User Guide

17
to negotiate all sorts of agreements with other
rulers; and to hire new generals or admirals to
lead your military forces. Keep a close eye on
this value, particularly if you are at war. As is
the case with all of the pools, the rate of replen-
ishment is determined by a wide variety of fac-
tors that are discussed throughout the rest of
the manual. You may have a maximum of five
diplomats in your country’s pool at any one
time.
Missionary Pool: Missionaries
are used to convert wayward
provinces to your country’s offi-
cial religion. While you are unlikely to need
very many missionaries early in the game, they
will be invaluable to you if you conquer prov-
inces that practice a different religion or if you
are playing a country anywhere in Europe
when the Reformation begins to take place. We
will talk about religion in the chapter on Do-
mestic Management and we cover the specifics
for using a missionary in the Province Manage-
ment chapter.
Spy Pool: Not all affairs of state
are honourable. Your spies will be
able to conduct a variety of clan-
destine missions that can hamper or disrupt an
enemy. Success can reap some very interesting
rewards, but failure has its consequences too.
We discuss the use of spies in the chapter on
Diplomacy. You may have a maximum of five
spies in your pool, which will slowly replenish
itself.
Date/Pause: The current date in the game is
always displayed towards the right side of the
Top Bar. Unless you pause, the date will contin-
ually advance one day at a time from whatever
starting point you have chosen until you reach
the end of the game. Most of the things you
do during play will require a certain number
of days to achieve and will usually provide you
with an estimated date of completion which
you can check against the current game date.
The display also acts as an on-screen pause but-
ton. Click anywhere on the current date display
to pause the game; click it again when you are
ready to resume. You may also pause (and un-
pause) the game using either the “pause|break”
button or space bar on your keyboard.
Game Speed: Beside the date,
you will see a graphic indication
of the current game speed setting.
If the game is paused, you will see two red bars.
Otherwise, you will see a number of small gold
arrows. The more arrows you see, the more rap-
idly each day will advance to the next. The
maximum game speed you can achieve will de-
pend on the power of your processor, and will
vary from computer to computer. To adjust the
game speed, click the “+” or “-” buttons imme-
diately to the right of the date, or use the “+”
and “-” keys on your keyboard.
The Outliner: At the extreme right
end of the Top Bar is a button that
toggles the Outliner display on or
off. We’ll talk about this amazingly powerful
tool a little later in this chapter.