1> What is WOK IV ?
WOK IV is an interactive, email based open-ended game of strategy and skill. It is designed to be simple to learn, still quite complex to master.
WOK IV is currently in FULL PLAY. There are 60 provinces to be conquered (in WOK I-III there were up to 35) and 10 players may try their luck.
WOK IV is developed and programmed mainly by me, Al Gassner.

2> How to play, Fees and First Steps
WOK IV should be an easy-to-play but still complex game.
There are no fees whatsoever - WOK IV is absolutely FREE.
Just send your email adress and comments to
alex.gassner@chello.at
and you will be put on the WOK IV waiting list. The GMs Homepages are ready and have a slot for you under

http://www.kaomaris.com  

Make sure to read the "House Rules" of a GM - they could differ in a few points from what you read here (i.e. quitting a game and what happens with the armies of that Player)

- feel free to make any HomePage or discussion group you need !

3> Missing Turns,dropping out, Groups and winning the Game:
If you miss a turn or drop out of the game all your troops will dig in and remain in a defensive position. No new troops will be recruited, all orders for your workers remain intact.
If you miss orders for 3 Turns in a row, you will be considered as to have QUIT the game. You can not re-enter this specific game and will also not gain any HiScore Points from it other than the ones you had before missing the turns. This also applies if you quit the game for whatever reason - here you will NOT get any more points if you quit ! If you miss turns before you get killed by another Player, you will get less turn points for the HiScore. If you have chosen the name for your character pleaz stick to it for all future games you play in - the use of multiple names is NOT allowed. If 5+ players of a group QUIT the game (before they get ripped) the remaining Players will have to fight to the bitter end and the last one surviving will get only 1 VP ! If a game starts with less then 10 Players all empty slots are considered like Players that have QUIT. If people that see no more chance of winning stop sending orders and tell the GM to assume they have sent 0 orders for the turn its ok. However if people miss 3 turns in a row without notice they still are considered to have quit.

We offer Groups for "Beginner" (0-2 games finished, none won) or "Advanced" (3+ games finished or 1+ won).

Only up to 2 Players can win a game, alone or as an Alliance (sharing victory Points then).

4> The Beginning
You start in a single, randomly selected province. The province you are given will not be adjacent to a province of another player, so everyone gets a chance to build up in the first round. The provinces differ in the following aspects :
ID# - The number of the province
NAME - Its name
#P - Which player rules it (1-10, 0=neutral)
POP - The population (0-999)
WOK - The workers (0-125 !)
ARM - The armies (0-999)
LEV - The level of the armies (1.000-9.999)
DEF - The defense level (0.0-9.9)
MIS - The stocked missiles (0-99)
SPY - The spies (0-99)

Some explanations: you start with
- ONE single province at defense level 1.0
- 10 spies,
- 24 workers,
- 12 armies at a level of 1.750.
Your population depends on your province,this can go from 50 - 130 at the start but the northwestern provinces (in the original Map !) tend to have more population. Bigger provinces usually have more population and the start value is not a random number. Each neutral province begins with
- 16 workers, and
- 5 armies (add +2 after the initial turn !) at level 1.000 for defense purposes only. They also have 0.3 Defense. 
Each Turn, neutral Provinces will gain +2 armies. This will be done during Phase IV of the game. Their workers will also increase the defense level. Always remember : Population is the key factor in WOK IV !!
1 ARMY = 2 WORKERS OR 4 POPULATION
Each round, you must decide on how to "transform" your population into workers/armies. Only workers can build powerful weapons or spies, only armies can do combat. But only population can grow to become more population !! Of course you need a FULL number of i.e. 4 Population to be transformed into 1 Army. If you transform 5,6 or 7 Population into Armies you will get that same result.
You can also change back some Workers into Population (changing Workers into Armies is not allowed) but this is sanctionned wit h a 2:1 ratio (you need 2 Workers to get 1 Population).
The "growth ratio" is a number between 3% and 20% each turn. It depends on the number of population in the province. Provinces with more population will grow slower.
0-99 population : +20%
100-199 population : +15%
200-299 population : +10%
300-399 population : +6%
400-999 population :+3% (maximum is of course 999)
Take this into consideration when your population nears a higher level : this might be a good time to "transform" them into workers or armies.

