| GENERAL
What's the game all about?
Strength & Honour is a game of global domination that combines turn-based empire building and epic real-time 3D battles. Nations can belong to civilizations ranging from the Romans and Carthaginians in the west, to the West Indians and Chinese in the east
How do I win?
Players are deemed the supreme ruler when they have led their nation to glory, using economic, cultural, and military might to conquer the world.
How soon can I play?
Strength & Honour is scheduled to be finished early 2004, that’s next year! We are currently looking for publishers.
FEATURE AND GAMEPLAY
Does it matter which civilization I choose to be, are they different?
Yes it does, every civilization is unique! Each has its own unit types, army formations, and philosophy, plus each has its own distinct interface. Remember when playing the game that everything from your nation’s philosophy to its location on the map affects your quest for global domination. Play all the different civilizations to find your favourite. Hint: choose Africa or South Asia as your civilization for elephants you can use on the battlefield to knock out your opponent by the dozens.
Exactly how many play modes does Strength & Honour have?
Strength & Honour is broken down into two basic modes: world mode and battle mode. In world mode, players manage empires. They can construct buildings, maneuver armies and diplomats, initiate treaties, and a lot more. When two armies go head-to-head in world mode, the game automatically shifts into battle mode where players deploy divisions in their army, choose formations, and set up detachments to out smart the enemy while fighting battles in real time!!!
How do the world mode units work?
Each nation controls cities. Each city can create armies or navies if a navy port is available. Armies can capture cities, attack other land units, and fortify in defense. Navy fleets can intercept other navy units or attack land units while they are crossing oceans from sea port to sea port.
What about the battle mode?
Battle mode starts with an army deployment screen where players can assign divisions to specific positions on the field, set up detachments, and choose army formations. Once the battle begins, players must issue orders to each division within the army. The winner is the army which has weakened OR frightened the enemy to the point where they will not fight anymore. Cutting down enemy flags can significantly reduce their willingness to fight.
What types of characters are in the game?
Characters in the game can have jobs such as ruler, prime minister, governor, or minister. They can also hold a title such as prince or princess. Sometimes, characters will come to visit and ask for a shelter in the palace. They will become players’ guests if accepted. Guests have special skills such as trained in assassination, corruption, or negotiation. Each character has his or her own personality varied by ambition, honour, charm, openness, and intelligence combined with combat, governing, leadership, and navy skills. This controls how a character will treat players, interact with other characters, respond to game events, and react in battle.
Are there real historical characters in Strength & Honour?
Yes, there are several famous historical characters presented in the game. Players can experience the undefeatable army of hannibal, the magnificent conquest of Julius Cesar, or the desperate yet ambitious plot of Cleopatra and many others.
How do I play as one of these historical characters?
Players can choose different campaigns which are set in different time lines to choose and play as his / her favorite historical character. Other historical characters will appear as the game progresses.
Do historical characters have any special abilities?
No, historical characters do not have any super natural powers. However, historical characters has rare high statistic in specific area according to history.
What happens if my character dies?
In this case the throne will be passed to your successor.
Who's my successor?
Players can assign one of his/her children as successor when their character dies. If no successor is allowed then the game will end.
How do I know which formations to choose in battle?
Each formation has various strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a formation consider that some are better defensively or offensively, some have better maneuverability, etc. These formations are real patterns used by armies during this time period. Military formations are a very important part of Strength & Honour. The formation of a division, or an entire army, can mean the difference between victory and defeat. However, if military tactics aren’t your thing you can always enable the computer to fight the battles while you still have fun playing world mode.
These effects emerge from the positioning of the individual soldiers; formations do not have artificial modifiers.
I understand what a chain of command is, but how does it work?
The chain of command works from a top down approach. Orders are given to armies by players through marshals or generals who then command captains and so on, eventually the orders are given to individual soldiers to be carried out. Battles in Strength & Honour can be fought by armies of over one hundred soldiers, the chain of command allows players to control large armies. However, as in real life, soldiers at the bottom of the chain may not always listen to instructions from their superiors. The characteristics of your generals and captains may influence their moves on battlefield. Don’t be surprised if your army doesn’t follow your instructions explicitly. If a soldiers dies or retreats, every solider in the same battalion will suffer morale loss, every solider in the same division will have experience different degrees of impact.. If a general (division commander) is killed or retreats, every soldier in his/her division will suffer a major drop in morale. If a marshal (army commander) leaves the battle before the battle ends, all soldiers suffer significant morale drop.
Do the generals and marshals in charge have any effect on how my soldiers fight?
Yes, generals and marshals have great influences over the units in their division. General’s combat skills have a direct impact on his/her division’s fighting ability. Marshal’s leadership controls the whole army’s morale of fighting.
How important is an army's headquarters?
If your headquarters has been destroyed, your army's morale will drop dramatically and is likely to retreat because they assume their marshal has been killed. How fast the army retreats will depend on the experience of the general of each division and how close they are to winning the battle.
What are divisions and detachments?
A division is a group of soldiers between 1-80 individual units, commanded by a general. Detachments are small armies given special functions during battle. There are three types including strike detachments (who attack enemy headquarters), delay detachments (who hold off enemy strike detachments), and ambush detachments (who wait behind your headquarters to ambush anybody who attacks it). Use detachments as a part of your strategy to take down the enemy.
What can my city's government personnel do for me?
Each cities government personnel consists of a governor, military minister, cultural minister and economic minister. Governments are responsible for improving their city by constructing buildings and setting their budgets. Government personnel also affect how efficiently each building operates depending on their level of skill. Governors affect how cities operate as a whole and contributes about 50% of the overall efficiency. Military ministers’s leadership contributes the maximum new recruitments a city can have per month (army divisions assigned to military ministers also police the city against a revolt). Culture ministers affect library and arena operations and economic ministers affect market operations.
