King of Kings is a completely computer moderated play-by-email game set in an ancient or medieval world. Each player is in control of a nation in this world, governing all decisions and leading it to either victory or defeat.

The game generally runs in public mode, i.e. there are no ‘secrets’ in the game. All information is accessible to all players at the same time. The high complexity and realism of the simulation is achieved through a large number of actors, i.e. players, whose different characters, relations and actions are of a highly indeterministic kind.

The map is tiled into square provinces. During a game turn, a player may gain fame points for showing great valour in battle. A player may also choose to hoard treasures to stand as the wealthiest player at game end. Lastly, the player whose armed forces are most numerous is considered the mightiest of them all. The game ends at a pre-set game turn. The victor is the player with the highest ranking from points awarded in each category: fame, treasure or might.

2. Basics

Provinces produce supplies to maintain existing troops and to build new ones. These supply goods are defined as follows:

Food is necessary to maintain troops. At the end of each turn, one troop unit must be supplied with one unit of food, or else the unit will be disbanded.

Gold is a term that represents primarily money, but also the availability of recruits or weapon smiths. Gold is required to levy new units.

Wood is required to build ships. Not every type of terrain can provide wood for the construction of ships. Because of the configurability of troops, games using non-standard troop lists may require both wood and gold, or neither for the placement of some types of troops.

2.1. Troop Units

On the military side of this game there are 6 different troop types in the standard troop list. Their properties can be learned from the following table.

Units	Symbol	To Hit	Armour	Movement	Costs
Foot Soldiers	F	35		2	6 Gold
Bowmen	B	45		2	6 Gold
Horsemen	H	50	15	3	12 Gold
Castle	C	45	15	0	12 Gold
General	G	50	15	3	-
Ship	S	50		10	10 Wood

Remarks:

· The “To Hit” value of bowmen decreases to 20 after the first round of combat. This rule assumes that missile fire is only possible in the first round and after that melee occurs.

· If a general is with an army, all units increase their “To Hit” value by 10. In addition, all units may move over land at a rate of 3. This rule does not apply to sea movement.

· If a castle is with an army, all units increase their ‘To Hit’ value by 5. In addition, the army receives a 5 point morale bonus.

· Castles, ships and generals need not be supplied with food. Castles can not be conquered by an opponent. If an enemy conquers a province, the castle will be destroyed (if not already destroyed in battle).

· Ships may be used to transport other units across the sea. One ship is capable of transporting only one other unit. On the other hand, each two ships require one land unit to man the sails. This rule only applies to fleets that are going offshore or are already at sea. There are no restrictions if ships are to remain in a coastal province. Castles can, of course, not be transported over sea.

· Hits in battle are determined in the following way: “To Hit” is the chance in percent that the unit will hit an opponent. Some units have “Armour”; thus they are harder to hit and reduce the “To Hit” chance of the enemy. Terrain may affect the hit chances of the attacker. The “To Hit” chance may not be higher than the value stated for this terrain type. Finally, the bonus for a general in command and the tactical bonus (or malus) is applied.

See chapter 3.4 (Land Battles) for details.

2.2. Custom Troop Lists

Custom troops are defined using a variety of values, such as movement, and a variety of flags that indicate their abilities. The values used are listed below. Note that units that have both sea and land move as non-zero values are effectively amphibious, and troops that have both as zero are unable to move at all. A zero value for either casualty order indicates a non-combatant troop. In combat, only one morale and to hit bonus applies for each troop type, regardless of how many troops of that type are fighting. In addition, the morale and to-hit bonuses do not apply for sea battles.

· Initial to hit - The ‘To Hit’ value used in the first round of combat.

· Continuous to hit - The ‘To Hit’ value used after the first round of combat.

· Armour - As standard.

· Land move - Movement rate on land.

· Sea move - Movement rate on sea.

· Food - Food consumed per unit per turn.

· Gold cost - Cost in gold to place.

· Wood cost - Cost in wood to place.

· Casualty order (sea) - Order in which troop types are taken as casualties.

· Casualty order (land) - Order in which troop types are taken as casualties.

· Morale bonus - Bonus to troop morale when testing for retreat.

· To-Hit bonus - Bonus to all troops’ to-hit values.

The flags that affect troop configuration are as follows.

Pincer

This flag indicates that the army can use the pincer tactic when a troop type with this flag is present.

Transport

This flag indicates that the troop type is a transport troop, such as a ship. Special rules apply to movement of transport troops. In any movement order containing transport troops, only one kind of transport troop can be specified. Troops that are not transports and can move at least as fast as the transport may accompany them without counting towards passenger limits, but may assist crewing the transport. For example in a game with sea tranports, destroyers, marines and infantry, four sea transports may be accompanied by any number of destroyers and marines, but at most four infantry. In addition they must be accompanied by at least two of either marines or infantry or a mix.

