User Guide

• Gameplay
• Quick Start Guide
• Rules
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Glossary

Gameplay

In Kings of Chaos, you are in command of an army of either humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, or undead. The aim of the game is to strengthen your army to attack enemy warlords and take their gold! Players are ranked so you can see how your forces stack up to everyone else.

To build up your attack and defense strength, you must recruit soldiers and equip them with weapons. You may also hire mercenaries or train your soldiers. To recruit soldiers you must have people click on your unique link (you can find this in your Command Center). Each time you recruit an additional soldier, your attack and defense strength will increase slightly, as will the amount of gold you receive per turn. Also, for every two recruits each of your officers gets, you will receive an additional soldier! The number of officers you can have is unlimited, so the more people who sign up to be your officer the faster you can build your army.

In addition to those soldiers generated by unique link clicks, you can choose to conscript soldiers - once a day you will recruit a number of soldiers determined by your current 'unit production' value. This value can be upgraded on the Training page.

To train your soldiers, use the Training page. Soldiers can be trained to be specialists in either attack or defense - whichever you choose, they will boost that ranking further, while ceasing to contribute to the other ranking. You can also train soldiers to become spies or sentries, which will be discussed in more detail later. In this case they cease to contribute to your attack/defense strength and the amount of gold you get per turn, as instead they are being kept in readiness for any covert missions you may choose to send them on.

You can hire mercenaries on the Mercenaries page, but only up to a strength of 25% of your total force - so for every 3 normal soldiers you gain, you can hire one more mercenary. Mercenaries contribute to your attack or defense strength, but do not contribute to the amount of gold you gain each turn.

Weaponry can be purchased (and repaired, sold or scrapped) on the Armory page. For each race there are various weapons available for both attacking and defending, becoming increasingly expensive as they become more effective. The exact strength of each weapon in your armory is dependent upon its state of repair (weapons become damaged during battles and must be repaired to remain fully effective), and also your level of siege technology and fortifications. Higher levels of siege technology and fortifications raise the strength of every single weapon you possess, so they are well worth upgrading. You can upgrade your siege and fortification levels on the Command Center page.

Covert Action is a general term for your Spy and Sentry ratings. Your force of spies becomes more powerful by training soldiers to be spies. Every spy you train increases your spy strength, and therefore helps you move up in spy ranking. Also, if you conduct many espionage missions spies will sometimes get caught, so you will need to replace them. If your spy rating is high, you will be able to see more players' gold on the battlefield without having to spy on them. Your force of sentries becomes more powerful by training soldiers to be sentries. Every sentry you train increases your sentry rating. The higher your sentry rating, the harder it is for other players to see your gold on the battlefield, spy on you or sabotage your weapons. If you invest in spies or sentries you should upgrade your covert skill when you can. Upgrading applies to your entire force of spies and sentries. Upgrading covert skill, training spies and training sentries can all be done one the Training page.

Each race in Kings of Chaos has a particular area in which they excel. These can work to your advantage in gaining higher rankings, so it is worth considering them before choosing your race:

• Humans earn 25% more gold each turn than the other three races. Since this can be used for just about anything, it is very flexible.


• Elves are 35% better at spy action than any other race. This can be a great advantage when spying on or sabotaging other people's armies.


• Orcs attack with 40% more strength than the other races. The advantages to this are obvious, giving you a much better chance of defeating other armies in combat.


• Dwarves are 50% stronger at defending than any other race. This makes it more likely that they will withstand enemy attacks, enabling them to keep their gold for themselves.


• Undead are 35% better at hiding their gold and defending against sabotage. They also lose 50% less soldiers when attacked making this a good protective race if you can't spend a lot of time on the game.

If you are ready to start playing as commander of your own army, then click here to create an account.

