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From: RICHARD ABBOTT <R.J.ABBOTT@dundee.ac.uk>
Organization: Dundee University
Date: Thu, 3 Mar 1994 09:00:17 GMT
Subject: Fantasy Empires FAQ
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Status: OR

Welcome to the Fantasy Empires FAQ              
Update information
Version 1.0 Released February 28th 1994

Credits

This Faq has been created from many posts on the relevant newsgroups, 
and from Mail discussions with these posters and others:
N.L.Fradkin                                     R.Cave
B. Vigduris                                     V.Philippe                      
W. Prasetya                                                     

Special thanks must go to Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights for the 
support he gave for this project.
Any comments, criticisms, additions or tips I would appreciate them. 
I can be reached at RJAbbott@its.dundee.ac.uk (Richard Abbott)

What is Fantasy Empires? The first obvious question asked and 
undoubtedly the easiest to answer. Fantasy Empires is a computer 
game developed by Silicon Knights and published by SSI. The 
interface was designed around the use of the 'Dungeon Master' 
as an agent, filling roles as both a referee and a consultant. 
The actions of the Dungeon Master are dictated by a simulated 
neural network, to allow consistency but with some unpredictability. 
The DM notes all the actions of the player characters and stores 
all the information, some of which is visible on the PC's cumulative 
record.

The current version of the game is 1.1, which fixes the severe game 
play problem of the multiplying siege engines bug as well as others. 
The patch to upgrade from version 1.0 is available from:-
 SSI ( address and phone no at the back of the manual)
America online in the SSI section
irz.inf.tu-dresden.de    /pub/ms-dos/games/patches   fe110.zip
wuarchive

Contents
Section  A Game opponents and Player Characters
1) When I start a campaign, my opponents seem to be able to 
use lots of magic against me and I am rapidly destroyed. Why?
2) Which are the easiest opponents?
3) Which is the best character class?
4)What are the effects of the alignments?
5) Does the gray always begin the turn first and the greens 
ends it, or is it more or less random?
6) Is it cheating to alter all the character attributes to 18?
7) Why do some opponents always seem to break treaties?

Section B Heros
1) When could you send your heros on a Daring Quest?
2) What magic items come from what quests?
3) How useful of heros in battle?
4) The Dungeon master gives advice that Elven heros are the 
most versatile in battle why is this?
5) What is the best magic item for a hero to have?

Section C Magic
1) How can I tell how much magical power that I have?
2) Which are the best spells?
3)I have picked up a lightning rod from a quest. What is 
the best way of using this? 
4)My opponent has a Mirror of Protection and I cannot 
use Truesight on him. Is there any way around this?
5) What is the best magic item for a hero to have?

Section D Battles
1) When I simulate a battle defending a castle, 
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why? 
2)When I simulate a battle attacking a castle, 
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
3) Is simulation or playing battles better?

Section E  General Hints and Strategies
1) The Satko Horde
2) The Steady Stream
3) Crystal Ball
4) Close Opponent
5) Undead Rampage
6) Zap Em
7) Remote Island Detection
?) Shorts

Section F General Questions
1) Why can't I get any sound from my PC speaker?

Section G  Would Like List

Appendix 1 List of Opponents

Section A  Game Opponents and Player Characters

1) When I start a campaign, my opponents seem to be able to 
use lots of magic against me and I am rapidly destroyed. Why?
One useful part of the package once a player has gotten used 
to it, is the ability to tailor the opponents to your own 
skill level. It is important to start out against a low level 
opponent otherwise you will just be zapped off the face of Mystara.

2) Which are the easiest opponents?
The low level ones! Within a group of opponents at the same 
level some are easier than others. The NPC's get the same 
benefits from being a class that you do, such that the spell 
using classes will tend to get more spell power and those 
spells will be more effective, fighters will be better for 
fighter NPC's etc. Tailor the game for what opponents you wish.

