VIKING RAIDERS
(Firebird)
(c) Mark Lucas


THE GAME
Viking Raiders is a war game for 1, 2, 3 or 4 (any combination of
human and/or computer) players. You can watch your Vikings move from
their castles, fight with swords, board boats and sail down the Fjord,
attack castles, seize gold from treasure chests and fire catapults.
Each army is led by a Viking Chief (Wotan the Wicked, Odin the Odious,
Brunhilda the Bold and Egbert the Execrable) whose name can be
personalised, to add to the fun.

LOADING
1. Connect the EAR socket of your Spectrum to the EAR socket of your
   tape recorder.
2. Place the tape in your tape recorder and rewind to the beginning.
3. Type LOAD"" and press ENTER on your Spectrum.
4. Press PLAY/LOAD on your tape recorder.
NOTE: Full loading instructions can be found in your Spectrum manual.

PLAYING THE GAME
Once Viking Raiders has loaded you will be offered a demonstration. A
guide to the game's symbols will also be offered; these should be
referred to when reading the instructions overleaf.

If you want to start a new game (during play or demonstration), press
CAPS SHIFT and Q.

THE PLAYERS
The number of HUMAN players required is indicated by pressing keys 1
to 4, then the number of COMPUTER (Vikings) players with the keys 0 to 3.
Any combination of HUMAN and/or COMPUTER players (up to a maximum of
four) can be used. There is no need for all four armies to be in play
in one game.

SEQUENCE OF PLAY
The players' turns are:
first - BLUE army,
second - RED army,
third - PINK army,
fourth - GREEN army.
During each player's turn:
* each army is offered a move
* then each boat (NOT unmanned boats)
* then each catapult
* each catapult is then invited to FIRE
* lastly, the BUY? menu (if you have any gold left). When you have
  finished buying, press N.
Then on to the next player.
Computer Vikings buy automatically, move automatically and dislike
strangers!

MOVEMENT
A symbol (army, catapult, etc.) will flash when it is ready to move.
Movement is set to NORMAL ORDER at the start of each player's turn.
A direction indicator is shown at the bottom right of the screen.
For NORMAL ORDER movement simply press keys 1 to 8 to select the
DIRECTION and the symbol will move as far as possible in that
direction.
				OR
To control DISTANCE (as well as DIRECTION), press S to select SPECIAL
ORDER movement. Then press keys 1 to 8 for DIRECTION and 1 to 9 for
DISTANCE. To return to NORMAL ORDER, press N.
If you do NOT wish to move, press 0.

BOATS
Boats can be used to transport armies across the Fjord, or to ram an
opponent.

CATAPULTS
Catapults may be fired once only each turn, after selecting the
direction and distance (a maximum of 9 spaces).
Computer catapults have unlimited range.

DRINKING HORNS
Beware the evils of drink! If a Viking walks into (and empties) a
drinking horn they will become uncontrollable!

GOLD
Each HUMAN player starts the game with a Gold hoard of 50 coins.
Depending on your financial situation at the time, you can buy one
boat and one catapult each turn, and as many armies as will fit in the
space around your castle. You can increase your spending power by
carrying treasure from a treasure chest to your castle.
COMPUTER Vikings have no spending limit and will always buy the maximum.
Note that a different symbol is used for a Viking army in possession
of treasure.

TACTICS
The following are some tactics that can be tried, and the names of the
people who use them:
The Admiral         Buys lots of boats ...
Captain Birdbrain   Gets them stuck in the ice!
The Alcoholic       Seems to encounter a lot of drinking horns and has
                    more drunken army than sober ...
Temperance          Uses the catapults to destroy the drinking horns.
Whizz-Kid           Buys lots of catapults ...
The Traditionalist  Never buys a catapult (too new-fangled!).
The Peace Lover     Keeps out of fights, builds up an enormous army
                    and waits until the other players have virtually
                    eliminated each other.
The Miser           Keeps on bringing back treasure to build up the
                    Gold hoard ...
The Spoiler         Stops the Miser by catapulting at the treasure box.
The Bridge Builder  Places boats to make a static bridge, to move
                    armies across the Fjord.
The Hero            A drunken Viking who attacks and destroys an enemy
                    castle ...
The Thinker         A drunken Viking who gets sobered-up by the enemy,
                    and joins them.
The Optimist        Attacks ALL the other players in the same turn.
Three Blind Mice    Three HUMAN players who fight and destroy each
                    other so that the final winner is the COMPUTER.

WINTER
When the Nordic winter sets in, ice will gradually move down from the
North to freeze the Fjord.

WINNING
To defeat an opponent you must attack their castle. Like real battles,
this may take several attempts before you achieve success. All
defeated armies, boats and catapults belong to the Victor.
The WINNER is the player with the last castle and all the pieces.