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Quick Start Guide

Overview

In Kings of Chaos, you are in command of an army of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, or undead. To be successful, you must manage your army and defeat your enemies. You must keep your troops in top condition and recover from losses. A powerful army will be strong in all four aspects of the game: attacking, defending, spying, and counter-intelligence. This makes it important to keep your forces and efforts relatively balanced in all these areas. There are a number of ways to build your army and thus generate more gold and become more powerful: you can get people to click on your Unique Link, giving you an additional soldier each time it is clicked. In this age, you can click links up to 5 times per 24 hours. You can also recruit other people as your officers - for every two soldiers your officers gain from their links, you will gain an extra soldier. You may also buy mercenaries - soldiers that will fight for you but will not generate extra gold.

Getting Started (Creating/Activating your account)

To create an account and establish your presence in the Land of Chaos you must register and activate your username. To do this click the "Register" link in the Menu Bar on the left, fill out the requested information including an email address you have access to. You will then be sent an email with instructions on how to activate your Kings of Chaos account. Once you've done this, you are ready to log in and command your army. Congratulations! You are now a warlord in Kings of Chaos.

Menu Bar

The Menu Bar contains most of the important features and tools of Kings of Chaos. Located on the left of the page, it allows you to navigate through different aspects of your army and manage your forces.

Command Center

The Command Center is where you can see a broad outline of your forces.

• User Info shows your general contact information.
• Military Overview Shows you general military stats, such as what your siege level is at and what fortifications you have. It also shows you how much gold you have and how much you are generating.
• Officers that you may have show up under this heading. Officers help build your army, and you may also choose to work with them as close allies.
• Military Effectiveness shows you your Attack, Defense, Spy, and Sentry ratings, as well as how you are ranked against other KOC players in these categories. This section shows you how well you are doing and how you stack up to other players in each aspect of the game.
• Personnel shows you how your forces are distributed.
• Previous Logins gives you the IP addresses and times of the last five logins to your account.
• Preferences is where you go to modify the setting on your account. Be very careful in this section - many of the changes here cannot be undone.
• Your Recruiting Link is found at the bottom of the Command Center. This is the primary method many players use to build their armies. Give this link to your friends and once per day a person can click it. Each time your link is clicked you will get an additional soldier and the person who clicked it will be invited to become your officer. You are allowed 50 clicks per 24 hours from people who aren't signed into the game for recruiting purposes. For every two clicks any of your officers get, you will receive another additional soldier - this means getting officers can be a big way to boost your army size.

Attack

When you wish to venture out beyond the safety of your fortifications, click the Attack button. Here, you will view the Battlefield, a listing of other players ranked near you. Players in yellow are online and those in green are not currently signed into the game. If you have previously reconned a player, you will see an eye in the first column which will link you to your intelligence log when clicked. The amount of gold in a player's treasury will be displayed if your Spy Rating is much larger than the opponent's Sentry Rating. You can page through the battlefield and search for other armies to attack or spy on. Once you click on a player's name you will see their User Stats, where you can see basic info about the player, any officers the player has, and you can recognize the player as friend, neutral, enemy, alliance member, or ignored if you wish to ignore all messages from them. From the User Stats panel you can choose to send a personal message, or conduct an attack, recon, or sabotage mission.

• Attack Mission - If you attack successfully, you will steal a portion of the enemy's available gold based on the damage you inflicted and the relative sizes of your armies. There is also a chance that you or your opponent will suffer casualties, based on army size and damage inflicted.
• Reconnaissance Mission - You can conduct Recon missions to view info about an opponent's fortifications and forces. The chance that the mission is a success is dependant on the overall strength of the spies you send, as well as the enemy's Sentry Rating. If the mission is not a success you will sometimes lose a portion of the spies you sent.
• Sabotage Mission - If your opponent has overwhelming defense or has been relentlessly assaulting you, perhaps you may choose to engage in sabotage. In these missions, when you send a number of spies you specify what type and quantity weapons you want to try to sabotage. If your spies make it past enemy sentries they will attempt to sabotage part of the enemy's armory. If you attempt to sabotage too much of the enemy's armory the sabotage will likely fail, and no sabotage mission is guaranteed to be successful. If you fail in a sabotage mission, you may lose a portion of your spies and even some of the tools they carry.
• Personnel and Military Effectiveness - When you are preparing to attack, you are also shown your army stats again so you can make sure you want to go through with the mission, and in the case of covert missions, how many spies you have to dedicate to the task.

