1. Use the 'Right Mouse' button to speed up the clock while waiting for an event to occur. This works in both the Strategic and Tactical modes.
2. Defending military forces are always approximately one half the size of a player's total military force. The number of soldiers that a territory can muster in its defense, in other words, is based on the total size of the army owned by the controlling player. To be precise, the number of each type of unit is equal to one half of the number of such units in the player's army, rounded up (e.g. a player with three infantry and five archers would defend with two infantry and three archers).
   
   The defender still has an edge, however. The strength of each individual defensive unit is adjusted upward slightly to account for the defender's superior knowledge of the terrain. The defender also gets to choose where the battle will be fought. This offers a significant advantage to the clever player. Finally, the attacker will have a very difficult time winning unless the odds are greater than 2 to 1 in its favor (this includes morale, which's not immediately measurable, just as in real life).
   
   The battle system works both ways: when you are attacked, you defend with half of your forces. If you lose the battle, you may then launch a retaliatory attack on the other player, who'll defend with half of whatever forces remain after the first attack. Also, remember that every unit lost to either player removes one unit of that type from the player's forces. However, since the defender only fields an army half the size of its total force, it can never be wiped out in a single battle. The attacker, however, can be completely eliminated by a solid defender. A counterattack after such a rout is usually devastating to the once proud aggressor.
   
   The intent of this design is to encourage back and forth skirmishing. It also places the greatest risk of loss on the player who has the most to gain (i.e. the attacker). This design applies to both the computer players and the human players; they abide by exactly the same rules. This includes the rule which provides at least one Infantry and one Archer to a player with no military forces. We assume that any human or computer territory is capable of offering some defense to an attacker, however meager.
3. Your army's morale is based on the Happiness of your people. Battles may be won and lost solely on morale. It has a very strong effect on the outcome. Be sure to keep your Happiness at least as high as that of your neighbors.

Castles II employs two sophisticated, multi-level artificial intelligence (AI) engines for the computer players. One for Strategic mode, and another for Tactical mode. Only the Strategic AI is discussed in this analysis.

The Strategic AI consists of medium-level and high-level portions. Actions are initiated through the same task mechanism used by the human players. In fact, the AI players were tested by letting one of them run the game in place of the human, even displaying results on the same user interface.

Castles II was exhaustively play tested for six months. Every aspect of the game play was critiqued and fine tuned. This was an especially complex task for the artificial intelligence routines. Many of the AI algorithms were rewritten several times until they became satisfyingly realistic. Fortunately, the computer players use the same tasks as the humans. The tuning factors were based on empirical adjustments derived from actual human play testers. The result is a series of opponents who play at a level equivalent to that of an expert human player. The Easy and Impossibly difficult levels in the game were created by delicately adjusting more than a dozen factors in the playing style of each opponent.

The medium-level AI maintains appropriate levels of commodities and military forces, and ensures the safety and security of the kingdom. It issues Gather and Recruit tasks whenever it decides to increase the level of a commodity or increase its military strength. The medium-level AI can send Merchants (this is a good way to find out if a computer player is experiencing a shortage of a given resource, by the way). The medium-level AI also starts a Happiness task when the peoples' morale drops, sends Scouts to neighboring territories, and Polices the realm if it is being Sabotaged or Spied upon.

The medium-level AI does not think very often. During play testing, this AI was found to be extremely agile in its response to changing conditions in the game. It was far more agile, in fact, than any reasonable human opponent. The frequency of its thinking was reduced to compensate for this. One other adjustment was made. Since the computer players do not get the benefit of plots or random events, which often give "freebies" to the human player, the AIs were given the ability to obtain one unit of a given resource if no units are available in their stockpiles and the computer wants to run a task that requires that item. This also compensates partially for problems which arise due to their reduced frequency of thinking. This only applies if they are completely out of that commodity. The computer players cannot pile up large stocks of goods in this manner. Also, they do not possess this special ability at the Easy difficulty level.

