Tips

Here is a Bakers Dozen of tips on how to get right into the game.

1-The game underneath the GFE is menu driven. There are details on all the menus on how the menu items work. There is also online help available when using the menu system. Just enter a question mark (?) and up will come a screen or more of help. The first menu you see when you log on, the Main Menu for the game, is the most used menu for getting things done. From the Main Menu, the first menu item you should use once you have your character is Personal Affairs (option 2).

2-Once in the Personal Affairs menu, you will check your personal characteristics . Some of these items are obvious (name, age, etc.). Others require the use of the documentation to understand. If you have played Role Playing Games before, you will note some similarities in terminology. There is a similarity and it is deliberate.

3-Now select the Financial Affairs menu and examine your fiefs. This is where your money comes from. You can raise and lower taxes. There's a catch, however, when you raise taxes, your subjects are more likely to rebel and if they do, you will have to raise troops and pacify the fief. This will cost you a lot of money and will cause damage to the fief. Moreover, in order to keep things pacified, you will have to raise taxes very slowly, if at all. Be careful, no one likes the tax man, even in the 14th century. The best technique for getting fief growth is to get a good bailiff installed and max out infrastructure growth right away and keep it there. The fief management screen is superb in deciding what levels to set, as trends can more easily be seen. And trends are what managing fiefs are all about. Watch the trends and tweak the expenditures accordingly. Tax level will eventually reach a ceiling whereby if set any higher, loyalty will decrease - and it's NOT always exactly 20% (it may be higher or lower). Try to walk the tightrope between high taxes and declining loyalty, while keeping infrastructure growing at the max allowed. And don't forget to keep the level of fortification growing; after 20 years, the incremental growth adds up. Finally, Garrison and Officials (Government) spending are usually secondary and can be set to lower levels than infrastructure. But, remember, they're still important. When dealing with fief expenditures, think in terms of multiples of "per capita" GDP. That's how the system looks at them and therefore you should too. Your goal in fief management is to get GDP to the point where one can max out all expenditures and raise taxes up to the point where loyalty remains constant. Sometimes this is only possible with the rich, underpopulated, fiefs. But, once this state is reached you will be getting everything the fief can give. Unfortunately, the slum-fiefs will never reach this point.

4- Go back to the main menu and choose option 3, the Travel Menu. This is how you get around Europe. You just move from fief to fief using the keyboard number indicated. The number is to the left of the direction. Below is the fief ID code (first letter indicates kingdom, next two indicate province and unique number of the fief in that province are the last two numbers.). To the left of the fief name is the number of days it will cost to move there. The principal thing you will do when traveling is look for exceptional NPCs (Non Player Characters). Unhired NPCs are always found in the Tavern in each fief. Go there to check out and local talent and do your hiring.

5-Read the messages in the message area. They are an integral part of the game. This is where you discuss strategy and policy with other players (friends and enemies). There are several players designated as "Heralds". These folks have played the game for many months and they have it down pretty good. They ought to, as many of the current game features were their suggestions. If you ever get stuck, ask a Herald and they'll get you going again. Note that the on-line messages feature (on several different menus) will allow you to "Broadcast" a call for help to all players on-line. If a Herald is on-line, you got instant, interactive help. Use it if you need. And remember, there's no such thing as a dumb question.

Online, there is a message system that allows you to call for help (or coordinate actions with other players while online.) There is also the Interactive Court within the game that enables you to discuss things with other players online. You can also hold Real Time Conferences in a chat area.

6-Now you can get into the game. At the same time, you should get used to the Help system, which contains the equivalent of three 500 page books. In addition to help in understanding the game, there is nearly two books worth of purely historical information. But mostly, you want to know how best to use the game features, whether it be seducing your neighbors wife or laying siege to a keep.

7-Start to play and don't worry about screwing anything up real bad, because you can't. The game is very forgiving, at least in the short run. In the long run, you can get into trouble, but at least you have the luxury of plenty of time to see it coming. Try out the menu options. Some things you can't do, and the computer will tell you so (and usually why). The computer won't let you spend more money than you have to for most operations and you will be constantly informed about how much time you have left.

8-The game is played in "seasons," (Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall) with each season representing 90 games of game time. Most games have four seasons a week, the Slow Game has two and Bedlam has one season a day. As the original HYW lasted nearly 120 years, most games could go on for about two years. This is unlikely to happen, as the French position gets stronger as time goes on. So either the English will win after a month or two, or the French will grind the English down after 6-12 months of play.

9-The Daily Update. Each day at about 1 PM the game updates HYW for many decisions you have made in the previous day. In every update, new players are assigned their characters. If a new season is beginning, all the calculations relating to that are performed. This update is sometimes called the "seasonal update." If you have not used the game the previous day, the daily update will not hurt you. Your character and family will be a season older and your fiefs will continue to be managed as you last instructed. At worst, you fiefs will revert to "Auto-Bailiff " where they won't get any better, but they won't get any worse either. The "Slow Game" (Game 2) has only two updates a week, on Thursday and Sunday at 1 PM. Most games update four times a week on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday (which is always Spring, thus having the prime campaigning seasons on the weekend.)

10-The game makes provision for life and death. Just as in the 14th century, this game puts heavy emphasis on family and family relationships. Your best form of insurance is a large family (especially a lot of sons). When your current character dies, you choose a member of your family becomes your new character, and so on. Another important asset is friends in high places. If someone comes roaring into your fiefs, and takes some (or all of them), your king and other strong friends are the ones most likely to make you whole again. So one of the first things you should do is contact your king in the RT (or the other king, if you feel like trying to be a successful traitor) and pledge allegiance. The king, if he trusts you, will then let you into the private category for that kingdom, where you can talk freely without the other kingdom's nobles knowing what you are up to. As for your family, the prudent thing is to spread them out. This is what 14th century nobles did, sending their young sons off to the fiefs of strong nobles to serve as "pages and squires" in the households of their mighty friends. In the game, you do this by arranging to place your sons in the households of stronger friends.

11-If a player has to go on vacation, or otherwise be away from the game for a few days, arrangements can be made for another player to watch over the vacationing players fiefs. One can put the fiefs under another players management, too. This will compensate the caretaking player (with half the managed fiefs surplus) and provides the managing player with a little more incentive to keep the vacationing players fiefs in good shape. Even players who are active in the game often prefer to have some of their fiefs managed by other players. This is especially true of players who have a lot of fiefs.

12- This Help system contains considerable information describing every aspect of the game. For example, one thing you will encounter a lot is the characteristics and skills of player and nonplayer characters. We have provided a chart summarizing the effects of the nearly one hundred skills players may have. While these skills are somewhat similar to magic spells in role playing games, you can't acquire skills except the ones you are born with. You can use the skills of your NPCs to perform many crucial tasks, such as running fiefs and defending fiefs.

13-Lastly, the game was designed to be simple to get into, yet with a lot of depth and a forgiving nature as you explore all the nooks and crannies. If you act like a proper 14th century aristocrat (look after your family, make a lot of friends) you should have no trouble. But then, if you're looking for trouble, there's a lot of that here too.

Note that during development of new features, you will encounter items that are in the process of being implemented. When you select one of these unimplemented features, you will get a message telling you that it is not yet implemented. Each week, however, new features are implemented.