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INTRODUCTION
You control either the Federal(Blue) or Confederate(Gray) army
starting in July 1861. You have four years to defeat the other side
by capturing the opposition's cities and defeating him in battle. Play
takes place at a high level where you move counters/armies around in
a turn base game. When the two forces meet a micro minatures battle
takes place with the result feeding back up to the high level.
CONTROL
Use the mouse, select items by using the left button. Keyboard
support is also available - just press the first letter of the
command word, if it differs the letter you need to press is
underlined. The game MUST HAVE a mouse to play.
SETTING UP THE GAME
After the title screen, click the mouse to skip, select which type of
game you wish to play. Either STANDARD - the full civil war, LOAD in
a saved game or load in a historical battle (the First Bull Run is
included with the initial game).
You then decide whether to play the Federal (Union) or the
Confederate side.
AIM OF THE GAME
For victory the Confederate player must move the victory bar to the
'F' end before the game ends (April 1865 - the economic strength of
the Union is assumed to have won). This takes 80 points, points are
earned as follows:
Each battle won +1
Each battle lost -1
Each city captured or retaken +3
Each city lost -3
Washington or Richmond taken +10
Washington or Richmond lost -10
The Federal either holds out or moves the bar to the C.
In addition a rating out of 100 is given so when replaying you have a
target to aim for.
The Confederate side has the harder task to achieve victory, but it
is not impossible in this game.
GAME PLAY
The game is turn based and each turn represents a week. You start in
July 1861 with the Confederate army having a slightly larger starting
force (the Union has been reduced as in reality not all of their men
were available - they did have the west to look after!). After each
Confederate turn the week ends.
Whether you play the Federal or Confederate army you always get the
advantage of moving first.
THE MAIN DISPLAY - THE STRATEGIC SCREEN
You get a menu bar with the date and the following options:
ABOUT
Shows game version number.
FILE
Allows you to save the game or load in another or RESTART the game or
EXIT TO DOS.
GAME OPTIONS
MAP SCROLL - the speed at which the map will scroll (10 is best)
GAME SPEED - when the Micro-Minatures battle is running the speed at
which it will run.
DISPLAY DETAIL - either High or Low. When Low the scenery is not as
detailed but it speeds the game and scrolling up. Used only in the
Micro Minatures Battle.
FOG OF WAR - if set to ON the player has a far greater challenge as
enemy unit data will not appear on the small map, on View data
commands. Enemy pieces will only appear if they are in sight.
SOUND FX - toggles FX
Tunes - toggles music
STATS
Gives you the overall size of the two armies.
MAP
Allows you toggle what information is displayed on the map of the
USA, info is: city names, state names and who currently controls the
city.
WEATHER
The weather also appears on the info. bar. This gives you a fairly
good indication as to the weather should you fight a battle. Four
classifications, Dry Wet Fog and Snow. The season you are in is taken
into account when calculating the weather. The weather effects the
Micro-Minatures battle.
Beneath the bar is a scrollable map of the play area.
SCROLLING THE MAP
Besides clicking on the scroll bar and buttons, you can use the
keyboard arrow keys, page up, page down, home(page left) end (page
right). To use the scroll bar click on it, the mouse is then attached
onto the bar - move the mouse and scroll the map. Click again to
release the mouse.
You can also move the display by clicking on the little map on the
right.
PIECE INFORMATION
You move the pieces (blue for Federal, grey for Confederate) by first
selecting the piece. When selected info about the piece appears on
the right and the full name of the piece along with it's armies
commanding officer, is on the info bar - the piece is highlighted on
the map by a white square.
There are five types of piece and each side can have up to 300. The
pieces are:
Infantry Divisions (up to 96,000 men per piece)
Cavalry 'Division'
Artillery 'Division'
Train
Ship
Info' on the right covers:
type of piece - S next to indicates the piece is STACKED - this means
there are other pieces on the same square.
terrain square piece is on plus description (City, Hill Impassable)
Movement Points remaining this turn
Quality of the men
Approx. number in the Division (this is approximate as through the
passage of time you will lose men through disease, dissertion etc.
but is a close indication of how many men you will have in a fight)
Status - Ready, Moved, Fought
Special Orders - covered later
SELECTING OTHER PIECES
Either click on the plus/minus near the men to step thru your army or
if you see the piece you want just click on it. If there are several
pieces stacked (no stacking limit) just repeatedly click on the stack
until the piece you want surfaces.
If you want to find out your total army size on a 'stacked' square
click on the men button or F7.
DETAILED DIVISIONAL INFORMATION
If you want a full list of the division click on List Division. You
will get a complete list including weapons in the Division. You can
also perform some useful tasks such as:
If the Division is big - several thousands of men - you can split the
Division click on the percentage you wish to split it by.
