-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Critical WarBOT Information Follows! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

(1) If you email warlords@pixgen.com and put one of the following
    commands in the Subject: line, WarBOT will be emailed to you 
    as (large!) attached file:
        Subject:  GetDOSWarBOT  (PC, DOS version. ~400k when 100% ready.)
        Subject:  GetWinWarBOT  (PC, Windows version. 1.4 MB total.)
        Subject:  GetMacPPCWarBOT  (Mac, PowerPC version.  1.4 MB total.)
        Subject:  GetMac68kWarBOT  (Mac, 68k version.  1.2 MB total.)
(2) If large email attachments are a problem for you, get WarBOT from 
    the Web via http://www.pixgen.com/elam/warlords/
(3) If you have downloading problems, email Elam Birnbaum, elam@madness.net

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Greetings, Warlords!

On a quiet peaceful evening after a long strenuous day of training your
forces and preparing your new tactics and strategies for the upcoming
wars, you finally lie fast asleep on the great bed in your fortress.
Fast asleep, that is, until a strange and wondrous dream enters your 
unconscious mind, a vision so compelling that the excitement roils your
brain, stimulating the strange and mysterious centers of thought that
lead your mind - eager despite its lack of rest - back to consciousness.

You sit up, and shake your head to clear it.  Rest does not come easily to 
a Warlord awaiting the first battles of the new war, but dreams certainly do!

But as you awaken, you soon realize that this was no mere dream.
Indeed, it was a serious vision.  But now you can only remember the ending!
You remember there was a mysterious chariot drawn by the finest team of 
horses you'd ever seen, careening frantically through the darkness, 
stopping briefly outside a large gate to deliver one of many packages, 
and then continuing onwards to fulfill its missions elsewhere.

You remember something more:  it was *your* gate!  

How did the rest of the vision go?  You can't remember, but curiosity
urges you to dress quickly and seek the night watchmen for any news.
Maybe there's a package outside the gate right now!  You find the guards 
quickly, but not as quickly as your curiosity demands.  However, the watchmen
report nothing unusual.  Still, you head down to the main gate to see for 
yourself.  Perhaps the night air will clear your head enough for you to 
get back to sleep again.  

You reach the gate, and find nothing.  But the scene jogs your memory,
and the visions return!

In your mind you see scribes writing with feather pens, foot-soldiers
practicing with swords and pikes, cavalry riding horses, and a mighty
Warlord gazing out across a battlefield, holding a crystal ball in his
hand.  Inside the ball you discern a strange scene.  Two vast armies
stand arrayed for battle beneath two great flags.  Clearly a mighty
battle is brewing...  But what are all those numbers?  The armies stand still
yet numbers march across the scene, statistics and parameters and variables...  
Unit strengths, terrain factors, statistics upon row of combat statistics.  
And the results of some sort of calculations:  percentages, probabilities, 
survival odds.  And at the end, what is that?  Two different types of
words:  "Lives!", and "Dies..."

Quickly you realize that the mighty Warlord is *you*, that one of
the great flags is *yours*, and that the numbers and statistics 
describe your armies and your foes'!

Yes, you understand!  This is the Warlords Battle Odds Tool.  WarBOT!

The vision comes stronger now, clearer.  Truth, once caught, is easy prey!
You see that just as the pen is the chief instrument used the scribe, the
sword is the main weapon carried by the soldier, and the horse the primary
motive force of the cavalry, so too is the WarBOT the true tool of the 
mighty Warlord.  A scribe who has practiced with his pen can more easily 
write the truth, a soldier trained in the sword can more readily strike 
a true blow, and a cavalryman who knows his horse well can quickly make 
a true battle charge.  So, too, a Warlord skilled in using the WarBOT can 
determine the truest, most fair outcome of any battle.  With WarBOT, you 
know that you have only to ask the gods of battle what will happen in a 
given attack, and they will tell you!  Those statistics are exact measures 
of force, the probabilities are "random" odds of survival, and the words 
"Lives!" and "Dies..." are the judgement of the Tournament Battle Rules, 
which prevent all foes from "getting lucky" and winning battles unfairly.  
This crystal ball is no feeble tool!

You shiver, not from the chill of the night air, but from a sudden 
awareness of the new strategic powers the WarBOT gives you.

Now, an army is no longer a cudgel, an unwieldy club which might as easily
shatter and crack as it might beat the foe senseless.  An army no longer
wins battles by some random mix of luck that is only partly guided by strength.
No!  With the WarBOT telling the true odds, the correct outcome is always
known, and now your army becomes the finest of rapiers, a sword so sharp
that it can slice a foe to ribbons with a single swish of a blade.  You realize
that if you know the exact battle odds, you can shave the margin of victory
as thin as you like, and still cut the enemy down stone cold dead!
Victory comes now, not from luck or even overwhelming force, but from
superior strategy and tactics.  The Warlord who learns the nuances of combat
with WarBOT and learns to combine his units into the most effective stacks
is now not merely *likely* to win, but certain of it!

You nod to yourself.  This opens up some exciting possibilities!

And now the rest of the vision comes back to you.  Knowing how useful
this tool must be, you trace back in your mind to the beginning of the
vision, the part that explains how to obtain the WarBOT.
You quickly remember that there are two means to get WarBOT now, and you 
may choose whichever you prefer:

    (1) If you email warlords@pixgen.com and put one of the following
        commands in the Subject: line, WarBOT will be emailed to you 
        as (large!) attached file:
            Subject:  GetDOSWarBOT  (PC, DOS version. ~400k when 100% ready.)
            Subject:  GetWinWarBOT  (PC, Windows version. 1.4 MB total.)
            Subject:  GetMacPPCWarBOT  (Mac, PowerPC version.  1.4 MB total.)
            Subject:  GetMac68kWarBOT  (Mac, 68k version.  1.2 MB total.)
    (2) If it is difficult to receive large file attachments, download 
        it from the Web via http://www.heeter.net/w2home/archive/oddstools/
    (3) If you have downloading problems, send email to 
        Bob Heeter, <img src="http://www.heeter.net/graphics/myemail.gif">
        
And now you remember that if you send the right command, WarBOT will be
delivered to you immediately, and you can begin practicing with it!!!

You smile.  This was a grand vision!

As you head back to your chambers to return to sleep, two final thoughts
pass your way.  You remember that the WarBOT Gurus have created a
complete set of documentation about the warlords battle odds system.

It is at http://www.heeter.net/w2home/archive/oddstools/wardocs.zip

And you remember that you *must* obtain WarBOT and become familiar with it 
soon, so that you can really practice with it and quickly reach the level
of asking the intelligent, important questions that you know you will have.
It will do you no good to discover all the subtle nuances too late, for
soon all the battles will be for real, and if you fail to do
your homework now, thy lessons shall be taught to thee the hard way - 
at the skilled and merciless hands of thy foes!

Indeed at this thought along you are too eager to sleep.  
You wake your steward and give orders to obtain WarBOT immediately!

And then, at last, you return to bed, and there, with a radiant smile 
on your face, you dream of a mighty Warlord gazing out across a 
battlefield, holding a crystal ball in his hand.  Inside the ball 
you discern a strange scene.  Two vast armies stand arrayed for battle 
beneath two great flags.  Clearly a mighty battle is brewing...

And when you awake the next morning, you find that a shipment *has*
arrived in the night, and you open it eagerly to discover the very
crystal ball you dreamt about the night before!

-- The WarBOT Gurus (and Warlords II World Tournament Organizers)