DocsTemujin guide

Temujin guide

Community guide (Temujin)

Credit: Originally written by Temujin for the old new1000AD community, posted 5 February 2011. Adapted here for 1000 AD Revived (branding updated; substance is Temujin’s). See Credits.

Note: Some numbers, server paces, and balance notes are from 2011. Prefer the live topic pages (Civilizations, Units, Protection start, etc.) when they disagree. Strategy ideas (protection boom, runs, wine, research focus) still apply.

The game

1000 AD Revived continues the lineage of the original 1000AD (Andrew at Adersoft) and later community eras such as new1000AD. Temujin wrote this guide during the new1000AD period — when the code had passed through several hands (including The Boogie Woogie Man) and was being pushed back toward its former glory.

The game itself is a text-based strategy game inspired by historical civilisations — not meant to be historically accurate, but close enough for a fantasy empire game. Explore, attack, or mix both; control more land than your opponents, use it better, and defend it. Play alone or in alliances — whatever gives you the best chance.

In Temujin’s day there were typically two paces (e.g. ~320 turns stored vs a faster “Blitz” up to ~800). Today each game’s turn bank and minutes-per-turn come from its mode — check the game page. Fundamentals below still match; when Temujin says “Blitz,” read it as a long turn-bank / fast-pace season.

There are typically two types of players. Players who play the game for its fictional value, and those who are true geeks and like to dissect the game into pure numbers. I happen to fall into the latter category, so will go into a little more detail into the intricacies of the game, so there is something for many people to learn about how some people go about the game, and why others are struggling.

There are a few different areas of the game that one must understand to do well, combined they are your empire. The main principle, is land control. This is done through attacking, exploring, defending, and very importantly research. Not only research, but researching the right things to best defend your empire. I will break these areas down into their different areas.

Civilisations

There are 10 civilisations you can choose from. Which you use depends a lot on what you want to achieve for the round, if you are playing alone, or what civ will help your team the most. I will try to give a reasonably accurate description of every civs abilities, but I really can make a good argument for most of them. Each have their own intricate bonuses and minuses, but in essence, they all have econ, and military.

Vikings

Vikings are a military powerhouse. Their swordsmen have 125% attack power, and their archers have 116.67% defense power (based on base units). Not only this, but they have 3 main economy options. Iron mines, woodcutters, hunters. Either way, they are a forest based civ, in regards to economy. They can be played solo, or more importantly, teamed up with a Mongol. Certainly very beneficial to a team.

Franks

Franks have an explore bonus, food bonus, and a military negative. Basically, this civ is supposed to explore. Have seen people do reasonably well attacking with them, but certainly wouldn’t recommend it to anybody less than expecting to win most rounds. It will likely not end well. Plains based civ, can fit double the farms on per land, and 133% as many towers, which are 120% the strength of base. Basically, you build farms, explore, and tower up for defense. Other options of course, but this is the basic principle for a Frank. Boring as hell, but if you don’t have much time and just want to be involved, then a good option.

Japanese

Japanese are smart peoples. They research double any other civ. But in saying that, they don’t have any econ bonuses at all except a slight farm bonus so the extra research they can create, is needed to make up for lack of bonuses. Not to mention more land needed just to pay for them. Econ, can go many different ways. The other main benefit of Japanese, is that their town centres take up 80% the land of base. Meaning, more thieves, and more catapults can be created. This is why Japanese are known for their devastating catapult abilities. Point being, they can also be used for thieving for econ, although heavily dependant on others actually having something worth stealing. They are also a heavy plains civ, so can also base their econ on food (150% of base in farms), or even wine. Most will stick with food. But with the research bonus, can easily put rls across whatever they like. Can be used to explore also, research bonus can make them tough to break, and keep up with Franks. Can be successful attacking solo, but is tricky, and probably left to the experts, typically though, they are an alliance civ. They can provide food, and wine if needed, and also catapults, if that is the goal of the alliance.

Byzantines

A lot of people consider this civ the gold maker. I personally think other civs can create more and Byzantines are generally overvalued for their place in game, but only overvalued, not redundant. They are however, a very capable civ, and if played right, can be a very good addition to an alliance, especially early. Early is when their gold shines, and often simply having a Byzantine can set up an alliance for a round of domination. As stated, their economy is gold mines, and their research should head this way. Mountain based civ. As such, all their plains land is available for storage and military, and not needed for econ, meaning they have a very capable army, and very good mage capabilities, purely based on more land being available for them, and the fact that they take up 87.5% the land of other civs mage towers. A very capable civ solo, but a lot depends on the circumstances of the round. Much safer to line up in an alliance, where you know for a fact you have weapons and wine to buy. Also reliant on other mountain based civs playing however, to keep the games mountain ratio up, although can put research elsewhere, if need be.

Mongols

Arguably the most powerful, and important civ in the game. Basically, they get a bonus on weapons making. Not only that, but weapons research goes in hand with tools research (for now anyway, if I had my way……..), where they also have a bonus. Their mage towers cost 250% of other civs, as such they are pretty much dictated where to put their rls, into weapons/tools. There is a typical level where you are able to actually produce gold simply making tools, and selling them on the local market. Buy in wood and iron (this is where a Viking is invaluable if available) on local, and there is your gold supply. Not only are they the predominant weapons making civ, they also have a huge militarty advantage, in that their forts take up 75% base land, and fit 120% troops in there. Massive army. They have a neg on attack and def capability, but their sheer size more than makes up for it. Obviously an attack civ. Can easily play solo, on either weapons sales, or simply tool sales on local market. Also generally the first civ a team of players will consider when creating a team. Team Mongols need time, and ability though, as the rest of the alliance needs him when they want to play.

Incas

Incas are a powerhouse attack civ. Would not recommend exploring with them. They have an extremely cheap army, due to not having a recognisable income. They have a negative iron production with their mines taking up 150% the mountain land of base. Their basic econ, comes from the fact that their mage towers cost 10% of base. Can research off gold fumes, and run an army off the same fumes. Their real bonus, is in their special unit. Their town centres take up 120% land of base, but their shaman (special unit) takes 5 land each. 30 land per town centre, and can take 1/6 of that land with special unit alone. Massive land grab capabilities, although sometimes you need to give some of that land grab up for attack power to make sure you can break targets. They have a mace making bonus, and a maceman bonus, so that is their typical army. Can use them as wine makers, so can easily be useful to an alliance to pay their way, but are predominantly a solo fun civ. Hard to win with, but is possible. The other options, considering the huge land grabs, is to use them as a thieving civ with catapults to compliment them. Can run their econ off that alone, and with the right research, can destroy opponents armies, so that you can then benefit off breaking them easily, with full special units in place, and growing huge, very quickly.

