[i][center][h1]Hansa[/h1][/center][/i]

Welcome to Hansa!  You will start in Lubeck, Spring 1200 (each turn is one season).  Each player has come to this Imperial city to prepare for their journey to the Baltic Sea.  Here in Lubeck, you will either buy supplies or donate coin to the Swordbrothers.  Supplies are used to build settlements along the Baltic coasts, which produce resources to be sold back at Lubeck.  Donating to the Swordbrothers increases your influence, and they will accompany you to the Baltic and assist in defending your settlements.

When you establish a settlement on the Baltic coast, you must decide which resource it will produce.  This can be amber, wax, fur, beer, wine, salt, spices, etc.  Each commodity sells for varying prices back in Lubeck.  Each settlement produces 1 unit per turn, as in 1 unit of fur, or 1 unit of amber, etc.  You may use an additional unit of supplies to upgrade your settlement to the next level, wherein it will produce an additional unit (level 2 produces produce 2 units of fur, level 3 produces 3 units, etc).  Additionally, you can use supplies to build more settlements inland.  Inland settlements are able to produce 2 resources as opposed to 1, but are more likely to be attacked by Baltic pagans.

Income generated by your trading actions can be used to buy more ships, warehouses (store more resources for later), armories (equips locals with weapons), stables (equips some locals with horses), churches (increases Swordbrother influence), as well as palisade or stone walls for protection.

Donating to the Swordbrothers increases your influence with them.  Building churches also increases your influence.  They are extremely capable fighters who will protect your settlements from the pagans, and reside in local garrisons within the settlement.  The Swordbrothers are eager to push inland and capture the pagan hillforts.  Once a hillfort has been claimed you can help the Swordbrothers build a stone fort in its place, which increases the size of the crusading order, and also allows them to exercise control over the villages in the vicinity (thus securing land to build new settlements).

You may eventually annex or conquer the land of other players and may even carve out your own kingdom, bishopric, or duchy in the Baltic.  The Swordbrothers may even form the Livonian Order once they have enough stone forts and are of formidable size.  The Livonian Order will become its own faction, and will aid or hinder you depending on your influence with them, previous dealings, etc.