Contents

WinWar II

Overview

Game Options

Cities, Resources and Factories

Unit Types

Building Units

Moving Unit Stacks

Attacking Enemy Stacks

Strategic Bombing

Scoring and Victory Conditions

Strategic Hints


Overview

WinWar II is a wargame depicting the conflicts of the major powers of World War II.  Each player (human or computer) represents one of the major powers of the Great War: The United Kingdom, United States, Russia, and France on the side of the Allies, and Germany, Italy and Japan on the side of the Axis.

The game is played on a world map divided into 6 tiles, two rows of 3.  The game map displays an area of the world occupied by one of these tiles at any given time.  To switch to a view of a different tile, click the area you want to view in the small world map near the lower right of the map.  Each tile contains a grid of 10 by 10 squares.  Unit movement is measured in squares.  Moving 1 square costs 1 movement point, and moving diagonally costs 1.5 movement points.

The objective of WinWar II is to accumulate Victory Points by conquering Cities.  Every City is assigned a numeric value.  If, at the end of a complete turn of play, the Axis powers hold more than 140 points of city value, they win the game.  If the Allies hold the Axis powers to lower than 50 points at the end of a turn, the Allies win.

Cities may be conquered by moving land Units into the square containing the City.  Land and naval Units may not be moved into squares containing enemy Units without attacking the enemy forces.  Units are built with resource points that are produced by Cities.  The more Cities one side owns, the closer they are to winning the game and the more military forces they may produce.

Game Options


Cities, Resources and Factories

Cities are represented on the map by small, colored squares.  A City's color indicates its affiliation.  White indicates a City owned by the player whose turn it currently is.  Light blue Cities are owned by the Allies, red Cities are owned by the Axis, and gray Cities are owned by neutral powers.  The numeric value of the City is displayed next to the square, and the City name is printed below.

A City's numeric value determines how many Resource Points the City produces per turn.  Players spend Resource Points to build up their military forces.

Resources may be spent only at Cities that contain Factories.  Factory Cities are indicated on the map by the symbol:

A player may build a Factory at any City they own.  Doing so costs the player 10 Resource Points.  Units may be built at that Factory on the following turn.

Unit Types


Unit Types

Unit Stacks are represented on the map as small, color coded symbols, with the number of units printed below the symbol.  Blue unit stacks are Allied, red are Axis, and gray are neutral.  You can quickly identify a square that contains units owned by you by looking for a colored border outlining the square itself.

You may obtain further information about Unit Stacks by clicking on the square occupied by the Stack.  A list to the right will display the total number of Units in the Stack(s), and the countries of ownership.

Each Unit Type in WinWar II has the following characteristics: Attack Strength, Defense Strength, and Movement.

	Unit Name	Attack    Strength	Defense Strength	Movement	Notes
	INFANTRY	15	30	2	1
	ARMOR	25	30	3	1
	FIGHTER	40	60	4	2
	BOMBER	50	15	5	2,3
	TRANSPORT	N/A	10	4	4,5
	CARRIER	N/A	50	4	4,6
	WARSHIP	30	40	4	4
	SUBMARINE	30	20	4	4,7

Notes:

1)	These Units may move on land only.

2)	These Units may move over land or water.  They may not attack or be attacked by Submarines.  They must end their turn on a friendly City (or Carrier in the case of Fighters) or be destroyed.

3)	May conduct strategic bombing raids on enemy Cities.

4)	These Units may move over water only.

5)	Each Transport may carry 2 Infantry or 1 Armor.

6)	Each Carrier may serve as a landing base for 1 Fighter.

7)	Submarines may not attack or be attacked by Fighters or Bombers.  Any vessel that is destroyed by an attacking Submarine does not get the chance to make a counterattack.

Building Units


Building Units

There are two methods of building Units in WinWar II.  Each method requires that you position the cursor over a City that you own.  The City must be a Factory, and must not have exceeded its build limit for the turn.  A City's build limit is equal to it's numeric value.  So, for instance, the United Kingdom player is allowed to build up to 6 Units at London per turn, since London has a numeric value of 6.