Chinese

Chinese are also a relatively cheap option. They are born to attack, and do it very effectively, and very destructively. Their army of choice is the trained peasant, which requires 0 weapons, and have twice the attack power, and 150% the defense power of base tps, and 300% land grab. Their special units, also take 1 land each, and you can have 3 of them per town centre. They are a very easy civ to use, and a good option if you can only play for limited time at different times of the day, as you are always attack/defense army at the same time. They have a 200% iron bonus so that is their typical econ, but don’t really need much economy. Food is another option if mountain ratio is bad, especially helpful later in the round when your army gets huge. Typically, you trade off economy rls for fort rls, to make a much bigger army than your opponent, as tps typically have around 37.5% the attack of other civs army units. You do have the option to use whichever army unit you choose, but tps are more than effective in most circumstances. If you consider their power in comparison with score value, they are stronger, and take much more land, may just need to compliment them for extra attack if needed, with another army unit. Can provide iron to an alliance, but typically, they don’t provide much more than military strength. Maybe protection to others, but certainly a very strong solo civ.

Barbarians

The predominant wine makers of the game. 200% wine making ability, and 200% mace making ability. Predominantly plains based civ, with no other econ bonus. On a per land basis, economically strong, only problem is they rely on selling their wine on public market, as such are selling their competitors what is needed to break their allies. Best used when only producing enough wine for their alliance, and selling it to them just as you are preparing to play. No point selling all your wine, to log in and find all your gold stolen. Believe me, many rounds have been ruined by pesky thieves stealing your precious gold. At some time in the future I would like wine to be added to local sales, but for now, deal with it, and plan well. They are a cheap civ to run, macemen very powerful, with low scores, which adds to their devastation, and land taking ability (score ratios effect land take and attack but will get into that later)… Great alliance member, and often are a must if you wish victory upon your team. Can be a drain on gold if you dominate and don’t need wine, but certainly a very good investment.

Turks

Absolute powerhouse civ, especially with the introduction of 1:1 conversion (can convert 1 plains to 1 forest outside of protection (previously needed 2 plains for 1 forest). They have a hunter bonus 166.67%, mine bonus 200%, horse bonus 200%, so there is where your research goes. They also have a xbow making bonus 200%, and a 150% research bonus. Along with all of that, they also have a horsemen attack/defense bonus of 110% and 75% turns to train, and a xbow attack/defense bonus of 120%/110% respectively. They have a great attack/defense army capable of being up constantly, and have a huge attack per fort space also, the units taking great land as well. Horsemen take 1 horse, and 1 sword, so they are expensive, but are very effective. Will go into them in more detail later. Can be played solo for great effect, but can also team up with others, and provide iron and food, even horses, although typically horsemen aren’t in great demand due to their turns required to train.

Zulu

Food based civ, through their 200% hunters. 1:1 conversion, so a massive economy from food. Due to this they are a very effective explorer, but they also have a very good military capability. Effectively, you will see a good Zulu on top of most rounds, right at the start. They make 200% pikes, due to their pikemen bonus of 114% for both attack/def, and 83.33% time in training. Their town centres have 200% capacity for army units, and can hold 5 special units, each taking .5 land, so 2.5 land per town centre in special units alone. Their tcs do however, take up 120% land of base. They are capable of being solo, in fact I would recommend it generally. Typically, you need to get off to a good start, and never look back. Wine is not typically needed too much as you start so far in front. You can make your own weapons, make plenty of gold for yourself, and really there is not much more you need. Can explore, attack solo, attack in an alliance. There is a very good argument for all cases, and probably the best civ to learn with through their ease of use, and adaptability.

Hopefully that gives you a rough idea of what to expect out of each civ, and helps in choosing which to try. Personally, my recommendation for somebody wanting to learn would be Vikings, or Zulus, simply because of their ease of use.

Different phases of the game

Protection

Each time you start an account, you have a set protection period made up of the maximum stored turns. Eg, Blitz, protection period of 800 turns. Very soon there will be an autopro installed into the game which will potentially make this redundant, but doing your own pro is always better, as you will learn, and end up getting double what you could get for free with autopro, so I will continue on. During this period, you cannot be attacked, and cannot attack anybody else. The point of this period is simply to set your empire up so you are in a position to make it in the real world that is the game itself. Once you have decided your civ, and your strategy (attacking/exploring) , you are ready to begin. The main priority for you regardless of your strategy, is to maximise your ability to succeed once protection finishes. This means getting as much land, research, and resources that you need to look after yourself when you go to war. The basic thing to remember, is the more land you have, the more research you can achieve, and the more resources you can make. Quite simply, protection is a time to explore. All of your land, must be dedicated to this task. No point putting army up, you don’t need them yet anyway. All civs except Byz will use all their mountain land on iron mines, Byzantines of course the only civ to use gold mines. (All civs have the capability to use either, just that economically it is not viable to do any different than this at any point). The whole protection period is a balancing act. You need to explore to your civ strengths. If you make food on forest, you need to explore more forest for food, and put town centres (town centres are home for your explorers, the more you have, the ummm more you have.. ?) on your plains land. If you make more food in farms, then you only need enough forest land to make woodcutters, to make the wood needed to build the other buildings. Toolmakers (will provide building descriptions later in more detail) are needed to build anything. The more you have, the more you can build. Simple as that. As you expand you need more toolmakers to build on the found land. Basic principle, explore land, and build on that land buildings that will help you to send more explorers out. These being farms/hunters (depending on your civ) and town centres. If you are stockpiling too much food, it means you don’t have enough town centres. If you don’t have enough food to send all your explorers, it means you don’t have enough farms/hunters. Now this sounds very simple, but it is a hard concept to learn while doing it. Once learnt though, you can set your round up. The other thing needed in protection, is to research. The important thing to remember though, is you don’t need all rls (research is referred to as rls, I believe research levels) at once. Rule of thumb, is that if it doesn’t help you explore, then don’t get it yet. Your whole protection is based on exploring, so don’t waste valuable resources on anything but what helps you explore. First rls, are typically going into economy. Food based civs will obviously start out researching this, as not only does it help provide gold to cover building costs, but it also accelerates your exploring capability, as your explorers use more food the more land you have (will go into more details later of course, will try to keep calculations in the one section, this is more general). Iron based civs also can get early rls, can easily sell iron to buy food, to of course explore more. Of course if you are researching also for these things, you need to pay for your mage towers, so there is a good balancing act needed there too.

