If you do not have the diploware installed, you should go there and download it asap.

If you are just starting out, you probably have only a vague idea of how things work at this point. Don’t worry; you shall soon get the hang of it. The tutorial is available from your start menu when you install the diploware, and its important that you work through it. There are plenty of experienced players with good advice, just join the discussion group from the webpage and dont hesitate to fire off your questions.

You can ctrl+click on the hyperlinks to go straight to a chapter or section – I’ve offset some of the links so that you don’t accidentally hit the wrong one.

First, close any unnecessary programs you have running. This helps to ensure that you don’t have too many things running on your computer, and so your Diploware will run efficiently. This is a very important step! After this, start the Diploware, which brings you to the Start-up Menu, where you can select a file to load. When you are playing in a game, you should select either your saved orders, or your newest Results file, which was sent to you by the GM. When you select this and open it, you are brought to your Headquarters (if not, then contact the GM for troubleshooting).

At the top part of the Diploware, you can see:

• Main Menus: The Diploware has 4 main areas. Each has a separate button at the top:

1. Headquarters: This is where you manage your diplomatic relations.
2. Map: This shows you the map, and is where you manage your various forces.
3. Messages: This shows you various reports and messages about what happened on the last turn.
4. Game: This allows you to save your orders, or open a new turn.

• HQ Plans: Also at the top of the menu, you can see HQ Plans. This has all of your planned Headquarters orders listed. These are orders for your realm as a whole, not for particular units you control. Any time you perform a Headquarters order, it will be listed here, and you can undo any orders if you change your mind. Note that your HQ Plans is available from all main parts of the Diploware.
• Help Menus: The Diploware has a help message for most of the menus. If you are not sure about something on the Diploware, click on the question mark, which will show you the help message for that menu.
• Turn Number: The number of the current turn is also shown at the top.

By clicking on the Messages at the top, you can see reports of the last turn’s events. You can click between normal Messages, Battle Reports, and Proclamations. You can see the following:

Even though you are impatient to learn about the map, I will now talk about the Game menu. Here, you can do the following:

Turns are due at the same time for all games, and there is 1 turn per week (unless otherwise indicated for your game).

• About Turns: Just to repeat how the game works: Each time turns are processed, you will be sent a unique Result file for your realm. This is a computer file attached to an email message, and you load this file into your Diploware to see your realm, troops, etc. You issue your orders using the Diploware, and then save them to an Orders file, and you send this as an email attachment to the GM. On the due date, the GM will run all turns at the same time, and all game events will occur. Then everyone is sent their new Result file, and things continue in this manner.
• Due Date: The normal due date is: Tuesday, 5:00 PM, Pacific Time (Pacific Time is for California, USA. In GMT this is 1 AM Wednesday). For the first turn of the game, the due date may be different, but the normal due date is used for other turns. To help get your bearings with the time zone, see below:

If you don’t send your turn in on time, please don’t expect the game to wait for you. Sometimes you

might get lucky – if you haven’t received your next turnfile, there is a good chance you can still send

your turn in and get it processed, but there is no guarantee. Send your turn in before the deadline if you

want to be sure it will get processed.

• Email Address: Send all email, and your turnfiles (the file created by the Diploware that has your orders) to:

After opening your turn, you are brought to your Headquarters, and you can return here by clicking on Headquarters at the top of the Diploware. You can think of this area as your Throne Room, where your advisors are available to carry out your commands. Performing an order would be similar to summoning your Grand Chamberlain, Chief Diplomat, or other minion to carry out your instructions. Here, you will see:

Please understand that these values are not always exact – some values may be rounded to the nearest number. For instance, if you own 4 troops with an upkeep value of 1.1 gold each, for a total of 4.4 gold, the expenses will be reported as only 4 gold. To be on the safe side, you should consider leaving a surplus of two gold in your treasury.

Each Realm has Diplomatic Relations with every other Realm in the game, which is shown on the list of Realms at your Headquarters. Your main Diplomatic Relations with each realm will be one of the following:

• War: Your forces will attack each other when they are in the same location.
• Neutral: Your forces will ignore each other.
• Alliance: Your forces will work together in battle.

The orders you can issue to change your diplomatic relations are:

Each Realm also has diplomatic statuses with other Realms, which are:

• Acceptance: You can indicate whether you will accept gifts from another Realm or not. If you don’t want to accept any gifts from a Realm (like a province they want to give you), then you can give instructions to refuse any gifts from that Realm. To change acceptance, you can:

As mentioned before, at the top of the Diploware, you can see all of your planned Headquarters orders. This has:

• Capital Treasury: this is the amount of gold you own.
• Used: This is the total amount of gold you have spent. This includes garrison activities (like building troops), as well as other headquarters actions. You may use more than you have, but this will probably result in not having enough gold to do everything you planned on doing.
• Undo: You can select any planned order, and undo it.

At last, we come to the map. To get here, click on the Map at the top of the Diploware. You can see a giant game board, with provinces and seas marked by black borders, as well as the troops in each location. You can scroll up and down to see a greater area of the map. You can think of it as if your realm’s advisors have built a model replica of the known lands. Major locations and scouting reports of troops have been plotted here with miniatures as well, and all of this represents your view of the actual political situation of Kharne. It is up to you to write planned orders for your followers; to expand and protect your realm. Here, you will see the following:

A province is a large tract of land in the game. Some important notes about provinces are:

• Ownership: Each province is either owned by a Realm, or is independent. Each realm has a banner, and this banner is shown on the map. Provinces without a banner are independent. Your forces can invade provinces to conquer them. When owned and annexed to your realm, they will provide revenue.
• Annexation: To get the full revenue from a province, you must annex it (which costs gold). Being annexed to a realm means that the realm has established a government and dominion over that province, so revenue can be extracted from it. A province annexed to the owner will be adorned with a symbol over the ownership banner (otherwise, the banner is bare). Generally, "good" realms will have a green eagle symbol, while "evil" realms have skulls. In either case, the symbol signifies that the owner of the realm has established a bureaucracy there that will be able to extract revenue from the inhabitants.

There are numerous Fiefdoms in the game. A Fiefdom is an extensive region, with language and cultural ties that unite the area. Each Fiefdom has an available title that can be claimed by players (only Royalty have the standing to do this of course). Gaining the title to these lands will yield valuable revenues, as greater taxes can be wrung from the nobility and merchants of the domain. For example, several provinces make up the Earldom of Wessex, and a player owning all these provinces will gain the title Earl of Wessex, and a valuable additional income in gold each season (delivered to the treasury of your realm). Also, the Kingdom of England is a Fiefdom, made up of several smaller Fiefdoms (including the Earldom of Wessex), which yields far greater revenue each season. Some important notes about Fiefdoms are:

• Ownership: Only 1 realm can own each Fiefdom. To claim ownership, you must own certain provinces and/or other Fiefdoms. These must be owned by you, your Henchmen, or sub-Henchmen (a sub-Henchman is your Henchman’s Henchman). You must own all required locations, or you will receive no revenue. On your headquarters, click on the Fiefdoms button to see all such regions, and information about each. If you previously met the ownership requirements, but do not any longer, then you will not gain the gold revenue, but you will continue to gain the hero bonus.

