Battles against monsters

Battles on the board

Battles are played on a board of 12 × 8 squares, in the manner of Heroes of Might and Magic. Each troop is a soldier of its type, with its count; your hero is on the board with up to 8 troops.

• When an army sets out, choose Manual or Automatic. In manual, when it arrives, you place your troops on the blue squares and then play; in automatic, the computer leads your army with the same rules.
• Everyone plays in turn, fastest first (the row of portraits at the bottom). On your turn, each troop has its movement points (MP: foot soldiers 4, spearmen and archers 3, horsemen 7) and one action point (AP): move across the golden squares, in one or several steps, then strike a red enemy (hover over it to see how many you will kill) or shoot with archers and machines. Striking ends the turn, except for cavalry, which can fall back with the movement it has left. The hero has two action points: one spell and one attack. “End turn” (« Fin du tour ») leaves the troop where it stands.
• Parry: foot soldiers (20%), spearmen (30%) and the hero (15%) have a chance to parry a melee blow; a parried blow deals only half.
• Flank and rear: a troop faces the enemy it struck or that struck it. Attacked in melee from the square above or below it, it takes 10% more damage; from behind, 20% more. Go around the enemy with your cavalry, and keep your shooters safe behind your foot soldiers.
• An enemy struck in melee strikes back, once per round. Shooters hit half as hard at long range, or when an enemy is touching them.
• Wait: play again at the end of the round. Defend: a quarter less damage until its next turn. Spells: the hero's spellbook, with its mana.
• Rocks, trees and ruins block the way; birds fly over them.
• The map follows the place of the battle (plain, steppe, forest, desert, hills, snow, waterside, dungeon, temple, wonder, city walls) and changes the rules a little: on home ground, a nation moves faster (+1 square and +1 initiative); by the water, wading into the stream costs 2 squares; in the forest, trees hamper shots beyond 3 squares; in the mountains, there are more rocks.
• Automatic lets the computer finish; “Finish automatically” (« Finir en automatique ») goes straight to the end. Battles can be watched again from the reports.

A hero's army

In Heroes → Army, each hero receives up to 8 stacks of soldiers: one kind and one count per stack, and several stacks of the same kind if you like (two stacks of archers play twice per round). The total cannot exceed the soldiers the hero leads.

• These soldiers belong to the hero: they stay in the city while the hero is there (they defend it), but other heroes can no longer take them.
• When the hero is sent out, the army goes along; on return, the survivors go back to their stacks.
• The starting formation: arrange your stacks and your hero over the two columns; every battle starts that way, and you can still move them during placement.
• “Best fill” (« Remplir au mieux ») takes the strongest soldiers from the reserve; “Split” (« Couper ») divides a stack in two.

Who beats whom

Mix your troops: spearmen protect against horsemen, horsemen sweep away archers.

Beasts

Boars, Eagles, Wolves, Bandits, Bears, Leopards, Berserkers, War Elephants, Marauders, Hyenas, Jackals, Steppe Riders, Nile Crocodiles, Lions, Tigers, Stone Colossi, Stone Guardian. Each beast has its terrain: crocodiles near rivers, lions in Persia and Egypt, tigers in China, riders on the steppes.

After the battle

The report arrives in “Reports”. Most fallen soldiers are only wounded: they come home with the army. Medicine (Chancellery) saves even more of them.