The whole point of protection though, is setting up for the first turn out of protection. Before I start a round, I always think what I want to achieve in the following turns after protection. Do I want to attack straight away? Do I want to explore out? Do I want to use some turns researching? Or do I want to finish researching in pro and make resources outside of pro? There are many ways you can go about things, may get into more details later. Point being, there comes a time, when exploring no longer is the best option. Typically this will happen in the last 1-200 turns (of course I am still talking about Blitz). If you are a strong explore civ (any food based bonus civ such as Zulu, Japanese, Turk) (throw in some Vikings too depending on strat), you are more likely to put more rls into economy early, knowing that you will have a lot more land to then put research into the ability to gain land. Remember, the whole point of protection, is to set up your ability to gain land once you leave. For attackers, this means you are setting up your research to be able to pay for yourself, but more importantly, to be able to conquer land from your opponents. This means the last part of your research will typically be into attack, and fortspace rls.

It’s a scary world out there

Out of protection there are many things to consider. Typically, this game is best played in “runs”. No matter what you are doing, the best way to go about it is typically to do it all at once. If you are attacking, you want to be attacking with everything you have got. If you are finished using turns, you want to be defending with everything you have got. If you are researching, you want to put as much land as possible into that. The same with protection, or the “explore” phase where you were putting every possible piece of land into the ability to explore (and make enough resources to build) more land, you want to utilise your land the same way for the other processes. Of course in saying this, when you are attacking, or researching, you still don’t want to be too vulnerable. Can use some land to protect your land as well. No point being able to take land, if you can lose it just as quick. This is all part of the process. So.

Exploring

Same as protection really. You need to get rid of all irrelevant buildings, that either won’t help you explore land, or hold as you try to explore. Of course this will depend on online players, and their likelihood of attacking you as to how much defense you have up. If you want to keep defense up as you explore, then you are best getting more def rls, to keep the number of buildings needed to defend (towers) as you explore. If you are concentrating only on exploring (as you should be if you are out of protection and plan on exploring), the only real rls you need are food, explore, and of course defense to hold that land after you have explored it. Typically, explorers will defend with towers only, however in Blitz due to the number of rls each empire has later in the round, it is much harder to defend your land with towers only, and there is an argument to get fort rls, defense rls, and of course military loss rls. The big problem with explorers later in the round, is thieves getting in your range, and burning your defense to the ground. Not only that, but it is hard to keep armies with 3-400 attack rls, and 300+ fort rls from simply breaking you. Yes, you will hurt them, but losing land is very bad for an explorer. There did used to be a thing called “jump exploring” which was an exploitation of the game code and as such empires could explore huge amounts of land, but I am happy to report that exploit has since been closed off. No thanks necessary. ? The basic hope of an explorer, is that they will get a clean run out of pro and not lose land for the whole round. By this time, you should be way ahead of any attackers, and then you can simply explore away. The basic issue with an explorer, are if there are less talented explorers playing, that do get caught, or do get broken, as then the attackers will easily break you, if not early, at some point in the game.

Attacking

Many people will typically use all their turns at once. Either through time available to them, or simply they think it is the best way to play. Personally, I don’t, but then I have a more “open schedule” than others, and a good overview of what happens if I wait too long. Either way, the attack period is typically done in a way where you utilise your land in full attack mode. Eg if you attack with swordsmen, you are typically all swordsmen. All your land is in forts, with just enough other buildings up to pay for and feed your army, and to be able to build on your new land. You are NEVER exploring while you attack. Make up your mind, you are either an attacker, or an explorer. You are attacking for a reason, because you can gain more land, at a faster rate, and at a bigger expense to your opponent. The other reason you need to put so much land into your ability to attack, is because that is simply how people play. If empires aren’t using turns, and are defending, they have put all their land into defense to protect their land. Only way you are getting through an empire that is using all their land to defend, is to put all your land into attack to try to go through them.

If however, there are other players online, and a war is about to happen between you, either below, or above, then you also need to think about protection against them simply taking your land before you have a chance to attack. The best form of attack is an attack that is dangerous, and solid at the same time.

Typically, it takes turns to convert your army (or land) into an attack army. Obviously you are building forts, or town centres (most will use simply forts as they hold much more army, and as such your attack is higher, of course there are exceptions, typically early in the game). So if you defend with army, then you simply dump them, and put up your attack army (or course if your defense army is the same as your attack army eg horsemen, tps, pikemen, xbows for turks (exceptions again) then keep it up).. Of course out of protection, you didn’t defend anything so simply build forts and put up your army. WINE is a very important part of the game, and often is needed to even be able to break an opponent. Basically 1 unit of wine will double 1 army units attack power. If you have 1 million army units, 1 million wine will double your attack, 500,000 wine will increase it by 50%, etc etc…… The important thing to remember, is that when you attack for land, you will grow quite quickly, assuming you have done everything right and have a competitive army, through research. This means, that you will need the resources to cope with this growth. Eg, if at your current size you have the ability to hold 1 million army units in your forts, and you have 1 million swords (or weapons of choice) on hand, then you are going to really struggle if you break anybody, because you don’t have any swords to fill the forts you build on your new land. At any point, you need to think of what potential land you can get to and make sure you have the ability to have enough resources to get you there at any given time. In Blitz for example, I personally would never aim for less than 1st on any run. Sometimes that just won’t happen, but if you have enough resources for it, it is an option. Of course newer players will have to aim a bit lower, the same principle applies. Although all civs are different, and have different bonuses and such, if you can play one attack civ, you can pretty much play them all. You would only need different economy use, and perhaps army unit, but the principle, and in effect research strategy, is basically the same across all civs.

