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How does one get the Imperial Edict?

this is a beautiful game. loved playing it many many years ago, and still remember it.

[Borodin]

Originally posted by Guest@Jun 26 2005, 01:39 AM
How does one get the Imperial Edict?

By taking over enough territories and holding them.

Originally posted by Long John@Jun 20 2005, 11:52 AM
This is my all-time favorite game! Im so extremely happy to have found it once again (played it on my Amiga 500 10 years ago, or more)

Having one problem though:
Tried to execute install.exe in DOSBox, and it tells me ->

"Error: The Floppy Drive containing Game Disk B must be the Current Directory"


Hmm... Any ideas how I do this?

Hey, can I ask how you got it to work?

Bandits was one of the first games I ever played, it was on a computer we got given. My brother and I figured out how to play it from scratch, with no manual or anything. Now I'm trying to play it again so I've transferred it to this computer but I can't get it to work. When I try and run it I get the message "Disk Error - Hit CR" and I think it is trying to read from the floppy drive. This computer is running Windows XP by the way.

And also, whoever asked, to get the Imperial Edict you have to get to 250 popularity. It seems a lot, but it can be done once you know what you're doing

Originally posted by Guest@Jun 26 2005, 01:39 AM
How does one get the Imperial Edict?

Some questions answered for the benefit of this group:

Firstly, I played this game back in college in the late 80s on the Macintosh. That was when it had those great and goofy sound effects. A friend of mine found it - I never did find the apple game and just ended up with the PC version later on which only had the PC beeps and bings but no music.

Secondly, even though my friend got the game, I ended up being one of the first to win at it - without the manual, we were finally able to figure out what you needed and what to do...

So, here are some of my notes on this great game that I played too many hours on...

1) you are given your choice of 5 scenarios, each one has advantages and disadvantages. I find, for a beginner, to play the earliest scenario and use a character like Lin Chong. Again, this is only my preference and you can play any other character you want.

The reason for the 1101 start is that you will have more time before one of the possible end-game scenarios kicks in (I'll explain that shortly) and you will want as much time as possible to accomplish your goal: to catch Gao Qiu.

Keep in mind this is THE goal of the game. Not the take over of all the prefectures, not to amass every general in the game, just one objective: capture and kill Gao Qiu.

Preventing you from doing this are a number of issues: 1) in most scenario options, you start out as a single bandit outlaw without any men or supplies, 2) Until much later in the game, Gao Qiu is UNTOUCHABLE - this will be explained shortly, 3) finally, you only have until the late 1120s (1127 I think) to catch him. If you don't by that time, the Northern Horde will come into China and decimate the country - which means game over for you.

So how do you meet the objective?

You need to develop, grow, develop and grow. Once this cycle gets you strong enough, you should be ready to meet the objective.

Now, let's explain that last statement.

As I said earlier, I like starting with Lin Chong - He has Strong War and High Integreity but only medium courage and mercy. Hey, he was an officer in the Army before he was framed....

*** Please Note: I do not remember if it is Prefecture 9 or 10 - if I'm wrong and it's 10, then replace 9 with 10 and 10 with 11 in this exercise as I am doing this from memory and haven't played in a couple of years. ***

Anyhow, I take him in the first scenario - he is an outlaw and on the run in a prefecture 2 away from P#9 (prefecture 9). I use the first couple of turns having him run away to P#9. Once there, I have him Settle in.

The reason for this is that this prefecture does not border any opponents so will allow him to develop. There are also a number of heros that come through here so, once Lin has some money and supplies, he can start recruiting heroes. He should really wait a full year before doing this as he does not have any money or food yet.

From the time he get's to P#9 until the end of the year, he should be hunting every month and giving food to the prefecture when he can't hunt (each action uses stamina and when a char's stamina goes down to 0, no direct action can be done - only actions like giving or taxing can be done)

By December, his poplularity in P#9 should be around 70s. This should be enough to get him some gold in January. The second year in P#9 should be spent recruiting heroes, giving money as loyalty, and continue developing P#9.

NOTE: not all heroes are recruitable at any given time; Popularity, your main char's mix of traits (integrity, mercy, compassion) also play a hand; if you are not sure if you can recruit a hero, use the "check the bones" option and that will tell you what your chances are.

SIDE NOTE: Popularity is VERY IMPORTANT - you gain it when you have at least 70 support in any prefecture, you gain it when you rid the prefecture of wild animals, and under other special events, you also gain popularity (If I remember, I'll list at the end of this a couple of the events that gain you popularity) You also need 250 Popularity to get the Imperial Edict to challenge Gao Qiu - once you get the needed points, that following January you will get the edict.

Anyhow, at the end of your second year you may have 2 or even 3 heroes in your employ and the prefecture building up nicely. Now, the only disadvantage in P#9 is that there is no armor/weapon maker so you will have to go to P#10 for this which is down from p#9. Don't go down there with less then 4 heroes having 100 men each (I should also mention that before you leave your prefecture, all your heroes should have 100 men and 100 training. In the early part of your fighting this will be essential for winning)

The reason you want to be careful is because right next to this prefecture (with the weapon smith) is one held by Gao Qiu's men. you will want to fully arm your heroes and probably lead them yourself into battle this time. Even though you should outnumber Gao's men, they are strong fighters in this prefecture and will be holed up in the forts.

Alternatively, you can go first to the prefecture in the far left corner of the map and, once you get the support of this 3rd prefecture ( did I neglect to say you should get the popularity of p#10? well you should do that too!) then you should be able to recruit the 4 heroes in this place - a couple of which are good fighters and will only help your cause.

Once you feel ready (and have enough heroes and men to fight) take on gao's prefecture down here. Don't use too many heroes - no more then 5 or 6 at the most or the enemy will run away - and at this point, you'd rather have at least one of those men in your service - which will happen if you fight with enough force.