Attack Log

Here you can see details of ingoing and outgoing attacks. This can be a very useful way to see how much offensive and defensive damage you do on average, who you need to try to get protection from, or what armies you have had success with in the past. In your attack log you will see Attacks on You and Attacks on Others, and you will be able to page through the attacks if there are too many to fit on one screen.

Armory

Your Armory is where you keep track of your weapons, and keep them in fighting condition.

• Current Weapon Inventory is where you see the weapons you currently own, as well as their strengths. If your weapons are damaged, it is cheaper to repair them than to buy new ones. You can also sell weapons at a reduced rate for gold.
• Current Tool Inventory is where you see the tools for sentries and spies that you currently own. You can also sell spy and sentry tools at a reduced rate.
• Buy Weapons allows you to purchase new weapons for your forces. In general, the more expensive a weapon is, the stronger it is. Some weapons are unique to your race, while others can be bought by anyone.
• Buy Tools allows you to purchase new tools for your spies and sentries, making them much more effective.
• Upgrade Fortifications is where you can strengthen your permanent defenses. This makes it much more difficult to be attacked successfully. Fortifications strengthen your defensive units as a whole.
• Upgrade Siege Technology allows you to purchase new technologies to attack your opponents. This strengthens your army as a whole.

Training

• Personnel shows you how many soldiers, mercenaries, spies, sentries, etc you have.
• Train Your Troops allows you train your untrained soldiers to be attack or defense specialists, or to be skilled in the subterfuge of spies and sentries. Here you can also revert any attack or defense soldiers to regular units.
• Upgrade Covert Skill makes all of your spies and sentries more powerful - it is a very effective way to increase the power of your covert forces.
• Upgrade Unit Production allows you to conscript soldiers from the local populace - each day this number of soldiers will join your forces.

Intelligence

Your intelligence files are similar to your attack log, but they give you details of covert missions from and against you. Here you see details of Intercepted Intelligence Operations as well as Intelligence Files from missions you have conducted.

Mercenaries

On this page you can see the details of your current troops, and you can hire mercenaries. Mercenaries can be hired as attack specialists, defence specialists, or all-purpose troops. Once hired, they cannot be retrained. Mercenaries cannot be spies, and do not contribute to the amount of gold you receive each turn, but they do boost your attack and/or defence strength (depending on what type of training they have). Mercenaries become available for hire randomly and their numbers are limited so there are often none available shortly after that. You can only have 25% of your army consisting of mercenaries.

Buddy List

The buddy list can be used to keep track of people who you recognize as either neutral, friend, enemy, ignored or alliance members. You can recognize players via the drop down on their stats page.

Logout

The Logout option on the menu will log you out from Kings of Chaos. This is useful if your computer is used by more than one person, to prevent others from accessing your Kings of Chaos account. If you stop using the site for a length of time, you will be automatically logged out anyway - this is to help reduce the load on the extremely busy KoC webserver.

Messages

The Send Message page is accessed from a user's stats page, by clicking on the Send Message button. You are then presented with a page which has areas for you to enter a subject and a message to be sent to that user.

When someone has sent you a message in this fashion, you will notice the message indicator beneath the main menu will change to show how many new messages you have waiting for you. To read them, simply click on the red number and you will be taken to the Read Messages page. The most recent message will appear at the top of the page, with older messages beneath it in reverse order of receipt. You can use the buttons on the right to Reply to or Delete each message.

Rules

The following are prohibited:

• Posting links in the Kings of Chaos chat or Kings of Chaos forums
• Attempting to cause harm to the any of the Kings of Chaos servers
• Registering or having control of more than one account
• Sharing passwords with other people and logging into accounts that are not yours
• Posting your link in chat rooms, newsgroups, message boards, or forums unless it is explicitly allowed by the owner/operator of the chat room, newsgroup, message board, forum, etc..
• Sending your link to people you do not know
• Posting your link on a forum where it is against that forum's policies or off-topic
• Repeatedly refreshing pages with our without the intention to slow the server
• Registering an email address that is not yours
• Registering more than one account
• Sending your link to an e-mail reflector or list or a USENET group
• Using any process which enables clicking of a unique link more than five times per day by the same person
• Downloading any part of the Kings of Chaos website with any piece of software other than a web browser
• Using any process that automatically gets information from the website
• Attempting in any way to circumvent the mechanisms set up to keep Kings of Chaos fair