Research

Research levels are gained by pure weight of numbers. The more mage towers you have up, the more you research. A base mage tower will research 1 point per turn. The formula for this is also exponential, meaning that after your first research level, every level after that will cost more points. As such, land is very important for this. As for everything else in this game, the most efficient way of researching, is by putting all your land into mage towers, and whatever buildings you need up to pay for them. The best way to do this, is to set up your mage towers when you are the peak of your land. Eg after doing an attack run. There are times in your blocks of turns where it is not worthwhile maging, but typically, it is one of the most important facets of the game. If you have better research than others, you are in a better position to do well.

Thieving

As you attack, or even simply use turns, thieves are very useful. Not only can you use them to steal goods, but you can steal an opponents army information, research information, burn their buildings, or poison their water supply. Can also get building makeup, but why? Anyway, thieves work on a % damage system. Weight of numbers here is not important, simply that you have a better thief attack than that of the defense. Once you are through, 1 thief will steal just as much as 1 million thieves, and that is all worked out as a % of the defenders total goods/buildings/population/army etc….. 1 thief is allowed per town centre.

Catapults

Generally speaking, catapults are pretty useless. How they work, is 1 catapult does a certain amount of damage. So to do anything useful, you need a lot of them. Generally, without cat research, they are a waste of time having up. They are good to send at empires armies to test what kind of army they have up to get an idea of their defense, but apart from that, if you aren’t going big, then don’t bother. But, in saying that, if you do choose to go big, these are very important if you want total destruction of an empire. Best way to use them, is 3 ways. Cat population. Without population, it is very hard for an empire to function. Cat army, very costly for the defender losing not only the army that is protecting their empire, but also the weapons they needed to train them. Cat buildings. This is by far the most enjoyable part of catapults, when you find a target that you can destroy all of their buildings. I will go into more detail about them later, but lets just say if you have no buildings, you lose all your army, all your population, and all your resources on hand. We call this homeless. ?

Resources / public market / local market

Basically, the way the game works now, the public market is sort of like a secondary storage space. It is not supposed to be that way, but hey, that is what it is used for, so that is how I will describe it. Of course, I am looking at a way to fix the public market, but that is a long way away at this point, so will include this here.

So, basically the public market is where you send your goods that are either spare, or are for your economy. It is all user input, so you put whatever price you want to sell them at. Put them too high (store them) and people won’t buy them. Put them too low, and you lose out on gold that you could have gained. Many people will do what is called a “resource run”. As with everything else in the game, this is best done by devoting as much land as possible to the goods that you wish to make, typically your bonus, and where your research is. So basically you will have farms (or whatever goods you are making), a few markets, to send to public market, and warehouses (houses obviously too) to make sure that you aren’t losing goods when you make too much for your empire to carry. So you use turns, making bulk goods, once again on max land, typically after your attack run has netted you as much land as you can get. Selling resources on local market is a way for quick instant gold, and this is often the way people can afford their maging. The idea behind doing a “resource run” is to make sure you have enough resources for next time you use your turns. By utilising maximum land you make maximum goods. These goods can be used to trade for weapons or wine between your alliance (assuming they aren’t weapons or wine ?), or simply play the waiting game and try to sell to random people, and then use the gold. If you are going to do a full 800 turn “run”, then try to limit your selling til you actually need the gold. Of course, you can check in to the game and if you have gold you can buy goods from the public market. These goods will take 3 turns to get to you, so basically you have goods coming when you use turns, and the gold is no longer in your empire, so all of it is safe from those pesky thieves. Personally, I like to combine researching and resource running, as the same number of turns will be used anyway, but a lot will simply do 1 thing at a time, using all their land for that 1 task every time.

Advanced thinking

Some things here will be advanced, and some things will be just things I notice people do wrong, and think the wrong way about things. Also included here, will be advanced techniques used by vets and players in the know. Now you will know. ? But first, I will get a copy/paste from game docs to get a list of buildings, resources, research, and army units, to keep things in one place, maybe I might say something where this will be relevant later. Who knows, doing this on the fly. ?

Resources (catalog excerpt)

Gold - Gold is produced by gold mines. Can also be obtained from selling on local market and selling on public market. Gold is used for constructing buildings and to upkeep army. Gold is also used for buying goods on public and local markets. Mine Production research increases the amount of gold produced by gold mines.

Food - Food is produced by farms and hunters. Farms produce food only months from april to october. Hunters produce food all year. Food is used by exploring and to feed your people and army. Food production research increased the amount of food produced by farms and hunters.

Wine - Wine is produced by winery. Wine is used by army to boost army morale, thus increasing their attacking power. It's also necessary for production of great wall.

Iron - Iron is produced by iron mines. Iron is used for constructing buildings and for production of swords, maces and tools. Mine production research increases the amount of iron produced by iron mines.

Wood - Wood is produced by woodcutters. Wood is used for contructiong buildings and for production of bows, maces and tools. Wood is also used for heating the houses during the winter (November to February). 1 wood can provide heat for 250 people. If there is not enough wood for heating, some people will freeze.

Tools - Tools are produced by tool makers. Tools are needed for builders to construct buildings. One builder needs one tool so that he can build something. If there are not enough tools for builders, only those with tools will be constructing buildings. Tools use up once in a while, so you need to produce more tools when needed. Each tool maker needs 2 wood and 2 iron to produce 1 tool.

Sword - Swords are produced by weaponsmiths. The actual production is set on management screen. 25 iron is needed to produce 1 sword. Swords are used by swordsman and horseman. They are also used by Viking Berserkers, Franks Paladin, Japanese Samurai and Byzantines Cataphract.

Bow - Bows are produced by weaponsmiths. The actual production is set on management screen. 25 wood is needed to produce 1 bow. Bows are used by archers. They are also used by Mongols Horse Archers and Byzantines Cataphracts.

Horse - Horses are grown at the stables. 100 food is needed to raise 1 horse. Horses are used by Horseman, Franks Paladins, Byzantines Cataphracts and Mongols Horse Archers. They can also be used for exploring, to extend number of months your explorers look for land.

Mace - Maces are produced by weaponsmiths. The actual production is set on management screen. 6 wood and 6 iron is needed to produce 1 mace. Maces are used by macemen.

Pike - Pikes are produced by weaponsmiths. The actual production is set on management screen. 20 wood and 2 iron is needed to produce 1 pike. Pikes are used by pikeman.

