Gemfire is a strategy game from Koei, set in a fictional fantasy medieval nation. It borrows elements from previous Koei strategy series like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition. Players raise armies of knights and cavalry and supplements them with fantastical creatures like dragons and gargoyles in order to take control of the nation of Ishmeria.
The game was released on MSX, NES, SNES, Genesis, FM Towns Marty, the NEC PC-9801 and MS-DOS PCs. The NES, SNES and Genesis versions were released in the US. In Japan the game is known as Royal Blood, or Super Royal Blood in the case of the SNES version.
When the game starts, players have their choice of four scenarios: Erin & Ander, Flax's Shame,Terian's War, and Gemfire. While Ishmeria's shape never changes, these four scenarios change which families are in play and what provinces they control at the start of the game.
Gemfire's gameplay is a mixture of stat management and basic turn-based strategy. Between battle sequences, players manage their crops, troop counts, and loyalty. Waging and winning battles depends on having adequate food stores and finances.
While managing stats, the player's provinces are randomly selected. The home province, where the head of the chosen family resides, controls alliances and appointing vassals to outlying territories. All controlled places can build their troops, protect their land, and hire fifth units. They cannot make or break alliances, but they can persuade vassals from other families to defect.
Each character has a unique set of stats, or character facts. Their influence over battle and cultivation is determined by their Leadership, Command ability, Charm, and Fame. The higher the score, the better they perform.
Leadership: ability to protect and develop a province.
Command: ability on the battlefield
Charm: Charming leaders are better at persuading alliances and new recruits.
Fame: Fame grows with good deeds and is important for carrying out secret missions and recruiting vassals.
Battle
When provinces go to war, a chess-like battlefield appears. Each side controls five units. Four units are human and the fifth is either one of the Gemfire wizards or a hired monster. The human unit totals depend on the overall hired troop number. If the ruler had 100 troops before going to war, each unit would have 25 solders. It is possible to go into battle without a fifth unit.
Like chess, each piece on the battlefield has a designated range of movement. Horsemen and some fifth units move three spaces. Most units only move two. Archers, riflemen, and some fifth units can attack one space away from where they stand.
The dragon, much like the Queen in chess, has the greatest range of movement and attack radius. Any enemy within a three-by-three grid from the dragon can be attacked.
Battles are won if one side captures their opponent's flag, eliminates all enemies in play, retreats, or runs out of food. Capturing a base sometimes awards the victor a chance to take food or money from the loser, and in some cases capture the opposing ruler. If the ruler is captured, they can be recruited, released back to their family, or banished from the game entirely.
The Island
Ishmeria is broken up into 30 provinces divided among 10 families, some with a greater presence than others. Since there are 10 families and only six playable wizards, not all families control a piece of the Gemfire. To make up for this, players can hire bands of monsters to stand in as their fifth unit.
