The lookout reports a mysterious shadow lurking in the wastelands.

Within the reinforced walls of mighty Battle Mines reside the citizenry of the land, protected and content. Other creatures however endure, and even thrive in the wastes outside. Collectively they are known as Roamers, but under that blanket term there are several varieties each with different characterstics. Well just a few to start but hang on.

Roamers spawn in their favourite environments where they become immediately visible on the map. They will move along with moving land, but some can swim off the land. If a land moves overtop of them, they will thence appear. Roamers reside (conceptually) outside the Dome.

Visible roamers can be attacked on the Warfare page in a procedure tentatively known as Potshots. Potshots are similar to normal local warfare in terms of physical requirements and accuracy, but they do not affect outposts, diplomats, and other player-based elements. Buildings will usually remain unharmed, excepting of course Domes, for which proper scrap will be provided when destroyed. You can attack roamers on your land, or adjacent lands, but only the geophysical host will reap any rewards if a roamer is defeated. You receive a +20% Accuracy bonus for shooting at a roamer on your own territory.

Note: Roamers do not sustain damage from being shot and damaged partially. The levels of damage they sustain are absolute, but may increase as they feed, and as a byproduct of other circumstances.

A list of known roamers follows, together with their general characteristics.

Don the Sage is a man of legend. He wanders throughout the world to his own inscrutable ends, but is always ready to lend a friendly smile and earful of arcane knowledge.

• Frequency: Unique and omnipresent.
• Movement: Don moves only on the land, and fairly ponderously at that.
• Behaviour: He's known to withdraw by his own means if he feels trapped.
• Combat: The sage cannot be attacked. (That would be mean.)
• Special: Don extends the Weather forecast of his host by 4 cycles.

Like the rats of our day and age, these rapscallious rodents breed in abundance, and have no regard for human property. Unlike our mundane vermin however, these monsters have aquired the mutation of accelerated growth, and the ability to attain truly monsterous proportions, given ample sustenance.

• Frequency: Rats are common in the less industry-choked corners of the realm.
• Movement: Rats move on land only, but are speedy. They will retreat from Fallout.
• Behaviour: They are adept at sniffing out and devouring Food, which causes them to grow. They will be stopped by Fridges, but not Domes.
• Combat: Rat carcasses are nutritious and delicious, but should you miss or fail to destroy them, they are bound to retreat in terror.
  • Teenage Rat: 5 hit points, produce 5 food when slain.
  • Adult Rat: ? hit points (6 or 7), produce 8 food when slain.
• Other Roamers: Rats are nothing but Godzilla-chow.
• Special: When they attain a certain girth, rats will begin to breed. Watch out for population explosions!

Only in the dusty movie reels of a bygone era can the history of this terrifying behemoth be studied. Once confined to silver screens, denizens of the new world know all too well the towering monster made flesh, and that he is truly a force to feared!

• Frequency: Godzilla is unique and uncommon, but he is more likely to appear in heavily polluted tiles.
• Movement: He will generally move to adjacent areas of high pollution.
• Behaviour: Godzilla smashes buildings like they were cardboard. It's just what he does.
• Combat: If you fail to destroy him he'll come after you with blood in his eye!
  • Godzilla starts with 16 hits and gains one for each rat he eats, up to a maximum of 40.
• Other Roamers: Godzilla savours nothing more than the taste of rats, which add to his strength. Beware!
• Special: A player visited by Godzilla has most of his map tile obscured and his borders automatically closed.

(The correct name for the section would be ”Tetsujin” but can't be italicized due to technical reasons)

With sufficient academic savvy, your technicians can learn the process of manufacturing Tetsujin, the incredible metallic men! They can be used to shuffle goods around at will, and dispatch spies to distant lands. They take on special characteristics, depending on what objects are loaded on to them.

Tetsujin cost 2 Steel and 1 Aluminum to manufacture in a Factory, once researched in the Academy.

Unlike other Roamers which move of their own accord, Tetsujin receive a base of three moves per cycle. This number is reset at production. They are controlled from a special page available only to their owners. They may also spend moves loading or unloading objects, or fighting.

Loading or unloading a Tetsujin takes one move. If you leave your Tetsujin on an opponent's land, they too may load your it with goods if it has moves to do so, but only you can unload your own Tetsujin. The inventory of a Tetsujin is not like a player's inventory, rather it is like a stack. Objects must be put on and removed in order, one at a time. A maximum of 10 objects can be on the Tetsujin stack at once. Objects cannot be loaded until their Tech Level is reseached.

Tetsujin can also load Spies, though once a Spy has been loaded, nothing else can be loaded onto the Tetsujin. Spies unloaded on foreign soil take up residence in the nearest building.

Fighting pits the number of hits your Tetsujin can take directly against those of another Roamer. If one side can take more hits than the other, it will win, at which point there is a 50/50 chance the loser will be destroyed, leaving objects behind as with Potshots. Fighting takes all the remaining moves your Tetsujin can muster.

In addition to their three base moves, Tetsujin can take four hits, and carry one object. This table shows how certain objects affect Tetsujin, all of which are cumulative:

• Bauxite increases the number of objects this Tetsujin can carry by one, Aluminum increases it by two. (Max 10 Objects, as above.)
• Pig Iron increases the number of hits this Tetsujin can take by one, Steel increases it by two.
• Uranium Ore increases the number of moves this Tetsujin can make each turn by one, Enriched Uranium increases it by two.
• Sand lets the Tetsujin give a Spy's report on the land it is visiting, Glass makes it into a Communist-type Spy report.
• One or more Diamonds lets the Tetsujin destroy Domes by fighting with them. Domes are always destroyed by combat.
• Coal can be burned to reset the Tetsujin to full moves, but only when it is on top of the stack.

In addition, holding a base object of the same tile resource the Tetsujin is in will boost its hits by one. Holding a refined object that matches the tile will boost its hits by two.

• Frequency: Each player can have one Tetsujin at once, so in busy, high-tech areas, they may be quite common.
• Movement: Tetsujin are controlled from a special page available only to their owners. They are initially restricted to the land, but further research makes them watertight and submersible! It costs two moves to travel in or out of water tiles.
• Behaviour: Tetsujin may come bearing objects, or enemy spies. Their intent may be good or ill, depending on the will of their master.
• Combat: Tetsujin leave behind whatever they were carrying, whether destroyed in hand-to-hand combat or by cannonfire.
• Other Roamers: Tetsujin can try their luck against any roamers! Only Godzilla will actively attack them.
• Special: Empty Tetsujin are black, those with objects are blue, and those with a Spy inside appear red on the map.