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GEMFIRE

A customized scenario guide
By: DizavidHZ

E-Mail: davidlhenrywilson@gmail.com

Contact guidelines:
You CAN contact me for: spelling/grammatical errors, any errors I make
relating to gameplay, any ideas or new twists to my strategies
outlined below.  If you like the FAQ, you can write and tell me.  If 
you absolutely hate it, you can also send me that info as long as you
tell me what and why you dislike it.  Only serious complaints; "Your
guide sucks because you suck" is not constructive and a waste of both
our time.  
If by some chance you want to use a FAQ for a forgotten game, feel
free to contact me.  I'll most likely willingly allow use of the 
guide, as long as the website in question is at least somewhat
reputable.
If you need to contact me, BE SURE TO INCLUDE "GEMFIRE FAQ" in the 
title of the e-mail.

You CANNOT contact me for: Basic flaming, trolling, etc.  I will NOT
provide links or access to emulators, ROMs, or any illegal materials.
Anything not related to the FAQ would be ridiculous to send; what 
could you have to say to somebody you only know from a FAQ they 
wrote?  :P
Please note this is NOT a walkthrough; it's a guide to manipulate the
game into a "new scenario".  As such, there is no scenario-by-scenario
walkthrough, or 5th unit stats, etc.  There are a few excellent full
guides on gamefaqs, there's no need for me to rewrite the exact same
material already covered.  I'm all about the lazy folks.

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VERSION HISTORY

Version 1.0.0
First draft and version; a VERSION HISTORY section is probably overkill
at the moment...


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CONTENTS

All contents will be put in parenthesis for easy CTRL+F searching.  So
the number of the section in parenthesis will only appear here in 
contents, and at the start of its section.  :)

(1) Introduction
(2) Basic Set-up
(3) Custom Scenario Examples
(4) Extra Tips and Tricks
    (I) PART 1: Tips to Shorten Set-Up Time
    (II) PART 2: Tricks to Make the Scenario Heat Up! 
(5) Thanks
(6) Legal Stuff, Or My Best Attempt At It?

Six simple chapters (for now).  Easy, right?


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(1) Introduction

I've been playing this game since I was 9 years old.  Since I'm not
afraid of 'dating myself' (shudder) That's 22 years.  If you've ever
played this game (and honestly you should know it well before doing 
this trick) you know the AI isn't exactly head of its class.  The AI 
becomes extremely easy to manipulate and makes every game, while fun, a
sure thing to win.  While the lack of challenge is actually a part of 
the games charm, being able to play a strategy game where you don't 
have to take steady aspirin for the headache of balancing all the 
minute details, sometimes it would be nice if the game could kick the
difficulty up a notch.

Well, as a kid, I came up with such a way.  Over the years I've refined
it, and after seeing that this mostly underrated and unheard of game
had a pretty active board, I decided I'd share it.

I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I have.  I also hope you 
realize it does take some time to fully set it up before the "real"
game starts up.  Any tips or strategies that help cut the time taken
to set up your custom scenarios are welcome.  I'd also take some 
custom scenarios you come up with yourself. I'll post full credit
for any such help. 

Anyway, this has been a lot of words; on to the guide!



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(2) Basic Set-up

Foreword: Though this can be done in ANY scenario, so far I've found
the easiest is most likely SCENARIO 2: FLAX'S SHAME.


STEP 1:
First of all, you'll need to start up a 2 player game.  If you only
have 1 controller, it's no problem.  Controller 1 can control both
families.  Player 1 should be who you personally want to play as in
your chosen scenario.  To make things easiest, either choosing the 
youngest ruler, or the ruler with the youngest FAMILY MEMBER (so they
can assume the throne in the event of the main rulers death due to
old age).  The 2nd player can be any family, but it's best to choose 
the one with the least/no heirs.  For the example I set under 
Scenario 2, Erin of Blanche is the youngest ruler, and Erik of 
Flax has NO heirs.  Leander of Molbrew is also a good choice 
due to his age. The 2nd player family will ultimately be wiped 
out, so I'll refer to them from here on as the DYING family. 
(Just incase you, for some reason, chose your personal family 
as the 2nd player...)  The other family will be referred to as 
the SURVIVING family.


