Mobilising Armies

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Mobilising Armies is a members-only real-time strategy minigame in RuneScape released on 8 July 2009. During the minigame, players will invest in armies then command those armies in 4-player battles.

Pre-release info
Jagex originally announced in the November 2008 update plans to release it in December, but in the December 2008 update, they announced that the release of the minigame would be postponed until 2009. In the Mobilising Armies Developers' Blog of 26 June 2009, they announced it will be released "in the next few weeks." It was eventually released on 8 July 2009 along with a new teleport spell, and the RuneScape website received a Mobilising Armies themed makeover.

Getting There
The Mobilising Armies Command centre is located just west of Oo'glog. The easiest way to get there is by using the Mobilising Armies teleport (1 Law rune, 1 Air rune 1 Water rune, and Level 10 Magic required). This will teleport you to the entrance.

Other means of travel include:


 * Ring of duelling teleport directly to Mobilising Armies (no requirement)


 * Spirit tree teleport to Mobilising Armies area (after Tree Gnome Village)


 * Charter a ship to Oo'glog (after As a First Resort...)


 * Fly a Gnome glider to Feldip Hills (after One Small Favour)


 * Fairy ring teleport to Feldip Hunter area (after partial completion of Fairytale II - Cure a Queen)

Introduction
To start this game, players need to talk to Junior Cadet Mal who is located near the entrance of the game. Players will then be taken through a tutorial where they will have to attack and defeat the enemy. Upon completing the tutorial, a player can begin the mini-game. However, shortly after the release (3-5 hours) 3 out of the 4 game modes were disabled as many bugs were discovered. (Conflict was left open and Siege, Hoard and Rescue were closed off until Jagex fixed all issues.)

How to Play
Firstly, players will need to recruit mercenary squads. This can be done in the South-Western building. You can only have a maximum of 10 squads. Then, players will need to buy Special Units. This is located in the North-Eastern tent. Players can buy up to five special units, so choose wisely. Now you should be ready to start. Squads and special units are purchased using an in-minigame currency called investment credits. Investment credits are earned by trading in "commodities." A commodity is generally something you might have left over after skilling with fletching, crafting, etc. A full list of possible commodities can be found by talking to Junior Cadet Mal.

Different in-game items have different values. For example, all runes except for body runes(9gp per rune), can be exchanged for 10 investment credits. Therefore, 1,000 Fire Runes would be worth 10,000 investment credits. The rewards for the lowest levels (&lt;100 rank) average about 1gp per reward point. You should get one or more reward points per investment point, so it's a good way to turn junk or unsellable items into sellable items and cash.



Once playing, the tabs will change accordingly, having different purposes.


 * [[File:Mobilising Armies tab - camera1.gif]]Camera


 * [[File:Mobilising Armies tab - squads1.gif]]Squad Command


 * [[File:Mobilising Armies tab - special1.gif]]Special Units


 * [[File:Mobilising Armies tab - mysquads1.gif]]My Squads


 * [[File:Mobilising Armies tab - forfeit1.gif]]Forfeit

Controlling Squads
The player's squads are all near each other when the game starts. Clicking on one of a player's own squads selects that squad, which will move, explore, or attack based on the player's commands. Only the selected squad will do anything, so players should select other squad and give commands to them. The minimap shows the location of the selected squad with a flashing arrow.

Moving
To move a selected squad, players can either click the destination on the minimap and the squad will walk there, or click anywhere on the main screen. If the destination is on another squad on the same team, click the Move button to the side and then click where to go.

Attacking
The selected squad can attack an enemy squad when the player clicks the Attack button to the side and then clicks the enemy. However, a much faster and commonly used way is to simply click on the enemy squad. The squad will attack the enemy until one of them dies.

Although not indicated, the entire battlefield is a multicombat area, allowing more than one squad to pile an enemy. This should be used to your advantage by having all of your squads in combat with an enemy for maximum efficiency.

There is a combat triangle in Mobilising Armies: elves are strong against dwarves, dwarves are strong against goblins, and goblins are strong against elves. Therefore, it is best use your squads to attack the race that is weak to them.There is a special terrtories that can cause double damage, look it up around the game just simple right click and have a blue word called special territories.

