STARTING THE GAME
Selecting a Map
Maps are effectively the game board upon which PH is played.
From the main screen, select “Start new game.” This will bring up a menu of different maps from which to choose. Each map is listed as S, M, L, or XL to indicate the relative map size as small, medium, large, or extra-large, respectively. The size refers to the tile dimensions of the map and is an indication of how long it will take to complete or win the map. Maps can be arranged by size, number of players and name by tapping on the corresponding tab.
There is a numerical code given as X/Y for each map. Y represents the number of all Players in the game and X is the number of Human Players you can choose to play. For various reasons, map creators may wish to limit the number of Players that are available, reserving certain Players only for the computer. As you highlight maps or tap the Info button, there may be a brief description of the map shown below.
The Map & Game Play
At the beginning of each map, only the areas of the land within view of your castles and heroes are revealed; the rest of the map is hidden or shrouded. As your heroes move across the land, the map is revealed along their paths of travel. Remember about the "fog of war": you can only see enemy movement in areas close to constructions (castles, mines, observation towers), and your heroes. Exploring the map will reveal gold, powerful artifacts, enemy and friendly creatures, resources, and a wide variety of permanent structures.
Among the structures your Hero will encounter are mines, which can provide you with various resources; locations that offer skills and abilities to visiting Heroes; and creature dwellings where you may recruit troops for your Heroes’ armies. You will also encounter Heroes and castles belonging to opponents - either human or computer. Combat between your Heroes and other Heroes, wandering monsters, and castles takes place on the Combat Screen. When you conquer enemy castles and structures, they become part of your kingdom.
On each day, Heroes move and manage their territories in turns. Once all Heroes have had their turn, the current day ends and a new day begins. At the beginning of each day, mines and castles you control add to your resources. Similarly, any creature-producing structures do so on the first day of each week, including the one that are built in the castles.
Selecting a Player
After you select a map to play, you will be given the option of selecting which Player you will play. Not all Player colors are available in all maps. Similarly, not all Players in a given map are playable by the user; those that can't be played will be shown in muted or greyed out font. The Player you select will be shown with an icon of a human face and the remaining Players will be shown with a Pocket PC icon. More than one Player can be selected as PH supports multi-player gameplay.
The difficulty of the map is shown as a chess game-piece and effects your Hero’s starting attributes, troops, and resources. The pawn piece represents the easiest level and the king piece represents the most difficult level:
- Easy:
You: 15.000 gold, 30 ore, 30 wood, 15 mercury, 15 gems, 15 crystals, 15 sulfur
AI: 2.500 gold, 5 ore, 5 wood, 2 mercury, 2 gems, 2 crystals, 2 sulfur
- Normal:
You: 10.000 gold, 20 ore, 20 wood, 10 mercury, 10 gems, 10 crystals, 10 sulfur
AI: 5.000 gold, 10 ore, 10 wood, 5 mercury, 5 gems, 5 crystals, 5 sulfur
- Hard:
You: 5.000 gold, 10 ore, 10 wood, 5 mercury, 5 gems, 5 crystals, 5 sulfur
AI: 15.000 gold, 30 ore, 30 wood, 15 mercury, 15 gems, 15 crystals, 15 sulfur
- Expert:
You: 2.500 gold, 5 ore, 5 wood, 2 mercury, 2 gems, 2 crystals, 2 sulfur
AI: 25.000 gold, 50 ore, 50 wood, 25 mercury, 25 gems, 25 crystals, 25 sulfur
- Impossible:
You: 0 gold, 0 ore, 0 wood, 0 mercury, 0 gems, 0 crystals, 0 sulfur
AI: 50.000 gold, 80 ore, 80 wood, 40 mercury, 40 gems, 40 crystals, 40 sulfur
Movement
Moving your Hero is as simple as double clicking a spot on the map and watching your Hero gallop to that spot. If you click on something visitable or something that can be picked up, the horse icon will be standing on two legs. If the object can be attacked, the cursor will transform into crossed swords. You have only a limited number of movement points per turn. The computer will automatically indicate the range of your Hero as you highlight your intended path. The space your Hero can cover in the present turn will be shown in green and the remaining distance requiring additional turns is shown in light orange. There will be two numbers shown as: X (Y), where X is the number of movement points needed to traverse the intended path and Y is the number of movement points your Hero has per turn..
