Official Game Rules & Strategy Manual
As in real life, in MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE you sometimes find yourself amidst enemies with common interests and friends with opposing ones. You compete and cooperate in all facets of life: financial, political, religious, military and criminal, while seeking the greatest possible power in the form of wealth.
MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE is a period simulation as well as a mirror of our times. Italians were key in formulating the philosophies of the age of the republican city-states, also known as the Renaissance. Remarkable characters such as Marco Polo, Niccolo Machiavelli, Cesare and Lucretia Borgia, Lorenzo deMedici, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and countless other merchants, politicians, heretics, bankers, artists, and engineers epitomized the new order and pioneered the institutions of our modern world.
Venice is the focus of the game because this medium-sized city of 100,000 souls managed to control "one quarter and half of one quarter of the Roman Empire, while holding off the Turks in the east and the Genoese in the west. Venice, the Serene Republic, was so feared that the rest of Europe instituted the first alliance of nations in modern history, the League of Cambrai, to prevent her further expansion. While presenting a unified front to the rest of the world, Venetians used intrigue and politics to compete within their circle.
The ultimate goal of MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE is to be the wealthiest Venetian faction when the game ends. The tools that you use to acquire wealth fall into several loose categories: Trade, Politics, and Conquest.
You must explore the world to find cities that produce unique and valuable trade goods, and establish trade routes that exploit the supply and demand demographics peculiar to your world. You'll encounter many obstacles along the way: brigands, pirates, calamities, obstinate potentates, rival cities, and always, your fellow Venetians.
It is in your best interest to get involved in both the internal and external politics of Venice, as well as the intrigues of the Church in Rome. In game terms, as you control the votes of more senators and cardinals while weathering assassination and arson attempts, you eventually rise in prominence and influence. You might be lucky enough to attain a ruling position, from which you can dispense justice, punish intriguers, and reward cronies.
You have the opportunity to command troops, whether they be the Home Fleet of Venice or your own mercenaries, with the option of furthering your own ends or those of Venice or, occasionally, serving both causes simultaneously. You can rid the shipping lanes of nefarious pirates and crusade against desperate infidels, open trade routes and battle other city-states. You can use "superlegal" means in all arenas, but be careful.. the price of being caught can be both expensive and personal.
You win MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE by being the player worth the most money when the game ends, or at any time that you're worth one million florins. If you're good at leaping ahead early in the game, you can choose short game lengths; if you want to experience the full panoply of intrigue and trade when the world was still flat, and maps were only as accurate as an adventuring merchant could make them, set your sights on the long term.
"Here a question arises: whether it is better to be loved than feared, or the reverse. The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
— Niccolo Machiavelli
This section walks you through a sample game and introduces you to the major screens and concepts of play. Even if you're not a follow-the-rules kind of player, take a moment to peruse the sections Interface and Movement Screen to get a feel for the way the game operates.
This section is for players using an IBM-compatible machine. If you're playing a different version of the game, refer to the Technical Supplement for details about the interface. MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE can be operated using the mouse only, or using a combination of both mouse and keyboard. Many people find the short-cut keys on the keyboard significantly speed up their play.
We assume here that the user understands basic mouse functionality, like clicking and dragging. Since your mouse has two buttons, the interface distinguishes between them. The following definitions refer to their usage in this manual.
You can "scroll" the large map display by moving your mouse cursor off the edge of the screen in the direction you want to scroll. You can "scroll" various menus and boxes in the game by dragging the yin-yang button up and down the slider bar next to the box.
Most menu items in MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE have a short-cut key, indicated on the menu by a highlighted letter. You can either click on a command button, or type the appropriate letter and press ENTER. Appendix A: Using the Keyboard contains a list of short-cut keys and their functions.
After installing MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE, you can walk through a short game to familiarize yourself with the interface and strategies of the game.
Click on the START NEW button in the Initial screen. Since this is a tutorial, you want to take things easy. Click on the top left-most button in the Setup screen until you see a human figure (the word HUMAN is displayed below). This is your icon. Next, click on the blue ship icon to the right of your icon until the words EASY START appear below. You'll start the game with three ships and a caravan. Now set your opponents at NOVICE level by clicking on the next three characters and cycling to NOVICE (the hand icon) for each one. If you want, you can also set their ships to CHALLENGE! level, giving them an even slower start. Click on the Storms and Pirates options to cycle them until each displays the word RARE. Drag the game length selector down until the number to the right of it reads 15. This means you're choosing a 15 year game, which is pretty short. Finally, Click on DONE. The next screen allows you to choose your game name. Either highlight a name on the list, or type in your own. Click OK. Now choose a crest to represent your faction. Click on a crest to highlight it. When you find one that catches your eye, click OK.