3) Which is the best character class?
This is a very difficult question to answer as it does depend 
on your own style of play. At the current time I prefer to use 
a fighter PC and use my magic sparingly to disrupt my opponents 
rear areas. Other contributors have expressed other preferences. 
Something that can help you chose a class is knowledge of the way 
that the initial heros levels are calculated. The initial set up 
in the campaign includes one of each Elf, Dwarf, Magic User, 
Cleric and Fighter. The hero which matches your PC's class 
starts at the same level as your PC, the others start at half 
that level (rounded down). A high level MU or Cleric PC will 
have a lot of magical power to throw around early on.

4) What are the effects of the alignments?
Lawful:
+10% bonus on income
Treaties come at a lower price since you will probably not break it
Summoning undead is more difficult and the numbers 
created is at -15% compared to a neutral character.
If too many undead troops are created  the DM will change your alignment.
+15% bonus in numbers when turning undead.
Neutral:
Income as par.
Treaties are harder to get and more expensive compared to lawful.
Turning and creating undead is at normal power.
Chaotic:
-10% on income
Treaties are expensive and difficult to get
Undead are summoned with a 15% bonus in numbers
Turning undead suffers -15% in numbers.

5) Does the gray always begin the turn first and the greens 
ends it, or is it more or less random?
The actual answer is neither. The player who begins one turn 
plays their next turn as the last player and the rest of the 
players are promoted one in the schedule ie. the third player 
moves second and the second moves first.

6) Is it cheating to alter all the character attributes to 18?
Consider this feature as an additional play balance mechanism. 
Setting all the attributes to 18 will make the game far easier 
than using a random setting. For those familiar with the D and D 
game, one of the ways of rolling from that could be used and 
the attributes set to match those generated.

7) Why do some opponents always seem to break treaties?
The opponents do tend to follow their alignments listed in 
the view heros option and repeated in appendix 1 below. The 
chaotic characters will attack if they view a weakness, the 
lawful ones will tend to honour treaties. Further information 
can be got from studying the character history and background 
as well as the alignment. However it is always wise to be ready 
for an attack on the turn that a treaty ends. It is useful to 
put yourself in the NPC's position and see if you would break 
the treaty or honour it and try to get another. The NPC players 
are not daft and offer a treaty to strengthen their own 
positions much as any player would.

Section B  Heros

1) When could you send your heros on a daring quest?
The answer to this one is when ever you want to. 1st level 
heros can go on any level of quest but with, declining chances 
of success. The Veterans quest will raise a heros level up 
to level 5, and this pattern follows.
Veteran's Quest level 1-5      (VQ)
Noble Quest             6-10     (NQ)
Daring Quest           11-15     (DrQ)
Dangerous Quest     16-20     (DnQ)
Forbidding Quest      21+        (FQ)

One hint here is that by sending 4th level heros on a NQ, they 
will return at 6th level, the same as if they had gone on the 
same quest at 5th level. The best item that a hero can collect 
from a veterans quest is a Displacer cloak (DC) so if a 4th 
level hero has one there is no point in going on another VQ. 
Similarly for a 9th level hero going on a DrQ but as useful 
items can still be recovered from a NQ this is less clear cut.

2)What items come from what quests?
The best way to answer is in a simple list.
	Item                                                                    Quests
Weapon +1 (Sword, Ax, Bow and Mace)                VQ,NQ
Weapon +2                                          NQ
Weapon +3                                          DrQ                                                                                       
Arrows of Teleportation                            DrQ   
Sword of Extra Damage                              DrQ              
Sword of Slowing                                   NQ
Boots of Speed                                     NQ
Elven Cloak                                        NQ
Gauntlets of Ogre Power                            NQ
Girdle of Giant Strength                           NQ?
Ring of Fire Resistance                            NQ
Ring of Protection +1                              VQ
Medallion of Protection (+2)                       VQ
Displacer Cloak                                    VQ
Ring of Teleportation                              DrQ
Ring of Regeneration                               DrQ
Crystal Ball                                       DrQ
Lightning Rod                                      NQ,DrQ
Mirror of Life Trapping                            DnQ
Mirror of Protection                               DnQ
Rod of Domination                                  FQ
Rod of the Earth                                   DnQ
Rod of Necromancy                                  DrQ
Rod of True Sight                                  NQ
Rod of the Winds                                   DrQ
Staffs of Holiness, Wizardry and Druids            FQ

The query with Girdle of Giant Strength is the item recovered 
from the NQ is called a Girdle of Power, as opposed to the 
Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
Rings of Protection greater than +1 are mentioned in the Manual, 
but do not appear in the game.
This list is a provisional one derived from game playing 
experiences of myself and others. The official list has 
been promised to me and I will incorporate that into V1.1.