If the Division is too small you can TRANSFER it into another
Division - note for this to happen the Divisions must be in the same
square. To perform this click on TRANSFER, then use the next and
previous buttons to move thru them until you come to the one you
want, click on YES to complete the merge. You can CANCEL the TRANSFER
by clicking on the CANCEL button.
You can also move the Division to a new Army click on CHANGE ARMY and
select the new Army from the list.
MOVING A PIECE
Having selected a piece to move, just click on the adjacent square
and the piece will move there - assuming it has the move points to
enter a square. Costs are:
Rail (on a train) - 1 else 2
Sea/River (on a ship) - 2 else impossible
Land - 2
City - 2
Hills - 4
Forest - 4
You can repeat the process until your piece has run out of points.
To help you decide whether you can move there press p or click on the
move pts button. The move points required to move your piece into the
next square will be displayed around it. An X means you cannot move
there!
If you try to move onto a square which has one of your own pieces
already on it you will get a message box asking whether you should
MOVE ON to that square (answer YES) or transfer control to the other
piece (answer NO). (This means if you just want to transfer control
to an adjacent piece you can double-click).
STARTING A BATTLE
To start a battle you should first move the pieces you want to be
involved in the battle next to the enemy piece. Then move one of them
onto the enemy piece. You will be asked to confirm the attack. If you
say yes you have the opportunity to name the battle (it defaults to
the name of a close city). Then you are asked for each adjacent piece
whether they are taking part in this battle. The micro-minatures
battle system will then take over.
If you win all enemy pieces will retreat from the square, which you
will now occupy. They retreat in the same direction that you entered
the square. If they are unable to retreat because they are
surrounded or are being forced into the sea the units will disband
and take no further part in the game -consider them to have
surrendered to you. Also if their remaining strength is low they will
also disband.
If you lose you will fall back to the square you attacked from.
The computer opponent will attack you in the same manner.
Once you have fought a battle your move points are all used up for
that turn.
BATTLE HISTORY
If you click on History you'll get a scrollable list of the last 100
battles fought in your war - you can get victor or losses. You get
total cumulative losses and losses thru disease.
SHIPS AND TRAINS
There function is mainly for transportation although they can be used
for capturing cities. If a military piece is on a square and an
unloaded train or ship is also there - the special commands will be
available if you have all your move points left. To board click on
the load Special order - you will be able to move next go. To
off-load click on the same special order - you will be able to move
away next turn.
Ships and trains can only carry one division at a time. The Union
start with more resources than the South (e.g. 3 ships to none).
Note - you can also block rail lines for two weeks by using the
Destroy railways order - an X will appear over the damaged lines.
Lines are automatically repaired after two weeks.
FORTIFICATION
If you use this order and get attacked you will find barracades
available to you in the Micro-Minatures battle.
END TURN
When finished click on end turn, the computer opponent will move and
then it will be back to you.
At the end of the year, the quality of the troops will rise to
reflect their experience. Also the weapon types and percentages will
change to reflect the advance in technology, also the Union player
will gain a further advantage as you will find that they are slightly
better armed.
RECRUITMENT
Every month more recruits become available for your use. Click on
Recruitment to use them.
The screen gives a helpful map of the play area with the cities color
coded to show who owns them - blue and grey!
You also get an organizational breakdown of your army - on the right.
Above this are the number of available recruits.
REPLENISHING EXISTING DIVISIONS
Adjust the percentage figure and click on Replenish Divs to give them
some fresh men.
CREATING NEW DIVISIONS
Click on Build Divs. Click on the arrows to create new divisions.
MENU BAR
ABOUT - version of program
EVENTS - on or off or view them all at once - at the end of every week
you will sometimes get information as to what was happening in the
actual Civil War at this time in history.
MAP - turn cities on or off.
ORGANIZATION - list of all the armies and their composition - you can
also change the armies name and leader on this screen.
TRAINING - if set to low you get recruits straight away but their
quality is low. If set to high you have to wait three months for them
but there quality is improved. (Note Confederate Cavalry
automatically arrive with a good quality).
VICTORY BAR
This tells you how you are doing. The arrow shows the trend.
GIVE ORDERS
Takes you back to the strategic display.
END GAME
At the end you will get a rating out of 100, a map of the final
position and an opportunity to see the battle history.
FIGHTING A MICRO-MINATURES BATTLE
MICRO-MINATURES BATTLE SYSTEM
This part tells you how to fight an MM battle. The battle runs in a
pseudo 'real-time'. The battle starts frozen, you issue commands and
then press 'go' - the battle runs. When you wish to issue fresh
commands you can 'freeze' the battle.
