Ordenstaat/Mentor

Preface

Welcome to Ordenstaat!

I am a Mentor and can help you in settling here. You should introduce yourself to the realm first (Out-Of-Character (OOC): try to roleplay and go beyond "hello, I am new").

Your next task is to find a liege, who will give you an estate to manage. The estatate will be your source of income. Be aware however that currently our regions are not yet fully productive. Therefore the initial offer of any Lord will be 1%. You will receive money from your family in your first 7 days and should be able to support your unit until you get a decent income from your estate.

Our realm has been on the Dwilight map for a short time. It is growing and needs brave and loyal knights. You should know that beginnings are not easy. But if you are with in us difficulties, you can expect reward when the realm is fully grown.

Hierarchy

You are a noble and as such, you have the right to do whatever you please. In your free will, you have decided to join our realm. By doing so, you accepted that there is a certain organization that must be adhered to, if we want to survive the difficulties and grow. Please observe the following hierarchy:

1. We are a Monarchy.The ruler is called Grand Master and his word takes precedence over anybody else's
2. Brother Justicar sets laws that we are all bound to follow
3. In all military aspects, follow orders and advice of Brother Bellator.
4. Brother Furiens is responsible for all financial aspects of the realm.
5. Each region has a Lord, who governs it. Dames and Knights of every region swear on oath of allegiance to the region's Lord.

The hierarchy is not meant to deprive us of our free will. On the contrary, it serves as a vital fabric that ties our realm together and gives us a chance to expand. We have plans to control well over a dozen regions. There are currently 13 of us, so virtually everyone will be a region's Lord one day (please mind however that only nobles who can be trusted upon will be considered for appoitments). The fundamental rule of authority is that you cannot excersize power if you first do not learn how to obey.

Etiquette

• Be sure to address others properly. The best way is to you a person's title - ie. Baron, Duke, Marshal etc. If you are more familiar with a person, you can add his/her name to the title - eg. Duke Arden, Viscount Dioklecian. For those with no particular title, use Sir or Dame (just as I am addressing you)
• Respect other nobles. Do not throw mud at them. Do not offend anybody. Be polite. Even enemies should be respected. Remember that it is one thing to like somebody and completely different to respect.
• Be loyal. To your liege, your marshal, your army comrades, to the realm. Loyalty builds bonds between nobles.
• Try to take active part in the matters of the realm. If there is an issue to be solved, express your opinion. Mind however that others may not agree with you. Respect their right to think differently.
• You are a noble with a free will. But any realm to succeed needs an established hierarchy and order. Respect the order.
• If you get a request, or a letter asking you a question, it is a good habbit to respond. Positevely or negatively, but try to respond. People who never return messages cannot be succesful. Communication is the basis of any society.
• Try to notify others when you cannot participate in a common activity (ooc: there's life outside of the game! You don't have to log in every turn. Things happen. But if there is anything you know in advance - like travels; it's a good habbit to notify others)
• OOC: be creative, make your character a living person with certain qualities. Roleplay. Make friends (or foes), tell others who your character is. Create a family story. Keep a Wiki chronicle for your family, like Silesian Family for example (I am sure anyone can do better than that!)

Income and Expenses

The estate you have is not actually yours - it has been leased by your liege to you in exchange for your military service and loyalty (remember that you swore an oath of allegiance to your liege). You shoud set proper production of your estate (as adviced by your liege). You may also enlarge the estate, so that its production grows (currently we have more immediate finance needs, so my advice is not put money into the estates at this time).

Your estate will give you a percentage of your region tax share (currently your share is only 1%, as the realm has to streamline its investments in the first period of our independence). The share will differ, richer regions will give smaller portion, in poor regions the share will be higher. Whatever region you are a dame/knight of, your weekly income should be ca. 30-40 gold. You may also receive additional share from the realm-wide taxes.

The gold you receive is primarly meant to enable to recruit and maintain an unit of ca. 20-30 soldiers. The recruitment and maintenance cost will vary, depending on the kind of soldiers you have and other factors, such as their training. Anyway, you should pay your men once per week (or every couple days, if their morale is low).

You will also need certain paraphenalia - like scouts or healers.

Time and Travel

This section is delivered OOC.

Every day is divided into two parts (aka turns) - Day and Night, 12 hours each. Every turn you have 8 hours to use for travelling, recruiting, training, fighting etc. Unused hours are moved to the next turn, with the limit of 4. Maximum time you can have is thus 12 hours per turn. Turns are seperated by sunrise and sunset (6 AM and 6 PM, CET time), during which the game might be temporarily unavailable for a few minutes.

When you browse through BM menu, you will notice that all actions you can take are accompanied by their duration information. It allows you to plan your time and manage it properly.

