THE WARGAME V.1 Copyright W.Jordan 1991 All Rights Reserved Melbourne Australia Requires 1 Meg Wargame is a multiplayer game. You may have up to 5 human or computer opponents. You can even create a demonstration game by setting 6 computer opponents against each other. If you wish, you can choose a player name for each player (probably only for the human players). Pressing the return key without typing anything will select the default name. Each turn represents a year. The game starts in 1901. To eliminate a player from the game capture all their territory. The last remaining player is the winner. Generally you will use the mouse to play the game, but in some cases you will need to type something, in which case you can edit your input with the backspace key and follow up by pressing the return key. MAP Wargame is played on a map loosely based on Europe, divided by a square grid. Every second row of squares is shifted one square to the left, so that each square has 6 squares adjacent to it, like a hexagonal grid. Each square is called an area. Different types of terrain are represented by different colours. These are: TYPE PROD COLOUR DEFENCE Desert 1 Yellow X1 Mountain 2 Brown X3 Forest 3 Dark green X3 Arable 4 Light green X2 City 5 Grey X3 Sea Impassable by land units UNITS There are 3 classes of units, each including 3 types of units. They are LAND Infantry Calvary Artillery AIR Fighter Bomber Airdefence SEA Navy Submarine Merchants Land units are represented on the map. Several different types may be in the same square. There is no limit to the number of units in a square. All units in a square are involved in combat in that square. There are no units at the start of the game, though each player begins with one controlled territory. The names of the different types of units will change as their TECH level increases. SYMBOLS Symbols give some indication as to which is the most numerous land unit in a square. This is basically a limited intelligence game, and you will not get any really useful information until you attack a unit. A cross represents infantry A slash represents calvary A dot represents artillery A blank square means there is no dominant type. TECHNOLOGY Each turn, each player increases their tech level by 1 point in any field they wish. This makes it possible to develop any type of army that you want. A tech level cannot exceed 6. A units combat strength is multiplied by its tech level. Note that tech levels begin at zero, hence you cannot use a unit in combat till it has a tech level of at least one. INCOME Each turn a player recieves production points based on the amount of territory and type of owned. Any merchant ships you own will add 1 production point each unless you are blockaded by an opponent's navy. The merchant ship bonus cannot exceed your territorial income. Merchant ships are not effected by bombing. Merchant ship TECH level does not effect their income. A bombing attack may have reduced your income, but by not more than half. PRODUCTION Costs to build are 1 point for each type of unit. Only the land units, infantry, calvary and artillery are represented on the map. Other units are represented abstractly offmap. You may buy as many types and numbers of units as you can afford. You may save money till a later turn, though you will generally wish to spend all your money. You do not need to build units of the type you added the TECH point to. SUBMARINE If you have any submarines, you may elect to attack an opponent's merchant fleet. Combat is attrition. These merchants have escorts! The combat strength of the merchant fleet is TECH level X merchants. If the merchant fleet TECH level is 0, then no submarines will be sunk. A merchant fleet can be attacked by any number of submarine fleets in a turn. NAVY If you have a surface fleet you may attack an opponent's surface fleet. Combat is attrition. The largest fleet may blockade another player and prevent them from using any merchant ships for that turn. A naval fleet cannot directly destroy merchant ships. FIGHTERS If you have any fighters you may attack an opponent's fighters. Any of your surviving aircraft can be used in air ground support. Fighters can be used in any number of attacks, but only against the same player. Each fighter has a strength of 5! Fighters can be attacked by any number of players in a turn. BOMBERS If you have any bombers you may bomb an opponent. After attrition with their air defences you may reduce their production by up to half. A player can be bombed by any number of players in a turn. REINFORCEMENTS To choose an arrival point for your reinforcements, click on a friendly square. Your forces will be displayed. By clicking on different squares you can see where your forces are. By clicking on a square twice you will confirm that square as your arrival point. Spaces unoccuppied at the start of a game will contain a neutral army which cannot move or attack, equal to the value of the terrain. These areas cannot be occuppied until the neutral force has been eliminated. MOVEMENT In each turn, a human player chooses where to attack by first clicking on the area to attack from and then clicking on an adjacent area. You may keep attacking as long as you are sucessful. To end your turn click on any sea area. A requester will then appear