PC Gamer 3.9/1997-12_Disc_3.9_No._1.bin/SP3_DEMO/readme.txt

Text File | 1997-08-13 | 21KB | 386 lines

Steel Panthers 3: Brigade Command  Demo Copyright SSI 1997
All rights reserved.

Getting Started:
To play the demo,  open a DOS window or start from DOS.  At the prompt type:
'Steel3d'.  Note that in Win95 the DOS box that comes up after setting sound
is inactive.

We strongly recommend that you proceed through the tutorial step-by-step.
This scenario is specially written to make you familiar with the rules,
menu screens and "tricks of the trade" in a Steel III battle.  Also please
check the Readme.txt file for the latest information.

This demo contains two scenarios you can play - the Tutorial and Beda Fomm.
There is no music in this demo.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  do not hit keys during the AI turn as this is how you
quit playing...  Do hit any key to end (at the next break in the action) a
scenario during the AI turn.

Starting the tutorial

Even if you are experienced with the Steel Panthers system you should play
the tutorial scenario to become acquainted with the new tactical level and
features involved in this game.

The tutorial has step-by-step instructions to allow quick familiarity with
the screens,  unit types and options you can set.  For individual unit
information,  the Encyclopaedia screens will provide detailed information
by nationality for the individual units.

The Selections screen leads to the various elements of  this demo.
Click on the button for your choice.   Start is used after selecting
the tutorial scenario. Clicking Battle begins a computer vs. computer
demonstration game constructed with the Battle Generator.  Preferences
takes you to the Preferences screen where the rules,  parameters and options
for gameplay can be controlled.  The exit button will take you out of Steel
III.

Tutorial:

The battlefield from 1939 onwards has become an increasingly technical and
complicated challenge.  Reading and playing through the following tutorial
will give you the tools to win in Steel III.

The first step for this tutorial is to establish the parameters of the
scenario;  this is done in the Preferences screen.  From the opening
Selections Screen select Preferences.  The Preferences control screen will
come up.  The upper left section of the screen contains preferences such
as sound effects (on or off) music on and off.  For the tutorial set music
however you like,  also freely set sound volume to your taste.  Please set
all other buttons to conform to the list below.

PREFERENCE SETTINGS.

Set:    Music                   Your choice  (but no music exists, so...)
    Sound FX        Your choice
    Hex Grid        Your Choice
    Animation        on
    Hex info        on
    Objective flags        on
    Auto rally        on
    Move radius        on
    Fast Artillery        on
    Unit number        all units
    AI level         xxx
    Sound volume        Your choice
    Animation level        4 - (all the way to right)
    Message delay         10+
    Small Icon        xxx

    Breakdowns        on
    Ammo limit        on
    Command            on
    Morale            on
    Move & shoot        on
    Mines            on
    Country training    on
    Control            on
    Hidden Fire        off

    Searching        100
    Hitting            100
    Rout/Rally        100
    Troop quality        xxx
    Tank toughness        100
    Infantry toughness    100
    Battle points        xxx
    Air sorties        xxx
    Troop types        Foot infantry

Exit the preferences screen.  Left click Scenario and then left click on
the top selection on the list at the left of the screen - Tutorial.  Then
left-click the Start button.  The player control screen will come up.  Make
sure the German side is set to human player,  and the American side to the
computer player.  Click on Start Turn.
The Main play screenwill appear with a red hexagon around your Headquarters
unit.  This unit represents you - the battlefield commander.  Orders and
leadership stem from this unit,  so protect it well!

On the right side of the screen is a button with a picture of a clipboard
on it.  Click this and look over the unit info screen.  Notice that units
I0 - Panther D and J0 Panther G are listed as Ready under Status,  but with
yellow script.  This means that these units are ready to fight,  but not on
the map at this time.  These will enter later as reinforcements.  Note,
too that the Headquarters,  unit G0, has a Status of Immobilized.  This is
to remind that this unit does not move.  Some of the other units are listed
as Dug-In.  These units are more than Ready!  They are displayed on the map
with special markers to show their enhanced defensive positions.  Left Click
on the button marked with unit # D0.  This will take you to the location of
this unit,  centered in the game map.  Use the Magnifying Glass buttons or
the (+) and (-) hotkeys to zoom in and out on the map.  When zoomed in over
D0,  note the 'sandbags' that surround D0 and the nearby Marder tank
destroyers.  These are the dug-in markers.  Left click on unit D0,  the
right click on it.  This screen shows details about the unit.  For now,
look at the lower left hand area of text and find the line that reads
"Set Range".  Click on this line of text.  A dialog pops up where you can
enter the maximum range at which you wish to have the unit fire.  Type 2,
and then the enter key.  This Anti-tank gun will now wait until a visible
opponent comes within two hexes - 400 yards - before firing.  It's an ambush.
To do the same for units CO and C1 nearby, use this method:  There are two
units in formation C.  Clicking on the tent,  hot key 'H',  brings up the
Headquarters menu.  Click on the line of text that says 'C>Maj. Schwartz'
and note the information on the left.  In the center group of buttons is
one that allows range to be set for the whole formation.  Click this and
enter 2 and your blocking group of anti-tank weapons will all be set to
ambush at range 2.  Exit this screen.