Crew

This flag indicates that the troop type can be used to crew a transport, and is capable of being carried by said transport. A troop type without this flag is automatically excluded from all transport moves as described above.

General

This flag indicates that the army can move at the rate of the fastest troop rather than the slowest when a troop type with this flag is present.

2.3. Provinces

Provinces differ in their terrain, which in turn attributes to specific properties of the province. The following table reveals all important information.

Terrain	Food	Gold	Wood	Mov.Pts	To Hit*
Cultivated	3	3	0	1
Plains	2	2	0	1
Grassland	2	1	0	1
Desert	0	0	0	1
Steppes	1	0	0	1
Forest	1	0	3	2	25
Hills	2	1	1	2	20
Mountains	1	0	0	3	15
Marsh	2	1	1	2	25
Swamps	1	0	0	3	20
Town	3	10	0	1	20
City	4	15	0	1	20
Metropolis	5	20	0	1	20

Troops that defend a province with a “To Hit” value stated are more difficult to hit as a result of the terrain which favours the defender. The maximum chance for the attacker is the value given in the table. Only Generals and tactical modifiers may affect the chances further. The defender’s chances to hit the attacker are not affected by this rule. The "to hit" value of a unit is usually higher than the "to hit" values of the land type. So the defender will have an advantage on those land types.

If a province has no unit defending it, it can not be conquered but is instead occupied whenever a land unit moves into it, thus gaining control over it. The first one to move in is the new owner for the rest of the turn.

A player keeps control of a province until it is occupied or conquered by hostile troops.

Ships may not conquer land provinces.

2.4. Generals

Each tribe may only have a limited number of Generals. Generals not only fight better than any unit, they also improve the fighting capabilities of all units fighting with them. Generals cannot be levied or bought for gold but instead become available after a predefined number of turns.

2.5. Scenario

There are three basic scenarios:

· Ancient

· Classic

· Modern

In each of these scenarios, different troop types, provinces and special rules apply. The standard rules depicted here are based on the Classic scenario. For other scenarios, supplementary rules are provided by the game host. There is also an indefinite number of private scenarios. This section is just to state that there are customisations and different versions of the game out there. Very special games involve frequently changing rules or game options dependant on the revolution of the stars across the hemisphere. Whenever an aspect is thrown on a star or planet, a rules change takes place.

2.6. Isolation

The supply of troops with food is simplified so that the player is not harassed with the tedious work of logistics. Food is collected and distributed to the troops no matter where they are located. Usually, it is impossible to cut an enemy off his supply lines. The isolation rule makes an exception here.

A province (and with it all units located there) is isolated, if it does not border to any of the following areas:

a) A province owned by the same player.

b) A province owned by an allied player.

c) An unoccupied sea area, as long as ships are located in the province itself.

Isolated units are subject to losses (termed “siege losses”) and orders may not be given to isolated provinces except as explained below:

1. LAND and SEA orders may be given to any isolated province containing a General.

2. DEF orders may be given to any, including isolated, provinces.

2.7. Loyalty

The loyalty rule is an optional rule and may not apply in some games. The loyalty rule states that provinces retain loyalty to their original owner even after they have been captured by another player. If all troops leave the province, or the province is otherwise unoccupied by troops at the end of a turn, then the province ownership reverts to the player that the province is loyal to. In addition, troops cannot be placed in a disloyal province.

Loyalty will convert to the conquering player, if ownership was transferred via a CEDE command, the province was otherwise never loyal to anybody before capture (a “leaderless” province), a BUILD command was successfully performed in the province, or on a 20% chance at the end of each turn.

Disloyal provinces are shown in the text report by an asterisk following the name or co-ordinates of the province.

2.8. Alliances

Players may ally freely to each other. How closely two players are tied by alliance is described by the alliance status. The alliance status can be from 0 to 5. The status is at first declared unilateral. Example: player A raises the status to player B from 0 to 1. Player B’s status to player A stays at 0. At the end of each turn, the alliance status is set for the lower value of the two players. So both players must issue orders to raise the status, but just one player may deliberately lower the status. Please note that in the example before player B has certain advantages over player A. Because player A has raised the status, he may not attack player B. But player B, having not issued such orders, may well attack player A! The alliance status can be raised or lowered by 1 per turn.

An alliance status of 0 means no alliance at all. Players may be neutral or at war. Players do not support each other and block troops that march into their territory.

At a status of 1 or higher two players are allied. They may move through the other’s provinces without being blocked. Attacks upon allied provinces are impossible. Should a movement end in the province of an ally, the entire movement is cancelled; exception: allied status 5 (see below).