I'm not going to go into great detail of war tactics on this post; if someone asks a question about them, then I'll list a few....

Once you've succesfully fought for this prefecture, then you wil have a LOT more gold and food to work with and can quickly bolster your troops. Then you will be ready for the next cycle of expansion, war, recruit, expansion, war, recuit...

I find that I go from the far left (center), downwards, towards the right, and then back up to the upper right before getting 250 popularity.but i usually get the edict by 1120 - giving me 5 or so years to finish up.

If this quick and dirty overview helped, please let me know by either email: ohtneb@hotmail.com or Icq# 193297183.

Good luck to all of you.

PS: events raising popularity - getting the two prefectures in a row to the right of #23 - those were the hide outs of the original bandit kings and you will get around 100 points for raising support in those prefectures to at least 70. Also parties - which I have No Clue about how to effect, tend to raise popularity a little.

[Borodin]

I've always found that the easiest course upon starting the game was to go into voluntary exile, after first raising the loyalty of whatever heroes you had with you. Target an empty province that borders on empty provinces: the northwest corner of the map (#1) is the best.

As you travel through various provinces to get there, try looking at the stats of masterless heroes. If you find any that are low, attempt to get them to join you.

Declare your status as a leader while still in province #2, and drop off a newly recruited hero there--it's directly to the east of #1. It's also untouched by other occupied provinces, so it can safely be occupied and built up without fear of threats or invasion. One Big Tip: any hero you appoint a governor (the person in charge of the province) will never defect, so leaving your hero with the lowest loyalty in province #2 makes sense. They'll hunt and get taxes, and pay themselves first to raise loyalty. Meanwhile, you can settle another low loyalty hero directly south of province #1, and south of that, if need be.

Typically, I build up my forces while recruiting better heroes in the surrounding empty provinces. The more provinces you declare as your own--having them reach a level of 40 in loyalty for "official recognition," the better. Note, I typicaly take them to 30-36 or so, then deliberately gift the people with enough to hit in the 52-56 range. That way, there is no chance of revolt. At 40-46, you're almost guaranteed the people will hate you, and soon.

The more provinces you grab, the higher your rating. The higher your rating, the more likely you are to recruit masterless heroes. Give the better ones lots of men, arm them and train them, then spy on other occupied provinces, and attack one that isn't fully occupied to the teeth. Conquer it and try to grab as many enemy heroes of decent quality as possible; doesn't let them retreat off the screen. Once the battle ends--hopefully, with you victorious--raise everybody's loyalty repeatedly, and move all your heroes back to one of your own provinces.

Transfer men from less effective heroes to one with strong attributes, and try to make a hero with high integrity, courage or mercy a brother/sister. If you succeed, you'll be able to move them to another province, and gain an extra move each turn in which you can act through them. The more brothers/sisters you have, the more moves you can take in any given turn. But you're limited on the number of brothers/sisters you can recruit, so choose wisely.

Originally posted by Borodin@Jul 10 2005, 09:08 PM
I've always found that the easiest course upon starting the game was to go into voluntary exile, after first raising the loyalty of whatever heroes you had with you. Target an empty province that borders on empty provinces: the northwest corner of the map (#1) is the best.

As you travel through various provinces to get there, try looking at the stats of masterless heroes. If you find any that are low, attempt to get them to join you.

Declare your status as a leader while still in province #2, and drop off a newly recruited hero there--it's directly to the east of #1. It's also untouched by other occupied provinces, so it can safely be occupied and built up without fear of threats or invasion. One Big Tip: any hero you appoint a governor (the person in charge of the province) will never defect, so leaving your hero with the lowest loyalty in province #2 makes sense. They'll hunt and get taxes, and pay themselves first to raise loyalty. Meanwhile, you can settle another low loyalty hero directly south of province #1, and south of that, if need be.

Typically, I build up my forces while recruiting better heroes in the surrounding empty provinces. The more provinces you declare as your own--having them reach a level of 40 in loyalty for "official recognition," the better. Note, I typicaly take them to 30-36 or so, then deliberately gift the people with enough to hit in the 52-56 range. That way, there is no chance of revolt. At 40-46, you're almost guaranteed the people will hate you, and soon.

The more provinces you grab, the higher your rating. The higher your rating, the more likely you are to recruit masterless heroes. Give the better ones lots of men, arm them and train them, then spy on other occupied provinces, and attack one that isn't fully occupied to the teeth. Conquer it and try to grab as many enemy heroes of decent quality as possible; doesn't let them retreat off the screen. Once the battle ends--hopefully, with you victorious--raise everybody's loyalty repeatedly, and move all your heroes back to one of your own provinces.

Transfer men from less effective heroes to one with strong attributes, and try to make a hero with high integrity, courage or mercy a brother/sister. If you succeed, you'll be able to move them to another province, and gain an extra move each turn in which you can act through them. The more brothers/sisters you have, the more moves you can take in any given turn. But you're limited on the number of brothers/sisters you can recruit, so choose wisely.

By what year do you end up getting the imperial edict?

[Borodin]

Usually about 5-7 years before the game conclusion. I've never run out of time, if that's what you mean. The ending is largely a case of isolating Gao Qiu, then drawing off large numbers of his armies with a very weak, poorly supported hero who raises a neighboring province enough to get the enemy's interest. After doing that a bit, I surround Gao Qiu with my some small armies--so he has no other province to move to, and escape--then attack with my best forces (making sure at least one hero is left behind).

jus wondering.. how do u create a save directory for the game?? i'm running it using dosbox.. but not sure how to create a directory to save games..
anyone can help??

[Borodin]

You do it from within the game. Just choose the option that lets you save a game, and exit. When you leave DOSbox, that saved game will still be there.