RIVER OATH - THE PLAYER'S GUIDE

The River Intendancy has stolen the dike money, and the old flood-markers
say the Great Flood will come in the seventh month of the twentieth year.
You lead a band of outlaws sworn to bring the Intendancy down.

THE MONTH. Each month your band gives one task to each place it holds, and
one more where its leader is. Choose a place on the map (arrows or a click),
press Enter, pick a task and who does it. Each person does one task a month.
Tab finds the places still waiting; E ends the turn.

THE RIVER. Boats go two links downstream in a month but only one upstream,
and each traveller needs a boat. In spring the flood channels through the
marshes open and the fords close; in autumn the fords open and the upper
streams run too low for boats going up; in winter the upper river freezes
and can be walked. Storms close the river for a month.

RICE AND SILVER. Every 10 men and every person eat 1 rice a month. Without
rice, men leave and loyalty falls. Places you hold pay rice in the ninth
month and silver in the twelfth, more where people think well of you.

TALES. What you do becomes a tale. Tales travel one link a month downstream,
and upstream or by road every second month, and fade with distance and time.
Kindness and daring raise goodwill; cruelty and slander lower it. Goodwill
lets you raise men, take empty places, expose officials and petition the
court. V shows the Tales view of the map; T lists the tales told at a place.

THE DIKES. Every dike decays each month. Repair them with rice. Any dike
below 50 breaks in the Great Flood; below 20 a summer storm may break it.
Winning while the dikes average 60 or more is THE RIVER KEPT; otherwise it
is A HOLLOW PARDON.

WINNING. Petition: bring 3 items of evidence to Jade Lock with goodwill of
50 in 8 places. Uprising: hold Jade Lock and the Tide Gate for 12 months
running. Amnesty: when 4 of the 5 officials have fallen, the band that
brought down the most (2 at least) is pardoned. Officials fall when exposed
(evidence read out where goodwill is 60), turned (swayed) or captured in
battle. Steal evidence at an official's seat.

BATTLES. A raid on a garrison or another band starts a battle on the hex
field. Click a unit to choose it, a lit hex to move, an enemy to attack (1-4
choose the way). Archers shoot two or three hexes; a charge needs a move
first; a unit halted in the reeds hides and can ambush. Boats carry units on
deep water and drift downstream at night unless led by a boatman. Take the
enemy commander, or hold the fort for two phases running.

HOT SEAT. With two or more players, a hand-over screen comes before each
player's turn, and before any question put to a player (an attack,
prisoners, an offer).

STRATEGY. New to the game? STRATEGY.txt is a short guide for new players: it
comes with the downloads (on Linux in /usr/share/doc/river-oath when
installed from the package), and is on the wiki at
retro.theiguru.au/docs/riveroath/strategy

KEYS. Arrows move, Enter chooses, Esc goes back or opens the menu, number
keys pick menu entries. On the main screen: C people, B bands, O officials,
T tales, L ledger, R record, V map view, H this help.