The high-level AIs handle the more complex thinking in the game. They use a modified version of a traditional AI approach to prioritization of their various options. This keeps them from becoming locked into simple patterns of action. Attack, Build Castle, Saboteur, Spy, and Diplomat are high-level AI tasks. The computer evaluates each task based on a large number of variables. It may decide to attack a particular territory because it contains a commodity that is in short supply, or it may back off if it finds a castle there. It weighs all of the possibilities and chooses the one which is the best means of achieving its goals.

At the beginning of the game, your focus should be on grabbing territory. This cannot be done in a haphazard manner, though. Your most important goals should be:

1. Build a solid, defensible perimeter.
2. Possess all four types of resources.
3. Crank your economy up to top speed as soon as possible.

Most of the players begin in one corner or another of the map. The best strategy for these players is to aim for an initial size of five or six territories. Conquer a few immediately, preferably by building a "wall" of territories that you own, behind which may be a few that you do not yet own but are inaccessible to the other players (the other players cannot "leapfrog" and get to them). Then, conquer these other territories. Territories will revolt if not subjugated by a show of force. You must therefore begin to build castles once you control four or five territories. Try to build just one castle, preferably in a territory which borders every other territory that you own. If you are very fortunate, or have planned well, the territory in which you build the castle will have Gold as a resource. Make sure that your castle is at least 100 points strong, so that it will prevent revolts in all neighboring territories. The castle will not prevent revolts until it reaches an appropriate level of completion. Be sure to start construction early enough to ensure that your people will not revolt before the castle reaches this critical size. One good way to speed up the construction process is to skip the moat: it slows the construction process significantly.

Politics also plays a critical role in the game, even at this early stage. Make sure that your people are happy. Make sure that the Pope likes you and try to keep your enemies at bay by buying them off occasionally until you can become strong enough to fight them effectively.

Once you have your initial territories under control, you may choose any one of several approaches to the game. The game can be won through military conquest, administrative power, or political expertise, although the obvious military approach is the easiest. Make a decision now as to how you wish to proceed, and stick to it as long as possible.

The game will place far more demands on your resources than they can support. You must decide whether to make your people happy, build alliances with your neighbors, build castles, or build a dominant military force. Your basic strategy choice will determine which of these will be emphasized.

There are a few general pointers that apply to any strategy. Keep these in mind, and you will always be in control (as much as possible, anyhow), and, lest you think that these pointers are unimportant, just remember that the other players ARE using them.

Use every ability point that you have. Even if you're not running a Military task, for example, apply the otherwise unused Military ability points to another task, such as a Gather. This will serve the dual purpose of increasing the speed of the gather task and giving you the extra push toward raising your ability rating. Your Military ability will not increase as quickly as if you were running Military tasks, but any contribution in the right direction is helpful.

Stay friendly with the Pope. Monitor your relations regularly. Remember that attacking a friend of the Pope (noted by the word "Blessed" next to that player's name in the Council display) will cause your relations with the Pope to decrease by one point. It is very easy, therefore, to become excommunicated through carelessness.

Stay friendly, or at least on neutral terms (relations of four to six) with your neighbors. The better your relations with them, the less likely they are to attack or sabotage you. Also, your Merchants are likely to get better deals if they are dealing with friendly parties.

Maintain a reasonable army size. Make it too small, and your neighbors may attack when their spies discover that you are a weakling. Make it too large, and the maintenance costs will drag down your economy.

Send Diplomats to "buy off" enemies who are attacking you. They remember friendly actions and are less likely to attack if they have reached a diplomatic agreement recently. Unfortunately, they cannot recall armies who are already in the process of attacking, so your Diplomat may be too late to be effective. Also, enemies remember your hostile acts even longer than they remember the nice ones.

Think in terms of small campaigns. Before launching attacks, pick a small number of territories to capture, build up your army and then go. Don't bite off more than you can chew! After grabbing a couple of provinces, consolidate your gains, rebuild your army and erect castles for defense. Never get greedy, as an overextended empire crumbles very quickly!

