DR.J
U.S.A.

                   SANTA PARAVIA AND FIUMACCIO


                            BACKGROUND


     It is A.D. 1400 and you are the ruler of a tiny,
undistinguished Italian city-state.  You are very ambitious, and
you have only a limited amount of time.  The welfare of your
realm depends on the decisions you make.  If your decisions are
wise, your holdings will grow, and you will achieve loftier
titles. If your decisions are foolish and your rule is
incompetent, your serfs will starve, and you may be invaded by
more powerful neighbors.  Good administration of your growing city
will include managing the grain harvested by your serfs, setting
taxes, exercising justice, and investing in public works.

     You may play by yourself, as the ruler of Santa Paravia, and
try to establish your kingdom before 1420.  Or, if you wish, you
may invite up to five other people to play with you.  They will
become rulers of neighboring city-states, and compete with you to
be he first King or Queen.

     There are four phases to each person's turn:
     1.  The Harvest phase
     2.  The Tax and Justice phase
     3.  The Display phase
     4.  The Public Works phase

                        THE HARVEST PHASE

     At the beginning of the harvest phase, you learn how much of
your grain reserve has been destroyed by rats and how much grain
has been harvested.  The size of the harvest is determined by the
amount ofland you have, the number of serfs you have to work the
land, how much grain has been left in reserve to seed your crop,
and by the weather.  It takes two serfs and five steres of grain
to put ten hectares of land into production.  (A hectare is equal
to 2.47 acres or ten thousand square meters, and a stere is a
measure of volume, equal to approximately 1.31 cubic youard.)

     Remember that any serfs working in the woolen mills will not
be available to farm, and the grain eaten by rats cannot be sown.
In famine years, you will not harvest enough grain to feed the
population and grain prices will be high.  It pays to keep a
substantial amount of grain in reserve.  However, if you keep too
much, you will simply be feeding the rats.  In years of good
weather, you will have more grain than you need, unless you
neglect agriculture for commercial development.

     Several useful figures will be displayed on the screen.  You
will be told how much grain you have in reserve, (which uncludes
grain harvested that year), the grain demand, (the minimum grain
necessary to sustain your current population), the current price
of grain, the current price of land, and the number gold florins
currently in your treasury.

     At this point, you may choose to buy grain, sell grain, buy
land, or sell land.  To make your selection, press the number
corresponding to your choice (you may use the mouse by clicking it
on the appropriate area of the screen).  When you're finished
buying and selling and are ready to move on, press <0> or the
Return key to continue.

     You will be asked how much grain you want to release to feed
the population.  You MUST release at least twenty percent, but no
more than eighty percent of your reserves.  Type the number of
steres you're willing to release and press Return.  If you release
less than the demand, some of your serfs will starve.  If you
release more than the demand, serfs and merchants will immigrate
to your city-state to take advantage of the surplus.


                      TAX AND JUSTICE PHASE


     During the tax and justice phase, you may set or change the
tax rates and the level of justice in you city-state.  Low taxes
encourage commerce, while high taxes raise income.  There are
hidden penalties for harsh tax rates and for unfair justice, so
raising one tax may lower the income from another.  You must find
the right balance, and that may change from one year to another.

                          DISPLAY PHASE


     During the display phase, you will see a map of your domain.
You can examine this map to determine your strategy and tactics
for the following years.  It is important to note both the
adequacy of your defenses and the ratio of serfs to land.  At the
upper left of this screen is a representation of a serf.  If the
serf is at the top of the screen, you have enough serfs for your
current amount ofland;  if the serf begins to fall, you need more
serfs for optimum harvests.  At the top right of the screen is a
soldier. If you have enough soldiers to defend your land, the
soldier will be at the top of the screen.  As with the serf
depiction on the left, if he falls lower on the screen, it is a
sign that you are in need of more soldiers.

     If you have more serfs than you need to farm your land, you
are feeding unproductive workers.  If you have more land than you
can put into production, some of your land will lie idle.  (Idle
land can be profitable when used for speculation, though.)


                        PUBLIC WORKS PHASE


     The public works phase gives you an opportunity to invest in
markets, palaces, cathedrals, and woolen mills.  These investments
will create jobs, attract more people, and raise your tax
revenues.  You may also equip some of your serfs as soldiers to
protect your city-state.  If your defenses should become
inadequate for the amount of land you have, you may be invaded, so
it's important to keep at least one soldier for each thousand
hectares ofland and it's a good policy to double that level of
defense.

     Markets attract merchants, increase tax revenues, and also
produce income.  The wool industry employs serfs, increases tax
revenues, and produces profits.  Palaces both increase tax revenues
and attract nobility.  Cathedrals increase clergy.

After the public works phase, your resources are tallied to see if
you've earned a new title.  The titles, from lowest to highest,
are:
     For men:  SIR, BARON, COUNT, MARQUIS, DUKE, GRAND DUKE,
               PRINCE, and KING

     For women:  LADY, BARONESS, COUNTESS, MARQUISE, DUCHESS,
                 GRAND DUCHESS, PRINCESS, AND QUEEN.

     The first player to become a King or Queen wins.


                             STRATEGY
     

     The most critical factor in the beginning of the game is the
balance between land, serfs, food production, and economic
development. Soldiers, merchants, clergy, and nobles place heavy
demands on your grain supply.  If you build your commerce faster
than your grain production, you may have to deplete your treasury
to buy grain.  On the other hand, if you are slow in building
markets and woolen mills, your tax revenues will be limited, and
you won't have the money you need to buy more land.

     Land prices are determined partly by the relationship of the
grain harvest to the grain demand.  This makes it wise to keep
excess land so that all of your serfs are always at work.  Another
advantage of excess land is that you can sell it when prices are
high and then buy it back again when prices drop.

     Grain prices are determined by the law of supply and demand.
When there are a lot of people and only a little grain, prices are
high. When a lot of grain is available, prices are lower.  You can
save some excess grain to sell when the prices go up, but the rats
make it difficult to make a profit this way.  The amount of the
yearly harvest is deterined by the weather.  (Average weather is
more likely than extremely good or extremely bad weather.)

     At the end of the game, good strategy demands
diversification. Your title is determined by a formula that allows
one point for each one building, five nobles, ten clergy, fifty
soldiers or merchants, two thousand serfs, five thousand florins,
or six thousand hectares of land.  The program also takes into
consideration an economic aspect of your city-state, but conceals
this from the player.  Each factor is limited to a few points
depending on the skill level of the game, with higher skill levels
requiring more diversification.  Your Justice level is subtracted
from the total, so it takes much longer to achieve higher ranks
with outrageous justice than it does with very fair justice.  Once
you gain a title, you cannot lose it, so alternating your Justice
level may be effective strategy.

     One last word of caution:  You can spend more money than you
have but, without any notification, you will be charged interest
at the rate of fifty percent on any balance owed after your taxes
are collected.  If you owe too much, you'll go bankrupt, and your
realm will collapse around you.


                      OTHER NOTES AND HINTS


     At the Tax and Justice Phase, you may change the levels of
the tax collection and law enforcement policies of your
administration.  When you do so, you might note that each change
will affect the total revenues brought in that year.  Some
policies are unproductive, and revenue figure is a good guide,
although some changes take a year or so to be noticeable.

     While you are in the PUblic Works phase, you may press the
number 6 and see a Comparison screen.  This will tell each player
how many serfs, nobles, clerics, etc., are present in his city-
state.  Remember, in order to win, you must dominate the figures in
these categories.  The Comparison screen can show you where to
concentrate your resources.  There is much information on this
screen; you will see what is needed to win if you refer to it
often and remember what you've seen.