PIECES AND SCALE
Each side has up to 125 pieces. Each piece represents more than 1
actual man, the actual number varies depending the scale of the
battle being fought.
The battlefield is a rectangle of 80 by 80 squares. Each square can
hold 1 piece (no stacking). A square normally represents approx.
100x100 yards, however this can change if the scale of the battle is
particularly large.
PIECE TYPES
Three types - infantry, cavalry and artillery.
ARMY CONTROL
To help speed movement of the pieces, you can give move commands at
three levels. The highest is ALL, which means the move will apply to
every piece in your army. The middle is GROUP. Any number/type of
pieces can be placed in the same group. In this mode any move command
applied to a group member will also be carried out by it's fellow
group members. The last is SINGLE, here you control each piece
individually.
TERRAIN
Type Move Effect Combat Effect
grass None None
river Slows Reduces success
trees None increases defence
hill crests Slows increases defence/attack
barracades Slows increases defence
The battlefield is computer generated. The preset battle that is
given away with the product will not - it will be 'hand-crafted' for
accuracy.
MAIN SCREEN LAYOUT
The top bar is for menu selection plus the date. The second line
gives information such as the name of the battle and what the weather
is like. You can click on the name of the battle and edit it.
The left hand side displays a portion of the battlefield. The scroll
bars move you around the field. The right hand side gives you
information on the piece you have control over and has the command
buttons.
The piece currently selected appears with a white rectangle around it
on the battle window. A white cross will appear to show where the
piece is moving to.
Piece information is:
Type of piece and number (every piece has a unique number)
Weapon
Quality (how good the unit is - increased by training and experience)
Morale
Men - how many soldiers the piece represents
Group - which control group it's assigned to
Attack - how good at hand to hand combat when attacking
Defence - how good at hand to hand combat when defending
Firepower - how powerful the weapon is
Current Orders
PLAYING THE GAME
Two steps:
1. With the game paused issue commands
2. Start the game by pressing PLAY
3. When you wish to stop the 'real-time' action click on the E for
EXIT
Repeat the steps until the battle ends.
LOADING/SAVING AND EXITING
Click on File on the Menu bar.
Select Save to save a game (extension is .SAV).
Select Load to load in a saved game.
Restart - restarts a game.
Exit to DOS - need we say more...
AUTOSAVE FUNCTION
As the games run the game will be saved silently in background as
AUTOSAVE.SAV. This can be switched off from the load/save panels.
CONTROL MODES
To select which control mode click either on Single Group or All in
the Mode box. (key m cycles thru them).
PIECE INFORMATION
If you wish to see info. on all of the troops on display in the
battle window click on View and then select which data you want to
see displayed. It appears above the pieces head.
Hot icon short cuts are available use the A,D,F,G,M, and Men buttons.
Note for Morale, 0 is very low, 4 is very high.
OVERVIEW
This options displays a map which covers the entire battlefield. You
can either see a display of the armies on a black background or a
terrain map showing the river and hill ranges (trees also appear as
light green dots). You can move the battle window around by clicking
on the small map.
SELECTING TROOPS
You can select troops by either clicking on the + and - icons to step
thru them or double-click on the unit in the window. Note you should
click on the head of the infantry man. For the other pieces click on
the top left. If you need help press g or click on the white box
which meets the two scroll bars. A GRID will appear over the screen
to aid selection.
MOVING TROOPS
To move just click on the window where you want the piece currently
selected to go. If you are in group mode his fellow group members
will also move the same relative amount. If in all mode - everyone
will move.
Cavalry move at double speed. All pieces are slowed by rivers (not
bridges) hill crests and baracades.
MOVING THE DISPLAY WINDOW
Several ways, I recommend the keyboard
arrow keys - 1 square in the direction of the arrow
page up - moves up half a screen
page down - moves down half a screen
home - moves left half a screen
end - moves right half a screen
I next recommend clicking on the little green map - the white
rectangle shows the area that is currently displayed in the battle
window - to move the display.
Other ways:
- click on the arrows on the scroll bar
- click in-between the bar on the scroll bar
- click on the bar (the mouse will attach itself to the bar as you
move the mouse the screen display will scroll - click the mouse again
to detach the mouse).
STOPPING TROOP MOVEMENT
Troops will stop when they reach their target or if they get involved
in hand to hand combat (after the fight they will continue on).
Troops will not leave the battlefield.
TROOP FORMATIONS
When in group mode you can get the current group to move into a
set military formation. Just use the arrows on the first formation
icon to set whether it's row or column or diagonal, then set the
second icon for whether they end in a single tight line or double
tight line or single skirmish (spread out) or double skirmish or
square.
