Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac 1993 September/September 93.iso/Archives/Games/War/CinC™/Manual.txt

Text File | 1990-02-25 | 25KB | 555 lines

CinC The Game of Exploration and Conquest

Copyright © 1986 Loki Engineering, Inc. All Rights Reserved

CinC makes you Commander in Chief of one of two opposing military forces
attempting to dominate the world and vanquish the other. You control the land,
sea and air forces and the production of captured cities in a race to defeat
the dreaded Enemy.

The World

The game is played on a "world" which is different each game. The world is
composed of land and sea. Most of the sea is connected to make an ocean and
the land is separated into numerous islands of different sizes. Cities are
scattered on the islands. Locations on the world map are determined by a grid
which is 60 units high and 100 units wide. Each grid square is all land, sea
or city. At the beginning of a game, each side holds a single city and knows
only the location of it's city and the terrain surrounding that city. As the
game progresses, each side uses it's forces to explore the rest of the world.

The Military Powers

You control one of the military forces of the game, while the CinC program
controls the other. Your side is generally referred to as the "Player," while
the opposition is referred to as the "Enemy." The Player and the Enemy play in
turn, following the same rules. The kinds of forces available to each side
are: armies, fighters, destroyers, submarines, transports, carriers and
battleships.

Cities

Each city in the world is either neutral or held by the Player or the Enemy.
At the beginning of the game, each side controls one city; all the remaining
cities are neutral. Each side uses it's cities to produce the armies, ships,
and airplanes used for exploration and battle. When a neutral or opposition
city is captured, the victor chooses a type of unit to be produced by that
city. In addition, the side which controls a city may change it's production
at any time. A ship that is damaged in battle can be returned to a friendly
city for repair. Cities can be garrisoned with armies to protect the
production capacity.

"Hits" and Battles

Each unit has a number of "hits" associated with it: armies and fighters have
one "hit," while ships may have between one and twelve hits. The "hits left"
of a unit is the current strength of that unit.

Battles take place whenever one side attempts to move a unit into a grid
square occupied by an opposing unit. If the opposing units are armies or
fighters, each with a strength of one hit, the battle will be resolved with a
equal chance of either unit winning. If either (or both) of the units is a
ship, a series of "sub-battles" are fought where the loser of each sub-battle
is reduced by one hit. When one of the opposing units is reduced to zero hits,
it is destroyed.

Note that one unit will always be destroyed in a battle; and, if the victor is
a ship, it may emerge damaged. Except as noted below, the victorious unit will
be moved into the loser's grid square.

Cities have an inherent defensive hit strength of one, but may be reinforced
by a garrison of armies, which must be eliminated before the city can be
captured. Only armies can capture cities, but ships and fighters may attack
the garrison. Ships in port and re-fueling fighters do not contribute to the
defense of a city, but will be lost if the city falls. Even if a fighter or
ship destroys a garrison, it will not be moved into the city. When an army
captures a city, it is dispersed to form the inherent hit strength of the
city.

Mixed force battles (between a ship and an army) are permitted, but a
victorious attacker will not be moved into the defender's grid square.

Visibility

A player is only shown that portion of the world map which is (or has been)
occupied or adjacent to his forces. Each side must explore to determine the
geography of the world and the disposition of the opposition. If an Enemy
force is encountered, it will continue to be displayed until a Player's unit
verifies that it is no longer in that position. Similarly, a city that is
displayed as neutral may turn out to occupied by the enemy when it is visited
later. Note that this concept of displaying "last sighted position" can
sometimes make the enemy seem more (or less) numerous than he really is.

Military Forces

As mentioned above, various military forces may have different hit counts
associated with them. Each type of unit has a number of other characteristics
associated with it.

Movement Ability

Armies may only move on land or onto a troop transport. Ships may only move on
ocean or into a city. Fighters may move over both land and ocean. Movement may
be horizontal vertical or diagonal. In general, only one unit may occupy a
square at a time. Cities, however, can hold any number of units, and
transports and carriers can hold armies and fighters, respectively (see
below).

Per-Turn Range

Armies may move one square per turn; ships may move two squares; and fighters
may move up to four squares. Ships that enter port, fighters that land and
ships and fighters that are given a null move (by clicking the unlabeled
button in the center of the compass) forfeit any remaining range for that
turn. Since fighters consume fuel only when they move, null moves can be used
to increase the dwell time at a patrol station or to wait for approaching
armies to capture a landing.

Refueling Range

Armies and ships may move indefinitely without returning to a city for
refueling or resupply. Fighters cannot move more than 20 grid squares without
landing in a city or on a carrier for fuel. A fighter that runs out of fuel
crashes and is lost.