STEP 2:
Play the game normally as both families, grabbing up as much land
as possible with both of them as quickly as possible.  You may want
to make sure to keep several provinces kept up (cultivation and 
protection levels) for the "real" game.  During this phase, you'll
want to start letting the DYING family grab up a lot of the land 
near the end, even ones the SURVIVING family owns.  You can remove
your resources from the lands you let the DYING family take before
initiating the attack.  Another thing to note during this phase
is to kill any heirs/direct family members the DYING ruler has.
This can be done by saving your game, having the heir attack one
of your lands with 1 troop, then instantly having the DYING heir 
retreat.  If you don't capture him after the "battle", load your
save.  If you do capture him, make sure the DYING family refuses
his/her ransom, then you'll have the option to BANISH the heir
forever.  Do this until the DYING family has no possible vassals
to take over in the event of ruler death.

STEP 3:
Once all families aside from DYING and SURVIVING are taken over,
create a separate save file if you wish.  This is the 'template'
for creating the scenario.  FINAL REMINDER: Make sure the DYING
family has no heirs or family members left.

STEP 4:
There are SEVERAL ways to set up from this point, but here is
the first way I set this up.  First of all, have the DYING 
family take over ALL provinces except for your SURVIVING 
family's single last province.  From here, you can have the 
DYING leader use the same save game/attack/capture/banish trick
mentioned above to get rid of heirs.  Or, if you'd like to 
create a custom made time limit on the real game, let old age
kill the DYING ruler.  This creates a time limit due to the fact
your own ruler (and his/her heirs) have aged, and probably won't
have very long to live before their stats start dying (at age 65)
or start dying (around age 71-75).

STEP 5:
Once the DYING family's ruler passes away, something not unlike a
glitch occurs.  The game can't award the DYING land (or any  
crown gems) to you, because you didn't defeat them.  With no heirs,
the family is considered dead, and any vassals that controlled
lands (lords and ladies) will create their own one-territory 
family.  In my example above, where the DYING family took all 29
provinces, that created 28 new families. 
The other 2 provinces are:
1. The one single province your family owns
2. The province the DYING ruler resided in.  It will become empty.

Please note that any province that was under "direct rule" (lands
that had no lord/lady installed to rule over it) will become empty.

This opens up TONS of personalized set ups.  Leave a lord/lady of
your choice in the land you want them to create a family.  Leave
ones you don't want anybody to rule in under direct rule.  This
will create an empty province; stack empty provinces close to 
each other to eventually create a highly contested area.

One last thing; any jewels the family had will be randomly 
distributed amongst the newly created families.  For a challenge,
make sure your player family does not acquire ANY new wizards of
the crown.

This is just a basic set up, below I have some fun set-ups I've
come up with and personally won.  It definitely makes it a little 
more difficult.  Some set-ups are more difficult to play than others.


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(3) Custom Scenario Examples

NOTE: As far as I can tell, Provinces 8 and 30 are the easiest ones
      for you to have your SURVIVING family end up in for each of the
      challenges below.  I feel no need to state the hardest ones; just
      pick a province that is heavily surrounded.  :)


CHAOS:
Basically the set-up I chose as an example in STEP 5.  Have a vassal in
all 28 of the DYING family's provinces.  Before ruler death, have the
lands build up their troops, resources, and land stats to your liking
for each.  Then kill off the ruler, and enjoy fighting 28 families. It
gets really aggressive if you made sure the DYING family got 6 of the 7 
gems of Gemfire.  It's also fun to sit back and watch if you have a few
of the lands have 800-999 troops, and others nearby have 150-300.  
The 999 will begin trying to wipe out the lesser ones, but end up 
leaving its original province vulnerable to the others with 150-300 
troops.  Massive wars will break out.
 

