How It Works
Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:33 am
Starting this thred to collect all bits of information about gameplay present here and there.
Tamas explained how the battle screen worked in a AAR
Lets stop at this screenshot, and let me explain battles for you a little.
This is the screen which opens up for every battle. You can see it is a minor battle because only the left half of the main part is used. When both sides has 4 units or more at the start of the battle, it becomes a major battle, and the area with red crosses also get used. Those are basically two parallel battles, but they do add complexity because you have to allocate your units for one of the sub-battles, and get a "flanked" penalty for the 2nd battle if you lose the 1st.
So, as you see, each unit has 3 attributes, which are pretty straigthforward: attack, defense, movement. Similarly important are the little flags because these show you the morale and training level of the unit. For example, the yellow ones are active duty soldiers, grey are reserve conscripts, etc.
The orange flag means an elite unit . Yellows are veterans (soldiers which were about at the end of their military service and/or units with considerable experience), greys are conscripted reserves which received training. There are also purple ones which are the normal active duty units, and whites, which are the conscripts hurried into battle without proper training. (yes, the artillery also has a white flag but support units do not participate in the battle the way regular units do, so color of flag is of no significance)
You can also see the nationality of the unit, when it is applicable, ie. it is not the "native" of his army. This does have consequenes, in form of morale check modifiers. For example, as the Dual Monarchy, you want to avoid sending your Slav conscripts against the Russians or Serbs, since their morale is low enough even without them being forced to shoot at their fellow Slavs.
But, as Germany, you want to send your Bavarians against France, and Saxons against Russia.
You may have noticed, that the artillery has no combat values. Thats because the arty units provide a substantial advantage in form of column shifts on the CRT (combat resolution table). It is decisive to have this advantage (to have artillery while your enemy does not). However, each round of combat where you have an artillery unit costs one ammunition. Ammunition gets scarce around the end of 1914, and during big fights in trench warfare, it just melts away.
The "Reserve" also worth mentioning: these are with your HQ unit, which can provide them to the battle if within range. It is wise to have your artillery as HQ reserves, most of the time.
The attacker's strength is put against the defender's, and after all modifiers (artillery, terrain, events, etc), you get a result. The simplest loss flips your unit. However, in case of a bigger loss, or a flipped unit suffering one, there is need for a morale check. The morale check can have different results, from removing your unit for a single combat round, through removing it for the entire combat or turn, to downright elimination, or the dreaded Panic, in which case the routing unit's panic spreads to your whole force and they run.
So these are the basics of combat, now lets get back to the war!
Tamas explained how the battle screen worked in a AAR
Lets stop at this screenshot, and let me explain battles for you a little.
This is the screen which opens up for every battle. You can see it is a minor battle because only the left half of the main part is used. When both sides has 4 units or more at the start of the battle, it becomes a major battle, and the area with red crosses also get used. Those are basically two parallel battles, but they do add complexity because you have to allocate your units for one of the sub-battles, and get a "flanked" penalty for the 2nd battle if you lose the 1st.
So, as you see, each unit has 3 attributes, which are pretty straigthforward: attack, defense, movement. Similarly important are the little flags because these show you the morale and training level of the unit. For example, the yellow ones are active duty soldiers, grey are reserve conscripts, etc.
The orange flag means an elite unit . Yellows are veterans (soldiers which were about at the end of their military service and/or units with considerable experience), greys are conscripted reserves which received training. There are also purple ones which are the normal active duty units, and whites, which are the conscripts hurried into battle without proper training. (yes, the artillery also has a white flag but support units do not participate in the battle the way regular units do, so color of flag is of no significance)
You can also see the nationality of the unit, when it is applicable, ie. it is not the "native" of his army. This does have consequenes, in form of morale check modifiers. For example, as the Dual Monarchy, you want to avoid sending your Slav conscripts against the Russians or Serbs, since their morale is low enough even without them being forced to shoot at their fellow Slavs.
But, as Germany, you want to send your Bavarians against France, and Saxons against Russia.
You may have noticed, that the artillery has no combat values. Thats because the arty units provide a substantial advantage in form of column shifts on the CRT (combat resolution table). It is decisive to have this advantage (to have artillery while your enemy does not). However, each round of combat where you have an artillery unit costs one ammunition. Ammunition gets scarce around the end of 1914, and during big fights in trench warfare, it just melts away.
The "Reserve" also worth mentioning: these are with your HQ unit, which can provide them to the battle if within range. It is wise to have your artillery as HQ reserves, most of the time.
The attacker's strength is put against the defender's, and after all modifiers (artillery, terrain, events, etc), you get a result. The simplest loss flips your unit. However, in case of a bigger loss, or a flipped unit suffering one, there is need for a morale check. The morale check can have different results, from removing your unit for a single combat round, through removing it for the entire combat or turn, to downright elimination, or the dreaded Panic, in which case the routing unit's panic spreads to your whole force and they run.
So these are the basics of combat, now lets get back to the war!