Master of the Empire Player's Manual
OS/2 Warp Version
The software, manual, "Master of the Empire" is Copyright (c) 1996,
Trilliun Software Products. All Rights Reserved.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Story
- What is Master of the Empire?
- The Map
- Playing Pieces
- Starting a Game Quickly
- Starting a Random New Game Quickly
- Playing the Game
- Moving Units
- Ending a Day
- Obtaining Game Info
- Units and Game Pieces
- The Master of the Empire Game Pieces
- Unit Advancement
- Unit Orders
- Units Suffering Attrition
- Combat
- Basic Flow of Combat
- Empire Economics
- Urban Site Breakdown
- Taxing your Urban Sites
- Production Actions
- Diversification
- Increasing a Cities Efficiency
- The Global Market
- Treaties
- Game Options
- Observe Computer Opponents
- Play AVI's
- Auto Turn Cycling
- Sound Effects
- Appendix A: Unit Statistics
- Appendix B: Terrain Statistics
INTRODUCTION
The commander walks into the darkened bunker, the
walls glowing from the computer monitors, he glances at a soldier
and then impatiently looks at the map of the frontlines. He barks
at the soldier, " What's the situation at Bautzen? " "Four enemy
mechanized divisions are within 4 days of a wholesale slaughter
sir!", the soldier glances quickly back at his array of monitors and
continues, "There is also 2 air divisions of transports heading for
Bautzen. We have only 2 tank divisions in the vicinity sir and they
are severely damaged." The commander is obviously agitated at the
frankness of the soldiers reports but more importantly realizes the
peril of immediate situation. If Bautzen falls, then the enemy will
have a clear path to the capital and if Flearus falls, the war is
lost and the firing squads and death squads are then but a
heartbeats away.
"What are the closest units to Bautzen?", the commander barks.
"Sir we a have viable interdiction force near Isonzo. We can have a
resistance in place within 3 days! It'll be close, but the lives of
thousands will hopefully be spared!"
"What! hopefully, you better do better than that! If you don't want
your family to grow up under a regime of hate! Get me those tanks
to Beutzen NOW! What about air strikes? If those bastards are
counting on an easy victory, I want to make sure none of them leave
the battlefields of Bautzen alive."
The soldier responds," Sir we can purchase 2 fighters from Texel and
rain an arsenal from hell on their transports!"
The commander barely conceals a smirk, "Soldier, get me those
fighters and make them all burn!"
You are that commander, making life and death decisions with
thousands of lives, buying units, ordering units to the frontline,
protecting cities from murderous assaults, and ordering the
conquering of enemy nations. May you become the true Master of the
Empire!
Master of the Empire is a
multiplayer game of conquest, economic struggles, and resource
control. The random world generator provides an infinite number of
worlds to conquer. Your objective is to brutally exterminate all
opposition to your regime and unite the world under your banner! To
accomplish this you must destroy or control all of the cities on the
planet. There are many ways to achieve this, through deceptive
military tactics or even economic strangleholds on your enemies are
possible! Master of the Empire also provides the ability to load in
custom built worlds as well as full blown campaigns. Campaigns are
a series of linked battles, that could take place on the same world
or on foreign planets!
Master of the Empire is played on a map that is
different each time you play. Each part of the game map can be one
of the four basic terrain types: ocean, plain, mountain and trees.
There are also artificial constructs such as airports, cities,
villages, towns and capitals. The last map piece is the most
important. This is the resource tile. Resources come in the form
of oil, gold, uranium, minerals, food and coal. Everything in the
game is basically controlled by resources. Units cost certain
amounts of resources to build, and constructs can only stockpile
certain amounts before attrition starts in.
The basic playing pieces to Master of the
Empire are infantrymen, tanks, engineers, paratroopers, spies,
bombers, fighters, air transports, cruisers, destroyers,
battleships, subs and transports. Your basic job is to use these
units to conquer and control the world. Your job is hampered even
more so by the fact that at the start of the game, the game map is
unexplored and you must explore it!
STARTING A GAME QUICKLY
Now you can select various game options.
Game Setup Cities. Alters the number of starting cities for you and
the computer.
Zubles. Allows you change the starting bankroll of your empire, for
each of the cities.
Neutral Level. This sets the difficulty of neutral cities. Level 1
is the default level, while level three basically toughens up the
neutral cities.