3) How useful of heros in battle?
This depends upon the battle and the hero. Fighter and dwarf 
heros are very useful for doing an 'End Run' to get to the 
opposition missile troops and/or siege engines, indeed a 
single high level hero can destroy hundreds of elves in one 
battle. Elven heros have a very useful role detailed below. 
Magic users and druids are mobile siege engines, in that 
they can blow down castle walls to let the hoards over 
run the defenders, one word of warning in that these 
battles must be played to a conclusion. Simulating before 
the last unit has been destroyed can lead to a total 
destruction of the attacking force. Clerics can hold back 
and cast bless, or act as second rate fighters, the main 
use of clerics is to build up spell power for earthquakes 
and to be turned into druids.

4) The Dungeon master gives advice that Elven heros 
are the most versatile in battle why is this?
Elven heros have the advantage of being slightly quicker 
than any other heros plus the dual arming of bow and short 
sword. This means that they can do an 'End Run' and engage 
with either bow or swords, support the frontline by hanging 
back a little and adding arrows to the fray but come into 
their own on a so called 'Recon Raid'. This tactic serves 
two uses of finding out the enemy dispositions, and reducing 
the opposing force. It hinges on the twin fact of speed and 
missile capability. The basic tactic is to move an elven 
hero into a province alone, and close with the enemy on 
the battle screen. Once within missile range start firing, 
until the enemy is close but before contact has been made, 
then turn and run back a short distance and repeat. Using 
the faster speed it is even possible to run all over the 
map and the chasing troops will pursue doggedly and be 
slowly mown down. It is important not to kill the last 
unit in a province as then the hero will be lost, but 
retreating before this happens is possible. The next 
turn the army can march in with minimal resistance.
This tactic can be used with MU with boots of speed 
who have the additional ability to destroy the keep and 
force the opponent to pay for a new one or face desertions. 
Indeed the desertions can cause the province to revert 
to neutral before the opponent has a chance to rebuild 
the keep.

5) What is the best magic item for a hero to have?
This depends upon the hero and what tactics the player 
uses. I like boots of speed to make the end run more 
effective, gauntlets of ogre power, magic bows for elves 
or any protective item for spellcasters.

Section C Magic

1) How can I tell how much magical power that I have?
The three globes on the top of the screen show how much 
magical power the player has. They glimmer with increasing 
intensity depending upon the power present, they are from 
left to right Druidic (Blue), Clerical (Green) and 
Magic User (Red). Experience will allow the judging of 
exactly how much power is present, but as a rough 
guide-line, the magic user glow become visible when 
the power is enough to cast one death spell, the druidic 
enough for one lightning but the clerical is easily visible 
long before earthquake is possible. Some players have 
reported that the glimmer is not visible at all, so 
there may be a specific hardware problem with some 
graphic cards.

2) Which are the best spells?
The actual damage caused by each spell is documented 
well in the manual in two separate places. (Pages 27/8 and 55). 
One inconsistency between these two is that in one 
creeping doom is said to damage buildings in the other 
not to. This latter appears to be correct. The best spell 
to use depends upon the situation, if the attack from 
the ground forces is going in then an anti personnel 
type spell that does not damage buildings is best 
eg. death spell, if attacking the enemy capital at a 
distance with no immediate plans to take the province 
then an anti building one is better eg, meteor storm.

3)I have picked up a lightning rod from a quest. 
What is the best way of using this? 
If the see all option is on (fog of war off) then 
absolute havoc can be created by zapping an opponents 
rear areas, one province at a time. With luck two 
provinces will lose their keeps and the resulting 
disorder will cause these to return to neutral. 
The loss of revenue and the distraction of forces 
to reconquer the provinces will be a help to your aims.