• Revenue: Each Fiefdom yields gold revenue to the owner. To gain revenue from a Fiefdom, you must meet the ownership requirements.

• Bonus Heroes: Each Fiefdom may increase your allotted limit of heroes. For example, a Fiefdom with a hero bonus of 2 would allow you to hire 2 additional heroes. A Royal player may have 3 heroes plus the Fiefdom bonus. This represents the increased prestige you will gain from controlling the Fiefdom, thus increasing your ability to gather skilled individuals under your banner. The last owner of a Fiefdom will gain the hero bonus, even if that realm does not meet the ownership requirements any more. However, if another realm gains ownership of the Fiefdom, any previous owner will lose the hero bonus.
• Last Owner: The realm that owned the Fiefdom last will still retain the title for the Fiefdom. The last owner will gain the bonus heroes, but will not gain revenue. For example, a realm gains ownership of a Fiefdom, but then loses several territories to invaders. This realm is the last owner, and will retain the title and hero bonus for the Fiefdom, but will not gain the extra revenue until the ownership requirements are met.

Each province and sea may have troops stationed there. Ships can be anchored in a province, or can be sailing in a sea. Soldiers can be located in a province, or aboard ships in a sea. On the map, the troops (soldiers and ships) are shown in the following manner:

• Troop Miniature: Troops at a location will be shown by a painted miniature. The miniature will be for the most formidable troop there. A single miniature is shown for all foreign troops, even if they are not mutually alliedand a separate miniature is shown for troops you own.
• Troop Base: Each troop miniature has a base or shield. This indicates if you own the troops, or if they are owned by a foreign realm. Troops you own are shown with a blue base (or a blue shield). Foreign troops are shown with a red base (or a red shield).

• Quantity: To the bottom right of the miniature, you can see the number of troops at the location.

JB: To get more information, click on the Troop Miniature. A box will open, explaining what troops are there, and which country owns them. Independent troops hold many provinces at the start of the game, and it is typical strategy for many players to start the game by attacking neighbouring independent provinces.

On the bottom-right of the map, there is a button with a hammer and wrench. This changes the map display. You can do the following:

• Change Map View: You can change the map view to show troops or locations (the resources don’t do anything useful for this game). With the location view, you can see cities and defenses at each province. A city means that you can build troops there, and the province will always have a garrison. A fortification indicates that there are defenses there, which will increase the combat ability of defenders. For example, a fortification with a 3 means that there are Level 3 defenses at the province.
• Show or Hide Miniatures: On the Map Options, there are 3 checkboxes. Use these to show or hide miniatures. For example, if you uncheck Foreign Troops, then only your troops will be shown on the map. If you un-check all options, then you will see a blank map. These options are useful in case miniatures are covering something you wish to see.

To get more detailed information about a location, click on some part of it on the map. This brings up the Location Report. This shows you:

• Name: The name of the location is shown (in blue for seas, in black for provinces).
• Owner: This is the realm that owns the province, or if it is independent (owned by no realm). Of course, for seas, there is no owner, or any locations.
• Annexed To: This is the realm that the province is annexed to (or, if it is annexed to no realm, it is locally controlled).
• Province Damage: Provinces can be damaged by battles, pillaging, or changing ownership. Damage reduces revenue, but will recover over time.
• Tax Revenue: This is the gold revenue the province will yield if it is owned and annexed to your realm (the actual revenue will be reduced by damage). You can also get reduced revenue by pillaging it, in which case the annexation doesn’t matter.
• Special Passage Rights: This is only shown if you own a province, or if you have been granted special passage rights to a province. This just means you have gained permission to move through the province (of course, you don’t need this for your own provinces).
• City: Some provinces have a City. A City represents 1 or more large population centres in a province. Only some provinces have a City, which cannot be built or destroyed. A province with a City will always have a garrison, and troops can only be built in provinces with a City. Note: The population centres in the game are not always called "cities", but can be towns, caves, tunnels, hatcheries, etc. depending on who (or what!) lives there. We use "City" in the rules as a generic.
• Defences: Each province may have defences built. There are different levels of defences, which give combat bonuses to the defenders in battle. Defences can be damaged from battles, and if so, will give a reduced bonus to defenders. The type of fortifications built, and a description of damage is shown.
• Harbour: A harbour means that there is a port at a province. This is necessary for ships to be docked at a province, and for ships to be built. These structures can be built or destroyed.
• Your Forces: There is a list of all units you control at the location. All of your units are shown, with the name, total combat strength, total hit points, and all troops.
• Foreign Forces: There is a list of all troops owned by foreign realms, or independent troops. All such troops are shown, with the total combat strength and hit points.
• Movement Routes: At the bottom, the movement routes available for the location are shown, including bordering provinces, and seas with coastal connections.

When you open the Location Report for a province, orders may be available. The order buttons are on the right-hand side. These are all Headquarters’ Orders, and can be seen on the HQ Plans menu (these activities are not done by units). The orders available are:

• Permission: This is only for a province you own. This is to change the Special Permission for that province. You can indicate a number of realms that will be permitted to move through this single province, by adding or removing them from a list. Also, if you have been granted Special Permission by an independent province, you can remove this, which will allow you to invade it. Units owned by such a realm will have permission to move freely through the province. Changes take place before movement during game events.
• Study: This is to get more information about something in the location. You can study a type of fortification, a type of troop, or the fiefdom(s) to which the province belongs. Any troop at the location can be studied. Details about troops and fortifications are explained in Chapter 5.

Under the map, there is a list of units that you own. You can see the following for each unit:

• Unit Type: There are 3 types of units: Garrisons, Armies, and Fleets. A garrison is a land force tied to a particular location, and is shown with a G (like G5 would be Garrison#5). An army is a land force with the ability to march to other locations, or be loaded aboard fleets - these are shown with an A (like A11 would by Army#11). A fleet is a group of ships, which can sail to other locations, dock at harbours, and transport armies - these are shown with an F (like F3 would be Fleet#3).
• Name: this shows the name of the unit. It’s a good idea to name units in a way that makes it easy to organize them.
• Location: this is the location that they are currently at (you can give movement orders of course).
• Troops/Heroes: There are 2 numbers shown here. The first is the number of troops in the unit (including ships and soldiers). The second is the number of heroes in the unit.
• Moves: This shows the move points of the unit. The first number is the available move points (how many move points remain). The second number is the move points that the unit had before any move activities. Issuing movement orders will decrease the available move points, and transferring troops may change the starting move points. Of course, garrisons can’t move and so they have no move points. If you want these soldiers to move, form an army in the province, and transfer the troops from the garrison to the army.
• Burden: This is only for fleets, and shows the weight and storage statistics for the unit. The first number is the total weight loaded onto the unit. The second number is the total storage of the unit. If there is more weight than storage for fleets, something may be thrown overboard during turn events!