Exploring
Clicking on the Explore button to the side will make the selected squad wander around, exploring for treasure. The treasure may be an item such as willow logs or tin ore, depending on which race is exploring, or it could be a positive (shown on the chat screen as POS) effects such as gaining health or negative (shown as NEG) effects such as losing combat levels.

Possible loots include:


 * Tin ore by dwarf


 * Cabbage seed by goblin


 * Willow logs by elf


 * Uncut opal


 * Uncut jade


 * Uncut red topaz
 * Coins

Camera
Since the player's character itself is not in the game, the camera has no point of focus. There are 2 ways to operate the camera.

With the arrow keys, you can now pan the camera by pressing the arrow keys in the desired direction. To rotate it, hold the Ctrl key on the keyboard and press the left and right arrow keys. To zoom in and out, hold Shift and the press the up key to zoom in and the down key to zoom out.

The other way is by clicking the buttons in the camera tab to the right. It's pretty straightfoward.

Winning
To win the game, the player must defeat the squads of the other 3 players. The winning player will be the player who defeats all the squads. If you win, you will increase your ranking by two and if you lose, it will increase by one. Your ranking will not increase at all if you fail to last four minutes in the game or if you do not issue at least 10 commands during the battle. (Moving and exploring don't count. This is confirmed) There are other ways to win depending on the scenario. For example, in the "Hoard" scenario you can win by being the first to gather 100,000 gold or by defeating the other squads.

Investments
To buy troops and Special Units, you have to invest in commodities first. The best way to get lots of investments credits is to trade in useless junk from training skills, such as unstrung bows, Summoning scrolls, or flatpacks from Construction. Junior Cadet Mal can give you a full list of what are accepted as commodities. The maximum Investment Credits is 500,000.

The intention of investment items was to be able to trade in processed goods that will not sell. For instance, if you trained fletching and made some Willow Longbow's(u), you could trade all of your willow longbow's (u) for investment credits. This is true for runecrafting items, fletching items, herblore items, smithing items, cooking items, crafting items, farming items (not seeds), construction flatpacks, summoning pouches and scrolls.

Squads
Squads are either light or heavy, and either Goblin, Elf, or Dwarf. They have different speeds and hitpoints and represent different sides of the combat triangle.

As a player advances, they can upgrade/promote their squads from level 1 to higher levels.

You must have 10 squads of the same level to start a game.

Light Squad
Light Squads move much faster than their Heavy counterparts, but are a lot weaker in terms of combat. Light Squads are extremely useful as a last resort, if all your other units are destroyed, the light squad can evade enemy units until time runs out, allowing you to gain many more reward credits.

Many players deemed using Light Squads useless during the first few days, when "Conflict" was the only open scenario, but in the other three scenarios, their added speed is very useful and players playing one of these scenarios are more than likely to have a full team of light squads.

Heavy Squad
Heavy squads are stronger than the Light Squads, but sacrifice speed for the increased power. These squads are most effective for the "conflict" scenario, but are not very commonly used in the other three scenarios.

Elf Squad
The Elf squads are the Mage class. If you follow the combat triangle, elves are weak against Goblin Ranged Squads but strong against Dwarven Melee Squads. The Light Elf Squad has a combat level of 175, a hitpoints level of 480 and a discipline level of 110 while the Heavy Elf Squad has a combat level of 350, a hitpoints level of 960 and a discipline level of 110. The Light Squad Elves wear lavender robes, and wield different elemental staves. The Heavy squad elves also weild the basic elemental staves but wear a dark blue shaded robe. The Examine info on both squads say "An uncommon sight, mercenary elves are familiar with battle" While exploring, they find logs.

Dwarf Squad
In the combat triangle the Dwarf Squad is the melee skill, weak against Elven mage Squads, but strong against Goblin range Squads. The Light Dwarf Squad has a combat level of 175, a hitpoints level of 530 and a discipline level of 60 while the Heavy Dwarf Squad has a combat level of 350, a hitpoints level of 1010 and a discipline level of 60. The Light Squad is garbed in a gray dwarf outfit and wields a silver battleaxe, and the Heavy Squad wears a brown dwarf outfit carrying a black battleaxe with silver blades. They find ore and gems while exploring.