Steel3 has a number of display options for your units.  You may have already
noticed that selecting a unit causes the number on the unit to
'color cycle' - that sort of strobing effect.  All units in the same
formation do this together.  Locate and select unit B0.  Note that after a
few seconds the numbers on the four tanks all cycle together,  on the main
map screen and on the small strategic map screen.  This is to help locate
the various elements of one formation,  since formations may have from one
to many icons on the screen.

When you click on B0 note that this formation has a rather limited objective,
hex 9,22.  Let's send this powerful armored formation where they can do more
good - the front of the fight.  Make sure B0 is selected.   Left click the
bright green blob in the center of the strategic map.  This will center the
main map screen on the set of objectives near hex 47,19.  Click on the single
flag button to set a new objective for the B formation.  The objective set
screen will come up.  Left click on hex 47,19 to place the formation
objective there.  Press ESC and leave the screen.  Your whole B formation
should have the orders:  "Advance to 47,19". Click once again on B0,  hit
the A hot key or the All Formation move button,  and send the Panzer IV's up
the road together by clicking as far as the move radius is highlighted -
somewhere near hex 12, 7. Note that the move radius is highlighted in a
rough cone; brighter hexes show where a unit can move without using any
orders.  If orders are available a unit can move within its movement point
limit to any hex.  To do so click on the hex where you wish to move.  Note
that this constitutes a major change to how one moves from previous Steel
Panthers games - you will use orders for <each mouse click> when moving
'out of the cone'!  The units will move one at a time toward their
common goal.  Click the All Formation move button or press A again to turn
off all-formation move - it is best not to leave it on,  lest you move
undesired elements of a formation accidentally.

Now you can set up an artillery bombardment.   You first pick the unit
that is spotting for the fire.  The A0 unit is often a good choice,  as it
contains officers skilled in spotting and designating artillery fire.  If,
however,  the A0 cannot see the target hex,  the fire is considered
unspotted and the effect is halved.  In this case,  use the F0 unit -it is
right there.  Also note that the following instructions represent a ruthless
and dangerous use of artillery fire - if your own troops are this close,
you will take casualties from your own fire.  Willingness to do so is a
hallmark of two military types:  fine infantry and ruthless officers.  Draw
your own conclusions.  Click on the Bombardment button or Hotkey 'B'.
Left-click on hex 43,19 and then click on the 'bombard'  button - to the
right of the 'eye' button - for unit K0.  Now do the same for  K1. For K0,
click on the shift fire mission button (4 way arrow) and left-click on hex
45,19.  A bonbardment marker will appear there.  Click K0's shift fire
mission button again and move the mission to hex 47,19.  Repeat the process
for K1's fire mission.  When you end your turn the enemy units will begin to
move,  and some will get caught in this bombardment. On the right of the row
of small buttons is a number.  Hopefully this is 0.2.  This shows the delay
until the indirect fire selected comes in.  0.0 means immediately after
your turn,  0.1 through 0.3 are delayed,  but will fallduring the enemy turn,
0.4 and 0.5 fall after the next enemy turn,  1.0 or greater is the number of
full turns before the fall of this indirect fire.Repeat the process for K1's
fire mission.  When you end your turn the enemy units will begin to move,
and some will get caught in this bombardment.

End your turn at this point by clicking on the end turn button.

