Designed by Bob Heeter; last modified 21-June-1997.

In order to play a full four-player Tournament game in just 20 turns one 
must make the effective size of the map fairly small.  If the actual
map is small and has few cities, though, the game is less interesting.
We decided to reduce the effective "scale" of the map by making the 
*armies* swift and numerous, so that they build quickly and reach enemy
cities quickly, allowing more battles to be fought over a wider area in
less time.  This army set answers that need!

Based on the familiar default Erythea army unit types and graphics, 
the Tournament Army Set provides a more balanced set of units with 
greater speed and shorter build time.  The slow units have 
16-18 movement points, and fast units have 22-28 movement points.  
Heroes start at speed 22, and move up to 28, that is, if they live long 
enough to achieve the highest experience level!  Weaker units build in only
one turn, while stronger units require two turns and the very strongest 
need three.  Bonuses are plentiful, since heroes and allies will be scarce 
and our philosophy is that each unit should have a unique specialty, allowing
players to mix and match stacks with maximum possible variety.

Detailed information on the finer points of the design is given after 
the basic unit statistics, which are summarized in the table below. 

================================================================================
Tournament Armies Version 2.0 (final) - Unit Data Table :
================================================================================
                              --- Bonuses ---                    --- Costs ---
Unit Name    Str. Time Speed  Movement Combat                    Produce Retool
================================================================================
*** City Specialists ***
Light Inf.    2     1    18           +1 City                       3     160
Heavy Inf.    4     1     9           +1 City                       6     300
Spiders       4     1    16           +2 City                      14     700
Minotaurs     6     2    13           +2 Stack City                26    1300
Griffins      6     2    22    fly    +2 City                      34    1700
Pegasi        6     3    24    fly    +2 Stack City                40    2000

*** Terrain Specialists ***
Light Cav.    2     1    22           +1 Open                       4     200
Orcish Mob    2     1    19     both  +1 Woods                      6     300
Pikemen       4     1    19           +2 Open                      10     500
Wolfriders    4     1    18    woods  +2 Woods                      9     450
Dwarves       4     1    18    hills  +2 Hills                      9     450
Heavy Cav.    6     2    26           +2 Stack Open                24    1200
Unicorns      6     2    26    woods  +2 Stack Woods               22    1100
Giants        6     2    26    hills  +2 Stack Hills               22    1100
              
*** Tactical Specialists ***
Giant Bats    1     1    20     fly                                20     160
Archers       4     2    16           +1 Fortified                 20    1000
Catapults     4     2    17           Cancel City                  20    1000
Elephants     6     2    17           -1 Enemy Stack               30    1500
Scouts        1     4     6                                        50     350
Heroes        5     X    22

*** Land Allies *** 
Giant Worms   7     3    28     both  +2 Stack                     60    3000
Elementals    5     3    40     both  +1 Stack                     60    3000
Devils        7     3    28     both  +1 Stack;Cancel Hero         60    3000
Demons        7     3    28     both  +1 Stack;Cancel Non-Hero     60    3000
              
*** Flying Allies ***
Wizards       7     3    22     fly   +2 Stack                     60    3000
Ghosts        5     3    28     fly   +1 Stack                     60    3000
Archons       7     3    22     fly   +1 Stack;Cancel Hero         60    3000
Dragons       7     3    22     fly   +1 Stack;Cancel Non-Hero     60    3000



==============================================================================
About the Tournament Army Set:
==============================================================================

*** General Philosophy ***

This army set has one useless unit, the scouts.  The idea is that neutral cities 
can build them as basic defense, and players will then pillage them for gold 
that can then be used to buy more useful creatures.  However, except for an
initial supply, players will have limited gold, and at first they will mostly
only be able to afford weak units, such as bats and light infantry.  
But as gold accumulates and is discovered in ruins, more and more powerful 
units may be purchased.  (The Orcish Mobs have replaced Scouts as the peon 
unit of choice for guiding stacks swiftly through forest and hills.) 
The rest of the army set is designed to provide a generic set of units
with generic functions that will be suitable for most Warlords scenarios.

