War of Wizards - Copyright WoW Games 1996-2005
QUICK START GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS

QUICK START GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS.

Contained below are several tips to help new players master the basics of WoW. If any players have other contributions that they believe could be of value to all players, please contact Chris and Harry with your idea.



BASIC ORDERS SUMMARY

Global Orders - Settings.

ABBREVIATIONS <yes/no>

ADDRESS <email@address>

AUTOCONTROL <YES/NO>

CLIENTINFO <YES/NO>

COMPRESS <YES/NO> [<if greater than KB>]

DESCRIPTION <YES/NO>

HEROSUMMARY <YES/NO>

PASSWORD <new password>

TEMPLATE <No>

TEMPLATE YES <yes/no>

Wizard Orders.

ALLY <player <yes/no>

BUY <amount to buy> <resource type>

CAST <spell name>

HIRE <hero number> HERO [<hero name>]

HIRE <number of mercenaries> <mercenaries type>

RESEARCH <area>

RESEARCH SPELLCRAFT

SELL <amount to sell> <resource type>

TOURNAMENT <amount of gold offered>

TRADE <resource amount> <resource type> <to player number>

Shire Orders

ATTACK <numbeunit type> <destination 1> [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>]

ATTACK <hero number> HERO <destination 1> [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>]

ATTACK <ship number> SHIP <destination 1> [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>]

BUILD <building type> <resource type> <number of peasants>

CANCEL <hero number> <spell name>

CONSTRUCT <ship type> <ship name> [<construction shire>]

CONTROL <yes/no>

DISBAND <number> <unit type>

DISBAND <hero number> HERO

DISBAND <ship number> SHIP

DUEL <hero number 1> <hero number 2>

EXPLORE <hero number>

ENSLAVE

FEED <feed amount>

FLYATTACK <number> <unit type> [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

FLYATTACK <heronumber> HERO [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

FLYMOVE <number> <unit type> [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

FLYMOVE <heronumber> HERO [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

FREE

GIVE <number> <unit type> <player number>

GIVE <hero number> HERO <player number>

GIVE <ship number> SHIP <player number>

INFO <unit type name> UNIT

INFO <building type name> BUILDING

INFO <hero number> HERO

INFO <ship number> SHIP

INFO <artifact type name> ARTIFACT

INFO <race type name> RACE

INFO <terrain type name> TERRAIN

MOVE <number> <unit type> <destination 1> [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>]

MOVE <hero number> HERO <destination 1> [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>]

MOVE <ship number> SHIP <destination 1> [<destination 2>]

NAMEHERO <hero number> <new hero name>

NAMESHIP <ship number> <new ship name>

PILLAGE

PRODUCE <resource type> [<number of peasants>]

PRODUCE <default resource type>

PRODUCE NONE

RECRUIT <number> <unit type>

SPELL <hero number> <spell name> [<number of enemies>] <cast order>

SPELL <hero number> NONE

TAX <level>

TRANSFER <number> <unit type> <hero number> HERO

TRANSFER <hero number> HERO <number> <unit type>

TRANSFER ARTIFACT <from hero number> <amount> <artifact type> <to hero number>

TRANSFER <number> <unit type> <ship number> SHIP

TRANSFER <ship number> SHIP <number> <unit type>

TRANSFER <hero number> HERO <ship number> SHIP

TRANSFER <ship number> SHIP <hero number> HERO

TUNNELATTACK <number> <unit type> [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

TUNNELATTACK <heronumber> HERO [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

TUNNELMOVE <number> <unit type> [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]

TUNNELMOVE <heronumber> HERO [<destination 1>] [<destination 2>] [<destination 3>] [<...>] [GROUND]



INITIAL STRATEGIES
Being a wizard in WoW you are offered many options while ruling your empire. In order to decide what to do, it is important to learn something about the structure of the game.

ENVIRONMENT. All WoW games are set in a fantasy world. There are several different WoW worlds, but the main principle behind these worlds is always the same. Each world is divided in 3 planes. These planes consist of a number of regions. A region is divided into 5 shires (see mapping technique for more detailed information). When the game commences each wizard takes control of a small city in this world. These cities are located all over the world, and every wizard has to build up his empire from scratch, trying to take control of the land around this city. There are several choices to be made when starting your expansion. To know what to do you should be aware of the structure of the game.