The U.S. force will begin to advance and your Volksgrenadier position near
45,19 will come under attack by armored cars (at first!).  Your lads will
defend themselves as best they can and if all goes well you will swap
casualties,  but not have more than one unit displaced.  At the end of U.S.
turn a message will pop-up announcing the arrival onboard of the two Panther
units we looked at earlier in the unit menu.  These (say thank you!) arrive
in hex 15,0.  They have orders to support your forward positions,  so move
them along the road by selecting one unit,  then clicking on hex 24,7 while
holding the shift key down.  The shift key allows you to move into a hex
already containing other units - friendly or enemy.  (Assuming you do not get
shot up on the way!)  Advance your Pz IV's in Formation B,  they should be
close behind the Panthers.  The Volksgrenadier position has probably taken a
bit of a beating.  One or more units will have taken suppression.  Use the
command capabilities of your units to reducethis suppression.  Here's how:
Click on the most important unit (in your judgement - probably a unit still
in place)  and click the Rally button or press R on the keyboard. If the
rally is successful,  a message will pop-up saying that your officer has
reduced suppression.  Each success cuts suppression in half.  Keep clicking
until the attempt fails (which will be indicated in a message) or your
suppression drops below 2 - Rallying is not permitted below 2 suppression,
although a single point of suppression can be removed by certain combat
successes.  Once everybody is rallied as far as possible,  attack where you
can.  Your units may close assault if adjacent to enemy vehicles,  or shoot
if not.  Select the unit you wish to have attack,  then move the cursor over
the enemy unit.  The cursor will become a 'crosshair'  indicating possible
attack.  After one attack and any enemy responses you may want to rally
units again,  if they can still do so.   It may not seem to do anything to
shoot armored cars with guns that cannot punch through their armor,  but any
hit has some suppressing effect.  The main thing is that putting units under
fire slows them and reduces their ability to spot enemy.

End your turn.  The Volksgrenadier position will pretty much fall apart at
this point.  Save what you can,  it can annoy and delay the enemy.  Should a
unit get completely bypassed,  rally it if you can and send it toward the
enemy objectives near 70,12.

The general theme of the enemy attack should now be clear:  They are driving
west down the road with flanking elements to north and south.  Bring the
Panthers up to the defensive position with the Marders and the Anti-tank gun.
The important thing here is to get the Panthers,  who have the most potent
main gun in this scenario,  out away from the first wave of the attack.
Put the Pz IV's up - they will end up stemming the first armored charge.
Keep B0 the Headquarters of the tank company back,  and use it later to swing
behind the enemy after they are committed.. This unit will lose the capacity
to generate orders if it becomes heavily suppressed,  so - out of harm's way.
End your turn.

Life will now be brutish and short for the remaining Volksgrenadier units.
When the U.S. turn ends,  rally where necessary and look to your flanks.
In addition to their tanks the American forces have infantry and anti-tank
guns that can cause you trouble.  The best way to deal with them is to shoot
the halftrack carrying them,  with incipient loss of men and morale.
Take good shots at seven hexes or less,  particularly at enemy flanks.
Wrecks help slow enemy movement and lower their morale.  Especially watch
for chances to lurk on the flanks of the road approaches - check hex 30,21.
This is prime Panther real estate.  If any Stuart or other light armor
preceded the general advance,  try jumping them at range 2 with a couple of
Pz-IV's.  Don't get closer,  the light guns might hurt you up close!  Do
what you can cautiously.  There are good overwatch chances fron hex 27,19.
Note that it is better to alternate shots at the same target from multiple
firing units if possible.  Your chance to hit improves with each of the
first three shots at a target (not close assaults).  By possibly causing
the enemy to change targets you lower your risk while not diminishing your
accuracy.  Then end your turn.

By Allied turn #7 the Jumbos will arrive.  These are heavily armored tanks
with a good,  but not great, main gun.  These tough American tanks now
become your chief concern.  Do not close with them unnecessarily,  and move
so you shoot them in the rear and sides.  Even then you will have a
challenge.  Try to bring them into contact with the dug-in troops and move
around them.  Some tanks will undoubtedly get entangled with other non-tank
American units.  Run them off now,  hunt them later.

Eventually other U.S. forces will attack you in the town.  Close assault from
the protection of the urban hexes.  Rally your lads constantly and hang on.
You should win the fight at the ambush point,  and those units can help
later.  You are own your own from here on.  Later you may enjoy trying the
American side.  Happy hunting!

One major new feature of Steel Panthers III: Brigade Command is the command
control element.  What follows here is a brief synopsis of the rules for
command control.  If you wish,  you can turn of the Orders portion of the
rules by setting Control to Off in the Preferences menu.

I.  COMMAND CONTROL & ORDERS

Certain actions performed by units in the game require the use of 'orders'.
Each formation leader (A0, x0 - any '0' unit) has orders which a unit in its
formation may use if the unit is in contact with its leader.  A unit may also
use the orders from a higher HQ if it has contact with the higher HQ either
directly or through indirect contact through it's formation HQ.