Computer Level Levels. You can alter the basic difficulty of the
computer opponent, from an easy level 1 opponent up to an advanced
level 4 setting.
Empire Information. Now you can input your empires name. The name
you enter as the rulers name will be used throughout the game as
well as in the hall of fame!
Initial Capital Information. This window contains an abundance of
information about your capital, you can raise taxes, alter
production, rename the capital, and even take the capital offline in
a crisis to conserve zubles.
Playing the Game
Moving units about, is a simple and easy affair. You can just click anywhere on the map and your unit will move in that general direction or you can use the numeric keypad (keys 1-9) to move. Each move requires a
certain amount of movement points. The amount is determined by
what type of terrain you want the piece to move into. For
example, a tank moving into a forested region requires 3 movement
points to enter that square.
This cycles the control of the game to computer which allows
it to move, do resource management etc. this can be accomplished by
either clicking on the end day menu item, or the end day bitmap on
the command bar.
You can right click on any object in the game window and obtain info on it. Be it terrain info, enemy unit info or crucial city info, its all
available by just RMB clicking on it.
UNITS AND GAME PIECES
Armies
These are the most basic units of Master of the Empire. Armies are not the most powerful units in the game but they're abilities are far more
reaching than just as cannon fodder. Armies can build airports and harden
cities for your empire. Along with engineers, armies can become a
pivotal role on any frontline. While the engineers tend to the
repairs, armies can construct airports and more.
Tank
Metal machines of bone crushing horror. Nothing induces more fear into a
man then to see these metal monsters pour over a hill on top of
them. These units are ideal to taking out cities.
Spies
Economic saboteur, theft and the ultimate betrayal, bribery!
Spies are considered by some as the most expensive unit that you
can never leave without. Spies when positioned next to an enemy
city, can provide detailed city info as well as embezzling a
certain amount of Zubles from the city! Another key action for spies is that they are allowed to bribe cities. Bribing cities is desirable because the constant fighting over a city can effectively turn it into a pile of rubble, capable of producing everything on a nonexistent time schedule. So if you find a economic powerhouse of a city, bribe it, instead of plowing a dozen tanks over it!
Fighters
Fighters are pivotal for rapid expansion. They move fast and can
explore large amounts of territory before having to refueled.
Use fighters for fast expansion.
Bombers
Hell from the skies. These monstrosities of the sky deal
crippling blows to an enemies cities. Bombers cannot capture
cities, but they can pulverize them into ruin. Just send a few
armies in to mop up and occupy the city.
Air Transports
Used to transport paratroopers. Air transports with a full hold,
can usually take the most fortified of cities.
Cruisers
A medium tonnage warship, with a relatively long range and with
less armor then a battleship. Being a smaller class vessel it
also has less firepower, but it makes up for it with speed and a
general cheaper building cost. Excellent to escorting transports
across canals.
Destroyer
A small fast warship, noted for its maneuverability.
Submarine
An underwater vessel used mainly as a first strike weapon against
ships on the open sea.
Troop Transport
A large ship used to transport across the sea, armies, tanks, and
engineers. Used primarily to initiate amphibious invasions.
Aircraft Carrier
A naval vessel designed as a mobile air base at sea. Aircraft can
land and be refueled. An awesome power for striking against
airborne opponents.
Battleship
The largest class of sea vessel, carrying the largest number of
guns and armories and clad with the heaviest armor. Battleships
if used properly can rule the sea in Master of the Empire without
equal.
Paratrooper
This infantry is trained mainly for the purpose of seizing
cities, that are not able to be reached by any other means.
Usually mountain locked cities are taken in this manner.
Engineer
An all purpose unit that is used to repair units in the field.
Engineers are the most effective when they accompany a strike
force into hostile territories. When units are damaged, they can
usually repair them in a few turns.
Master of the Empire allows you to grow progressively throughout the game. The model that is used is that a unit who survives many battles will inherently receive some kind experience and thus make them harder to
kill.
Master of the Empire ranks a units as Regular, Veteran, Elite,
Seasoned Elite or as a Hero.
Sentry
Sentry is the command that allows your unit to set there and wait. The sentry order is available for all land and sea units. Fighters, Bombers and Air Transports cannot perform a sentry command.
Hardening a City
Hardening a city increases a cities ability to defend itself against invasion. Hardening a city can be performed by only infantry and tanks.
Disband a Unit
This relieves the unit of their command and they disappear forever.