A status of 5 is a special case. At this level players may support their allies in battle, either in offence or defence. By moving troops into a province where battle occurs between an ally and another player, the troops are put under control of the allied player. Note that you can not support an ally attacking another ally of you, but you may help in defence against another allied player.

2.9. No Moves Received (NMR)

If a player does not submit orders in a turn, or no player is allocated to a nation (e.g. provinces owned by “Monsters”), the server will generate and execute arbitrary orders. The manner in which it does this is roughly as follows.

First, the server attempts to identify a capital province by scanning the whole map for the province owned by the player that produces the most gold. Then it moves through every province on the map in an outward anti-clockwise spiral starting from the capital province.

For each such province owned by the player, the server checks each adjacent province in an attempt to identify an enemy province. If it finds such a target province, it first generates a DEF command setting the province tactic to a random value. It then attempts to place a random troop. It has three tries to randomly select a troop type from the troop list, and if it cannot afford to place the unit, or it thinks the unit is not suitable, no PLA command is generated.

The last step is to compare the sum of normal to hit values of all troops in the province being controlled and the target province. If the offensive total is more than or equal to twice the defensive value, the server will generate a LAND order to attack using a random tactic.

Please note that the server is really dumb, and does not appreciate context. It does not use PLA and DEF orders efficiently. It may attack a province even when it would be obvious to a novice that an impending enemy attack will cause its army to become isolated. It will use the pincer tactic even when no troops are allowed to pincer. If a player is carefully hoarding gold for victory points and fails to submit orders, it may well all be spent. To summarise, players who drop out no longer ruin the game as badly for other players, but players who fail to submit orders may find turns of careful strategy ruined.

3. Movement and Combat

Moves are only allowed into the four cardinal directions of north, south, east and west. Diagonal moves are not possible. Each land or sea province entered counts as one move and uses a number of movement points dependant on the terrain of the province. The troop table gives the number of movevement points each unit can move.

3.1. Land Movement

A land movement is a number of consecutive moves by a stack of units, all beginning in the same province and ending in the same province. To split or combine troops, several movement orders have to be issued. Units may only conduct one movement per turn. After movement, the destination province and all troops in it are earmarked as having executed a movement. So note that if you move troops into one of your own provinces, all troops in this province are considered to have conducted a movement and may no further move this turn. If you want to move troops from A to B and others from B to C, the movement from B to C should be conducted first.

The movement points of a stack of units is that of the lowest member, e.g if you move 2 horsemen and 1 foot soldier in one movement, they only have 2 movement points. Units may move as long as they have a positive number of movement points left. Movement points are deducted for every province entered by the troops, depending on terrain type. Movement may be ended prior to reaching its intended destination if one of the following occurs:

a) An attempt to move into a sea area cancels this one move.

b) The entering of a province causes the movement points go to zero or below.

c) A move led into enemy occupied territory. Enemy troops always block movement (reduce movement points to 0) except for the circumstance that the player moving the force has already troops in this province which attack with at least a two-to-one superiority in numbers (see detailed explanation below).

d) The move attempts to enter a province which is currently under attack by another player, i.e. where a battle will occur after the movement phase between the defender and the invading player. Such a move will not be executed.

e) An attempted move across the map boundaries will not be executed.

f) Isolated units may not move unless ordered by a general

3.1.1 Two-To-One Superiority

A two-to-one superiority is in effect if one player is attacking (not defending) with at least the double amount of land units (not ships) than the defender can muster. Once a player has sent enough troops into a province to satisfy this condition he may move troops across this province into the next. If the conditions are not met and a move across this province is attempted, the force’s movement will be blocked in the province, these troops coming then to augment the forces which are already present there.

3.1.2 Blockade by Enemy Assault

A movement may not be possible if the province which the troops to be moved occupy is by itself assaulted by enemy forces. If the enemy’s strength in numbers is at least equal to those of the defenders, then all defending troops must stay in the province and defend. On all other occasions the defending units are free to move out of the province. They may even leave it undefended in this case.

3.1.3 Empty Provinces

Empty provinces are provinces which contain no units. They are considered friendly territory for movement purposes, i.e. the units moving through the province will be not blocked. An empty province can be captured by simply moving a unit into it. The province immediately becomes controlled by the moving player.

3.2. Sea Movement

A sea movement may start in any sea or coastal province (a province is termed ‘coastal’ if at least one sea area is adjacent to it). A sea movement must end in a sea area. It may not end in a coastal province. If an attempt is made to move into a non-sea province, the movement is halted immediately in the last sea area that the movement led through.

3.2.1 Putting Ships Ashore

To put ships to land, a land movement order must be issued, listing all ships and troops that are to disembark. This is to prevent troops running into an obstacle that was overlooked by the player.

