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Critical Hit for Amigas with at least 1 MB RAM Tabletop Fantasy War Gaming from Psychic Software. ShareWare v. 1.0 (C) Sam Redfern, 1995. -------------------------------- Section 1: Basics. -------------------------------- Introduction ------------ Critical Hit is a highly detailed fantasy combat game, which re-creates tabletop war gaming on the Amiga. It features a complex and accurate combat system, in which the skills, equipment, health and injuries of individual soldiers are traced. Many real and fantastic creatures are included, each with their own skills, psychology profiles and leadership characteristics. Complete campaigns may be waged, which consist of series of individual battles. The result of the battles determines the flow of the campaign. Battles are depicted on stunning three dimensional landscapes, and a wide variety of fantasy combat "figures" and scenery is utilised. The Unregistered Shareware version runs on 1MB machines, and includes a single campaign, "Goblin." This version does not include any music, and uses only some of the available features of Critical Hit. Installing the Game ------------------- Installing Critical Hit on a Floppy Disk You will need a completely empty, formatted disk. Carry out the following steps: (1) Re-name the disk "CriticalHit_Disk1" (2) Un-archive CriticalHit.lha onto this floppy (3) Locate the FONTS directory on your Workbench disk. Copy the 'helvetica.font' file from the fonts directory on the newly copied disk into the fonts directory on workbench. Also copy the 'helvetica' sub-directory from the new disk into the fonts directory in workbench. You will be able to run the game from workbench. Installing Critical Hit on a Hard Disk To install Critical Hit on your hard disk, follow these steps: (1) Create a directory for the game, e.g. 'CriticalHit' (2) Within this directory, create the following sub-directories: IFF SPRITES (3) Copy all of the files from your floppy disk(s) into the main directory. All files from inside the IFF directories on the floppy(s) must go into the IFF sub-directory, and likewise for the files in the SPRITES directory. (4) Locate the FONTS directory on your hard disk. Copy the 'helvetica.font' file from the floppy's fonts directory into this directory. Also copy the 'helvetica' sub-directory from the floppy into the FONTS directory on the hard disk. (5) Finally, you must create two assigns in the 'startup-sequence' file, which is located in the 'S' directory on your hard disk. For example, if you are installing the game into a directory called 'CriticalHit', inside 'dh0:', use the following two lines in startup-sequence: assign CriticalHit_Disk1: dh0:/CriticalHit assign CriticalHit_Disk2: dh0:/CriticalHit Troubleshooting If Critical Hit won't run, make sure your boot disk (i.e. workbench or your hard disk) has the following files: In the 'C' directory: Assign and BindDrivers In the 'L' directory: Disk-Validator In the 'libs' directory: distfont.library and mathtrans.library If you only have 1MB of memory and the game crashes, you must make the CriticalHit_Disk1 floppy into a bootable disk, so that you don't have to use workbench to run the game. Do the following: (1) Issue a "install df0:" command from Shell (2) Create the following directories on the floppy: C env l libs system t (3) Copy the following 2 files from your workbench disk into the C directory: Assign and BindDrivers (4) Copy the following file into the l directory: Disk-Validator (5) Copy the following 2 files into the Libs directory: diskfont.library and mathtrans.library Playing the Game ---------------- When the game is loaded, you will see the main title screen. From here you can begin playing a new campaign ('NEW'), load a previously saved game ('LOAD') , or quit ('QUIT'). On the shareware version, you cannot load or save games, and you can only play the campaign called 'Goblin'. Firstly you will be presented will some information about the campaign you are about to play. When you click on OK, the armies for the first battle will be created. Then you will see an overhead view of the battle area. There will be a number of flags on the map - some red (the first army), and some blue (the second army). Each flag represents a UNIT of up to 50 soldiers. Each unit will be of one particular type - goblin infantry, human cavalry, elf archers, and so on. Click on a unit to select it. You can also select the flashing unit by pressing RETURN. When you select a unit, you are presented with information on the unit and on each of the soldiers in it. To the left you see unit information - morale, status, psychology, number of turns needed to reload, etc. Also here is a RANK WIDTH button. Use this to change the number of soldiers in each rank of the unit (a wider formation means that more soldiers can fight at once, but is easier to break up and attack). The SEE button allows you to get a close-up view of the battle field close to the unit. The ACTIVITY button brings up the activity command-bar (see below). The OK button returns you to the map screen. To the right of the unit information screen is information on an individual soldier. Use the small up and down arrow buttons to see the different soldiers in the unit. As you will see, each