Lasanar/Mentor Lessons/Kestrelle/Lesson 4

Lesson Four: Line Settings and Stats

This lesson is going to be longer than the others, but that's because it deals with many of the settings and statistics that you'll be required to know for everyday use in order to properly handle your troops. First we'll have a look at Line Settings.

Usually these will be given to you by your General and/or Marshal, but you need to know what they do. I'll start with the basics.

Lines (where your unit deploys on the battlefield):

• Front (1st line)
• Middle (2nd line)
• Back (3rd line)
• Rearguard (4th line)

Formations (what form the unit takes when meeting the enemy):

• Line
• Box
• Wedge
• Skirmish

The Line formation you will see most often used with infantry and archers. Your men will deploy in a wide line, usually 2-3 ranks deep depending on their number. This is the default setting. Used when you want a general defense, or as a tactic when you want to reduce the effect of archers (so you might use it against an enemy force with lots of archers).

Box is a tighter formation with more ranks. Box formations can take a cavalry charge with less casualties and disorder, and will generally withstand more casualties before panic strikes. They are, however, slightly less effective in offense in return. It is also probably the best defense against cavalry, since cavalry can break through single lines and flank you, but as box, they will hit a wall of massed men and have to hack their way through. However, since your men are so much closer together, it will be easier for enemy archers to hit them, so it is not the best to do if your enemy is archer-heavy.

A Wedge formation will allow the unit to break into enemy ranks easier, doing more damage than other formations do. Think of an arrow slicing through a target, and that's the general intended effect of the wedge formation. However, the unit is also easier to break up and will likely suffer more casualties itself. Since cavalry are largely offensive-orientated, you will most commonly see cavalry set to wedge. Wedge excels at offensive close combat. However, the wedge formation tends to leave your men more open to attack. Since it is designed for offense, your men are going to be in more of an offensive mindset. They might not take as much care when defending themselves as another formation, which means that in some situations having a wedge formation may well be equivalent to a suicide attack to take out as many as you can in a blaze of glory.

Skirmish formation means deploying your men widely, in a loose formation with considerable distance between them. This makes them less prone to archer fire and other ranged attacks. However, a skirmish formation is not well suited for close combat, and a skirmish unit engaged in melee will take horrible casualties. You will rarely see skirmish settings used for a battle, unless it is against an extremely archer-heavy force, where avoiding enemy archers is the key.

Designations:

• Regular Army
• Vanguard
• Mercenary
• Sentry
• Police Force

Regular army is the default, meaning your standard conscript or soldier.

Vanguard means that your men will seek out equipment that is lighter to wear. They will drop any useless items that they would otherwise need, and carry only the essentials. Vanguard costs 20% more than regular army in weekly pay, but allows you to move faster. Combat effectiveness is reduced. This designation would be good for looting parties sent into enemy realms. However, it isn't so good for regular battle, as your men are less than fully armed, therefore they might suffer more casualties.

Mercenary allows you to fight far away from the borders of your realm for longer periods. For this, you must pay them 50% more than regular army. You might also have to pay extra to keep their morale up, so be sure you have a lot of gold on hand just in case.

Sentry is a very defensive role. Their CS and effectiveness in your realm’s regions will increase. However, you have to pay 20% more than regular army, and they move slower than regular army as well. You also suffer high morale loss when not in your own realm, so don't take sentries into enemy territory.

Police Force allows you to perform police actions in the region you are in (patrol the streets, make raids, arrest suspicious locals, etc). However, they lose some CS and lose a lot of morale if you force them into a combat situation.

NOTE: You can only change your unit designation on the day that they are paid, and you can only do it once per day. Make sure if you are changing them it is for a good reason.

Reaction Settings

These will determine how you fight troops from other realms and how yours react in combat.

• Murderous
• Aggressive
• Normal
• Defensive
• Evasive

Murderous is a somewhat dangerous setting. It means that your men will attack any unit not of your realm, enemy or ally. This is what you set if you want to attack an ally, although the diplomatic fallout from that would likely lead to war anyway. So do NOT set your troops to Murderous unless specifically told to by your General or Marshal (this happens very rarely!).

