DR.J U.S.A. SANTA PARAVIA AND FIUMACCIO BACKGROUND It is A.D. 1400 and you are the ruler of a tiny, undistinguished Italian city-state. You are very ambitious, and you have only a limited amount of time. The welfare of your realm depends on the decisions you make. If your decisions are wise, your holdings will grow, and you will achieve loftier titles. If your decisions are foolish and your rule is incompetent, your serfs will starve, and you may be invaded by more powerful neighbors. Good administration of your growing city will include managing the grain harvested by your serfs, setting taxes, exercising justice, and investing in public works. You may play by yourself, as the ruler of Santa Paravia, and try to establish your kingdom before 1420. Or, if you wish, you may invite up to five other people to play with you. They will become rulers of neighboring city-states, and compete with you to be he first King or Queen. There are four phases to each person's turn: 1. The Harvest phase 2. The Tax and Justice phase 3. The Display phase 4. The Public Works phase THE HARVEST PHASE At the beginning of the harvest phase, you learn how much of your grain reserve has been destroyed by rats and how much grain has been harvested. The size of the harvest is determined by the amount ofland you have, the number of serfs you have to work the land, how much grain has been left in reserve to seed your crop, and by the weather. It takes two serfs and five steres of grain to put ten hectares of land into production. (A hectare is equal to 2.47 acres or ten thousand square meters, and a stere is a measure of volume, equal to approximately 1.31 cubic youard.) Remember that any serfs working in the woolen mills will not be available to farm, and the grain eaten by rats cannot be sown. In famine years, you will not harvest enough grain to feed the population and grain prices will be high. It pays to keep a substantial amount of grain in reserve. However, if you keep too much, you will simply be feeding the rats. In years of good weather, you will have more grain than you need, unless you neglect agriculture for commercial development. Several useful figures will be displayed on the screen. You will be told how much grain you have in reserve, (which uncludes grain harvested that year), the grain demand, (the minimum grain necessary to sustain your current population), the current price of grain, the current price of land, and the number gold florins currently in your treasury. At this point, you may choose to buy grain, sell grain, buy land, or sell land. To make your selection, press the number corresponding to your choice (you may use the mouse by clicking it on the appropriate area of the screen). When you're finished buying and selling and are ready to move on, press <0> or the Return key to continue. You will be asked how much grain you want to release to feed the population. You MUST release at least twenty percent, but no more than eighty percent of your reserves. Type the number of steres you're willing to release and press Return. If you release less than the demand, some of your serfs will starve. If you release more than the demand, serfs and merchants will immigrate to your city-state to take advantage of the surplus. TAX AND JUSTICE PHASE During the tax and justice phase, you may set or change the tax rates and the level of justice in you city-state. Low taxes encourage commerce, while high taxes raise income. There are hidden penalties for harsh tax rates and for unfair justice, so raising one tax may lower the income from another. You must find the right balance, and that may change from one year to another. DISPLAY PHASE During the display phase, you will see a map of your domain. You can examine this map to determine your strategy and tactics for the following years. It is important to note both the adequacy of your defenses and the ratio of serfs to land. At the upper left of this screen is a representation of a serf. If the serf is at the top of the screen, you have enough serfs for your current amount ofland; if the serf begins to fall, you need more serfs for optimum harvests. At the top right of the screen is a soldier. If you have enough soldiers to defend your land, the soldier will be at the top of the screen. As with the serf depiction on the left, if he falls lower on the screen, it is a sign that you are in need of more soldiers. If you have more serfs than you need to farm your land, you are feeding unproductive workers. If you have more land than you can put into production, some of your land will lie idle. (Idle land can be profitable when used for speculation, though.) PUBLIC WORKS PHASE The public works phase gives you an opportunity to invest in markets, palaces, cathedrals, and woolen mills. These investments will create jobs, attract more people, and raise your tax revenues. You may also equip some of your serfs as soldiers to protect your city-state. If your defenses should become inadequate for the amount of land you have, you may be invaded, so it's important to keep at least one soldier for each thousand hectares ofland and it's a good policy to double that level of defense. Markets attract merchants, increase tax revenues, and also produce income. The wool industry employs serfs, increases tax revenues, and produces profits. Palaces both increase tax revenues and attract nobility. Cathedrals increase clergy. After the public works phase, your resources are tallied to see if you've earned a new title. The titles, from lowest to highest, are: For men: SIR, BARON, COUNT, MARQUIS, DUKE, GRAND DUKE, PRINCE, and KING For women: LADY, BARONESS, COUNTESS, MARQUISE, DUCHESS, GRAND DUCHESS, PRINCESS, AND QUEEN. The first player to become a King or Queen wins. STRATEGY The most critical factor in the beginning of the game is the balance between land, serfs, food production, and economic development. Soldiers, merchants, clergy, and nobles place heavy demands on your grain supply. If you build your commerce faster than your grain production, you may have to deplete your treasury to buy grain. On the other hand, if you are slow in building markets and woolen mills, your tax revenues will be limited, and you won't have the money you need to buy more land. Land prices are determined partly by the relationship of the grain harvest to the grain demand. This makes it wise to keep excess land so that all of your serfs are always at work. Another advantage of excess land is that you can sell it when prices are high and then buy it back again when prices drop. Grain prices are determined by the law of supply and demand. When there are a lot of people and only a little grain, prices are high. When a lot of grain is available, prices are lower. You can save some excess grain to sell when the prices go up, but the rats make it difficult to make a profit this way. The amount of the yearly harvest is deterined by the weather. (Average weather is more likely than extremely good or extremely bad weather.) At the end of the game, good strategy demands diversification. Your title is determined by a formula that allows one point for each one building, five nobles, ten clergy, fifty soldiers or merchants, two thousand serfs, five thousand florins, or six thousand hectares of land. The program also takes into consideration an economic aspect of your city-state, but conceals this from the player. Each factor is limited to a few points depending on the skill level of the game, with higher skill levels requiring more diversification. Your Justice level is subtracted from the total, so it takes much longer to achieve higher ranks with outrageous justice than it does with very fair justice. Once you gain a title, you cannot lose it, so alternating your Justice level may be effective strategy. One last word of caution: You can spend more money than you have but, without any notification, you will be charged interest at the rate of fifty percent on any balance owed after your taxes are collected. If you owe too much, you'll go bankrupt, and your realm will collapse around you. OTHER NOTES AND HINTS At the Tax and Justice Phase, you may change the levels of the tax collection and law enforcement policies of your administration. When you do so, you might note that each change will affect the total revenues brought in that year. Some policies are unproductive, and revenue figure is a good guide, although some changes take a year or so to be noticeable. While you are in the PUblic Works phase, you may press the number 6 and see a Comparison screen. This will tell each player how many serfs, nobles, clerics, etc., are present in his city- state. Remember, in order to win, you must dominate the figures in these categories. The Comparison screen can show you where to concentrate your resources. There is much information on this screen; you will see what is needed to win if you refer to it often and remember what you've seen.