that cannot be seen from anywhere in the main interface or map structure properties.

Necrotods require humanoid corpses, so the ritual is only active if a sufficient number of corpses is present (e.g. after a large battle).

Animated Statues require statues, so places like temples are a good place to look.

The Enchanter can also construct portals, which allow instantaneous travel between squares that have had portals constructed in them, regardless of distance.

Ritual of Mastery Upgrade (requires coal mine

for apprentice, iron mine for enchanter, mine is destroyed after ritual)

9.15.3 Basic Recruitment

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50

50

50

0

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult 25 50

9.15.4 Special Recruitment

The Enchanter has access to the standard special recruitment list.

Temples have no effect on the Enchanter’s recruitment and libraries increase the chance of being offered to recruit apprentices and wizards.

9 Classes 54

9-16 High Cultist

9.16.1 Class Attributes

The High Cultist is the leader of an entire town of worshipers dedicated to the Great Old Ones.

However, regular human sacrifices to weed out the unworthy have left the town with only a small but highly dedicated population.

There is a special sea water well in the town where women are encouraged to submerge themselves in the hope of being impregnated by a Great Old One. This never happens, but many women find themselves taken by a Deep One instead. The offspring of such a union will be a hideous fish-like humanoid instead of a noble

Starchild everyone hopes for. These half-human hybrids are highly devoted to the cause and will help the cultists spread the influence of the Great

Old Ones. The cultists build similar sea water wells in all coastal settlements they conquer and subject the population to their rites, thus gaining the services of the resulting hybrids as soldiers for the High Cultist’s armies or as a defensive force for the settlement.

Main Hero: High Cultist

Secondary Hero: Cultist of the Deep

Starting Citadel: Deserted Town

Starting Resources: 1 Farm

Starting Army:



10 Spearmen



3 Crossbowmen

Bonus: Freespawn hybrids in coastal locations

Special Resource: Sacrifices

Special power: Call Deep Ones, Send Horrors

The High Cultist can summon creatures of the depths to serve his cause. Sometimes the summoned creatures do not wish to serve and will attack instead, so it is best to not summon anything that you cannot kill if things go wrong.

9.16.2 Rituals

The High Cultist needs to conquer more settlements to gain sacrifices. They are needed to summon Deep Ones from the depths of the sea and convince them to support the High

Cultist’s cause. Summoning rituals are always risky and a successful cultist never summons anything that he cannot also kill if things go awry.

Call of the Deep Lesser allies

Contact Deep Ones Powerful allies

Army of the Deep A horde of allies

Send Lesser Horror

Send Greater Horror

Ceremony of Mastery Upgrade

9.16.3 Basic Recruitment

Even though his service to the Great Old Ones has changed him, the High Cultist is ultimately human by nature and unable to grasp that which is required to perform the most difficult rituals. To gain access to such magic, the High Cultist must summon an Old One to continue into the realms where he himself cannot go. Starspawn can use astrology to divine the location of enemies and to open pathways for powerful Horrors to attack them. The Queen of the Deep is an Old One who can summon entire armies from the deep.

Abilities:



The High Cultist gains hybrids from all



 coastal settlements.

Cultists can use sacrifices to summon beings from nearby seas and lakes.

Starspawn can use sacrifices to scry and send Horrors from afar.

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

5 Crossbowmen 50 5

5 Heavy Infantries 50 25

1 Catapult 25 50

9.16.4 Special Recruitment

The High Cultist has access to the standard special recruitment list.

Temples increase the chance of recruiting cultists and libraries increase the chance of wizard offers.

9 Classes 55

9-17 Dwarf Queen

The dwarves of Elysium live in mines, preferably deep inside the tunnels delved into the mountains. Although they have good trade relations with humans, they rarely let any outsider enter the dwarven cities. Most dwarves are suspicious of the outside world itself and prefer to stay under the mountain as much as possible.

However, sometimes dwarves must leave the mines in order to trade with humans and to locate new mountains suitable for mining. The dwarves trained to deal with the outside world are called

Outdoor Dwarves, a bastardized translation of the dwarven term Ute-Dvärg, which carries connotations of the distrust dwarves feel toward the outside. Dwarves take their work most seriously, so the Outdoor Dwarves have become excellent scouts even though they still feel that it would be more sensible to stay indoors.