Build an Airport
Allows only an infantrymen to build an airport. This costs zubles and also there is an associated maintenance cost. But they are ideal for long range bombing missions.
Auto Exploration
Your unit will seek out any unexplored territory without your guidance.
Launch a Plane
When you move a plane onto an aircraft carrier, this option allows you to launch these planes in an offensive against any hostile force.
Drop a Paratrooper
This allows the dropping of paratroopers onto a city. Since bombers cannot take over cities but just pound them into submission, air transports are a good substitute, because they cannot only weaken them but also conquer the cities!
Go Home
This sends any unit to his place of manufacturing.
Sentry Till Repaired
This will, if your unit is outside a city and damaged cause it to remain there until it is fully repaired. After a unit is fully repaired it will revert back to your immediate control.
Nothing
This basically clears out all orders that the unit had, and reverts them back to direct player control.
There are numerous ways to suffer attrition throughout the game. Attrition is directly related to your units in the game. Attrition is basically the concept that your unit suffers performance penalties because its home city has been taken, your empire can no longer support it, your overtaxing its home city, or over stockpiling of a resource in a location that cannot support that quantity.
A unit will suffer attrition in the initial form of a lowered hit point amount. The hit point total is decremented until either the unit is disbanded or the situation that is causing attrition is remedied.
Conducting combat in MOTE is a simple action, but the number
crunching going on underneath is a bit more complicated than just
running into enemy tanks or cities.
:
- Attacker gains initiative
- Get attack strength of the attacker
- Get defense strength of the defender
- Determine attack strength to defense strength ratio
- Total= attack strength + defense strength
- Attackers hit probability= attack divided by the total
- We then roll a random number on a 100 sided dice
- If the random number we rolled was less then the attackers
hit probability then he gets a hit on the unit and damage is done.
- Apply unit's shot dmg, to defender's damage rating
We then do the same for the defender, except now his unit is the
attacker. There are few other details that just glossed over here,
they are the fact that a veteran unit can do more damage than a
green unit and as such a veteran unit (usually a unit that has
survived more than 5 battles) can take a little bit more damage, and
in general hit a little bit harder. It only goes to say, that a
veteran tank unit who has a lot of combat experience can deal with
combat a bit more effectively than a unit just freshly inducted into
the war.
In Master of the Empire, there are a range of factors that can
effect the way your empire produces units. Everything from the
current global market conditions, amounts of resources being bought
and sold or even the hate of a computer opponent can effect the
economic controls in MOTE.
There are four basic urban sites in the game that provide a varying
degree of productivity to the game. Urban sites are also referred
to as constructs. Villages are small little sites that provide a minimal amount of efficiency to the empire. Towns are a little better, but still lack the basic stockpiling needed to effectively supply a frontline with troops. Cities are simply the best thing you can get away from your capital. They allow the almost best stockpiling of natural resources without any type of disaster and also have an excellent production efficiency. Your capital is your home, this is the basis for your empire. Some of your economic decisions will be made in the city production window. This window is accessed by right clicking on a city you occupy. From this window you can adjust the cities economic factors such as tax rate, production actions, diversification of your treasury and also increasing of that cities efficiency.
You can tax your cities in varying degrees in MOTE.
The breakdown is as follows;
- Villages - 3 Zubles/day
- Towns - 7 Zubles/day
- Cities - 14 Zubles/day
- Capitals - 20 Zubles/day
These are the max values before problems start happening.
You can get away with a little overtaxation, but never too long. If you
tax your urbanites into the ground, cities will suffer everything from
a little unit attrition to defection of the city! The basic range for
taxation problems is 1-10. One being no problem to ten, being your
suffering serious problems. The breakdown in English is as; Streets of
Gold, Very Helpful, Helpful, Slightly Helpful, Small, Little Damage ,
Damaging, Very Damaging, Bankruptcy, No Streets .
From within the city production window, you can also buy units at
the rate of one per day. To buy a unit flat out, you must have
enough of the required resources to do so. If you do not have the
required amount then you'll have to purchase the required resources
to produce that particular unit.
Mind you, that the global market is not always the cheapest way to obtain
resources, so maintain maintaining proper resource levels is a
must.
This option allows you to evenly distribute your treasury to all of
your owned urban sites. Be careful using this action, because if a
village is taken immediately after you diversify your treasury
you'll lose a vast percentage of your empires wealth!