You are now in the Movement screen, and your first ship, a small galley icon, is blinking in Venice. A blinking icon represents the current active unit; that is, the unit whose turn it is to move. But you don't yet have any cargo on this ship. To acquire cargo, click on the BUY/SELL button. This sends you to the Market screen. Your wealth is listed in florins (FL) in a box at the top left of the screen. Click on the blue GLASS goblet—you'll see that your mouse cursor changes from a dagger into a goblet. Run this goblet over to your hold and click once to load it. If you want two goblets, you can click again on the next hold, but instead, let's enlist some guards. Click on the goblet in the commodity list to return your cursor to a dagger. This time, drag a decorated SHIELD (the shield displays either a wide cross, indicating Heavy Guards, or an attenuated cross, indicating Light Guards) over to your hold box. You can use either method (clicking to pick up and put down, or dragging) of loading and unloading your cargo—whichever you find most comfortable. Each item's price is listed to the right of its picture. Notice that your wealth has been reduced by the cost of the items you purchased (if your cursor still looks like an item, the game is deducting the price of that item, too, even though you haven't stowed your purchase. Click on the commodity to return your cursor to a dagger, and you'll see your final treasury tally). You have now loaded your small galley with Venetian glassware, and a guard unit to help protect your ship from pirates. Note that the price you paid for each item is shown below the cargo hold in which it is carried. Click DONE. Let's go make some florins!
To sail your galley, use the numeric key pad to move square by square (the keys correspond to the compass directions: for example, 2 is South, 1 is Southwest, 4 is West, and 5, at the center, is inactive). Head south until you're out of the Adriatic and then west along the coast of Italy. After you round the "heel of the boot," you can see Rome on Italy's western coast. Click on the city to make port there. When you enter a city, you automatically move to the Market screen where you can make cargo transactions. Drag the blue goblet from your cargo hold to the item list to sell it. Your wealth increases by the amount that Romans pay for GLASS. In addition, you now have an empty hold.
Let's set up a trade route from Rome to Venice and back. First, you need to find out what commodity Rome has that Venice wants. There are multiple beer barrels here. Right-click on Venice to see the City's screen. Sure enough, Venice will pay more for GROG than it costs you to buy it in Rome. Click DONE to return to the Movement screen. Now click on the red, circular arrow in the lower left group of buttons. This is the TRADE ROUTE button; it takes you to the Trade Route screen. Click on Rome in the large map. The city's name comes up on the first box under Trade Orders, and two empty holds appear. Drag a barrel into your hold to buy a keg of GROG. Next drag over the type of guard unit you hired in Venice. To keep the same guard unit, make sure it occupies the same cargo hold at every city. Now click on Venice in the large map. Notice that a line of arrows shows the route your ship will take. Again, below the city's name, two empty holds appear. Drag a blue goblet into your hold to buy GLASS in Venice, and drag along your guard unit to fill your second hold. Finally, click DONE to close this screen. The monitor will flicker through the Market screen as the computer loads your ship for you, and return to the Movement screen, where the ship sails as far along its route as its movement points will take it. This galley is now on automatic. It will merrily sail from Rome to Venice and back to Rome again, racking up florins without any input from you. (The exact prices of each item you buy and sell may fluctuate from turn to turn, but it is unlikely your route will become unprofitable in the long run. Only if some random event threatens will it need your guidance.) Experiment with your next two ships and with your caravan. Load each with goods (and guards) from Venice, and set out to find a city at which to trade.
When the movement points of all of your vessels are exhausted, a box pops up to ask if you want to end your turn or go to Venice. Click on the "go to VENICE" option. You pop up dockside in your home city. A few turns from now, we'll be ready to play politics, but for now you just want to get familiar with the buildings and functions. As you run your mouse over various buildings, notice that some become "highlighted" or brighter in color. These structures house further game functions. As you run the mouse over a game-active building, a brief description of that location and its function appears in the horizontal text bar across the bottom of the screen. Click on the GUILDHALL building (located to the left of the LIBRARY), and then click on the SAVE GAME option. You can name your game any eight letter/number configuration that DOS recognizes, with the extension GAM. (If you forget to add .GAM to your game-name, the program won't recognize your file. The only limit on the number of saved games is the space on your hard drive or floppy. Once you've saved, you can click on any of the other structures to see what Venice has to offer. Click CANCEL to get back to the deckside screen. When you're ready to go on, click DONE to return to the Movement screen. Now click on the END OF TURN button at the bottom left of the screen. A window appears with a summary of your costs and profits. The first item listed is the income from your familial estate: this amount stays constant throughout the game. Next, you are charged the wages of any guard units you hired: 10 florins per light guard unit, or 15 florins per heavy guard unit. In the future, you'll see how much you've spent to keep senators on your payroll, as well as any income from church or civil offices, and any mercenary costs. These numbers are added to (or subtracted from) your previous wealth to give you an up-to-the-minute reckoning of your assets. Click OK and wait while your computer opponents plot your demise.
"For this can be said about the generality of men: that they are ungrateful, fickle, dissembling, anxious to flee danger and covetous of gain."
— Niccolo Machiavelli
You've accomplished one turn. Lets review the sequence of play:
Your main goal for the next few turns is to make money. Since you are using the "historical" map, your knowledge of Mediterranean geography will give you clues as to the approximate location of other ports. You'll find some dark gray cities to which your access is denied. Skip them for now, and keep sailing until you find an open port. A good idea is to head East and buy RELICS in Antioch, then sell them for a profit in Venice. Keep trading until you have about 3000 florins.