When sharing your link, you may do the following:

• Click on your own link up to five times per 24 hours if you are signed in
• Click on your officers' links up to five times per 24 hours if you are signed in
• Post your link on message boards where it is allowed and is on-topic
• Email your link to your friends or send it to them on instant messenger
• Have people who are not signed into the game click your link more than once (but not within 24 hours)
• Have your link in your AIM/MSN/ICQ etc. profile
• Post your link on a personal website

Recruiter Guidelines

Definition: A methodical system of gaining officers, or soldiers, where participants click on each other's links. Such a system may be automated, partially automated, or completely manual.

Any such recruiting systems or "recruiters" must adhere to the following guidelines:

• Any recruiting system must load and display the Kings of Chaos recruit click-through page IN FULL, WITHOUT MODIFICATION, in a standard and well-known graphical web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, etc.).
• Recruiting click-through images must be recognized and clicked by a human being without the aid of optical recognition software.

Failure to adhere to the above posted rules and guidelines may result in account suspension or termination. Kings of Chaos reserves the right to change these rules at any time, without notice.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How are rankings calculated? All players are ranked in each of the four categories of attack strength, defense strength, spy rating and sentry rating. These four rankings are added to give your overall ranking.

What are the siege, fortification, and unit production levels?
We'd rather not say, and let you find out on your own =)

What happened to all my stuff?
Age 6 has begun - your weaponry and army size have been reset, as have everyone else's. Now is the time to rebuild and prove yourself better than those around you!

Why am I losing gold and soldiers?
You are probably being attacked. Check your attack log to see who attacked you, how many soldiers they killed and how much gold they stole from you.

How come I'm not listed in the rankings?
Ranks are only recalculated once every hour, so you will have to wait until rankings are generated to appear on the rankings page.

Why doesn't my rank improve when I get more weapons?
Ranks are only recalculated once every hour, so you will have to wait to see how your ranking has been changed by upgrades or purchases.

How much does this cost to play?
Nothing. It's free. Enjoy!

Why can't I/my friends view the recruit page?
Many AOL users cannot view our pages properly. We're sorry about the problem, and are looking into possible solutions. In order to get the most from our web pages we recommend the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

It's hard to get people to click my link. Is there another way to gain recruits?
The easiest way to gain recruits is to persuade friends to click your link, but you can also upgrade your Unit Production (on the Training page), and hire mercenaries to boost your army strength.

Why don't I ever kill any enemy soldiers?
The bigger your army, the more casualties you are likely to suffer. Armies small enough will not usually suffer casualties because this would hurt the army much more.

How do I change my race?
If you have played Chaos in a previous age, the first time you log in you will be asked to select the race you want to play for the rest of that age. If you are new you will choose your race when you register. You cannot change your race once you have begun playing in any particular Age.

I forgot my password, what should I do?
Go to this page and you can get your password emailed to you.

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Glossary

Age: The length of the round, which varies but usually lasts roughly six months. Between ages, your army size, wealth, weapons, and race will be reset, giving you a chance to change races. You will, however, get to keep your officers.

Alliance: Multiple warlords working together for a common goal, or just to have fun. You can find a list of alliances on the Kings of Chaos forums.

Armory: The place to purchase weapons.

Army Size: The number of recruits you have. This is the number of people who have clicked your link, plus a fraction of the army size of your officers. Determines the amount of money you get each turn.

Attack: To attack someone, you need to use between 1 and 15 attacks. The amount you use determines how much money you get if you win. You get 1 attacks every turn.

Attack Log: A log of everyone who you have attacked recently, and anyone who has attacked you recently.

Attack Turns: Attack turns are one of the crucial resources in the game. You use attack turns to pillage other armies and take their gold. You receive one attack turn every 30 minutes.

Blackpowder Missle (BPM): Currently the strongest attacking weapon.