Units which took part in a sea move may later take part in land moves. Units which moved by land earlier in the turn may not move by sea later.

3.2.2 Enemy Naval Forces

Enemy naval forces may hinder a sea movement. Each ship has a ten percent chance of detecting a moving fleet. If the fleet is detected it must halt its movement and battle the opposing fleet.

If a fleet ends its movement in a sea area that also contains an enemy naval force, a sea battle is fought immediately.

3.3. Sea Battles

The procedure of a sea battle is very simple. On either side, only the ships take part in the action. Ships score a hit if they roll the number given in the troop table or higher. Each hit results in the sinking of an enemy ship. The sea battle is divided into combat rounds. In each round, both sides roll for their chances simultaneously. Then losses are taken away. The battle continues until one side has been completely destroyed.

After battle, the winner’s losses for the transported land units is computed. The ship losses expressed in percent are identical to the percentile losses of transported units. These losses will then be applied to the land units. Please note that through rounding losses may become higher or lower than the ship losses.

3.4. Land Battles

Battle occurs after all land moves have been conducted. In provinces which contain other forces than the owner of the province a conflict will take place. Battles are resolved consecutively and not simultaneously. The order in which battles occur is determined by the order of troops moving to assault the province, i.e. during the movement phase. If a player wishes that a battle is to be processed first, he should send troops into that province first.

The land battle is, like the sea battle, divided into combat rounds during which both sides resolve their hit rolls simultaneously. After each combat round either side may give up the fighting and may possibly withdraw.

The hit rolls of each unit are resolved one after the other, in a predetermined order which is basically ruled by the order of the units as they are listed in the troop table. That is, bowmen go first, then foot soldiers, horsemen, castle and finally, general. In the same manner it will be determined which unit on the opposing side is being attacked by a hit roll. Let us assume that percentile dice are rolled to determine the hit chances (lower or same = hit). The following example shall depict how a combat round is resolved.

Neither side has a tactical advantage, so no bonus is applied for tactics (tactics are dicussed in the following chapter). The terrain is plains, so there are no terrain modifiers. Side A attacks with 2 horsemen and 1 general, side B is on the defensive and comprises of 1 bowman and 1 castle. Side A’s first unit (which is the first of two horsemen units) fights against the first unit of side B (the bowman). The chances are 50% plus 10% general’s bonus. The dice are cast, showing a 74 - no hit. Now side A’s second unit (which is the second of the two horsemen) fights against the next unit of side B which was not hit, that is still the bowman unit as it did not take a hit before. Side A now rolls a 4, which suffices for a horsemen unit to hit the bowman. Now the third unit of side A (the general) fights against the next unhit unit of side B (the castle, as the bowman was already hit). The chances are now 50% + 10% - 15% (for the castle’s “Armour”) for a total of 45%. A 46 is rolled, so no hit was scored.

The same procedure is now applied for side B’s units. The first unit of side B (the bowman) fights against the first unit of side A (the first horsemen unit). The chances are 45% (the bowman’s chance in the first combat round) - 15% (Armour of the horseman) = 30%. A 26 on the dice indicate a hit. Then, side B’s second unit (the castle) fights against the next unhit unit of Side A (which is the second horsemen unit). This last roll did not result in a hit. Both sides have now resolved their hit rolls and losses are applied. Side A loses one horsemen and Side B loses one bowman. These units were subject to hits during the combat round.

After each combat round both sides are checked for their retreat conditions. The tactical orders of both the attacker and the defender determine when a force will give up the fighting and try to retreat. Thereafter victory points are awarded. Victory points are calculated from the difference between the value of units lost by one player and the value of units lost by the opponent. If you inflict higher losses on your opponent than you have on your side, you gain a positive number of victory points. Otherwise, your points will be negative or zero. Surrendering units do not count as losses, but non-combatant troops and troops that are unable to retreat do. Victory points are accumulated during the game turn and will affect your fame rating.

3.5. Tactics and Retreat

There are five different tactics to choose from. Each has its advantages and drawbacks. Tactics affect not only the chances to hit in combat but also the willingness of the troops to commit themselves to the fighting.

Tactic	Abbreviation
Frontal Assault	F
Pincer Attack	P
Standard Attack	T
Outflank	U
Counter Attack	C

Please note:

· Pincer Attack may only be used by forces containing at least one horsemen unit.

· Amphibious assaults always use the Frontal Assault tactic by default, no matter which order is given

The following table shows how a combination of attacker’s and defender’s tactics influence combat. The first number is the modifier to the attacker’s chances. The second, separated by a slash, is the modifier for the defender.