Return to the Venice screen by clicking on the VENICE button. It's time to start making your influence felt. Click on ST. MARC'S BASILICA. When the College of Cardinals screen appears, check to see if any cardinal icons show up under the AVAILABLE heading. If one or more cardinals is unaligned, click on the BUY CARDINAL button. Only buy one, because you'll need some capital with which to continue trading. If there is no unclaimed cardinal in the lower right side of the screen, keep checking back every turn. One will eventually show up. You want a cardinal in your pocket because he generates income every turn, by selling indulgences. The price of indulgences is set by the pope. Buying more cardinals also puts you in position to become pope when the current one dies. The pope has control of all the buttons at the top of the screen... but lets not get ahead of ourselves. You can read all about those buttons in St. Marc's Basilica; for now, return to the Venice screen.
Next, click on the DOGE'S PALACE. When the Senate screen appears, find the senator with the shortest red or yellow line in his box. This line indicates his "loyalty" to his current faction, and the fellow with the shortest line is the cheapest to bribe. When the Bribe box comes up, you'll see an estimate of your percentage of success at the amount you are offering. You can offer less money if you're willing to risk a lower chance of success. Click on the BRIBE button. If you are successful, your crest appears next to the senator, indicating his (new) loyalty to your faction. You can set a stipend for your senator that pays him every turn, but don't worry about that your first game. Once you have bribed a senator, you'll have a vote in the next doge election. As you gain influence in the senate (by bribing more senators), you may find yourself appointed to a position of importance, like Admiral, or Minister of Construction. Funds that are given to you are ostensibly for hiring additional forces or building roads (respectively). But you can just pocket the money instead, if you are willing to risk losing popularity. Keep playing until you have learned enough lessons to warrant starting over with a clean slate. You can play through the final year, if you want to see the end of game summaries.
To quit, click on the GUILDHALL in the Venice screen, and then click RETURN TO DOS. If you want to save your tutorial game so that you can resume at a later point, you can select SAVE GAME first: The computer will update the file you saved earlier with your new position, and pop you back to the Movement screen. Click the VENICE button, select the GUILDHALL, and click on the RETURN TO DOS button to get back to the DOS prompt.
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. Of recent examples proving this, there is one I will not omit. Pope Alexander VI (Roderigo Borgia) never gave thought to anything but deception and never lacked someone on whom to practice it. There never was a man who made promises more persuasively or swore them more solemnly and kept so few of them as he. Yet his tricks always brought the results he desired, for he knew this side of the world well."
— Niccolo Machiavelli
Whenever you start a game of MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE, you have the opportunity to adjust the conditions you encounter in the game. This flexibility lets you set up a personally interesting challenge: you can battle the elements by increasing storms, or compete with computer opponents by increasing the savvy of AI (artificial intelligence) players. If you want to explore new worlds, you can request a never-before-seen map. For each new screen, all the listed options are explained. When an option takes you to another screen, that screen's title is listed in boldface.
This option whisks you to the Setup screen, where you can configure a new game world.
This option presents you with a list of saved game files. There is no limit to the number of files you can save. You can choose to search another drive by highlighting the appropriate drive letter in the second column (this also allows you to save games on floppy disks, for storage and trading purposes).
This option allows you to send and receive games by modem, for interaction with remote human opponents.
This option allows you to review player histories in a graphical presentation, and to compare two players' achievements.
The left-most column displays four icons, indicating the four players of the game. As you click on the picture, the icon illustration cycles through the available choices, while the label below identifies each icon by its level of expertise. Select either a Human player, or one of five levels of computer player: Novice, Fair, Average, Good, or Expert. Note that if you are playing alone, but you like the crest colors of player three, you can set player three to Human and leave the rest as computer opponents. To play e-mail or modem games with other players, see APPENDIX B: Playing Remote Opponents for details.
The next column represents each player's starting resources. As you click on the picture, the icon illustration changes to represent the size of your starting "fleet," and the value of your initial treasury. The options are Easy Start, Normal Play, and Challenge!
In the top right corner of the screen, you can choose among map options: Historic Map, Random Map, and Saved Map File.
In the middle right, you can choose the frequency with which you encounter some random events by cycling both the Storms and the Pirates buttons through their three options: Rare, Average, and Frequent.
In the lower right corner, you can set the length of the game by dragging the yin-yang button along the slider bar. Possible intervals are 15 years, 30, 60, 100, 150 or 192 years (which puts you right up to Columbus’ discovery of the new world, and makes your flat-world map and viewpoints obsolete). The default value is 100 years.
Finally, when you have arranged the world to your satisfaction, click on the DONE bar along the bottom of your screen. If you chose either Historic or Saved Map Files, your screen becomes black as the computer generates the maps and economies of the game. If you chose the Random Map option, your computer has to work a little harder. A message appears which reads “Please wait while generating new world” and indicates by slider and percentage what portion of the work is done. Depending on the speed of your computer, this may blip by or last for half a minute.
In this screen, the label “Type/Select Name” appears above an empty text bar. If you move your dagger over the bar, the cursor appears, and you can type in a name of your choice. If you’d prefer a historical family, click OK to accept the suggestion in the Name window. Whenever you finish a game, your custom name is added to the list of possible choices, so that eventually it includes both the pregenerated (historical) names and your own suggestions, too.
You can choose your crest, or coat of arms, from one of the four displayed here. The color combinations available depend on which player you have chosen to play in the Setup screen. The initial crests displayed are historically accurate. Click to highlight one of the four choices. If it suits you, click OK.
