All corrections/clarification suggestions should be sent to harry@wow.pbemgame.com.
Updated 5th June 2004
Updated information about AI.
Updated 19th March 2002
Winter movement correction.
The Rules In Text Format
1.
Introduction 2. The World
|
6.
Movement
8. Combat 9. Magic
13. Score 14. The Races of WOW |
The rules below are designed to be an outline to get the player started. Most game mechanics will become clear once the player begins playing.
The rules are basically in three sections. Firstly there is a section describing the general principles of the game. This will be followed by a section detailing the specific commands used in the game and a sample turn report. The third section contains race and city descriptions.
2. The World
The map on which War of Wizards (WOW) is
played consists of many types of terrain and holds many special sites such as
towers, caves and graveyards.
The world is divided into 3 planes: Astral, Ground and Underworld. The Astral plane is located somewhere well above ground level. It is a land made up of strange colours, plants and animals. The Ground Plane is the surface world, made up of a variety of terrain types, such as forest, ocean and mountains. The Underworld is found deep below the surface world and consists of dark tunnels and caverns.
2.1 REGIONS
The map is divided into a number
of regions, depending on the world being played. The world mainly consists of
land but also has sections of ocean. Each region consists of a single terrain
type and hosts a single race. Each region is further divided into 5 shires
organised as in the diagram below. Note that the central shire (5) only connects
to the other shires in the region but the 'outer' shires will connect to other
regions (with the exception of connections from and to Underworld and Astral
Plane).
2.2 SHIRES
The shire is the basic unit of area
in the game. Each shire contains a population of peasants (of a certain race)
and various resources. If you control a shire, you can use the shire's peasants
to produce resources, which can then be used for a variety of purposes, such as
erecting buildings or raising armies.
2.3 SPECIAL FEATURES
In each shire there may
also be special places which may be entered. These include sites such as
graveyards and structures such as towers. Special places may only be entered by
special units known as "Heroes". Only one hero can attempt to enter a special
place each turn (a hero is randomly picked if more than one player issues the
EXPLORE order). A hero must be standing at ground level (or on a boat in the
case of an ocean shire) to explore a special place. Each special place has a
challenge associated with it, which the hero must beat to explore and conquer
the structure. Each challenge requires a particular hero skill.
The challenges can be divided into Combat (Offence and Defense), Puzzle (Intelligence), Guardian (Stealth), Trap (Awareness) and Obstacle (Dexterity). Once the challenge is beaten the hero will be rewarded with resources and possibly an artifact. Artifacts are objects carried by the hero, which may improve the heros' abilities, possess various other functions. Five objects (the Spirit Lava, Spirit Smoke, Spirit Sponge, Spirit Root and Saint Relics) are required for certain magic spells to be cast. These will often be replenished when the hero leaves the site, so each wizard may end up with more than one and valuable spares to trade with other players.
After a hero has successfully explored a special place, it may add an extra region exit to a new shire - for example, an explored cave may permanently add a link to an Underworld region.
Special Places are also the lairs for various wandering monsters. They will breed in the special place before venturing out into the world and attacking all they meet. Once a special place is conquered, it no longer produces wandering monsters. Upon entering a special place, all creatures inside will rush out and attack, so be ready.
Random Events can also take place in shires. Random events can be either good or bad. Some of the bad random events can be countered, by building certain buildings, while others cannot. You will discover these during the course of the game. The events that can be countered will tell you which buildings are required to stop them. Most of these random events are localised to certain land types - for example, Volcanic Eruption will only occur in regions that are classified as Volcanic.
2.4 ENDING THE GAME
The game ends when only
one player remains, all remaining players are allied and agree to a draw or all
players not involved in an victory declaring alliance, concede defeat. All
remaining players are declared winners and enter the WoW Hall of Fame. Each
player is vanquished from the world as soon as their castle is defeated by enemy
units. As soon as a player's castle is defeated, the castle is razed, and the
shire becomes a town. Any city only buildings will also be automatically
destroyed.
When an enemy city is conquered, the sole victor will claim half of the loser's accumulated resources as spoils, a dual victory will yield a third of the resources to each victor, and if there were three wizards involved each will receive just a quarter share. The loser escapes with their spell book and artifacts, so accumulating magic from another wizard is not possible. Upon being vanquished a player will get one last turn report, after which they will cease to be sent. The rankings table will then list them as vanquished and the turn number in which they were defeated. When that player is vanquished all the shires that were once controlled revert back to being uncontrolled and the wizard's units are disbanded.
There are three ways in which a wizard can be vanquished.
There are of course ways to defend from being vanquished. Keep all this information in mind whilst building cities and researchig magic. To protect against the various types of defeat, keep in mind the following.
3. Producing Resources
Resources are the cornerstone
of the game. The more resources you have the more you can do. You gain resources
by controlling shires and using the peasants in them (if they are happy enough
or enslaved) to produce resources.
3.1 CONTROL
A shire is uncontrolled until a
wizard issues the order to take CONTROL of a shire. To do this the wizard must
have at least one unit in the shire (which must be on the ground, not Tunneling
or flying and may not be a charmed wandering monster). A player will lose
control of a shire if, at the end of a turn, they do not have at least one unit
in the shire. This shire then reverts to uncontrolled. So be careful of leaving at least
1 unit when ordering troops to move out of a shire you control, or make sure
replacement units
move in during the same turn! If two or more allied
wizards issue the order simultaneously one randomly selected wizard will take
control and the others will back down. Once a shire is under a wizard's control
the wizard may tax its peasants and use them to PRODUCE the shire's resources or
BUILD in central shires. The wizard now also has the responsibility of feeding
the shire's population. A wizard can feed peasants anywhere between 0 and 5 food
units using the FEED command. FEED 0 will cause some peasants to starve to death
and morale to drop. Feeding peasants more food will make them happier,
increasing birth-rate that turn, and possibly morale, which has benefits listed
later.
3.2 PEASANTS
Each shire under your control
will contain a certain number of peasants. Peasants will work the land for you
and allow you to make use of the shire's resources. Peasants may also be taxed and thus
are a valuable source of income. Each turn, each peasant may either PRODUCE some
of the shire's resources or, if they are in the player's capital city or in a
central shire, they may BUILD structures. If a large battle takes place in a
shire, peasants may stay inside and not PRODUCE or BUILD at all during that turn. Peasants will also pay
taxes each turn. The number of gold coins paid by each peasant in a region is dependent on
their morale and the tax rate.
