Table of Contents I. II. III. IV. V. ©2002 Crave Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Battle Engine ©2001 Liquid Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved. Developed by Liquid Entertainment, LLC. Copublished by Ubi Soft Entertainment S.A. and Crave Entertainment, Inc. under license by Crave Entertainment, Inc. Battle Realms, Winter of the Wolf, Crave Entertainment, and related logos are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Crave Entertainment, Inc. Ubi Soft Entertainment and the Ubi Soft logo are registered trademarks of Ubi Soft, Inc. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Installing the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Starting the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Overview of the Clans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 VI. VII. Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 I. Prologue Grayback was exhausted. He lay down on the cold, hard ground, looking up at the ceiling of the soulless shale mine that he's had to call home for as long as he can remember. His arms throbbed with pain, and his hands were raw and bleeding from swinging at the stubborn shale countless times with his pickax. The only pain worse than the constant aching in his muscles was the sharp pang in his stomach. They kept him hungry, dangling the promise of rice in front of his face to keep Grayback doing their bidding. They kept his entire people hungry. Grayback is a Wolf, and the Wolf Clan, once a proud and powerful group of warriors, were now nothing more than the slaves of the nefarious Lotus Clan. They toiled day and night for their Lotus masters, mining the hard shale that the Lotus mages, who yet lacked the physical strength to mine for themselves, so desperately required. Every day is the same for Grayback and the Wolf Clan. They labor all day for little more than a bowl of rice and a few hours of sleep. Grayback has long dreamed of overthrowing his captors. They are frail and weak, while he and his Wolf brothers are strong and tough ­ they had to be in order to work the mines for years on end. Grayback had no illusions about the strength of the Lotus Clan's black magic, but ultimately, he knew they were mortal. The shale mines are laced with hazards, and Grayback has seen a few careless Lotus guards fall victim to rockslides and collapsed tunnels. He's seen their bleeding, broken bodies lying underneath tons of stone. Black though it may be, it was still blood. He knew the Lotus could die. And soon, they would all die. Unknown to the Lotus Clan, the Wolf slaves have been using their tools -- pickaxes, sledgehammers, and shovels -- to tap signals to each other while pretending to mine shale. The Wolf Clan, thought by their enslavers to be a group of mindless brutes, have been slowly organizing an uprising, waiting for the right time to strike. Under the leadership of Grayback and his mighty pickax, the Wolf Clan would soon rise up against the Lotus Clan and gain their freedom from the shackles of the shale mines, or die trying. It wouldn't be easy, Grayback knew. The Lotus Clan had among its ranks mages that could strike fear into the heart of the bravest Wolf with a simple glance. Yvaine was one such Lotus. A cold-hearted witch through and through, Yvaine had been given the task of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the shale mines by her master, Lord Zymeth, leader of the Lotus Clan. Though Yvaine is essentially her lord's right hand, she has been none too pleased with her position as babysitter for the Wolf slaves, and she lets her subjects know this every day. Many of Grayback's close friends have fallen victim to Yvaine's ice magic, having been cruelly cut down for no reason other than the simple amusement she got from their slaughter. Yvaine's mastery of the weather was no secret to Grayback. Many times, he had spied her practicing arcane arts, causing rain and sleet to appear out of a cloudless day! Even now, he felt an unnatural chill in the air. Trapped deep beneath the surface in these shale mines it was often hard to tell the seasons, but Grayback knew that it would soon be summer, and that something was amiss. Yvaine was undoubtedly up to something, but soon it wouldn't matter. Yvaine and the Lotus Clan might have the power to turn summer into winter, but Grayback and the Wolf Clan were stronger still. Soon, the uprising would be at hand. Soon, the Lotus Clan would be made to taste steel, and the Wolf would have its revenge. If Yvaine is indeed turning this summer into a winter, then so be it. This will be the Winter of the Wolf. What's New? Winter of the Wolf chronicles the story of Grayback, hero of the Wolf Clan, and it takes place seven years before the events chronicled in Battle RealmsTM. Kenji, son of Lord Oja, has yet to be exiled, and the Dragon Clan has yet to make its glorious reemergence. The Serpent Clan is still allied with the Lotus Clan, unaware of the Lotus' desire to overthrow it. The Wolf Clan, nature-loving warriors, are still enslaved by the Lotus Clan, doomed to work the shale mines forever. It's a tense time in these lands, but if you've played Battle 3 4 Realms, then you should have no problem jumping straight into Winter of the Wolf. This expansion includes a number of gameplay enhancements, fixes, and other upgrades to the original Battle Realms. For a complete list of these changes, please refer to the file "Game Changes.txt" in your root Battle Realms directory. However, if this is your first time playing either Battle Realms or Winter of the Wolf, then we suggest that you first read the original Battle Realms manual, which you'll find in the box. Doing so will get you acquainted with the game's interface, control scheme, combat, resource management, structures, training methods, and the unique yin- and yang-based gameplay mechanics. The shale mines are home to things more wicked than rockslides, however. You'll undoubtedly run into the dreaded Shale Spiders during your adventures. These large arachnids have an exoskeleton that's as hard as the ore you mine. Shale Spiders lay their eggs in living flesh, and eat the remains; while they're easy to defeat alone, they often hunt in packs, and will pose a threat to your party if you're outnumbered. While in the shale mines, you won't be able to build any structures, so you won't be able to produce any