Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio
Tutorial for version 2.3.0 · a solo game for one ruler
How to begin
Press Play in the Tronsoft Games library to open the illustrated cover. Choose New Reign to open setup, or Continue / Resume Saved Game when a reign is available. The cover also offers Rules, Tutorial, Manual and a Sound toggle. The setup window asks for your name and title (Lord or Lady), how many computer rivals you want (none to five; two is the default), the difficulty (Apprentice to Grand Master), a scenario, and whether to play with Dynasties. Leave Guided first years ticked for your first game: through 1400 and 1401 the Steward points at what to do in each phase. Press Begin the Reign.
You rule the city-state of Santa Paravia. Your realm is on the left (title, treasury, people, works); the actions of the current phase are on the right; the hex map of your lands is in the middle. A live realm status strip keeps key figures visible while you plan.
Controls
| Do this | With |
|---|---|
| Act in the current phase | Buttons on the right; Enter continues to the next phase |
| Pan / zoom the map | Drag; mouse wheel or pinch; the + − and ⌂ buttons; + - 0 |
| Navigate with the minimap | Click or drag the minimap; focus it with Tab and use the arrow keys |
| Center on your city or inspect map layers | Use the city-centering control and the Soil / Domains views |
| Open the Council | Q or Council in the header |
| Open the Market Exchange | E or Exchange; view in any phase, purchase during your Market phase |
| Plan a trade road | Open the trade-road planner during Works and select a neighbor |
| Claim a border hex | Click a gold-outlined hex during the Market |
| Improve, clear or lay a road | Click a hex of your land (or beside the walls) during Works |
| Annals, Astrologer, Courts, Saves, Rules | A F C S R, or the header buttons |
| Return to the cover | Cover in the game header; Continue returns to the current reign |
| Close any window | Esc, the × button, or a click outside it |
Read the Council before committing
Open Council (Q) for a prioritized overview of the realm. It highlights food and seed reserves, treasury pressure, defense and public mood; shows the standing still needed for the next title; and ranks living rulers in the race for the crown. The Council summarizes the current situation without making decisions for you.
Before Census, its food plan aims for a generous ration of 135% of demand, allowing for the maximum grain release and a reserve for seed. After Census has applied the current year's ration, the plan switches to seed reserves only. Population, land, weather and events can change the next year's needs and yield, so this is a planning target rather than a promise of a future harvest.
The public-works comparison shows each purchase's immediate standing change. Use it alongside the treasury, food and defense warnings: standing gained immediately does not measure a building's full future economic or social value.
Preview grain trades
In the domestic Market, enter a grain quantity to see the cost or proceeds and the treasury remaining after the trade. The food reserve preset fills the quantity needed toward the current food-and-seed plan; the safe surplus preset fills an amount that retains that planning reserve. Inspect the quantity and price, then press Buy or Sell to commit. Choosing a preset does not execute a trade.
A reserve protects the current plan, not every possible future event. Recheck the Council if you buy land or your realm's circumstances change. The original market prices, transaction rules and undo behavior still apply.
Compare suppliers in the Market Exchange
Open Exchange (E) to compare the home market with neighboring grain markets. Foreign quotes include carriage, so compare the delivered price rather than the posted grain price alone. The Exchange also shows the remaining foreign market quotas.
Enter the quantity you want to purchase. The purchase plan fills it from sources with lower delivered unit prices first, using each foreign source only up to its remaining quota. Review the proposed quantities, exact total cost and treasury afterward. Prices are rounded for the actual transactions, so use the total displayed for your plan when deciding what you can afford.
Choose Buy planned grain to execute the plan during your Market phase. Viewing the Exchange, changing the quantity and preparing a plan do not buy grain. You can inspect the Exchange in other phases, but purchases must wait for your Market. The existing Undo trades command restores the year's Market transactions, including purchases made through the Exchange.
Plan trade roads and bridges
During Works, open the trade-road planner and choose a neighbor. It finds the route with the lowest additional construction cost under the current map conditions. Existing usable road stretches help reduce the cost; bridges and other new stretches are included in the plan.