Always harvest your resources. You'll use them up very rapidly as everything you do costs money and/or goods. Try to resist building a castle until your Administrative Rating hits five, allowing you a second task in that category. Then keep harvesting as you build.

If you don't have a good mix of commodities in the territories you own, you can still have a good economy. Try to harvest the commodity you have the most of and then trade them for what you need. You'll need good relations with a trading partner to pull this off, but it works well when you don't have access to iron and gold. Always remember that the black market is risky, but it can help bail you out of tight situations.

Many players initially try to win the game through brute military force. Unfortunately, being a leader means more than having the largest army. You must also make friends with those who can be most helpful to you. You must choose your enemies carefully. You also must manage your realm well enough that it does not vanish in a sudden spate of revolts. The following hints should assist the determined militarist:

1. Obtain Knights as quickly as possible. Build up to a Military Ability Rating of six by recruiting and attacking. Don't police your realm unless it's essential. Take a risk in order to build up your forces more rapidly.
2. Build just enough castles to prevent revolts. You can build them without moats if you're in a big hurry.
3. Make sure that you have plenty of Iron and Wood initially, so that you can build a big army. Then make sure that you have plenty of Food and Gold to pay for these forces. If you lose them due to failure to pay, you may very well lose the game.
4. Choose your enemies carefully. Only attack one at a time. Trying to conquer two at once will almost certainly end in disaster. Send plenty of Diplomats to the other player to keep him off your back. Besides, you can get better trading terms with that player until you're ready to attack.
5. Ambush a weak opponent. Call a Council and see who is at war with whom. Then attack a neighbor who is busy fighting someone else.
6. Don't attack Blessed players unless you have no other choice. The Pope will cause you a great deal of grief. You should never need to be excommunicated.

Castles II may also be won through administrative might and diplomatic savvy. A player with six well-chosen territories and many castles can prosper and win without spending enormous amounts of effort on military campaigns.

The key to an administrative victory is maintaining the happiness of your people and becoming allies with the other players. Run Happiness tasks and send plenty of Diplomats to your neighbors.

Focus on obtaining Gold territories. You'll need Gold to buy off your neighbors and the Pope.

Build a moderate-sized standing army. If your neighbors suspect that you've a small army, they are more likely to attack you. Remember that losses affect the attacker more than the defender (since the defender will never lose more than half of his army in any given battle), so you can do a great deal of damage to someone who dares attack you.

If you are attacked, send Diplomats. If relations improve, your opponent will temporarily be less willing to attack again. Keep up a steady stream of Diplomats and you may be able to avert a second attack.

Send lots of Merchants and Diplomats. Political Ability points are the most difficult to achieve, but you'll have plenty of time to get them since you will be spending fewer resources on military actions.

When other players like you a lot (Relations of eight or nine), trade will be more advantageous. You can actually make a profit on trade if you work hard at it. Every unit in your stockpile puts you closer to victory.

Don't forget that your friends will turn on you when you Claim. Relations will drop by one point with every other player. You will suddenly be the target of numerous Saboteurs and Attacks. Be prepared. Just before you claim, build up a substantial army with plenty of Knights and Archers.

The goal of Castles II, ultimately, is to survive long enough to become King. Once you have established your initial fiefdom, it is time to put your overall strategy to the test. Focus on the elements that you deem most important, as noted above. We won't tell you how to win. There are many ways to win in Castles II, and part of the fun is in discovering them for yourself. However, a few general pointers for later in the game may be warranted:

Build a buffer of extra points before you Claim. Once the other players get wind of your pending coronation, they'll become increasingly aggressive toward you. Claiming reduces relations of all other players with you. This can pull you very rapidly into warfare. Make sure that the loss of points due to the drop in relations, plus the drops due to the attacks you will receive, will not be so severe that the Pope decides not reject your claim.

Deciding when to Claim is a tricky decision. If you are the first to try, everyone will take their shot at knocking you down. Waiting for someone else to claim first is also a tricky path to follow because you might not have enough time or power to knock him down, and, if more players claim in the meantime, it'll turn into a free- for-all. (Actually that becomes quite a fun endgame to be involved in. Maybe that's not such a bad idea after all!)