Crossbow - Crossbows are produced by weaponsmiths. The actual production is set on management screen. 15 wood and 4 iron is needed to produce 1 crossbow. Crossbows are used by crossbowman. ARMY

Swordsman - Good attcking unit. Attack points: 8 Defense points: 5 Months to train: 4 Required to train: 1 sword Land taken: 6 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.4 food and 3 gold 2 Bonus points against pikeman

Archer - Good defense units. Attack points: 4 Defense points: 12 Months to train: 6 Required to train: 1 bow Land taken: 2 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.5 food and 3 gold 2 bonus points against maceman

Horseman - Good attacking and defense unit Attack points: 10 Defense points: 10 Months to train: 8 Required to train: 1 horse and 1 sword Land taken: 10 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.8 food and 5 gold 3 bonus points againts archer

Maceman - Easy and cheap to train attack unit. Attack points: 6 Defense points: 3 Months to train: 4 Required to train: 1 mace Land taken: 3 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.3 food and 2 gold 2 bonus points against crossbowman

Pikeman - attacking and defending unit good against horseman Attack points: 7 Defense points: 7 Months to train: 6 Required to train: 1 pike Land taken: 5 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.4 food and 3 gold 4 bonus points against horseman

Crossbowman - Heavy duty defense unit (good against swordsman) Attack points: 5 Defense points: 10 Months to train: 5 Required to train: 1 crossbow Land taken: 4 points Upkeep cost (per month): 0.4 food and 3 gold 3 bonus points against swordsman

Trained Peasant - Very weak unit that does not need weapons and can be trained very fast Attack points: 1 Defense points: 2 Months to train: 1 Required to train: nothing Land taken: 1 point Upkeep cost: 0.1 food and 0.1 gold

Catapult - destructive unit that can demolish buildings, kill army or population. Only catapults can defend against other attacking catapults. You can only have 1 catapult per town center. Attack points: 25 Defense points: 25 Months to train: 8 Required to train: 200 wood and 100 iron Upkeep cost (per month): 0.5 wood and 0.15 iron

Thief - thieves can steal information about other empire. They can poison water, thus killing army and population. They can also set fire to burn buildings and steal goods from attacked empire. Only thieves defend against thief attacks. You can only have 1 thief per town center. Attack points: 50 Defense points: 60 Months to train: 10 Required to train: 1000 gold Upkeep cost (per month): 5 food and 25 gold

Tower - tower is not a unit but a building that serves defensive purpose. It cannot attack and is used only for defense. There is no upkeep cost for tower. Defense points: 50 Required to build: 20 wood, 20 iron and 400 gold Upkeep cost (per month): none

Berserker (Viking) - excellent attacking units. You can only have 1 berserker per town center. Attack points: 25 Defense points: 5 Months to train: 12 Required to train: 1000 gold, 1 sword, 1 horse and 1 bow Land taken: 50 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Samurai (Japanese) - good attacking unit. You can only have 1 samurai per town center. Attack points: 25 Defense points: 15 Months to train: 12 Required to train: 1000 gold and 2 swords Land taken: 75 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Paladin (Franks) - excellent defense unit. You can only have 1 paladin per town center Attack points: 5 Defense points: 30 Months to train: 12 Required to train: 1000 gold, 3 swords and 1 horse Land taken: 50 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Cataphract (Byzantines) - good defensive and attack unit. You can only have 1 cataphract per town center Attack points: 12 Defense points: 12 Months to train: 12 Required to train: 1000 gold, 1 sword, 1 bow and 1 horse Land taken: 50 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Horse Archers (Mongols) - Good attacking unit. You can only have 1 horse archer per town center. Attack points: 20 Defense points: 5 Months to train: 10 Required to train: 100 gold, 1 bow and 1 horse Land taken: 15 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 5 gold

Shaman (Incas) - Shamans are not good military units, but after the battle they take huge amounts of land. You can only have 1 shaman per town center. Attack points: 1 Defense points: 1 Months to train: 10 Required to train: 1000 gold Land taken: 500 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 50 gold

Kung Fu Warrior (Chinese) - Strong defense and offensive warrior. Doesn't need any weapons. You can only have 3 kung fu warrior per town center. Attack points: 15 Defense points: 15 Months to train: 10 Required to train: 1000 gold Land taken: 100 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Giant Warrior (Barbarians) - Giant Warriors are very good attacking units, they are also easy to train. You can only have 1 Giant Warrior per town center. Attack points: 50 Defense points: 1 Months to train: 4 Required to train: 1000 gold, 3 swords, 1 horse Land taken: 50 points Upkeep cost: 4 food and 25 gold

Camel Cavalry (Turks) - Camel Cavalry are very good attacking units. You can only have 1 Camel Cavalry per town center. Attack points: 50 Defense points: 10 Months to train: 10 Required to train: 1500 gold, 1 swords, 3 horse Land taken: 125 points Upkeep cost: 3 food and 50 gold

Zulu Warrior (Zulu) - zulu warriors are excellent attack units. You can only have 5 zulu warriors per town center. Attack points: 40 Defense points: 5 Months to train: 8 Required to train: 1500 gold, 1 swords Land taken: 50 points Upkeep cost: 2 food and 25 gold

Unit Bonuses - How they work. If you have in your entire army you have 11 horseman and attack an enemy with 15 archers, each horseman receives the +3 attack bonus before research. The same applies if you have 25 horseman instead. Bonuses are based on the relative make up of each army, not the absolute size. So if you have 10 horseman attack 25 archers and 25 swordsman, your horseman will each get + 1.5 attack, as half the enemy army is made up of archers. The same applies for defense.

Legend: Attack points: number of points a unit has during an attack Defense points: number of points a unit has during a defense Months to train: number of months unit needs to be trained before it can be used Required to train: resources necessary to train 1 unit Land taken: 100 points will give you 1 land after successful battle Upkeep cost: resources needed to upkeep the unit every month

RESEARCH

Research is used to increase your production from certain buildings or to increase effectivness or your army. You need to contruct mage towers in order to start researching. On the resarch screen select the ability you want to research. Mage towers need a lot of gold for research, so be careful in managing your gold. If you see your gold levels drop, you can set that status on mage towers to anything between 0 and 100%. Each mage tower produces 1 research point. Research points are used to complete research levels. For the first level you need only 10 points, but consequent levels will need more and more points, so you have to be careful what you research, because once the level is completed it cannot be changed and the cost of next level will be higher.