What do you do when only a village is near a frontline and you need
tanks faster than once a year? Spend some of your hard earned
Zubles and increase that sites efficiency!
To increase a sites efficiency, just click on the Efficiency button
and then just enter the amount you want to increase that sites
efficiency by. It always starts off with the maximum increase,
increasing the efficiency to 100% It will cost you 20 zubles per
point of increased efficiency.
The global market allows you to buy or sell resources on a simulated market. If you buy tons of resources the price will shoot up, dump a lot of resources on the market and you'll glut the market thus sending the price plummeting. The global market allows you to purchase resources
when you need them, but as in real life its best to well prepared and
buy low and sell high. This allows you to finance your wartime efforts.
Your diplomatic relation with other empires also affects the amount
of resources that are available on the global market. If you are at
war with a empire then all of his resources that are normally for
sale on the global market are not there, thus there is an incentive
not just declare war on every empire you stumble into to. You'll
eventually have to buy something off of the global market and if
your at war with everybody the only resources available to you will
be what you've sold or had allocated to your empire at the start of
the game!
So keep peace with the computer opponents until you can afford to
break a treaty or two!
Treaties can be formed between you and the computer opponents during
the course of a game. Treaties are basically the stipulation that
you will not attack your opponent during a certain period. If you
attack them, then the hate index of that particular opponent will go
up and in general it will be a lot tougher to attempt any type of
peaceful relations with them in the future.
A "grey" heart signifies a neutral status, which means your opponent is indifferent to your cause. A "dove" means your at peace with that particular empire. Finally, the flames with "war" emblazoned it, means exactly that.
From inside Master of the Empire, you can change several options
that improve the performance of the game. These suggestions are
intended for users running older systems. All these options can be
accessed under the FILE option and then by clicking on the SYSTEM
OPTIONS.
- Observe Computer Opponents
- This allows you to once your day is up, to watch the computer
opponents move about and attack other units and cities. It is
extremely entertaining, but on older machines the wait could be
awhile. It is great method to watch how the computer opponents
expand.
- Play AVI's
- There are a number of 3D rendered animations that are played
throughout the game, to forgo these just turn them off here.
- Auto Turn Cycling
- Enables or disables the auto turn cycling.
- Sound Effects
- You can either turn the sound effects on or off in the game.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q |
|---|
| Army | 6 | 35 | 45 | 8 | 18 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Fighter | 12 | 45 | 30 | 11 | 25 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 28 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Cruiser | 35 | 55 | 50 | 20 | 45 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 39 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| Destroyer | 19 | 70 | 60 | 20 | 55 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 29 | 8 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 12 |
| Submarine | 25 | 75 | 45 | 30 | 15 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 29 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Troop Transport | 20 | 30 | 15 | 10 | 20 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 34 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Aircraft Carrier | 40 | 25 | 20 | 40 | 35 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 49 | 12 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Battleship | 45 | 75 | 65 | 55 | 90 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 59 | 10 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 15 |
| Bomber | 15 | 65 | 30 | 20 | 25 | 24 | 6 | 0 | 40 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| Tank | 12 | 55 | 65 | 10 | 40 | 12 | 12 | 0 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Spy | 25 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 50 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Air transport | 12 | 35 | 25 | 10 | 20 | 24 | 8 | 0 | 30 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Paratrooper | 8 | 40 | 35 | 15 | 18 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Engineer | 12 | 10 | 15 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Table Key:
- Unit Name
- Required time to build a unit at a capital, remember efficiency affects
how long something takes to produce
- Attack Strength
- Defense Strength
- Units Shot Damage
- Max Hit Points
- Total Range
- Turn Range
- Capacity
- Cost to Produce
- Cost to Support
- Units of oil required to produce this unit
- Units of gold required to produce this unit
- Units of minerals required to produce this unit
- Units of uranium required to produce this unit
- Units of food required to produce this unit
- Units of coal required to produce this unit
| Water | 1 movement point |
| Roads | 1 movement point |
| Plains | 2 movement points |
| Trees | 3 movement points |
| Mountains | Impassable to all but aircraft |
CREDITS
| Game Design | Michael P. Ramsey |
| Programmers | Michael P. Ramsey, Jonathan Ramsey |
| Computer Art | Brent Denny, Mike Duffy (terrain artwork) |
| Music | Brent Denny, Jonathan Ramsey |