Instructions for the electronic version of Carolos Magnus

Carolos Magnus is a computer game for up to three people based on the popular board game by Leo Colovini.

The Concept

Carolos Magnus wants to find a worthy successor to his throne. Each of the greedy heirs (the players)must prove to the old emperor that he or she can best manage and protect the provinces. To do this,they build castles in the provinces and fight with their competitors in order to gain influence and royal favour. Each player can administer one or more provinces. To do this, the player must build a castle there and constantly defend it. To this end, he needs the support of the most powerful Frankish noble families who administer the empire. Successfully expanding one's regions and winning the game depends on gaining their support...

The Objective

The player who has the most castles at the end of the game wins.

Preparing to Play

Our on-line game can be played only in the version with 3 players. However, the role of one or both opponents can be played by the bot (the computer). After starting the program, an empty screen is displayed. In the window above, different menu options can be set. You can start a game by selecting" Neues Spiel " in the " Spiel " menu. First, a window will open where you can input the players' names. Then the new game starts. In the middle of the screen, 15 provinces will appear as rectangular fields to be conquered. Each player has 8 castles which can be built in the provinces. Carolos Magnus is located at the beginning of the game in a randomly selected province. At the bottom left, three courts are shown, one each in red, blue and green, which are assigned to the individual players. The courts have places for the knights (coloured rectangles) and a reserve of 9knights in 5 different colours is (red, green, yellow, blue, pink). The reserve is automatically populated after each move. To select a knight, click on a colour first. This appears framed in black.With another click, the knights are placed in the desired province or court. The courts display how many knights of each colour each player has gathered. If a player has the majority of the knights of one colour, the field in question is shown as a circle. On the far right each player has chips with values from one to five. The player whose icon is currently highlighted has the turn. The player's turn ends when the "Zug Beenden" is clicked. The player's reserve is automatically populated. Then the next player is up. If you are unsure which moves to make, you can let the bot take care of all the moves. This can be done by simply clicking "Bot ziehen lassen".

The End of the Game/The Winner

The game ends when a player has built all 8 castles, a player has the majority of castles in three orfewer regions still in play.

Options

The "Spiel " menu offers several ways to start a new game, to save a running game, to open saved games, to run a game on the network or to end a game. Under "Einstellungen", you can select an appropriate screen resolution and if necessary, activate bots. Under "Hilfe" you can read the rules and information about the game's publisher. On the left side of the screen is the "Spielstandsfenster"showing the current number of castles each player possesses. In addition, the window also indicates which actions have to be executed in the current move. Here you can also start the bot. At the bottom of the screen, there's also a window to chat with the other players.