STRUCTURE. The goal of the game is to conquer the world. This can be done by magic or military means. In order to gain strength in one of these fields it is important to have a powerful economy. Therefore it is important to know the structure of the economy in War of Wizards, which is divided into several areas.

AREA 1 PEASANTS. Peasants are needed for all aspects of the game, ranging from producing resources, building, recruiting and earning money. So in order to grow you need to have more peasants/population. There are two ways to increase your population. You can secure more land and peasants by moving units into neighboring shires and issuing the CONTROL YES order. The population can grow in all shires which are under your control. This can be manipulated with tax and feed rates.

AREA 2 RESOURCES Beside peasants, resources are also needed for almost everything in the game. You need them to feed peasants, recruit units, build towns and research or use magic. You can gain resources by letting your peasants produce them or buying them from a caravan. Gold can be obtained by taxing the peasant population.

AREA 3 BUILDINGS Buildings are needed for the recruitment of units and the research of magic. Without buildings there is no way to convert the strength of your peasants into a game winning power. Buildings can by made by letting the peasants in your *,5 shires build resources on them.

After these areas there are some direct combat layers.

UNIT LAYER This includes all different unit types, ships and heroes. They are needed to conquer shires and control them. There are 3 ways to get more of them: You can hire heroes or mercenaries, recruit units in towns or create units by magical means.

MAGIC LAYER These are all spells you are able to cast. There are various uses of magic and it is probably the most complicated layer of the game. In order to use magic you need gems and spellcraft. You can get gems like any other resource type and spellcraft by hiring heroes with spellcraft, or increase your own spellcraft with research.

Knowing this you can decide what to do with your new small empire. First of all you should try to take over as many shires as possible around your starting position. After you have done this several options arise.

  1. 1.You can make your economy strong by keeping you population high (small army size).
  2. Recruit many units in order to conquer your neighbors in an early stage, but risking your economy falling back a bit by recruiting all your peasants.
  3. Try to become the wizard with the strongest magic and catch your enemies by surprise, but a lot of resources are needed to gain such a strong magical position.

Written by Nardel the Uncreator (Arnoud Duyvesteyn)



HELPFUL TEXT BASED MAPPING TECHNIQUE

Many beginning players often find the prospect of mapping the world they are exploring somewhat difficult. The region/shire layout sometimes leads to minor confusion and player maps which are upside down, backwards, both, or worse. Other times, players settle on a mapping style which is difficult to maintain once their map gets above a certain size.

This document is an attempt to lay out the basics of mapping a War of Wizards world in a simple and concise way. Having a standardized format will also aid when trading maps between allies. Visualising a WoW map really is easy, once you get the initial hang of it.

As the rules explain, every region contains 5 shires, one in the middle and 1 in each compass direction. While every region has a different region number, all regions have the same shire layout.

Shire formation is always

--1--
4-5-2
--3--

Now, it is also important to be able to visualize the relationship between different regions. In War of Wizards, connecting regions are NOT horizontally and vertically aligned with one another. Instead, they are best visualized in an X formation.

For example, if your home region is 222, your neighboring regions may look something like this:

083---122
---222---
101---034

For your information,

Shire 222,1 and 222,2 connect to region 122 (shire 4 and 3).
Shire 222,2 and 222,3 connect to region 034 (shire 1 and 4).
Shire 222,3 and 222,4 connect to region 101 (shire 2 and 1).
Shire 222,4 and 222,1 connect to region 083 (shire 3 and 2).

So, 222,4 touches 083,3 and 101,1 as shown below: (format Region#,Shire# is used)

-----083,3----- 
???,2-----222,4
-----101,1-----

When actually mapping, however, individual shire numbers are NOT important. What is important is a simple, concise Region map.

A suggested way to map is to include the region terrain type and region number using the format XNNN where X=Terrain and NNN=the three digit region number (including a leading 0 if necessary). For example:

LEGEND
S=Swamp
M=Mountains
F=Forest
U=Underworld
?=Unknown Terrain
???=Unknown Region Number
etc.
S083----M122  
----M222----
H101----G034

Underneath your map you can add comments to define particular shires.