What about central government personnel?
Central government personnel include a prime minister, military minister, culture minister, economic minister and chief security officer. Their functions resemble those of city government personnel except on a federal level- they affect all cities in the nation. Each minister influences the effectiveness of operations in their specific areas except the prime minister who affects all areas. Prime ministers also represent the nation when dealing with foreign affairs. Chief security officers are the ones who protect you from assassins.
Why do I collect taxes?
This is because there are two levels of taxation in Strength & Honour; local tax and federal tax. The local tax is set by the city’s government and is a source of income for the city. Federal tax, set by the federal government, is collected from citizens in every city within the nation and becomes a source of revenue for the central government.
How do supplies and supply line systems work?
Supplies and supply lines are very important for the strength of your armies. Armies receive not only food but also replacements through supply lines. Without enough supplies armies will starve to the death. When armies are stationed in their home cities the amount of supplies needed are minimal. The further an army is from home the more supplies it will need (armies in fortify mode require less supplies as they do not move for one full turn). Supply lines are defined by the shortest path to the nearest city within the same empire that carries supplies to support them. One strategy players might consider is sending a small army unit to block enemy supply lines. The enemy army will starve to death when their supplies run out. An army can carry up to three months of supplies at once so most armies need to find new sources of supplies (could be a near by friendly city who has supplies piled up) when supply lines are cut off.
How does trading work?
Trading with another city is a good way to strengthen your cities resources. This can occur under two situations; cities are from they same nation, or they have made a trade agreement. A city will also need a market built before trading is allowed. The volume of trading is dependant on the total production of both cities and the cost of traveling the trade route, such as the distance between the two cities and whether they pass through enemy territory.
What is a city's reserve army?
Reserve armies have been recruited by the city’s government but have not yet been assigned to a general or army. Keep in mind there are no maintenance costs to keep reserve soldiers except they will be drafting out from the city’s workforce (population). In case of the city revolting, 25% of the reserve army will contribute to the policing force.
Can you give me an example of a character personality in Strength & Honour?
A character with the ambition rating of 90 will become impatient quickly if his/her popularity (used as reward in the game) does not match with his achievement (calculated based on the character’s job performance). A character with a low openness rating will not like a new philosophy being promoted in his/her city/nation. A character with a low honour code will change their loyalties dramatically when he/she is not happy(satisfied) with situations presented.
Will there be any relationships between personnel?
Yes, other than job relationships there’re also family links between characters.
What is the function of a city’s philosophy?
There are many vastly different philosophies incorporated into Strength & Honour. Players should pay attention to their city’s philosophy because it determines the order of priority citizens place on expanding their empire, encouraging culture, and just about every other event in the game. Citizens may revolt if their leader is not acting in accordance with their beliefs. The initial philosophy of each nation is defined accurately according to history. However, several events can alter a city’s philosophy, for example players can build libraries in cities to teach new philosophies to their citizens. Each philosophy has its own unique benefits and penalties directly linked to the city’s statistics. Philosophy can modify a city in the following ways without any extra cost:
Provide spiritual needs for people. (so they will keep quite and revolt less)
Provide production bonuses or penalties (so you can have extra gold or less)
Provide culture bonuses or penalties (so you can build up more culture points for discovering a new philosophy or attract more immigrants)
Provide trade bonuses or penalties (so you can build a trading empire)
Increase the maximum recruitment a city has per term.
Increase the chance of getting generals with good combat skills.
Increase the chance of getting more negotiators as guests.
Increase the chance of getting honourable generals.
Does the environment (fog, rain and snow) affect battles?
Yes, it does. In order to make battles more realistic the weather will have different effects on units. Snow, rain, darkness, and mist reduce the range of visibility and attack accuracy. Whereas sand and snow affect the mobility of units
How do naval battles work?
As opposed to army battles which are fought in battle mode, naval combat uses a dialog. There are two types of naval vessels; warships and transports. Warships are built in port cities and can only move across water. Naval transports are land-based units at sea. It is important to note that naval transports are severely limited as they have no special abilities while on water. They are no match for the speed and strength of warships.
Should I trust visitors/guests at the palace?
Guests may come to visit players at any time, even stay at the palace for a while. These visitors can be philosophers, negotiators, assassins, corruptors etc. Often they have special services to offer players. Be careful, their true nature may not be visible right away. Watch out for thieves or assassins.
Can I get married and have children in the game?
Players may or may not have the opportunity to start a family during a campaign. A player’s family tree can be viewed from the palace icon
Could I marry to form political relationships with other nations?
Sometimes, when the opportunities presents itself an event screen will pop up offering the player a chance to build a stronger empire through marriage.
Can I transfer gold and personnel between my cities?
No, but players can give gold to a city’s government or a city’s people.
Why do my armies sometimes move slower in world mode?
The speed of armies is affected by the type of terrain they are crossing. It will take longer to move an army over mountainous terrain than a paved road.
What happens if I capture an enemy nation's capital city?
Each remaining city in the former government will check to see if they want to surrender and join your empire. A new capital city might be formed if enough cities support the former government.
TECHNOLOGY
What are the systems requirements?
The minimum specifications needed to run Strength & Honour are
Windows 2000/XP, 1.0 Ghz processor or above,
CD-ROM drive,
1 Gigabyte of hard disk space,
256 meg ram, and
32 meg video card with full open GL support.
MULTIPLAYER
How many player can be in a multiplayer game?
Strength & Honour can support up to 4 players through LAN, TCP/IP or the Internet on a 56k modem or higher.
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