5> The workers and their "aim"
The workers also play an important role: you can assign them (for each province you own) ONE single task, called the "aim" :
This can be
1> +DEFENSE (will increase the defense of the province- every 8 worker in the province will increase the defense by 0.1 points)
2> +LEVEL (will increase the level of ALL the armies in the province - every worker in the province will increase the level by 0.005)
3> +MISS (will produce missiles - every 4 worker in a province produce one missile)
4> +SPIES (will produce spies - every 4 worker in a province produce one spy)
5> +TECH (will raise your tech level, resulting in deadlier weapons/better troops and spies - every worker in a province will increase the tech level by 1 point)
6> +EFF (will raise your effectiveness level, every 8 worker in a province will increase it by 1%)

All this activities only influence the province itself, except for 5>+TECH and 6>+EFF - here the tech/effectiveness points of all your provinces are accumulated.
All provinces start with the workers default aim of +DEFENSE at the beginning of a new game (neutral provinces have that aim too).
The workers activities only happen during PHASE III of each turn, so if you loose a province to another leader in PHASE II he will start producing with the given aim right away.
Only up to 4 of your provinces may change their aim at the end of each turn. There can only be a maximum of 125 workers in a province.

6> Using your Tech points in PHASE V :
If you reach certain tech point levels, you may trade your Tech Points to gain more powers :
TECH LEVELS :
Trade 100 points and all your provinces will gain 0.3 points for defense.(up to 9.9)
Trade 150 points and all your provinces will gain +5 missiles and +2 spies (up to 99) - This will only happen if the Province contains workers (who build the missiles) or Population (who recruit the Spies)
Trade 200 points and all your armies level will raise by 0.300 points (up to 9.999)
Trade 250 points and your bomb/spy effectiveness will raise by 60% (up to 99%)
Trade 350 points and all your provinces will gain 0.6 points for defense,all armies level will raise by 0.500 points (up to known limits)
You can only store up to 999 Tech Points, so use them in time ! If you surpass 999 Tech Points, only 999 will be counted.
Tech Points also allow you to acquire bonus attacks. You start with only 3 possible attacks, but depending on your Tech Points level this can go up to 7 attacks :

 0-49 Tech Points : 3 attacks possible, 50-99 Tech Points : 4 attacks possible, 100-149 Tech Points : 5 attacks possible, 150-199 Tech Points : 6 attacks possible, 200-999 Tech Points : 7 attacks possible

 The number of attacks is NOT an effective number - if you happen to have i.e. 5 attacks you MUST use the 5 first attack orders for them and only they will be used no matter if they are executable or not when running the Turn. Also be careful - if you change your Tech Points for a nice bonus, this might reduce your number of possible attacks for the next turn.

7> Bombing, spying and weapons effectiveness :
Bombing can be an effective way to reduce the enemies strenghts before attacking them.
Bombing takes place at the very beginning of a turn (PHASE I) and can at random hit only the following targets:
> armies - will go for 1-5 armies/missile
> defenses - can reduce the provinces defenses by 0.1/missile
> spies - will try to kill 1-5 spies/missile
> tech level - can reduce the opponenets tech points by 5-13 points/missile
(Successful) bombing is always equal to your EFF (effectiveness) level or, at long range, to 3/4 of it. Every missile launched will SEPARATELY have a chance to hit the Target. You start the game with a level of 99% EFF, but each round it will decrease by 1% for every province you possess (during PHASE V). The maximum level is 99%, the minimum level is 1%.
You can choose to bomb a neighbouring province (called a short-range attack) or a province which has a number of -3 to +3 to your provinces number (i.e. province 40 can bomb its neighbours and also provinces 37-39 and 41-43, but province 60 might only attack its neighbours and provinces 57-59 as no provinces higher than 60 exist). This is called a long-range attack and your chance to make a hit is reduced to 3/4 of that of the short-range attack.
Example: you have an EFF Level of 80% and
- attack a neighbour : 80% chance (your current EFF Level)
- attack at long-range : 60% chance (3/4 of 80%)
Every defending province has a chance equal to the triple of its number of spies to detect the source of the bombing.
Spying and covert operations take place at the very end of a turn (PHASE VI) - this way the information you are able to gather will be more precious. You can direct your spies to do the following operations :
1> spy on a neighbor or on any province
2> spy a player (must be a neighbor, very risky)
3> sabotage missiles (must be a neighbor)
4> sabotage defenses (must be a neighbor)
5> steal population (must be a neighbor)

After an order for a spying operation was executed the spies used will be lost and disappear from your province. If you give orders that cannot be executed (like spying on a neutral province) NO spies will be lost, so there is no risk in badly using your spies. If however you use spies and are not successful (like stealing Population from a province that hasnt any or using less spies than required with a "sabotage defenses" order) your spies will be lost because the order was executable. You should always ask you the question : is the order allowed or not ? if the answer is yes then your spies will be gone for sure, no matter if the result is a success or not.