You can research in the following areas: Military Research

attack points - each level increases your attacking power by 1%
defense points - each level increases your defense power by 1%
thief strength - each level makes your thieves defense and attack strength and damage done increased by 1%
catapults strength - each level makes your catapults defense and attack strength and damage done increased by 1%
military loss - each level makes your military losses during battles smaller by 1% (this research is limited to 50 levels)
conquered land - each level increases amount of land taken in battles by 1%
army upkeep cost - each level makes your army upkeep cost (food and gold) by 1% cheaper
army training - each 50 levels allows you train additional unit at town center or fort simultaneously (in addition to normal 2) Production Research
food production - each level increased your hunters and farms production by 1%
wood production - each level increased your wood cutters production by 1%
mine production - each level increased your gold mines and iron mines production by 1%
weapons and tools production - each level increased your weaponsmiths and tool makers production by 1%. Consumption stays the same.
wine production - each level increases your wineries production by 1%
horse production - each level increases your stables production by 1%

Other Research 15. space effectivness - your warehouse space is increased by 5% and house space is increased by 5% 16. fort space - your forts and town centers can hold 1% more units for each research level 17. markets - you can sell/aid/buy 10% more goods 18. explorers - explorers find 1% more land

Research Caps Catapults Strength: 100 Max Conqured Land: 50 Max Army Upkeep Cost: 50 Max Horse production: 50 Max Military Losses: 50 Max

BUILDINGS When you build something your builders will start building the structure. Total Building Cost: is # of wood, # of iron, # of gold. Each builder can put 1 wood or 1 iron per turn. So the more builders you have the faster you'll build the buildings. To increase number of builder, build more tool makers. For example, if you build a market (20 wood, 2 iron, 200 gold) you would need 22 builders to complete the market in one turn. If you have only 10 builders, then it will take 3 turns to complete it. Also each builder needs to have 1 tool available in order for him to work, so watch your supply of tools to not drop below the number of builders you have. Buildings also need a supply of workers to do any Production:.

Hunter

Land Used: 2 forest Building Cost: 4 wood and 25 gold Workers Needed: 6 Production: 3 food every month

Farm

Land Used: 4 plains Building Cost: 8 wood, 1 iron and 25 gold Workers Needed: 12 Production: 8 food from april to october

Woodcutter

Land Used: 4 forest Building Cost: 2 wood and 25 gold Workers Needed: 6 Production: 4 wood every month

Iron Mine

Land Used: 2 mountains Building Cost: 6 wood and 100 gold Workers Needed: 8 Production: 1 iron every month

Gold Mine

Land Used: 6 mountains Building Cost: 10 wood, 10 iron and 1000 gold Workers Needed: 12 Production: 100 gold every month

Winery

Land Used: 6 plains Building Cost: 12 wood, 4 iron and 1000 gold Workers Needed: 12 Production: 1 wine every month Consumption: 10 gold to produce 1 wine

Tool Maker

Land Used: 2 plains Building Cost: 6 wood, 2 iron and 200 gold Workers Needed: 10 Production: 1 tool every month Consumption: 2 wood and 2 iron to produce 1 tool Notes: each tool maker provides 6 builders that can construct buildings.

Weaponsmith

Land Used: 4 plains Building Cost: 10 wood, 4 iron and 600 gold Workers Needed: 10 Production: 1 weapon every month Consumption: 25 wood to produce bow, 25 iron to produce sword and 6 wood and 6 iron to produce mace. Notes: Number of swords, bows or maces being produced by weaponsmith is controlled on the management screen. The combined total cannot exceed number of weaponsmiths.

Stable

Land Used: 4 plains Building Cost: 10 wood, 2 iron and 200 gold Workers Needed: 12 Production: 1 horse every month Consumption: 100 food to grow 1 horse.

Mage Tower

Land Used: 8 plains Building Cost: 50 wood, 50 iron and 2000 gold Workers Needed: 20 Production: 1 research point every month Consumption: 100 gold to produce 1 research point Notes: mage towers are expensive to build and time consuming. They also use a lot of gold so be carefull when you build them. To control what to research, go to research screen. Look at research help for more information.

Fort

Land Used: 12 plains Building Cost: 20 wood, 8 iron and 1000 gold Workers Needed: None Notes: 1 fort provides housing for 15 army units and allows 2 units to be trained at any time

Tower

Land Used: 4 plains Building Cost: 20 wood, 20 iron and 400 gold Workers Needed: None Notes: provides 50 defense points

Town Center

Land Used: 25 plains Building Cost: 100 wood, 40 iron and 2500 gold Workers Needed: None Notes: 1 town center provides housing for 10 people and 10 army and allows 2 army units to be trained. It can also store 1000 supplies. Each town center provides 6 explorers.

Market

Land Used: 4 plains Building Cost: 20 wood, 2 iron and 250 gold Workers Needed: 6 Notes: 1 market allows you to trade or aid 50 goods each month.

Warehouse

Land Used: 2 plains Building Cost: 15 wood and 100 gold Workers Needed: 4 Notes: 1 warehouse provides space to store 2500 goods.

House

Land Used: 2 plains Building Cost: 4 wood and 100 gold Workers Needed: None Notes: 1 house provides housing for 100 people. CIVILISATIONS Vikings Unique Unit: Berserker Pluses Woodcutter: -1 land used and +1 wood produced Hunter: +2 food produced Iron Mine: +1 iron produced Archers: +2 defense Swordsmen: +2 attack Land Conversion: 1:1 on all land conversion after leaving protection Minuses Stable: +2 more land used Warehouse: stores half of the goods House: -25 less people Farm: -2 food produced 100 people burn 1 wood

Franks Unique Unit: Paladin Pluses Farm: -2 land used Tower: -1 land used, +10 defense points Town center: +1 explorer Mage Tower: -5 workers needed 5% less food used for exploring Archers: +3 defense points Minuses Fort: -3 less army Mage Tower: +3 land used and 20% slower population increase

Japanese Unique Unit: Samurai Pluses Farm: +4 food production House: +20 more people Town Center: -5 land used, -20 trades. Mage Tower: +1 research points produced Stable: -25 food needed to produce horse Minuses Hunter: -1 food produced Woodcutter: +3 workers needed Stable: +4 land used

Byzantines Unique Unit: Cataphract Pluses Gold Mine: -4 land used and +100 gold produced Catapult: +5 attack and defence points Mage Tower: -1 Land used Minuses Iron Mine: +1 land used Tool Maker: -1 less builders, +50 wood to build People eat 20% more food Town Center: -2 explorer Extra 5% food for exploring

Mongols Unique Unit: Horse Archer Pluses Fort: -3 land used, +3 more army Weaponsmith: +1 sword and bow produced for the same cost in iron and wood Tool Maker: +1 tool produced for the same cost in iron and wood Tool Maker: +2 more builders Hunters: +1 food prodcution 20% faster population increase Minuses Town Center: -1 explorer Mage Tower: +150 gold to produce 1 research point Farms: -2 food production 5% more food used for exploring Thiefs: -5 defense points Cannot use maceman Horseman, Swordsman and Archers have -1 attack point Great wall: need 50 more builders.