Def	F	P	T	U	C
Att
F	+10/+10	+10/+5	0/0	0/+10	+5/+10
P	+5/0	0/-5	+10/0	0/-5	0/+10
T	0/-5	0/0	-5/+5	0/-5	0/-5
U	0/-10	-5/-5	-5/-5	-10/-10	-10/0
C	0/0	-5/+5	0/0	-10/-5	0/-5

The decision to retreat or stay depends on the modifiers. A favourable modifier will tend the troops to fight more fiercely, even against stronger numbers whereas lower modifiers may cause them lose their hearts.

Note: tactical modifiers ar applied as final modifiers to the to-hit chances.

3.5.1 Modifier and Retreat

-10: Retreat will happen automatically after one combat round, no matter how the outcome of the fighting was (even if the enemy was completely eliminated).Defenders will try to retreat unless all attackers are eliminated or retreated from combat, too.

-5: Fighting will only continue if your own numbers exceed those of the opposing force.

+/-0: Fighting will continue unless the enemy is stronger in numbers than the force itself.

+5: Retreat will only happen if the opponent’s strength in numbers exceeds the double own numbers (more than two-to-one superiority).

+10: Retreat is out of question: fight till death!

If the conditions for a side’s retreat orders are met, their forces will try to retreat. Attackers retreat into the province they came from. If this province is no longer in control of the attacker due to other battles fought there, the attacker surrenders to the defender (all units are removed from the game). Defenders try to retreat into a neighbouring province that the defending player controls. The province must not be currently under attack by an enemy. Under such a circumstance, the province does not qualify for retreat and another province must be found. If no neighbouring province qualifies for retreat, the defender surrenders to the attacker and all defending units are removed from play.

If neither side opts to retreat, a new combat round is fought. If necessary, until one side is annihilated.

In sea battles, there is no retreat whatsoever, no matter how small or large the modifier is.

3.6. Fame Points

Fame points are the points awarded for success in battle. If the total number of victory points in a turn is greater than zero, they are added to the players accumulated fame points total. Fame points are only used for determination of victory at game end.

4. Production

After all orders have been executed and all battles have been fought, the production sequence is run by the computer program. The production sequence includes the production of wood and food by provinces. Units will be supplied with the food that was produced in this turn. If there is not sufficient food supply to maintain all units, then surplus units are disbanded. The gold is collected from the local storage into the central storage.

4.1. Food Production and Supply

All food is considered to be in a central storage, providing all units on the map with food no matter where they are located. To determine which units are out of supply the program compares each province’s food production rating to the number of units stationed in this province. Where the greatest difference between units and food production rating occurs, a unit will be disbanded first. Then the program seeks out the province with next greatest difference, and so forth until all surplus units are removed from the map. It is also not possible to lose control of a province as a result of lack of supply.

Please note that generals, castles and ships need no food supplies whatsoever. They are always considered ‘in supply’.

4.2. Storage

Wood and gold are stored for the next game turn while excess food is lost at the end of the turn. Gold is used the next turn to levy units and construct castles. Wood is used for the construction of ships. The food is always used for consumption in the current turn. Storage figures for the basic game are 5 gold, 20 wood and 0 food. Advanced games may feature a change in storage capacity, even food storage is possible.

4.3. Builds

At the start of a new turn players may build new units for the gold accumulated in the previous turn. Units may be bought for their gold value given in the troop table and may be placed anywhere on the map regarding the following restrictions:

a) Only one land unit may be placed into each province.

b) Units may never be placed into sea areas.

c) It is possible to place multiple ships into one province and into provinces that also received land units.

d) All units may only be placed into provinces under the control of the player. No unit may be placed into neutral, enemy occupied territory or that of a friendly or allied tribe. As an optional rule, units may only be placed in original (home) provinces. These are provinces which the tribe controlled at the start of the game.

e) No unit may be placed into an isolated province.

4.4. Expenditure/Excess Materials

Excess gold and wood, i.e. unused production materials are stored for usage in the next turn. A limit for excess materials may be imposed by the game host. Gold and wood should then be expended as completely as possible. After the unit placement phase all gold and wood in excess of the limit is lost.

5. Orders

To lead his tribe through the course of history each player issues orders for the actions that his tribe will conduct during a turn. The orders which a player may give to his tribe are limited to a certain number which the game master will state to all players prior to the beginning of a new game.

Orders are to be written and sent as email to the game engine email address. They should have a subject that specifies the game and the turn in that order, e.g.

Terrania 23

The following notes apply to all orders:

1) Spaces separate statements from each other.

2) Expressions put in angular brackets may be repeated several times.

3) Expressions put in curved brackets are optional. They may be omitted.

4) Order abbreviations are printed in capital letters.

For the correct processing of orders the player must use certain key words in his orders. The following key words may be used in orders:

Directions: N, S, E, W (for north, south, east, west, only the first letter is used!)