4)My opponent has a Mirror of Protection and I cannot 
use Truesight on him. Is there any way around this?
Not as such, but there are methods of getting the 
information that is needed. The elven hero Recon Raid 
is one. Indeed moving a few troops in and then 
retreating them will provide the same sort of 
information as to troop dispositions and buildings 
present but compared to the Recon raid will not 
destroy troops.

Section D Battles

1) When I simulate a battle defending a castle, 
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why? 
This occurs when the attacker has missile troops and 
the defender has none. The simulation set up places 
the defenders inside the castle and they will not move 
out until too late. The attacking missile troops behave 
on harass orders and the defenders are cut down. Rule 
1 of castle defence is always have some missile troops 
or ballistas in a castle if it is likely to be attacked.

2)When I simulate a battle attacking a castle, 
I end up losing everything and the opponent nothing. Why?
Did you take a siege engine in? Occasionally the 
computer appears to destroy the attacking siege 
engines early in the simulation mechanism then as 
the attacker has no siege engine all the attacking 
troops are wiped out. It is a good idea to play 
out all castle assaults at least until the battering 
rams have broken all the doors down. With catapults 
this tends not to happen but it has done on a 
few rare occasions.

3) Is simulation or playing battles better?
Some people do not like any arcade type action and 
so by simulating always they can have just a plain 
strategic game, but at the cost of less options 
available tactically. Simulating never leads to a 
retreat so this can cause problems if the opponent 
has built a castle since you last looked. (You DID 
look didn't you).Also in situlation no results screen 
appears and so it is impossible to tell if indeed 
a castle was there or just a superior force. In 
playing the battles fighters are much more effective 
than in simulation (or maybe missile troops are 
less effective). There are no hard and fast rules 
but if you are playing with lots of elves then 
simulate more, if not then less. As an experiment 
try a battle of 200 fighters against 40 elves. In 
simulation many fighters will be lost, in the 
arcade system without player interference (ie 
pressing F5/F6 to get the battle overview) the 
fighters will often not have any losses.

Section E  General Hints and Strategies

1)The Satko Horde (by W.Prasetya )
Especially effective against a non spell using opponent.
Build 8 armories at your front line. With this you can 
make 480 fighters in a single round which you can use 
to sweep through the enemy's ranks. You have a good 
chance of making around of 200 elite troops this way.
Other players comments.
The general consensus of these are that such a province 
is asking to be earthquaked (or other spells) and it is 
a case of putting all the eggs in one basket. The main 
use for this tactic, possibly on a smaller scale, is 
in the mopping up operations at the end of the game. 
Here money is not a problem and troops at the front 
line are easier to get into the action.

2) The Steady Stream (by R.J.Abbott)
When advancing into the opponents territory, leave 
a supply route of a trail of provinces with a single 
armory in each (two if the money is available) there 
is often one left by computer opponents in most 
provinces. Train troops each turn at each of these 
and move them up along the trail. At each step along 
the way the armory in the province will add another 
60 troops (assuming one turn to train ) so that when 
the army reaches the front it will be sizeable. 
The constant stream of troops means that the frontline 
force is free to advance as more troops will be 
entering the province that they left, hopefully 
preventing the opponents taking it over.

3) Crystal Balls (by W. Prasetya )
This, although listed lowest in the book, I value these 
better than even Rod of the Earth. You always have a 
paranoic feeling that the enemy is much stronger 
than they actually are. The crystal ball will tell you 
when it is time to give the killing blow to the 
enemy's empire.


4) Close Opponent (by N.L.Fradkin )
If in the beginning there is another empire starting 
close to you, focus on taking its capital. Usually 
there are not too many troops there as they have all 
been sent out to oppress local peoples, so a quick 
coup is possible. If this is accomplished you get 
the province along with the castles and two armories.
Other players comments.
A good plan that works more often than not. One 
cautionary note is that the other player may have 
his heros in the capital and at higher levels these 
can destroy many troops. The solution is to send 
some of your own.