The Gold per Peasant base rate is determined by morale, and is then
multiplied by the tax rate modifier. The result of this multiplication is shown
in the table below. The value is then multiplied by the number of peasants in
the shire. This will be the amount of gold you will receive that turn from that
shire.
MORALE | PRODUCE OR BUILD | GOLD PER PEASANT BASE RATE | TAX NONE = 0 |
TAX LOW = 0.5 |
TAX MEDIUM = 1 |
TAX HIGH = 1.5 |
0.00 - 1.00 | If Enslaved | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
1.01 - 1.99 | Yes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2.00 - 2.99 | Yes | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | 1 | 1.5 |
3.00 - 3.99 | Yes | 2 | 0 | 1.0 | 2 | 3 |
4.00 - 4.99 | Yes | 3 | 0 | 1.5 | 3 | 4.5 |
5.00 | Yes | 5 | 0 | 2.5 | 5 | 7.5 |
The peasant morale in each shire represents how happy the peasants are with their conditions. It is always a value between 0 (rebellious) and 5 (happy). Morale will rise and fall depending on how much food each peasant receives per turn, certain buildings (WARNING: Sacrificial Altar will dramatically reduce local and global morale), the tax rate (morale increases with no tax and varies accordingly with rates low to high) and the number of people killed that turn in battles inside the shire. As shown in the above table morale affects the amount of tax collected. If morale drops to below 2 in a shire the peasants will pay no tax. If the morale drops to 1 or the peasants will rebel. You may not recruit any rebelling peasants as units. They will refuse to PRODUCE resources, be RECRUITed into armies or BUILD structures. The only way peasants with morale of 1 or lower will PRODUCE, be RECRUITed or BUILD is if the player enslaves them.
To use the ENSLAVE order the player must have 1 point of unit offence for
every 5 peasants. E.g. to enslave a shire containing 100 peasants, the player
would need to have 20 militia (offence 1) or 3 Storm Giants (offence 7) in the
shire. Enslaved peasants will work but still pay no taxes. The peasants will
revert to normal if the FREE order is issued or if the amount of unit offence
drops below the required level. Enslaved units will be morale zero on being
freed. Slaves require only half as much food, so only
half the amount of the set feed rate will be deducted from the controller's
stocks. As soon as you enslave the population the morale drops to zero, so
population growth is reduced.
3.3 PRODUCTION/RESOURCES
Each shire you
control will have a list of resources, listed as (Wood:4 Food:3). This
represents the types of things which may be produced and how much may be
produced (a value between 0 and 5). The number represents how much may be produced
by a single peasant in 1 turn, in that particular
shire. For example, if 20 peasants
are assigned to producing wood given the above productivity ratings, then 80
units of wood would be harvested that turn. The resources of each shire will
generally be related to the type of shire - a forest shire may have lots of
wood, while a mountain shire may be rich in iron.
Some ships can fish the oceans. These ships will fish automatically if they are located in an OCEAN shire that the ship's owner currently controls. The ocean shire's food rating is multiplied by the ship's fishing capability value. No seasonal adjustments apply to fishing vessels.
Production of resources is carried out through the PRODUCE order. Default
production is also carried out with all remaining peasants. Food or if no food
is present the most abundant resource in a particular shire will be produced by default
unless a default production resource is set by the player. The abbreviations for
the resources found in the game are shown below.
RESOURCE | ABBREVIATION | USE | |
---|---|---|---|
Gold |
|
Used as the lands currency. | |
Food |
|
Used for feeding peasants and soldiers. | |
Wood |
|
Used for making troops and buildings. | |
Stone |
|
Used for building. | |
Gems |
|
Used in magical spells. | |
Iron |
|
Used in making troops. | |
Mithril |
|
Used in making superior troops. |
NOTE: Once a resource has been produced it is automatically transferred to the player's global stock and may be used in any of the player's controlled shires. This transfer happens instantly so that once production has occurred (See Order of Events), these resources may be used anywhere in the players empire. Any resources used will be deducted from this global stock of resources which will never be allowed to drop below 0 units of any particular resource.
3.4 CARAVANS
Every now and again a caravan
will appear in your city. That caravan will have resources on offer for buying or selling. The caravan will stay in the city for 1 turn only so you have to buy and
sell quickly. To buy and sell, see the city orders BUY and SELL.
3.5 SEASONS
As the seasons change in the game
the amount of food and wood production will change. There are the four standard
seasons with three turns per season. These effects only apply to land based
production of food and wood. Outlined below is the effect each season has on
food and wood production.
SEASON | FOOD PRODUCTION EFFECT | WOOD PRODUCTION EFFECT |
---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Winter also slows down movement (on the surface world only, including travel within ocean regions, not including flying or tunneling on the surface world) adding 1mp to the standard cost of moving.
Note that each turn report will contain a statement similar to the one below:
4. Buildings
You will begin the game as a wizard
controlling a single shire. This shire will contain a city, which will be the
capital of your empire. The city will have a large peasant population and will
contain all your starting units. The city will also contain your castle (a base
from which you command your forces) and a town hall. Your first turn report will
list the buildings you can construct in your city, along with their cost
in Gold and Resources.
With the building of some structures your wizard will then be able to construct other, more advanced structures (you can construct a building and it's prerequisite building in the same turn). There are well over twenty types of buildings available in WOW 2.0. Once a building has been erected the wizard will learn its function. As with many parts of the game the actual bonus of having each building will only be revealed once the player has it. In general though, buildings will allow new types of units to be created or give an increase in research points, peasant morale and/or resource production.
Some structures are "city only". These structures may only be built in the player's capital city. Players may not build these structures in any city or town other than their own capital.
Only one of any type of structure can be built within a single central shire, no matter whether it is a capital city or a town.
It is also important to note that some buildings are race specific, in that only some races can obtain these buildings. This only applies to some of the city only buildings.
Another aspect of a player's city is their castle. Castles can be upgraded in size from level 1, which is its initial size, up to level 5. Castles offer protection to the city's armies giving defensive and sometimes offensive bonuses to the units inside. Some of the higher level castles also allow advanced units to be recruited.
4.1 TOWNS
If a wizard's city is conquered it
becomes a town under the conquering player's control and the castle is
destroyed. Players may also build towns in the central shire (shire 5) of any
region as soon as they have taken control of that shire (this may also be in the
same turn as you move into the shire). This is done by getting the peasants to
BUILD a town hall. Once the town hall is built several troop and further
building types will become available.
4.2 GLOBAL OR LOCAL INCREASES
In the building
function description on the turn report, it will state if there are any global
or local increases. The increase will be for either particular resources
produced or an increase in morale. Global refers to a slight increase in every
shire you control, each turn. Local refers to a slight increase in each shire
under the wizard's control (but not allies) within the region that the building
is built.
