While combat is dangerous, your characters will generally look out for themselves.
This self-preservation prevents your characters from staying till the bitter end when victory is nowhere in sight.
Further, your party may even avoid a fight altogether if it offers nothing but death.
Often weaker, common monsters venture near settlements such as towns and cities.
These can prove an excellent way of learning more about combat not to mention being a lucrative source of gold and treasure.
Obviously buying weapons and armour will greatly enhance your characters' survival rate although it is best to avoid heavy, encumbering armour for those that are not in too much danger.
Initiating Combat
There are two common ways to start a fight.
You can issue an ENGAGE order that will cause your party to attack the monsters or other player's party as soon as you come into contact with them.
This order will remain in place until either your party meets the target, or you issue a new ENGAGE order or the turn ends.
If your party is in the same location as your target when you issue the order, your party will attack immediately. Multiple ENGAGE orders can be used in an attempt to finish off any monsters that fled, though this will not work against other players' parties. Alternatively, issue a new ENGAGE order for another target and move to fight this.
Within settlements, laws prohibit the use of weapons and spells. Whilst this does not prevent fights, it means that generally a brawl at the local tavern is the only alternative. These skirmishes can be fought against other players' parties using the ENGAGE order. Typically, they are relatively harmless and can even be a lot of fun.
| Engage |
| E (target) |
| For example: E 2123 tells your party to attack on sight monster group 2123. |
The second common way a fight will start is due to your party's attitude. You can set how you would like your party to behave towards other monsters and players. The choices are friendly which is option 1, neutral which is option 2 or hostile which is option 3. This overall attitude uses 0 as the target.
You can set yp to a further eight attitudes towards specific targets. These can be a monster class (i.e. all orcs) or a monster group (i.e. orc group 3451) or another player's party. In addition to your eight specific attitudes you can set your reaction towards all monsters by using code 180. To cancel an independent attitude, use 0 as the attitude code.
Where two or more attitudes clash, the most specific attitude is used.
| Attitude |
| A (target/0/180) (attitude) |
| For example: A 180 3 would set an attitude of hostile towards all monsters. |
Initiative and Surprise
If one side or the other reacts before the other, they will gain a few vital seconds.
This of course gives them a slight edge.
One way to help avoid getting surprised is to keep a special watch out for a possible enemy using the KEEP EYES OPEN order.
| Keep Eyes Open |
| K (target) |
| For example: K 819 tells your party to be alert for any monster types 819. |
Tracking
Monsters are computer controlled and have a degree of intelligence.
They do not sit about waiting to become a player's next meal but have their own agenda.
If you see a monster on your map and wish to attack them the following turn, they may have moved a few sectors before you get there.
In case this has happened, it is often a good idea to move to their last location and then issue a TRACK order followed by one or more ENGAGE orders.
| Track |
| T (target) |
| For example: T 3849 tells your party to follow the trail of monster group 3849. |
