The War Engine is a miniatures-based, strategy/tactical game with the emphasis on planning and execution. Through deceivingly simple game play, players must coordinate individual troops, machines and vehicles into a formidable assault while being wary of falling ceilings, lethal terrain, leaving trails, surprise attacks and a barrage of fire from the enemy.
OVERVIEW
The War Engine uses a three-phase approach to war gaming. In Phase I, all your troops move, with separate rules for foot troops and vehicles. During Phase II, all your forces choose their targets. Phase III, they fire.
REQUIREMENTS
The War Engine requires an 800x600 screen to run. The display depth must be at least 16 bits. If your Windows desktop is 800x600 resolution or less or is set to less than 16 bit color, the game will only run in Full Screen mode. Otherwise, you have the option of running The War Engine Series on your desktop in a Window along with the rest of your applications.
The War Engine requires Windows 95 or later and DirectX 8.0 or later.
STARTING THE GAME
After the splash screen, a dialog box appears asking what kind of game you want to play. There are four main types: Play Campaign, Play New Game, Play Saved Game and Play E-mail Game. In the Demo, choose the campaign play. This will allow you to play three small games, one each of Paintball (3 on 3 Free For All), TRL (One big machine vs. lots of little enemies) and The North Realm Saga where you'll perform an assasination.
BATTLEFIELD
Besides the Overhead and Mini map and scroll bars, you can center-click the mouse (or Cntrl+Left Mouse) to center the field on that square or "bang" your mouse against the sides of the screen.
You can center click the mouse on the battlefield and that square will be centered as best it can. The right mouse button is used to obtain information about any item on the battlefield.
Units are depicted from a top down view. When a unit is selected, a ring with an arrow showing the direction will encircle it.
CONSOLE BAR
During parts of the game a green or red arc will extend out from the unit. The green arc shows the Field of View (FOV) for the unit. The red arc is the firing arc of any highlighted weapon.
The Mini Map takes up the bottom left hand corner. Blue squares are friendly units, red squares depict enemies and the yellow square shows where the main battlefield view is centered.
The Menus are to the right of the map. You can left click any of these to expand them. Right clicking units or the field will bring up action menus.
PHASE I: THE MOVEMENT PHASE
Movement is accomplished in one of four ways once a unit is highlighted: left click on any valid square, use the arrow keys on the console bar, use the keypad to move the unit, trace a path that you want the unit to follow using the left mouse button (right mouse to cancel).
LINE OF SIGHT (LOS)
For a unit to have an LOS to a square, a "line" is draw from the front of the unit to the target square. For each new square the line passes through, the terrain VISIBILITY DIMINISHED BY value is tallied. Once this tally meets or exceeds 100%, the unit can see this square, but no further.During the Movement Phase, the active unit's LOS is always displayed next to the cursor.
MENU ITEMS
CHARGE - Once per turn, a non-vehicle unit can charge. This will double the MPs for the turn. Some weapons cannot be used later if a unit charges.
CHANGE STANCE - Most units have two stances. For example, Paintball allows a standing and crawling stance.
PHASE II: TARGET PHASE
During the Targetting Phase, the Console Bar shows the current unit and its weaponry.
CHOOSING AND TARGETING WEAPONS
Each force can have up to six weapons that are placed in up to six groups. A force can fire any and all weapons in one group per turn. You can determine which weapons are grouped together by the color frame around the picture.
Choose the weapon you want to fire by left clicking the weapon in the box. To then target the weapon, left click the desired location on the battlefield.
PHASE III: FIRING THE WEAPONS
To fire a weapon, simply click on its picture and watch the attack happen or choose a menu item.
HOT KEY DEFINITIONS
PHASE 1 SPECIFIC
Keypad matches up with the directional buttons: 8 = Forward, 9 = Turn Right, etc.
H - Charge
A - Ammo
BACKSPACE - Undo
Tab - Change Stance
PHASE 2 & 3 SPECIFIC
Keypad 4, 5 & 6 map to weapons 1, 2 & 3 instead of clicking on them. Keypad 1, 2 & 3 map to weapons 4, 5 & 6.
Keypad 7, 8 & 9 map to weapons 4, 5 & 6 as well.
V - Overwatch
A - Fire All
U or SpaceBar - Fire Unit
Y/N - Yes/No for questions
Enter/ESC - Enter/Cancel Vehicle Movement
L - Remaining (Left) units to move/target/fire
N - Next Unit
SPACE - Unit Done
F - End Phase
C - Center Active unit
R - Reports Menu
P - Phase Menu
G - Game Menu
CNTRL+Q - End Game
. - Sound up
M - Toggle Music
CNTRL+R - Retreat
CNTRL+ENTER - Toggle Full Screen and Windowed Mode