The first method allows you to specify up-front the total quantity of Units to build, by pressing the Build Units pushbutton.  A dialog box will appear, allowing you to select the quantity of each Unit Type you wish to build.  If you build any naval Units, you will be asked to position these Units in a sea square adjacent to your Factory.

The second method allows you may build Units one at a time.  Under the Build menu item, there is a menu entry for each of the available Unit Types.  These menu items are associated with hot keys that may be activated by holding down the control key and pressing the first letter of the Unit Type's name.  For instance, to build a single Infantry, you could select the Build, Infantry menu item, or press the Ctl-I key.

Moving Unit Stacks


Moving Unit Stacks

You move Units by selecting and moving the entire Stack.  To move a Stack, place the cursor over a Stack and use the movement pushbuttons to the right of the map.  The number in the center of the movement arrows represents the remaining movement allowance of the stack.  If you do not want to move all of the Units in a Stack, you may split the Stack and select only the Units you wish to operate with.  To split a Stack, press the Split Stack button.

Movement is tracked for each Unit Type within a Stack.  If you have a Stack composed of Infantry and Armor, for example, and move the Stack 2 squares, the Stack's remaining movement allowance is 0 (because Infantry has a movement rate of 2).  The Armor Units in the Stack still have 1 movement point remaining, however.  You may move the Armor Units by splitting the Stack, as described above.

If your Stack is within attack range of enemy Stacks, the movement arrow will turn red.  Pressing a red arrow indicates that you want to attack an enemy Stack in that direction.  If you defeat the enemy Units, your Stack will proceed to move in the direction specified.

Whenever two Stacks owned by the same player end their movement in the same square, the Stacks are merged into one.  Movement allowances for the newly merged Stack are calculated on a Unit by Unit basis, using the remaining movement allowance of the Stack that had moved the farthest during the turn.

When new Units are built, their initial movement allowance is 0.  So, if there are any other Units already present in the square, they will be merged into a single Stack with a remaining movement allowance of 0.  Be careful to move all of your active Stacks before building new Units.

To load Infantry and Armor onto Transports, simply move the land Units onto the naval Stack containing the Transports.  If the Stack contains too many Units, use the Split Stack button and select only enough Units to fit into the destination Transports.  You may move Units onto Transports from the Split Stack dialog box.  To unload Units from Transports, you must split the stack.

Attacking Enemy Stacks


Attacking Enemy Stacks

When two stacks engage in combat, both attacking and defending Stacks have an opportunity to inflict casualties.  The sequence of events in an attack is as follows:

Each attacking Unit attacks.  The Unit's attack strength is used to determine the percentage chance of hitting a target.  If the Unit hits, a random defending Unit is selected and flagged as destroyed.  The defending unit will still make a counterattack, but is eliminated thereafter.  The only exception to this rule is in the case of Submarines.  Any defending Unit destroyed by a Submarine is destroyed immediately and is not entitled to a counterattack.

Then, each defending Unit makes a counterattack.  The Unit's defense strength is used to determine the percentage of hitting a target.

Casualties from both sides are then eliminated from the Stacks.

A player may attack any number of times from a single stack, until the Stack's movement allowance has been expended, or all Units in the Stack itself are eliminated.

Remember that Submarines may not attack or be attacked by Fighters or Bombers.

Strategic Bombing


Strategic Bombing

Bombers may conduct a special type of attack called strategic bombing.  To bomb a target, the Stack containing the Bombers must be moved over an enemy City square.

Note that whenever air Units are moved over enemy City squares, the anti-aircraft guns positioned at the city have a chance of shooting down a plane.  Each air Unit entering a hostile City square has a chance of being shot down.  This chance is equal to twice the City's numeric value.

Once in an enemy City square, the player may press the bomb button	, which will appear in the middle of the directional buttons, to the right of the map.  This causes the Bombers to drop their load.  Each Bomber has a chance of doing damage up to the City's total numeric value.  A Bombing raid will never do damage in excess of the City's total value.