TROOP FACING
When the group is in it's final location you may wish to tidy up the
way the group is facing - just use the formation icon on the right.
CHANGING GROUPS
The purpose of groups is to enable the player to reduce the number of
commands they have to give to get their men to move. So by grouping
troops together that have the same mission/destination you will
reduce the number of orders you give.
The first way to change a pieces group is to set the mode to single
man mode then you can then use the arrows by the side of the group to
reallocate the piece. (There are 50 groups available).
LISTING GROUPS
If you wish to merge a whole group into another do it using list
groups - this also gives nice group info. Select LIST GROUPS use NEXT
and PREVIOUS to move thru the groups until the one you want to
disband appears. Press Transfer. Use NEXT and PREVIOUS to move to the
one you wish to move the group to, when ready hit YES to transfer the
group. Hit CANCEL at any time to exit the TRANSFER procedure.
HAND TO HAND COMBAT
When two opposing pieces meet a fight ensues. The outcome depends on:
the advancing units attack-strength
the defending units defence-strength
the number of men in each piece
the terrain the two pieces are on
the quality of the two troops
the morale of the two troops
the number of other enemy/friendly troops immediately around
whether the piece has orders to fire (this hampers hand to hand
combat)
The result will generally result in the loss of troops on both of the
fighters with the losing troop retreating or being removed from the
battlefield.
ORDERS ENGAGE
Normally attacks by your troops will only happen if you order them by
movement however you can set the Engage Order from ON COMMAND (which
means you have to move the troops) to AT WILL whereby your troops
will automatically engage any enemy troops near (7 squares) them.
ORDERS FIRING
There are three settings:
Hold - no firing (helps in hand to hand combat)
At Targets - will only fire in the direction that the piece is
currently facing (enables controlled fire)
At Will - will fire at anything within range
EFFECTIVE RANGE
This depends on the weapon the unit has:
WEAPON RANGE IN SQUARES
Flintlock 1,
Musket 2,
Harpers Ferry 4,
Springfield 5,
Remington 6,
Enfield 5,
Lorenz 5,
Sharps 7,
Henry 6,
Spencer 6,
Colt 5,
Enfield Car. 4,
Sharps Car. 5,
Spencer Car. 4,
Sabre 0,
12p Howitzer 11,
24p Howitzer 13,
6p Smoothbore 15,
12p Smoothbore 17,
Rodman 27,
10p Parrott 29,
12p James 17,
12p Blakely 17,
12p Whitworth 88,
20p Parrott 44
SPECIAL CAVALRY RULES
When the piece selected is a Cavalry piece, additional commands are
available. Use the arrows that appear by the type data on the right
to dismount and then remount, or to change their weapon from sabre to
firearm and vice versa.
GAME OPTIONS
MAP SCROLL - the speed at which the map will scroll (10 is best)
GAME SPEED - when the battle is running the speed at which it will
run. Note on a DX2 66MHz - no local bus it runs slightly too fast -
alright if you want to play ARCADE COMMANDO but too fast if you want
to think about what's happening and have a chance to react. (10 is
best)
DISPLAY DETAIL - either High or Low. When Low the scenery is not as
detailed but it speeds the game and scrolling up.
FOG OF WAR - if set to ON the player has a far greater challenge as
enemy unit data will not appear on the small map, on View data
commands. Enemy pieces will only appear if they are in sight. The
distance you will be able to see will vary with the weather.
SOUND FX - toggles FX
Tunes - toggles music
UNIFORM - the human player can have up to three uniforms on the
battlefield, this option allows you to set uniforms 2 and 3. (Uniform
1 is always the same standard traditional uniform). The uniforms only
effect infantry - but are used to show who has what weapon.
STATS
Shows how the battle is progressing gives you by piece type the
number of men and pieces active (available for action) and lost.
BATTLEMODE
Pressing play enters battlemode. During this period to exit click on
the E (for exit key e also works). You can scroll the screen either
by using the keyboard as mentioned before or by moving the mouse over
one of the directional arrows - there is no need to click on them (as
you'll be doing a lot of scrolling this will save your finger).
ENDING THE BATTLE
The battle ends when either side has lost more than 50 percent of
their original starting force. Alternatively a side may retreat
before this happens.
RETREAT
This allows you to withdraw from the battlefield.
AUTOPLAY
This will quickly resolve the battle for you and give you the result.