Aggressive settings will cause you to fight any troops that are enemy or neutral. During combat, it will also cause your men to advance one line each round, with the exception of cavalry which jump two lines at a time.

Normal settings will have you fight with any troops that you are currently at war with. Your men will advance one line in combat as well.

On Defensive, your men will not advance in combat unless they have to move forward to meet the enemy. They will also advance to support an allied unit. Usually used behind fortifications or when you are dug in. Always use Defensive when ordered by the General. One rogue troopleader with incorrect settings can ruin an entire battle when the army is fighting defensively.

Evasive means you are attempting to avoid conflict. Most effective if you have a very small unit and are forced to travel through enemy territory. However, it doesn't always work and you might be attacked anyway. A safer bet is to try and avoid enemy territory entirely, even if it means setting your travel manually.

On to Statistics. You will need to understand what these mean and how they affect you.

At the bottom of the screen, click your Character or Unit name.

Your Personal Info

Physical Age: Mostly for roleplaying purposes. However, older characters (over 35) get less hours each turn, so there is some game effect.

Character Class: This shows you as a Soldier, Bureaucrat, Hero, etc.

Honour: How noble you are. As you win battles, do well in tournaments, etc, you'll gain honour. If you get banned, do remedial work, etc, you lose honour. As you gain honour you get privileges.

Prestige: How well-known you are. Difficult to gain and should be watched carefully. Experience on the battlefield definitely helps, but it's not the only thing that gains you prestige. You can also lose prestige just like you can lose honour.

Gold: Cash on hand, available for use.

Bonds: Gold in the bank. You can't spend bonds until they are cashed. You can also transfer bonds to other players or your family, and your family can transfer bonds to you when you're new. You can only work with bonds if you are in a city bank first.

Status: This is usually "OK", but could also be “traveling”, “in prison”, “tournament”, or “wounded”.

Time Pool: How much time you can spend before the next turn change. (See Lesson Three.)

Unseen Personal Stats

These don't show up in a nice handy format, but they definitely affect your character.

Swordfighting: As you fight battles with Infantry, you upgrade your swordfighting skill. This is good for tournaments, or in case you get attacked by an infiltrator. You can upgrade your skills at an Academy.

Jousting: As you fight battles with Cavalry, you improve your Jousting skill. This is good for tournament. If you want to win a tournament, you have a better chance with Joust, as most people train swordfighting. Train at an Academy.

Leadership: This is a factor of how well you command your unit, and can help you keep them on the battlefield longer. Train at an Academy.

Unit Stats

Type: Your unit type. Archer, Infantry, etc.

Strength: Your number of troops. NOTE: Large units slow down travel. Go for less troops at higher quality.

Training: How well-trained your unit is for combat. You can increase this by training them in a city. Go to Orders --> Training. This costs gold. NOTE: Don't confuse troop training with training your own personal skills at the Academy.

Weapons/Armour: An average of the equipment quality. Get better troops and the quality goes up. The quality affects how fast your equipment gets damaged. It's worth paying for higher quality even if it means less troops.

Equipment Damage: Broken swords, bows, etc. can cause wounded troops. If this gets above 60% and you're on the battlefield, tell your General. To fix it in the city, click Orders --> Repair Equipment to fix it. Above 80% and you will start to see wounding.

NOTE: It's a good idea to do Repairs everytime you're in a city to spread out the cost.

Morale: How happy your troops are. Paying your troops each week will keep them around 90% morale. If it gets very low, go to a city and do Orders -> Entertainment to cheer them up. If it gets below 25%, you risk your troops leaving you, which costs you Honour and/or Prestige. You'll start to see messages about your men grumbling before then.

Cohesion: How well your men get along. Increasing cohesion increases your CS. You do this through training and battles. Sometimes entertainment helps, but don't entertain just to get cohesion – it's too expensive and doesn't always work.

Total Combat Strength (CS): If you look at nothing else on this page, you need to know this. This is the biggest factor of how strong your unit is. Generally higher CS is the prime factor in winning battles.

Designation: Army is the standard. If you are FAR away from home, setting to Mercenary will let them keep their morale high. Police is for local work. Your General will tell you when to set your unit to something other than Army.

Last Paid: The last time you paid your troops. Every five days is a good average.