games-pc serf city Manual De Usuario

found, or if you are going to find them
at all. Your serfs may have to find them
later in the game.

The castle is a large structure that must
be placed on a relatively flat and grassy
area. To do this, left-click anywhere on
the screen; the pointer will be placed on
this area. If a castle appears in the center
of the pointer, you made a good  choice.

In the lower left of the menu you see the
“construct a castle” icon. If, after several
tries, you have not found an area to
construct your castle, use the “construc-
tion help” feature. Special-click on the
leftmost menu icon (it does not matter
what is displayed); the construction help
function becomes active. All areas
where a castle can be constructed are
indicated on the screen. Left-click on
one of these areas and the “Construct a
castle” icon appears in the lower left.
Left-click on this symbol and your castle
is constructed in a few seconds. A flag
with the player’s color now flies in front
of the castle.

The castle is the only building that is
“freely” given to you. All the other
houses are built by your serfs. At a cer-
tain distance from the castle, you see a
barrier of black and white poles, or of
red posts in the water. This visual barri-
er indicates the limits of your kingdom;
you may only build buildings within
your kingdom.

You have taken the first step and your
castle has been constructed. Now your
serfs can build other houses. If you
place your pointer somewhere within
the limits around your castle, the cen-
tral icon tells you the type of buildings
that you can construct (if any):

Two arrows: 
You cannot 
construct here.

Flag: You can only
place a flag here.

Hut: You can 
construct any of
the different types
of huts (small
buildings).

Castle: You have
enough space for
all the buildings.

Mine: You can
build a mine (only
in the mountains).

On the Right Path

You begin by constructing your castle,
which serves as your headquarters. The
area where you place this castle is of
utmost importance for the rest of the
game. If you are a novice and you have
a large amount of stocks, you will not
run into any immediate problems and
the location of the headquarters is not
terribly important. However, if you
have limited stocks, a poorly placed
castle can be fatal. To illustrate the most
important aspects, we have established
a list of conditions that are favorable to 
the construction of your castle:

❖ Avoid narrow valleys in the

mountains. Look for relatively 
flat areas.

❖ Choose an area with raw materi-

als that are close to the castle for
the construction of new houses
(trees and rock formations).

❖ Choose an area that has a large

amount of underground riches.

The first two points can easily be veri-
fied on the screen. If there are a few
trees and some granite and if the envi-
ronment is not too inhospitable, these
conditions are fulfilled.

The underground riches are also very
important. These include gold, iron,
coal and granite. Except for granite,
which is often located above ground as
well as below, these materials are found
only in the mountains. To see the
underground riches in the zone dis-
played on the screen, ask the geologist
to give you an overall estimate of the
area’s riches. The second menu icon
from the left on the menu represents the
geologist. Left-click on this icon to
obtain information on what riches are
present in the current map zone.

All the values do not need to be at a
maximum, but if there is no coal, iron,
or gold, or only small quantities of the
three, look for another area. Left-click
on the Exit icon to back up a step.

The importance of the underground
riches also depends on your strategy.
Often with the size 1 worlds, it is possi-
ble that certain riches do not exist at all,
or that there are no mountains (and
therefore no riches). In this case, do not
desperately look for another area; just
forget about the riches. With the geolo-
gist, you only have an estimate of the
riches in the area, but you do not know
exactly in which mountains they are 

On the Right Path