Different types of terrain affect your movement distance. Rough terrains like snow and swamp have a movement penalty - they force your hero to move slower.
Using the Icons
There are a number of icons in the main gameplay screen shown above. The following is a more detailed description of these icons:
1. Overview Bar. This bar gives an overview of either your resources, your armies, or the game date and battery power. PH defaults to an overview of your Kingdom’s resources: Gold, Ore, Wood, Mercury, Gems, Crystals, and Sulfur.
By clicking on the Overview Bar, you can cycle through the other overviews. The first click brings up the Army Overview, which shows the specific Hero’s troops:
The next click brings up the overview which shows the game date and your Pocket PC’s battery life:
2. Menu. The menu icon brings up the option of four submenus:
a. Kingdom Overview. This brings up a menu that summarizes the
resources you earn each day.
b. Puzzle Map. This shows the current status of the puzzle map, which
shows the location of the Ultimate Artifact. You can open more pieces on
the map by visiting Obelisks.
c. Game Settings. This allows you to set and modify certain gameplay
settings, such as sound volume, LCD gamma, map scrolling speed, animation speed and other options.
you can also change the hardware key functions by tapping "key map" button:
- help mode - is assigned to the center button by default. Allows you to see creature specs, object props, etc.
- hand mode - hold the hand mode button and use the stylus as a hand to scroll the map.
- survey map - views a scaled map (2x or 4x)
- minimize - minimizes the game
- make screenshot - saves the screenshot in the bmp format in the game directory.
d. System Menu. This allows you to save games, load games, and exit PH.
3. Hero Icon. This shows the face of the currently active Hero. By clicking on this icon, you will see a brief overview of your current Heroes
In addition to the Heroes in your kingdom, brief overviews of their basic stats are shown. Clicking on any of the listed Heroes will switch control to that Hero.
4. Hero Details. This icon brings up the details of your Hero – skills, stats, armies,
artifacts, etc. Each will be discussed in detail later.
5. Hero Centering. This icon re-centers the map around your current Hero.
6. Hero Button. This icon scrolls through your Heroes, centering the map around
each one as you cycle. After spending all of your current Hero’s movement
points, you need to press this icon to move to your next Hero so that you can
command it to do your bidding.
7. Move. After you have indicated the path of your Hero, you can either double
click your destination point or press this icon to make your Hero move. This icon
is handy for long journeys, as you don’t need to continually enter your path and
double click. You can simply press the Move icon to keep your Hero progressing
on his journey from turn to turn.
8. Adventure Map Spells. This allows you to cast certain non-combat spells that aid
your Hero in navigating the terrain or discovering potential threats.
9. Shovel. This icon allows your icon to dig for treasure. Digging takes a full day,
so your hero must have 100% of his movement points in order to dig.
10. Castle Icon. This icon is analogous to the Hero Icon (3), but with respect to
Castles in your kingdom. When clicked, this icon expands to show all castles
controlled by your Heroes and the amount of resources generated per day.
Clicking on any of the Castle Icons centers the map around that Castle.
11. Castle Entrance. This enters the currently displayed castle so that you can build
structures, trade resource, etc. Note that you can perform these functions
without having a Hero present at the respective Castle.
12. Castle Centering. This centers the map around your current castle.
13. Next Castle. This cycles through your currently controlled castles, centering
the map around each one as you cycle.
14. World Map. This brings up the world map. Areas that you have not explored are
shown as black. Structures that you control are filled in with your flag color.
Structures that are controlled by other Heroes are filled with their respective flag
colors. Structures that are not controlled by any Hero are filled with grey. Note
that as you move away from uncontrolled structures, the map fails to recognize
them any longer – you cannot know that which you cannot see! There are zoom
icons (+ and -) to expand the view. There is also a white outline box. You can
drag this over any area of the map and this will become your screen view when
you exit the map.
15. End Turn. When you have finished moving your Heroes and performing any
other functions, press this icon to end your turn. When you do so, the computer-controlled
Heroes will each complete their turns … which may include invading
your structures or attacking your Heroes.
Scrolling
The map is outlined in an area that allows for scrolling. You can scroll in any direction by clicking on the corresponding area of the screen: to scroll left, click on the left-most portion of the screen; to scroll diagonally up and right, click on the upper right-hand corner of the screen; and so on..
You can also scroll the map using the joystick on your PDA.
