Lasanar/Mentor Lessons/Kestrelle/Lesson 3

Lesson Three: Time and Travel

The way time and travel run in BattleMaster can be a bit confusing at first. This is how it works.

Go to the Travel page and click the name of the region where you want to travel. You can find your route by using the Routefinder and selecting your destination. The default route is the most direct, however if there are enemy regions along that route you may be wise to select “through allied regions”. You may select up to two consecutive destinations for travel. So if you know you will want to travel two or more regions away, it is best to preset travel as it saves time.

You can only move one region per turn. If you plan to move through two regions, and you have the hours to get through both, you will end up with one hour until you arrive at the second region. Other players will see you as “approaching from” wherever the first region was.

Every 12 hours (real time) you are allotted 8 hours of game time. Four hours of time can rollover to the next turn. It's a bit weird, but you get used to it.

Travel also uses hours left from the end of the turn. If you have arrived in the capital city, recruited troops, used up those extra hours training your men, and then you decide you want to move out, you aren't going to get anywhere until next turn.

If you are travelling, you can only scout ahead to the region you are travelling toward. If you want to scout other regions, you must stop travelling first. Click Turn Around to stop travelling if you want, but remember that doing this will usually cost you one hour, and then scouting will cost you additional hours every time you scout per region. So if you stop travelling, then scout 3 regions, that will be 4 hours you will have spent from your time pool.

Sometimes you will have travelled too far from one region into another to simply stop. If you are nearly all the way to your destination and you suddenly decide to turn around, then you will have to travel backward in your footsteps for a time before it will allow you to stop, and you will not actually stop until the next turn change.

NOTE: Occasionally in a war, your Routefinder will tell you to go through territory that has just become enemy land during that turn change. The Routefinder won't catch up to the new map until next turn change, therefore you have to keep that in mind. Remember that if you go through enemy territory during wartime and you're the only one on the field, your troops are likely to get slaughtered fast. So check first! Setting your route manually is the safer option in that case. If you absolutely must travel through enemy territory, go to Paperwork and set your troops on Evasive. This doesn't guarantee that you will avoid the enemy, but it increases your chances of survival.

Some other points to remember:

• You can be delayed by up to three hours. Conversely, you can sometimes gain up to three hours.
• More scouts increase your chances of finding shortcuts, but remember you must pay them.
• Vanguard units move faster, sentry units move slower.
• Dragging siege engines around can slow you down the most.
• Cavalry are the fastest unit and will generally have faster travel times than any other troop type.
• Two-turn travel moves are sometimes unavoidable. That's just life.
• You will only get as many detailed scout reports as the number of scouts you have.
• Any additional reports won't show as much information, such as the strength of enemy troops.
• If you find yourself with extra hours, you can always scout.