Goblin Squad
In the combat triangle the Goblin Squad is the ranged skill, weak against Dwarf Melee Squads, but strong against Elven Mage Squads. The Light Goblin Squad has a combat level of 225, a hitpoints level of 480 and a discipline level of 60 while the Heavy Goblin Squad has a combat level of 400, a hitpoints level of 960 and a discipline level of 60. The Light Squad wears a grey Goblin mail and wields an Iron Crossbow. The Heavy Squad is equipped in a darker brown goblin mail, but also appears to use an Iron Crossbow. They pick up coins and various items while exploring.

Special Units
There are 5 different special units with different functions.

These units are:


 * Chompa - hits multiple targets for around 50 damage. Be aware! It affects your squads too!
 * Cannon - hits every target in the attack line. Be aware! It affects your squads too!
 * Distracter - disables all orders to nearby squads. Be aware! It affects your squads too!
 * Barricade - stops all attack from that direction. Be aware! It affects your squads too!
 * Gliderattacks - single attack on an enemy for about 200 damage.

Squad Formations
There are a total of 9 formations available for use.

Wedge - Unlocked by default Units are assembled in pyramid style

Wall - Unlocked by default Units form a straight line resembling a wall

Flank - Unlocked by default Five units on left and right side

Eager - Unlocked at rank 51. Four units in the front, six units back on the coastline

Spread - Unlocked at rank 101. Three units in front, four units in middle, and three units on the backline

Game Types
Note: Now all the other scenarios are available. An update occurred on July the 10th, enabling all the other three scenarios which were locked by Jagex due to a malfunction.

Conflict
This is the standard scenario for the game, being the first to be played by all, and the "lowest leveled" scenario. Four teams are placed on a battlefield and must kill each other off, one by one. This version is a "free-for-all".

Siege
The Siege Scenario is unlocked after playing through a game of Conflict. In this Scenario, a rogue knight, exiled for treason against the King of Asgarnia, has constructed a heavily fortified castle on an island in the south seas. Unlike Conflict, defeating all enemy squads is a secondary objective; the primary objective is to be the first to break one of four castle walls in the center of the island. This can be done in one of two ways: attacking the wall directly with squads, which causes damage from the mages stationed on the castle towers, or building a catapult supplies found on shipwrecks and firing rocks. The winner is the first to break down one of the castle's walls.

Hoard
As defined by Jagex "This scenario is set at a dragon’s volcano, where you must collect 100,000 gold or defeat your opponents to become the victor. Gold can be collected by using the ‘Cave Collect’ command in your Squad Commands tab or by just left-clicking the cave. In order to collect gold from the dragon, you need at least two squads, one collecting at the cave and another to carry the gold from the cave to the boat. You can also steal gold by killing opponents' squads, and it is worth noting that squads collecting gold are more susceptible to damage."

Rescue
As defined by Jagex "This scenario requires you to be the first to save 28 TzHaar from their steaming fissures. This comes with a new command, 'Rescue'. Click this command and then click on a flailing TzHaar to save them from certain doom, or simply left-click on the TzHaar. You may also steal TzHaar from your opposition by clicking on the 'Steal' command and then an enemy's stock, which is by their command tent and lander on the outskirts of the map."

Chat
During the game player are not able to chat freely, as the game spans much more than the normal chat radius. Instead, players are able to use Mobilising armies themed phrases.

Phrases are:
 * Good luck everyone
 * Well played
 * This will all be over soon.
 * Fear my Elves/Goblins/Dwarves!
 * Prepare for annihilation!
 * For this scenario I've invested...
 * I'm of rank...
 * All your squads are belong to me!
 * This is a long battle.
 * Yes!
 * Run away!
 * Noooo!
 * I've almost won!
 * I'm about to be defeated.
 * This is my favourite scenario.
 * This is my least favourite scenario.
 * That was so close!
 * I'm comin' ta getcha!

Rewards
Reward comes in the form of ‘reward credits' and increased Ranks. The number of reward credits you receive after a battle is based on the amount you invested before the battle, and how successful you were. These reward credits can be spent or saved up – they do not disappear when you leave the encampment.