1. Attack two or three other players at once. Yeah, the more, the merrier. It's fun to send troops in every direction, grabbing territory as quickly as possible. It's fun to lose troops faster than you can Recruit them. It's fun to beat back counterattacks every two weeks. It's fun to restart the game every ten minutes!
2. Ignore the Pope: attack Blessed players: get Excommunicated. So what if they're the Pope's friends? So what if eventually this gets you Excommunicated? You're too tough to expect your people to be happy. Besides, no iron fisted ruler worth his garderobe worries about those Holy Rollers. And don't worry about the precipitous drop in your army's morale because your people are unhappy. Your army is three times bigger than any other in Bretagne, at least it was the last time you checked. Besides, you don't need to send no stinkin' Merchants.
3. Never send Diplomats. Diplomats are pansies. You kill them when they come to you. Why send yours when Relations are always so bad anyway? You don't need no stinkin' friends (see Merchants above). Scorched earth, that's your style. Take no prisoners. Just build an army and kill everyone at once. No problem. They'll never have time to mount a counterattack. What if everybody hates you? Huh? What if? Are you talkin' to me?
4. Trade inefficiently: Rely on the Black Market for scarce goods. Trade with people who hate you. Everyone is out to get you. You have no friends, so why would you expect them to trade advantageously with you? What's so bad about an occasional two for one or three for one swap for something you really need? Losing one or two units per trade doesn't really add up to much over thirty or forty trades, anyway. Besides, how could you possibly have planned ahead for your needs?
5. Let your army starve or go without paychecks. Why, when you were in the military you went six, seven years without eating. Yeah, and when you ate all you had to eat were rocks. Yeah, and when you got paid you got paid in sticks. Yeah, and they were wet too! After all, you only lose one military unit on the first delay. Why should you care if it's your best unit? You'd have more Knights than you can use, don't you? And don't worry about the fact that you lose double the units after every further delay. You have more important concerns than maintaining an army.
6. Ignore a commodity because it's not important. Who needs Food, except to feed the army, recruit Knights, and make people happy? Who needs Timber, except to build castles, recruit Archers, and make people happy? Who needs Iron, except to build castles and recruit Infantry? Nobody needs Gold, right? Right? ... Well, gold maybe ...
7. Don't build castles. The name of the game is Castles II. But that has nothing to do with it. You're too busy conquering neighboring territories to worry about those pesky revolts. And who needs double commodities anyway (see above)? You can always reconquer the territories you lose. Your neighbors would never even think about trying to capture a neutral territory that was once yours. And how much protection can you really get from a pile of stone? Ten archers posted on the walls can't possibly be very useful. Why would you ever imagine that they might be safer up there, or might be able to shoot arrows further? And what possible advantage could there be to protecting all of your Infantry and Knights from enemy Archers?
8. Never, ever Claim the throne. Why try to win, when you can have lots of fun getting beaten to a bloody pulp year after year? Masochism builds character. No, even better. Claim early. Just as soon as your score creeps up to 7001. Yeah, that'll show everyone just what you think of them. Those sniveling, wimps.
9. Change strategies every year or so. Yeah, keep duckin' and weavin'. Bobbin' and dopin'. Move slowly and in different directions all the time. Those computer players won't know what to do. Who needs to focus on a consistent strategy? Planning never worked for Wile E. Coyote.
10. Never send Scouts and Spies. Never call a Council. Why bother looking at your neighbors? They aren't planning any hostile actions. You're perfectly happy with two or three territories on the wrong side of the river. You never worry when a new neighbor shows up. He couldn't possibly have fifteen military units poised on your border, a Happiness of nine, and a serious need for elbow room. So what if Aragon just marched all the way to Albion's part of the map? He can't possibly be winning the game. In fact, nobody else could possibly be doing better than you. Just ignore them. You always win on Impossible level, anyway.