On the Subject of Alliances

“On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot; it is a silly place.”

This module places you in medieval times, owning a castle and an army. A representation of the banner (a color, a symbol representing its emblem, and a symbol representing its line pattern) of 3 castles will appear on the module. To disarm the module, you will need to determine your relation to that castle, and act accordingly. Use the arrows to navigate the banners.

CALCULATING YOUR ARMY

• Your castle’s army has three statistics: size, strength, and defense. If a final stat is less than zero, multiply it by -1:

To Calculate:	Then use:
The DEFense of the army	The amount of lit indicators*, plus the amount of distinct ports.*
The STRength of the army	The last number of the serial number, plus the amount of unlit indicators*.
The SIZE of the army	The average of the numbers on the serial number**, rounded down, minus the amount of batteries*.

*If there are no batteries/indicators/ports, just use 1.
**Calculated by adding the numbers together and dividing by the number of entries.

DETERMINING YOUR RELATION TO A CASTLE

Use the following tables for each of the 3 castle banners:

If:	Then:
The banner’s background is either red, yellow, or green, OR there are more than 2 battery holders on the bomb,	Add 1 point if the backing is yellow, 2 if green, 3 if red, 4 if any other color.
The banner to the left has an emblem, AND there are 2 or less distinct ports,	Add the number of indicators, plus 1.
If the banner has an emblem, OR the banner’s color name contains an “A”,	Add 3 points.
The area number of the castle < 13,	Add its value, modulo 7.
The bomb has exactly 1 vowel in the serial number,	Add: 1 if it’s “U”, “I”, or “E”, add 2 if it’s “A”, and 3 if it’s “O”.
The last number of the serial number is odd,	Add its value, minus 1.

Take the result modulo 6. If that number is 2 or 3, the castle is an enemy. Otherwise, it is an ally, and you may press “PASS”.

• NOTE: Out of the 3 castles presented in the module, there can only be a maximum of 2 alliances. If there are 3 “alliances”, the two castles with the lowest area numbers are the true alliances. The other castle is secretly planning your demise and should be treated as an enemy. If two castles are tied for the highest area number, the former castle is the enemy. Only use the following tables on enemy castles:

CALCULATING THE ENEMY’S STATS

To accommodate a defuser with color-blindness, both the actual color and the corresponding capitalized letter in the table below will be displayed on the module:

Banner Colors (Top Display)

Color	DEF Change	STR Change	SIZE Change
Red	0	+5	-2
Orange	0	-2	+4
Yellow	-1	+3	0
Green	0	-2	+3
Blue	+8	-3	0
Magenta	+5	0	-3
White	0	+3	-2
blacK	+6	-1	0

Banner Emblems (Left Display)

Emblem	DEF Change	STR Change	SIZE Change
None	0	-3	+4
Bones	+3	0	-2
Skull	-3	+3	+2
Swords	+1	+2	-4
Flames	-2	+4	0
Shield	+6	0	-3
Bomb	-2	+4	0

Banner Line Patterns (Right Display)

Line Pattern	DEF Change	STR Change	SIZE Change
None	+4	0	-3
Chevron	-2	+1	0
Parallel Lines - Vert.	-2	0	+3
Parallel Lines - Hori.	0	-2	+3
X	-2	+3	0
Cross	-1	0	+4
Stripes	+5	0	-2

• Like the stats with your castle, if a stat is less than zero, multiply it by -1.

WHEN TO ATTACK/DEFEND

To calculate whether to attack or defend, use the equation (2a + d) * 0.5s, where a, d, and s means “attack/strength score”, “defense score”, and “size”, respectively. Round up for enemies and also round up for your own score. If your calculated score is greater than the enemy’s, press “ATTACK”. Otherwise, press “DEFEND”.

Example Situation:

• Your Castle = 2 STR, 6 DEF, 10 SIZE
• ((2*2) + 6) * (0.5 * 10) = (4 + 6) * 5 = 10 * 5 = a score of 50.
• Enemy’s Castle = 5 STR, 10 DEF, 5 SIZE
• ((5*2) + 10) * (0.5 * 5) = (10 + 10) * 2.5 = 20 * 2.5 = a score of 50.

The solution is to press “DEFEND”, as your 50 is not greater than their 50.