The following turn, the amount bombing damage will be subtracted from the total number of resources produced at the City.  Bombing raids against such large Cities as Berlin and Munich can be devastating!

Scoring and Victory Conditions


Scoring and Victory Conditions

The Axis must hold a total of 140 points of City value at the end of a turn to meet their Victory Conditions.  The Allies must hold the Axis to below 50 points of City value at the end of a turn to meet their Victory Conditions.

After the end of the first turn, you may monitor the current and prior scores by pressing the Display Scores button located below the map.  The Score dialog box displays a graph showing the scores of each power from turn to turn, and how close each side is to meeting their Victory Conditions.

Strategic Hints


Strategic Hints

Germany

The Germans have an early advantage by possessing the largest resource stockpile at the beginning of the game.  It is up the German player to carefully break out of central Europe, while still keeping enough of a defensive force to deter attacks from the UK and eventually the US.  To accomplish this goal, spending should be allocated to Infantry and Armor, with a small portion of the budget allocated to a navy and air force to discourage enemy sea Units.

Italy

While only beginning the game with 1 Factory City (Rome), Italy can play a pivotal role in the game.  How well Italy handles the conquest of Africa will impact the overall strength of the UK.  With a weak UK, Germany will be free to press on into Russia.  A successful African campaign requires careful spending on the part of Italy, and a couple of early Transports are essential.

Japan

Vladivostok should be a priority target from turn 1.  Once that is acquired, the Japanese player may safely convert other Cities on the mainland to Factories.  Then dedicate resources to land Units for the conquest of Eastern Asia and the Pacific, and watch out for US battle fleets!

United States

The US must focus on both the European and Pacific theaters.  The US was late to enter the war historically, and this is simulated by a penalty of 50% to this nation's initial resources.  Numerous Transports are essential on both coasts, and, depending on the naval strengths of the Axis powers, support vessels may be needed as well.  Try to catch the Japanese with a poorly defended capital and move in for the kill!

United Kingdom

A couple of key factories in Africa can insure that the UK can retain its hold on the continent.  Another key responsibility of the UK is either liberate western Europe for France, of pump Units into Russian territory to stave off the advance of the Germans.  The UK can also play a major role in the east, by taking advantage of strategic cities like Calcutta and Hong Kong.  The UK also has a good chance of supporting invasions of key Cities in China.

Russia

Russia must concentrate on pouring out Infantry and Armor to hold back the looming red menace of Germany.  An early purchase of a large quantity of Armor may be enough to give Russia the edge in the upcoming conflicts along the Eastern Front.  The Russian player must be careful to not neglect Asia totally, either.  The defense of Asia may be especially difficult if Japan conquers Vladivostok early in the game.

France

Poor France is usually wiped out of Europe before they begin their first turn.  If the odds go in their favor, however, France can establish itself as a power in northern Africa by building a strategic Factory or two.  From their, they can wait for the United States and/or United Kingdom to liberate Paris, or build a small Transport fleet and attempt to help the in this effort themselves.


Game Options

When you begin a new game of WinWar II, a dialog box is displayed that shows all of the available game options.

Every game of WinWar II is played by seven players, four on the Allied side and three on the Axis side.  You may assign each of the seven players to either human or computer control.

(In the demo version of WinWar II, you may only assign human control to one of the Allied players!)

Each player's country also has an optional Resource Multiplier that may range from 0 to 2.  Each turn, the total number of resources produced by the player will be multiplied by this value.  In this way, you may handicap the game for varying levels of player skill.

The final game options effect how units are displayed.  Normally, you will only be able to see units that belong to you, or units that are adjacent to units you own.  By checking the box labeled Allied Units Always Visible, you will be able to view units belonging to your allies, and enemy units adjacent to units belonging to your allies.  If you check the box labeled Enemy Units Always Visible, you will be able to see all enemy units, regardless of position.

Cities, Resources and Factories