Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo
Getting Started
This section provides detailed information on installing and running Panzer General III: Scorched Earth on your computer.
You can install Panzer General III: Scorched Earth by running PGIII_Demo.exe from the CD-ROM drive, and following the on-screen instructions. Once the demo is installed, double-click on the Panzer General III: Scorched Earth icon to begin. (You can also start the demo from the Programs menu.)
This **Tutorial** section provides a step-by-step battle plan to familiarize you with the screens and basic features of a Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo campaign. In addition, hot text is available throughout the demo. Hot text is a brief description of game interface that is activated by placing the mouse cursor over a screen element.
 
System Requirements
To play Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo, be sure your system meets the following minimum system requirements:

Pentium2, 233 MHz IBM PC or compatible
64 MB or RAM
Windows 95 or Windows 98 – NOTE: This demo cannot be played on Windows NT systems or Windows 2000. Multitasking is not recommended when playing Panzer General III: Scorched Earth.
An uncompressed hard drive with 85 MB free
8 X CD-ROM drive or faster
8MB 3D Video Card
100% Windows compatible sound card and mouse

In addition to the basic system requirements, the demo requires that DirectX 7.0 be installed to your hard drive. 
Uninstalling the Demo
Select the Uninstall option from the Start Button, or choose Settings from the Windows Start menu, and select Control Panel. In the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs, left-click on Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo, and click on the Add/Remove button. The demo and all of its components are then removed from your hard drive, except for your saved games.
Starting the Demo
Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo can also be started by opening the Start menu, selecting Programs, choosing the folder where the demo was installed and clicking on the Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo program item.
Saving Games
Panzer General III: Scorched Earth Demo requires space on your hard drive for Saved Games and temporary files. Each saved game can take up to 200mb of hard drive space. You can save the demo within the scenario by choosing Options or at the end of a scenario.
Loading Saved Games
To load a saved game you must be within a scenario. Choose Options, then Load Game.
Exiting the Demo
At any time you want to exit the demo you can press ESC. This will bring up a dialog box allowing you exit the demo.
You can also exit the demo by bringing up the Options screen.
TUTORIAL
This tutorial is intended to explain basic menus and button functions, and to step you through an introductory scenario. 
Basic Information
Before you run the tutorial there are a few things you need to know:
Using the Mouse
The term “left-click” means move the mouse pointer to the desired area on the screen and pressing the left mouse button. Left-clicking selects units, presses buttons, and operates screen features.
“Right-click” means move the mouse pointer to the desired area and pressing the right mouse button. Right-clicking once on a unit, piece of equipment, or leader icon displays a card with information about that unit, equipment, or leader. Right-clicking on a button opens a Help box with descriptive text about that button's function.
In Panzer General III: Scorched Earth, whenever the mouse stops over a button or icon, smart text describing the area under the cursor appears over the object in question. When the cursor stops over a terrain hex or unit, information appears in the small info cards in the bottom center of the Main screen. This makes identifying buttons and units easy during game play.
Equipment Class and Type
In this tutorial, there are two important ways of referring to equipment (your units), one is equipment **class** and the other is equipment **type**. There are eight different equipment classes in Panzer General III: Scorched Earth: Infantry, Tank, Recon, Anti-tank, Artillery, Air Defense, Fighter, and Bomber. Within each class are numerous types, for example: within the tank class of units, the T-34/76A is one type, and the KV-1 is another type.
Starting the Tutorial
Once the Loading screen clears, the Scenario Info screen appears. The main feature of the screen is a scenario briefing, which describes the objectives of this particular mission. In this case your primary task is to capture the city of Uryupinsk.
At this time, click on the Continue button in the lower right corner. The next popup is the New Turn dialog box. In this box, the date, who’s turn, weather and objectives are displayed. Click the Continue button. This takes you to the main play screen.  At this time, you can jump into the demo and start playing. If you are unfamiliar with Panzer General III, continue reading.
Reviewing Your Troops
On the Main Play screen, click on the Headquarters button in the lower right corner. The Headquarter screen is one of the most important parts of Panzer General III: Scorched Earth because this is where units are built by selecting equipment and assigning a leader. The screen has three tents displayed: the Motor Pool Tent in the upper left, the Leader's Tent in the upper right, and the Command Tent in the lower left. The area in the lower right is the Parade Ground where information about your units is shown. Across the bottom of the screen is the Roster bar, a strip of tabs which is the roster of your units.
