Various questions about Dom II

[TomWChick]

Hey guys,

I have a few nitpicky questions about the final Version of Dominions II that maybe some of you can help me with. I've seen an early draft of the manual, and as far as I can tell, none of these are addressed there.

1) When you right click on units in a battle, the icons for all the units in that square/hex are displayed at the bottom of the info box. Under each icon, there might be one or more colored bars. I presume these reflect wounds, morale, that sort of thing. Can anyone tell me what colors represent what attributes?

2) What are the sword icons in the general's buttons on the main map screen? I thought they were the number of squads, but I don't think that's correct.

3) I'm not clear on how merc bidding works now. For instance, why are Hector's Heavy Horsemen going for 412 pounds of gold, but in parentheses, I'm informed that he only asks 220 pounds of gold "for employment by most other nations"? Huh? What did I do that I get charged extra?

4) I presume it's better to concentrate as many units in a squad as you can, since routing is a function of the ratio between casualites and squad size? I don't recall if this was the rule in Dom I, but it seems then that basically, the bigger the squad the better, even if you're mixing unit types.

5) I think I've got this figured out via tests, but if a unit has, say, Forest Survival, it can pass unobstructed through a province with Forest listed a terrain type regardless of any other terrain type listed. So if a province has Forest and Mountain listed, both Forest and Mountain Survival Units are benefitted, correct?

6) Umm, I feel like this is a super dumb question, but how can I tell the difference between a spy and a scout? I've only been fiddling with a couple of nations, so maybe I'm not using a nation with a readily available spy.

7) Ack, is there no way to speed up the battle replays? Say it isn't so! I loved that feature in Dom I. I noticed there is a hotkey to turn off the background terrain, so maybe there's a stealth hotkey to speed up/slow down the replays?

Thanks in advance,

-Tom