Tactics: F, P, T, U, C (for frontal, pincer, standard, outflank and counter attack).

Type: FOOT, BOWMEN, HORSEMEN, GENERAL, CASTLE, SHIP. To ease writing, the first two letters are sufficient to indicate the correct type, that is BO, FO, HO, GE, CA, SH.

AT statement: Instead of stating the amount and type of every different unit, it is possible to abbreviate all troops in a province with AT. You can combine AT with any unit type specification (meaning all troops except those explicitly specified). Ships are never included with AT and must always be specified. Because the AT statement can easily lead to emptying a province, it is not recommended for beginners.

X-C, Y-C: Co-ordinates; please give the co-ordinate number here (of the province or the location of your troops).

Amount: A numerical expression is expected here. If a type is stated, the amount of '1' may be omitted. However this abbreviation is only recommended to players alreadyacquainted with the order scheme.

The game contains the following orders

5.1. Place Units

Format: PLA [X-C Y-C Type]

Description: Up to three units may be placed into three different provinces. Gold or wood must be paid for the units to be placed. When placing non-static troops (i.e. troops that can move) they must be placed in a medium in which they can move. That is to say that land troops must be placed on land, and sea troops at sea. Static and amphibious troop types can be placed in either. Note that placing troops at sea is subject to a special game option.

Example: PLA 7 18 FOOT 8 18 CASTLE

One foot soldier will be placed into province 7/18 and one castle will be built at 8/18.

5.2. Sea Movement

Format: SEA X-C Y-C {AT} [Type Amount] [Direction]

Description: Units starting at the location given by the co-ordinates will move by sea on the route given by a series of directions.

Example: SEA 12 7 BOWMEN 3 SHIP 3 W W S W S W W N

This order moves 3 bowmen embarked on 3 ships, starting at 12/7 to 7/8.

5.3. Land Movement

Format: LAND X-C Y-C {Tactic} {AT} [Type Amount] [Direction]

Description: This order moves troops overland. If the player fails to state the tactics his forces will use in a possible battle, the tactics used by the province where the troops began their movement will be used.

Example: LAND 8 18 T AT FOOT 1 E E

One Foot Soldier and all other (non-Foot Soldier) troops located in 8/18 will be moved two provinces to the east. Should a battle occur over the destination province, the force will use a standard tactic, as stated by the ‘T’ expression.

5.4. Defensive Orders

Format: DEF [X-C Y-C Tactic]

Description: Gives retreat orders for a province, i.e. state the tactics which will be shown by units defending this province. Similar to the PLA order, up to three provinces may be given retreat orders. This order may always be given to isolated provinces.

Example: DEF 10 18 C 11 18 C

Orders the defending troops of the provinces 10/18 and 11/18 to counterattack.

5.5. Alliance

Format: ALL Player Status

Description: This order alters the alliance status to another player. Note that you may only raise or lower the status by one, e.g. from 0 to 1 but not from 0 to 5.

Example: ALL 5 0

Sets the status to player 5 to 0.

5.6. Cede Province

Format: CEDE X-C Y-C Player

Description: Cedes one province to an allied player. This order may only be issued once per game turn. Note that you must have an alliance status of 5 with the player in question.

Example: CEDE 5 0 3

Cedes province 5/0 to player 3.

5.7. Donate Gold

Format: DONATE Player Gold

Description: Give gold to a player. 10% transaction costs will be deducted, rounded up. Note that you must have an alliance status of at least 2 with the player in question, and they must have a similar level of alliance with you.

Example: DON 1 35

Removes 35 gold from the treasury and gives 31 gold to player 1. 4 gold is lost as transaction costs.

5.8. Build Province

Format: BUILD X-C Y-C

Description: This command is an optional rule and may not apply in all games. Builds infrastructure, wells, canals, houses and walls in the stated province. The building will lead to a change in the terrain type. These changes always lead to an increase in either gold or food production, or both. Because building is a time and resource consuming activity, each BUILD order only has a chance to yield the desired change in terrain. Each BUILD order costs 12 gold.

5.9. Name Province

Format: NAME X-C Y-C STRING

Description: This command allows players to name provinces that they control. The name given as STRING in the order line will be used when displaying the province in the text map, and also in all text reports.

6. Set-up and Victory Conditions

6.1. Set-Up

At the start of the game each player is in control of a set number of provinces. Each province is occupied by one foot soldier. Each player starts with a given amount of gold to levy troops in the first turn. The starting troop and land combinations depend on the particular game set up by the games master.

6.2. Victory Conditions

The standard victory condition is that the game ends on a specific game turn. The player with the highest average ranking in the three categories fame points, wealth and number of troops at game end wins.

