
World Empire, version 1.1

  This is a two-player, Risk-style war game against a computer opponent. The
goal of the game is to defeat the computer ("Hal") by conquering all of its
nations, leaving it with no way to raise an army. If Hal succeeds in
conquering all your nations, on the other hand, then Hal wins and you lose.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

   5717 bytes to store prgmWEMP and Pic1
   5107 bytes of free memory to run
  -----
  10824 total bytes


THE WORLD AND THE WORLD MAP

  The map of the world (stored in Pic1) is divided into 20 nations, each of
which has at least two neighbors. Each nation has two basic characteristics
which are displayed in a little "flag" on the map: its current owner and its
underlying sympathies. (Underlying sympathies are irrelevant in World Empire
version 1.1.) A nation's sympathies are displayed in the right-hand half of
its flag, as a square with a dot in the middle; a nation's current owner is
displayed in the left-hand half of its flag, as a solid white square (owned
by you), a solid black square (owned by Hal), or a checkered square (meaning
the nation is still neutral and owned by nobody).

  Each nation has one fundamental, immutable characteristic: its productivity,
or "value." A nation's value represents how many troops it can produce per
turn. For example, China's value is 5, while Greenland's value is only 1.
Each nation also has up to four neighbors, with which it can fight or transfer
troops. For a list of the values and neighbors of all 20 nations, see the end
of this manual.

  Finally, each nation may have a complement of troops (in the service of
its current owner), and each nation may have one or more forts (which help
with defense, and do not go away when the owner changes).


PLAYING THE GAME

  When the game is first run, it will take about 10 seconds to load the
lists and strings it needs. If you know that those variables are already
loaded, then you can put the value "pi" (3.14...) into Ans before running
prgmWEMP, and it will skip most initializations and go straight to the
game. (Ans is set to "pi" at the end of every game, also.) If the game
immediately gives you a "DATA TYPE" or "INVALID DIM" error, put the
value 0 in Ans before running the program again.

  You now see the map with its 20 flags. One of the flags has a black box
around it; that's the currently selected nation. Its name and troop strength
are displayed on the status line. Use the arrow keys to change the current
nation; generally speaking, hitting the up-arrow will move the cursor north,
hitting the right-arrow will move it east, and so on. However, since some
nations (such as Russia) have four neighbors, they have to bind the arrow
keys in peculiar ways. For example, moving "west" from Greenland takes you
to Canada, but moving "east" from Canada takes you to East U.S.

  Move the cursor to one of your nations (one with a white square on the left
side of its flag) and press "2nd". Now that nation has been selected for an
action, and the cursor will only move among its neighbors. At this point, you
you can do one of the following things:

  1. Press "Clear". This cancels the current action and lets you move the
cursor freely again.

  2. Move the cursor to a neighboring hostile nation and press "2nd", to
launch the Attack dialog (see below).

  3. Move the cursor to a neighboring friendly nation and press "2nd", to
launch the Troop Transfer dialog.

  4. Keep the cursor on the current nation and press "2nd", to launch
the Troop Deployment dialog. (This is the only available action if the
currently selected nation has zero troop strength.)

  You can also press "Clear" when no nation has been selected for an action,
to bring up the World Empire menu. In that menu, you can view various
statistics about the world or the currently selected nation; you can build
a fort; or you can end your turn.


THE ATTACK DIALOG

  To attack another nation, select a neighboring nation owned by you and
then select the nation you wish to attack. A box at the bottom of the screen
will indicate your troop strength, the defender's troop strength, and the
number of forts in the defender's nation. (Your forts don't count for
anything; they're only good for defense.)

  Press the up-arrow to attack the fort, if one exists, or the troops, if
no fort exists. (Normally, attacking will consist of bashing this key over
and over.)
  Press left-arrow or right-arrow to ignore the fort and attack the troops
directly.
  Press down-arrow or "Clear" to retreat from the battle. You will be
automatically forced to retreat if your troop strength in the attacking
nation drops to zero.

  When attacking a fort, there is a 30% chance of success. That is, in 30%
of the cases, one of the defender's forts will disappear; and in 70% of
the cases, one of the attacker's troops will disappear.
  When attacking troops, there is a baseline 60% chance of success, but
each of the defender's existing forts shrinks that chance by another 60%.
Therefore, attacking a troop protected by one fort has a 36% chance of
success; attacking a troop protected by two forts has a 21.6% chance of
success; and so on.

  Remember that your attacking troop strength comes from the nation you
initially selected; if you attack unsuccessfully until your troop strength
drops to zero, then it's a sure thing that Hal will take control of that
unprotected nation on his turn!

  Obviously, you cannot attack nations with which you do not share a border.