Incas Unique Unit: Shaman Pluses Mage Tower: 90% less gold used for research Town Center: stores 4000 more goods, 900 extra people Market: +50 more goods traded each month Thieves: +25 defense points Swordsman: +1 attack point Maceman: +2 attack points Weaponsmith: +1 mace produced for the same cost in wood and iron Land Lost: 15% less land lost in battles Each army unit only uses 1 gold per turn (shaman, archer, swordsman, maceman and thief) Minuses Town Center: +5 more land used Iron Mine: +1 more land used Catapults: -9 attack points and -5 defense points Cannot use horseman

Chinese Unique Unit: Kung Fu Warrior Pluses Great Wall: cost reduced by 150 gold, 2 iron, 15 wood and 4 wine. Need 50% less workers to construct wall. Thief: +10 attack points Trained Peasant: +2 attack and +1 defense points. +2 points to land taken. 100% faster population increase Gold Mine: -2 land used Iron Mine: 100% more iron produced 3 unique units per town center (usually 1) 15 army units per town center (usually 10) Minuses Winery: +2 land used House: +2 land used Trained Peasants: +1 extra training month, Double score count.

Barbarians Unique Unit: Giant Warrior Pluses Maceman: +2 attack and +2 defense points, +3 points to land taken Winery: +1 wine produced Weaponsmith: +1 mace produced for the same cost in iron and wood 50% less food eaten by population. Minuses None

Turks Unique Unit: Camel Cavalry Pluses Horseman: +1 attack and +1 defense points, -1 gold per turn, -2 turns to train Markets: +75 trades a turn Mage Tower: +0.5 research produced Stable: +1 horse produced for same cost Weaponsmith: +1 crossbow produced for the same cost in iron and wood Iron Mine: +1 iron produced Hunters: +2 food produced +1 defense and attack for crossbowman Minuses 5% more food for exploring 10% slower population increase Farms: -1 food produced

Zulu Unique Unit: Zulu Warrior Pluses Hunters: double production Farms produce food all months in a year Weaponsmith: +1 pike produced for the same cost in iron and wood Land Conversion: 1:1 on all land conversion after leaving protection Town Center: 100% extra units, 5 unique units per town center +1 defense and attack for pikeman and -1 turns to train and -1 on gold upkeep Minuses No Swordsman Farms: -2 production Winery: needs double land and 4 extra workers Town Center: +5 Land Maceman: +1 month to train

Ok. So now that all the stats, descriptions and such are in the one place, here is some thoughts from me, some tricks? I use when playing, and some formulas to help you along your way to glory.

In no particular order, except for which comes into my head first.

Score Ratio: This is one of the most important factors of the game when it comes to calculations. Basically, you get a bonus for damage done against empires above you, and a neg against empires below you. The original figures are double your score, double the damage. Half your score, half the damage. This does not effect attack value. Just land grabs and damage done. Remember this for later calculations.

Maging: Research levels are exponential. The number I have in my sheet, is 2.5. First mage level will take 10 mage points. Then after that it will take =A2^$B$1+10 Where A2 is the current mage level, and B1 is the figure 2.5. If you set up a spreadsheet, and simply set it up in same cells, and drag it down, it will tell you total number of mage points you will need for each level. This is really redundant information though, as one of the players has kindly made up a mage calculator, where you can easily get a view of your mage potential. But still, nice to know how it works right? ? The link to the mage calculator though, made by Charles or Darkwing (I am assuming you won’t mind this link here, as it is in game links anyway? Happy to take it down if you wish… ). http://webpages.charter.net/cjmarsh/1000ad/Magecalc.htm The main thing I notice with people when it comes to their research, is they don't understand the difference a few rls will make in the right place. eg they struggled to get decent land from attacking since they couldn't break somebody. Lets say they have 300 attack rls, and 0 fort rls. Now if they were to get 100 rls in a research run, some would simply put that to attack. But, obviously, 100 rls into attack will improve their attack by 25%, whereas 100 rls placed into fort rls would increase their attack by 100%. Simple things like that, can make a huge difference. After all, it is not your total research that matters, it is where you have placed that research to be most efficient that counts.

Scores: Everything (except resources) in game has a score value. These are: Unique Unit 3 Swords 2 Archers 1.8 Horsemen 2.5 Population .02 Macemen 1.5 TP .3 (.6 chin) Catapults 6 Thieves 4 Pikes 2 Crossbow 1.8

Mountains 5 Forest 4 Plains 3

Buildings 1 (except) Gold Mine 2 Tower 10 Town Centre 10 Mage Tower 3

Now these are very important when weighing your options up. Especially army units to use. Now a normal person would look at something like a horsemen and say, well it has an attack of 10, whereas a swordsmen only has an attack of 8. But everything is relative to scores. Horsemen is 125% the attack of a swordsmen, but also 125% the score. They take more land yes, but they take 200% the turns to build. If you want to purely attack, then swordsmen are just as effective. Of course, horsemen do have a higher defense. But they also cost an extra horse. For the cost, and the turns, swordsmen are a better option. If you need extra defense, throw in some xbows or something. Unless of course you are chasing the top empire where your score doesn’t matter, and you have the resources to cover it. These are the kinds of things that need to be thought about. Score is a VERY important factor when comparing certain things.

