Attacking

After you are finished with the movement phase your mercenary is automatically sent to the attcking phase. Note that when you attack anything, be it a house or an enemy, the mercenary's dexterity is temporarily halved making it easier for the monsters to score a hit on their turn, so it is sometimes to your advantage to skip your attack phase.

Choosing an Adversary

The monsters that can be attacked from your current position will have small daggers displayed on their icons. The dagger is a symbol for the standard attack, but there are different types of attack each with their own icons. See the other types of attack below. When selecting an emeny simply move the cursor over the enemy of your choice with the mouse or the arrow keys. The monster's name and blood points remaining will appear on the right lower corner of the screen. Click on the enemy with the mouse or press enter to initiate attack.

Damage Report

Once you have initiated the attack there is no turning back. Your attack will have one of three results, based in part on random chance but mainly on the dexterity values of both parties involved in the encounter. If it misses there will be white sparks and the number zero will appear. If you hit your opponent, but their armor protected them, you will see purple sparks and the number one will appear. This is because any hit will do some amount of damage, even if the armor deflected the majority. The last possibility is a direct hit. Red sparks will fly and you will see the either the number of blood points taken from the monster or, if it is a fatal hit, the monster will be removed from play. Keep in mind that when a character attacks they have half dexterity till their next turn, making it easier for monsters to attack them.

Attacking Buildings

Aside from monsters, it is also possible to attack and destroy buildings and caravans. This is often necessary to accomplish a missions goals and may also result in finding items that were hidden under the area. Attacking a building is exactly like attacking an enemy. Keep in mind that taking this course of action will also result in temporarily halving your dexterity. Mountains cannot be set on fire for obvious reasons.

Fire

When you have attacked a building one of two things will happen. If the building is not already on fire your actions will set a fire in the place you attacked. If the building is already on fire your attack will instead put the fire out. You cannot directly do damage to any buildings or caravans, instead the fire you set will do damage to what it is burning once every round. When the fire has consumed enough of the building that part of it will disappear. Sometimes an item will be left behind.

Choosing Spells

In addition to a characters standard attack there may be a number of other options available in the attack phase. The number and kinds of options will be entirely dependant on magical properties of your respective party members weapons and armor. If there are other options available to the selected character they will be shown as icons around their picture on the right side of the screen. To choose a different action (assuming that the selected character has one) press tab while in the action phase or click on the desired icon.

Farsight

The farsight spell allows you to uncover sections of the map that characters usually could not see. This spell is invaluable in the scouting missions because you can quickly uncover the entire map. Use this spell by selective the center of the circular region to uncover with the mouse or arrow keys, then clicking the mouse or pressing enter. The area will stay entirely visible until you perform another action.

Armor

The armor spell is very versatile. You may cast this spell on another member of your party to increase their dexterity for this round. This will not only make them harder for the enemy to hit, but help them to hit the enemy as well. If you have multiple characters with this spell they can be used on the same character to make them as fast as you wish.

Heal

The heal spell is both very useful and a real pain when your enemy has it and you do not. Heal can be cast on any member of your party regardless of distance. Be careful who you cast it on, however, for the nearer you are to the character you are casting it on the more effective the spell will be. Beware because if the caster is to far away the spell may actually do more harm than good.

Whirling Missle

The whirling missile is the least dangerous of all the offensive spells. It has a good range but does very little damage. This will probably be the first attack spell for anyone in your mercenary band to find. By the time you find the spell you will have already seen it being cast by the bob.

Fireball

The fireball is arguably the best spell in the game. It does the most damage of any other spell, but it also has very limited range. Fireball sends an exploding ball of fire toward your adversary that few foes can stand up to.

Lightning

Although lightning is by comparison to the fireball a very weak spell it does have one enormous advantage to all other spells. No matter where your character is on the map, they can attack any monster that is not under the fog of war. It's lack of any range check will often save party members that may be too far away for anyone else to rescue.

Berserk

The berserk spell is both a benefit and a bane to all who wield it. When cast it will issue forth a cloud of death which will do damage to any within two squares away from the caster. Be careful because it will damage not only enemies but your own characters as well. Also you should keep in mind that after casting the character's dexterity will temporarily drop to zero making them a fine target for the monster's attack phase.

Cancelling Attack

If for any reason you decide not to have a character use their attack phase this round, (to preserve their dexterity for instance) you hay cancel their attack by selecting themselves with the arrow keys or mouse and clicking or pressing enter. You may also select on of your other party members for this reason and if the new character has not yet been moved it will end the first characters attacking phase and go directly to moving the new character. When all your characters have been moved and they have finished their attack phase the game will switch to your opponents turn.