Roster Bar
If you examine one of the roster tabs, you can see that there are two icons plainly visible on each tab. The icon on the left represents the equipment type; the icon on the right represents the leader. On the left end of the Roster bar is a circle containing a number, in this case it should read 01. This is the number of unit slots you have in your army that can be filled by building units.
At the right end of the Roster bar are scroll arrows, the Change Sort Order button and the Go to Deployment button. Left-clicking on the Change Sort Order button changes the order that units are displayed, indicated by the small icon above the button. The choices are:

Tank Icon:	Sorts the roster by equipment class in the following order: Infantry, Tank, 			Recon, Anti-tank, Artillery, Air Defense, Fighter, Bomber
Flag Icon:	Shows the promotion level of the unit's leader with the highest on the left
Heart Icon:	Shows the unit’s health
Arrows Icon:	Shows the number of actions remaining

Move the cursor to the bottom of the screen and right-click on one of the units in the Roster Bar. Two large cards appear in the Parade Ground. These cards reveal an important aspect of the demo, since each unit consists of a leader (on the right) and an equipment type (on the left).
Leader and Unit Cards
The most important information on the Leader Card is the round icon next to the leader's portrait and the row of colored symbols below it. The first icon represents the type of leader this is. A leader can be assigned to command any kind of equipment, but if they are assigned to an equipment type they don't match, they can suffer certain restrictions. 
The row of colored symbols indicates the number of actions, called **regular orders**, that this leader may perform in a given turn. Some examples of actions include: move, fight, dismount from transport, rally from suppression, entrench, resupply, or refit. Actions are also used to activate **veteran orders** which are unique to each equipment class and give the unit benefits for a particular kind of action. These symbols are different for each nationality in Panzer General III: Scorched Earth: the Soviets have red stars; the Germans have small, gray crosses.
The equipment card shows a photo of the equipment and a firing tank icon above a truck icon just to the left of the photo — all three have rows of green dots beneath them. The dots below the equipment photo represent the Strength attribute of the equipment. As a unit takes damage, these dots change color. The row beneath the firing tank icon represents the Fire# attribute, the number of times that equipment can shoot. The row beneath the truck icon represents the Move attribute, which is the maximum number of times the equipment can move. These factors are limited by the capability of the leader attached to a particular type of equipment. No unit can move or attack more times than the leader has actions.
Across the bottom of the Unit Card are the unit's statistics; the higher the number, the better the rating. The shaded graph above each rating gives a quick reference of the relative strength of each rating. The ratings are:

Hard Attack
Soft Attack
Defense
Air Attack
Air Defense
Sighting Range
Move
Firing Range
Ammo

Right-click on the cards to close them. This clears the way to build a unit that will fill your available unit slot.
Building a Unit
You will see some leaders standing in front of the Leader's Tent; go ahead and right-click on each in turn. As their Leader Cards appear in the Parade Ground, note which equipment icon is shown, and the number of actions they can perform. For this scenario, they are unlikely to have more than three actions or less than two, so their equipment class is an important factor. Leaders are generated randomly, with differing levels and class abilities. You have only one open slot available, so you will want to choose the infantry leader with the highest level by left-clicking on its figure. This moves that leader into the Roster bar and a new tab with a green background appears. If no infantry leader is available, you may select a different class leader. After choosing one leader, the number of slots shown on the left end of the Roster bar changes to 00.
Equipment is selected from one of the eight classes represented by the icons in the Motor Pool Tent in the upper left part of the Headquarters screen: Tank, Anti-tank, Infantry, Fighter, Artillery, Air Defense, Recon, and Bomber. Left-click on a piece of equipment to display the array of equipment types available to you at this time. These appear in a row in front of the tent. Move the cursor over the motor pool tent, and then click on the infantry icon, located in the upper-left corner of the tent. The available infantry that you can requisition will be displayed in front of the motor pool tent. You can view the equipment information by right-clicking these infantry. Holding the cursor over a piece of equipment gives you a quick look at it for easy comparison of the different types available. You will notice an infantry unit on the far left, a Fallschirmjäger. Choose this infantry by left-clicking on it, which moves the equipment onto the tab, assigning it to the leader you selected previously.