Units are classified in two distinct ways.  First they have a specialty,
as you see above:  City Specialists, Terrain Specialists, Tactical
Specialists, and Allies (Land and Flying).  The City and Terrain specialists
are further divided into Weak, Strong, and Leadership units.  Weak units
have only strength 2, with a +1 bonus in their home terrain, while strong 
units have strength 4 and are +2 at home.  Both take only 1 turn to build, but
of course stronger units are more expensive!  Leadership units take longer
to build, but they are stronger and, even better, they confer a mighty +2 stack
bonus in their home terrain, making them more useful than most allies for 
boosting a stack in a critical location.  Each of the different specialties
is discussed below.  In particular, the 8 allies are divided into four basic 
types, with one land ally and one flying ally for each type; this also is 
discussed in more detail below.


*** The City Specialists ***

These units exist primarily to attack and defend cities.  Light infantry
are your default unit, in the Weak group.  They are easily purchased after 
pillaging a scout.  They are not particularly fast or strong, and should 
probably be replaced with spiders or heavy infantry as soon as practical.  
Heavy Infantry are in the Strong group, and are relatively cheap, but they 
are too slow to be much use for anything but static defense, except in the 
water, where they are very efficient as city-raiding naval units.  
Spiders are the familiar scourge of cities and bane of would-be city attackers, 
and are the other Strong city unit.  They are a bit sluggish, but have a 
strong bonus on their home turf.  Minotaurs, though confined to the ground
and not very swift, are the mighty leaders of the city defenses and of the
naval raiding parties.  Griffins are stronger than spiders and faster, but
take longer to build and are much more costly because of the value of their
flight capability.  They often form the foundation of a killer hero
stack.  Pegasi are likewise stronger and faster than Minotaurs, and
make virtually-unstoppable city attack stacks, but they are quite costly
and even more difficult to build than Griffins.


*** The Terrain Specialists ***

The terrain specialists exist largely to move through hostile terrain
and assist stacks in taking and holding strategic points.  On average
they are a bit cheaper and swifter than their city counterparts, but
then they are not as good at defending cities, towers, ruins, and temples.
The Weak units in this group are the Light Cav. and the Orcish Mob, which
are reasonably swift for their terrains, cheap, and fast to build.
The Strong units are Pikemen in the open, Wolfriders in the woods, and
Dwarves in the hills.  Heavy Cav., Unicorns, and Giants are the Leaders
in the open, woods, and hills, respectively.  These last three are
particularly useful later in the game because they are the only non-ally
units that can keep pace with an experienced hero.


*** The Tactical Specialists ***

These units are useful in fulfilling unique tactical roles.  They
generally take two turns to build and are not overwhelmingly strong 
or swift themselves, but they serve unique functions which make them 
highly prized additions to a well-assembled stack.  Of these units the 
bats are weakest, but they are also cheap and can fly, so they
are useful for carrying heroes or raiding undefended rear cities, 
especially after picking up a blessing or two.  Archers are the 
only unit with the little-known but highly-coveted fortify bonus, 
which adds +1 to any stack, independent of all other 
bonuses, whenever it is present.  (Despite the name, it even
works on offense!)  Catapults are the familiar siege unit, and elephants 
as usual strike terror into the hearts of their foes.  Scouts are 
intentionally made useless, but provide a quick 175 gold when pillaged, 
so that new units can be built to replace them when a scout-building 
neutral city is captured and pillaged.  Note that their strength of 1 means 
that even the weaker units can capture a neutral scout-building city 
singlehandedly, except for bats.  Heroes have their usual strength, but 
they are now significantly faster than in the default set, in keeping 
with the speeds of the other units in this set.


*** The Allies ***

Allies are mighty warriors, providing strength, speed, leadership,
and tactical bonuses that are unmatched by the other unit types, and
indeed so rare that their skills cannot be easily reproduced.
One class of ally conveys a potent +2 bonus to its stack in all 
terrain, while providing speed and strength to their stack.  These
are the Giant Worms and flying Wizards.  Elementals and Ghosts are
a second class of ally, which is extremely swift, but weaker, having 
only a +1 stack bonus.  The third type of ally, including 
Devils and Angels, provides strength, speed, and enough metaphysical 
power to boost their own stack by +1, while confounding even the most 
powerful hero.  And the most powerful allies of all are the fourth
class, Demons and Dragons, who lend +1 to their own stack while
cancelling the stack bonuses of all non-hero enemies!


-- Bob Heeter