THE TROOP TRANSFER AND DEPLOYMENT DIALOGS

  After a victory, or upon selecting two neighboring friendly nations, you
will see the Troop Transfer dialog. On the left is the troop strength of
the first-selected nation; on the right is the troop strength of the target
nation. Use the left and right arrow keys to transfer units back and forth
until you're satisfied; then press "2nd".
  Pressing "Clear" will cancel the transfer and put all the troops back
where they started.
  You can't transfer troops from Siberia to Canada by selecting Canada, then
Siberia, and using the left-arrow. You have to select the troops' starting
point first, and then their destination.

  The Troop Deployment dialog looks and works exactly the same as the
Troop Transfer dialog, except that the troops are transferred from your
reserve instead of from another nation. Just like the Troop Transfer
dialog, the left-arrow won't let you transfer troops in reverse; you
can't "suck up" troops from a nation this way and replant them somewhere
else.


THE WORLD EMPIRE MENU

  Pressing "Clear" on the world map gets you to the World Empire menu.
It has five or six options:

  "Continue" takes you back to the world map.

  "Done Turn" ends your turn and lets Hal take his turn. Each of your
turns will end with your selecting "Done Turn" from the World Empire
menu.

  "Nation Info" displays information about the currently selected nation:
its value, current owner, troop strength, and forts.

  "World Info" displays compressed information about all the nations on
the map. Each continent gets one line of the display; each nation gets
one character in a line. Nations are displayed as "w" if they belong to
you (White) and "b" if they belong to Hal (Black). Capital letters denote
nations with at least one fort.

  "Fortify" appears only if the currently selected nation is owned by
you and has at least three troops in it. Selecting this option will add
one fort to the selected nation, at a cost of three troops.

  "Quit" immediately exits the game.


RAISING ARMIES

  At the beginning of your turn, the computer counts your nations and gives
you a certain number of troops in your reserve for deployment. (This reserve
doesn't persist from turn to turn; use them or lose them!) The number of
troops is calculated this way:

    One-third of the sum of the values of your nations, rounded down
    2 bonus troops if North America (5 nations) is entirely yours
    2 bonus troops if South America (2 nations) is entirely yours
    2 bonus troops if Europe (3 nations) is entirely yours
    2 bonus troops if Africa (3 nations) is entirely yours
    3 bonus troops if Asia (6 nations) is entirely yours

  If you have raised no armies, then you lose the game at this point ---
even if you still have a triply-fortified stronghold in Greenland!


HAL, THE COMPUTER PLAYER

  Hal is your opponent. He plays by mostly the same rules you do. The only
difference, which was made as a speed optimization, is that Hal thinks his
empire is all connected; therefore, he is allowed to "suck up" troops from
isolated nations and plop them down elsewhere in just the way you're not
allowed to do. However, Hal is prohibited from attacking nations that he
doesn't border, and the number of armies in his reserve is computed the
same way as yours.

  Hal also begins the game with about twice as many armies on the board
as you do, since you always have the advantage of the first move.

  Hal's strategy is fairly simple, but he can still beat an unwary opponent.
Notice that Hal rarely leaves one of his nations totally unguarded; you
might be advised to do the same! Also, Hal has heuristics telling him when
to fight and when to deploy troops defensively; and he knows exactly when
to attack forts and fortify his own territory, mathematically speaking.


APPENDIX: THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD

   Name        Continent     Value  Neighbors
   =============================================================
   S. Africa   Africa          2    N. Africa, Brazil
   N. Africa   Africa          3    S. Africa, Arabia, W. Europe
   Arabia      Africa          5    N. Africa, Asia Minor, India
   Andes       South America   2    Brazil, Australia
   Brazil      South America   3    Andes, S. Africa, Mexico
   Mexico      North America   3    Brazil, East U.S., West U.S.
   East U.S.   North America   4    West U.S., Canada, Mexico      
   West U.S.   North America   5    East U.S., Canada, Mexico
   Canada      North America   4    East U.S., West U.S., Greenland, Siberia
   Greenland   North America   1    Canada, Britain
   Britain     Europe          4    Greenland, W. Europe
   W. Europe   Europe          5    Britain, E. Europe, N. Africa
   E. Europe   Europe          3    W. Europe, Russia, Asia Minor
   Asia Minor  Asia            2    Russia, E. Europe, Arabia
   India       Asia            3    Arabia, China, S. Asia
   S. Asia     Asia            4    India, China, Australia
   China       Asia            5    India, Russia, S. Asia, Siberia
   Russia      Asia            4    E. Europe, Asia Minor, China, Siberia
   Siberia     Asia            1    Russia, China, Canada
   Australia   ---             4    S. Asia, Andes