This is one of the screens you access most frequently in the game. Your vessels can explore and discover new cities, and new opportunities for trade. Your armies can conquer closed cities and open them for the glory of Venice—or reserve their precious commodities for your monopoly by denying access to all opponents. And this screen is where all the day-to-day happenings—storms, pirates, and routine shipping runs—take place. Units and cities are fundamental elements of the Movement screen.
The currently active unit is the unit whose turn it is now. The computer automatically cycles through each unit (or group; see below) you control each turn. If you don’t want to deal with a particular vessel or caravan or mercenary right now, you can click on the WAIT button to pass that unit to the end of the queue. It becomes active again once each of the rest of your units has had its turn. An active unit has a green flashing background if it has movement points remaining this turn. An active unit with a red flashing background has used all its movement points for the turn. If more than one unit occupies a square, the units are “stacked” and the background appears gray. The Text bar at the bottom of the Movement screen shows how many movement points the active unit has left. To make a unit the currently active unit, right-click on it.
A group can include up to 15 units. Moving units in groups allows for mutual protection against pirates. Groups travel together (at the movement rate of the slowest group member, if the group contains a mix of unit types) and become active together. An active group has a green flashing background if it has movement points remaining this turn. An active group with a red flashing background has used all its movement points for the turn. If more than one group occupies a square, the groups are “stacked” and the background appears gray. To make a group the current active group, right-click on it or click the GROUPS button. Right-clicking on a stack lets you view and access all the groups in the stack. If the stack is in a city, click the GROUPS button and use the NEXT button to cycle through the stack. Make any group in the stack active by clicking the MOVE ME button. The Text bar at the bottom of the Movement screen shows how many movement points the active group has left.
You can make several individual units into one group or move units between groups if two or more groups occupy the same square. Click on the GROUPS button to bring up the Modify Groups box. Drag units from box to box until you get the combinations you want (remember, 15 is the maximum number of units a group can have). The unit with the least remaining movement points in a group sets the remaining movement points for the whole group (and that number might be zero). If you completely empty one group box, the “name” changes to the default “New Group!” If you have more than two groups in a square, use the Next Group buttons to access other units. Only two groups can be shown at one time. Rename any group (from the unimaginative Group 8 to, say, Sinbad, or Cinnamon, or Venice-Anxi, or whatever you want) by clicking in the appropriate text box, deleting the old name and typing in a new one.
You can also split large groups into several smaller parties. Double click on the active group or click on the GROUPS button to bring up the Modify Groups box. You’ll see your active group and an empty box named “New Group!” Again, drag units from box to box until you are satisfied with the arrangement. You can also rename these groups by clicking in the appropriate text box, deleting the old name and typing in a new one.
You can right-click on a city to get information on what commodities are available there, and how much each load costs to purchase. See City Screens for complete details; the basic information is listed here. The column on the left side of the screen shows the crests, and the trading status, of all four players. A red-bordered crest emblazoned DENIED indicates that player does not have access to the city and therefore cannot trade here. A green-bordered crest emblazoned ACCESS indicates that player can trade in this city. A green-bordered crest emblazoned OWNER shows that a player controls access to the city. Two broad columns of item icons show all the commodities available in the game, and what the city pays for each. Multiple icons of one item graphically indicate the number of units available; multiple gray or “shadow” icons graphically indicate the demand for those items. The exact number of items supplied and demanded is available in the Market screen or from the COMMODITIES button in the LIBRARY or Commodities Ledger. If a city is infested with the Black Death, the Text Bar at the top of the screen displays the reminder ‘Has the Plague.’ If you have warehouses in a city, their contents are displayed at the bottom of the screen. To see what groups are present in a city, click on the GROUPS button and use the NEXT button to cycle through the stack.
In the Tutorial, you learned to move a ship (or caravan) using the arrow keypad. You may also have discovered that clicking on any square on the map (while a unit is currently active and has movement points left) causes that unit to attempt to plot a route to the location that you clicked. If you like the course plotted, click the GO button, and your unit moves along the route until it either runs out of movement points, or runs out of route. If you want to plot a different course, click on a different destination square and try again. The unit attempts to plot a course, because ships cannot move onto land and caravans cannot sail the seas: if you accidentally click on a destination square that is impossible for your currently active unit to cross, a message tells you “Unit cannot move there.”
As you’ve no doubt seen, the sepia-tone map and reality do not always agree on where landmasses lie. However, if you click on a sepia (unexplored) square as a destination, your unit will “explore” up to it—at least as far as it can go in one turn. A unit remembers its destination from turn to turn, and continues to automatically move toward it, unless the destination is a sepia square. Events like storms and pirate attacks may pause a unit, but if the vessel survives the resolution of the event, it continues on its way.
When your turn starts, the computer runs through your queue of groups, checking to see what orders they have. It executes any automatic movement commands, such as the advancement of ships or caravans following previously established trade routes. It also activates groups that are continuing previous movement orders, and shows you the paths they propose to take. If you agree with a group’s route as it is drawn, click the GO button. The group proceeds on its way. If you want to change the route, right-click on the group or click the GROUP button to bring up the Modify Groups box, and click on CANCEL ORDERS. Now you can plot a new course. Units moving automatically still move under the restrictions of their modes, as well (see Mode of Movement Button, below); a ship sailing in GREEN mode sticks close to land wherever possible, so it might plot a very circuitous route to achieve its destination.