222 is my capital.
083,2 has an unexplored Temple.
034,4 is controlled by Wizard 3, Karnac.
122,1 has a connection to the Astral Plane

Another useful hint is to put @; in front of every line as follows:

@;S083----M122  
@;----M222----
@;H101----G034
@
@;222 is my capital.
@;083,2 has an unexplored Temple.
@;034,4 is controlled by Wizard 3, Karnac.
@;122,1 has a connection to the Astral Plane

You can then keep your map at the end of your Turn Orders. The semi-colon tells the WoW program that it is a comment line, not an actual order while the @ tells the WoW program to reprint your map when it generates the template for your next turn.

Now, how does this look when you map gets bigger? Possibly like this: (Requires fixed font)

@;--------W023----W232----------------
@;----W333----F090----W211------------
@;--------G075----F134----W092--------
@;----W201----M055----S089----?143----
@;--------W099----M182----S035----?064
@;------------?218----F210----?126----
@;----------------W212----????----?111
@;--------------------????----?278----
@
@;075 is Wizard 99's capital
@;182 has a temple.
etc.

It may not be the prettiest map, but it is condense, easy to make, and it WORKS. Once you have mapped a few regions, it becomes very easy to visualize the geographic relationships between regions.

OPTIONAL:
You may also make each region a 5 digit code instead, with another character for whether it has a special, like (!F933) means a forest with a special, or VF333 might mean a forest with a connection to the Underworld (V). I personally prefer the 4 character region code, but your mileage may vary.

Written By Lord Kaos. (Krist Young)



Early Tactics FAQ

Q.1) From the things I've read on the web site, it seems that food will need to be one of my biggest concerns - will I have enough peasants to produce food and still be able to produce other items? Is food even going to be a big problem?

A.1) This really depends on your starting location. Some starting positions have an abundance of food, but little else, others have a little bit of everything, but not enough surplusses of any single thing to really get a 'punch', while others yet have an abundance of some resources but lack food and/or other resources. In the beginning I wouldn't worry too much about food, though. Most capitals can produce adequate amounts of food if you hit the bottom of your food chest, and the immediate shires you'll move into will almost always produce food immiedeatly. Only if you start fiddling with advanced tactics, like increasing the feed rate to get improved fertility in your capital, do you need to keep an eye out on your food in the intitial 2 turns or so. Afterwards, though, you'll need to make sure that you produce enough food in the peripheral shires to suport your peasants/millitary units.

Q.2) With the lack of information on things in the game, what do you suggest I put in INFO commands for besides under dwarves?

A.2)More or less everything you can ;) Terrain, unit types, heroes (Although the auto-info will give you this the first time you get a hero) and buildings are all things you can do INFO on. Whenever you get access to new spells/buildings/artifacts/units/heroes the auto-info will kick in and tell you about the new 'thing' you aquired.

Q.3) I have also seen conflicting views on Expansion (hiring troops) vs. Building (using the peasants just to build. Does it make that big of a difference if you hire the troops to expand your borders?

A.3)ALWAYS, and I can't stress this enough, expand in the first few turns. You should take care to build up your capital as efficiently as possible, but if you don't expand when you have the chance, you are going to be rolled over by the neighboor that did expand. The amount of units needed to expand will vary depedning on circumstances, but I've always personally send somewhere around 10-20 milita in each direction the first turn, and then try to keep sending 10 militia to new areas each turn. Some reinforce the 'old' shires they leave with their front-runners with only a single militia or a few, while others keep up the 10-20 number. At first it won't really matter, but when people start getting access to magic and/or units that can strike at rear-areas of other wizards (like sending giant rats to one of your shires) you want your shires suitably garrisoned to be able to withstand it. Creating a good intelligence network is off big importance, as well as being adept or at least medium at diplomatics. When you start 'bumping' into people (btw, always use the ATTACK order when expanding) that is when the real diplomatics begin. Some people take it bad that their units might got killed in this meeting, but there really isn't a way to prevent these first battles, unless you use the MOVE command for expansion, and thereby give yourself a disadvantage by allowing your neighboors first choice of the shires that are bordering you.

Written By Stargazer. (Daniel M Anderson)



SAMPLE FIRST TURN ORDERS

Sending orders for a turn. (Note: Using the supplied template will also be helpful.)

Wizard Lives in a desert and has 50 sand people militia.
There are 300 peasants in the city at region 200.
Has Password of : nightowl
Playing in game 45 and is player 23 sending in orders for turn 1.