4.3 INFORMATION ON BUILDING.
To construct
buildings the BUILD order is used. Each peasant may erect 1 unit of wood, stone,
iron, gem or mithril per turn.
For example, a Blacksmith (cost 800 gold, 200 wood, 200 stone) can be built in 1 turn by 400 peasants or 8 turns by 50 peasants. To issue the BUILD order you must have enough gold to pay for the entire building, and enough of the particular resource you wish to add to the buildings development for that turn. The gold is used on the first turn the BUILD order is issued. Other resources are subtracted from the player's global resources as the peasants use it. If you do not have the required number of peasants to erect the requested resources to a building that turn, the maximum available peasants are used. Building always overrules production when peasants are ordered to try and do both. The effect of buildings will only take place once all resources have been built onto the building. Buildings do not require upkeep to be maintained.
4.4 STARTING BUILDINGS
Each player will begin
with a Castle in their home city and a Town Hall. The player's first turn report
will list what further structures may be built.
5. Units
A unit is any creature under the player's control
other than peasants. Each unit will have an offence and a defence score which
represents its strength in combat. Each unit will also have a cost per turn in
maintaining it. This will be a certain amount of food and gold for normal units,
a certain amount of gold in the case of heroes or a certain number of gems in
the case of enchanted units. All maintenance costs are automatically subtracted
from the player's city resources at the end of the Feed Order but before the
Feed Event. Units will have 33% of their number disbanded if there is
insufficient resources for their maintenance.
NOTE: The term unit refers to a single soldier in this game. Hence a shire with 80 Axemen in it has 80 units and will require 80 times the maintenance cost of one Axeman. The turn report will list the types of units which can be created by the player. The types of normal units (any units other than summoned or undead) available depends on the presence of certain buildings in the capital city or town. Each new unit created will have a cost in gold, wood, iron and/or mithril associated with it. Units are created by using the RECRUIT command. Each recruited unit (1 military person) causes the number of peasants in the city to be reduced by one. A maximum of 20% of a shire's peasant population may be recruited in any one turn (this maximum may be increased by certain buildings). This maximum appears in brackets after the total population in the turn report. If you attempt to recruit more units than allowed, the program will take the maximum amount available. Ships require one peasant per crew member while mounted and other unit types only require 1. There is a basic list of units which will be initially available to most players. These are Militia and Spearmen or a variation of these depending on the starting race. Other unit types will become available as the game progresses through the completion of various buildings.
5.1 STARTING UNITS
Each player will begin the
game with a set number of basic units. The unit type will be decided by the
starting race and city of the player
5.2 HEROES
Heroes are the individual champions
of each wizard. They may lead armies, explore structures or use their special
abilities for the greater glory of their lord. Each hero has a range of
attributes, each initially ranked from 1 (hopeless) to 10 (awesome). The
attributes are:
ATTRIBUTE. | DESCRIPTION. |
OFFENCE * | Attacking strength in combat. |
DEFENCE * | Avoiding harm in combat. |
ATTACKS * | The number of attacks the hero has each turn. |
HIT POINTS * | Number of direct hits to be taken before hero will die. |
AWARENESS * | Ability to detect traps and hiding enemy heroes. |
STEALTH * | Ability to pass undetected. |
INTELLIGENCE * | Used for solving puzzles. |
DEXTERITY * | Used for avoiding undesirable obstacles. |
LEADERSHIP * | Effect of the hero on allied units in combat. |
SPELLCRAFT * | The degree of skill the hero possesses with the magic arts. The higher a hero's spellcraft, the more powerful the combat spells they are able to cast. |
RESEARCH ABILITY * | The number of research points the hero generates each turn. |
UNIT TYPE OFFENCE BONUS | Some Heroes can give an offence bonus to certain unit types. For example, a Knight gives a bonus to all mounted troops under his command. |
UNIT TYPE DEFENCE BONUS | Similar to Unit Type Offence Bonus. |
LAND OFFENCE BONUS | Some Heroes will give all units fighting on particular ground a bonus. For example, a Ranger may give a bonus to all units under his command when fighting in forest. |
LAND DEFENCE BONUS | Similar to Land Offence Bonus |
SPECIAL | Some heroes will be able to offer some sort of special skill. |
COST | The price to recruit the hero. |
MAINTENANCE | The price of the hero's services per turn. This increases with level but a turn's warning is given. |
Heroes are the leaders of your armies. Although you can move units about the world and fight battles without a hero's leadership, there are compelling advantages to forming an army. All units in a hero's army receive the bonuses bestowed by that hero - a Ranger hero may increase the army's' defence when fighting in Forest. Heroes are also the tools used by wizard's to cast spells out in the battlefield. All heroes may have a spell set for the wizard to cast through them every time they enter combat (for example Fireball). The wizard can also cast spells that will affect their whole hero's army - casting Teleport will move the hero and their entire army to the desired destination. The TRANSFER command joins units to a heros' army. Armies move together so only a single command needs to be issued to move the hero - the entire army will move as well. Each hero will already have a small army when hired. These units are not recruited from the local population and come completely free. The army will stop moving as soon as any member of the army runs out of movement points.
Heroes will gain experience and improve their abilities as they serve a wizard. They will gain experience points for personal combat, leading armies into battles, casting spells and conquering special places. The number of experience points gained is related to the difficulty of their endeavours. Heroes can also gain experience from dueling. Two heroes must be in the same shire, and have the same owner or allied owners. One player only issues the order. The two heroes then duel, and gain experience in the process. The losing hero does not die. Heroes can only perform one special action per turn whether it is dueling, exploring, moving, etc.
Some heroes have the special ability to MOVE or ATTACK (the two commands are the same in this case) unseen into enemy/allied territory. These heroes known as espionage heroes, are not blocked by the presence of enemy units. There is a chance that an espionage hero will be discovered when in enemy controlled shires. The chance of being discovered is determined by the espionage hero's stealth, present enemy heroes' awareness and the number of normal units in the shire. Heroes remaining unseen in enemy territory receive bonus experience points. If discovered a battle will automatically take place. Espionage heroes cannot control shires or attack enemies without an army and are not counted as a presence for spells which require this.
Heroes are offered in the player's city every now and again. This is random but chances may be increased by holding a TOURNAMENT. These heroes that are offered can be recruited during the next turn by using the HIRE order. Note that these heroes are on offer for one turn only. Once a hero has been recruited the hero can have their name set, using the NAMEHERO order. To get current information on the hero, such as experience, artifacts, and numerous other attributes, the INFO order can be used. Note that all these three orders can be processed in one turn. e.g. HIRE 22 HERO, NAMEHERO 22 "Hand of Death", INFO 22 HERO.