VIRUS:
Before the DYING leaders death, place vassals ONLY in provinces 1-2
provinces apart.  Leave the in-between provinces EMPTY.  2 provinces 
is best, but some areas might be better to have a few only have 1 
empty province between them.  Before the DYING rulers death, make sure
all the vassals you have in place have FULL 999 resources.  999 Gold,
999 Food, 999 Troops.  Try to make them also have 100 Happiness, 
100 Cultivation, and 100 Protection.  Close as possible, doesn't have
to be 100's for all, as weather or random events make it hard to make
ALL of them be maxed.

Once you have this set up, activate project DYING rulers death, and 
voila!  The new families will feel utterly unthreatened, as they will 
ALL be surrounded by empty territories.  They will begin spreading 
troops into the empty territories.  They are habitually bad about
sending the absolute minimum of troops to empty provinces.  Eventually
they will spread to an empty province near a "not so empty" one...and
massive wars will break out, like a virus.  Sometimes this one is more
fun to quit and let the computer finish the game and watch.  If only
you could turn off battle animations during full computer controlled
games.  :/

FOUR CORNERS:
Put your SURVIVING family in either province 8, 3, 26, or 30.  Have 
the DYING family have vassals in the other 3 provinces.  All others
should be empties after the DYING rulers death.  Similar to the 
VIRUS set up, this is better if all families have maximum resources,
so they'll have more troops and resources to spread out.  With lots 
of empty space, but a "rival" starting off somewhat nearby, it can
be an interesting set up.

EAST vs. WEST:
This is the same set up as above, but put a new pair of families
in number 13 (or 14), and number 18, respectively.  Now you have
a line of families down the west coast, and down the east coast.
Fun!  :o)



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(4) Extra Tips and Tricks

This section has some tips I felt would fit in better down here rather
than above.  The above sections were already wordy enough, I saved some
unimportant but interesting/fun things for here.  Yay!  Bonus tips!
Now, excuse me while you check them out; I just said yay, and happiness
and rainbows makes me sick to my stomach.  I'll be back by the time 
you're done reading to give out thanks though!  :/



(I) PART 1: Tips to Shorten Set-Up Time


The thing that takes up the most time is getting rid of the computer
controlled families. Below are a few ways to try to cut the time it
takes to get rid of them.

1.Let Them Eat Cake! 

When you're against a province that can't be attacked with all your
troops at once, starve them.  For example, you need to attack province
22, but all of your provinces that can attack 22, can also be 
counterattacked by the nearby 23. 
A good way to take the wind out of their sails without losing a ton 
of troops is to send in 1 troop in battle, and retreat.
The very first moment of battle, 1 days worth of food is lost for both
sides.  For 1 troop, that's 3 units of food; no big deal.  For 999 
troops, that's 100 units of food.  Keep doing this until they have NO
food, or only 1 days worth.  With no food, they'll be forced to flee.
With 1 days worth of food, that 1 day will be taken away immediately,
giving them just that 1 day to reach your flag.  Typically, this can't
be done, so they'll be forced to flee at the end of the day due to no 
food.  Beware of gargoyles if they have 1 day of food though;
gargoyles have a high chance of reaching the flag within that one day
due to their ability to fly over all obstacles (fences, trees, rivers,
etc.)  They cannot fly over castle walls, but as attackers, that will 
never be an obstacle for gargoyles.