7. Game Options

Several of the rules and commands for King of Kings are optional and are controlled by game options. The state of each option should be stated in each turn report. The options are summarised here.

7.1. Build

The BUILD order can optionally be enabled or disabled for each game.

7.2. Loyalty

The loyalty rule, whereby provinces may retain loyalty to an original owner even after they are captured, can be enabled or disabled for each game.

7.3. Sea Ownership

This game option allows sea provinces to be captured and held in the same manner as land provinces, without requiring a fleet to be present. This is useful for more naval games where some sea provinces may provide resources.

7.4. Place and Move

This game option controls whether troops may be moved in the same turn as they are placed. Dis-allowing placement and movement requires more fore-thought and planning.

7.5. Crew

To simplify moving transports such as ships, this game option allows them to not require crew in order to move.

7.6. Capture

This game option allows unguarded non-combatant troops to be captured. For examples ships on land do not fight, and if no other troops are present, an enemy may capture them. Capturing enemy troops earns the same fame points as destroying them.

7.7. Sea Placement

Normally troops may not be placed in sea provinces. This game option allows troops that are not land-bound to be placed in sea provinces.

8. The Game Report

Closing with the game turn the game reports are printed out for all players. It is important to know that the report is the same for all players participating in the game, so that ‘everyone sees everything’. An updated map showing all troop deployments will be printed out as well as all other information like battle reports, error messages and standard player information. With this complete report the player is not forced to book-keep over his belongings and troop positions or draw his own maps and mark his forces on the map.

8.1. The Head Report

The head report states general game information such as game number, turn number, processing date, deadline for the next turn etc.

A remark has to me made to the alliance table. The player finds his own people by counting down the rows of the table. This row contains the status to the other players. Cross-reference it with the top row of player numbers to find the player for which you seek the status. Example: You are player #3 and seek your status to player 10. You take the 3^rd row and count 10 numbers to the right to find the status that you have to this player. Note: you may also swap the player numbers. Why? Because at the end of the turn the status of two players is set to the lower of the two numbers.

8.2. Standard Player Report

The standard player report table reveals all important data which is not contained on the map. The following abbreviations list is given to cancel out all possible misunderstandings.

Gold: Gold that is available for builds in the next turn.

Wood: Available wood for the construction of ships.

Ship: Total number of Ship units.

Foot: Total number of Foot units.

Bowm: Total number of Bowmen units.

Hors: Total number of Horsemen units.

Cast: Total number of Castles.

Gene: Total number of Generals.

Trp.: The sum of all land units.

Food: The food production capacity of all controlled provinces.

Prov: Total number of all controlled provinces.

8.3. The Map

The map contains and depicts all provinces, their terrain and their owning tribes. It further shows all land and ship units that are in play. Home provinces are denoted in capital letters. The amount of units is given as a numeric value followed by a letter determining the type of unit (e.g. S for Ship). Kings and Castles are only indicated by their letter as there can not be multiple of such units in any province. Lower case characters inform of the tactical order of the province. Using lower case was necessary to prevent confusion with the troop type letters. Please refer to chapters 5. (Orders) and 2.1 (Troops) for a list of key letters.

8.4. Battle Reports

All battle reports are printed in narrative style so that further explanation on this topic should not be necessary.

8.5. Error Messages and Warnings

All errors that occurred during order processing are printed out on the error report. The program may also give warnings if the player tried something unusual or the action tried runs a high risk of leading to mistakes, or to explain further why an order could not be executed successfully.

An error message is initiated with a *, followed by the player number and the offending line in the order sheet or file. An error indicated that the order has failed completely, or partially in case of a multi-order (e. g. PLACE can be a triple order, each placement can fail)

A warning is showed by encasing the player number and offending order line in brackets. A warning indicates that an order has probably been conducted in a fasjhion other that desired by the player (e. g. an attempt to move 3 Bowmen out of a province that only contains 2 Bowmen will lead to a warning and the movement of those 2 Bowmen).

8.6. Game Files

The game state is defined by a set of game files. Graphical map viewers can use these files to display the map in a more user friendly manner than the standard text report.

9. How to Play

This section deals with the playing process. This process is fourfold:

1. Receiving the turn report

2. Reading the turn report

3. Preparing orders

4. Submitting orders

The process is generally described for an email game. For local games without email, the process is much simpler and needs no further description.

9.1. Receiving the Turn Report

In some games, the game host will email you all turn results. This can be a single report file or an archive containing several report and configuration files. In some games, you are required to get the files by yourself from a webpage. The different methods used exist because different game servers exists for different machines and internet access. Note that not every game master has complete access to a www server to run the most sophisticated program, the KOK Server Game.