soldier has an individual name, skills, injuries, weapons and armour. Some may even have magical skills. The Status Bar to the right of the screen tells you the army that is currently playing. The ">>" and "<<" buttons on this bar are used to change the unit that is flashing. (The arrow keys also do this). The magnifying glass button is used to view a close-up area anywhere on the battlefield. The normal Command Bar at the top of the screen is used to: END MOVE. Your army will carry out any orders, and battles will be fought between close units. The opposing army can then move. SURRENDER. You will then lose the current battle without any further injury. You will hope to win the next battle in the campaign! SAVE GAME. You can save a game at any stage, for re-loading later (registered version only). QUIT. To leave Critical Hit. You will be asked to save your game first. The activity Command Bar, which appears when the ACTIVITY button is clicked while a unit is selected, is used to order a unit to carry out actions. MOVE. A dotted line will be drawn around the unit. This shows how far the unit will get in one turn. You can then select anywhere on the map to move towards (it may take several turns to get there). CHARGE. This orders the unit to move towards an enemy unit, even if that unit itself moves. SHOOT. You can fire missile weapons (bows, slings, daggers, spears), magical attack spells, and war-engines (cannons, stone-throwers, etc.) at enemy units. You will only hurt them if you are close enough and they are not behind too much cover. FIRST AID. A unit that is not in combat may attempt first aid. This may stop minor wounds from bleeding. Magical healing may stop major bleeding or even repair critical hits (broken bones, etc.) RALLY. If your unit leader has lost control of the unit, they will run towards the edge of the map, in order to leave the battle. Until the unit has been successfully rallied, they will not do anything else. FORMATION. You can change the position of individual soldiers in the unit. Each rank of soldiers is displayed with a different colour - the first coloured soldiers are in the front rank, and so on. Note that soldiers to the very left and right of an internal rank are really at the edge of a unit, and so they can get shot at or attacked. Other soldiers in the internal ranks (i.e. not the front or back rank) are relatively safe. To swap the position of two soldiers, select one and then the other. You may DROP a soldier who is slowing down your unit due to injuries. This soldier will be back in the unit for the next battle, if he or she survives the injuries. Basic Tactics ------------- 1. Keep your units behind cover as much as possible. Hills, trees, and defensive walls are particularly useful. 2. Try to avoid being attacked from higher ground. 3. Try to avoid getting a unit attacked by two or more enemy units, as it will panic. 4. Make strategic use of your missile capabilities - draw the enemy towards your regular units and ambush them with missile fire. 5. The war engines are particularly strategic weapons, since they are slow to move but powerful. Stone throwers can be used to fire over hills and other cover. 6. Cavalry units are very mobile, and are therefore useful for harrying enemy units and then retreating. They are normally numerically small units, and so should not be allowed to get caught up in extended battles. 7. As soldiers in your front ranks become tired and injured, swap them for fresh soldiers from the internal ranks. This should minimise serious injuries and deaths. 8. Make sure you know who your magicians are from the start. Ordering Critical Hit --------------------- The Registered version of Critical Hit includes facilities for 2 player games, custom-built campaigns and maps (so that you can make your own games), and unit leader name customisation. Also included is a large amount of new creatures, weapons, scenery, game system features, and several full campaigns exclusively designed by Psychic Software. If you have more than 1MB of memory, Critical Hit will also run faster, and you will hear a full musical score. Registered users of Critical Hit will automatically receive future copies of major updates to the game. To order Critical Hit, send a cheque, money order, or cash, for £15 Stg. or U.S.$ 30 to: Sam Redfern, 15 HyBrasail Court, Circular Road, Galway, Irish Republic. You can also contact me via e-mail: sam.redfern@ucg.ie I would like to hear any suggestions or comments that you may have. Even if you're only using the unregistered version, feel free to give me a call... ******************************************************************** If any ShareWare or commercial software distributer is interested in marketing Critical Hit, they can contact me at the above addresses. ******************************************************************** -------------------------------------- Section 2: Game Mechanics. -------------------------------------- Movement - Foot and Mounted Units --------------------------------- Each race has a standard movement allowance - for humans it is 15 units per turn. This movement allowance is affected by armour, injuries, and the terrain that is being covered. Armour, injuries and terrain may affect different units differently - for