If you change your mind about the unit you built, scroll through the Roster bar until you see a unit tab with a green background, which is your new unit. Left-clicking on this tab disbands your unit and returns the equipment to the Motor Pool and the leader to the Leader Tent. Your available slots go back up to 01 if you disband this unit, and goes back to 00 when you build a new one.
Promoting a Leader
You begin the campaign with three promotions that you may give to your leaders; based on how well your army does in the battles, you may be rewarded additional promotions during the course of a campaign. It is up to your discretion which of your leaders receives a promotion, though a leader can only receive one promotion per battle.
To promote a leader, left-click on the medals display located on the back wall of the Leader’s Tent. This will bring up red flags on the parade grounds above the Roster bar where the leaders you chose stand for review. You may then select the leaders to be promoted by left-clicking on their icon in either the Roster bar if they are assigned to a unit or their icon in front of the Leader’s tent. If you have more than six unassigned leaders in your army, you may view up to thirty of them at once by left-clicking on the blue sign on the post outside the Leader’s tent.
Since the battle you are about to fight in the tutorial is a short one, you will want to promote the leaders which are already assigned to units so they will have the greatest mobility and power possible at the start of the battle. An easy way to decide which leaders to promote is to sort them according to promotion level by left-clicking on the sort button located to the right of the Roster bar until the flag icon appears. You can then scroll to the right to find the lowest ranking leaders. Left-click on the last three units in the Roster bar to move the leaders onto the parade ground for promotion. Award each leader a promotion by left-clicking on the red flag beneath his icon.
Once you have finished building your units and promoting your leaders, left-click on the red button with the X on it at the far end of the Roster bar to proceed to the Game map.
Deploying Your Troops
Click on the Toggle Deploy Mode button that is in the lower right corner. The locations where you are able to deploy units are highlighted with light blue hexes and the cursor changes to include the "Deployment OK" symbol (two curved downward pointing arrows). Click on one of the highlighted spots to deploy the unit you just built. If you decide you would like to place the unit in another spot, you can click on the unit again, putting the unit back in the Roster bar, and then select another deployment spot by clicking on another highlighted location.
Viewing the Game Map
In order to place your troops where they will be most effective you may need to manipulate the map. Once play has started, rotating the screen in a 3D environment is critical to finding both your units and the enemy units. Rotating the 3D environment will also allow you to take full advantage of the terrain and Line of Sight.
Scrolling across the map in Panzer General III: Scorched Earth is achieved simply by moving the cursor to the map edge of the direction you wish to scroll. To rotate the screen, right-click on the map and hold it down. Then move the mouse pointer to the center of either the right or left side of the screen. The screen will rotate to either the left or right depending on what side of the screen you moved the mouse pointer. Holding down the Left or Right arrow keys will also rotate the map.
Zooming the map is a similar process. Simply right-click and move the cursor to the top of the screen to zoom closer and move the cursor to the bottom of the screen to zoom farther away. Using the Up or Down arrows will also zoom in or out.
To tilt the map vertically, use the Page Up and Page Down keys.
Viewing the Strategy Map
During your deployment phase, you may wish to view the overall battlefield. Click on the Strategy Map button, the one that looks like a compass, located on the bottom-left side of the Interface bar. This takes you to the strategic map where you can review the entire battlefield from a bird’s eye perspective to locate objectives and plan your strategies. 
When you are finished reviewing the map and deploying your new unit, click on the red Exit Deploy Mode button in the lower-left corner to start your first turn.
Turn 1
Your turn begins with a view of the game map; no units are selected.
Scouting the Area
Select your PSW 231 reconnaissance unit as the active unit by either clicking on it in the Roster bar or on the tactical map. If you are unsure which unit is the PSW 231, you can briefly hold the cursor over the various units on the map and the right-hand card in the center of the interface bar will change to indicate the type of equipment under the cursor. The type of terrain, along with its elevation and map coordinates, is similarly displayed when the cursor is not over a unit.
Once you have selected the unit, a yellow highlight appears under the unit to indicate it is the active unit, while the green highlights indicate where that unit can move. The active unit is also highlighted in yellow on the Roster bar. The small info cards in the center of the interface bar now change to display information about the selected unit with the equipment type and Strength attribute on the left side, and the leader portrait and number of actions on the right.
