How to Play First Steps Once you enter the game, the map is centred over the central area of Italy; you are under control of the dark-blue coloured civilization, also known as the Romans. There are a few cultures in the vicinity of your empire, another civilization to the south, a purple colour, and a much larger civilization to the north. The allegiance of the square is shown by a box in the centre of the square which is coloured, it is also displays the population of the square, because the larger the population, the larger the square. One of your units inside one of the squares has a white border around the square where it is currently located; this is the unit that is currently selected. To move a unit, simply press the arrow keys and it will move into the desired square, to select a different unit, right click on the unit that you want to select. Battles Battles take place when units from two different civilizations, or the indigenous defensive forces of a culture, meet in an individual square. Battles can only take place if the odds of the attacker being victorious meet the civilizations minimum attack odds (this can be changed with the 8 and 9 keys, increasing and reducing by 0.1 respectively). If the odds turn out to be particularly bad for the defenders, they will try and flee (the odds rating before retreating can be changed with the 6 and 7 keys, increasing and reducing by 0.1 respectively). The battle is currently in three stages, allowing the attacker to call off the attack, or the defender to flee, as the odds can change during the course of the battle. The reason behind having the 'odds system' is because it allows a realistic combat system, for instance, in real life, a small group of horsemen armed with primitive weapons would not attack a larger force of modern riflemen, simply because they would have no in surviving. Currently, moving an attacking force costs $2 per point of Military Power, and a defending force $1. Diplomacy Attacking another civilization automatically constitutes a declaration of war at the moment, and only the other civilization can ask for a change of diplomatic stance. (Although this doesn't greatly reduce player flexibility, since competing civs will usually propose any potential a mutually agreeable deal.) Cultures, however, are different. Each culture is made up of lots of smaller states, once an attack on a culture's square is launched there is a random chance that the entire culture will declare war on a civilization. Movement, Combat, and Intelligence Movement Movement is simultaneous. Player TFs move in a fashion similar to that in Civilization 2, using many of the same key shortcuts for now. You never know how many of the enemy will be in any particular square, since you don't see its movement. For now AI military units simply teleport, since the movement AI is not ready for prime time yet. The AI can only see, and attack, within two squares of its controlled area. There is also no "fog of war" yet, you see all the information as it was at the beginning of the turn. Combat Combat is only resolved after All movement has ended and the new turn button has been pushed. The defender in a combat automatically receives a 50% bonus to its combat strength (also called military power). Support in Combat Units will automatically support friendly units in combat in adjacent squares, provided enough movement remains. This is to simulate detection of the enemy army nearing before the actual combat, and the massing of any nearby forces available before combat. TFs on sentry duty will automatically return to their post after supporting. This is one of the Many ways we are going to reduce micromanagement in Clash through thoughtful design.