8> The Automated Order Form (AOF) and the Order of Play (OoP) :
Each turn you need to fill out the AOF. Just cut and paste it into your new email back to the GM or use the AOF Sender from the GMs HomePage. This AOF will be entered into the PC and from all AOF sent in will be generated the next turn.
The AOF works with codes, so please look it through and ALWAYS use the EXACT number of digits required to fill it out (else the Turn Generator might generate "strange" orders)
If you enter an invalid number or no number at all, usually nothing will happen. If you enter a number greater than what you actually have in possession (i.e. you want to use 14 missiles but only have 11 in the province) ALL of your items will be used.
Many actions on the AOF are limited, i.e. it is not possible to enter more than 5 actions of bombing a target. These limitations will not be of importance at the beginning of a new game, but have a major tactical aspect when players grow bigger.
Every new turn, the WOK Turn Generator (WTG) creates a new OoP. The Order of Play decides on which player comes to play first, second etc. during each Phase. In WOK I/II, all orders were treated as "at the same time", like when 2 players were both attacking a province they did so by using their armies together. When all defending armies were eliminated, the 2 attacking players fought out who would be the new owner of the province. In WOK IV however, all orders are processed one-by-one for every player, using the OoP from the round.
IMPORTANT : The OoP is executed for every phase separately, so we first play Phase I for every player and then Phase II etc. (and NOT all Phases I-VI for one player BEFORE playing all Phases for next player and so on)
So if a player attacks a province before you during the turn and wins the fight, you will attack HIM instead of the old owner. Therefore you have to take many more tactical aspects into consideration when planning your turns - you will also have to establish good and trustful relations to some of the other players.
Remember to take a close look at the OoP of the upcoming turn before planning your moves !

As a summary, your AOF consists of 6 Phases :

PHASE I - bombing : bomb up to 5 targets of an adjacent or -3/+3 numbered province. You can even bomb the same province more than once. The defending player has a chance to detect from where the missiles came. This % chance is equal to the triple number of spies in the province, but is at least 1%. See also point 7> for more details.

PHASE II - attacks : up to 7 consecutive attacks can be directed to neighbouring provinces. You start with only 3 possible attacks, but can gain bonus attacks for a higher Tech Point Level - see also Point 6 on this.You may even split your armies to different adjacent targets, but remember that your orders are processed one-by-one and so will be with the attacks you conduct. Also neutrals start with 5 armies (+3 after ther initial turn), so its a bad idea to use less armies than your enemy right away. The WTG calculates the PATT and PDEF (the power of the attacker and defender) like this :
- Attacker : (10 x level of the armies) x 0,EFF level
- Defender : ((10 x level of the armies) + (4 x defense points)) x 0,EFF level

Then the WTG will draw two random numbers from 0 to the actual PATT/PDEF levels and determine this way who wins. The loser loses 1 army and the calculation starts again until one of the players armies is completely wiped out.(see the FAQ on the HomePage for more details)
There is a 3% chance to destroy 0.1 points of defenses in every single round of combat. Should your PATT/PDEF be less then 1, you will be rolling 0 OR 1 (and not just 0) to make sure no stalemate occurs.
If you win a province, you will get :
- All remaining defenses
- 80% of the population and workers
- 60% of all missiles and spies
- The remaining armies will get a level bonus of (+0.003 x the duration of the battle), so 15 fights = +0.045 level for your armies.
Invading an unprotected province gives you a Level Bonus of +0.100 Points. If the attacker wins, ALL his remaining armies from the battle will invade the province.

PHASE III - working : a quick phase. You will also loose 1% effectiveness for every province you own (and protect) right away. Then every worker in your provinces will produce the targeted aim. Some aim needs a minimum number of workers, i.e. it takes 8 workers to raise the defense level of a province. (Pay attention to this minimum number of workers required and see point >5 for more details)

