Explorers : Combat

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Combat

Combat in Cities will be fairly simple in nature. When you put together an expedition it will consist of fighting men, possibly settlers, and possibly missionaries. During combat only the fighting men will be considered as part of the explorer's total.

When you are openly attacked or when you attack a settlement, you will be presented with a pop-up dialog/page similar to what you find when doing similarly in Warlords 1/2 or Civ. You will be shown the two sides that are going to do battle. The native side will show its fighting men as a group and possibly a unique native leader. The explorer side will do similarly along with the explorer himself - the conquistador - as leader. The native leader will impart some bonus during combat, and if the explorer has chosen the "bonus during combat" ability then they too will impart a bonus during all combat. Every second or two some men from both sides will be removed from the combat screen with accompanying battle cries and visuals. Combat will typically only last five or so seconds.

The result of the combat can be one of the following: explorer is defeated and captured and ransomed, explorer is routed and escapes with only a few fighting men and any civilians, natives are defeated. If this was an open attack, the natives will just disappear. If this was an attack on a settlement, the number of people in the settlement is decreased, as the fighting men are considered part of the population of the settlement. In addition, the conquering explorer can now loot any food, info, or gold/silver/gems from the settlement.

If the explorer is defeated either in the open or during an attack on a settlement, then the explorer loses some or all of the gold/silver/gems, food, goods, and info that the expedition was carrying. In the case that the explorer is captured, the entire expedition is lost with all contents. In addition, the player will now have to pay out a ransom out of his own pocket, and in the case they do not have enough they are now in debt and must repay this amount.

Brainstorm

• Tenochtitlan was just one of a collection of cities on a lake. The island in the middle of the lake contained two cities - Tenochtitlan and Tlatelolco. There were canals throughout the island, and there were causeways from the island to the shores of the lake. There were bridges that could be removed during war. In addition, there was much canoe traffic between the cities on the edges of the lake and the cities on the lake itself. When Cortes fled, his forces were hit by warriors rushing towards them, in particular using canoes as a means to quickly advance on the fleeing army. Might consider expanding combat/communication in the large cities as mentioned earlier, and this gives good insight into how we might represent in an arcadish manner one form of combat.