5.3 ARTIFACTS
During the course of the
game, heroes are likely to acquire certain artifacts. Each artifact has certain
abilities and can increase the Hero's attributes significantly. However it is
not realistic for a hero to have three magic swords and get the combined total.
The hero can only wield one weapon at a time. A hero can carry as many artifacts
as they like but they will only use the best available of each artifact type.
Each artifact is classified as a particular type. The hero can have one of each of these artifact types in effect at any one time. The heroes may of course carry others in their saddle bags.
The different types of artifacts are:
When you get info on an artifact it will mention what type of artifact it is. The one other artifact type is Miscellaneous. You can have as many of these as you like in effect at any one time. They are usually magical objects that are used in spell casting or in various other capacities.
5.4 SHIPS
All towns and cities situated in a region
that has an exit to an ocean region can build ships, once they have built docks.
There are three basic classes of ships, but some ship types may fall into more than one class at once. The classes are transport, fishing, and war.
Transport ships can carry units and heroes from one location to another. The TRANSFER order is used to get heroes and units on and off ships. You may also transport allied units.
Fishing ships will automatically fish whenever they are in an ocean shire that they control.
War ships are designed just for war and are good at protecting your transport and fishing ships.
A ship is constructed using the CONSTRUCT order. Constructing a ship will reduce the town's population as peasants are used for crew. The ships can be named using the NAMESHIP order. To get further information on the ship itself use the INFO order.
The maintenance cost for a ship may be calculated in the following manner; * GOLD Maintenance for a ship is 10% of the construction cost. * Food Maintenance is one food for each member of the crew. * 5% of other construction resources are required to maintain the ship.
The turn after a ship has been constructed you will receive the specific ship number which can be used to move the ship or transfer units on or off the ship. A ship can move across shires of the region type ocean and into or out of coastal shires. A ship's movement ends after moving into a coastal shire. A ship can not move from one coastal shire to another coastal shire, it may only move from ocean shires to coastal shires or vice versa.
Note that you will gain access to more ship types as you build more buildings in the docks' shire.
5.5 APPRENTICES
Apprentices may be recruited
like any other unit, once the proper structure is built. Apprentices cost a large number of gold coins per turn in
maintenance. Each apprentice increases the number of Research Points (see magic
section) produced per turn by 1. Players may recruit as many apprentices as they
can afford to, once they become available. Apprentices can move around the world
like any other unit.
5.6 BUILDERS
Builders may be recruited like
any other unit. Builders can build 3 resources (like 3 peasants) to any unfinished building
when they are placed in a central shire. Builders will always be used before
peasants to BUILD structures. Builders can not PRODUCE. Players may recruit as
many builders as they can afford to, once they become available, but keep in mind that they require WOD
and STN for maintenance.
6. Movement
Units and armies move about the world with the use
of two types of commands: Move and Attack. The formats for these commands are
discussed in the ORDERS section. Each terrain type requires a certain number of
movement points (MP) to leave a shire (For example, Mountain costs 3 MP while
Grassland costs 1. The rest you will find out during the game. We don't want to
give away all the terrain types now). It costs the same amount of movement
points even if a shire exit leads to another plane (ie. to the Underworld). Certain
units will be able to move more easily (such as flying units). Details of these
will also be revealed during the course of the game.
Note: units that move into a location using the attack command will only be able to move again that turn if the shire they issued the attack command on was unoccupied. Once a unit is involved in a battle, it will not move any further during that turn
All units can attempt to move from one shire to an adjacent shire (all adjacent shires will be listed in your turn report). If a unit has movement points remaining and if the first shire moved into is not occupied by hostile units it may continue to move. A player may only move units through a shire if it is controlled by him/herself, by a wizard with whom the player has an alliance, or if there are no unfriendly units present. This means that you are unable to move/attack out of shires if there are enemy units present and you are not in control of the shire, even if you started in that shire that same turn. So when setting ALLY NO you may not be able to move out. Also note that you will never be able to move all your units out of your city as this would result in your losing the game.
A note on movement points. All units with one or more movement points remaining may leave the shire they are currently in. When they arrive the movement cost of that move is deducted from their movement point total. If this results in a score of zero or less, they can move no further. The movement costs depend on four factors; the current season (add 1 MP during winter), the presence of PATHS or ROADS, the terrain type and any spells that are in effect. The movement cost of the land type you are moving from is reduced to 1 MP if there are ROADS built in this region. This applies only to all units moving from a ground location. All other move types (flying, tunneling) cost only 1 MP per shire.
In all the movement type orders, MOVE,ATTACK,FLYMOVE, ... the following guidelines apply. All multiple moves of units must take place as one order, starting at the location where the units reside. For example, you may not move a unit from shire one to shire two, in the shire one orders section, and then in the shire two orders try to move that unit to shire three. This will not work because at the time of processing the order the program checks that the unit does exist at this location. As all the actual moves are processed at a later date, the check will report that the specified units do not actually exist at shire two yet. To perform this example move, one must make the move a multiple destination move, listed under shire one.
To move to other regions you have to be in the shires 1, 2, 3, or 4 (Shire 5
can connect to other regions only on another plane. E.g., Underworld or Astral
Plane). From each of these locations you will be given a list of connecting
regions, if any exist. The map is basically symmetrical (other than the World of
Varlania) but there are several special links which do not fit this pattern.
This makes exploring and travelling that much more of a challenge and allows for
a vast variety of possible unit moves. Below is a sample section of a world
map.
A few points worth noting. Notice that the shires inside every region are identically organised. Also note that not every shire connects to another region. A shire numbered 1, 2, 3 or 4 will usually connect to two other regions (but may connect to zero, one or even more than two other regions in some circumstances). Finally, all troops can always move at least one shire per turn, or perform at least one state change (To Flying State, To Underground State or To Ground).
6.1 MOVEMENT TYPES
There are 3 different
movement types for units: Ground, Flying and Tunnelling. Ground level movement
is further divided into boat, land and water movement.
Ground Units are the standard unit. They use movement points every time they leave a shire until they reach 0 movement points, after which time they can not move until the next turn. Flying and Tunnelling units may act as land units using the MOVE command but also have the addition of the FLYMOVE/TUNNELMOVE commands. Note that you can take off/tunnel and ground in the same turn, however you cannot do the opposite. The air, ground and underground are treated as three separate areas and units in any of the three areas do not interact with units in the other two. While flying or tunneling, units only use one movement point per shire no matter what the terrain type.