PHASE IV- pop transformation, then growth and finally movement: first you will be asked to transform your population/workers/armies. Remember : 1 ARM = 2 WOK OR 4 POP and also 2 WOK = 1 POP ! There is a limit of 50 Units that can be transformed with one single order (but you have up to 7 transformation orders, so you can transform several times in the same province if you want, like transforming 48 POP into 12 ARM several times) There is also the limit of 3 Population into Armies Transformations  per Turn allowed, counted whenever you transform population into armies. All newly transformed, fresh armies have a level of 1.000, so if you build new troops in a province with more experienced armies in it they will be melted together and the new resulting level will be a mixture of the old level and 1.000 (like in the older WOKs folks...)
Example : you have 10 armies at level 1.300 and you recruit 5 new armies (always level 1.000)
The new level for ALL your armies in the province will therefore be
(10 x 1.300) + (5 x 1.000) / total number of armies =
(13 + 5) / 15 = 18 / 15 = 1.200
The more new troops you recruit, the more your armies level will drop towards 1.000.
If you build up more units than the province can hold, you will LOSE all units over 999.
Example : you transform 48 population into 12 armies. Your province already had 990 armies and can only hold a maximum of 999. You have a total of 1.002 armies, so you lose 3 armies to reach the limit.
Remember that a province might hold 999 armies or population, but only 125 workers !
[For the experts : If (probably by mistake) you build more armies than the total allowed of 999, the new armies level will however be calculated just like if you had more than these units in the province. This level is lower than what you actually should have with 999 units. This is because you initially planned to transform a certain number of units - therefore your armies level will decrease proportional to this original total number, in our example 1.002 and not 999 - bad luck...]
Right after the transformations, the neutral provinces will gain +2 fresh Armies. The remaining population (and only the population !) in all provinces will then grow according to the growth ratio. (3% - 20%, AFTER the increase in armies for neutrals)
You can next move your population/workers/armies/missiles/spies from a province to a neighbouring one. You may only move up to 50 Units per Order (again, you still have full 7 orders you can use). You are not allowed to pass through provinces you do not possess. It is also possible to move your armies through several of your provinces, like "Move 50 armies from A to B." and then "Move 50 armies from B to C." Always remember that your orders are processed one by one.
If you are not sure about how high your number of population/workers/armies/missiles/spies will be but you want to move all of them, we suggest you enter "99" as the desired number of units you wish to move. This way you will be sure to move all of them.
If your units reach enemy land, they will be halted. If you move more units in an already full province (i.e. moving 50 population to a province with 990 population, surpassing the 999 units limit) only the exact number to reach the limit will be moved. All other units will be halted.

PHASE V - trading & aiming :  Now you may trade your Tech points for bonuses (see point 6>) and change the aim of your workers. Only 4 provinces can change their workers aim in every turn.

PHASE VI - spying & covert operations : now its time for your spy operations. Up to 5 of them can be ordered every turn. (see also point 2>) You are NOT allowed to conduct any spying operations against neutral provinces ! You can use the spied information in any way you want, i.e. exchanging it with other players or publishing it openly in the Message Board section. If you try to spy or sabotage, every order will separately have a chance of % (up to 99%) depending on:
- Spy neighbor provinces : EFF Level +2% for every spy you use
- Spy other provinces (anywhere on the map) : 3/4 of your EFF Level
- Spy a Player (MUST be a neighbor) and ALL his provinces : 1/2 EFF Level +0.5% for every spy used. THIS IS MORE RISKY and can result in a great loss of efficiency when it fails !
If you want to spy i.e. the complete data of a player, make sure you use your spies into a direct neighboring province of another player - "neighbor" therefore always means a direct adjacent province to the source of your operations (the home of your spies).
- Sabotage Missiles (neighboring province) : EFF Level -20%. If successful, every spy used will destroy 3 missiles
- Sabotage Defenses (neighbour) : EFF Level -20%. If successful, every 3 spies used in the attack will destroy 0.2 defenses
- Steal Population (neighbor) : EFF Level -20%. If successful, every spy used in the attack will steal 15 population and bring them to the source province of the spying.
Destroying or stealing can of course only be successful up to the number of units in the target, so there is no sense in stealing population from a province that hasnt any.
Spies are usually underestimated and can be a powerful weapon. At least one spy must be used in any spying operation. Again, it is NOT allowed to sabotage or spy on a neutral province or a province you own (but you will not lose any spies trying to do it). If you are a victim of spy operations, you have a chance equal to your own number of spies in the province to catch some enemy spies. You have triple that chance to detect from where the spies came. All successful spying or anti-spying operations will increase your effectiveness level, all failures will cause the level to drop. This is a good way to increase your effectiveness while gaining informations on the other players. So think of building a powerful spy force in time. Again, remember that spying the complete Player data is considered to be more risky so if you fail at it you will loose some 6% or more of your effectiveness !
At the end of the generated turn, you will get the newest statistics on your provinces and a new OoP for the next turn will be generated.
The statistics will sum up all your provinces etc. For the armies level and the defenses, the AVERAGE numbers will be calculated (i.e. 1.244a means AVERAGE armies level of 1.244)
There will also be a "Top Ten" List according to a generated score (depending on all your possessions).
Now fill out your AOF and get started !!


WOK IV is now running and still storming the Net. I am sure it is a great game for its players, especially if you like wargames and strategical planning.
I have tried to balance the game with my experience in game design, but I am always open to new ideas.

The development of WOK4 is definitely finished with V2.5, the game has a solid and challenging engine. Now we also have "WORLD OF KAOMARIS 5 - RETURN TO PARADIZE" so check out the Kaomaris HomePage !

If you manage to become a VERY GOOD Player (see the HiScore and Kaohalla pages to check) you might be allowed to join our yearly Championships beginning on December 1st. The current Champion  and the Top 9 Players throughout the year will battle it out !

ENJOY WOK IV. BECOME A CHAMPION.

GM Al Gassner