Rune Smiths can call forth a new Dvala by spending a heap of gold.

All dwarves move faster in mountains.

Human mercenaries often offer their services at high prices.

9.17.1 Class Attributes

Main Hero: Dvala

Secondary Hero: Dwarf Commander

Starting Citadel: Dwarven City

Starting Resources: None

Starting Army:



11 Dwarf Workers (10 + 1 from Dvala)



5 Dwarves

Bonus: +100% gold and iron from mines

-1 gold income from everything else.

Special Resource: Gems

Special power: Crafting Armor

At the top of dwarven society is the Queen, or

Dvala, as she is called among the dwarves. She is the only female dwarf in a mine and her task is to give birth to more dwarves, much like a queen bee. The birthing of new dwarf workers occupies all of her time and thus the actual ruling of the mine is done by a council of elders, which consists of the oldest dwarves and the oldest

Rune Smith.

9.17.2 Rituals

Sense Mines Reveal the location of a mine

Create Rune Smith Creates a Rune Smith

Ceremony of Mastery Upgrade

9.17.3 Basic Recruitment

Dwarven basic recruitment is non-standard.

Dwarves can convert Dwarf Worker units to other types of dwarves by spending iron and and gold.

If there are not enough workers available to convert an entire group, partial groups can be converted but cost the same as a full group.

Rune Smiths are highly esteemed dwarves. It is the Rune Smiths who create the magical equipment used by the dwarven elite guards and warriors. It is also the Rune Smiths who can establish new colonies by performing the secret rites that call forth a new Dvala to an empty mine.

Dwarves are excellent miners and can extract twice the normal amount of gold and iron from mines. On the other hand, they are not very good at administering human farms and settlements and thus receive reduced income from anything that isn't a mine.

Nbr Units

5 Dwarves

5 Dwarf Warriors

5 Dwarf Guards

Gold Iron

0 20

0

0

30

40

5 Dwarf Arbalests

1 Outdoor Dwarf

0

5

30

10

2 Ballistas 0 100

1 Dwarf Commander 20 10

Abilities:



Dvala gives birth to one new dwarf worker



 per month.

Dwarf workers can be upgraded by spending iron.

Dvala can use diamonds to scry mines

 and to create Rune Smiths.

Rune Smiths can use gems to create elite guards and warriors.

Only one Dwarf Commander may be recruited per turn, regardless of how many citadels the player owns, since after being recruited he disappears from the list until the next turn.

9.17.4 Special Recruitment

In addition to the standard special recruitment list, the Dwarf Queen gets recruitment offers from large contingents of human troops on a regular basis, but they cost a lot of gold to hire.

9 Classes 56

9-18 Voice of El

The Voice of El is an Arch Bishop who is charged with the conversion of Elysium to the proper faith.

El should be worshiped at least in all human settlements and everyone shall pay a tithe to the

Church. The tithe is distributed yearly among the high ranking priests. A Cardinal will gain twice the share of an Arch Bishop, a normal Bishop has no right to any tithe and if a Pontiff has been appointed he will collect the entire tithe to distribute as he sees fit. Because the Church in the new world has large expenses, the tithe is taken thrice in Elysium, meaning that all converted settlements pay a third of their income to the Church. Only the most high ranking priest for each Voice of El counts when the tithe is shared.

9.17.1 Class Attributes

Main Hero: Arch Bishop

Secondary Hero: Bishop

Starting Citadel: Temple of El

Starting Resources: Farm, Hamlet

Starting Army:





10 Spearmen

7 Halberdiers

Bonus: None

Special Resource: Relics

Special power: Break Seals, Crusade,

Inquisition, Blessings

The breaking of the Seals allows minions of El to come to the aid of the Coice of El. The strength and numbers of the minions depends on how many Seals have been broken.

The Blessing of El increases the effectiveness of blessed troops in combat.

The priests of El collect relics to enable them to serve El better. The relics can be used either toward breaking the Seven Seals or to sacrifice them to El in order to gain more favor. There are seven Seals that separate El from the world and they prevent him from punishing the heretics of

Elysium in an effective manner. After the breaking of at least one Seal, minions of El will come to assist His church. The breaking of more

Seals will bring forth more powerful minions and breaking all Seven Seals will unleash the

Apocalypse.