Note that the flying and tunneling units can move in two states e.g., ground
and air or underground and ground. The number of movement points that these
units start with each turn depends on the movement type performed. If the MOVE
or ATTACK orders are used then it is their ground movement value, otherwise they
will use their flying/tunnelling movement value as they use the
FLYMOVE/TUNNELMOVE related orders. For example, a giant worm that crawls across
the ground might get one movement point, but if the worm dug down into the
ground and traveled underground, it might get two movement points.
Moving
from the ground state to flying/tunnelling or vice versa costs one movement
point.
Some special units have the ability to swim in ocean regions and walk on land. These units will have a special attribute called "Water Movement". All normal units will report an error if you try to move them off land and into the ocean, but not these units. They can keep on moving over any terrain type.
The other movement type is naval. Ships can move in any ocean shire or shire that connects to an ocean shire (coast), where some ships may load/unload units. Direct movement from one coast region to another is not possible. Troop carrying ships will have a capacity number mentioned. This capacity is the number of units that can be transported. Foot units count as one while wandering monster, mounted, units with flying or tunneling movement and heroes count as two. All unit types with regard to their load are based on their unit type/battle position attribute and their movement abilities, which can be found in the unit abbreviations part of the report. Some may not seem logical i.e. Sprites count as 2 because they have a flying movement value of more than 0. Catapults are counted as five.
Note if there are any move related orders where the destination is the same as the from location then that move will be ignored and processing of the order will continue, except for FLYING and TUNNELLING move orders, where if the first destination is the same as the current shire, it means that the units are to leave their ground state and enter the FLYING/TUNNELLING state.
Also remember to be wary of wandering monsters, as they can be found Travelling all over the world, and in all planes and states.
6.2 MOVEMENT RULES
The rules of movement. When
and how a particular move scenario will work.
TRAVELLING RULES
MOVE AND ATTACK ORDER RULES
EXTRA MOVE ORDER RULES
If in a movement orders with multiple locations, one destination can not be reached (due to enemy presence or a wrong shire number) the remaining moves are cancelled.
There will appear a * next to any other player numbers on your reports who you have formed an alliance with. Any wizard on your allies list that does not have this * means that wizard is still as yet to declare you an ally as well.
8. Combat
Combat occurs when units in a shire attack
another shire within movement distance. Note that there can actually be up to
three battles in one shire (air, ground and Tunnelling), but it is only units on
the ground that can CONTROL a shire. Below is a brief summary of how the combats
will take place within the game.
All Combat Spells are cast, the order being determined by heroes combined leadership score.
In the first round units are grouped by their Battle Position (Ranged, Flying/Tunnelling, Mounted and Foot Melee). A ranged unit is selected at random (from any side) who will attack an enemy at random. If the attack is successful the enemy dies. This continues until all ranged units on each side have had an attack. The target cannot retaliate to ranged attacks.
Next a Flying/Tunnelling unit (only involved if at the same level as rest of battle i.e., if underground will not be involved in a ground battle) is selected at random (from any side) who attacks a randomly selected enemy (Ranged and Behind units can't be reached yet). If successful, the enemy dies. If not, the enemy retaliates and will kill the original unit if successful. This process continues until every flying/tunnelling unit has had an attack (and may also have retaliated as many times as it has attacks). Some units also have multiple attacks. The same process is repeated for mounted and then foot melee units, after which every unit should have had an attack and Round 1 is complete.
After Round 1 has been completed, all units are in one group for subsequent rounds. So a unit is picked at random from the entire battlefield and attacks an enemy at random. If successful the enemy dies, if not the enemy gets the chance to retaliate. This continues until every unit has used all attacks (and may have retaliated multiple times). After this the same process is repeated for Round 3 and so on.
If one side has a higher combined hero leadership score than the other side/s the first round works slightly differently. All units in each group (ranged, mounted, etc) on the heros' side attacks before the equivalent group on the other side. If the battle is being fought at a city, then the player's wizard provides a leadership score of 10 which is combined with any hero's leadership score. In ocean battles only the admiral, pirate hero or a hero with the "walk on water" spell active may contribute to the leadership total.
Note: Some units (Clerics for example) and heroes are termed behind units. Behind units cannot attack (unless they have a ranged combat value) or be attacked until all other units have been killed. The exception to this rule is if the attack is made by magic. At which point they are as susceptable as other units.
In summary combat proceeds in the order of;
ROUND 1
Heroes Cast Combat Spells
Ranged Units attack.
Ship Units attack
Flying/Tunnelling Units attack.
Mounted Units attack.
Foot Units
attack.
Behind Units attack if and only if there were no other units
available to fight.
ROUND 2+
All units attack (Units which had ranged attack
values use their normal offence value after round 1 is completed and general
melee begins).
Behind Units Attack if and only if there are no other units
available to fight.
This continues until only one player or one alliance is left alive. After the winning side has been decided, some units may be healed. Healing may be performed by cleric units (each cleric has a 50% chance of healing each of up to 5 units) as well as some special heroes, buildings and artifacts. The order in which they will heal is buildings, heroes, units and artifacts. Ships, heroes and units with multiple hit points are restored to their full value at the end of combat if they have at least one remaining. Units are healed at random from both friendly and allied casualties. No Preference is given to your own or your allies. Neither is preference given to strong over weak units or heroes over units.
We wish to keep most of the combat system as a surprise. You will see how the system works once you go into battle and will soon be able to evaluate your chances of victory. To get yourself into a battle you will either be attacked or you will attack someone else in a surrounding shire by issuing the ATTACK order.
NOTE: Allied wizards will never fight each other. An interesting example to note is that if three wizard are at a site, and wizards one and three are allied to wizard two, but wizards one and three are not allied to each other, a battle will occur between wizards one and three and wizard two will abstain from the fight. However two will participate in the first strike calculations. Often in this case it will mean that everyone gets first stike since they were all able to share information through the one allied wizard.
NOTE: Occasionally border battles will occur. They are only possible when enemies both attempt to cross a shire border. In these situations none of the regular bonuses (defender's bonus and hero's land type bonus) will apply, but hero artifact bonuses will still apply. Border battles may not occur every time as there is a random element involved. However, having increased numbers of scouts amongst the crossing units will increase the chances of a border battle.