You have two ways to cancel an automatic order. If the unit is in the process of moving, click anywhere on the screen. A box appears that asks “Cancel this unit’s orders?” Click the YES button to halt the unit (click NO if you want to let it continue). If you want to redirect a unit that has already finished its turn, right click on the unit to bring up the Group box. Now click the CANCEL ORDERS button.
This window displays most (not quite all) of the world map in miniature. The dark red rectangle denotes the area enlarged in the Movement window. You can center the dark red rectangle, and therefore the Detail map, by clicking on any point.
This window displays the first unit of the active group. If there is more than one unit in the group, a label appears, telling which unit of the total group number is pictured. To see other units in the active group, click on the arrows to either side of the window. A horizontal box below the window shows any commodities or guards carried by each unit as it is pictured.
Clicking this button “pauses” the current unit and activates the next group in the queue with movement points still remaining. Active status passes around the “circle” or queue of all groups with movement points remaining, one at a time, until you use their movement points or click STAY.
Clicking this button causes the active group to become inactive for the rest of the turn. It will not become active again this turn unless you right-click on it.
This button is dark unless your active group or unit has a plotted course to follow. To plot a course, click on a terrain square to which you want your group to go. A series of arrows and X’s traces the proposed route. If you aren’t happy with the chosen path, click on your unit again to erase it, and try again. If you like the course, click on the GO button to send your group along the plotted course.
Clicking on this button brings up the Modify Groups box (see Making Groups and Splitting Groups for details).
Clicking on this button cycles through the three move-to modes.
Clicking this button whirls you to the City screen of the city in which your currently active group or unit stands: see City Screens for details. If you are the first Venetian to trade with a city, you might discover a holy relic, which is then automatically sold at auction back in Venice. If the Plague is present in a city, you will be warned before you enter. If you insist on trading there, you stand the chance of losing units and cargo—but you may realize extra profits (see Calamities for details).
Clicking on this button takes you to the Venice screen; see Venice Screen for details. Click DONE to return to the Movement screen.
Clicking on this button brings up the Trade Routes screen for the active unit; see Trade Routes Screen for details. Click DONE to return to the Movement screen.
Clicking on this button allows you access to a variety of information including messages, city statistics, and mercenary locations. Click CANCEL to return to the Movement screen.
Clicking on this button shows you the whole world map. Areas which you have explored appear in naturalistic colors (blue oceans, green lands, golden deserts), while unexplored areas are the sepia tones of a written map. City icons on the brown map indicate the rumored location of foreign ports and trade meccas, but the information becomes less and less accurate the further from Venice you go. A flashing red dot denotes the current active unit, if there is one. Click DONE to return to the Movement screen.
Clicking on this button turns your mouse pointer into a shovel, and allows you to build roads. You can only build roads on squares you have explored, and roads cannot bridge large river squares (see APPENDIX E: Unit Attributes and Movements Modifiers for a list of all terrain types). To build a road, click once on a terrain square. This highlights the square, and displays the price of a road segment across it in the Text bar. If you want to spend the money, click again on the same square (if you want to try a different route, click on a different square). When you have built all the road segments you want, click again on the SHOVEL button to toggle the cursor back into a dagger. Note that any player can use roads, regardless of who built them.
If all units have moved, the message “0 points left” flashes in the Text Bar at the bottom of the window. You can always click on cities, buy and sell cargoes, and build roads from this window.
When you’re finished moving units, buying influence, and checking cargoes, it just might be time to end your turn. Clicking on this button brings up your end-of-turn financial statement, unless you have neglected some of your civic duties (in which case you’ll be gently reminded of your responsibilities). Click on the CANCEL button to return to the Movement screen, to carry out any last-minute fixes and adjustments. The REMOVE button allows you to fine-tune your bottom line by firing a mercenary group or eliminating a senator’s stipend. Click on the appropriate line item to highlight it, and then click REMOVE. The PBEM button saves the game for E-mail play (see APPENDIX B: Playing Remote Opponents). When you have taken care of all the irons in your various fires, click OK to advance to the next player’s turn.
This bar displays information about units, cities and events, such as the number of movement points remaining for the currently active unit. Get in the habit of checking this bar frequently during the game.
This screen allows you to automate trade routes, so that ships sail between ports and caravans travel across country to distant cities, automatically buying and selling cargo. Setting up trade routes allows you to reduce the tediousness of directing a large fleet, to steadily build income, and to ensure the flow of goods to your warehouses. Units on trade routes only demand attention in response to calamities such as storms, pirate attacks and plague. Otherwise, the computer flicks through the sequences of movement, automatically buying and selling.
These two columns show the icons for all commodities and guard units.
This column shows the cargoes acquired at each port on the trade route (up to four cities can be linked with one route). When the screen first appears, the Trade Orders column is empty.
This button in the Trade Orders column allows you to customize instructions for your trade units, reminding them to fill their holds with goods before leaving port (see Setting Up a Trade Route for details).
This button in the Trade Orders column allows you to customize instructions for your trade units, reminding them to off-load goods to your warehouse if there is no current demand for them (see Setting Up a Trade Route for details).
This window allows you to examine cities and select them as destination ports for trade routes. Highlighted squares show the route groups will take.
This window displays all of the listed group’s unit icons.
Clicking this button cycles through each unit in a group, allowing you to customize cargo manifests. You can also click in the Group window on the icon of the unit you wish to activate.