9.2. Reading the Turn Report

Now you must some how open the files you received. The crudest way to do that is by opening the report file in a text editor. Sometimes you can read the report directly on the game webpage. A more convenient way is to use one of the several graphical viewers for the game: The KOK Map Viewer, the KKViver (spelling correct) and the MapViewer. Usage of the latest is recommended. The viewers depict the map information with colourful graphics on your computer, along with the other information (tables, text) in the turn report.

9.3. Preparing Orders

To write your orders, you have to become familiar with the order format, which is similar to a very basic computer code language. It is recommended that you encapsulate all orders in a BEGIN…END sequence. The KOK Server erquires it. You can either type the orders into a new text file using a text editor or you can use the KOKmove editor, a program that checks your orders immediately for proper syntax and basic consistence. An intuitive GUI to create orders by clicking on the graphical map is under development in the MapViewer.

Here is an example of how a set of orders should look like:

BEGIN

SEA 31 18 ho 3 bo 1 fo 1 sh 9 e e e e e n n e e

SEA 31 18 ho 1 sh 2 e e e e e n n e e n

SEA 31 18 ho 1 sh 1 e e e e e n n e n

PLA 14 12 bo 13 12 bo 12 12 ho

PLA 12 7 ho 13 8 bo 12 8 bo

LAND 13 8 u at sh 2 n

LAND 12 7 u at e

LAND 12 8 u at n e

LAND 37 15 ho 1 n

LAND 38 15 ho 1 sh 2 n

LAND 39 15 ho 3 bo 1 fo 1 sh 9 s

PLA 12 9 ho 31 18 ca 2 14 ho

LAND 13 12 c at e

SEA 13 14 bo 1 fo 1 sh 2 s s e s s e e e

LAND 17 18 u bo 1 fo 1 sh 2 e

LAND 12 12 c at e e

DEF 14 12 u 12 9 c

END

9.4. Submitting Orders

This is highly dependant on your game host, his KOK game version and his internet access. The most convenient and frequently used method is by sending an email with a proper subject and the orders as the body of the mail. The process for the KOK Server Game is described here:

1. Send a new email to the game host email address

2. Type the game name and the next turn number into the subject line, e.g. KTEST 22 would be turn 22 of the game KTEST. Note that the turn for which you submit orders in one turn higher that the turn number that is shown on your turn reports. You always submit orders for the next turn. The current turn is already finished.

3. Paste the orders complete with BEGIN and END into the body of the email. Do not let stand other text before or after the email and make sure that it is not pasted into quoted text.

Note that the game host recognizes your email address and cross-references it to your player id. This way you cannot send orders from a different email account.

For other games it may be required to send files as attachment or upload them to a webpage. In this case you must make sure that

1. The file is properly named

2. The file is a pure text file, i.e. not a MS Word or other document file containing non-text formatting data.

A proper filename is generally in the form SP<player>.R<gameturn>, e.g. SP3.R14 would represent the orders of player #3 for turn #14. Your game master will inform you about how to submit orders properly.

10. Tables Summary

Troop table

Units	Symbol	To Hit	Armour	Movement	Costs
Foot Soldiers	F	35		2	6 Gold
Bowmen	B	45		2	6 Gold
Horsemen	H	50	15	3	12 Gold
Castle	C	45	15	0	12 Gold
General	G	50	15	3	-
Ship	S	50		10	10 Wood

Province Table

Terrain	Food	Gold	Wood	Mov.Pts	To Hit*
Cultivated	3	3	0	1
Plains	2	2	0	1
Grassland	2	1	0	1
Desert	0	0	0	1
Steppes	1	0	0	1
Forest	1	0	3	2	25
Hills	2	1	1	2	20
Mountains	1	0	0	3	15
Marsh	2	1	1	2	25
Swamps	1	0	0	3	20
Town	3	10	0	1	20
City	4	15	0	1	20
Metropolis	5	20	0	1	20

Tactic Table

Tactic	Abbreviation
Frontal Assault	F
Pincer Attack	P
Standard Attack	T
Outflank	U
Counter Attack	C

Def	F	P	T	U	C
Att
F	+10/+10	+10/+5	0/0	0/+10	+5/+10
P	+5/0	0/-5	+10/0	0/-5	0/+10
T	0/-5	0/0	-5/+5	0/-5	0/-5
U	0/-10	-5/-5	-5/-5	-10/-10	-10/0
C	0/0	-5/+5	0/0	-10/-5	0/-5

Build Table

Terrain	Chance	Transform into
Cultivated	15	Town
Plains	30	Cultivated
Grassland	75	Plains
Desert	75	Steppes
Steppes	15	Grasland
Forest	75	Grasland
Hills	15	Grasland
Mountains	50	Hills
Marsh	15	Grasland
Swamps	50	Marsh
Town	20	City
City	20	Metropolis
Metropolis	10	Desert