Example: Let's assume we have a battalion formation with b0 as the battalion
HQ and units c0,c1,c2 and c3 as a company formation belonging to b0's
battalion. Unit c1 could use the orders of unit c0 if it is in contact with
c0. If it is in contact with  b0, or if it has contact with c0 and c0 has
contact with b0, it could use the orders of b0. If it is in contact with a0,
or if it is in contact with c0 which is in contact with a0 either directly or
indirectly through b0, then it may use the orders of a0.

When a unit is active, it determines which HQ it thinks it should obtain its
orders from at that moment, and that HQ's letter designation and the number
of orders the HQ has available is displayed in parenthesis at the bottom of
the screen. If a unit has multiple HQ's it can draw orders from, the selected
HQ can change during the turn as orders are expended.

At the beginning of each turn each leader has a chance to gain new orders.
Some unused orders may also be carried over from the previous turn.


1. GAINING ORDERS
At the start of each turn leaders may receive new orders.  The number of new
orders a leader may receive is equal to:

(COMMAND RATING + RANDOM(10) -40 + NATIONALITY COMMAND RATING) / 10.

Thus a German leader in 1941 (Nationality command rating 0) with a command
rating of 74 would receive 3 orders 60% of the time and 4 orders 40% of the
time.
Every leader will receive a minimum of one new order per turn.


Leaders may also retain unused orders from the previous turn and add them to
the newly received orders.  The maximum number of unused orders a leader may
retain is determined by the leaders rank:

Private   0
Corporal  0
Sergeant  1
2nd Lt.   1
1st Lt.   1
Captain   2
Major     2
Lt.Col.   2
Col.      3
Gen.      3

The total number of orders a leader may have available at the start of a
turn is equal to his retained orders plus his newly received orders.

2. ADVERSE MORALE STATES
After the number of available orders has been calculated this number may be
reduced if the leaders unit is in an adverse morale state:
Buttoned       orders halved
Pinned         orders halved
Retreating     orders reduced to zero
Routed         orders reduced to zero

3. UNIT STANCE
Each unit in the game may be assigned either an ADVANCE or DEFEND stance.
Units assigned an ADVANCE stance that are not in an adverse morale state may
be moved or fired by  the owning player.  Units assigned a DEFEND stance may
fire but may not be moved, and will attempt to create entrenchments if they
are either infantry, infantry weapons teams, or vehicles (i.e. gun units
cannot create entrenchments) and they do not fire during the turn. If a
unit with a DEFEND stance is forced to retreat, it will change its stance to
ADVANCE. The number of turns it takes to entrench is based on the experience
of the unit and its suppression level and can be sped up by adjacent engineer
units. It usually takes several turns to reach an entrenched state.


4. FORMATION MOVEMENT OBJECTIVES
Formations may be assigned movement objectives. Whenever a new objective is
selected for a formation, units then in contact (physically or by radio) with
the formation HQ will be given the new objective. Units not then in contact
will not be given the new objective but will receive the new objective
whenever they begin a turn in contact with their HQ. Objectives can only be
given for the entire formation, but units within a formation may have
different objectives depending on whether they have been in contact with
their HQ as new objectives have been selected.
Units with an ADVANCE stance may move toward their formation's movement
objective without their leader expending any orders. Only hexes the unit can
each without expending orders will be highlighted, although the unit may be
able to move to other non-highlighted hexes by expending orders as long as
the player is not in all-formation mode.  A unit that attempts to move in a
direction that is not towards it's formation objective will require a leader
in the chain of command to spend one or more orders. If a unit does not have
access to any orders, it can only move to highlighted hexes. Units with a
DEFEND stance may be given movement objectives, but may not move until they
have changed their stance to ADVANCE. Use the single flag button to set an
objective for a formation by moving the cursor over the hex you want to be
the objective for the current formation and pressing thesingle flag button
(in the deploy phase you can use , to set all formations to one objective).

5. UNIT ACTIONS THAT REQUIRE A LEADER TO SPEND ORDERS
Certain unit actions require a leader in the chain of command, that is in
physical or radio contact with the unit, to expend one or more orders.  If
none of the leaders in the chain have the required orders then those actions
may not be performed.  Listed below are the orders costs for each type of
action:

(PHYSICAL CONTACT WITH HQ / RADIO CONTACT WITH HQ

single unit movement - not toward objective   -    (1 / 2)
request  an indirect fire bombardment  (per artillery unit)   -  (1 / 1)
change formation movement objective    -    ( 3 / 3)
change mission - single unit      -      (1 / 2)
change mission - all units in formation     -  (3 / 3)