This button allows you to “wipe the slate clean” and erase destination cities and cargo manifests line by line, if you change your mind.
Click on this button when your trade route is set to your satisfaction, or to exit this screen and return to the Movement screen.
Clicking on a terrain square in this window centers the Detail map on the point you selected, and allows you to quickly move from one city to another. The area enclosed in the dark red rectangle is the area enlarged in the Detail map.
Clicking this button copies the cargo manifest of your first unit to every other unit in the group. If your group includes a mix of units, the computer copies each hold one at a time from left to right until it can no longer make a match. A small galley with two holds can only duplicate the first two loads of an eight-hold large cog. Similarly, copying the galley’s manifest to the cog results in identical first and second cargoes, and then six empty holds in the cog.
Clicking on this button cycles the speed-and-recklessness rating of your units using this trade route through the three modes: GREEN, YELLOW, and RED. Units moving in GREEN mode take the safest possible route, venturing into open ocean (or desert, if they are land-based caravans) only when there is no other choice. Units moving in YELLOW mode are a little more adventurous, occasionally crossing open ocean squares (or entering deserts, on land). Units moving in RED mode race to complete their routes, risking open ocean or desert whenever such a move will provide a shortcut to their destination. By cycling through the options as you watch the maps in this screen, you can see what effect each mode has on the route in question, and choose the level of danger that best meets your purposes. The default mode is GREEN. The mode remains the same for the whole route.
Use the Detail map and the Corner World map to locate cities between which you wish to establish a trade route in the same manner as you use the maps in the Movement screen. As before, you can right-click on cities within the Detail map to obtain information on items available, access, and Plague conditions.
The trade group that you are loading appears in the Group window, and the active unit is highlighted. You can click the NEXT UNIT button to cycle through the units, if you have several in this group, and wish to load a different vessel first, or click on any unit in the Group window.
Set the first city on the trade route by clicking on it in the Detail map. The name of the city appears in the upper-most box under Trade Orders. Below the city name is the cargo manifest, a series of empty boxes representing the available holds of your first cargo unit. Any hold markers in excess of the current active unit’s actual capacity are X’ed out.
Drag items you would like to load (that is, purchase) in the first city, including any guard units, from the Item Icons columns to your cargo holds. If you want multiple units of the same item, click on subsequent holds to fill them, too. If you’re not sure what items to purchase, or how many of an item are available, you can right-click on the city in the Detail map to check. If your manifest demands an item not available at the port in which you chose to load it, that hold will be empty when your vessel leaves. The exception to this rule is guard units: your crew will hire whichever guard units are available, regardless of whether you specify Light guards or Heavy guards. If no guards are present when you wish to hire them, the crew sails without them.
Find the second city in the route, using the Detail and Corner World maps as necessary. Again, drag items you wish to load (purchase) in this city into your cargo holds. ANY CARGO THAT WAS ON THE FIRST MANIFEST BUT IS NOT ON THE SECOND MANIFEST WILL BE SOLD IN THE SECOND CITY. If you want to keep the same guard units, make sure they occupy the same holds at every city. Note that you may select an empty (city-less) terrain square as a destination for a trade group on its way to another city. These destinations are known as waypoints, and might allow you to detour around pirate-infested waters or avoid transoceanic crossings. No cargo changes can be made at waypoints.
Continue to select a third and fourth destination city if you wish, using the guidelines above. A trade route must always begin and end in the same city. If you use a waypoint, you must select a city to which your route continues after that stop (there’s no point, after all, in traveling from Venice to a waypoint and back to Venice).
For groups with more than one unit, click the COPY ALL button to duplicate the manifest of the first unit of the group. If the units in your group do not all have the same cargo capacity, the computer matches the cargoes from left to right until it runs out of holds to fill or cargoes to load, whichever is the case.
The two horizontal buttons on each cargo manifest allow you to fine-tune each unit’s orders. The STORE button unloads your cargo directly into your warehouse in a destination city instead of selling it (assuming you have a warehouse. If you don’t, a box will remind you of the need to purchase one the first time the unit makes port in that city). The WAIT button tells the unit to pause in that city long enough to fill its cargo holds. If there aren’t enough goods available for a full load, the unit won’t leave the city that turn (nor will the group of which that unit is part).
If you prefer to customize the manifests of each unit in your group, click on NEXT when you have finished the first unit, or click on the next unit icon in the Group window to highlight it. Proceed the same way you did loading the first unit for each of your remaining vessels. Of course, the destination cities must remain the same for every unit in a group (see Making Groups for information on changing the groups to which vessels belong).
To cancel the trade route of an active group, click on the TRADE ROUTE button in the Movement screen. Once you are in the Trade Route screen, click on CLEAR until no cities are highlighted. A shortcut is to right-click on an active group, and then click on CANCEL ORDERS.
Buying and selling merchandise for a profit is the heart of the trading component of MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE, and the Commodities Ledger is the key to information that will allow you to engineer the greatest trades. At this screen, you can check the availability of items, plot the best routes, and plan future conquests to open new, ever more lucrative markets. You can access the Commodities Ledger from the LIBRARY in the Venice screen, from the LEDGER button on the Movement screen, and from the COMMODITIES button in the City screens.
These two columns show all the icons for tradable items, including guard units.
