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Silk Manual and Almanac

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Silk Manual and Almanac Copyright © 2019 International Hobo Ltd 6th September 2019, Silk v1.4.2 Welcome to the Map (Tab) world of Silk! You can open Install the game the map with using Steam, and Tab and use + then please use the and – to zoom in keyboard or a and out. controller to play. You can use Enter to mute the landscape colours To exit, press Esc for the Pause Menu then ‘Quit’. and make the settlements and shrines stand out more. This may also help colour blind players. Starting Your Caravan Tip: You will see farther on the map based on the Start the game by choosing which of four Heroic highest Wayfare skill in your Caravan. Try to hire Destinies to follow. This will set your goal for the a guide with Excellent or Superior Wayfare. game. Next, select which Advisor is the Hero whose Save Heroic Destiny you chose. Finally, select which Every time you visit a settlement that is not Advisor is the Companion who accompanies your hostile towards you, the game will save. It will Hero. You will have a choice of four different also save at every Caravanserai. classes here, and each should have a different portrait. You can have up to four save slots, each with a different game save. Tip: the Traveller is an ideal Destiny for new players. However, if you enjoy a tougher You can return to the title screen if you wish to challenge, you could start as the Warlord or reload, and you will have a choice of any of the Noble. last settlements you visited. Tip: the game is not saved when you quit, so plan Movement (Cursor or ASWD) to finish up each play session by reaching a Use either Cursor Keys or ASWD to move around Caravanserai or a neutral or friendly settlement. the Ancient Silk Road Roster and Town Menu (Space) • Left and Right to change view (8 directions) Press Space to access the Roster and the Town Menu, or to exit it. You can see the direction you • Forward to advance are facing at the bottom of the screen. • Back to about-face • Left and Right to cycle the Caravan or Town menu (8 slots) Tip: different terrain has no effect on your movement speed, but you cannot enter Foothills, • Down to jump to Inventory (facing you Mountains, or Deep Water. North) Time • Press Space again to exit the Roster or Town Menu Every time you move, time will pass. After the sun sets, you will make a camping decision – Tip: Provisions are always at North East, and choose wisely! Guards (if they are available) will be at East. If a settlement holds livestock Auctions, these are Tip: You will travel fastest if you have a Horse for always at North West. Remember, you can face every Advisor and Guard in your Caravan, and North by using Down (or S). slowest if somebody has to travel on foot. 2 | S i l k Encounters (1,2,3,4) Battle These occur whenever something happens, When you encounter hostile forces, you will including camping at the end of each day. Listen make a decision about how to engage. If you to suggestions, and choose one to pursue! have Guards and a Soldier in your caravan, you can skirmish and attempt to win the battle. • Tap 1,2,3 or 4 to hear an Advisor's Otherwise, you may try and parlay, offering suggestion goods for your safe passage. • Hold 1,2,3 or 4 to implement an Advisor's Tip: twenty Guards is more than enough to plan protect against bandits, but you will not get far Many of the choices you face will earn your when you declare war without several hundred Advisors’ experience, helping them gain in skill. Guards! Tip: if the goods bar (see below) doesn’t appear, Trade (Enter) you have nothing to gain or lose by choosing that option. This can be extremely helpful at times! Choose a Goods or Livestock stall and press Enter to start trading for it. Camping Then, pick an Advisor (1,2,3 or 4) who is suggesting a specific trade such as 'Silver for Silk" to make a begin haggling. • Up/Down to change offer by 1 • Left/Right to change offer by 10 • Enter to accept trade or Esc to cancel Tip: if you don’t like the deal, use Esc and try again! When camping, choices that involve hunting and fishing give Wayfare experience, choices involving the livestock give Animals experience, Tasks choices that guard against attack give Battle You can check your current Task by finding your experience, and choices that protect goods give Hero on the Roster. This will also tell you how Trade experience. Almost all other choices will many days you have to complete the Task. (If it give Rituals experience. doesn't have a number of days, you can take as long as you like). All Advisors gain bonus Provisions experience when you complete a Task. Every Advisor and Guard needs 1 Provision to eat At the end of your adventure you'll receive a every night. Make sure everybody has enough to Mastery percentage based upon the number of eat – your Caravan will be lost if you go for three Tasks you successfully completed. You haven't days without feeding everyone! If you do lose