• Scout ability: Each troop has a chance of scouting adjacent locations (including seas). Only locations with a movement route will be scouted. Each troop has a normal scout ability, which is for scouting connected locations. There is also a bonus scouting ability, which is to scout provinces (not seas) connected to those. For example, a soldier has a normal scout chance of 30, and a bonus scout chance of 20. When scouting, this soldier has a 30% chance of scouting each connected location (both provinces and seas). If Province A was successfully scouted (30% chance of success), then all provinces connected to Province A would have a 20% chance of being scouted by this soldier (of course, bonus scouting by soldiers is not for seas).
• Concealment ability: Some types of troops have the ability to conceal themselves. This represents disguising themselves, and moving stealthily through the countryside to avoid detection. Foreign realms will not be able to see these troops (even if they are given Info sharing). Also, concealed armies won’t fight in battles. However, concealed units can be revealed if foreign units successfully search and find them. When that happens, a unit will no longer be concealed, so it can be brought to battle (your forces will only reveal neutral or enemy units, not friendly or allied units). Heroes that are scouts or thieves will scout 2 provinces away, have a search ability of 75%, and concealment ability.

• Searching Ability: Some types of troops have the ability to search for concealed foreign troops. Each troop has a chance of finding an uncovering foreign troops. This will not uncover allied troops, only neutrals and enemies.

• Important Note: If the unit list looks odd on your computer (it’s not in alignment, or you can’t scroll down), then you need to make a small change to your computer settings. To do this, go to the Start-up Menu, click on Help Guide, and read the trouble-shooting guide for how to fix the Unit List problem. If you are still in the dark, contact the GM. For most people, the unit list will look fine, and if so, you don’t need to do anything.

From the map menu, you can issue a number of orders to your units. First, select a unit (on the unit list) by left-clicking your mouse on the unit. The available orders for that unit will then be shown to the right of the unit list. When you select a unit, you can see its location on the map, as the troop base will be outlined in white. Also, any movement orders for that unit are shown with blue and red arrows (a blue arrow means you are moving through a location, a red arrow means the location is your last destination). You can also double-click on the selected unit, and the map will centre on it. Once you have selected a unit, you can perform different orders. The major unit orders available are listed on the right-hand side of the Unit List. You select an order, and then you receive a menu where you determine the specifics of the order. Each type of unit has different orders available. The orders are:

• Sail: (For Fleets) This is to move to a different location. You can sail to a sea or province, and can sail to more than 1 location by issuing multiple sail orders.
• Load Army: (For Fleets) This is to load an army onto a fleet. This can be an army you own, or owned by a foreign Realm.

• Unload Army: (For Fleets) This is to unload an army from a fleet onto a province. A fleet in a sea can only unload to a province on a connected land, and a fleet in a land can only unload onto the location of the fleet.

• Board Foreign Fleet: (For Armies) This is used by an army to prepare to be loaded onto a foreign fleet (this is only needed if you want a foreign fleet to load the army - this is not necessary if you will be loading your own army).
• Pillage Province: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to seize revenue and cause havoc and devastation in a province. You can do this in a province you own, or a foreign province, but this yields less revenue than normal.
• Build Harbour: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to construct a harbour in a province.

• Raze Harbour: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to destroy a harbour in a province. You may be able to salvage gold from doing this.
• Build Defenses: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to build a new fortification in a province.
• Upgrade Defenses: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to upgrade the fortification in a province to a higher level, for a cost in gold.
• Raze Defenses: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to raze 1 or more levels of fortification in a province. You may be able to salvage gold from doing this.
• Form New Unit: (For All Units) This is to create a new army or fleet. To issue this order, select Create Unit, then select the type of unit to create.

• Recruit Soldiers: (For Garrisons) This is to recruit soldiers. There must be a City at the province to do this.
• Build Ships: (For Garrisons) This is to build ships. There must be both a City and a harbour at the province to do this.
• Hire Hero: (For Garrisons) This is to send your agents out to hire a hero in a city. They will then hire an individual of unknown skill. There is a cost of 25 gold to do this. Only a garrison with a city can perform this order. The total gold cost for this order and all other garrison orders will be shown on your Headquarters.

• Conceal Unit: (For Armies) This is only for a unit in which all soldiers and heroes have concealment ability (such as spies), and is not currently concealed. When a unit is concealed, it can move through foreign lands without being seen, although it won’t fight in battles. To issue this order, select Conceal.

• Reveal Unit: (For Armies) This is to reveal a unit that is concealed, so it will be visible to other realms. This is only for a unit that is currently concealed. To issue this order, select Reveal.
• Search: (For Armies and Garrisons) This is to search for foreign units that are concealed in a province, and reveal them. The search ability of the soldiers in the unit determines your chance of success.

As you know, you can give your units various orders. The orders given to a unit are saved onto the Unit Plan for that unit. Each unit has a separate Unit Plan. To see the unit plan, right click on any unit on the unit list, or select a unit and press the View Orders button. The Unit Plan shows various information about the unit. In the middle part, you can see:

At the top left of the Unit Plan, you can select to show the troops or heroes in the unit. If heroes are selected, then any heroes in the unit will be shown, and you can perform orders for them, which are:

At the top left of the Unit Plan, you can see the troops in the unit. At the top, you can select to show heroes or troops. If troops are selected, then you can perform orders for them, which are:

• Reassign Troops: This is to change the ranks that troops are placed in, which will affect when troops are taken as casualties during a battle. To issue this order, click on the troops in the unit. Then, select a type of troop and select Reassign Troops.

• Disband Troops: This is to decommission troops from your Realm, so you don't need to pay upkeep for them. To issue this order, click on the troops in the unit. Then, select a type of troop and select Disband. You won’t gain any gold from disbanding troops.
• Salvage Troops: This is the same as disbanding, except you may gain gold from the troops that are disbanded (this depends on the type of troop). The troops will be decommissioned. To issue this order, click on the troops in the unit. Then, select a type of troop and select Salvage Troops. You may gain gold from the disbanded troops (this happens during First Events).

• Study: This is to get more information about a type of troop. Troops are explained in more detail in Chapter 5.

On the left side of the Unit Plan, there are different admin orders for units. Each type of unit (Army, Fleet, Garrison) has different orders available, and the units that can perform each order are listed. All of these orders are done from the Unit Plan. None of these orders cost Move-points to perform. In addition, for garrisons, you can examine fortifications in the province. The orders that can be performed here are:

• Change Marines Option: (For Armies) This determines whether an army will fight as marines aboard ships or will remain below decks during sea battles. Each army indicates whether or not soldiers in the unit will participate in any naval engagements. If no, then the soldiers in the army will not cause damage or suffer casualties in naval battles. If yes, the soldiers in the army will cause damage and suffer casualties in a naval battle (the amount of soldiers that can participate depends on the Marine Capacity of the fleet though). To issue this order, click on the Sea Battles button, which will switch to the other option.

There are some map options available that make viewing the map easier:

• Map Options: There is a hammer and wrench next to the Zoom feature. Clicking on this gives you a number of options.
• Zoom: Click on the small magnifying glass on the bottom right of the map. Clicking on this will switch between normal map view, and zoom-out (where you can see more of the map).
• Change size of unit list: You can change the height of the unit list. To do this, place your mouse arrow in between the map and the unit list. Drag the unit list down to decrease the size of the unit list, to show more of the map. Drag the unit list up to increase the size of the unit list, so you can see more of your units.