The left of the equipment card are two rows of colored lights with the Fire and Move attribute icons next to them. The top row only displays three green lights, meaning that this unit could fire three times. The rest of the row is black, indicating that three is the maximum number of times this type of equipment could fire. The bottom row has four green lights, three yellow lights and the remainder are black. This unit could move up to seven times if the leader that was assigned to it had that many actions. If this leader improves later, some of the yellow lights will become green.
The reconnaissance unit’s primary function is spotting enemy units, and you can increase the effectiveness of this by using an action to have your unit send out patrols which increase its spotting range. Click on the Recon Patrol action button (the binoculars icon in the first row of buttons) to activate this special ability called a **Veteran Order**. Note that now, both the Fire and Move indicators have only two green lights, this is because the Recon Patrol order used up one of the leader's actions. Doing so reveals a Russian T-70 tank unit south of the forest. Move your PSW 231 reconnaissance unit by left clicking on the green highlighted hex that is adjacent to the newly spotted T-70. Move the PSW 231 one more time to the road hex over the river next to Uryupinsk. This will bring your PSW 231 within spotting range of a Russian Conscripts unit and a 15.2cm Artillery unit. Leaders in the Recon class have a special ability they may use only when assigned to Recon equipment type; namely, their first move is always free. So there are still three green lights for both attributes, Fire and Move.
Charging the Line
One of the key concepts in modern warfare is combined arms tactics, which is the use of different weapons together to deliver a swift and lethal attack. You will want to use these tactics in order to break through the defensive line formed by the Russian units near the road.
Artillery is generally very effective against Infantry units, but can also be used against tanks, so select and then move your 15 sFH 18 artillery unit within firing range of the Russian T-70. The 15 sFH 18 has a range of 4, which you can check by right clicking on the unit, either on the tactical map or in the Roster bar, to bring up its equipment and Leader Cards. Select the artillery unit and left-click on the furthest highlighted hex down the road, which should put your unit within range. Dismount the artillery so it is ready to fire by clicking on the far right button of the lower row of the unit actions (the two arrows at right angles). Moving and dismounting uses one action each, leaving the 15 sFH 18 with a single action. With the 15 sFH still selected, you may now fire on the T-70 by left-clicking on the T-70.
Move the cursor over the T-70 tank and it changes to an attack reticule, with numbers on either side of it. These are the estimated losses for this combat, friendly on the left, enemy on the right. These are not guaranteed, and may be altered by special abilities or unknown factors for either side such as an unspotted artillery piece. This is merely a tool for estimating any given unit's ability to damage another unit it is capable of attacking. When this cursor appears in the hex over the T-70 tank, fire on it by left-clicking.
You can examine the battle results by right-clicking on the enemy unit to bring up its Unit Card. Red indicates a strength point that has been destroyed, yellow indicates a suppressed strength point, green means OK. Suppressed Strength attribute points return at the end of the turn but are not available on attack or defense until then. Right-click to close the card. Your first attack is unlikely to have destroyed or fully suppressed the Russian tank unit, so you will want to attack it second time.  You will now want to bring up your Panther A unit to attack the T-70. Move your Panther A two hexes away from the T-70. Notice that your Panther can shoot at a range of two hexes. After firing a couple of times, the T-70 may retreat out of sight from your units. Normally, you would be able to still spot the T-70, but snow conditions cuts down the range of your spotting. Move the PSW 231 to spot the T-70 again. The Panther should be able to finish off the T-70. If the T-70 survives, move your Tiger up and finish off the T-70.
It is important to note that the Conscripts are in city terrain before making a direct attack on them. City terrain gives Infantry an advantage over other equipment classes by providing cover for the Infantry and making it difficult for tanks to maneuver. Move your Hummel up and fire on the Conscripts. After softening up the Conscripts, you want to use your own Infantry to make the attack, so select and move your Pionere unit along the road next to Conscripts. This requires two moves. You need to be careful. The enemy has a 15.2cm artillery unit behind the city. You might have to wait until next turn to continue your attack. By having one of your units adjacent to the damaged enemy infantry, you prevent that unit from refitting and regaining its Strength attribute.