asking whether you wish to end your turn or not. An unsucessful attack will end your turn. Clicking on a non-adjacent square will display information on the type of terrain in that square. Clicking on a non-sea square more than 1 square away will display some details about that type of terrain. Clicking again will continue the game. If you have captured a territory, forces roughly equal to the value of the terrain of where you attacked from are left behind. It is possible to control a square without having any units in it at all. You may exchange friendly forces by attacking a friendly square that is adjacent. You may do this any number of times during a turn. You may not move into the sea. COMBAT Combat strength is decided as follows: attacking infantry X 2 defending infantry X 2 attacking calvary X 3 defending calvary X 1 attacking artillery X 1 defending artillery X 3 Plus the number of attacking supporting aircraft. All the above values are multiplied by their respective tech levels. If you have two types of land units involved your combat strength is doubled, while if you have three types involved your combat strength is tripled. The defender is tripled if defending in city, mountain or forest and doubled in arable. Combat is random, but effected by combat strengths. Losses are split evenly by type. Generally you do not know the composition of opponent forces in an area until you attack them. TIPS There is some chance in the combat, but as the setup is randomly determined, some setups are much worse than others, especially with many computer opponents. If you are playing solo against the computer, reduce or increase the number of opponents depending on whether you are winning or not. You might like to control several players against the computer. With several `human' players, you might like to add a couple of computer players. Computer players tend to attack whoever is winning. You begin weak, and sometimes will not be able to capture a single neutral area. If possible attack neutral desert, mountain or forest, as these are defended with fewer points. (To check the value of terrain, click on a square more than one square from your attacking force.) Within a few turns you should be able to Risk-like steamroller a few neutrals, and later in the game, you may well steamroller most of the map in a single turn. You don't always need to be in a hurry to eliminate a player, as you have more tech points to capture if you wait, particuarly if they are choosing different tech points than you. Each turn distribute your tech point carefully, you only get one! You will probably want to spend all your money and build up your land forces before you concentrate on other types. Sometimes you will not build any units of the type you have increased the tech level of. Calvary units are very strong offensively, but are highly vulnerable to counterattack. Artillery are the opposite, while infantry are good all rounders. A combination of all 3 land types is often the most effective because combat strength is multiplied by the number of type of units. It may sometimes pay to conserve strength by limiting your attacks, particuarly if you can set up strong defensive points in strategic positions. Some turns you may not wish to do any land attacks, but concentrate on using your air and sea forces. (End a turn by clicking in the sea.) Redeploy large forces by `attacking your own squares'. Very quickly you can move forces that were left behind, to the front line. (While a computer player is doing this, there may be some delay. This is shown by some flickering colours.) Merchants can greatly increase your income, but are very vulnerable to submarines. Building a navy as well as submarines allows you to hit two merchant fleets in one turn. Remember, one ship is all that is needed to blockade a merchant fleet. Bombers can greatly weaken an opponent, but are not that effective until their tech level is about 3 or more and are perhaps best built later in the game. Build air defences in anticipation of a bombing attack. A strong air defence can defeat several waves of bombers. Fighters are very powerful, but cannot occupy territory. They should help break even the toughest defence, but are perhaps best built later in the game. **************************************************************************** THE WARGAME is an original game, but with features from some other games such as RISK and DIPLOMACY. This version of WARGAME is limited in its number of turns. This should give you a good opportunity to see whether the game appeals to you. You still will be able to finish some games within this turn limit. I intend to polish up a few minor things, plus add some pictures and possibly some sound. For the complete (and latest) version send $25 to the below address. Or alternatively, give me some feedback on the game. Feel free to ask any questions about the rules etc. It was written over a period of about six months and has undergone considerable playtesting. For enquiries: W.Jordan 25 King William St Fitzroy, Vic 3065 (03)417-3521 Australia **************************************************************************** This program was compiled with AC/BASIC copyright Absoft Corp.1988 ****************************************************************************