The most time consuming activity for most nobles will be travel. You can travel only to an adjacent region. There is always information how long shold the travel take. You should however know that it is only an estimate, which may vary by three hours both ways. When you see that a given fragment of road takes 8 hours to travel, you are not guaranteed that the travel will fir into one turn. It can turn out to take 11 hours (or 5, if you are lucky). It is thus important to take proper adjustments when travelling in groups. And thus we come to the subtopic of two-turns movement.

Two turns movement

Sometimes it is absolutely necessary for a group of troop leaders to arrive together to a region. If the road takes 8 hours, as in our example above, it may turn out that some members of the group will cover it in 5, 6, 7 or 8 hours (in one turn) but for others the same travel can take 9, 10 or 11 hours and so they will arrive to the target region one turn later.

To prevent this, group commanders (usually Marshals or Generals) issue orders to travel in two turns. To achieve that, each member of the group should waste so many hours that X-4 are left (when X is the travel estimate, 8 in our example) before moving out. Hours can be wasted on training, resting troops or sending scouts. This guarantees that all members of the group will arrive at the target region in two turns. If orders came after you had moved out it is still possible to waste time - by setting a Camp. Note however that in long travels your soldiers might be tired of waiting and will refuse to camp.

Military advice

Rules of Engagement

Murderous, aggressive, normal, defensive and evasive settings makes no difference in a battle. A common misunderstanding is that defensive archers will not move forward and aggressive infantry will move forward. Everyone will move forward as long as the enemy is out of range.

If walls are involved, units will stay behind or move out according to the army formation set and this is the only time that defensive will keep you behind walls.

Murderous, aggressive, normal, defensive and evasive settings are only used to determine if a battle will occur in the first place. I bring this up because there is no reason not to always use defensive as a good habit as aggressive may cause battles with neutral soldiers (unless we want it).

Recruitment

Fighting men can only be recruited in the capital, Rettleville. Scouts can be recruited in Rettlewood.

Everyday, some men will be found for the recruitment centers from the population. However if population levels are too low, there won't be any recruits.

Infantry

Infantry excel best in hand-to-hand combat. They can only fight in close combat. They will also die faster than other troops. If you command infantry, your swordfighting skill can sometimes improve. Although, you will not engage in close combat like Heroes, at times the occasional enemy gets through to you and you will have to defend yourself.

Archers

Archers excel in long range combat. They can also fight in close combat but will do so poorly - less damage to enemies and bad in defending. They tend to survive longer than other unit types. If you command archers, your leadership skill can sometimes improve as you direct archer fire. You will also have to defend yourself if the enemy gets through to you.

Injuries

If you are injured, you will not be able to reply to messages and can only read messages occasionally. If you have a healer with you, your injuries will heal faster. The healer will also try to heal your injured men.

Rout

If your men have been routed, you will need time to gather them together and fight the next round or make a tactical retreat. If you need to stay in the region for any reason for whatever purpose, you can leave your men routed - they will hide in the region. You and your men will not take part in the next battle in the region (if any). However, any injured men will die in a few days if not recovered.

Unit Formation

Against monsters and the undead, line formation works best. Everyone has a clear shot or swing against the enemy. Usually archers (with a range of 4) should be placed in the middle where they can have a shot immediately in the first round to enemy forces placed in the front or middle. Infantry should be placed in the back to give the archers a few rounds of clear volleys before infantry advances in front of the archers to protect them and engage the enemy in close combat.

When fortified, infantry should be dug in in the middle to protect the archers who are dug in in the back (reverse formation). When fortified the men will wait for the enemy to come. If they are harassed by archer fire, they will move out to engage the enemy.

Lord's Guide

Here is a little piece of advice. Feel free to use it or find your own ways of governing. Mind however, that the part concerning food management is more than just an advice. It is vital for our growing realm.

1. Not the most important, but let me start with your region identity. It is up to you to create and maintain a chronicle of your region. You may use Rettleville's and Rettlewood's chronicles as starting point and develop your own unique style.
2. Set your own estate to support authority. Have at least two knights and have them support production.
3. It is completely up to you to decide your knight's share. Remember however that you are responsible for your region's development. There is nothing like "region's treasure" - every penny invested in the region comes from your own purse.
4. You may offer your knights additional share if they enlarge their estates. It is completely up to you.
5. Currently there are no realm or duchy taxes. Remember however that your liege, Duke Rettleville (or other relevant individual) is in position to levy any tax he pleases.
6. When region control is below Core, hold court. Do not be afraid to be harsh, one or two harsh rulings will not do any harm and will bring your region back to order. Be however very careful with courts when loyalty is low.
7. Last, but the most important (from Brother Furiens' perspective) - check how food your peasants need per harvest period and set automatic food transport to Rettlewood (from where it is automatically transported to Rettleville, our central storage).
8. Currently selling food to foreigners is not allowed (but I do not exclude free market in the future, when we are stable and have significant surlpus of food.

TBC