You will want to move your remaining units towards the Uryupinsk. Usually, you do not want to leave your units on river hexes. Most units do not attack or defend well when occupying a river hex.
Finally, you can use your PSW 231 unit’s remaining actions to either chase down any damaged enemy units, or move it adjacent to one of your forward units to help camouflage it from enemy spotting. This latter is a special ability of reconnaissance units, and can be used very effectively in setting up ambushes to trap the enemy.
Your enemy’s primary victory objective is Ladynka, and if your enemy captures it you lose the scenario, so you might want to keep the Strosstruppen in this hex.
You will also want to move your Fallschirmjäger unit to the airfield hex for next turn.
Before Ending Your Turn
Look at your Roster bar, if all of your units have moved the background color of their tab is dark gray, if any have actions remaining the tab background is light gray. Now might also be a good time to go through your roster and examine all your units for damage. Any units with yellow dots indicating suppression and any actions left can try to Rally using the button with the flag on it in the regular orders row. End your turn by clicking on the red button in the lower-left corner of the screen.
Turn 2
If possible, you will first want to hunt down and destroy any enemy units you attacked and damaged in the previous turn in order to finish them off while they are in a weakened state, thereby saving your own units costly attacks against refitted units.
Taking Care of Your Troops
You should also refit any of your units that suffered serious damaged. Left-click on the Change Sort Order button until the "Heart" icon is visible, which sorts your units by Strength attribute. Notice that some of your units now have a red background instead of the light gray. This indicates that they have suffered damage in combat. As a unit becomes more and more damaged, the red background spreads across the tab. Units with more than 25% damage, have a small amount of red, units with more than 50% damage have a greater amount, and units with more than 75% are red all across. The other important factor about having taken damage is that the unit may suffer damage to a specific attribute, either Move or Attack, and lose actions in one area while retaining actions in another. The green or yellow lights for your unit’s actions on the Interface bar turn red if this is the case.
Units can run out of ammo and/or become damaged during combat. A yellow warning flag appears on a unit when its ammo supply is running low; and this flag turns red if the unit is completely out of ammo. Two of the buttons on the Orders row remedy this situation. If they are not adjacent to an enemy unit, for one action the Resupply order replenishes a unit's ammo supply.
The Refit button can also only be used when no enemy units are adjacent. This order takes the entire turn, but restores all destroyed strength points and provides full resupply while repairing one attribute, either Move or Fire.
Preparing for an Assault
Your army should be ready for the assault of its primary objective (Uryupinsk), concentrate on setting up for an assault on your primary objective during this turn. This is best achieved by moving your armored units such as tanks and Anti-tanks into forward positions, with support units such as artillery just to the rear. Group your units in this manner on the road, with your Tiger tank in the lead. Go ahead and attack any other units within range as long as it does not expose your own unit. After all, it never hurts to soften up the enemy before an assault.
Making a Paradrop
Your Fallschirmjäger must be on the airfield at the start of the turn so that you can paradrop the unit on this turn. With the Fallschirmjäger unit selected, notice that the cursor changes as you move it beyond the unit’s ground movement range, when it stops over an otherwise legal hex. Before performing the paradrop, scout the target area as much as possible. Dropping into the midst of enemy units would likely mean the end of your paratroopers.
Use your reconnaissance unit to scout the area. Still protecting the town is a 15.2cm artillery piece. This latter should be your first target, since it prevents your Bomber from being able to make an effective attack. Move the closest of your tank units to attack the GAZ/37, destroying it if possible.
Once the Air Defense artillery has been taken care of, you are ready for the paradrop. Select your Fallschirmjäger by clicking on it in the Roster bar. Then move your cursor to an unoccupied hex next to the 15.2cm artillery, and click on that location. The artillery can provide support fire for units defending the town, inflicting severe losses on you for any attack which doesn’t first take care of this threat, so attack the enemy’s artillery once your Fallschirmjäger has landed. If this does not significantly suppress the artillery, attack the 15.2cm artillery with your HS-129 Bomber you received on turn 2.
Capturing Your Objective
Once the enemy’s artillery is damaged and suppressed, concentrate on capturing Uryupinsk itself. First, you have to break through any enemy units preventing you from reaching the town. Armored units, such as tanks and your Anti-tank units, are best suited to this task. Next, you should use your own artillery to attack the Russian Infantry holding the town’s primary position, indicated by orange HQ building and radio tower.