Determine Units Shown on the Unit List: You can change the unit list so that only some types of units are shown. Click on Map Options, and you can see 3 buttons: Armies, Fleets, and Garrisons. Clicking these buttons will change the units shown on the unit list. For example, click on Armies, making the button unlicked. Now, go to the map, and Armies are not shown on the unit list. Go back and select armies again, and they will now be shown on the unit list.

Everyone prepares their orders separately, and then sends them to the GM to be processed. Everyone’s orders will be carried out at the same time. If you don't send in orders, then your Realm won’t do anything except pay upkeep and collect revenues (your forces will still defend your lands). But, other Realms will still carry out their orders. All the game events happen in a certain order, which is shown here. Pay special attention to the order in which events are listed. This is the exact order that they occur when turns are processed. Also, please see the Details section - these concepts are important for understanding this chapter.

Everyone’s turn is processed together at the same time. There are "First Events", then "Movement Events", and then finally "Last Events". The First Events are things like declaring war, etc., which all happen before the Movement Events. The Last Events are things like gaining revenue, etc., that all happen after Movement Events. Pay close attention to the order of events in the Turn Events section. This is how you will know when each of your orders will happen when turns are processed. For example, changing Acceptance happens in First Events, so this will happen before any movement. Also, ownership change happens during Movement Events, so this is only after all First Events are done (Ownership change happens in phases, so the ownership of a province can change more than one time during the turn). Gold revenues happen in Last Events, so this happens only after all movement and battles (in the Phases of Movement Events) are complete.

Movement Events happen in a number of "Phases". A Phase is about 1 month of time (a Phase could also be called an "impulse" if you are more familiar with that term in wargaming). Each phase, various events will occur, and they repeat a number of times until no units have any Move-points. For example, on Phase 1, all units move 1 location, and then battles happen, province ownership changes, etc. Then, there is a Phase 2, and all units move 1 location, then battles happen, province ownership changes, etc. These Phases continue until no units have any Move-points left. When there are no more units that can move, then there is 1 more extra Phase, and then Movement Events are complete. When that happens, the Last Events happen. For transferring, units will transfer only if they are in the same location at the same phase. If units never arrive at the same place at the same phase, then no transfer will happen! Also, remember phases for coordinating unit movement. For example, you give Army#1 orders to invade enemy Province A, and you give Army#2 orders to move to friendly Province B, and then invade Province A. These armies won’t arrive at the same time! This is what will happen: Army#1 will invade during Phase 1, while meanwhile, Army#2 will move to Province A during Phase 1. Army#2 will invade during Phase 2 (although if Army#1 succeeds, you will own the province by the time Army#2 gets there). A better plan would be to give Army#1 orders to Wait and then invade, while Army#2 has orders to move and then invade. This way, on Phase#1, Army#1 will wait (remain in place) while Army#2 moves to Province A. Then, on Phase#2, both units will attack together.

Here is the list of all events that occur in each round, in order. Note that the movement events repeat until all possible ordered movements are completed. Each event is explained in the rest of the chapter, in order.

This is the first part of Turn Events. These steps are:

This happens first. This changes the diplomatic relations between Realms from Neutral to War. This is done by Declaring War. Only 1 Realm has to do this, and then war will be declared. However, you can’t declare war with a Realm that is your Ally. In this case, you can’t declare war this same turn. For an ally, you will need to cancel your alliance. It will take one turn to break the first relations, and then you can declare war the next turn. When war is declared, then all Passage Rights and Special Permission will be immediately cancelled between the two realms, and cannot be established while the two realms are enemies.

This step is to change the Acceptance between all Realms. You do this with the Change Acceptance action. This indicates whether you will accept gifts from another Realm (including provinces, transfers and gold sent). If you don’t want their gifts (for whatever reason), then change your Acceptance to No. This happens at this time. A realm could give you a province it is about to lose to try and embroil you in a conflict you want nothing to do with.

This step is to change Passage Rights between all realms. This is not the only way to give permission for a realm to move through your territories. You do this with the Grant Passage Rights or Revoke Passage Rights actions. You can grant or revoke Passage Rights to another realm (but not an enemy realm). If you grant Passage Rights to a realm, then they can move through all of your lands at will. This is potentially hazardous, for should they decide to attack you, they could send out small units through your lands. Next turn, they could declare war, causing all manner of havoc. For a trusted ally, this is useful, as he will be able to retreat into your lands, etc.

This is to change the Special Permission for any provinces you own. For each province, you can indicate which realms will be granted permission to move through it. You do this with the Grant Special Permission, Revoke Special Permission actions. This is to give a realm permission to move through a single province, which is safer than granting full Passage Rights.

This is for a Suzerain to compel a Henchman to grant him Special Permission for a province (a Suzerain already has Trading Privileges for towns owned by his Henchmen). You do this with the Request Special Permission action, but any gold you input will not be spent if the realm is your Henchman (there is no gold cost for the Suzerain). This only works if your Henchman owns the province that you indicated in your orders. This can ONLY be done 1 time per turn. At the end of Turn Events, your Special Permission will expire (you can do it again the next turn though). Only your first order of this type will succeed. Compelling more than 1 Henchman won’t work. This represents your authority to compel your Henchman to give you certain limited privileges in his domain, but you have limited authority to do this.

This step is to form all new armies. This can only be done by armies and garrisons. For all new armies being formed, they are created now. Each Realm can have only 99 armies. Armies formed can have troops and heroes transferred into them, and can be given orders the same turn they are created.

This step is to form new fleets. This can only be done by fleets and garrisons. For all new fleets being formed, they are created now. Each Realm can have only 99 fleets (these are completely separate from armies). Fleets formed can have troops and heroes transferred into them, and can be given orders the same turn they are created.

At this time, a number of administrative orders are performed, which are:

• Change Retreat Level: This is the Rank that when empty of troops, will cause the unit to retreat in battle (see Ranks & Retreat Level section for more information about Retreat Level).
• Change Defend Fortifications Option: Whether the unit will enter into fortifications and defend them in battles or not.
• Change Marines Option: Whether or not an army will fight as boarders on a fleet or remain below decks during sea battles.
• Change Unit Leader: This changes the hero that is the leader of the unit.

This is to change whether armies are concealed or revealed. Concealed units cannot be seen by foreign realms, and cannot fight in battles. A unit can only become concealed if all heroes and troops have Concealment ability. Army concealment changes also happen during Movement Events. The following happen at this time:

• Conceal Unit: Concealing a unit is to become hidden so that foreign realms will not be able to see the unit or bring it to battle. A unit cannot conceal itself if the weight is more than 10 times the storage (so a unit can have some excess weight, but not too much to be concealed).
• Reveal Unit: This reveals a previously concealed unit, so it can be seen by all other units (this will allow transfers to happen between the unit and other units also).