Clan: See Alliance

Command Center: Clicking here allows you to view your own stats, including stats that are not available to everyone else.

CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The random images used to deter cheating.

Casualties: Normal losses suffered in the course of attacking and defending. If your army is not very big, you will probably not suffer very many casualties, if any.

Commander: The person whose page you visited before joining, possibly the person who told you about Kings of Chaos.

Defensive Action (DA): The total defending power of your army. Based on your trained defense soldiers, untrained soldiers, mercenaries, their weapons, and your Fortifications.

Dwarves: One of the races in Kings of Chaos. Dwarves get a 50% defence bonus, protecting them when attacked.

Elves: One of the races in Kings of Chaos. Elves get a 35% spy bonus, making them extremely good at recon and sabotage.

Fortifications: These contribute to the strength of all your defence troops and weaponry. The basic fortifications are "Camp" - they can be upgraded in the Armory.

Gold: The basic monetary unit of Kings of Chaos. Spend gold at the Armory to purchase weapons.

Humans: One of the races in Kings of Chaos. Humans get a 25% income bonus each turn.

Intelligence: A list of other warlords who you have spied on, or who you have intercepted spies from.

Invisibility Shield (IS) Currently the strongest defensive weapon.

Losses: See Casualties

Profile: An in-depth description of a warlord, showing stats useful to know when deciding whether to attack them.

Officer: One of the people who visted your link and decided to join up. They help build your army.

Orc: One of the races in Kings of Chaos. Orcs have a 40% attack bonus, making them fearsome in battle.

Race: The type of warlord someone is. There are five races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Undead, and Orcs.

Rank: Rank shows how well you are doing compared to all other armies in Kings of Chaos. Your rank is computed by adding your Strike Action, Defensive Action, Spy Rating, and Covert Rating. The person with the smallest sum will be ranked first, next smallest is second, etc. To achieve a high rank you must have good ratings in all four areas of the game.

Reconaissance (Recon): Using spies to learn about another warlord's personnel, weapons, and military effectiveness.

Sabotage: Using spies to disable another warlord's weapons so they cannot be used in combat. If any of your weapons have been sabotaged you won't know until you try to use them in combat.

Sentry Rating: The strength of your counter-espionage forces. Based on the number of sentries in your army, and your spy level.

Siege Technology: This contributes to the overall strength of all your attack troops and weaponry. The basic is "None" - it can be upgraded in the Armory.

Spy Rating: The strength of your espionage forces. Based on the number of spies in your army, and your spy level.

Spy Skill/Spy Level: The skill level of each individual spy and sentry in your army. Upgrading strengthens all of your spies and sentries.

Strike Action (SA): The total offensive power of your army. Based on your trained attack soldiers, untrained soldiers, mercenaries, their weapons, and your Siege Technology.

Subofficer: One of your officers' officers, or their officer, etc.

Tool: Purchasing tools increases the effectiveness of your spies or sentries. You can buy tools in the Armory.

Total Fighting Force: The total number of your trained and untrained soldiers, plus any mercenaries you may have.

Turn: The basic unit of time in Kings of Chaos. Currently 30 minutes long.

Turn Based Gold (TBG): The gold you get each turn. Your TBG is based on how many soldiers are in your army. Mercenaries, spies and sentries do not contribute towards TBG.

Undead: One of the races in Kings of Chaos. Undead get a 35% sentry bonus and lose 50% fewer soldiers when attacked, making them a good protective race.

Vacation Mode: An option to deactivate (suspend) your account for a length of time. Useful if you are going on a long trip and won't be able to play KoC during that time. Once you are in vacation mode you must wait until the time has elapsed before playing, so be careful.

Warlord: A player in Kings of Chaos.

Weapons: Offensive or defensive equipment for soldiers in your army. Attack weapons are only used when you attack, defense weapons are only used when you defend. You can only use as many weapons as you have soldiers, and you can buy weapons in the Armory. Your soldiers are not very effective without weapons.

Still have questions? If you have a question that wasn't answered in this guide, try heading over to the Kings of Chaos forum or the Kings of Chaos chat room.

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