To exchange reward credits, visit the Officer’s Tower in the south-east of the encampment. To begin with, you’ll only be able to access the basement floor, but, as your Rank increases, you’ll be able to access higher levels and the better rewards they contain. After each game, you will also gain two Rank Points for a victory, or one Rank Point for a defeat. These cannot be spent, but, as you gain Ranks, you will be able to unlock more formations, scenarios and squad levels.

Within the tower there are several ways to spend your hard-earned reward credits.

Spoils of War: You may get your mitts on spoils of war - a selection of resources, gold and items that have been plundered from the scenario. The spoils of war improve as you rise up the officers' tower.

Special items: Special items can be bought to help your skills and adventuring outside of the Mobilising Armies encampment. Locators will teleport you to a resource type of your choice, from Mining spots to Woodcutting trees, choosing a specific spot at random. Quest kits are a one-slot container for items you often need in quests, such as rope, chisels, lamps and tinderboxes. According to your Rank, you can also buy various uniforms to show off your Mobilising Armies prowess.

Imbue rings: Rings be imbued, adding combat boosts to them.

Rank Prefix: While in the Mobilizing Armies minigame area, a prefix can be added to your name to show rank. Ask the sergeant to add/change your rank prefix. You may choose any that you have unlocked.



Basement (Rank &lt; 100)
To access the Serjeant level shop, speak to Serjeant Cole.

Spoils of War: You may get your mitts on spoils of war - a selection of resources, gold and items that have been plundered from the scenario. The spoils of war improve as you rise up the officers' tower.

Special items: Items can be bought in the basement rewards shop from Serjeant Cole.

Imbue rings:
 * Gold Ring to Gold ring (i)

Prefix

By speaking to Serjeant Cole, you may now change your prefix to Junior Cadet.

Ground Floor (Rank 100-199)
To access the Commander level shop, speak to Commander Loman on the ground floor of the Officer Tower.

Spoils of War: The spoils for ranks 100-199 somewhat resemble those of the &lt;100 spoils but are higher level items. You see higher level herbs, ores, and bars or a larger amount of the items that were also available on the basement floor. The coins choice is now 10,000 gold instead of 3,333.

Special items: Items can be bought from the first floor rewards shop from Commander Loman.


 * Imbue rings






 * Sapphire Ring to Sapphire Ring (i)
 * Emerald Ring to Emerald Ring (i)
 * Ruby Ring to Ruby Ring (i)
 * Diamond Ring to Diamond ring (i)


 * Prefix

By speaking to Commander Loman, you may now change your prefix to Serjeant.

First Floor (Rank 200-299)
To access the War-chief level shop, speak to War-chief Reeves on the first floor of the Officer Tower.

Spoils of War: The spoils for ranks 200-299 somewhat resemble those of the &lt;200 spoils but are higher level items. You see higher level herbs, ores, and bars or a larger amount of the items that were also available on the basement floor. The coins choice is now 16,666 gold instead of 10,000.

Special items: Items can be bought from the first floor rewards shop from War-chief Reeves.


 * Imbue rings


 * Lunar Ring to Lunar ring (i)
 * Ring of Charos to Ring of Charos (i)
 * Ring of Charos(a) to Ring of Charos(a)(i)
 * Dragonstone ring to Dragonstone ring (i)


 * Prefix

By speaking to War-chief Reeves, you may now change your prefix to Commander.

Second Floor (Rank 300-399)

 * Imbue rings


 * Onyx ring to Onyx ring (i)
 * Seers ring to Seer's ring (i)
 * Warrior ring to Warrior's ring (i)
 * Archers ring to Archer's ring (i)

Glitches

 * When talking to Serjeant Cole and another player talks at the same time it caused the text to overlay.


 * A two-line message will also overlay itself when you try to promote your squads without the required rank.


 * There have been reports of a glitch that makes you lose items. If you log out during the tutorial, you will lose items. (Confirmed, many posts on RS Forums), some players have logged out while in the tutorial without losing items. (this has been supposively fixed)


 * Even when players leave the Mobilising Armies area, their quick chat default category is sometimes still set to the minigame's waiting area.


 * You can not get any higher than priority 3, which made waiting times extremely long the day the game came out. MA glith.PNG


 * While in the waiting room you cannot add players from the chat box if they have the rank "Junior Cadet" in front of their names (gives you an invalid username message). You will have to right-click on a name in the chat box to add them.


