2. DECISION PHASE

2.1   Movement

Movement is from city to city (point-to-point movement) by armies. Any number of friendly armies may stack in a city. Armies that move to a city occupied by an enemy army must fight the enemy, and either drive off the enemy (to capture the city) or be forced back themselves.

The move-to-menu for army moves has been enhanced when the currently selected city on the menu is occupied by another army (enemy or friendly). In that event, the name of the occupying army is shown in place of the city name on the highlighted menu line. Underneath the menu box, the strength of the occupying army is also displayed.

NOTE: If there is more than one army in an occupied city that another army is viewing to move to, the name and strength of only one army is shown. You will need to use the INFORM option to determine all the armies in that particular city.

Moving into an enemy city that is not occupied by an army results in automatic capture of the city. Movement into a neutral city automatically captures the neutral city. The city will change colors to indicate you have gained control.

Fighting to capture an occupied fortified city reduces the fortification by one level. (Thus, a FORTIFIED+ city would be reduced to an unfortified city.)

When an army captures an unoccupied fortified city, the fort is not necessarily reduced. The victorious army is given the option to raze the fortifications. Note that razing TOTALLY destroys the forts, even if they were double fortified.

 2.2   Armies

Armies have several attributes of importance. These will change as the game progresses, and it is important for you to understand how they influence the outcomes.

• STRENGTH – the number of men in the unit; the prime attribute in combat
• LEADER – ability score of the unit leader, from 1 to 10. Greatly affects the unit’s effectiveness in battle and movement.
• EXPERIENCE – the number of battles the unit has won (0-10). More experienced units are more effective in combat. Each battle won increases the experience level by 1.
• SUPPLY – the current state of food and equipment (0-10). Units use 1 unit of supply each turn, except in summer and autumn harvest months. Capturing cities and capturing enemy armies increases supply. Moving and fighting accelerate use of supplies. Units that are ‘out of supply’ (supply level=0) fight at 50% effectiveness, and move more slowly. Units that are out of supply are now marked with an “S” to make them easier to locate. Armies in port cities are always in supply if the city is not blockaded.