So you have a big realm but no idea what you can do with it?
Don't despair! I will help you by giving you the basic ideas of the game.

Notice that this is only basic knowledge and aimed for those who are new to the game. In the future I hope to write articles about at least four aspects of the game followed by advanced knowledge articles so that you might create a shining empire out of few ridiculous territories you start with.

1. Historical background:

Well WotFR is pretty much like the 'Total War®' games. Everything you can do there can be done in WotFR.

1. Your realm:

You start off with a certain number of cities. Every city produces a certain amount of Gold Points, known as GP. All the territories marked with your realm's colour belong to you. By summing up each territory's amount of GP you have your total amount of GP (TAGP).

Most territories have a city/ town/ harbour with a certain population, out of this population armies can be recruited.

You cannot upgrade your city's defences anymore. How strong your castle's/city's walls are is expressed by its defensive value. Defensive value modifies the weapon skill (WS) of its defenders.

The next thing you might notice is that there are certain resources available in a territory this will be explained in 'finance system and trade'.

In order to maintain order within your cities you need to leave a garrison force behind.

1. Armies (the ruler's dearest topic):

Your soldiers are formed up in armies which you can move over the battle map to either reinforce your territories or to attack a territory of a different ruler.

At every time the following translation is valid:

100 men = 1 army

Armies may move on territory per turn.

Human soldiers of a realm have certain states and a basic morale of 6. This means that your men will rout once 60% of your entire force will be destroyed and flee to the nearest friendly territory. If there is no friendly territory connected with the territory where your force has been defeated the whole force will be destroyed.

Your soldiers can be upgraded by using resources this will be explained in 'finance system and trade'.

To maintain your armies you have to pay upkeep this will be explained in 'finance system and trade'.

1. Finance system and trade:

Now take your TAGP.

That is the amount of money you can work with.

Happy? Fine! Now is the time to produce those little droplets in your eyes known as tears!

You see your army numbers? For 10 armies you pay 1 GP upkeep.

â?¦. Waitâ?¦. Waitâ?¦.. Got it? Yeah there the tears are.

Okay after you have determined the feeble amount of GPs you can work with let me tell you what you can do with it.

You can recruit troops.

For 1 GP you get 20 armies, but bear in mind that you have to pay Upkeep for them the next turn.

You can buy ships (will be explained in 'Naval warfare').

Or trade with themâ?¦.

Trade:

Although you can pretty much trade with anyone you like to this will result in ZERO GPs for you.

Let me tell you how effective trade (besides fluff trade) works.

Some of your territories produce some valuable resources known as

a) strategic

b) luxurious

resources.

The first one will allow you to upgrade your troops. There are three types of strategic resources which grant you different upgrades:

a) lumber = raises WS by 1

b) Iron = raises S (Strength) by 1

c) Steel = raises AS (Armour Safe) by 1

If you have one or more of these resources you may upgrade your troops and by doing so give them an advantage upon the battlefield.

Upgrading costs nothing BUT with every upgrade you perform your upkeep costs will be raised. Where you once have paid 1 GP to maintain 10 armies you now only pay the upkeep for 8 armies.

With every upgrade you perform you will maintain with 1 GP 2 armies less.

Your realm sometimes doesn't produce every strategic resource. Then you have to trade for them with other players (bless the merchants!!).

Gladly seen agreements sound like this: 'I will give you steel in return of 2 lumber each turn.'

If such agreements cannot be reached the shiny coin shall help.

Next are the luxurious resources.

They boost the morale of your troops by +1 each. And no additional upkeep costs. This makes them extremely valuable.

If I had to value all resources I would propose the following:

Luxurious resource >> iron > steel > lumber

Luxurious resources grant your whole army a bonus without heighten your upkeep costs.

Iron will make your troops wound the enemy easier and reduce their AS.

AS â?¦ well who can resist shiny armours?

Lumber can be found in many territories and if you don't own itâ?¦ seek out a weak territory which provides lumber. Additionally many territories have a defensive bonus which heightens the defender's WS.

Thank you for reading the first part of the 'Ruler's guide for WotFR'.

Next topics will be:

- Naval warfare

- Diplomatic actions

- Fluff orders

- Battle System