9. Magic
Magic will be an important part of any
successful player's strategy. The speed and direction of research can make the
difference between dominance and self-destruction. Magic is divided into 7 areas
of which one area (Druid) is divided into a further 4 areas. Each area has 3 or
more levels (this may increase at a later stage), with higher levels allowing
more powerful magics. The areas of magic are:
9.1 RESEARCH
Each turn each player will
receive a number of research points (RP). Players have a base of 8 RP/turn. This
can be increased by hiring apprentices or heroes, constructing certain buildings
and finding items in special places such as scrolls. After accumulating
sufficient RP (usually turn 4), players may research an area of magic. Players
may research as many different areas as they wish, with the only exception being
that players who study black (dark and necromancy) magic may not study druidic
(fire, water, earth and air) magic and vice versa. The cost to research a level
is dependent on the type of magic being researched. It will include a certain
amount of research points, gold and gems, with each level costing more to
research. Your turn report will tell you what you can research and how much it
costs to research. This will be displayed near the research points field of the
report when you have enough points to research a level. Several levels of the
same area can be researched in the same turn if the costs can be paid.
9.2 SPELLS
Once a magic area has been studied
the player will be informed in their turn report of any new spells which they
can now use. Spells become available for each area level obtained and sometimes
for combinations of levels obtained.
For example, a player with Necromancy Level 2 and Summoning Level 2 may be able to cast a "summon spectre" spell. Part of the fun of the game is discovering spells as the player progresses. It also creates a further advantage in working with other players and sharing spell information. It is also worth noting that all spells will require a base number of GEMs (and extra gems per unit affected in some cases) to cast and a level of Spellcraft.
Spellcraft is the wizard's skill with the magic arts. Each spell has a spellcraft rating, one for easy spells through to ten for the hardest. Every wizard begins with a spellcraft rating of 8. This means the wizard may cast 8 Spellcraft 1 spells, 4 spellcraft 2 spells, etc per turn. To increase spellcraft above 8, wizards may use Research points to RESEARCH SPELLCRAFT. It will be listed as an option on your turn report when you have enough Research Points to do this.
Druid magic is different from other magics in that its PURE druidic spells require more than just gems to cast. They also require elemental objects, which are available in certain special places or may be created. Combination druidic spells do not require these objects. Necromancy spells require the player to have control of a shire containing a graveyard (special place) that has been successfully explored in order to cast them. Raised undead units created with pure necromancy (as opposed to combined spells) will appear in one of the wizard's graveyard shires (randomly chosen).
An important thing to note is that magic cannot be forgotten once researched, so if you choose to study dark magic you will never be able to research the druid magics and vice versa.
Another important note is that a spell can be cast as many times as the wizard likes once they have researched the spell. They just have to have enough gems to cast the spell each time and enough spellcraft points.
9.3 SPELL TYPES
The spells that you will have
after researching are broken into a few different types. These are the
following.
10. Orders
Orders are sent in response to turn reports the
players receive. There are basically three types of orders: Global, City and
Shire orders. Global orders are used to set options not directly involved in the
game, such as specifying certain details the player's wishes to see on their
turn report. City based orders are used to perform actions not related to a
specific shire such as researching magic. Shire based orders are used to command
the units, heroes and peasants inside each shire the player controls
The format for orders is;
Global Orders
City Orders
Each Shire's Orders
At the end of this section there is a sample set of orders that could be submitted. Each order has to be on the start of a new line and shire orders have to be under a shire number heading (SHIRE Shire_num). Global and City orders can be placed anywhere in the orders section although at the top makes the set out more clear.
Orders are to be sent in weekly. For the first few turns we will be checking to make sure no obvious bugs occur, but if we don't catch them, and you do please tell us as soon as possible. Rewards will be given, in terms of a mention on the game credits' bug fix page and with gold and other resources for your use in the game. The more subtle and dangerous the bug found the bigger the rewards. Be warned, if it is found that somebody has been exploiting a bug in the game, we reserve the right to send our demonic minions down into the realm of wizard's to wreak havoc upon your mortal and puny armies. We have some mighty units at our disposal, so be scared. We also offer rewards for player blurbs, news and player WoW web sites.
Note that wherever you type in a location, the form region,shire with no spaces between the comma should be used. Also note that any command parameter that is more than one word must be contained in "quotation marks". e.g. CAST "Sword of Flame" For all orders requiring a yes/no parameter the orders processor will accept (y,n,yes,no) as parameters. Also note that comments (anything following a semicolon on a line) and all leading and trailing spaces are stripped from your orders before processing and that everything is converted to uppercase, so it doesn't matter what case your orders are sent in as. One final note; placing a @ before a line will add this line to the template at the end of a players' next report. This is a time saving function for producing weekly orders from the template.
The orders syntax notes are as follows.
And now here are the orders:
10.1 GLOBAL ORDERS
10.2 CITY/WIZARD ORDERS
10.3 SHIRE ORDERS
Notes: You do not need to re-issue the orders each turn. The game will remember your settings between turns. Hence if you forget to send in orders your production settings are remembered and they are produced again (That is the main reason for the implementation of these new features). Default Production is reset to NONE when a new player takes control of a shire.
The specified resources (for orders that have a specified peasant amount) are
produced in order of importance. E.g. Food, wood, stone, iron, gems mithril,
Then the default are executed after that if there are any peasants left. The
resource that will be produced by default is indicated by a '*' on the turn
report.
So for the following orders
it would be executed as;
Further note that the Produce Default order (e.g. PRODUCE WOD) only changes the default production it does not clear the specific produce (e.g. PRODUCE STN 50) orders you may have set the previous turn. You need to issue PRODUCE NONE to clear any specific ones that are set. e.g. PRODUCE NONE PRODUCE WOD Will clear all other specific produce orders and just set wood to be produced
If you wish your heroes to cast their spells in a particular order you can
also set a cast order number between 1 and 3. A hero with cast order 1 will
cast a combat spell before another hero of the same or allied wizard with cast
order 2 set. NOTE: This does not in any way affect initiative or who gets to
cast spells first out of a wizards hero and the enemies. If a wizard has the
initiative, all that wizards and allies heroes will cast spells (even with
cast order 3) before the enemy heroes get a chance.
NOTE: A enemy hero or ship is counted as 50 enemy for determining when to cast a spell.
If you are trying
to set the combat spell for your player's wizard then you must specify a
<hero number> of 0. You must also place the order under your city shire
orders. Note that the wizard will only cast the combat spell against enemies
who are attacking the wizard's city.
