BattleMaster Basics

This is what you need to know for your first turn playing BattleMaster. This is a quick guide for those who want to start playing asap.

If you have more time and enjoy reading roleplay, we recommend the introduction which is less technical and contains useful information.

If you prefer video, take a look at these video tutorials: Part 1 and Part 2

To better use this guide, open it and the game in separate browser windows so that you can easily switch back and forth.

Creating a character

• Create an Account
• Create a Character
• Select an island

• The East island is a standard island and makes for a safe choice. There is much political intrigue, war, and you will witness realms regularly dying and being born.
• Beluaterra is more fantasy themed island where there is much more fighting against undead and monsters and more use of magic. The irregular daimon invasions are its grand feature and when they come no one knows if humanity will survive.
• Dwilight has a serious medieval atmosphere where more roleplaying is expected. This island has much land yet to be tamed by men, waiting to be explored and civilized.
• The South island is known as the war island. It an island where a 1v1v1 war takes place until a victor emerges and conquers all three capitals. There is less emphasis on realm culture, no new realms can be created, and there are little to no fantasy elements.
• Review the Island Descriptions page for a more in depth description of the islands and select an island with a style that appeals the most to you.
• Note that the island you choose for your first character will be known as your family's home and this cannot be readily changed.

• Select a realm

Choosing a realm is an important decision with several factors to be considered.

• Government type, realm summary, and opportunity should be looked at. These will give you an idea of how the realm's culture will be, such as if there will be elections and what the atmosphere will be more like. It will also help you gauge how competitive the realm is for advancing into higher positions in the realm.
• Number of nobles, number of regions and income is useful too and gives you an idea of how active, large, and rich a realm is. Looking for realms with high activity will help you encounter people willing to help you. A realm with more nobles and higher activity will also usually require more time to read messages sent each day.
• Here is a list of all realms in Battlemaster. It is worth reading about the different realms on the island you are considering to get an idea of a realm's history and culture. This will help you find a realm that is a better fit for you and your character. Keep in mind that you can always change realms and that you will have very different experiences in different realms.

• Your starting unit

If you wish to fight with a sword, choose Infantry. If you wish to fight with a bow, choose Archers. It is easy to change what type of unit you command as you play so there is little pressure in choosing this.

• Pick an estate

For greater roleplay, you can start without an estate and speak to the lords of your realm when you arrive to offer your sword to. Otherwise, it is recommended to pick an estate right away. Typically the estate with the highest income will be best. However choosing an estate in a city can also be useful.

Your First Turn

BattleMaster is a social game. Players in the realm will receive a message letting them know that you've joined their realm and that you're new, but you are still expected to introduce yourself by sending an Introductory Message.

Note that to make things easier, several areas are disabled for your first three days of play. This includes many actions, like class change, emigration, voting, and visiting regions outside the realm. If you join a realm and need to join a battle outside of your borders, you will need to find a more senior player to escort you. The travel restrictions should automatically be lifted after 7 days.

Introductory Message

Let's walkthrough sending an Introductory Message. Click 'Messages' in the sidebar. Then look towards the middle of the page for a section with your realm's name. At the bottom of this section, click 'all' in the line that says 'to - all / some nobles in your realm'. This will bring up the 'Writing Message' page.

Next, choose the type of in-character message to send. Click the 'Message Type' combo box, and select the appropriate message type. If you are sending a story of what your character says and does, select 'Roleplay'. If you are sending a letter written by your character, select 'Letter'. Now you are ready to type your message. Here are some examples, for a character named 'Armand', joining a realm called 'Keplerstan'.

Sample Introductory Messages

---

Type: Letter

Hello, everyone! My name is Armand, and I've come to join your great realm. I am new, and not sure what to do. Where should I go?

---

Type: Letter

Greetings, fellow troop leaders!

I am Armand Broadsword, and I have decided to become a soldier and make my fortunes.

