Mission 3 - Secrets

PLAYER'S MANUAL - Missions

Missions to help Save the Admiral!

"Secrets"

The fleet's command staff has just received word that one of our side's intelligence operations is ready to consolidate their gains, and needs our help. We must help protect various spies and secret documentation of war studies in this battle zone as they are collected and delivered for processing. YOU must make sure to deliver these secrets to their destinations so our side can keep ahead of the enemy in this war.

Command was able to muster up some extra ships to help you out, but hardly enough to make your job of winning this battle any easier while escorting these various shipments of secret documents and spies. In other words, you will have fewer ships left to help win your own battle here on this map...

By the way... Intel Ops are infamous for very tight time schedules. Make sure the secret deliveries are on time by keeping all your sheep headed straight towards their destinations, with no delays or rose smelling breaks.

Most of these documentation shipments will be traveling on discreet Transports or Armed Transports. Sometimes spies tend to subvert neutral war vessels right out of enemy harbors, but still need our help making it safely out of danger. Indeed, Intel Ops often borrows some of your Captains and Lieutenants for special assignments... In all cases, escort these special vessels to their destinations, and keep the enemy from destroying these vital secrets.

There have been reports of the enemy patrolling near suspected or rumored intelligence operation zones, so be careful!

The mission button and floating mission menu will describe the number of missing command officers and command crew. Buy your choice of ships to help protect the various secret shipments. Note that each spy ship or secret documents shipment tend to differ in value to Command Central. So if forced to choose between two spy ships to save, save the more valuable one!

Because this mission is so important to our navy's morale, the normal city conquest Victory Points you take during this mission will be adjusted by how well you protect these secrets. This adjustment is made to what would otherwise be your normal cumulative VP total for the game.

For instance, if you fail to collect or deliver any of the secret documents, you will usually be credited only 60% or less of your actual VP total. If you manage to collect about 80% of the secrets, you will receive credit for 100% of your VP total. Collect or deliver all of the secret information, and you will be credited 120% or more of your actual VP total.

In other words, failing to deal with the secrets will severely lessen your score for this battle. Protect most of the secrets and your score for this battle will not suffer. You also have the chance to earn a VP bonus on top of all the cities you actually conquered.

The Real Reward is helping rebuild the Admiral's reputation by pleasing central command and helping out the nearby troubled region. Do a good job and you will earn credits towards your own customized command fleet of special ships and abilities abilities, AND improve the Lost Admiral's political repute back home... eventually helping restore him to full office and sanity.

So complete this mission as best you can to help out the Lost Admiral, and be careful to still win the local fight for cities because command central will not be pleased if you blow either job (i.e. your mission rewards will be lessened if you lose the local battle while getting those reinforcements delivered).

Specific Tips on how to execute the mission start here:

Use the Mini Map to see where various mission zones are located. Zone hexes will be displayed as orange on the Mini Map. Any Zone hex that is in a city harbor hex will be shown as a small orange "box" around the corresponding hex on the Mini Map.

To learn more about various zones, use the movement screen. Scroll the map (or use the Mini Map to quick-jump to the area) and then hold your mouse pointer motionless for a moment over the green dashed area of the zone. After a moment, a "tool tip" with more information will pop up describing this zone.

You can also use this same "tool tip" trick to learn more about mission ships and "green cross" shaped special zone hexes where Intel Ops spy ships will appear later in the game (usually between turns 4 to 6).

Mission ships are displayed as normal ships on the movement screen, with a green flag flying above them. This green flag indicates the special "mission" nature of the ship. Move your mouse over the ship to get a "tool tip" describing what the mission ship is carrying and or where it needs to travel to next as part of the mission.

During "Secrets", you will need to protect various special shipments on a variety of transports and warships, and move them to their destinations. These special ships are shown as "mission" ships with green flags carrying a cargo of "secrets". Move the ships to either certain cities, or hex zones depending on how this particular mission was planned out. If a ship sinks, this cargo is lost, and will hurt your chances for a full 100% mission victory. When a mission ship finally enters it's destination hex, the ship will deliver it's cargo and be removed from the map at the end of your movement phase, after combat. I.E. it must fight ONE round of combat with any enemy ships there. If it survives (or there was no combat) the cargo will be counted as safely delivered.

Sometimes Intel Ops will need your help to protect spy ships that will not appear on the map until several turns into the battle. This is usually right out of enemy held city harbors, so be alert! These special "emergence" zones are shown as orange squares on the Mini Map, and as a green cross shape on the movement map. Move your mouse pointer over the green cross indicator for more information about the ships due to eventually reveal themselves and make a dash for your friendly forces.

Note that special small graphics will appear during movement in the hex of any of your ships that are able to interact with the mission. If your ship can do a mission action by ending it's turn in that hex, an icon with a question mark in it will appear to confirm that you are in the right hex. If you are in the right hex, but too late, or your ship is already full, etc, an icon with an "X" in it will appear, along with a popup message explaining more. When you successfully complete part of the mission during movement you will see a small icon with an explanation mark in it (as opposed to at the end of your movement phase + combat phase, which is not seen onscreen).

Questions? Suggestions? Email thurston@fogstone.com with your feedback, questions, and suggestions!

This manual is broken up into sections explaining how to play the game, how the program menus work, and other details of interest to players of Lost Admiral Returns.

Please use the menu bar on the left to navigate the manual.

If you have questions, please visit our forum and look for help there.

If you find an error or omission in this manual, please email us at support@fogstone.com

Thank you for trying out Lost Admiral Returns!

Click here to to buy Lost Admiral Returns and get access all the new fun stuff!

Click here to download the trial version of Lost Admiral Returns.

Here is a view of the build menu, where you ships at the start of a battle.

Lost Admiral, Conquered Kingdoms, Grandest Fleet, and Fogstone are trademarks of Fogstone Games.