KEYBOARD COMMANDS
Besides the ones indicated on the main screen by underscores etc.
there are:
c- center screen
g- display grid
F1- display attack data
F2- display defence data
F3- display firepower
F4- display group number
F5- display morale
F6- display overview map
F7- display number of men
END OF DOCUMENT
You control either the Federal(Blue) or Confederate(Gray) army
starting in July 1861. You have four years to defeat the other side
by capturing the opposition's cities and defeating him in battle. Play
takes place at a high level where you move counters/armies around in
a turn base game. When the two forces meet a micro minatures battle
takes place with the result feeding back up to the high level.
CONTROL
Use the mouse, select items by using the left button. Keyboard
support is also available - just press the first letter of the
command word, if it differs the letter you need to press is
underlined. The game MUST HAVE a mouse to play.
SETTING UP THE GAME
After the title screen, click the mouse to skip, select which type of
game you wish to play. Either STANDARD - the full civil war, LOAD in
a saved game or load in a historical battle (the First Bull Run is
included with the initial game).
You then decide whether to play the Federal (Union) or the
Confederate side.
AIM OF THE GAME
For victory the Confederate player must move the victory bar to the
'F' end before the game ends (April 1865 - the economic strength of
the Union is assumed to have won). This takes 80 points, points are
earned as follows:
Each battle won +1
Each battle lost -1
Each city captured or retaken +3
Each city lost -3
Washington or Richmond taken +10
Washington or Richmond lost -10
The Federal either holds out or moves the bar to the C.
In addition a rating out of 100 is given so when replaying you have a
target to aim for.
The Confederate side has the harder task to achieve victory, but it
is not impossible in this game.
GAME PLAY
The game is turn based and each turn represents a week. You start in
July 1861 with the Confederate army having a slightly larger starting
force (the Union has been reduced as in reality not all of their men
were available - they did have the west to look after!). After each
Confederate turn the week ends.
Whether you play the Federal or Confederate army you always get the
advantage of moving first.
THE MAIN DISPLAY - THE STRATEGIC SCREEN
You get a menu bar with the date and the following options:
ABOUT
Shows game version number.
FILE
Allows you to save the game or load in another or RESTART the game or
EXIT TO DOS.
GAME OPTIONS
MAP SCROLL - the speed at which the map will scroll (10 is best)
GAME SPEED - when the Micro-Minatures battle is running the speed at
which it will run.
DISPLAY DETAIL - either High or Low. When Low the scenery is not as
detailed but it speeds the game and scrolling up. Used only in the
Micro Minatures Battle.
FOG OF WAR - if set to ON the player has a far greater challenge as
enemy unit data will not appear on the small map, on View data
commands. Enemy pieces will only appear if they are in sight.
SOUND FX - toggles FX
Tunes - toggles music
STATS
Gives you the overall size of the two armies.
MAP
Allows you toggle what information is displayed on the map of the
USA, info is: city names, state names and who currently controls the
city.
WEATHER
The weather also appears on the info. bar. This gives you a fairly
good indication as to the weather should you fight a battle. Four
classifications, Dry Wet Fog and Snow. The season you are in is taken
into account when calculating the weather. The weather effects the
Micro-Minatures battle.
Beneath the bar is a scrollable map of the play area.
SCROLLING THE MAP
Besides clicking on the scroll bar and buttons, you can use the
keyboard arrow keys, page up, page down, home(page left) end (page
right). To use the scroll bar click on it, the mouse is then attached
onto the bar - move the mouse and scroll the map. Click again to
release the mouse.
You can also move the display by clicking on the little map on the
right.
PIECE INFORMATION
You move the pieces (blue for Federal, grey for Confederate) by first
selecting the piece. When selected info about the piece appears on
the right and the full name of the piece along with it's armies
commanding officer, is on the info bar - the piece is highlighted on
the map by a white square.
There are five types of piece and each side can have up to 300. The
pieces are:
Infantry Divisions (up to 96,000 men per piece)
Cavalry 'Division'
Artillery 'Division'
Train
Ship
Info' on the right covers:
type of piece - S next to indicates the piece is STACKED - this means
there are other pieces on the same square.
terrain square piece is on plus description (City, Hill Impassable)
Movement Points remaining this turn
Quality of the men
Approx. number in the Division (this is approximate as through the
passage of time you will lose men through disease, dissertion etc.
but is a close indication of how many men you will have in a fight)
Status - Ready, Moved, Fought
Special Orders - covered later
SELECTING OTHER PIECES
Either click on the plus/minus near the men to step thru your army or
if you see the piece you want just click on it. If there are several
pieces stacked (no stacking limit) just repeatedly click on the stack
until the piece you want surfaces.
If you want to find out your total army size on a 'stacked' square
click on the men button or F7.
DETAILED DIVISIONAL INFORMATION
If you want a full list of the division click on List Division. You
will get a complete list including weapons in the Division. You can
also perform some useful tasks such as:
If the Division is big - several thousands of men - you can split the
Division click on the percentage you wish to split it by.