This step is to transfer troops and heroes between units. These are transfers that will happen because the recipient and giving unit are in the same location. These transfers will always succeed, and will happen at this time (prior to any movement happening). Transfers also happen during Movement Events.

This step is to get rid of troops that you do not want. If you don’t want to pay upkeep for heroes or troops, then you can disband or salvage them. Disbanding soldiers or scuttling ships will remove the troop, so you won’t have to pay upkeep that same turn. Salvaging is the same thing, except that you may gain gold from doing this. Salvaging represents taking equipment, horses, etc. from the disbanded troops. To gain salvaged gold from ships, the unit must be in a province (not a sea).

Okay, now that all of the first events are complete, the main part of the turn activities happen. These are called Movement Events. These steps are performed one at a time. After the last step, if there are any more armies or fleets that have orders to perform, then all of the steps in Movement Events will repeat in the same manner. Each time Movement Events happen, this is called a Phase (this is explained better previously in this chapter). This continues in a number of Phases (each phase, movement events happen). After all units have performed all their actions, there will be 1 extra phase, and then Movement Events are complete. For example, an army has orders to March to province A, then March to province B. In the first Phase, all of the steps in Movement Events happen, and occur, and so during Phase 1, the army will march to province A. On Phase 2, the army will move to province B. If more units have actions to perform, then there will be additional Phases. There may be a Phase 3, Phase 4, etc. The steps of Movement Events are:

This step is for each army to prepare the Board Fleet action. You don’t do this if your own fleet will load your army, this is only for a foreign fleet that will do so. A foreign fleet can only load your army if your army performs this action! This will not cause an army to be loaded at this time, but will prepare the army to be loaded later. This action is only needed for boarding a fleet owned by a different realm. This action indicates which realm will be allowed to load the army. Without this action, your army will refuse to board any foreign fleet. When an army will board a fleet, it cannot move that turn (loading/unloading armies is explained better in the Details section).

Your army can be a marine on your ally’s fleet. So long as you have checked the box on your army’s description box so that it says "Board Enemy Ships in Sea Battles" then your soldiers will act on your ally’s ships as marines just as they would work on your own ships.

If your ally chooses to break faith with you, and your soldiers are on his ships, then there will be a battle between your soldiers (and any of your accompanying ships) and his ships (and any of his accompanying soldiers). Generally you would expect the ships to win such an encounter. But if the soldiers win, they could capture some of the ships, and thereby save themselves from drowning.

If you wish to load an army onto your own fleet, this is an action undertaken by your fleet, not your army. You order your fleet to load an army. You don’t need to order the army at all – unless you want your army to board a foreign fleet.

This step is for all armies to be loaded aboard fleets (remember, harbours are not needed for loading/unloading armies). In order for an army to be loaded onto a fleet, these conditions must be met:

• If the fleet is in a province, the army must be in that same province.
• If the fleet is in a sea, the army must be in a province connected to that sea, or loaded aboard a different fleet in that same sea. So, you can also load an army if your fleet is in a sea, and an army is in a province connected to that sea.
• For a foreign army, the army must have performed the Board Foreign Fleet action (this is not relevant if you own both the fleet and army involved).
• In order for an army to be loaded, the fleet must have sufficient storage to contain the army. Otherwise, the army cannot be loaded. For example, if a fleet has 10 storage available, but an army has a Weight of 11, the army cannot be loaded (in this case, the army would have to have a Weight of 10 or less) Foot units weigh one, horse units weigh two.
• After a fleet has unloaded troops, it could hold position, then load more troops and unload them on another adjacent province.

When an army is loaded, that army will not be able to move any further during the turn (it will have 0 Move-points). The fleet can still move.

Note: A Royal Carrack has Marine Capacity for 4, and Storage for 4. This does not mean you could put two infantrymen on as marines and another two as passengers. You will only get two infantry units on the Royal Carrack, and you can set them to marine duties. A Timber Raft can carry the same amount, but cannot use the troops as marines in battle, since its Marine Capacity is 0.

This step is for each fleet to sail 1 location. A fleet can sail between seas and provinces (for a province, this is to sail to the coast and dock ships there). A fleet can only sail to 1 location per phase - a fleet can sail to additional locations in other Phases. (It is important to understand Movement, Move-points and Permission, which are explained in the Details section). For sailing, there are the following conditions:

• A fleet cannot sail from a province to another province; a fleet can only sail out of a province to a connected sea.
• A fleet can only sail to a province if there is a both a City and a Harbour there, and also the fleet has Permission.
• A fleet can also Wait, which is to remain in place for 1 Phase. The first time a fleet waits; there is no Move-point cost. All other times after that, there is a cost of 1 Move-point to do this.

A Homeless Fleet is any fleet located in a province, but there is nowhere for the fleet to anchor. This will happen if there is no harbour, or if the province is owned (or conquered) by an enemy. A harbour can be destroyed, and in each case, all fleets there will be Homeless Fleets. Such fleets will flee to any connected sea (a random sea will be chosen). If a fleet flees in this way, it will do so in the next phase (not the current one) and will use up all Move-points, and will not be able to follow any sail orders. If for some reason there is no connected sea, then all ships in the fleet will be scuttled, and a new army will be created to contain all heroes that were in the fleet.

This step is for Sea-battles to be fought. This is a battle between enemy fleets and marines that are in a sea. Fleets are never engaged in battles on land. Sea battles occur according to the Sea-battle System (this is explained in Chapter 6). Enemy ships will be involved in the combat, as well as marines, which are soldiers in armies loaded aboard the fleets fighting. Whether troops fight as marines depends on the Marines Option of an army, and also the available Marine Capacity of a fleet (this is explained in Chapter 5). Enemy fleets in the same sea will always engage each other in battle. If 2 enemy forces are crossing the same sea border, Sea battles happen with normal cross-border battles.  So if you are moving from A to B, and he is moving from B to A, a normal cross-border battle will happen.  If a fleet retreats from a battle, this will use up all of the fleet’s Move-points and the fleet won’t perform any other actions that turn (including transfers, etc.) The victors of a sea-battle may capture ships lost by enemy fleets. All Sea Battles will be resolved at this time, one by one, until there are no more enemy fleets in the same location. Note that a fleet could retreat from 1 battle, only to find itself in another sea, and have to fight another battle. If a fleet is destroyed in battle, any heroes in the fleet will be transferred to other available fleets (if none are available, the heroes will be lost at sea).

Sea battles have no move cost for units involved (fleets or armies).

This step is to check all fleets to make sure there is enough Storage available to contain the total weight of all armies loaded aboard. All fleets are checked in this way. A fleet may have insufficient storage if ships are transferred out, discarded, or lost in battle. If a fleet has more weight loaded aboard than storage, then troops will have to abandon ship. If possible, these will be transferred to other fleets you own. If this is not possible, then troops will have to be abandoned at sea. Troops that are heavier and have less value have a tendency to be thrown overboard first, but you will have no control over what you will lose. So, try to make sure you have enough storage to carry your valuable cargos!