example, mounted (cavalry) units are very fast in open terrain but are heavily affected by hills, trees and other cover. Roads increase movement ratings, but tend to be dangerously open. The information screen for a unit gives the unit's overall movement speed, and also the move for each individual soldier. A unit can only move as fast as its slowest member - stunned, bleeding and critically injured soldiers will certainly slow down a unit. Leg injuries in particular slow down a soldier significantly. Armour ------ Several different forms of body armour are included in Critical Hit. In general, armour slows down its wearer but lessens the chance of him being badly injured. The chance of being struck in combat is not lessened by armour - in fact with heavy armour a soldier is slightly more likely to be hit - however armour makes the chance of superficial "concussion" hits more likely and the chance of critical hits less likely. Some types of armour are more effective against certain weapons than others. Metal armour such as platemail and chainmail perform better against edged weapons such as swords, and not as well against blunt weapons such as clubs. The main categories of armour are summarised below: Protection versus: Type Description Move penalty Edged Blunt Pointed Leather Heavy leather 1 Very little Little Very little Cuirboilli Reinforced leather 2 Little Moderate Little Ringmail Metal rings on leather 4 Good Good Moderate Scalemail Small plates on leather 4 Good Good Good Chainmail Tight metal mesh 4 Very good Moderate Very good Platemail Solid metal plates 5 Excellent Good Excellent Some soldiers may also have shields. These generally increase the effectiveness of their defences. Weapons ------- The hand-to-hand weapons in Critical Hit are as follows: Weapon Critical Type Ease of Hit Damage Sword Slash Normal Normal Axe Slash Good Normal Pike Slash + Crush Normal Good Broadsword Slash Normal Normal Spear Impale Normal Normal Mounted Lance Impale + Crush Good Very good Battleaxe Slash + Crush Normal Good Scimitar Slash Normal Normal Club Crush Good Below average Warhammer Crush Good Normal Dagger Impale Bad Bad Long weapons such as pikes and spears also afford some protection for their users, since they can be used to hold opponents at a distance. Note that a lance can only be used by mounted units. Heavy weapons such as pikes and battleaxes can only be used by stronger units such as humans, orcs and dwarfs. Missile weapons are used from a distance, and can be extremely effective if wisely deployed. The relative ranges, damage effectiveness and reloading speeds of the missile weapons are outlined below: Name Range Damage Reloading Spear 5 Bad Fast Sling 20 Bad Fast Short Bow 45 OK Fast Long Bow 70 Good Fast Composite Bow 60 Good Fast Light Crossbow 50 Good Slow Heavy Crossbow 70 Very good Very Slow War Engines ----------- War engines are large pieces of field weaponry, only one of which can be used by any one unit. They are normally used by small, specialist units. As they move very slowly, they are best deployed as tactical weapons. Bolt throwers are basically giant crossbows, and are the smallest war engine. Stone throwers, though relatively difficult to hit with, can hurl stones over hills or other cover - they are the only weapon that can do this. A single stone may strike several soldiers in the target unit. Cannons, like stone throwers, may injure several members of a unit at once. Cannons are the most advanced war engine - however they sometimes malfunction - they may even explode, killing their operators! Skills and Abilities -------------------- In Critical Hit, the skills and abilities of each individual soldier are modelled. These are summarised below: ATTACK - the individual's skill at attacking with hand to hand weapons. This skill directly affects the number and severity of hits, including critical hits, scored by the soldier in combat. This skill increases with experience. SHOOTING - the skill at firing missile weapons. Also increases with experience. DEFENCE - the ability to dodge an opponent's blows. Reduces the chance of being hit in hand to hand combat. LEADERSHIP - the ability to motivate and organise a unit of soldiers. A good leadership ability is needed to regain full control when a unit is confused, panicked, fearful, terrified, or routing. POWER - The amount of spell points (if any) remaining to the soldier in this battle. BLAST Spells - The skill (if any) at using offensive spells. HEALING Spells - The skill (if any) at using healing spells. MOVEMENT - the distance that can be covered in one turn. Armour and critical injuries affect the movement rating. ACTIVITY - the level of physical activity that the soldier is operating at. This is 100% if healthy, and less if stunned or critically injured. If activity is less than 100%, then *all* physical actions will be carried out at a reduced level. HEALTH - concussion hits are 'energy' - when they reach zero, the soldier is knocked out and cannot continue in the current battle. Bleeding causes a continual loss of concussion hits. Critical hits are serious injuries of various sorts, that affect the soldier in various ways: they range from bruises (which reduce activity by a little) to severed jugulars and destroyed brains (which kill almost