This window gives the name of the item chosen, and the “base” or average price for the item (you might find the commodity for slightly more or less than the base price, depending on market conditions). The actual price of an item can vary with each new game you start, and each new turn in a game. Click on an item in the Item Icons columns to see its base price. The default item displayed is silver.
This window gives a short, pithy description of the item selected.
If you have accessed the Commodities Ledger while your current active group is in a city, this button reads “To CITY NAME.” The Detail and Corner World maps center on and highlight that city. Otherwise, the default button reads “To VENICE.”
This window lists all cities you have discovered, in descending order from the city that pays the most florins for the current commodity to the city that pays the least. Each entry gives the price paid for the item, the city name, both the number of units of the current item actually present (available) in the city and the number in demand, and finally, whether you have access to the city. Drag the yin-yang button up and down the slider to scroll through the whole list. The highlighted city becomes the active city on the Corner World map.
As in most other screens, the Detail map shows a close-up map centered on your current active city. You can click on a city in this map to make it the active city, and highlight the city’s name on the scrolling List of Known Cities.
Again, in common with most other screens, the Corner World map shows almost the entire game map, and the dark red rectangle delineates the edge of the Detail map.
Clicking this button takes you back to the screen that you came from.
"The way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation."
— Niccolo Machiavelli
Each city has its own screen, but all City screens have the same buttons and functions. Right-click on the city you wish to examine to call up its City screen.
The column on the left side of the screen shows the crests, and the trading status, of all four players.
Two broad columns of item icons show all the commodities available in the game, and what the city pays for each. Multiple icons of one item indicate graphically the number of units available; multiple gray or “shadow” icons indicate graphically the demand for those items. The exact number of items supplied and demanded is available in the Commodities Ledger, accessed by the LEDGER button on the Movement screen.
The military units pictured in the upper right corner of the screen are the city’s defenses. Wealthier cities have larger Civil Forces. These units are paid for through tax revenues and cannot leave the city. Civil Forces regenerate at the rate of one unit a turn unless the city is under siege. A state of siege exists every turn that the city is attacked.
This box only appears if your military units enter a city to which you are denied access. At the same time, the ATTACK button becomes available. The Foreign Forces box lets you compare the number and strength of your army or mercenary units with the Civil Forces units defending the city (see APPENDIX E: Unit Attributes and Movement Modifiers for a complete listing of all military units).
This button only appears when your trade units enter a city to which you are denied access, or after your military units have attacked a city to which you are denied access (they need not have won the battle, but merely have launched the first sally). Click on it to discover how large a bribe the city fathers demand for your access to their fair metropolis. You can either pay or cancel the transaction: if you agree to pay but do not have sufficient cash, a message to that effect appears. If your bribe succeeds, your crest acquires a green border and the label ACCESS in the Trade Access column.
This button only appears if your military units enter a city to which you are denied access, and no other mercenary group is present. At the same time, the Foreign Forces box appears, and displays the icons of your military units. Click on the ATTACK button if you wish to attack the city. Once you have attacked, a battle box displays the forces remaining on each side. The BRIBE button appears if you still have troops remaining. Most battles take several turns to complete (to fight until one side completely demolishes the other). For the duration of the battle, the city is under siege. You need not fight a battle to completion; you can disengage in any turn by moving the attacking force out of the city, or simply by choosing not to attack. The ATTACK button never appears in Venice.
Click on this button to see any groups currently in the city. The Civil Forces that defend a city are always present, unless an attack or calamity has wiped them out. Click DONE to return to the Movement screen.
Click on this button to return to the Movement screen.
To gain access to a denied city, you can either use military force or you can bribe the ruler of the city. You lose access to a city if you attack it and do not win. When you initially conquer a city by military force, the option “Do you wish to grant control to Venice?” appears. If you choose YES, all players (Venetians) gain access, and you are rewarded with a popularity increase. If you choose NO, you gain control of the city, and your crest acquires a green border and the label OWNER in the Trade Access column. As controller, you can allow or disallow another player access at any time by clicking on his or her (or its, in the case of computer players) crest. Denying another player access to a city he previously traded with destroys any warehouses he owned there. You might collect some looted commodities from the wreckage. You cannot gain control of a city by bribing it.
Mercenaries always defend cities that were open to trade for all Venetians when first discovered, or that were conquered and given over to the control of Venice. Mercenaries defend a city owned by the same player that hired them. Mercenaries never defend a city that Venetians have bribed access to.
Commodities are available in a city either because another player has just sold them, or because that city distributes them. Items sold into a city remain there for a short period of time. It is assumed that “third-party” merchants accomplish the sale of these items behind the scenes. The maximum default amount of any commodity in a city is determined by the distance of that city from the commodity’s point of origin, and the “strength” with which that item is distributed. In other words, you’ll find some commodities distributed in cities far from their points of origin, while other goods only appear where they are actually produced. Items shipped out of a city (purchased as cargo by a player) reduce the quantity of goods available for subsequent purchase for a few turns. The higher the maximum default, the higher the rate of regeneration. The available amount of any commodity in a city never climbs above the maximum default setting.
Commodity prices fluctuate between player’s turns, based on the intricate interactions of the game’s economic universe. The further a city is from a commodity’s point of origin, the more it is likely to pay for that item. During a siege, excommunication or plague (see Calamities), cities often pay premium rates for commodities not produced there. Once the siege or calamity passes, prices subside to normal levels.