This step is for all fleets to perform the Unload Army action. Each fleet can have numerous armies loaded onto it. These armies can be unloaded onto a province (remember, harbours are not needed for loading or unloading armies). When an army is unloaded, it will be placed onto the target province. If this action is performed successfully, then the fleet’s and army’s Move-points will be all used up, and neither unit will be able to move any further for the turn. The conditions for unloading armies are:

• The fleet must be either at the target province, or the fleet must be in a sea connected to the target province.

• If the target province is not an enemy province, then it you must have Permission. Armies can only be unloaded at enemy provinces or provinces that you have Permission for. The only exception is for a concealed unit, which can unload no matter what the conditions of the province are (and the unit will not be involved in any battle).
• If the unload location is an enemy province, this is an Amphibious Invasion. In this case, whether this action will succeed or not depends on a probability. The chance that the invasion will succeed is the same as the total combat of all soldiers and being unloaded onto the province (for all units attacking the province). For example, if the total combat of all armies being unloaded is 50, so there is a 50% chance of success (if the total combat is 100 or greater, then the invasion will always succeed). If an invasion fails, armies will remain aboard their fleets, and will not disembark. This probability is in effect even if there are no enemies in the target province – sometimes tides and foul weather make it too difficult to unload troops.

• Your fleet can unload more than 1 army, but each army can only be unloaded 1 time per turn. You don’t have to have Move-points to unload, but if you do unload, all Move-points will be used up for both the fleet and army involved.

There is a negative combat modifier for your troops if they unload on a province where there are enemy troops. The modifier will only take effect during the first combat – if you win the first battle, and more enemy troops arrive in a later phase of the same turn, there will be no negative modifier. If you bring in more troops next week, and your enemy attacks at the same time, your troops will not have a negative modifier either, as the province is now owned by you and it is therefore not an amphibious assault.

Note – if there is an empty enemy province you wish to invade, and your enemy marches troops there in the first movement phase, they will meet simultaneously. The enemy will still own the province, so your invasion force will get the negative modifier for an amphibious assault.

This step is for each army to march 1 province for the current Phase. This will only happen if the army meets all conditions for movement (Marching is explained better in Chapter 5). Each army will only march to 1 province at this time (an army can march to additional provinces in other Phases, but an army can only move 1 location per phase). After an army marches, then the Move-point cost is taken from the army’s Move-points. For marching to succeed, there are the following conditions:

• The army must already be in a province (it cannot march from a fleet to a province). If an army is loaded onto a fleet, then the March action will fail.
• Of course, armies can only march between connected provinces - not provinces that are not connected, or to seas. Barriers naturally will prevent movement.
• An army can march to an enemy or independent province, and invade it. If a province does not belong to an enemy, then you must have Permission. If you don’t have Permission, and the province is not enemy-owned or independent, then you will be refused entry. However, if you have been granted Special Permission by an independent territory, you must withdraw that first before you can invade it.
• The army must have enough Move-points to get to the province. One Move-point is not enough to get you into an enemy province. Nor is it enough to get troops into a province you have conquered in the same turn (in an earlier phase).

This is for all armies to change their Defend Fortification option, as they prepare for any battles. This option indicates if an army will enter and defend a fortification if there is a battle in the province. If an army does this, the army will gain a defensive bonus from any fortification. But, if there is a fortification, the army will not be able to retreat from the battle. If the unit is set to not defend fortifications, then it can retreat normally. If there is no fortification, then this option has no effect (the unit will be able to retreat then).

This is to change whether armies are concealed or revealed. This is the exact same step that is described in First Events. This happens now as well, so a unit that conceals itself now can avoid battle.

This step is to perform the Search action. Units with this order will scour the province they are in, searching for concealed foreign armies. Armies will only be uncovered if they are owned by neutral or enemy realms. This action has a chance of successfully uncovering a foreign army (only neutral or enemy units will be revealed). A unit that is uncovered will no longer be concealed, and can be seen in scouting reports and engaged in battles. For each soldier in a unit performing the Search action, there is a chance of successfully searching and finding each foreign army. For example, army#1 has 3 infantry in it. Infantry have a 10% chance of success when searching. Therefore, for each foreign army in the same location as army#1, there will be 3 searches. Each search has a 10% chance of success. If the search succeeds, then any concealed foreign army with relations of War or Neutral to Army#1 will now be revealed. As you can see, a unit could conceal itself in the previous step, but could now be revealed by a searcher, and brought to battle this phase.

Now, all Cross-border battles happen. This is a battle that happens when 2 or more enemy armies attempt to move into each other’s locations on the same border. This is related to armies marching, and only the units actually moving are involved (garrisons will never be involved in cross-border battles, and neither will fortifications). For example, Province A connects to Province B. Army#1 moves from A to B. An enemy army moves from B to A (this is all happening in the same Phase). These 2 enemy units are moving to each other’s location, so this will cause a cross-border battle to happen, at the border of Provinces A and B. If another army was moving from C to A, that army would not be involved in this battle (only units moving from A to B or from B to A will be involved). You can consider the border a completely separate province for the purposes of this battle, and any unit not on the border will not be involved. So, no fortifications will be involved, and neither will units located in the provinces, or units that were unloaded into the provinces. Cross-border battles are resolved similarly to normal province battles. However, if a unit retreats, it will go back to where it was before it attempted to move. So, in the above example, if Army#1 retreated, it would just move back to Province A. This may cause another battle to happen in the next step (province battles).

Cross-border battles do not affect the immediate movement of the winning army – that force will continue to move to their ordered destination, and may fight another battle when they get there. As for the loser, his army will not be able to successfully complete its ordered move.

This step is to check for all Land Battles to happen. A land battle is a bloody combat between enemy armies (and any garrison, if there is one) in the same province. In the previous steps, all armies have marched 1 location and fought any cross-border battles. Now, land battles will happen in all provinces where there are enemy units. Battles will be fought according to the method explained in Chapter 6. Some important notes about land battles are:

1. Fleets and ships are never involved in land battles.
2. Armies that are not at war will never fight each other. So, if your ally attacks a unit, but you are not at war with that unit, then you will simply watch, and won’t be involved.
3. Independent armies will always consider an intruder an enemy, and will always engage in battles against those who cross their borders. The exception is if you have Special Permission to move into an independent territory, in which case you will be ignored when your forces enter the province.
4. At the end of each round of battle, each army involved may retreat. If an army retreats, then it flees into another province. This will be the province that the army moved from, unless this province has enemy soldiers in it. In this case, the army will retreat to any available province that it can move to. If there are no available provinces to retreat to, then the unit will not retreat, and will instead remain in the battle. When a unit retreats, all Move-points will be used up.
5. Units in cross-border battles will still arrive at normal land battles. They will arrive at the same time as other units that were not in a cross-border battle. Units that retreat from a cross-border battle will return to the province from where they started movement. These units will be involved in any battle in the province they started from (unless they were destroyed in the cross-border battle).
6. You don’t have to destroy the fortifications of a city to conquer the province. You just need to kill off any troops defending it. If there aren’t any, then you conquer the city without damaging it – the city throws open its gates to you! But if there are defenders, it might be very beneficial for you to damage or destroy the defences first.
7. If two attackers in an independent province are hostile towards each other, the battle will be a 3-way battle; each side will attack all the others. His troops may attack you or the other invader. The one he attacks is random, same with everyone else's forces. For example, you have 10 troops, the other invader has 15, then for each unit owned by the independent, there is a 10/25 chance the independent will attack one of your troops, 15/25 chance of attacking the other invader. The same thing for which troops you will attack, etc.

