Sidion BG

This game is still “alpha” so expect some bugs to crop up. Don’t push the “Client Log” button unless I ask you too … that will send a lot of logging from your client to the central logs, which I’ll need to see if you have a problem but which is unnecessary for standard game play.  The “Refresh” button will reload the game, but it’s sometimes a little glitch.  You can always do a full refresh from the browser but you will have to log in again if you do.  The “Messages” shows the history of what everyone did on prior turns. 

Game pieces

·       Your prince, a “level 3” hero who can do all orders

·       Heroes, who start at level 1 and can be improved by the prince up to level  3.  On the display, a level 1 hero is a square, a level 2 is a diamond, a level 3 is a circle, and a prince is a circle with a little white dot. 

·       Towns, which produce zero to three resources of different kinds, and are connected by paths.  Paths can be used for movement, and they indicated how far a “hop” for a teleport is (the shortest number of paths between the starting city and the ending city)

·       Neutral heroes – each town starts with an unaffiliated hero that can be recruited by a prince in the town.  Once the hero is recruited, the town is empty.  Towns with unrecruited heroes have a grey circle in the middle, those without are black. 

·       Resources, gold, mana, and influence.  Gold is used to move and improve, mana is used for spells, and influence is used to “lock” towns (costing influence and a hero).

·       Artifacts, which turn up randomly (on average every other turn) and which can be bid on and collected for victory points

Turn sequence

A game turn has four phases, Orders, Magic, Physical, and Final/Retreat phases.  The orders phase is all done simultaneously.  You select a hero (or your prince) and select an order for them.  This order is going to be executed in the next three phases most of the time.  The exceptions are if a hero or the prince is in a city that is attacked, their orders are interrupted.  Once everyone has placed orders, they get exposed and we move to the next phase.  

For the next three phases, one player goes first for each phase (assuming they have orders that are executed in that phase).  The next three phases are, in order, Magic, Physical, and Final/Retreat.  What orders are done in each of these phases is discussed below. 

At the end of a turn, the player going first rotates to the next player and towns produce.  If you have a hero or prince in a town, or if you have “locked” a town by installing a hero as its mayor, you collect resources from the town.   

Magic Phase

The orders executed in a magic phase are:

·       Teleport a hero (or prince).  It costs 1/4/9 mana to teleport 1/2/3 hops.  To cast a level 2 or 3 teleport, the hero must be level 2 or 3 respectively.   The “target” hero can be anywhere on the board and the “hops” are how far they are moving, not the distance to the caster.  The target hero must have a “stand” order.  Note that if someone teleports into a city before the target is teleported out, their “stand” order is removed and they cannot be teleported. 

·       Block path.  It costs 1 mana to block a path.  You can block any path on the board.  A blocked path prevents movement and retreats (but not teleports)

·       Convert.  Converts Mana to Gold or Influence.  The  ratio depends on the level of the hero / prince; 2 to 1 for level 3, 3 to 1 for level 2, and 4 to 1 for level 1. 

Physical Phase

The orders executed in the physical phase are:

·       Movement.  Move one hero/prince down one unblocked path for one gold.

Final/Retreat Phase

The orders executed in the physical phase are:

·       Improve Hero – raise a hero from level 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 at a cost of 4/9 gold.  Can be anywhere on the board.  This is a prince-only order

·       Improve Town – increase a town’s production by 1 (up to a max of 3).  Costs 1/4/9 gold.  Only for the town the hero/prince is in.  Towns cannot be improved if they are locked.

·       Recruit an unaffiliated hero in the town you are in.  Costs 5 gold.  Prince only order.

·       Bid – bid on an artifact (any combination of gold, mana and influence, highest bid wins, no one wins on a tie, if you don’t win you get your resources back)

·       Lock town – Convert a hero into a Governor; the hero disappears and the town turns your color.  From that point on, no one can move through the town but your people.  You cannot improve the town.  If there is a neutral hero in the town, they can still be recruited. 

·       Retreat* - This is a special order that appears if you have lost a battle in a town.  You can retreat to any adjacent, unlocked, unoccupied (or occupied or locked by you) town via an unblocked path for one gold.  If you have no gold, or do not specify a town to retreat to, your hero dies (and if it’s your prince you are out of the game). 

Combat

Combat in a town is resolved after the physical phase as follows:  Add up the total levels of each prince/hero for each player in the town.  Majority wins.  If there is a tie, the first player to reach the town wins (even if there is a three way combat and the two other players that tied have more than the original player).  So, I have a level 1 hero that teleported into the town.  An enemy prince moves into the town next, and then I move a level 2 hero into the town.  When all moves are complete, I have 1 + 2 = 3 points, the enemy prince has 3 points, I win because I reached the town first.

Game end and scoring

The game ends when there is only one neutral hero left, or a player has locked six towns, or only one player is left in the game (very unlikely).  Then you score as follows:

·       Each town is worth 1 + its production in victory points.  So, if I have a town that produces gold and mana, it is worth 3 points. 

·       Each artifact is worth 1 victory point

In the event of a tie, the player with the most remaining resources wins; if that’s a tie, number of heroes; if that’s a tie, largest number of artifacts; if that’s a tie, it’s a tie.

Going over each part of the display:

The Status Board.  This includes game messages about status (who is up, whether an artifact is available for bid, game state, and results from prior orders) and a player specific board that shows player name, color, resources, whether they have submitted orders, and what heroes are awaiting orders  (you will only see this for your heroes). 

The Order Panel.  The order panel allows you to enter your orders,  In the order phase (shown below), you pick the order you want to give your Prince or Hero.  In the subsequent action phases, you enter additional information if required (like, for a move order, the town you want to move too).  If there are no parameters, you are just provided the “EXECUTE” and “STAND” button.  Execute sends the order.  Stand replaces the order with a “do nothing” order (which is always allowed).