Running it
The whole game is one file, Aquila.html. It needs no installation, no server and no internet
connection. The typefaces it sets English in travel inside it, so it looks the same offline as
online; Chinese is set in whatever Chinese typefaces your system has. There are two ways to run it,
and they are the same game.
In a browser
Unzip the browser download and open Aquila.html in any current browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or
Safari. It can also be played in the page on the game's itch.io page
and its website.
It is best on a desktop or laptop with a mouse and keyboard. It can be played by touch, with one difference that matters; see Mouse and touch.
On the desktop
The Windows, macOS and Linux downloads put the same file in a window of its own. Nothing is
installed; unzip the folder and start Aquila.exe, Aquila.app or Aquila from it.
The window behaves like the browser with the browser's furniture taken away:
- F11 switches fullscreen on and off.
- The keys that would reload the page or open a find bar (F5, F3) do nothing, and neither do most Ctrl shortcuts, so a stray key cannot throw away a battle. Ctrl with C, X, V, Z and A still work, for copying from the log and editing on the muster.
- There is no right-click menu, and a file dropped on the window is ignored.
Each download carries a README.txt. It says how to start the game on that system, and what to do if the system refuses it the first time or it will not start.
What is remembered
Two things are kept between sessions, in the storage your browser (or the desktop window) gives the page:
- The muster. Both companies as they stand: who marches, each man and his kit and pack, how the opposition is armed, and the two boxes Ignore the purse and No one ever runs. It is saved every time you change anything on the muster.
- The language.
A battle is not saved. Close the page and the battle is gone; the muster is still there.
Each way of playing keeps its own storage: a company mustered in the desktop window is not the one your browser remembers, nor the one on itch.io. Some browsers keep nothing for a file opened from disk, or clear it with the rest of your browsing data. Then the game opens each time with the default company in English, and otherwise plays exactly the same.
Languages
The game plays in English or Simplified Chinese (简体中文). The Language menu is at the top of the muster, and the choice is remembered.
The menu is only on the muster. To change language in the middle of a battle, press Back to the muster, change it, and return with Back to the battle, round n; see Leaving for the muster.
What follows a change
Changing the language tells everything again in the new one: the muster and its reference, the battle screen, the whole log from its first line, and the box at the end of a battle.
One thing does not follow: names made at the moment a thing was made. The name of each weapon, shield and piece of armour in a battle is set down in the language in use when the battle began, and the name of each wound in the language in use when the wound was made. A battle begun in Chinese and read in English still names its swords and its wounds in Chinese.
The build number
At the foot of the muster, under the reference, the page says which build you are playing: the word build and a number. The downloads carry the same number in their version: version 0.N.0 is build N.
Say which build it was when you report something. The rules' numbers are tuned between builds, so a blow that went strangely in one may go differently in the next.
Light, dark and motion
The page follows your system's light or dark setting. If your system asks for reduced motion, the game does not animate men walking and cuts its pauses short, so the other side's turns go by quickly; read them in the log.