Battle only uses move points if fought on enemy territory.  Therefore, there is no move cost for a cross-border battle, or a battle that occurs on friendly or neutral territory.

This step is for the ownership of provinces to change. If a province is invaded, and all friendly armies are destroyed or have retreated, then the invaders will now own the province. If a province is invaded by more than one Realm, then the Realm with the greatest number of troops/heroes in the province at this time must have a total combat of at least 10 (which means a lone siege machine cannot conquer a province). Troops with concealment ability have combat divided by 10 for this purpose.  This is because these are smaller units (a spy represents a few individuals, while an infantry troop represents a battalion of troops). If ownership changes, the following happens:

• If the province contains a Harbour, there is 25% chance that the harbour will be destroyed in the looting that follows.
• No realm will have Special Permission with that province.
• If a province changes ownership, then any garrison for that province will now be owned by the new province owner. In this case, any ships in the garrison have a chance of capture (the same chance as normal for the ship). Ships that are captured are gained by the new owner, and will be in the garrison gained by the new owner. Ships that are not captured will be scuttled and destroyed. No soldiers can change sides with a change of garrison – they will all have died or retreated in a previous phase.
• The Damage Level of the province will be increased +1, but this happens during Final events (to a maximum of 1 level increase per turn).

If two or more countries have troops in a province, and the province is to change hands, then it will belong to the country which has the largest total of troops in the province. Eg Denmark and Norway are allies; both move to Flanders, and conquer it. Denmark has eight heavy cavalry, Norway has nine men-at-arms. Norway will get ownership, simply because nine is more than eight. The quality of the troops is irrelevant in determining ownership – quantity rules!

If your province is conquered by another player, and that player doesn’t annex the province, you have only three turns to re-conquer it, before your annexation is automatically cancelled.

This step is to perform all Pillage orders for all armies and garrisons (fleets can’t Pillage). The ownership/annexation of a province does not matter for Pillaging. To Pillage is to seize gold from a province, which can cause devastation to that province (increasing the damage level). The conditions are:

• Each province can only yield revenue 1 time per turn. If a province has already been pillaged this turn (in a previous Phase), then nothing will happen, and no revenue will be gained.
• A unit can only Pillage if it unit has at least 1 Move-point. If a unit has 0 Move-points, it can’t Pillage.
• The unit must be at the location indicated for the action, or it won’t Pillage.
• The Total Combat of all armies pillaging should be checked. This must be at least 10, or an army cannot Pillage (in that case, the army doesn’t have enough strength to steal from the inhabitants).
• You can pillage provinces you own. For foreign provinces, if you have Passage Rights or Special Permission granted by the owner of the province, then you can’t Pillage it. ie you must be at war to pillage another player’s lands, and you can pillage your own lands any time you wish.

If all conditions are met, then the province will be pillaged. This results in:

• Revenue Gained: The revenue of the province will be gained and shared by the Pillaging units (this is explained better in Chapter 5). Pillaging a province will mean that no revenue is gained from taxing that turn.
• Pillaging uses up all Move-points for the unit for the rest of the turn (it takes all turn to scour the countryside for valuables).
• The Damage Level of the province will be increased +1, but this happens during Final Events (to a maximum of 1 level increase per turn).

This step is to check to see if the Movement Events should be repeated. If any unit has Move-points, or can perform valid actions, then Movement Events will repeat. In this case, there will be another Phase (so if the previous Phase was 3, then there will be a Phase 4). After all units have performed all their actions, there will then be 1 extra Phase, and then Movement Events are complete, and then Final Events will happen.

After all the Movement Events are complete, then there are the Final Events. These happen now.

This step is to check to see if the Damage of any province is increased. Damage will occur if:

• Pillage: If the pillage action was successfully performed in the province.
• Ownership Changed: If the ownership of the province changed during Movement Events.
• Province Battles: For each battle that happened in the province, there is a 10% chance that there will be damage (this is not for cross-border battles).

If any of the above events happened, then province damage will be increased +1, to a maximum of 3. The damage can only be increased +1 each turn (if multiple events happened, province damage is still only increased +1).

This step is to perform all Send Gold actions, where you send gold to another realm. There is a cost of 10% of the amount sent, which represent transportation expenses and merchant fees. The recipient garrison can be owned by a foreign realm, or the same realm. To send gold, the conditions are:

• The receiving realm must have Acceptance of Yes.

• Your realm must be able to draw a chain of connected locations from one of your garrisons to a foreign garrison. The connected locations can be provinces or seas. To use a sea, there must be ONLY 1 sea between provinces. There cannot be 2 seas (a province, then sea, then province is ok, but a sea, then sea would fail). A province can only be used if you have Permission for that province. Any available route will be used to send the funds. However, if there is no such link between one of your garrisons to the foreign garrison, then the gold cannot be sent.

This step is to pay the upkeep costs for your heroes, soldiers and ships. Heroes gain upkeep first. Gold used for upkeep will be lost. For troops that do not receive upkeep, you don’t necessarily lose half your troops, but each troop not receiving full upkeep has a 50% chance of being lost.  So, you could lose half, or less than half, based on the chance of each troop.

This is for all soldiers recruited and all ships built to be placed onto their garrisons. If there are not enough funds to build a type of troop, then the number to be built will be reduced to what you can afford. If the province you were building in is conquered by another nation, you will not be able to build there. If your province is attacked, but you successfully defend it, then you will be able to build troops there.

Remember that your HQ is not always precise in determining exactly how much surplus gold you have. If you have a surplus of two gold when you send your turn on, you can be confident that all of your purchases will succeed.

This step is for garrisons to hire heroes (only garrisons can do this). The conditions for this action are:

• A garrison can do this only 1 time per turn.
• There must be a City in the province with the garrison, and your realm must have the gold required to hire a hero.
• Your realm must not have the maximum heroes. Royalty players can have 3 heroes to begin with, while commoners may have none. The maximum can be increased depending on which fiefdoms and kingdoms you own. Click on a province and study a fiefdom to see the gold bonus and hero bonus for owning the whole fiefdom, or go to the HQ screen and study the fiefdoms there.

If the garrison meets all conditions, then a new hero will be hired. This individual will have ratings in different skills, some heroes have higher ratings than others (you may get a highly skilled individual, or you may get an amateur). Heroes will improve their skills from successful battles.

Remember that your HQ is not always precise in determining exactly how much surplus gold you have. If you have a surplus of two gold when you send your turn on, you can be confident that all of your purchases will succeed.