If the Division is too small you can TRANSFER it into another
Division - note for this to happen the Divisions must be in the same
square. To perform this click on TRANSFER, then use the next and
previous buttons to move thru them until you come to the one you
want, click on YES to complete the merge. You can CANCEL the TRANSFER
by clicking on the CANCEL button.
You can also move the Division to a new Army click on CHANGE ARMY and
select the new Army from the list.
MOVING A PIECE
Having selected a piece to move, just click on the adjacent square
and the piece will move there - assuming it has the move points to
enter a square. Costs are:
Rail (on a train) - 1 else 2
Sea/River (on a ship) - 2 else impossible
Land - 2
City - 2
Hills - 4
Forest - 4
You can repeat the process until your piece has run out of points.
To help you decide whether you can move there press p or click on the
move pts button. The move points required to move your piece into the
next square will be displayed around it. An X means you cannot move
there!
If you try to move onto a square which has one of your own pieces
already on it you will get a message box asking whether you should
MOVE ON to that square (answer YES) or transfer control to the other
piece (answer NO). (This means if you just want to transfer control
to an adjacent piece you can double-click).
STARTING A BATTLE
To start a battle you should first move the pieces you want to be
involved in the battle next to the enemy piece. Then move one of them
onto the enemy piece. You will be asked to confirm the attack. If you
say yes you have the opportunity to name the battle (it defaults to
the name of a close city). Then you are asked for each adjacent piece
whether they are taking part in this battle. The micro-minatures
battle system will then take over.
If you win all enemy pieces will retreat from the square, which you
will now occupy. They retreat in the same direction that you entered
the square. If they are unable to retreat because they are
surrounded or are being forced into the sea the units will disband
and take no further part in the game -consider them to have
surrendered to you. Also if their remaining strength is low they will
also disband.
If you lose you will fall back to the square you attacked from.
The computer opponent will attack you in the same manner.
Once you have fought a battle your move points are all used up for
that turn.
BATTLE HISTORY
If you click on History you'll get a scrollable list of the last 100
battles fought in your war - you can get victor or losses. You get
total cumulative losses and losses thru disease.
SHIPS AND TRAINS
There function is mainly for transportation although they can be used
for capturing cities. If a military piece is on a square and an
unloaded train or ship is also there - the special commands will be
available if you have all your move points left. To board click on
the load Special order - you will be able to move next go. To
off-load click on the same special order - you will be able to move
away next turn.
Ships and trains can only carry one division at a time. The Union
start with more resources than the South (e.g. 3 ships to none).
Note - you can also block rail lines for two weeks by using the
Destroy railways order - an X will appear over the damaged lines.
Lines are automatically repaired after two weeks.
FORTIFICATION
If you use this order and get attacked you will find barracades
available to you in the Micro-Minatures battle.
END TURN
When finished click on end turn, the computer opponent will move and
then it will be back to you.
At the end of the year, the quality of the troops will rise to
reflect their experience. Also the weapon types and percentages will
change to reflect the advance in technology, also the Union player
will gain a further advantage as you will find that they are slightly
better armed.
RECRUITMENT
Every month more recruits become available for your use. Click on
Recruitment to use them.
The screen gives a helpful map of the play area with the cities color
coded to show who owns them - blue and grey!
You also get an organizational breakdown of your army - on the right.
Above this are the number of available recruits.
REPLENISHING EXISTING DIVISIONS
Adjust the percentage figure and click on Replenish Divs to give them
some fresh men.
CREATING NEW DIVISIONS
Click on Build Divs. Click on the arrows to create new divisions.
MENU BAR
ABOUT - version of program
EVENTS - on or off or view them all at once - at the end of every week
you will sometimes get information as to what was happening in the
actual Civil War at this time in history.
MAP - turn cities on or off.
ORGANIZATION - list of all the armies and their composition - you can
also change the armies name and leader on this screen.
TRAINING - if set to low you get recruits straight away but their
quality is low. If set to high you have to wait three months for them
but there quality is improved. (Note Confederate Cavalry
automatically arrive with a good quality).
VICTORY BAR
This tells you how you are doing. The arrow shows the trend.
GIVE ORDERS
Takes you back to the strategic display.
END GAME
At the end you will get a rating out of 100, a map of the final
position and an opportunity to see the battle history.
FIGHTING A MICRO-MINATURES BATTLE
MICRO-MINATURES BATTLE SYSTEM
This part tells you how to fight an MM battle. The battle runs in a
pseudo 'real-time'. The battle starts frozen, you issue commands and
then press 'go' - the battle runs. When you wish to issue fresh
commands you can 'freeze' the battle.