instantaneously). Races ----- The following races of creatures are included to date. Their typical range of skills and abilities are provided. Humans. The most widespread of the good races. Normally lawful. Average height 5'8". Good all-rounders in battle. Attack 26-80; Defence 3-30; Shoot 25-70; Concussion hits 16-70; Leadership 14-50; Move 15; Chance of magic 2.5%; Morale 75. Goblins. The most common evil race. Average height 4'10". Badly disciplined. Few magicians. Normally lightly armed. Attack 24-60; Defence 8-35; Shoot 22-67; Concussion hits 12-48; Leadership 5-32; Move 13; Chance of magic 0.5%; Morale 50. Dwarfs. The elder race from the mountains. Normally lawful. Average height 4'10". Accomplished and well disciplined fighters. Few magicians. Attack 31-94; Defence 2-24; Shoot 14-59; Concussion hits 23-95; Leadership 22-58; Move 13; Chance of magic 0.5%; Morale 85. Elves. The elder race from the forests. Normally lawful. Average height 6'0". Good all rounders. Especially good archers and magicians. Attack 26-80; Defence 13-40; Shoot 32-95; Concussion hits 15-60; Leadership 25-70; Move 16; Chance of magic 10%; Morale 75. The following races are currently in development: Ogres, Giants, Trolls, Skeletons, Zombies, Dragons, Giant Rats, Orcs. The Combat System - Hand to Hand -------------------------------- When two opposing units are in battle, each individual that can reach the opposing unit gets a chance to attack. Normally this includes all the soldiers in the front rank of the units. If one unit has more soldiers in the front rank than the other, only 3 more can fight than the smaller unit has in its front rank. If a unit is attacked from the side or rear, it normally turns to face its attacker. If it is already in combat or is routing, it cannot do so, and will panic. A soldier who has already fought this turn will have at most 50% activity remaining for the turn, and so will perform badly in a second combat. Each soldier that can fight attempts to hit an opposing soldier. The chance of hitting and the severity of hits is a combination of many factors. These factors are outlined below. Positive Modifiers: +Attack skill of attacker +15 if attacker is on higher ground +25 if defender is routing +5 if defender is panicking +30 if defender is terrified +10 if defender is fearful +15 if defender is confused +10 if defending unit's leader is not in front rank +(5*number of ranks in attacking unit) Negative Modifiers: -Defence skill of defender -15 if attacker is on lower ground -10 if attacking unit's leader is not in front rank -20 if attacker has less than 50% of concussion hits remaining -(5*number of ranks in defending unit) The total modifier is multiplied by the attacker's % activity remaining this turn. If a hit is scored, the nature of the injury depends on the attacker's weapon and the defender's armour, as well as the accumulated combat modifier. The Combat System - Missiles ---------------------------- Missile attacks are made from a distance. The defending unit does not get a chance to fight back immediately (it may of course shoot back on its turn). All members of a missile unit may fire, even those in internal ranks. Firing uses up all activity for the turn. The modifiers to missile attacks are: Positive Modifiers: +Shoot skill of attacker +Bonus due to type of missile weapon Negative Modifiers: -Penalty due to type of missile weapon -Penalty due to distance from defender (affected by range rating of weapon) -Penalty due to cover between the units (summarised below) -20 if attacker has less than 50% of concussion hits remaining The total modifier is multiplied by the attacker's % activity remaining this turn. If a hit is scored, the nature of the injury depends on the attacker's weapon and the defender's armour, as well as the accumulated combat modifier. Any cover that lies between the two units may affect the shooter. Cover that is more than 10 feet below both the attacker and the defender will not affect the shot. Any land more than 10 feet higher than both attacker and defender will make the shot impossible (unless a stone thrower is being used). Certain cover (such as castle walls) will not affect the attacker if he is close to it - this type of cover is good for missile users to hide behind and fire from. Summary of cover penalties: -1: Saplings and small bushes -2: Low walls and standing stones -3: Medium trees and bushes -10 or more: Defensive buildings, i.e. houses, towers, castle walls etc. (only affects the shot if this cover is not close to the attacker). Critical Hits ------------- All hits that are scored will cause a loss of concussion hits (i.e. energy). Well placed hits may cause critical hits in addition to concussion hits. 65 different critical hits are modelled in the game. A summary of the types of criticals, in each of the three categories, is provided below: Slash Criticals (from edged weapons): Minor: small wounds, causing minor bleeding. Medium: large wounds - serious bleeding, sometimes damaged muscles and tendons. Major: very large wounds and severed extremities - very serious bleeding, usually causing death. Crush Criticals (from blunt weapons): Minor: bruising and small bone fractures, normally only affecting activity. Medium: broken bones, large activity effect. Major: shattered