9.17.2 Rituals

Convert Settlement Converts a settlement to the worship of El

Break Seal Breaks one of the Seven Seals

Increase Divine Favor Increases chance of receiving help after Seals have been broken

Bolster Devotion Increases the strength of

Blessings

Crusade Begin a Crusade

Inquisition Institute Inquisition

Ceremony of Mastery Upgrade

Abilities:



Convert settlements to give one third of



 their income to the Church

Break the Seals to receive help from El

Cardinals can begin a Crusade and institute the Inquisition

9.17.3 Basic Recruitment

The worshipers of El rely on human troops for their basic recruitment.

Restrictions:



Only one Pontiff may be appointed, even if there is more than one Voice of El in play.

Nbr Units

5 Spearmen

5 Swordsmen

5 Archers

Gold Iron

50 0

50

50

5

0

5 Pikeneers

5 Halberdiers

50

50

5

5

4 Temple Guards 45

1 Catapult 25

5

50

9.17.4 Special Recruitment

The Voice of El has access to the standard special recruitment list. In addition, he receives aid from the minions of El after at least one of the

Seven Seals has been broken.

10 Command Line Switches 57

10 Command Line

Switches

Conquest of Elysium may be run with various command line options that alter certain game behaviors and enable certain features.

Usage: coe3 [option(s)]

NOTE! All of the switches that are longer than a single letter (except -dd) use two consecutive dashes (- -) instead of just one dash!

NOTE! The --northpart=NBR switch is not intended to be used with the value of 0 (or other very low numbers).

Table A: Information Switches

Switch

-v --version

-h

-d -dd

Function

Print version info and exit

Print cmd line options to stdout.txt and exit

Increase debug level

Table D: GUI Switches

Switch

--fastexit

-u --fullscreen

-w --window

-f --nofade

--maxfps=NBR

--opacity=NBR

--crossalpha=NBR

--movedelay=X

--aidelay=X

--showallies

--showindeps

--noshowallies

--noshowindeps

--noedgescroll

-b --battlereports

--rename

Function

Never ask for confirmation on quit

Fullscreen mode

Windowed mode

Don't use fade effects

Maximum frames per second

(default 50)

Alpha in % for GUI windows (default

90)

Alpha in % for follower crosses

(default 75)

The time in milliseconds for the map movement by a human player

(0=instant)

The time in milliseconds to show each AI move (0=don't show)

Show when allied AI players move

Show when the independents move

Don't show allied AI players move

Don't show the independents move

Don't scroll map when mouse is at the edge of the screen

Don't show battles when they occur, create reports instead

Allow renaming of commanders

Table B: Servers & Connection Switches

Switch

-S --server

Function

Start game server

-t --textonly

Run in text only mode (server only, includes --nosound)

-c --client Connect to game server at startup

--port=NBR Use this port number

--ipadr=ADR Connect to this ip-adr

Table C: Sound Switches

Switch Function

-m --nomusic

-s --nosound

Disable game music

Disable all sound

--musicvol=NBR Volume for music 0-100 (def 90)

--defsound Use default sound device

--jack

--pulseaudio

Use this sound device (Linux)

Use this sound device (Linux)

--arts

--alsa

--oss

--directsound

Use this sound device (Linux)

Use this sound device (Linux)

Use this sound device (Linux)

Use this sound device (Windows)

--waveout Use this sound device (Windows)

Table E: Game Creation Switches

Switch

--mapeditor

Function

Start the map editor

-n --newgame Start new game

--loadgame=FILE Load a previously saved game

--loadmap=FILE

-r --randommap

--mapw=NBR

Load this map for new game

Use random map for new game

Width in squares for random maps

(default 50, max 159)

--maph=NBR

--society=NBR

--northpart=NBR

--clusterstart

--commoncause

--graphs

--autosave=NAME

Height in squares for random maps

(default 36, max 159)

Society type for new games (0-6)

Percent of map for northern type terrain (default 80)

Enable clustered start for allied players

A player only loses if no one on the team has a citadel or commander

Allow viewing of score graphs during the game

Save game every turn and with this name

--gamelog=NAME

Create a game log of current standings with this file name

11 Game FAQ 58

11 Game FAQ

This chapter tries to answer some common questions about the game.

Q: Why are wandering independents called snakes?

