CONTACT¶
CONTACTUNITunit-id
CONTACTPARTEIfaction-id
CONTACTunit-id
You are normally not allowed to give anything to units of foreign factions unless you are allied with that faction.
To allow this to a limited extent, there is the CONTACT order.
In this round -and only in this round- the commanding unit behaves towards the named unit as if it were allied with it (see also under HELP), i.e. it accepts items, silver and people from it.
Non-allied factions can also enter castles and ships, recruit people and extract resources in this way.
CONTACT UNIT allows this to be done by a single unit, while CONTACT FACTION allows all units of the faction in question in a region.
The CONTACT unit-id order is allowed for historical reasons, but should be passed CONTACT UNIT unit-id be replaced.
Examples:
PARTEI ff "FooBar"
UNIT a
GIVE x 1000 Silver ; Tribute!
[...]
PARTEI 300 "BarFoo"
UNIT x
CONTACT UNIT a ; allow payment.
Unit a can give unit x the 1000 silver. If x is the only guarding unit in the region, a is also allowed to recruit and collect taxes.
Unit b of faction ff is not allowed to do any of this.
For this, unit x would have to receive the CONTACT FACTION ff order give.
Unit x and unit y of one faction guard the region.
In order for unit a to recruit, x and y must both CONTACT UNIT a or CONTACT PARTEI ff orders.
Differences to HELP¶
CONTACT has a similar function to HELP GIVE + HELP GUARD, but it's not 100% the same :
CONTACTis required for some things thatHELP GIVEorHELP GUARDdoes not cover, such asGIVE MENand some spellsHELPclosesHELP SILVER, HELP COMBATandHELP PARTEITARNUNGACONTACTapplies only to the current round and only to the unit issuing the orderHELPis permanent and applies to all units of my faction or group (and all units of the other targeted faction)