Newbie Guide
Hi and welcome to Battlemaster. I hope you will enjoy this game and decide to stick around after reading this guide; it will always be here to help you in your times of need!
For practical reasons I will divide up questions and issues in larger topics (& additional subtopics). Use the box above to navigate through the guide. If you are completely oblivious to the workings of the game, just start reading. Questions will be posed, answers are given. If you have questions yourself you can leave them in the "discussion page" of this article.
First steps
If you are fresh to the game, here are some very basic tips to get you started. I assume that you already have a character and already joined a realm. In essence, if you can click on "play" you do.
Step 1; get yourself a mentor. I started playing when there were no mentors so I have no idea how you select one, but seeing as to how many new players do find a mentor, I assume it's pretty easy. If not, ask OOC in your realm.
Step 2; Say hi to all the other characters in your realm. It is important to remember that Battlemaster is a role playing game. Make sure you send a message in the spirit of your character, not in the spirit of you as a player. Introduce yourself shortly.
Practical; hit play -> messages -> to everyone in your realm
Step 3; get yourself a liege. This should be done by sending another message to the realm. Yes, I advice you to send two messages. I find that more and more people in Battlemaster are rather apathetic to new players and a 'little spam' will get their attention. If you do not receive a reply after 24 hours, try to send some personal messages and/or ask your mentor for help. Most lords will ask you to travel to their region. If not, they will offer you an oath.
Politics -> Oath offers/Change Allegiance
A simple 'I'm in need of a liege' might suffice, but it would be interesting to add some more roleplay to your message.
Step 4; Unless told otherwise, I advice you to start travelling towards the capital of your realm. It is probably the safest thing you can do. Why do I say this? Because you must avoid making any mistakes and thus ending up in a battle or being seriously wounded. If you are (seriously) wounded or imprisoned, you can easily loose interest in the game because... well, there's not a lot to do then.
Don't know what the capital is? Go to Information -> Realm and Regions. It says so right there after "Capital:". Don't know how to travel there? Travel -> calculate route through allied land
Make use of your mentor and/or Lord and/or other nice players. Don't be afraid to ask OOC-questions.
Intersection
Everything underneath this is created by responses on questions from new players. I assume they will be useful to all new players.
Money
Precious golden coins. Everyone wants them.
Ways to make money
Tax income is by far your most important source of income. You get tax income because you have sworn an oath to a Lord (your liege). Other kinds of income are working (nobody does this), trading, stabbing or seriously wounding (in battle) someone with a bounty, ... But, the core idea here is that tax income is your main source of income.
Sometimes there are ways to request extra gold. Realms with a reserve in gold often have this in times of war. Check with your liege and/or mentor how it works for your realm.
Taxes; when & where?
Taxes are mostly weekly. A banker can call for early taxes; of course, you will get less gold if the banker does this (because the servants had less time to collect taxes).
If you are in the vicinity of your region, you get the gold in cash. If not, you get bonds.
Cash/Bonds
Cash gold is gold that you have... cash! You can use it to pay everything. Cash gold can be taken from you when you are imprissoned, or it can be stolen by highway bandits, or it can be stolen in a mutiny if you don't pay your men.
Bonds make sure that it can't be stolen. But bonds are... bonds. It's no cash. You get the drift. You can't pay with bonds. These bonds can be transferred to hard golden coins (cash) in cities of your realm.
Various questions
Can I put my money/gold in the bank for the interest?
No. It would be a nice way to generate money but... might be overpowered too.
The bounty board is another way to generate money, right?
Yes, but don't count on it. You collect a bounty when you seriously wound someone with a bounty on his/her head. This can be done in battle, duel or as an infiltrator (stab).
Unit
If you have new messages, click the name of your character in the bottom left. If you don't, just click play and you will see two boxes side-by-side. The right one is your unit. It looks like this;
Kapnobatai Captain Xavier (+1) Type: Infantry Strength: 80 men Training: 76 % Weapons/Armour: 75% / 78% Damage: 0 % Morale: 100 % Cohesion: 54 % Combat Strength: 1051 Encounter Setting: attack Deployment Line: front Deployment Formation: box Designation: police Last paid: today
Quick note; Captain Xavier is my captain. You sometimes get a captain when you recruit men to serve in your unit. It's random, and yes, this is a bad captain.
Type
There are several types of units; Infantry, Archers, Cavalry, Mixed Infantry and Special Forces. It is your inalienable right to choose whatever type of unit you want.
Strength
How much men are in your unit.
Training
Training (partially) determines the combat strength of your unit. Training can be improved by training (duh!) or by fighting in battles. It can be reduced by adding extra men to your unit with a lower training than your actual unit has.
Weapons/Armour
The higher these two are, the stronger your unit will be. They also (partially) determine the combat strength of your unit.
Damage
Your men carry equipment. Damage tells you how damaged your equipment is. High damage rates can cause your men to fall wounded even without a battle. Damage (partially) determines your combat strength; in essence the higher the damage of your equipment, the lower your combat strength.
Morale
Morale (partially) determines your unit's combat strength. Low morale isn't good. Morale can increase/decrease after battles. Morale will almost always decrease after civil work and training. You can increase morale under the tab orders. Or ask someone what's the best way to go.
Cohesion
How well do you men work together? How much do they feel like a real group? You could've guessed it, but cohesion (partially) determines your combat strength! The higher, the better. It will increase with training and battles. Most common reason for a decrease is recruiting new men.
Combat Strength
The one thing that is influenced by everything above! It tells you how strong your unit is. The higher, the more awesome and kick-ass your unit is. Mine is pretty okay.
Encounter Setting
How will your men react when they encounter units from another realm? Kinds of encounter settings are; murderous, aggressive, normal, defensive and evasive. If you're new, I advice you to follow the settings ordered by your marshal.
Practical; check out Orders -> Unit Settings
Deployment Line
It tells you where your men will be deployed. Front, middle, back, rearguard. Again, listen to your marshal.
Deployment Formation
Now you know how they will respond and where they will put themselves on the battlefield, you need to know in what formation they will show themselves. Line, box, wedge, skirmish. Marshal, listen to him!
Designation
What is you want your men to do?
You can set them to the following; sentries, vanguard, police force, mercenary troops, regular army. All have their special traits. Ask your marshal what you should have.
Last paid
Pretty obvious. Don't forget to pay them, or mutiny will surprise you.
Orders -> pay your men
Recruiting
You can recruit soldiers in you capital, and only your capital. It is possible that you notice that many regions have recruitment centers. These regions "supply" their soldiers (recruits) to the capital. Dukes can recruit from the recruitment centers in their duchy, but only to recruit them as militia. They cannot directly recruit a unit in their city themselves.
The basic logic is that if you put all recruitment centers in one region (i.e. your capital), the entire army would be drawn from the population of that one region. It would be devastated pretty quickly, ruining an otherwise perfectly healthy region and removing the possibility of recruiting more in your realm.
Various questions
Is it normal to have low cohesion when you start?
Yes. Starter-units are often pretty bad and low cohesion comes with that. Don't worry though, it'll rise.