;#WOW ORDERS 45 23 nightowl 1
;These are the orders for game 23 player 6 turn 1

; GLOBAL ORDERS & CITY/WIZARD ORDERS

TEMPLATE YES YES   ; Turn on the template and ask for extra detailed info.
ABBREVIATIONS YES  ; Turn on all the abbreviations.
DESCRIPTION YES    ; Turn on spell book descriptions.
COMPRESS YES 30    ; Compress any turn report for this game with a size larger than 30 KB.
HEROSUMMARY YES    ; Turn on the hero summary.
CLIENTINFO YES     ; Turn on clientinfo.
AUTOCONTROL YES    ; Turn on the automatic shire controlling in uncontrolled shires.
PASSWORD dayowl    ; Change password if you want to.


ALLY 12 YES        ; Try to form an alliance with player 12.
ALLY 34 NO         ; Break alliance with player 34.

; CITY SHIRE ORDERS.
SHIRE 1,5         ; REGION : Astral - Centestal.
; Resources: F2 W1 S1 I1 G4 M1 Settings: FR:1 TR:L CT:Y POP:300(60) M:2.20
PRODUCE GEM 200    ; Make it a standard order to produce gems each turn. 
                   ; Using 200 of the available peasants.
                   ; You will probably not produce anything for the 
                   ; first couple of turns, unless you run out of resources.
                   ; It's wise to use all of your peasants for building
                   ; during the first turns.
                   ; But there nothing wrong with setting your production
                   ; from the start.
TAX NONE           ; Set tax rate to none as long as you can
                   ; to increase morale and thus growth rate.
                   ; Watch out for running out on gold though!
FEED 2             ; Set feed rate to 2.  Will increase morale and pop growth.
                   ; Keep in mind that your will probably run out of food
                   ; if you keep feeding your peasants 2 food per turn.
BUILD TAV WOD 150  ; Use 150 peasants to build 150 wood onto the tavern.
BUILD TAV STN 50   ; Use 50 peasants to build 50 stone onto the tavern.
@BUILD CHR STN 500 ; Use up to 500 peasants to build 500 stone onto the church
                   ; You won't have enough peasant left to build all this,
                   ; but with the @ sigh in from of it the build order
                   ; will appear again in your next turn order template.
                   ; That way you will automatically remember what you were building.
RECRUIT 30 SPMIL   ; Recruit another 30 Sand People Militia
                   ; You do not need the Militia in your first turn,
                   ; as you can fill up the lines with recruitments
                   ; from the second turn.
                   ; But that all up to yourself.
INFO "Desert" TERRAIN   ; Find out information about the desert.
INFO spmil UNIT         ; Find out information about the sand people militia.
INFO "Sand People" RACE ; Find out info about the sand people race.

; Now conquer the surrounding shires.
; There are 61 Militia in the capital.
; As there is no current danger to the capital and expansion is required.
; We suggest to move as much units as possible into every direction.

ATTACK 15 SPMIL 1,1  
ATTACK 15 SPMIL 1,2
ATTACK 15 SPMIL 1,3
ATTACK 15 SPMIL 1,4

; Now take control of the shire that we have just moved units into.
; The control yes in no longer needed if you have autocontrol on,
; but for players with autocontrol no these are recommended.
; Also in all shires the default starting settings are FEED 1 and TAX LOW
; And the default production is FOD as well.
; But if you capture a shire from an opponent at a later stage,
; you should send these orders for the new shire to
; remove his settings.

SHIRE 1,1        
CONTROL YES
PRODUCE FOD         ; Try to produce food 
TAX LOW             ; Set tax to low
FEED 1              ; Set feed rate to 1.

SHIRE 1,2
CONTROL YES
PRODUCE FOD         ; Try to produce food 
TAX LOW             ; Set tax to low
FEED 1              ; Set feed rate to 1.

SHIRE 1,3
CONTROL YES
PRODUCE FOD         ; Try to produce food 
TAX LOW             ; Set tax to low
FEED 1              ; Set feed rate to 1.

SHIRE 1,4
CONTROL YES
PRODUCE FOD         ; Try to produce food 
TAX LOW             ; Set tax to low
FEED 1              ; Set feed rate to 1.

;#END
Stop submitting orders to the WOW program.



Back