PIECES AND SCALE
Each side has up to 125 pieces. Each piece represents more than 1
actual man, the actual number varies depending the scale of the
battle being fought.
The battlefield is a rectangle of 80 by 80 squares. Each square can
hold 1 piece (no stacking). A square normally represents approx.
100x100 yards, however this can change if the scale of the battle is
particularly large.
PIECE TYPES
Three types - infantry, cavalry and artillery.
ARMY CONTROL
To help speed movement of the pieces, you can give move commands at
three levels. The highest is ALL, which means the move will apply to
every piece in your army. The middle is GROUP. Any number/type of
pieces can be placed in the same group. In this mode any move command
applied to a group member will also be carried out by it's fellow
group members. The last is SINGLE, here you control each piece
individually.
TERRAIN
Type Move Effect Combat Effect
grass None None
river Slows Reduces success
trees None increases defence
hill crests Slows increases defence/attack
barracades Slows increases defence
The battlefield is computer generated. The preset battle that is
given away with the product will not - it will be 'hand-crafted' for
accuracy.
MAIN SCREEN LAYOUT
The top bar is for menu selection plus the date. The second line
gives information such as the name of the battle and what the weather
is like. You can click on the name of the battle and edit it.
The left hand side displays a portion of the battlefield. The scroll
bars move you around the field. The right hand side gives you
information on the piece you have control over and has the command
buttons.
The piece currently selected appears with a white rectangle around it
on the battle window. A white cross will appear to show where the
piece is moving to.
Piece information is:
Type of piece and number (every piece has a unique number)
Weapon
Quality (how good the unit is - increased by training and experience)
Morale
Men - how many soldiers the piece represents
Group - which control group it's assigned to
Attack - how good at hand to hand combat when attacking
Defence - how good at hand to hand combat when defending
Firepower - how powerful the weapon is
Current Orders
PLAYING THE GAME
Two steps:
1. With the game paused issue commands
2. Start the game by pressing PLAY
3. When you wish to stop the 'real-time' action click on the E for
EXIT
Repeat the steps until the battle ends.
LOADING/SAVING AND EXITING
Click on File on the Menu bar.
Select Save to save a game (extension is .SAV).
Select Load to load in a saved game.
Restart - restarts a game.
Exit to DOS - need we say more...
AUTOSAVE FUNCTION
As the games run the game will be saved silently in background as
AUTOSAVE.SAV. This can be switched off from the load/save panels.
CONTROL MODES
To select which control mode click either on Single Group or All in
the Mode box. (key m cycles thru them).
PIECE INFORMATION
If you wish to see info. on all of the troops on display in the
battle window click on View and then select which data you want to
see displayed. It appears above the pieces head.
Hot icon short cuts are available use the A,D,F,G,M, and Men buttons.
Note for Morale, 0 is very low, 4 is very high.
OVERVIEW
This options displays a map which covers the entire battlefield. You
can either see a display of the armies on a black background or a
terrain map showing the river and hill ranges (trees also appear as
light green dots). You can move the battle window around by clicking
on the small map.
SELECTING TROOPS
You can select troops by either clicking on the + and - icons to step
thru them or double-click on the unit in the window. Note you should
click on the head of the infantry man. For the other pieces click on
the top left. If you need help press g or click on the white box
which meets the two scroll bars. A GRID will appear over the screen
to aid selection.
MOVING TROOPS
To move just click on the window where you want the piece currently
selected to go. If you are in group mode his fellow group members
will also move the same relative amount. If in all mode - everyone
will move.
Cavalry move at double speed. All pieces are slowed by rivers (not
bridges) hill crests and baracades.
MOVING THE DISPLAY WINDOW
Several ways, I recommend the keyboard
arrow keys - 1 square in the direction of the arrow
page up - moves up half a screen
page down - moves down half a screen
home - moves left half a screen
end - moves right half a screen
I next recommend clicking on the little green map - the white
rectangle shows the area that is currently displayed in the battle
window - to move the display.
Other ways:
- click on the arrows on the scroll bar
- click in-between the bar on the scroll bar
- click on the bar (the mouse will attach itself to the bar as you
move the mouse the screen display will scroll - click the mouse again
to detach the mouse).
STOPPING TROOP MOVEMENT
Troops will stop when they reach their target or if they get involved
in hand to hand combat (after the fight they will continue on).
Troops will not leave the battlefield.
TROOP FORMATIONS
When in group mode you can get the current group to move into a
set military formation. Just use the arrows on the first formation
icon to set whether it's row or column or diagonal, then set the
second icon for whether they end in a single tight line or double
tight line or single skirmish (spread out) or double skirmish or
square.