11. Turn Report
11.1 EXAMPLE
To: "David Harris"From: "WOW GAME MASTER" Subject: WOW GAME 15 TURN 0 REPORTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WAR OF THE WIZARDS. GAME 15 TURN REPORT 0. FOR WIZARD Mad Harry. *************************************************************** PLAYTEST OBLIGATIONS. ********************* This is a playtest and hence is FREE. Your obligations as a play tester are the following: - Find any bugs in the system, for which you will get rewards. - Find any spelling mistakes, for which you will get rewards. - Point out any errors or ambiguities in the rules or supporting web pages, for which you will receive rewards. - Let us know of any ways that we can make the game simpler and easier to use. - Also, to let us know if you have suggestions on how to make the game better. Holding in mind the point mentioned above. - To let us know immediately of any problems you are having with the game or other players. - To have fun playing War of Wizards. ********************** CURRENT GAME SETTINGS. ********************** Include Abbreviations Listing : Yes Include Spell Descriptions : Yes Include Hero Summary : No Include Orders Template : Yes Detailed : No Auto Control Uncontrolled Shires : No Include Info For Client Programs : No Compress Game Emails : No REPORTS OF BATTLES THAT OCCURRED THIS TURN. ******************************************* * No Battles This Turn. ERRORS THIS TURN. ***************** * No Errors. EVENTS THIS TURN. ***************** * No Events This Turn. PLAYER'S TURN REPORT. ********************* WIZARD'S NAME : Mad Harry WIZARD'S CITY NAME : Demons Pass CITY LOCATION : (71,5) CASTLE LEVEL : 1 CURRENT ALLIES : No Allies Set. MILITARY RATING : 250 (33rd) MAGIC RATING : 30 (35th) ECONOMIC RATING : 44 (24th) POLITICAL RATING : 1 (37th) YOUR EMPIRE RATING : 70 (25th) SEASON : The season of year 0 is currently Winter and the season will change to Spring of year 1 next turn. SPELLCRAFT POINTS : 8 RESEARCH POINTS : 0 MAGIC LEVELS : No Magic Levels Researched. SPELL BOOK SUMMARY : Do Not Know Any Spells. WIZARD'S RESOURCES : RESOURCE - CURRENT OUT IN Gold - 1500 0 0 Food - 800 0 0 Wood - 1500 0 0 Stone - 500 0 0 Iron - 300 0 0 Gems - 100 0 0 Mithril - 0 0 0 WIZARD'S ARTIFACTS : (No Artifacts) COMBAT SPELL : No Combat Spell Set. SPECIAL CITY EVENTS ******************* HEROES ON OFFER : No Heroes On Offer This Turn. MERCENARY OFFERS : No Mercenaries For Hire This Turn. CARAVAN OFFER : No Caravan Arrived In The City This Turn. PLAYER'S MAP SHIRE STATUS REPORTS. ********************************* CAPITAL CITY SHIRE REPORT SHIRE : (71,5) REGION TYPE : Arctic. REGION NAME : Demons Pass REGION DESCRIPTION : This group of dwarves have formed a city upon the legendary battlefield of the Demon Wars. Its tall spires are said to be magically enhanced by the demons' blood of centuries past. RACE : Hill Dwarves. POPULATION : 300(61) CONTROLLING WIZARD : Mad Harry. TAX RATE : Low. FEED RATE : 1 MORALE : 2.20 CITY BUILDINGS : Castle Level 1 : Basic Castle. Town Hall : The centrepiece of any community, the hall founds the town and hence allows other buildings to be constructed around it. * Buildings that can be built at this location. BUILDING NAME RESOURCE BUILDING COST. Blacksmith (Gold:800 Wood:200 Stone:200) Church (Gold:1000 Wood:300 Stone:500) Docks (Gold:500 Wood:100 Stone:50) Granary (Gold:300 Wood:300 Stone:200) Infirmary (Gold:500 Wood:200 Stone:200) Inn (Gold:800 Wood:300 Stone:200) Library (Gold:1800 Wood:200 Stone:500) Lumber Mill (Gold:600 Wood:600 Stone:50) Market Place (Gold:600 Wood:200 Stone:200) Moat (Gold:1300 Wood:200 Stone:300) Paths (Gold:500 Wood:50) Tavern (Gold:400 Wood:150 Stone:50) Well (Gold:600 Wood:200 Stone:200) * Units that can be recruited from this location. UNIT NAME ATTRIBUTES - RESOURCE COST PER UNIT. Hill Dwarves Militia [M:1 O:1 D:2] - (Gold:10) Hill Dwarves Spearmen [M:1 O:1 D:3] - (Gold:10 Wood:10) SHIRE RESOURCES : Food:2 Wood:1 Stone:2 Gems:1 SHIRE EXITS - (71,1) (71,2) (71,3) (71,4) SHIRE REGION EXITS - No Region Exits. GROUND UNITS - Mad Harry (1) : (Hill Dwarves Militia:50) SPELL DESCRIPTIONS REPORT. ************************** No Spells to Display. ABBREVIATIONS DETAILS. ********************* * Unit Abbreviations ABBREV UNIT NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES HDMIL Hill Dwarves Militia [M:1 UT:O O:1 D:2 A:1 H:1] COST : (GLD:10) MAINTENANCE : (GLD:2 FOD:1) HDSPE Hill Dwarves Spearmen [M:1 UT:O O:1 D:3 A:1 H:1] COST : (GLD:10 WOD:10) MAINTENANCE : (GLD:2 FOD:1) * Ship Abbreviations ABBREV SHIP NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES No Abbreviations To Display! * Building Abbreviations. ABBREV BUILDING NAMES BKS Blacksmith [COST : GLD:800 WOD:200 STN:200] CA1 Castle Level 1 [COST : Special - No Cost] CHR Church [COST : GLD:1000 WOD:300 STN:500] DOC Docks [COST : GLD:500 WOD:100 STN:50] GRA Granary [COST : GLD:300 WOD:300 STN:200] INF Infirmary [COST : GLD:500 WOD:200 STN:200] INN Inn [COST : GLD:800 WOD:300 STN:200] LIB Library [COST : GLD:1800 WOD:200 STN:500] LMI Lumber Mill [COST : GLD:600 WOD:600 STN:50] MAR Market Place [COST : GLD:600 WOD:200 STN:200] MOA Moat [COST : GLD:1300 WOD:200 STN:300] PAT Paths [COST : GLD:500 WOD:50] TAV Tavern [COST : GLD:400 WOD:150 STN:50] TOW Town Hall [COST : GLD:1000 WOD:450 STN:450] WEL Well [COST : GLD:600 WOD:200 STN:200] * Spell Abbreviations. ABBREV SPELL NAMES No Abbreviations To Display! * Artifact Abbreviations. ABBREV ARTIFACT NAMES No Abbreviations To Display! ORDERS TEMPLATE FOR NEXT TURN. ****************************** #WOW ORDERS 15 1 secret_password 1 ; GLOBAL ORDERS & CITY/WIZARD ORDERS ; CITY SHIRE ORDERS. SHIRE 71,5 ; REGION : Arctic - Demons Pass. ; Resources: F2 W1 S2 G1 Settings: FR:1 TR:L CT:Y POP:300(61) M:2.20 #END
11.2 EXPLANATION
For each shire you have one or more units in, you will receive shire
information in your turn report. This will include:
11.3 SCOUTING
If you happen to have a scout in the current shire you will also receive the following additional information;
Connecting Shires and Regions Land Type · If the destination is controlled by you, an ally, the enemy, wandering monster/s or uncontrolled. · The number of the units at the location. · The number of wandering monsters inside a special place. Scouting reports only apply to ground level.