A: Because

1) They often are

2) They sneak up on you and snake your hard earned resources

3) The writer of this manual adopted the term, because in one test game he was beset by enough stacks of (only) snakes and serpents to require two dedicated armies just for extermination duty and the nickname stuck.

Q: Why aren’t Air Shield, Ethereal and Awe mentioned in the damage calculations?

A: Because while they are damage reduction abilities, they reduce damage by preventing an attack from hitting the target in the first place.

Thus no damage calculation is ever engaged.

Damage calculation only applies to successfully landed attacks.

Q: How is the order of units in my army determined?

A: The order of the units in an army is determined by that unit’s rank (back, middle or front row). Within the rows of the same rank, the order is determined by unit number. Lowest unit number goes first, from left to right.

Q: What is unit number? What does it do?

A: A unit number is a unique identifier specific to a given unit in the game and is used to differentiate between units, including different units of the same type. Each unit on the map, from commanders to troops to every single individual independent unit has a unique identifier that distinguishes it from all the others. This is how the game keeps track of units.

The abbreviation for unit number is unr.

Unit number determines in what order your troops appear in the army ranks. This is why sometimes when you recruit new units, they appear mixed in with older ones instead of all new ones being one after the other. The placement of units on the same row is random.

Q: Why is the damage bonus displayed misleadingly like that? Why not just increase the die size of the weapon directly?

A: The damage bonus display is done the way it is done for aesthetic reasons, because it looks better that way.

The reason the die size is not directly increased is that some weapons can be exchanged for better ones if a magical weapon item is found and then the base damage of the weapon changes. The damage bonus of the unit then increases the die size of the new weapon just like it did for the old.

Unit numbers are temporary and they are recycled when a unit dies. This means that if unr

32 was assigned to green player’s spearman at the beginning of turn 1 and that spearman later dies, the red player may recruit new units (e.g. archers) and one of them could have unr 32 assigned to him.

Special accumulated abilities like experience are tied to unr, but the data is flushed at the end of the turn when the unit dies. This means that even though unit numbers are recycled, there is no possibility of recruiting experienced veteran troops due to a fluke of luck.

Q: How do I get to see unit numbers?

Example: If a Troll King finds the magic item

Sword of Heroes, his normal club (base damage

1d3 blunt) changes to Magic Sword (base damage 1d10 slashing), but his damage bonus of +25 stays the same. With the club, he would do 1d28 blunt damage. With the magic sword,

he does 1d35 slashing damage.

A: You don’t. They are not visible anywhere in the game interface. If you run the game in debug mode, you can examine the log file and see the unit numbers when a unit is created, examined or killed, but it does not enable you to do anything to help plan strategies or gain an edge.

11 Game FAQ 59

Q: What does “default map zoom is set by the map editor” mean?

A: It means that when you use the map editor, whatever map zoom level you were using when you quit back to the CoE3 main menu will be used as the starting map zoom level for all players when starting a new game.

Once the game has started and the map zoom levels are adjusted for each player, the game remembers them on that player’s following turns.

For this reason it is often easier to simply quit and restart CoE3 completely after using the map editor if you intend to begin a new game. Doing so resets the map zoom level back to the CoE3 default level and new games will not begin with the map zoomed too far in or too far out.

Q: What places count as libraries?

A: The following is a partial list of libraries.

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City

Magic Library

Archmage Citadel

Temple Quarter (Empire era)

Haunted Temple Quarter (Fallen Empire)

Castle (King’s castle in Monarchy era)

Q: What places count as temples?

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A: The following is a partial list of temples.

There may be others, but they are not known at this time.

Cathedral

Temple of El

Temple

Temple Pyramid

Temple City

Temple Quarter (Empire)

Haunted Temple Quarter (Fallen Empire)

Ancient Temple

Ziggurat

Q: Where can I use siege weapons?

A: The following is a partial list of terrain where siege weapons can be used.

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City

Town

Port

Guard Tower

Watch Tower

Outpost

Cloud Castle

Desert Palace

Citadel

Dark Citadel

Mountain Citadel

Castle (all 3 variants)

Old Castle

Cathedral

Magic Library

Tower

Fortified Hoburg

Capitol and Haunted Capitol (all squares from both)

Note that this list does not even pretend to be complete, so if something is not listed here and you get wiped out by enemy siege weapons or your own siege weapons refuse to fire, such are the fortunes of war.