mastered a Destiny if you cannot get 100% your caravan, you can continue from the last Mastery! settlement you visited. Need help getting started? Try the Beginners Tip: in the battle game, you will need several Guide on Steam hundred Guards so you will need to carry a great https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedet deal of Provisions. Plan your military campaign ails/?id=1821916812 with this in mind! 3 | S i l k Hints The following tips will help new players find their way in the world of Silk. Advisors Livestock ➢ Advisors are for life! You can hire up to ➢ Camels and Horses are valuable: You get seven Advisors (including the two you start one mount for each Advisor you hire, but with) but you can’t fire them. Choose wisely! you can buy more. Horses are faster (if you ➢ Classes: the highest skill upon hiring shows have no other animals) but Camels carry an Advisor’s class – Drover (Animals), Soldier much more and can take two riders each. (Battle), Ritegiver (Rituals), Merchant ➢ Oxen are the heavy transporters: if you (Trade), and Guide (Wayfare). Some actions need to carry a lot of goods or Provisions, try are only available to Advisors of a given Oxen – but they're incredibly slow… class, but many just require a high enough ➢ Sheep and Goats: Although you travel skill. slower with Sheep and Goats in the caravan ➢ Seven Advisors: your Caravan can have (roughly the same as with Oxen), you can seven Advisors. There are definite benefits to milk them to feed the caravan any night you extra Merchants, Soldiers, and Ritegivers... end up in grassland. ➢ Capturing wild animals is difficult! Wayfare Travel can help provide tactics, but it's skill with ➢ Directions: Engage the Roster with Space to Animals you need to make the catch. see which direction you are facing. There ➢ Capturing Many Horses: Some places are were no magnetic compasses in 200AD, and ideally suited to catching Horses – you'll the north star was used for orientation. need both a Drover and a Guide, and you ➢ Hunting and Fishing: Hiring a Guide gives may also need half a dozen Guards… you many more options for foraging in the wilderness, provided you camp near woods Battle or water. Don't run out of food! ➢ Combatants: Each Guard counts as one ➢ Spirit: travelling long distances can become combatant, two if they are on a Horse. depressing… the Caravan’s Spirit will fall if Advisors with Battle skills count as at least you don't find ways to raise morale. Spirit one combatant too (and much more if their affects all skill checks. Rituals can help keep Battle skill is high enough!). Spirit high, but you may need a Ritegiver... ➢ How many Bandits...? For each figure in an Don’t let Spirit fall too low! attacking Bandit group, there will be roughly five Bandits. Parlay if they outnumber you! Bazaar ➢ How many Militia...? Towns take defensive ➢ Why Can't I Buy That…? It's not enough to positions if you have twice as many Guards want something, your Advisors have to have as their defenders, roughly 20 Militia for a good reason to want to trade for it. each figure defending a town or village – ➢ Silver and Wool travel east, Spices and Silk although Roman forces may be larger. travel west: Spices are cheapest in the ➢ How many Troops...? When an army attacks Kushan Empire, Silk in the Han Empire, while you, there will typically be 100 troops for Silver and Wool are cheapest in the Roman each figure shown. It is harder to judge Empire. Cavalry numbers, however, which could be ➢ Rituals are the social fabric of 200AD: If you lower than they first seem... want to make allies – and make better ➢ Where Can I Hire Guards? Some towns and trading deals – you'll want to participate in almost all Caravanserai have Guards for hire. the rites of local Temples so hire a Ritegiver The bigger the city, the more Guards in the as soon as you can. Caravanserai. An Imperial Mint will have 100-250 Guards for hire in its Caravanserai. 4 | S i l k 5 | S i l k Seventeen key cities of the Ancient Silk Road The Traveller starts at Antioch The Rebel starts at Estakhr The Warlord starts at Chach The Noble starts at Kashgar Red shows what Blue shows what you might lose, in you might gain, in this case Silver this case Horses Blue light means Red light means Spirit will rise Spirit will fall The Stations of the Silk Road by The Legions Astacus of Charax Militarily, the Roman territories An account of the Overland Trade Route between are well defended the Levant and the Orient with Cohorts of the legions numbering at 480 The arrival of the marvellous fabric known as legionnaires (800 for a First Cohort), and smaller 'Silk' from the Orient has transformed the Roman Castella [camps province of Syria, and all the territories between – see above] the coast of the Mare Nostrum [the defended by Mediterranean] and the salt marsh of Lop Nur Centuria of that lies on the fringes of the Empire of the Han, some 80 legionnaires and usually at least one a thousand leagues east of Antioch.
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