TROOP FACING
When the group is in it's final location you may wish to tidy up the
way the group is facing - just use the formation icon on the right.
CHANGING GROUPS
The purpose of groups is to enable the player to reduce the number of
commands they have to give to get their men to move. So by grouping
troops together that have the same mission/destination you will
reduce the number of orders you give.
The first way to change a pieces group is to set the mode to single
man mode then you can then use the arrows by the side of the group to
reallocate the piece. (There are 50 groups available).
LISTING GROUPS
If you wish to merge a whole group into another do it using list
groups - this also gives nice group info. Select LIST GROUPS use NEXT
and PREVIOUS to move thru the groups until the one you want to
disband appears. Press Transfer. Use NEXT and PREVIOUS to move to the
one you wish to move the group to, when ready hit YES to transfer the
group. Hit CANCEL at any time to exit the TRANSFER procedure.
HAND TO HAND COMBAT
When two opposing pieces meet a fight ensues. The outcome depends on:
the advancing units attack-strength
the defending units defence-strength
the number of men in each piece
the terrain the two pieces are on
the quality of the two troops
the morale of the two troops
the number of other enemy/friendly troops immediately around
whether the piece has orders to fire (this hampers hand to hand
combat)
The result will generally result in the loss of troops on both of the
fighters with the losing troop retreating or being removed from the
battlefield.
ORDERS ENGAGE
Normally attacks by your troops will only happen if you order them by
movement however you can set the Engage Order from ON COMMAND (which
means you have to move the troops) to AT WILL whereby your troops
will automatically engage any enemy troops near (7 squares) them.
ORDERS FIRING
There are three settings:
Hold - no firing (helps in hand to hand combat)
At Targets - will only fire in the direction that the piece is
currently facing (enables controlled fire)
At Will - will fire at anything within range
EFFECTIVE RANGE
This depends on the weapon the unit has:
WEAPON RANGE IN SQUARES
Flintlock 1,
Musket 2,
Harpers Ferry 4,
Springfield 5,
Remington 6,
Enfield 5,
Lorenz 5,
Sharps 7,
Henry 6,
Spencer 6,
Colt 5,
Enfield Car. 4,
Sharps Car. 5,
Spencer Car. 4,
Sabre 0,
12p Howitzer 11,
24p Howitzer 13,
6p Smoothbore 15,
12p Smoothbore 17,
Rodman 27,
10p Parrott 29,
12p James 17,
12p Blakely 17,
12p Whitworth 88,
20p Parrott 44
SPECIAL CAVALRY RULES
When the piece selected is a Cavalry piece, additional commands are
available. Use the arrows that appear by the type data on the right
to dismount and then remount, or to change their weapon from sabre to
firearm and vice versa.
GAME OPTIONS
MAP SCROLL - the speed at which the map will scroll (10 is best)
GAME SPEED - when the battle is running the speed at which it will
run. Note on a DX2 66MHz - no local bus it runs slightly too fast -
alright if you want to play ARCADE COMMANDO but too fast if you want
to think about what's happening and have a chance to react. (10 is
best)
DISPLAY DETAIL - either High or Low. When Low the scenery is not as
detailed but it speeds the game and scrolling up.
FOG OF WAR - if set to ON the player has a far greater challenge as
enemy unit data will not appear on the small map, on View data
commands. Enemy pieces will only appear if they are in sight. The
distance you will be able to see will vary with the weather.
SOUND FX - toggles FX
Tunes - toggles music
UNIFORM - the human player can have up to three uniforms on the
battlefield, this option allows you to set uniforms 2 and 3. (Uniform
1 is always the same standard traditional uniform). The uniforms only
effect infantry - but are used to show who has what weapon.
STATS
Shows how the battle is progressing gives you by piece type the
number of men and pieces active (available for action) and lost.
BATTLEMODE
Pressing play enters battlemode. During this period to exit click on
the E (for exit key e also works). You can scroll the screen either
by using the keyboard as mentioned before or by moving the mouse over
one of the directional arrows - there is no need to click on them (as
you'll be doing a lot of scrolling this will save your finger).
ENDING THE BATTLE
The battle ends when either side has lost more than 50 percent of
their original starting force. Alternatively a side may retreat
before this happens.
RETREAT
This allows you to withdraw from the battlefield.
AUTOPLAY
This will quickly resolve the battle for you and give you the result.
KEYBOARD COMMANDS
Besides the ones indicated on the main screen by underscores etc.
there are:
c- center screen
g- display grid
F1- display attack data
F2- display defence data
F3- display firepower
F4- display group number
F5- display morale
F6- display overview map
F7- display number of men
END OF DOCUMENT