5) Undead Rampage (by R.J.Abbott )
Undead count as elite troops and so are lost when 
taking over neutral provinces at a much slower rate. 
Create an undead army of 100 or so and march around 
the rear areas building keeps and in theory a large 
empire. Top up the army periodically with a raise 
undead spell or Rod of Necromancy.
Other players comments.
Waste of some of the best troops in the game. The 
Undead are better in the front line taking out 
the enemy.

6) Zap Em. (My name for a tactic put forward by several people )
The high level heros of your opponents are a problem 
in battles and allow him to rain spells down on your 
empire. Find where they are and bring down the death 
spells on them, or even better use the mirror of life 
trapping.

7) Remote Island Detection ( by R.J.Abbott )
When playing the 'Fog of War' option on only the 
enemy's in adjacent provinces will be seen. Islands 
are not considered to be adjacent to each other, and 
as such clearing them out can be a bit of a pain. Despite 
the shield not appearing on the map the `move troops to' 
order does show if the destination province is neutral 
or owned by an opponent, this information allows better 
use of truesight spells to identify what is necessary 
to take on the enemy.

8) Shorts ( a list of miscellaneous comments)
Try to preserve your Druid.

On arcade selection place the Hero you wish to control first.

Send a MU/Druid to with every attack against a castle.

The game is better with multiple players.

Don't waste magic on truesight spells, 
soon enough a hero will find a truesight rod.

Magic use doesn't break treaties 

For chaotic MU's create lots of undead.

Turn undead is free so use it. Randomly if necessary.

Section F General Questions
1) Why can't I get sound from my PC speaker?
Check your sound installation. Have you selected 
an absent sound card?
PC internal speaker is supported and this could be a 
problem with your specific set-up.

Section G  Would Like List

Some sort of automatic vectoring for production. 
Have the option to create an order which would 
cause the facility to constantly produce troops 
until circumstances change.

A similar point about  sending heros on quests. 
How about setting up a capability of sending heros 
on a type of quest automatically until a chosen end 
point is reached be it a level and/or a magic item.

A system where the computer would cede once the 
outcome was obvious. Finishing off can take quite 
some time and is not really challenging from a 
position where the ceding would come in.

A jump to next hero key to prevent 
cycling through all the troops

More maps!!

A network or modem play option.

Appendix 1 list of Opponents

Name               Level   Alignment       Class
Nightspawn           1       Chaos          MU
Arendale             1       Neutral        Dwarf
Theodosius           1       Chaos          Cleric
Taz Marzak           1       Neutral        Fighter
Dwalur               1       Dwarf          Dwarf
Eol                  2       Chaos          Elf
Brandifirth          2       Neutral        Fighter
Moloch               2       Neutral        MU
Shingen              3       Neutral        Fighter
Samoryx              3       Lawful         MU
Magdel               4       Lawful         Cleric
Al Ruladin           5       Chaos          Fighter
Erdo                 5       Neutral        Fighter
Zindar               6       Lawful         Dwarf
Flintfoot            6       Neutral        Fighter
Cor Linton           7       Neutral        Fighter
Laruna              12       Neutral        Cleric
Beasthunter         10       Lawful         Elf
King Telehon         H       Neutral        Elf
Rezak Xygar         12       Lawful         MU
Harek               12       Chaos          Fighter
Saruna              12       Neutral        Fighter
M. Edrecort         15       Chaos          MU
Hanni               16       Chaos          MU
Hool                18       Chaos          Fighter
Dimolapietra        17       Chaos          MU
Porphylriel         21       Lawful         MU
Hutai-Khan          21       Chaos          Fighter
Huaji-Khan          21       Neutral        Fighter
Chibak              24       Chaos          Cleric
P. Virayana         27       Neutral        MU
Dark Eye            28       Neutral        Fighter
P. Woszlany         28       Chaos          MU
Yavi                32       Chaos          Cleric
P.McGregor          33       Chaos          MU
Dambreville         35       Lawful         MU

I hope that you find this FAQ useful. Version 1.1 will be 
released fairly soon, but I'm not falling into the trap of 
setting a date. What it should include is the official 
list of the magic items, more information on simulated 
combat and any further questions or comments that are sent 
to me. I would particularly welcome comments for the tactics 
section, be they new tactics or commenting on ones 
already present.

28th February
Richard Abbott