 * If you have a prefix before your name, such as Junior Cadet, the Quick Chat button would show up at the end of your name, but to access the actual interface you have to click where the button would be had you not had a prefix before your name.


 * There is a glitch where you keep your rank prefix outside of the Mobilising Armies area.


 * On the day of the release there was a glitch that almost nobody could get into a game of Siege, Hoard or Rescue. Jagex fixed this glitch two days later, on July 10th, 2009.


 * During some games, the quick chat of your battling teams will be added with the quick chat of another battle that is currently taking place. This would make it so one player of a certain colour would see another player using quick chat within the game with the same team colour (i.e. A yellow player would chat "Good Luck noobs" and see another yellow player say the same phrase.) It also will make phrases such as "Team 3 was defeated" appear in the quick chat box even though the team 3 may still be alive.
 * The Inferior Locator allows players to get into previously inaccessible areas, such as the area north of the Tree Gnome Stronghold.


 * In certain areas of the game, you can talk freely without the word censor blocking out previously censored words.
 * It is possible for an exploring squad to get into the ocean and move about it freely in any mode (though you get a message saying you cannot move your squad off the island every time you click to move it).

Trivia

 * Junior Cadet Bertol reveals that he is actually an undercover H.A.M. member if you talk to him with a Ring of Charos equipped.
 * The Undercover H.A.M. hints that the officers will not believe a low rank. This could mean that a high-ranked player can tell an officer about the H.A.M member. However, if you have the Serjeant Rank, he will tell you that the officers would believe a Cadet rather than a stranger.
 * The Elven Cadet Finda is onto a conspiracy and believes she has found "the source". Of what no one is sure.
 * Commander Loman (Rank 100-199) will yell out, "Hey! Don't walk off until you're dismissed" if you walk away while talking to him.
 * When a player commands one of their squads to move, they occasionally say, "We like to move it!" This may be a reference to the song "I like to move it" by Erick Morillo and Mark Quashie.
 * A Quick Chat phrase; "All your squads are belong to me!" is a reference to a popular Internet meme, "All your base are belong to us!".
 * Upon Mobilising Armies' initial release, the "Siege" portion of the minigame was not functional. The counter to enter the game would cycle continuously while the number of players in the waiting room remained the same. Jagex has fixed it.
 * In the waiting room, a common trick players use to get other players' priority down and have less people in the room is by saying things like: 'omg Zezima is outside!', 'They r selling drag kiteshield at the tutorial', '(highscores name) found a glitch to remove trade limit he's outside go now!' ; "omg why aren't the stairs working???" Another trick which was used before the update on the other three scenarios was, "The other scenarios are unlocked!"
 * On the day of release, Jagex updated the RuneScape user interface, along with the new feature "Notes".
 * On the day Mobilising Armies was released, the view of the edge of the map that was loaded was changed to look like what the edge of the world looked like before. It now has a blackened fringe.
 * Mobilising Armies was RuneScape's 30th member's only minigame to be released.
 * The examine text for the serjeant top reads, "This is my shirt, there are many like it, but this is my own." This is a reference to the Creed of a United States Marine entitled "My Rifle".
 * An hour or 2 before its release you could see and read the guide for the game under "Recently Released Articles" as well as the one for Notes.
 * The description of the Conflict games includes "War-Games" which is a reference to the movie, War Games.
 * Ranks, such as "Junior Cadet" were suggested on forums
 * Although its called "Conflict" the boat is described to explore "uncharted island" suggesting more of a seizing of territories based game, although nothing else suggests so.
 * In quick chat instead of saying "I am going to play siege" you must say "I am going to play capture". This is probably because Jagex was thinking of making you capture the castle as opposed to destroying it.
 * Mobilising Armies Was Firstly Mentioned In 2008 October's Behind The Scenes.
 * 48 hours after Mobilising Armies came out the waiting room counter was changed from 5 to 3 to allow faster entry to the game.
 * Mr Luigids was the first person to be ranked in the hiscores with a rank of 300, taking about 3 days to do so. Later on, he became the first to get a rank of 400.
 * When having an inferior quest kit, the price of the next kit up will be lowered.
 * Popularity for this minigame has greatly decreased because of the inconveint ranking system.