If you are the first player to enter or create access to a city, there is a chance you might find a holy relic. Such relics are immediately sold (for variable profit) back in Venice. A message announcing your discovery is broadcast to the other players. Relics tend to be worth more if they are found in a previously hostile city.
The market is a key location in most cities you enter, because this is where your trade units buy and sell their merchandise. Each city’s Market screen shows the exact numbers of goods available and the exact number demanded in that metropolis. All Market screens have the same buttons and functions, though the goods for sale vary with each individual location. You access a city’s Market screen automatically when your units make port, unless that city is infected with Plague (see Calamities for details).
This window tells you where you are.
This window shows the sum currently in your treasury. As you conduct transactions, the value changes to reflect your new total. If your cursor is shaped like a commodity, the price of that item has been deducted from your treasury total, even if you have no hold in which to stow it. Click on the commodity to retrieve your “dagger” cursor, and reveal your actual treasury sum.
This box shows the currently active unit. If your trade group includes more than one unit, use the arrows on either side of the box to cycle through all the units you want to load or unload.
If you’re running short on cash, or a unit no longer meets your needs, you can use this button to sell a trade unit. Generally, you can recoup about half the cost of buying a new unit of the same type.
This box displays the holds of the currently active unit. Drag items to and from these holds to buy or sell them, or use the Sell All button as a short-cut to unloading. X’ed out boxes are unavailable.
Click on this button to sell the contents of your ship—except guard units. If there is no current demand for items, a box pops up, suggesting that you store the items in a warehouse until demand picks up. If you click YES, your cargo is off-loaded into your existing warehouse space, or new warehouse holds are opened up and their cost is deducted from your treasury. (If you click NO, or you have insufficient funds to hire warehouse space, the items remain on board your trade units.) The holds of overflow items turn red, indicating that they will be sold automatically any turn of yours that a demand comes up. Click on an individual hold to cancel this sell order (the background turns black).
Two broad columns of item icons show all the commodities available in the game, and what the city pays for each. Multiple icons of one item indicate graphically the number of units available; multiple gray or “shadow” icons indicate graphically the demand for those items. When you run your mouse over a commodity in these columns, the Text bar below lists the exact number available and demanded. A city never supplies both strengths of guard units, and might not supply either one.
This button shows you the same display as does the COMMODITIES button in the LIBRARY or the Commodities Ledger. It allows you to examine the intricacies of your known world’s economic web (see Commodities Ledger for all the juicy details).
These two rows of boxes indicate your possible warehouse “holds.” Like ship holds and caravan loads, they are X’ed out if you don’t have access to them. The total number of warehouse holds in a city is indicated by the number of boxes in this bar. If you have already purchased warehouses in a city, they appear here. Each block of eight warehouse holds can be purchased separately by clicking on the Warehouse bar and confirming your intention to acquire them. To store a commodity in your warehouse, drag the item over an empty or X’ed out warehouse hold. If you don’t yet own that hold (it’s X’ed out), a message box asks if you want to pay 250 florins to acquire eight holds. Stored items with red backgrounds will be sold automatically in your turn if a demand for them arises. Click on an individual hold to cancel this sell order (the background turns black).
This bar shows the exact number of units available and in demand of each commodity over which you run your mouse. When you are engaged in a transaction, it displays the price per unit sold or bought.
Click this button when you are finished trading in this port. You’ll move on to the next unit in the movement queue, if any remain, or go on to the End Turn box.
Venice is your home city and head-quarters. It features several unique game-active locations that govern the political, religious, financial, and superlegal aspects of play.
The center of religious intrigue. From here you can buy cardinals, fund indulgences, and influence papal elections. The Pope possesses buttons to call crusades or excommunicate rivals.
The hub of Venetian governance. Command the senate by offering bribes, winning high offices (Admiral, General, Minister of Construction), or direct tax and treasury settings.
Clicking on the galley brings up the Unit Purchase screen, where you can purchase new trade units: donkey and camel caravans, galleys and cogs. Newly purchased units cannot move until the next turn, though they can buy and load cargo.
Click on the bell tower to peruse and contract available mercenary groups for military actions and city defenses.
Adjust systems, load previously saved files, use the music/sound switches, or save your active world configuration map files (.MAP).
A waterfront tavern where you find characters to execute covert actions: Arsonists (burn villas/warehouses), Rumor Mongers (spread negative publicity), or Assassins (eliminate popes, doges, senators, or cardinals).
Review comprehensive logistics, warehouse statuses, or issue localized bulk sales via the Sell All function.
MACHIAVELLI THE PRINCE is primarily designed around using a mouse. In some cases, a mouse is, in fact, necessary. However, you can speed up game play by becoming familiar with the short-cut keys and keyboard alternatives. Cycle windows via TAB, toggle clicks via SPACE/RETURN, and use arrow keys for fields.
Special Movement Keys (Num Lock must be OFF):
Since the game is turn-based, modem options exchange file snapshots between player configurations sequentially.
Design and Development: H.D.I.
Concept: Ed Pike
Programming: Ken Lightner, Rob Lefebvre, Andrew Hackett
Art Director: Ed Pike
Documentation: Jonatha Caspian-Kaufman, Ed Pike, Andrew Hackett
Manual Design & Layout: Joe Morel, Cesar Novoa
Publisher: MicroProse Software, Inc. (1995)