I will serve this realm to the best of my ability. Show me the ropes, and you'll soon find that I'm the best thing that's ever happened to Keplerstan.

Signed,

---

Type: Roleplay

A dark figure on horseback crosses the border into Keplerstan, at the head of a small group of armed men, all in uniform and carrying an unfamiliar standard. They travel all night before finally stopping at a local inn.

"Where am I?" the dark figure asks the innkeeper.

"Keplerstan, sir!"

The dark figure looks around and nods. "Good. This realm should do nicely. I think I'll stick around. Send a message to your King, and tell him that Armand Broadsword has arrived, and pledges his loyalty."

Letter to Region Lords

If you didn't choose an estate when you made your character, you'll want to reach out to the Lords in the realm. Write a new message to all nobles in the realm, but address it to the Lords of the realm asking who would like you as a knight.

If you did pick an estate when you made your character, send a letter to your new Liege to start the relationship with your character's new Lord. Please keep in mind that not all players are equally active, even those with Lordships. Sometimes you'll get a very quick reply, and sometimes it may take several hours if not longer. Don't let this discourage you, and remember if you're unhappy with your Lord you can always find a new one!

Character Class

All new characters start out as being part of the Warrior class. There are other classes that exist, such as Priest or Courtier, but we'll come back to those later. The vast majority of characters remain as Warriors as well.

Classes also have sub-classes. The various sub-classes have different prestige, honor and time requirements.

Training

There's no time like the present to get started with your training!

Go to your Actions page, via the sidebar. Click on Training..., which will direct you to a new page. From there, you'll have an option to train in three different skills (Swordfighting, Jousting, and Leadership), for a number of different hours, and with different types of instructors. Be sure to start out training with a normal instructor! At your level (around 5% swordfighting skill) a normal instructor is more than enough, and you simply don't have the gold to train with the advanced or expert instructors for very long. Train for about 3 hours (each turn is 8 game hours, see below for more info). Afterward, you should see an increase in your swordfighting skill. Most skills can only be trained in a city with an academy. Tournaments lets one train their sword fighting. Skills also increases through use.

Visit the Family

The family is the bedrock of your gameplay. While it's possible that some of your characters might die (though it's fairly rare), your family will always endure. Your options are fairly limited at first though.

Go to your Actions page, via the sidebar. Click on Visit your family. You will be directed to a new page which will give you a little info on how your family is currently doing, how the locals feel about independence, and whether tax day is approaching. This will take 3 game hours.

Mix with the Locals

By mixing with the locals you can get a feel for the morale of the commoners, those people who have to work for a living and have no rights.

Go to your Actions page, via the sidebar. Click on Mix with the Locals. You will be directed to a new page which will you tell how the population feels in this region. This is something only you, since you're still not well-known yet, can do. After you've earned a certain amount of prestige, or after your unit reaches a certain size, you will no longer be able to do this. This will take 2 game hours, and that means you should now be out of hours for your first turn.

Pay Your Unit

Go to your Orders page, via the sidebar. Click on Pay your men..., which will direct you to a new page. From there, click on Pay your troops, or simply Pay all. Your men have now been paid.

You can also have your troops be paid automatically every X days. This can be changed under Orders > Unit Settings (more on this later).

How Hours Work

Time in Battlemaster is divided into turns. Two turns run per day, at 6am and 6pm, server time (The server resides in Germany). Each turn, you will get eight hours to spend. You may spend them at any time during the turn, but if you do not spend them, up to four hours carry over to the next turn. You will never have more than 12 hours to spend in a turn.

Most actions cause you to immediately spend hours from your total. Once you have spent all your hours, you must wait until the next turn to get eight more. You will usually not spend all of your hours every turn, especially when travelling.

Free Actions

Some actions can be done without spending any hours at all. These include:

• Reading and sending messages
• All the functions under Paperwork and Information
• A few other things that are unimportant for the moment.

