User Guide

21
based activities. You will use this interface to
construct new “improvements” that will help
to increase the economic or military contribu-
tion that the province makes to your country.
You will also use it to recruit new regiments to
serve in your armies and to build new ships to
be added to your navy. If the province does not
currently share your official state religion, you
will also access the province interface to send a
missionary to convert the population. You will
find all of the details in the Province Manage-
ment chapter.
Diplomatic Interface
If you click on a province that is owned by an-
other country, the Diplomatic Interface will
open. You will see some general information
about the province as well as a series of impor-
tant diplomatic options that you may wish to
pursue with the province’s owner. You will use
this interface to suggest an alliance, declare
war, settle peace, and a wide variety of other
possible negotiations. Details about all of the
diplomatic actions can be found in the Diplo-
macy chapter.
Colonization Interface
If a province is currently un-owned, clicking
on it will display some basic information about
the province as well as the Colonization Inter-
face. You will use this to establish and later ex-
pand a colonial settlement which, in time, may
grow into a full-fledged colonial city. We will
look at this interface in the chapter on Explora-
tion and Colonization.
Map Units
Beyond pursuing the finer points of diplomacy
and managing your realm, most of your day-to-
day actions will probably involve moving your
armies and fleets around the map to explore
new provinces or prosecute your wars. Armies
and fleets appear on the map as over-scale ani-
mated models that are large enough to select
and move without being forced to zoom in too
close on the map. Once you zoom the map out
to a certain distance, these will disappear and
be replaced by a marker that carries your coun-
try’s coat of arms. We will discuss armies and
navies in detail in the Military section of the
manual, but the basic approach to controlling
a unit is to select it on the Main Map by click-
ing on it, and then right-click on the province
to which you would like it.
You will only be able to see your own units
on the map, or units that are located in prov-
inces that are not currently covered by the fog
of war. To move into a province that belongs
to another country, you must have some sort
of diplomatic agreement that allows you to do
so, or you must be at war with that country.
Water provinces do not belong to anyone, so
your fleets may freely enter any water province
you wish.
Provinces that are currently shown as terra
incognita on your map cannot be entered un-
less your unit is controlled by a special type of
leader: a “conquistador” for armies, or an “ex-
plorer” for fleets. We’ll talk about these in the
Exploration and Colonization chapter. Any
part of the map that is “permanent terra in-
cognita” is too remote or hostile for your units
and can never be entered at any time during
the game.
Messages and the
History Log
You will periodically receive on-screen mes-
sages to inform you of things that may be par-
ticularly important to you during play. This
includes reports from your military about bat-
tles or sieges, messages from your diplomats
about the success or failure of their missions,
information from merchants about their activi-
ties in centers of trade, reports from your spies
about the outcome of their missions, and many
other things of importance. There will also be
details of some of the commonly-known events
and happenings from throughout the known
world.