bones, often causing internal injuries and death. Puncture Criticals (from pointed weapons): Minor: small wounds, causing minor bleeding. Medium: larger wounds, sometimes serious bleeding and broken bones. Major: punctured internal organs or other vital areas. Many of these criticals do not necessarily cause death. Some of them may take several weeks to heal - in the following battle they will become a lesser critical. Some non-fatal criticals, such as paralysis, may never heal. Psychology and Leadership ------------------------- The leadership ability of a unit's leader is very important to its effectiveness. When the unit suffers damage is battle, its morale will drop. The lower morale drops, the greater the chance of the leader losing control, and the soldiers routing. This means they will run for their "home" edge of the map, to leave the battle. A routing unit cannot do anything else until it is rallied by the leader. A routing unit makes an extremely easy target for the enemy, and may also reduce the morale of nearby friendly units. The leadership ability of the leader is also used to negate other psychological effects - fear, terror, confusion and panic - all of which affect the combat ability of the unit and make complex troop manoeuvres difficult. Fear and terror are caused when certain types of enemy attack a unit. Living units are afraid of skeletons, zombies, dragons, and so on. Orcs and goblins are afraid of elves. Most units are afraid of cannons and major attack spells. Confusion is caused when the leader has regained partial control of his routing unit, having successfully rallied it. Movement can now be controlled by the leader, but combat is best avoided. Particularly stupid creatures such as trolls may become confused at any time. Panic is caused when a unit is attacked by more than one enemy unit at once. Magic and First Aid ------------------- A unit that is not in combat may carry out first aid on its wounded members. This may stop some minor wounds from bleeding. Medium bleeding can not be healed on the battlefield (except through magic), and major bleeding can not be stopped through any means. A character with a HEAL skill may perform magical healing. There are 6 levels of this skill. Performing each level of healing requires the use of the corresponding number of magical POWER points. These 6 levels are summarised below: Level Affects Bleeding stopped OR Concussion hits OR Criticals healed healed 1 1 soldier Minor 20 0% chance 2 1 soldier Medium 40 0% 3 Entire unit Very minor 10 0% 4 Entire unit Minor 20 0% 5 Entire unit Medium 40 0% 6 Entire unit none none 35% chance A character with a BLAST skill may use offensive spells. These are treated like missile weapons, and are subject to negative modifiers due to range and cover, etc. There are 6 levels of offensive spells; each level requires the use of the corresponding number of magical POWER points. The offensive spells are summarised below: Level Spell Attack "Skill" Affects 1 Fire Bolt 60 1 soldier 2 Ice Bolt 85 1 soldier 3 Electrical Bolt 110 1 soldier 4 Fire Ball 60 several soldiers 5 Ice Ball 85 several soldiers 6 Electrical Ball 110 several soldiers ------------------------------- Section 3: Campaigns. ------------------------------- Full instructions on designing campaigns are supplied with the registered versions of Critical Hit. They are summarised below, just to get you interested and make you buy the game... Names ----- The names of unit leaders and ordinary soldiers may be edited. You can let your friends be the leaders of units (instead of my friends!), and stop all the soldiers having Irish names. Elevation Maps -------------- Three-dimensional elevation models of landscapes can be easily created - you just draw 5 or 6 levels of contours into an IFF picture. They are automatically smoothed into 256 distinct height levels, and a rather pleasing surface-shaded picture is generated for use on the main map screen of Critical Hit. These models are then used in your own custom-built campaigns. Object Maps ----------- Battle maps in Critical Hit consist of height values and also objects such as bushes, trees, lakes, rivers, walls, buildings, roads, etc. Object maps are created by drawing pixels into an IFF picture. These pictures are automatically encoded into Critical Hit object maps. Assembling a Campaign --------------------- To create a campaign, you must first make a number of elevation maps and corresponding object maps. You then choose a starting battle map, and decide the storyline, and whether you want either of the armies to be computer-controlled. If the first army wins the first battle, the story will go one way. If the second army wins, it will go another, and a different second battle will be fought. The number and types of new units for each battle must also be decided. If you get bored of the small GOBLIN campaign, but want to keep playing Critical Hit, and would like to see the many features not accessible in GOBLIN, then you should buy a registered version. You will receive a full version of the game, along with the campaign generation programs and several full campaigns exclusively designed by Psychic Software. You will also receive future updates of the game. See 'Ordering Critical Hit', in the first section of this manual.