How to Move to Another Region

In order to begin travelling to an adjacent region, go to the Travel link on the sidebar. There will be a list of links for all the regions you can travel to, the distance to that region, and an estimate of how long it will take. For example:

Neighbouring Regions

travel to...

Brahe (Keplerstan) 71 miles, ca. 7 hours

The distance will always be the same for a given two regions, but the estimated time will change depending on the type of unit you're commanding, how many men you have, how many of them are wounded, what paraphernalia you have, etc.

The hours will not be subtracted immediately, because travel takes place at turn change. While you have given the order start moving you men still need to break camp and then begin the long hike or ride. If you left enough hours unused, then you will arrive in the region on the next turn, and get a message like:

Arrival (just in)

You have arrived in Brahe, a City region (friendly territory).

And you and your unit will be in the destination region. Sometimes it will take multiple turns to travel between two regions, in which case you will spend one or more turns in-between regions -- you'll be listed among the region's occupants, but you will not be able to take advantage of everything the region has to offer, such as banking and entertainment. You will also not be as free to scout when you are between regions.

Also note: Even if you have enough hours, you can never travel through more than one region per turn.

Estates

Your estate provides you with a weekly income and place in the hierarchy.

Go to your Politics page, via the sidebar. Click on Your Estate... , which will direct you to a new page. From there, you will see if the region you are currently in has an available estate. The Estate will show you what percentage of the region is yours. The larger your estate, the greater your income. Your income will actually change from week to week depending on production, whether the tax coffers have been raided, and any number of other factors. However, you can get an estimate of what to expect by looking at the region's tax income from last week, and then multiplying it by your share amount.

However, the amount of gold you receive should only be one of the things you take into account. Take a look at where the region is located. Regions on the border of your realm might be invaded, whereas regions near the center of your realm are safer. Cities tend to offer more money from a smaller estate, but are juicy targets for an invader. Poorer regions also present a less desirable objective for an enemy, so choosing your estate must be a balance of multiple factors.

How to Find the Bulletins

The four main government positions (Ruler, General, Banker, and Judge) each have a bulletin page, which are linked to separately under Information. It is a very good idea to read these when you first join a realm, to learn the realm's laws, the current military situation, and other useful information.

How to Change Unit Settings

Unit settings are kept on the Orders page. There are four options, of which three are important here:

• How your men are instructed to act
• What row they're on
• What formation they're in
• How soon they will retreat

Usually, a general or marshal will give unit settings to a group of people, either in a message, in Standing Orders, or in the General's Bulletin. Keep an eye out for orders for your particular unit type. They might be given in the following format:

Infantry: middle, aggressive, box

This means that you should instruct your men to act aggressive, to deploy in the middle, in the box formation.

There are many issues involved with unit settings, but this should suffice for now. For a more detailed explanation see Unit Settings.

One last point: NEVER EVER EVER!!!!!!!! set your unit to murderous unless specifically ordered to by your ruler or general! I cannot stress this enough. You wouldn't believe how many times realms were on the verge of an international conflict because of one person with murderous settings. Unless of course you WANT to cause the diplomatic incident... remember, nobles are always allowed their own agendas. The realm might not like it, but still...

Some other Hints

• Whenever a link contains an ellipsis ("..."), this means there is another page before an action is actually done. For example: "Loot..." means that you will have to select some looting options first, before actually doing the looting.
• Links without ellipses usually trigger an immediate action. Example: "Visit your family" takes you right there, hours get subtracted and everything.

And That's It!

Well, not really. BattleMaster is a huge game, and there's lots to learn about battles and realms and equipment. You would be well-advised to read our introduction and to browse the Manual.

You may not receive orders or even get a response your first turn, particularly if you join the realm late in the turn. Look around and see if there's anything which obviously ought to be done. If there are troops in the region from another realm, for example, it might be wise to move to an adjacent region. Check and see whether there are paraphernalia you can hire in the region you started out in -- scouts in particular are quite useful.