Another thing score is very useful for, is evaluating somebodies defense. It is very easy to get an idea of somebodies defense simply looking at the scoreboard. In fact, I have a spreadsheet that I can load up, it will get the scoreboard for the top 40 or whatever is visible and tell me a rough calculation based purely on that. What I mean is this. Every empire has score. Whether they have army or not. This is because every empire has land. Take this score for example, taken from the current blitz round: *1 Temujin (49) Chinese 1,358 128,651,373 741,637,326 2 Current game stats:

Mountains 38,383,102 10.7% (5 points each) Forest 33,626,627 9.4% (4 points each) Plains 287,230,024 80.0% Total 359,239,753 100% (3 points each)

166915510 134506508 861690072 Total game score for land is : 1,163,112,090 Or, average land score per civ (assuming that most civs will have relatively the same makeup of land due to attacking each other) Is 3.2377 Now some civs will be different, but if you use that figure, you will be pretty close. Now take my score. I have 128,651,373 in land. *3.2377 is 416,535,102. So we now know, that 325 million score of mine is made up of buildings and army. Generally, I don’t even look at game stats. I give everybody a base score of 3.4 land score. So, 3.4 * myLand = 437,414,668 or 304,222,658 leftover, assuming to be in army. Now being a Chinese civ, we can assume that I have trained peasants up. We know that for Chinese, each TP is valued at .6 score, so we can assume I have about 304 million / .6 = 507 million TPs as my army. I actually have 487 million, so that calc is only 4% off. From this, we can work out my base defense, without defense rls.

Attacking

The way attacking works, in fact the whole game, is based on simple formulas. If you know those formulas, you can work just about anything out. Eg when attacking somebody, it is already in place what will happen in the battle. Remember what I said about score ratio? This is very important here. But for now, I will assume the defender is the same score as you. When you send your army units, if the defender has a defence in place, some of your units will die. This is no accident, it is a mathematical formula. Because of this, you can use this information to your advantage. dKilled = round((attackPoints / 250) * victoryPoints * scoreRatio);

Using this formula, we can work out exactly what the defense of the empire you attacked is. Now assuming you have already worked his score out, and guessed his total army units, you can also use this defense total, against his number of units, and guess his def rls. Not only that, but since the same formula can be used to work out how many units of his you will kill, you also can work out his loss rls. If you expect to kill 5 million army units, and you only kill 2.5 million, you know he has 50 loss rls.

Here is the formulas I use in my spreadsheet to work out defenses. Def score 1 0.50 Att Score 2 0.75 Loss Rls 50.00 VP % 100% 1.00 Casualties 8,100,000.00 Blitz Def 3,037,500,000.00 Standard Def 2,025,000,000.00

That is the range K1:M9 in my sheet, so: M1 = =IF((L1/L2)>2,2,IF((L1/L2)<0.5,0.5,(L1/L2))) L9 = =(($L$5*$M$1)*250/$M$4/((100-$L$3)*0.01))

Forget about the rest of column M, and also Blitz Def and the number under it, they are irrelevant. What you do, is enter their score (def), your score (att), YOUR loss rls, and the number of units YOU LOST in the battle, and the figure under STANDARD DEFENSE is their defense. Simple as that. And as I said, you can also replicate the formula to work out how many units you will kill.

Percentages: The game code has an empire protection code in place, that basically states that you only have a certain amount of attacks you can use before you cannot attack any more. These are as follows. AttackPercentage 60% 0.2 68% 0.35 76% 0.5 84% 0.65 92% 0.8 100% 1

Now the number on the left, is the % figure you see when making an attack. The number to the right, is how effective that attack will be. Your land grab, and damage are both multiplied by the figure on the right, when making an attack at the corresponding % figure. Your attack of course is the % figure of your 100% value.

It is a little complicated to explain just how % drops, especially with the new code in place, but here is a basic run down. It is all dependant on how many times an empire has been attacked. But different attacks, net different values. If you have a failed attack against a defender, it will count as 1/3 of an attack. If you have a successful go at him, it will count as a full 1. Assuming you can break him, it will go like this. 3 attacks, drops to 92%. 2 attacks, drops to 84% 3 attacks, drops 2 attacks, 2 attacks, 3 attacks, drops to 60%. (fill in the blanks ?). So if you cannot break him, it would be 9 6 9 6 6 9….. This is the same across all forms of attacking. IF YOU WANT TO BREAK SOMEBODY, BE PREPARED TO BOUNCE THEM DOWN.

Thief: Steal Goods: 2.5 - 5 percent of players goods will be stolen.

Poison Water: 3 - 6 percent of a players population and people will be poisoined.

Burn Buildings: 2 - 4 percent of buildings will be destroyed.

Catapults

Catapult Population: 12 population per catapult.

Catapult Buildings: .3 buildings per catapult.

Catapult Army: 2 army per catapult.

The trick here, is that towers are also classed as buildings. So if they have enough towers up, you can easily simply cat buildings, and their defense drops as well, and they don’t kill any of your catapults.

Now if you plan on homelessing, or freelanding, using the top 2 methods, here are some important things to remember. Because of % dropping, and because thieving nets a % of something, rather than a total, it is generally more effective to thief first. Thief, until your cats will do more damage. If you have thief research (which if you plan on freelanding and homelessing people you will need) then thief only, until your cats do more damage. Simple as that. You will not be able to finish most jobs off with cats alone.

Exploring

When sending explorers, each 1 finds (at least in the version of code I am looking at). m = 0.10 f = 0.20 p = 0.46 If searching for a particular type of land you will find this by m * 3 f * 2.5 p * 2

It will cost each explorer =ROUND((totalLand-4000)/800+10,0). Basically, for all civs, you start with 4000 land. Every 800 (base civ, higher number the better) land you find, you need an extra food per explorer you send.

In regards to horses, there is options to send 1, 2, or 3 horses with each explorer. Basically, the first 2 are a waste. Either send 0, or 3. Here are the calculations. Horses, cost 100 food to make. 3 horses, 300 food. So, when it costs you 300 food, guessing around 236,000 land, you start sending out explorers with 3 horses. And from then on. Some civs however, have a horse bonus. These are Turks, and Japanese. For Turks, they make 2 horses for 100, or 50 each. So the figure here, is when explorers hit 150 food per explorer needed, you are better off sending with 3 horses. With Japanese, even though their stables take more land, they still cost 75% the food, so therefore, when Japanese hit 225 food per explorer needed, send out 3 explorers…..

Obviously I have reached the end of my patience here as things are getting just put in without much thought. No doubt I wanted to include much more here, but for now, this is it. I will proof read it later, and no doubt add to it at some point. Hopefully some of you got something out of it. Even if you only play for fun, it is at least good to know how the game works, and understand what is happening when you push that button.