2. Come To The Dark Side; We Have Cookies!

Easy defections!  If this gets published, and enough people tell me
they would like me to do so, I'll make a list of "easy defections".
As a general rule, the following are almost always sure defects 
within three invites:  Aiden, Melgan, Bradley, Raith, Pender.
Note that Pender is only possible A) if he's been recruited after
being captured in family, or B) in Scenario 4, where he's already
left the Blanche family and is no longer a family member. As a 
general rule, low charm usually seems to reflect higher defection
chances, and your rulers popularity (Upper right stat on character
info screen) also increases chances of defection.
Please note that direct descendants/family members will NEVER defect
outside being recruited after a failed ransom post battle.
You can tell family members by checking the upper right part of their
info screen.  If there is a little symbol there showing two people
with a connecting symbol above the two figures heads, they're 
directly related to the ruler and will stay loyal...until you capture
them and the family can't afford the ransom.  >:D

3.Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Sometimes you have to spend time to make up time.  Build up several
of your lands cultivation/protection levels.  This will give you a
LARGE amount of food and gold every September.  Every year, you can
use these provinces you built up to send food and gold to the lands
on the front line to quickly recruit large amounts of troops and 
food for them without having to build up the newly acquired lands 
quickly.

4.Surrender! But Don't Give Yourself Away!

Once a family becomes extra powerful, any family with 2 or less
territories will INSTANTLY give up and join you with the Surrender
option.  It's like the entire family defects to you!  The best part
here is the family that surrenders will bring ALL of their vassals;
they won't seek out the family they prefer as they would if you'd
defeated them in battle.  This option obviously happens later in 
the game, but is helpful when you don't want to go through the
motions of taking those last two lands.
I'm not quite sure what all the qualifications are to make a
family surrender; I know owning a lot of lands is a big 
requirement, but leader popularity (upper right statistic in
leader statistic info page) may also play a part.  I'll play
around with this more if I get requests to do so.  (Or if 
someone already knows for certain.  I give good cred.)
One last note on the Surrender option:  The Lankshire family
(King Eselred) will NEVER surrender.  You can own all 29 other
provinces against the Lankshire family's one, with 999 troops in
all 29 provinces.  It won't matter.  The Lankshire family will
NEVER surrender, regardless of who is ruling it.  Just so you
don't waste your time banishing Eselred in the hopes another
ruler would make more intelligent decisions.  Nope.  Gotta 
kick their backsides all the way.

5. With Great Money, Comes Great Allies

Generally, especially in the north half of the map, hired
units are utterly useless.  They're a money drain, and 
usually don't have enough health or damage/range to justify
the expenses.
One exception to this rule is mostly found in the southern
provinces.  There are some vicious 5th units for hire, and 
there are two that have a very exceptional ability that makes
battles end much more quickly if used correctly.  This is the
ability to fly over obstacles, such as fences, rivers, and 
trees.
These two are the Wyvern, and the Gargoyles.  Out of the two
the Wyvern is the best.  The main thing to focus on here is
the gold it takes to keep them in your ranks.  The Wyvern is
60 gold per month, but a whopping 150 points of health; equal
to Zendor.  It can only attack adjacent targets though.
The Gargoyles are 40 gold per month, but only 120 health.
The reason I say all this is to point out this: Both of these
units can get to the flag MUCH quicker on several 
battlefields due to their flying ability.  Number 22: Londre
jumps immediately to mind, with the two rivers it has in
rapid succession.  It isn't much, but any battle you can
make shorter saves time.





(II) PART 2: Tricks to Make the Scenario Heat Up!

These are really just things I enjoyed doing in setting
up these scenarios.  I hope you enjoy them as well.  :)


1. Brother against Brother

Using the trick of save/retreat/capture/recruit, you can
make family members defect their family and join yours.
Once you set up the scenario, you can make sure that
you set family against family.  Ander vs. Wolfen vs. 
Keyla.  Or perhaps the entire Lankshire family dukes it
out: Eselred vs. Elford vs. Karla vs. Adryl.  Just
an interesting little way to set up a "pretend" story.


2. Super Powers

This one is really difficult, because it depends on 
luck.  Using the search option, you can sometimes
find a relic instead of the territory's 5th unit info.
These relics increase all three of a chosen vassals 
stats.  There are 3 items for battle strength, 3 items
for diplomacy, and 2 items for charm.  Try to get them
all, and pour them into two different people to get 
them insane stats.  Then have those two set upon
the world as their own family.  At 200 strength, for 
instance, a province under 'direct rule' by such a
ruler would have 100 strength when attacking.  Since
an attack of 90 is wonderful at the start of a
scenario, this makes the computer much more deadly
in combat.