peasants. You'll have to grow your party by freeing enslaved Wolf warriors, and then ensuring that they survive. There are a few Shaleries spread throughout the mines, however, and you'll be able to purchase Shale Armor for your party members using rice from the handful of silos scattered about these caverns. Once you finally reach the surface, you'll notice that the world is blanketed by snow. Here, you will be able to build numerous structures and construct a functional town. You'll notice that it will snow occasionally, and during these brief moments in time, your rice will cease to grow. Rainfall spurred the growth rate of rice in Battle Realms, but snow has the opposite effect. Harvest your rice efficiently, and prepare for snow flurries beforehand. Getting Around You will begin your adventure as Grayback in the shale mines. The mines are dangerous, and they contain a number of obstacles ­ some more deadly than others ­ that you'll need to overcome if you hope to survive. You'll come across shale deposits, rockslides, magical barriers, pockets of poisonous gas, and prison cells. While Grayback will be able to interact with and destroy most of these obstacles, other members of your Wolf Clan will be more adept at dealing with roadblocks than others. The Sledger, for example, is the only Wolf capable of breaking through rockslides. To find out which of your clan members are capable of dealing with a specific obstacle, simply left-click someone from your party, and then move your mouse cursor over the obstacle. If the mouse cursor turns into a gold sword, then the selected party member will be able to destroy that obstacle. II. Installing the Game Important: Before attempting to run Winter of the Wolf, be sure that you've already installed Battle Realms onto your PC. Winter of the Wolf is an expansion of Battle Realms, and it requires an original version of the game in order to run. If you don't already own Battle Realms, you'll find a copy of it in your Winter of the Wolf box. If you need help installing Battle Realms, please refer to the installation section of the Battle Realms manual included in the box. 5 6 Place the Winter of the Wolf CD into your CD-ROM. A splash screen should automatically appear and prompt you to either install the game or exit back to Windows®. Once you choose to install Winter of the Wolf, the Install Shield Wizard window will appear to assist you with this process. Winter of the Wolf must be installed in the original Battle Realms directory (default is C:\Program Files\Liquid Entertainment\Battle Realms\). If you've installed Battle Realms elsewhere, you'll be given the option to install Winter of the Wolf to a different directory. If the installation process doesn't start automatically, double-click on the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop. Once you've opened My Computer, double-click on your CD-ROM icon, and double-click on the setup.exe icon in this folder. This will start the installation process manually. Important: Winter of the Wolf makes irreversible changes to the Battle Realms code, and thus cannot be uninstalled separately from the original Battle Realms game. By choosing to Uninstall Winter of the Wolf, you are choosing to delete all Battle Realms products from your computer. future hero and savior of the Wolf Clan, and it's here that you'll be able to set into motion the events that will lead to the Wolf Clan's freedom from the clutches of their Lotus enslavers. You can also play Kenji's Journey, participate in a Skirmish match against computer-controlled opponents, and take one of four essential Tutorials that will teach you the basics of playing Battle Realms and Winter of the Wolf. Multiplayer The multiplayer component of Winter of the Wolf is largely unchanged from Battle Realms, with one primary exception. When starting your own multiplayer game through LAN or Direct IP Internet, you have the option of creating a classic Battle Realms game, or a new Winter of the Wolf game. The latter option gives you access to all of the classic Battle Realms units, as well as the eight new Winter of the Wolf units, and four new Zen Masters. You'll also notice that both options will let you play on a wide variety of new multiplayer maps of varying sizes. Note: Playing Winter of the Wolf and Battle Realms online no longer requires the use of the GameSpy Arcade external client. Winter of the Wolf and Battle Realms now include an integrated server browser to make finding and connecting to online games easier. III. Starting the Game Before you can play the game, you must insert the Winter of the Wolf CD into your CD-ROM. If you've successfully installed Winter of the Wolf, you will see its snowy icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Main menu. From here, you'll be able to start a New Game, fight against other players in Multiplayer, and set several gameplay Options. New Game 7 Here, you'll be able to play Grayback's Journey, which puts you in the role of Grayback, a proud Wolf Clansman enslaved by the Lotus to work in the shale mines. Grayback is the Setting Options Before starting Winter of the Wolf, you should adjust the game settings by clicking on the Options menu. From here, you can configure your Controls and customize the Game Options. 8 Game Options From here, you can set the Difficulty of computer-controlled opponents, toggle Mature (violent) content, and adjust the Game Speed and Scroll Speed. You can also change the Video Resolution, Level of Detail, and Brightness in order to ensure that the game runs optimally on your computer. If you prefer, you can also change the volume of the Sound Effects, Music, and Dialog from this menu as well. onslaught, fueled by their hunger for freedom. Caught in the middle of the struggle is the Serpent Clan, an untrustworthy group of fighters who have chosen to ally themselves with the Lotus Clan, though their allegiance will undoubtedly crumble at the first sign of trouble. Rumor of the existence of a fourth clan has also been spreading throughout the land recently, though the existence of this Dragon Clan is questionable. No clan is more powerful than the others, yet they all wage battle differently. Know all the occupants of this war-torn land if you are to successfully conquer it. The Wolf Clan The Wolf Clan is a nature-loving people born to be free. Their souls echo with the howl of the wo ...