When a province changes ownership, it will remain annexed to the realm that it was previously annexed to. However, if the ownership of a province is different than the annexation, then the province will not yield revenue. In addition, if this continues for 3 turns, then the province will become annexed to independents. This represents the decline and wasting away of the officials and infrastructure previously organized there. So, if you lose an annexed province, try to recapture it in a few turns, because after 3 turns it will no longer be annexed to you (if you recaptured it after a long period, you would have to annex it again).

This step is for all structures to be built or repaired. These activities include building/upgrading/repairing fortifications, as well as building harbours. The conditions for construction are:

• The unit must have successfully performed the Construction Action during First Events. That uses up the Move-points for armies.

• There is a cost in materials for performing construction, a unit must have all of the gold available now (these can be gained by transfers or buying gold previously in turn events). These will now be used up by the construction action. This is usually 14 gold.
• 3 soldiers are required to do nothing but build the fortifications for their turn.

• For a garrison, the province must not have changed ownership.
• For an army, the army must not have retreated or moved from where it was during First Events (including being loaded or unloaded).

• You must have permission for the province (annexation and ownership doesn’t matter). But, if you build in someone else’s province, they will own whatever you build there.

• For building/upgrading fortifications, each province can have its Fortification Level increased only once per turn. Also, you can’t build more than the maximum fortification level (12).
• For building/upgrading fortifications, and constructing harbours, there must be a soldier in the unit (this is not necessary for repairing fortifications).
• Each fortification can be repaired only one level per turn.

For a unit that meets all conditions, the unit will now perform construction.

A province could have it’s fortification level go up twice in one turn, but only if it has damaged fortifications that are left in peace for the turn, and you decide to build another level of fortification at the same time. Eg Your Fort is level 2, but it has suffered a little damage and is currently on Level One. The damage will repair automatically because the province is not attacked that turn, and because you’ve ordered 3 soldiers to build there that turn, it will be on Level Three at the start of the next turn.

This step is for any gold left in your treasury to decay. At this time, 7% of the gold in your treasury will now decay, which represents pilfering, and frivolous expenses by your ruler as he lives the high life.

This step is to raze a structure in a province; a harbour or fortification level. Only armies and garrisons can do this. Gold can be salvaged from razing, which is indicated for each structure. The conditions for razing are:

• There is a requirement of workers required to raze each type of structure. A worker is a soldier. If there are not enough workers, then the razing will fail.

• For an army, the army must not have retreated or moved from where it was during First Events (including being loaded or unloaded).

• For a garrison, the province must not have changed ownership.

• You must own a province to raze structures there (annexation doesn’t matter).
• For razing fortifications, you can raze more than 1 level, but a maximum of four levels can be razed each turn. More than 1 unit can raze fortification levels, but no more than this amount can be destroyed in a single turn, due to the intense labour required.

If a unit meets all conditions, then the structure will be razed. Any materials gained will be placed into the storage of the unit (these won’t decay, because of course decay happened previously).

This step is to update the ownership of all Fiefdoms. Each Fiefdom can have only 1 realm as the owner. In order for a realm to own a Fiefdom, the realm must meet all requirements:

• Only Royalty type players can own Fiefdoms. This represents the prestige required to make a claim of such great magnitude. One must have royal blood to be hailed as the rightful ruler of a large desmense.

• Each Fiefdom requires a number of provinces to be owned, and/or a number of other Fiefdoms. All of these locations must be owned by you, a Henchman, or a sub-Henchman. If they are owned by a Suzerain, this does not help. A sub-Henchman is your Henchman’s Henchman. Sub-Henchmen can be connected in a long chain of sub-Henchmen and Suzerains. For example, realm A is the Suzerain of B, B is the Suzerain of C, C is the Suzerain of D, D is the Suzerain of E. All provinces\Fiefdoms owned by all of these realms can be used by A to claim ownership of a Fiefdom (for B, all realms except those owned by A can be used for ownership of a Fiefdom, etc.)

At this time, the ownership of all Fiefdoms are updated. A realm that has meets all requirements to a Fiefdom will now be the new owner, and will gain revenue this turn. A realm that no longer has claim to a Fiefdom will continue to be the owner as long as the realm owns at least 1 province in the fiefdom. However, if you do not own all provinces in the fiefdom, you won’t gain the revenue (you will get the hero bonus though).

This step is to produce the revenue from each Fiefdom. If you have title to a Fiefdom, then you can gain additional revenues, as the lesser nobility and merchant class yield additional taxes and tribute. To gain this revenue, you must meet all requirements to claim the Fiefdom (as described in the previous step). If you have a Suzerain, you will pay him 7% of the revenue from your Fiefdom income.

This step is for all provinces to yield revenue to your main treasury. Province income is explained better in Chapter 5. The conditions for producing revenue are:

• A province will only yield income directly to your treasury if you own it and it is annexed to you. Provinces that are not annexed do not yield any revenue (also, a province does not yield revenue the same turn it is annexed). If the province is owned by one player, and annexed to another, nobody will receive the revenue.
• A province will not yield revenue the same turn that it changes ownership (there is too much disorganization across the countryside of that province).
• A province yields revenue only one time each turn. A province will not deliver any revenue if it was pillaged that turn (this happens during Movement Events). This is because the revenue has already been seized by another force.

At this time, all provinces will deliver their revenues (which the inhabitants have worked hard all season long to produce).

This step is to transfer the ownership of provinces between Realms. On the Diploware, you can give another realm a province you own. In order for this to happen, the following conditions must be met:

• The recipient realm (the realm to receive the province) must have Acceptance of Yes with your realm.

• The recipient realm must have a soldier or ship in the province, or in a connected province or connected sea. This represents a token force that is needed to accept the gift and install some basic infrastructure in the province.
• You may not gift more than two provinces to others in a single turn.

When ownership is changed, this won’t change the annexation of the province, and will also not affect any fortifications or harbour in the province (which will become owned by the recipient realm). Any garrison owned by the old owner will have all troops transferred into new units. So, you can’t use this to give away troops to another realm.

This step is for the revenue to be gained from any Proclamation that you made. When you make a proclamation, this will increase your prestige, resulting in extra production by your followers. Accordingly, you will earn 7 gold, which is placed into your treasury. In order to gain the revenue, the proclamation must be suitable, as explained in Chapter 5. Your population does not want to hear vulgarities, which may invoke divine wrath in this superstitious age - and some superstitions are real, for the GM is reading...

This step is to repair the damage level of provinces. Damage represents destruction that occurs to crops, population centres, bridges, etc. that reduces the revenue you can gain from a province. Each province has damage from none (undamaged) to 3 (heavily devastated). The damage level is increased at the beginning of Final Events (this happens from pillaging, battles, etc.) Damage is only repaired 1 level per turn. For damage to be repaired:

• The Province must not have changed ownership during the turn.
• There must not have been a battle in the province this turn (cross-border battles have no effect).

• The Province must not have increased damage this turn (from pillaging, etc.)

For provinces that meet these conditions, damage will be repaired 1 level at this time (this happens automatically). This step happens after revenues are gained of course, so revenues will be based on the damage level before damage is repaired.

This step is to establish peace treaties between Realms. If 2 Realms are at war, they can attempt to establish a peace treaty. This will only succeed if both Realms offered peace to each other. If