Inspect the route preview on the map and review the total cost, bridges, projected annual trade income and grain carriage effects. Income and carriage depend on the neighboring realm and any active pact. A connection to an unpacted baron can also make invasion more likely under the existing rules.
Build the next stretch when you want to proceed step by step, or choose the command to build the whole road when the plan is affordable. A build order checks the route and treasury before construction. Reopen or refresh the plan after changes to the realm so your order reflects current conditions.
Read the diplomacy briefing
Before sending envoys or marching on a neighbor, review the diplomacy briefing. It shows treaty status, the envoy cost and acceptance chance, and the battle strength ranges used by the current rules. When the ranges overlap, the outcome depends on the battle rolls. The briefing identifies a certain victory or defeat only when every possible roll produces that result. The actual encounter rolls when you commit.
Reading a briefing does not spend money, move an army or consume a random roll. Choose the existing envoy or attack command only when you are ready. Existing yearly action limits and treaty restrictions still apply.
Navigate and inspect the realm
The minimap provides an overview of the whole realm. Click or drag it to reposition the main map. When the minimap has keyboard focus, use the arrow keys to move the view. The city-centering control brings your own city back into view. The Soil view helps distinguish growing conditions, while Domains emphasizes which ruler controls each area. These are display aids; they do not change ownership or soil.
The main map's existing drag, wheel/pinch, zoom buttons and +, -, 0 controls remain available.
Turn order
Each year runs Harvest → Market → Granary → Census → Exchequer → Works, then End the Year. The computer rulers then take their years in turn; you watch a summary of what each did and press the button to continue. The year advances when every living ruler has played.
- Harvest. Read the yield and the tidings. Some tidings ask a decision; answer it before the Market.
- Market. Buy or sell grain and land at home or grain abroad. Undo trades puts everything back as you found it.
- Granary. Release grain to the people. The forecast shows what the ration will do before you commit.
- Census. See births, deaths, migrants, plague and any invasion.
- Exchequer. Set customs, sales and income tax and justice; proclaim edicts; collect.
- Works. Build marketplaces, mills, palace wings, cathedral works and platoons; improve hexes, lay roads, send envoys or march on a neighbour.
Movement
Nothing walks the map: your realm moves by growing. Buying land takes the nearest hexes; claiming takes the very hex you click. Fields spread from the walls, the walls swell with your people, and roads you lay hex by hex reach out toward your neighbours. Armies march only when you or a rival declares war in Works, and invaders carve land from the edge of a realm.
Combat and scoring
Combat. In Works, choose a neighbour and March on them: your soldiers against theirs decide whether you seize land or lose men. Keep enough soldiers for the land you hold (the Works panel tells you how many) or a neighbour will invade. A pact made with envoys gives three years of peace.
Scoring. Your standing is weighed every year from marketplaces, mills, palace, cathedral, treasury, land, merchants, nobles, soldiers, clergy, serfs and public works, each up to a limit, less a penalty for harsh justice. Each year you may rise one title when your standing passes the next mark on the ladder (left).
Winning conditions
You win when you are crowned King or Queen.
Losing conditions
You lose if a computer ruler is crowned first; if your reign ends — by age or sickness, an assassin, a starving mob or rebels — with no heir (Dynasties lets an heir take up the line one title lower); or if a Dynasties game reaches 1550 with no one crowned. Debt does not end the game, but creditors seize works and land.
Saving and restarting
The game saves itself in this browser after every action, and offers Resume Saved Game on the cover the next time you open it. Returning to the cover with Cover does not clear the current reign; use Continue to return to it. Saves (S) holds three more slots, exports the game to a file and imports it again, and keeps the display options: larger text, high contrast, a still map, music and volume. New Game in the header, or A New Reign when a reign ends, starts again.
The core rules are in the in-game Rules window and in the packaged manual (docs/manual.pdf). This tutorial includes the Council and map tools, plus the Market Exchange, road planning and diplomacy briefings in version 2.3.0.