3. The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

I'm sure by now you can figure out this one; 
make sure all the families that are created are
ruled by the weakest of the weak in terms of vassals.
Anise instantly pops into mind; also people who are 
weakened by age.  Aigle pops into mind on this one.  
To truly participate in this one, you might want to 
make sure you start as a family with a weak heir that
you can put on the throne with the banish trick.  Again,
Anise of Tate comes to mind here, as well as Arkan of
Blanche.
Who will win out of the meek and weak?

4.There's Gold In Them Thar Hills
                /or\
       Race to the Finish!

This one involves making sure several provinces are
in dire need of cultivation and protection.  Get
all of the lands you plan on having families in
have their cultivation and protection levels in
the single digits.  Then, make sure 2 or 3 empty
provinces away are provinces that have 80-100
cultivation and protection levels.  To truly make things
dire, put a limit of 150-300 troops per family.  
This becomes a race to the lands that will quickly
generate food and gold, as well as be nearly 
impervious to sabotage and plundering.  Combine
this with The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth for some
real headaches.



5. Possible Game Freeze/Glitch?

I've always wanted to do this, but just never got
around to it.  I've always wondered what would 
happen if all rulers died natural causes, with no
vassals to rule their lands, in essence
leaving all provinces empty.  This would be
difficult, but not impossible.  I won't say 
how, but the way to set it up is easy to figure out
if you pay attention to the tactics I listed for
setting up the scenario.  I'll give special mention
and kudos to the first person who can post a video
online that shows what happens when all lands are 
left empty.  :o)



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(5) Thanks

First thanks goes to Koei for making a game that, despite the vast
array of games I love to play over and over, easily has the trophy for
most times played through.

Secondly, I'd like to thank Darth_Spectre for making me realize I
could use the banish technique on DYING ruler instead of letting him 
die of old age.  Boy, sometimes the most obvious fixes are right in 
front of you!  :/

Third thanks goes to DragonAtma for telling me I might as well try
to submit this.  Worst they can say is no, right?  

Fourth thanks goes to gamefaqs.com itself, for a site that I've used
for over a decade for FAQ's and especially the reviews.  I never get
a game without reading the reviews here first.

Fifth, I'd like to thank admtanaka for his in-depth FAQ on this site
I used it a couple of times to find the prices for the Wyvern and
Gargoyles.

Sixth, the one that'll probably get me tons of flame-mails, goes
jointly to both Marie, my mother, and Jed, my partner.  Both of them
always give me encouragement and inspiration to continue practicing
my writing, regardless of subject or content.  Lots of love to both;
they've literally made me who I am today.  Okay, enough of this
sappy crappy.  (Hopefully that last word won't be considered vulgar
by the gamefaqs crew.)

If I forgot anyone/anything, please feel free to let me know at the
e-mail address listed at the top of this document.  I will be more
than happy to fix the issue, and more than ashamed I forgot to give
credit/thanks where due.  I'm an easy guy to complain to; don't let
the sarcasm fool ya.



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(6) Legal Stuff, Or My Best Attempt At It?


Not exactly sure how this is supposed to go without plagiarizing 
somebody else's format, and that would really defeat the entire 
purpose of this section; so...here goes!

This FAQ is solely the property of myself, David Henry, and can only
be used by the following websites:

www.gamefaqs.com
www.neoseeker.com
  

If by some slim chance another site actually wants to use this guide 
for such an old game, e-mail me first and GET MY PERMISSION.  It'd just
be nice to know it spread.  Simple courtesy there, people.

The game Gemfire, and any references to its mechanics, characters,
objects, or anything else remotely related to the game is the 
property of Koei.  Not sure if that bit was necessary, but better 
safe than sorry.

If there's anything legal I've forgotten, please feel free to
let me know, or let me know if I've made a total trash storm of
all this.