Once you have completed your preparatory attacks, move your Pionere Infantry unit adjacent to the town for the main assault. Attack with your Pionere Infantry as many times as you can, and if this is not enough to dislodge the defenders bring in any other available units to complete the job. Remember your Pionere unit ignores entrenchments. If the Russian infantry units are completely suppressed by your artillery, your Pionere unit should have no problem moving the enemies infantry units out of the city. You want to go all out in this attack since capturing Uryupinsk on this turn will earn you a brilliant victory.
If the Russians proved especially tough or your own units did not have enough actions, use the remaining turns to keep up the assault in a similar fashion until the town is captured. When the scenario ends, the Summary screen is displayed where you can view your tally of enemy units in one of three ways: total units destroyed, units destroyed by class, and units destroyed by leader.
Left-click on the checkmark in the lower right corner to proceed. At this point, you are given the option to save your game. Do this, giving it a descriptive name such as, Mid Tutorial.
The Campaign map now shows your progress in the campaign, with your victorious battle indicated by the German flag. You are also presented with two choices of where to fight your next battle, each with a different type of victory condition. The battle to the east, Lashing Out at Luga, requires you to destroy designated enemy target units in order to win. The battle to the south, Race for Riga, requires you to exit several units from the map. You can choose only Race for Riga in the Demo to play.
In either case, you will proceed first to the scenario briefing screen, where you may wish to review the new equipment and leaders; and then to your army Headquarters. Here you can build new units or reorganize your army to better suit the upcoming battle, and award your leaders with the promotions you received—either four or two, depending on whether you scored a major or minor victory in the previous battle.
Race for Riga
Not surprisingly in breakout or retreat scenarios in which you must exit units from the map, the speed of your units is a critical factor to the success of your mission. Replace your towed equipment, such as your 15 sFH 18 and 20mm(Q) FlaK, with self-propelled versions of the same equipment type, even if their attack or defense ratings are lower.
Also, take advantage of the special abilities of certain equipment types. For example, Pioniere Infantry have the **Bridging** special which make them more useful than the Stosstruppen heavy Infantry when you need to get your forces across rivers.
Although employing air power is generally an excellent tactic for protecting your units, only ground units may be exited from the map. Therefore, you may want to replace any your planes with another reconnaissance unit to help you scout for possible enemy ambushes.
Keep in mind that highly mobile equipment types often gain their speed by sacrificing heavy armor and/or firepower, so you also need to make sure your units can be protected long enough to reach their objective. Fill out any open slots in your army with equipment types that combine both mobility and protective characteristics. For example, taking an additional self-propelled artillery piece would be a good idea, as would including the new Panther G tank that you received in your motor pool.
When you examine the units in your Roster in this scenario, notice that two of the units have a gray background. These are auxiliary units which have been temporarily assigned to your army to help you achieve your objectives and which are already deployed on the battlefield at the beginning of the scenario. You will not be able to replace them, however, and they will be transferred out of your army at the end of the scenario.
Crucial to victory in this scenario is careful planning, especially in the route you plan to use. You should, for example, expect the heaviest resistance at key points in the region such as near cities and at river crossings. These are often unavoidable, so approach them in force in order to break through quickly. Examine the tactical map to find the exit points on the map. There are two of them, located on the central roads leading off the south edge of the map and designated with a large arrow. To exit a unit, move it onto the arrow and left-click the checkmark in the confirmation pop-up.
Careful planning of your units’ individual moves is also important. Keep your units in a tight formation as you move across the map. It does you no good to have a fast unit way out in front of the rest of your units, or straggling far behind for that matter, when the enemy can easily swoop in to pick it off.
Although you are only required to exit six units to gain a victory, it is possible for you to improve your score if you are able to get extra units safely off the map. Remember, however, that your score is also dependent on how long it takes you to complete the victory. If you have many damaged units or they are far from the exit points, you may want to settle for the victory you already have in hand. Should you choose to continue the battle, you will be given the option to quit the battlefield at the end of each turn.

You should now have finished Panzer General III: Scorched Earth. You can go back and replay the scenarios and try for better scores and specials.