This tutorial is highly recommended for those who are playing Fantasy Kommander for the first time or have little knowledge of strategy games.

Fantasy Kommander is a turn-based strategy RPG.

In the first chapter in Campaign Mode, you lead the armies of the Adamantia Empire, risen once again thanks to a new alliance between humans, elves and dwarves.

Most of your interaction with the game is through the mouse. You will select, move, fight and analyze armies on the Battlefield or in the Managing Phase using a simple point-and-click system.

To move the camera over the battlefield, use the arrow keys, WASD or mouse over and click the borders of the game screen.

For all other moves, use the mouse.

The Battlefield

The first thing to do at the beginning of a battle in Campaign Mode is to place your armies (in War Academy Mode, both armies are already placed). Click on an icon/face in the army box, and a white grid will appear on the battlefield (You can explore the battlefield using the arrow keys as explained in General Info). Select the square where you want to place the army by clicking on it. You can also select the orientation of the army by clicking one of the four square adjacent to it (you will see 4 red arrows). A tip: try not to expose your flank or rear to your enemy.

Â

As soon as you have placed all of your armies, or there isn't space to place them, select confirm in the army box and the battle will begin!
Don't be afraid if the first move goes to your enemy, this will give you time to plan your strategy for victory.

As you can see, the game takes place over a gridded board containing the different types of terrain which make up the battlefield. Each terrain has characteristics that affect the fight.
For examples: defending on a mountainous terrain is easier than on the plains, moving on a road with cavalry is faster than through a forest (well, if you're not an Elf!).

Though each army comprises a hundred men, it is represented by a single miniature figure.
The bases of these figures have different colors: the armies of the Adamantia Empire stand on a white base, Kaos armies on a black one, the Adamantia General on a red base, and the Kaos General on a green one.

At the centre of the base, a number indicates the remaining life of the army. At its sides are two spheres: the green one indicates whether the army can move, the red one whether the army can attack.

To obtain information about an army, mouse over it, and a tooltip will appear displaying the name/type of the army, life points, experience level, weapons level, and armour level.

You can examine the characteristics of armies and terrain by clicking on the "info" button on the bottom right of the screen and then on the army/terrain you would like to inspect. To close this window, click on the "info" button again.

Every battle turn is composed of two action phases, one for you and the other for your enemy. The order of execution of the phases is randomly determined at the beginning of the turn and is influenced by the "initiative" value of the generals on the battlefield.
During your action phase you can move, entrench, activate special abilities and/or spells, or fight with one, all or no armies.
To use an army, you must click on it to select it. The squares where the unit can move will be highlighted. To attack an enemy army click on it: your own army will move and will attack the enemy in hand-to-hand or in ranged combat, depending on its attack type.
At the bottom left of the interface, you can see the details and the results of the fights, while on the battlefield you will see the damage taken by your enemy.
Remember that you can orient an army before or after movement (but not after an attack) using the orientation button at the bottom left of the interface.

Entrenching an army raises its defense abilities (the amount depends on the type of the unit; for example, infantry gets a larger defensive bonus than cavalry). It's possible to entrenching a single army 5 consecutive times. You lose a level of entrenchment after every attack or defensive action. You completely lose the effect of entrenchment when you move. You cannot entrench if you are in an enemy ZOC (Zone of Control)

By activating a special ability, your armies will benefit from its bonuses for one or more turns. All armies acquire special abilities when they acquire a new level, some of them (such as generals) have a special ability from the beginning. Activating a special ability is considered an "extra" action if it is performed before any movement or attack by the army with the ability. Activating a special ability cancels the effects of any other ability still in use. The effects of area special abilities available to generals sum with those of the single armies.

When you have finished your actions, click on the hourglass icon on the bottom right of the screen to end your turn.

Fantasy Kommander is a game with straightforward commands, but it features many rules and tactical options. In your battles and campaigns, try to remember these:

•Never forget the Primary Objective and the amount of turns at your disposal to achieve it.
•On the battlefield, Primary Objectives are labeled using names written entirely in UPPERCASE.
•On the battlefield, Secondary Objectives are labeled using names where only the first letter is in uppercase.
•Look at the briefing if you need to be reminded of the Objectives and the available battle turns.
•An army that moves cannot perform a ranged attack after moving.
•An army using a ranged attack cannot move after the attack.
•An army attacking in hand-to-hand combat cannot move after the attack.
•An army that moves can subsequently attack in hand-to-hand combat;
•An army can be oriented only before an attack.
•An army can be oriented after moving.
•Try to attack your enemies in from the flank or the rear. Try to avoid being attacked from the flank or from the rear. From these angles, the target of an attack suffers a huge defensive penalty.
•Try to defend on terrain such as mountains, forests, or inside villages, fortresses and towns: you will receive a valuable defensive bonus. Avoid defending in open plains.
•Inside villages, fortresses and buildings, armies usually don't suffer any penalty when defending against hand-to-hand attacks coming from the flank or the rear.
•Armies attacking units inside villages, fortresses and buildings usually don't receive a bonus when attacking enemies on the flank or the rear.
•Orienting the army has no movement cost, but you can do it only once in a turn, BEFORE performing an attack. You can orient the army after moving it.
•Cavalry armies are most effective in the plains.
•Usually, it is better to attack or defend a town or a fortress with infantry rather than with cavalry.
•The defensive ability of every army progressively decreases every time it suffers an attack, even if the attack was not successful.
•In order to perform a ranged attack, you must have a fire line free of mountains, hills, towns, etc. (but there can be armies).
•Every army has a "ZOC" (zone of control) consisting of every square adjacent to the army's square, excluding the three squares behind its back.
•The movement of every army stops as soon as it enters an enemy ZOC.
•Catapults have a damage bonus when they attack armies in buildings such as fortresses, castles, etc.
•Elven armies have large movement and combat bonuses in forest terrain.
•Dwarven armies have large movement and combat bonuses on mountain terrain.

World Map

On the World Map, you can follow the geographical and narrative development of your military campaign.

The battles you have won are represented by crossed swords edged in green. Those that you have yet to fight are represented by the same symbol edged in red. To proceed, you must click on the red crossed swords, read the title or synopsis for the battle, and confirm.

After certain decisive battles, you will come to a narrative and strategic crossroads, and must chose between roads that will lead you towards different challenges and game endings. Read the battle synopses with care, for after you have decided to take a certain road, you probably won't be able to come back (unless you play the campain again).

Managing Phase

Before and after every battle, you will go through the Managing Phase which allows you to buy, sell, and upgrade armies.

Every army can be upgraded in three ways:

• Increasing the experience level (upgrading characteristics and special abilities)
• Upgrading weapons (increasing damage)
• Upgrading armor (increasing armor protection and defense %).

When increasing an army's level you face two consecutive phases:

• Increasing the level of characteristics
• Acquisition of special abilities/spells (only at levels 2,3,5,10).

The increase of characteristics can happen either automatically, or by manually distributing the characteristic points you have received. You must assign all characteristic points in order to proceed.

The acquisition of special abilities/spells happens only at levels 2,3,5,10 and follows an abilities tree, where in order to obtain the next ability/spell, you must have previous knowledge of lesser abilities/spells.

Upgrading weapons and armor has a variable cost and is capped according to the experience level of the army (for example, a second-level army can receive no more than two upgrade in weapons and/or armor).

Upgrading your weapons increases the damage your army causes to enemies in battle.

Upgrading armor increases the protection values and the defense % against enemy attacks.

Think carefully about your choices in these phases because you won't be able to come back!

Â

(thanks to Kristof Richmond for the correct translation)

Â