The accuracy of scout reports is determined by the number of scouts in the
shire and is given as a percentage.
11.4 ATTRIBUTE EXPLANATIONS
At various stages in the report there are different attributes shown in the report in an abbreviated form. An example below is of a particular unit from the abbreviation report. These abbreviations mean the same throughout the entire report.
AMTRI Amazons Tribesmen [M:1 UT:O O:1 D:2 A:1 H:1]
Ships can also have some of the following attributes.
In shires the following are used i.e., FR:1 TR:M CT:Y POP:81 M:1.39 ;
12. Turn Sequence
The program that generates your reports carries out all the particular orders of the same type for all players. e.g. All Attack Orders are carried out before the taxing of people is performed. Below is the sequence in which orders are processed. This is sometimes quite useful to know!
For example, move orders are carried out before a battle takes place, letting one player move in reinforcements if they know they are going to be attacked that turn.
ORDERS OF EVENTS
13. Score
Contained in your turn report will be a score.
This will be divided into Military, Political, Magic and Economic as well as a
total score. There will also be a list ranking all players according to the
score. The score has no impact on the game at all. It is just so players can see
how they are fairing and to feed the egos of those who are doing well. The score
is based on a multitude of factors including the amount of controlled land, your
castle, buildings, leadership of heroes, magic researched, cities, special
places conquered and by other special events occurring during the game.
The Hall of fame for the champions of each game is shown from another link at the main page.
14. The Races Of WOW
These are the races that can be found
in any game of WOW.
DARK ELVES
From deep in the underworld, the dark elves have recently resurfaced. Splitting from their high elven cousins many millenniums ago, the two are now almost as separate as humans and gnomes. The slim build, dark complexion and white hair of this race makes any dark elf stand apart from all others. Their society, dominated by female priests, is one which revolves around combat and treachery.
DERVISHES
The Dervishes are nomadic tradesmen of the desert. They converse with all races yet can also stand alone against any.
GNOMES
Gnomes are small demi-humans known especially for their weird and wonderful inventions. Another peculiar trait is their fast and continuous speech.
HALFLINGS
The Halflings are a joyful race of small demi-humans. Known for their lack of height and hairy toes, Halflings form together in towns known as shires. The Halflings favourite territory is hills, which they build their burrow homes in. The relaxed life style of the Halflings can be vigorously defended when threatened. Halfling slingers and pony riders may quickly be gathered to repel any unwelcome visitors.
HIGHLANDERS
Highlanders are a human race who love the crisp air of the hills and mountains. They live a very traditional lifestyle, residing in clans. They are fierce warriors and wars between the clans frequently flare up. Their religion is two fold, believing in one god but also that the world also possess lesser gods known as the chosen ones. These chosen are virtually immortal barring complete decapitation. The immortals are both revered and feared, never accepted by any of the clans and forced to live in secrecy or wander the earth eternally.
HILL DWARVES
Hill Dwarves are renowned everywhere for their skill as weapon smiths. The short stocky race also has a passion for forging the earth's minerals into many types of objects and artifacts.
HIGH ELVES
The High elves are one of the most ancient and noble races. Long flowing blond hair, sharp facial features and a slight build are the characteristics that make this race stand apart. The architecture of the elven cities is something many a traveller has journeyed to see in safer times, but now that troubled times approach, the cities will be seen as defensive strongholds rather than places of great aesthetics.
ICELANDERS
Choosing to live in the frozen regions, Icelanders have learnt to use the elements of arctic terrain to their upmost advantage. Riding Mammoths into war and building defences of ice, little can stop an Icelander army fighting in their home terrain. The communities generally live peacefully however, hunting and fishing the lands to gain food and skins to protect themselves from the cold.
LIZARDMEN
The unique Lizardmen are one that is feared due to both legend and apperance. The tall warriors of the race wield weapons with strength and precision while the lash of a tail gives them an extra avenue of attack. The trident and javelin troops alone would form an army requiring strong forces to resist. These troops pale in comparison to the Lizardmens most powerful weapon. The Chameleon Assasins. These warriors are almost impossible to spot before cold steel through the heart alerts one to their prescence. Apart from their strong array of troops, very little is known of this strange race.
MINOTAUR
Minotaurs are clearly one of the most fearsome races to frequent Varlania. Their culture, revolving around the warriors, ensures that only the strongest survive. Standing 8 to 10 feet tall with a bull's head atop a human torso they intimidate any they meet in battle.
OGRES
Ogres are a brutal race of large humanoids. Although not known for their intelligence, they can produce a rare cunning that has brought the demise of many opponents. Their general lack of Intellect, combined with a powerful frame, far stronger than the average mans, makes this race a popular choice to be coerced into war by manipulative villains. The Ogre race is divided into classes with the lowly Snotlings doing the most menial of tasks. This class system is almost entirely based on physical size with Snotlings being far smaller than standard Ogres, who are in turn dwarfed by the Chieftains. Ogres prefer to reside in the Mountains where they fight at their best.
ORCS
These evil creatures are renowned for their ruthlessness and lack of compassion.
PLAINSMEN
Plainsmen live off the land of their home region. They are tribal in nature and manage to exist in harmony with both animals and nature.
SANDPEOPLE
The Sandpeople are a mysterious race of desert dwellers. Few know how they survive in such a barren environment or how their society functions. The only contact others seem to have is having caravans raided under the cover of sand storms. These people seem to appear and disappear into the sand itself.
UNDER DWARVES
Under Dwarves are stocky demi-humans who spend the majority of their time in the tunnels and caverns. They are masters of obtaining the ground's wealth, and mine in constant pursuit of the sacred metal Mithril.