Transports and Aircraft Carriers

Troop transports can carry armies and aircraft carriers can carry (and refuel)
fighters. Troop transports can hold up to two times as many armies as they
have hits left, while aircraft carriers can hold as many planes as they have
hits left.

Submarines

Since submarines are armed with torpedoes, they cause greater damage with a
hit. A submarine hit is counted as three hits against the opponent's ship.
Thus, a submarine has a high probability of sinking a small ship or severely
damaging a capital ship. Since fighters and armies are killed with one hit, a
submarine has no special advantage over these units.

Damaged Ships

Ships which are reduced to half their hit original strength or less move at
half speed (one square per turn). If a damaged ship is in a friendly port at
the beginning of a turn, one hit is added to her strength up to the original
strength of the unit.

Construction Time

Each unit requires a number of turns to be produced, depending on the type of
the unit. In addition, the first unit (of a particular type) produced by a
city takes additional time as the city gears up.  A change in production
causes any partial production to be lost and also costs the added "tool up"
time.

Maximum Number of Units

Each player is allowed a maximum of 600 combat units. If this number is
exceeded by new construction, the production of the new units will be delayed
until other units are destroyed.

The following table summarizes the kinds of units which may be produced:

    Representation            Production Time
Unit Name         Player    Enemy        Initial    Subsequent  Hits

Army        A    a         6     5     1
Fighter        F    f        12     10     1
Destroyer    D    d        24    20      3
Submarine    S     s        30     25     2
Transport    T    t        35    30      3
Carrier        C     c        55    50     8
Battleship    B    b        55     50    12


Starting a New Game

The CinC program is started by double-clicking the CinC application icon on
the desktop. When the title screen and menu bar are displayed, the "New Game"
item can be selected from the File menu to start a new game.

There is then a delay (noticeably less than six days) while a new "world" is
created, after which a dialogue is displayed that gives you the option of
selecting a level of play, or creating a new world. (A particular world may
not permit all possible levels of play.) It is strongly recommended that your
first game be at level one or two. The level of play is determined largely by
the relative number of cities that are on the Player's and Enemy's starting
islands.  A high level implies that the Enemy has started with a large number
of cities on his home island.

Following level selection, your opening position is displayed. You start with
one city producing armies, and one army in the city. The game is stopped in
Orders Mode, so it may be saved at this point. You may also change the city
production (with the Production menu) with no penalty. Generally, the Play
item from the Orders menu is selected, which allows continuous play.

Menus

File Menu

The File menu allows games to be started, saved. or printed It is only active
while in Orders Mode. [At the present time, printing on a 128k Mac is likely
to crash the program.]

Orders Menu

Orders mode causes the options of the Orders menu to be active. It is only
entered at the beginning of the player's turn (or "in between rounds").

Play One Round will start play and return to Orders mode at the end of one
turn. There is always time to play just one more round.

Play will start play and continue until Stop is selected. This is the normal
mode of play.

Stop is used during play to cause Orders mode to be entered at the end of a
round.

Edit Mode allows units and cities to be edited (see below) while in Orders
mode. This may also be done during normal play.

Production Menu

The Production Menu is only active while editing a city or after a city has
been captured, and is used to assign production. The menu also displays the
initial and subsequent cost of building the various units. Note that if
production is changed, any current production is lost.

Maps Menu

The Maps Menu is only active after the enemy has surrendered (this is your
reward!). You can have the main display show your normal view of the world,
the enemy's view, or the true map of the world. The print selection on the
File menu prints the currently displayed map.

Windows

Two overlapping windows are displayed. The Map and Control window, which is
normally shown foremost, displays the maps and controls that are used during
play. The Message window displays various messages such as production and
battle results. Normally, only the bottom three lines of the message window
are displayed, but a mouse click will bring it to the front so that several
turns of messages will be displayed.

Maps

Two Maps are displayed. The large map shows about one fifth of the world at a
time in eight overlapping sectors. Each grid square on the large map is
represented as an 8x8 pixel cell. The small map shows the entire world at one
pixel per grid square resolution. Clicking a region of the small map causes
the corresponding sector to be displayed on the large map.

Controls

During the play, you will be prompted for the next move of each of your units.
The move is selected by using the control buttons displayed under the large
map. Early in the game, most units are moved manually, one square at a time;
but as the game progresses, it is useful to put as many units as possible in
one of the "automatic" modes that are available.

Most often used are the eight "compass" buttons that are used to select the
direction for the next move of a unit. (You may also point to an adjacent
square on the large map and click.) In the center of the compass is a blank
control used to select no action for the unit.

Automatic Modes

All of the units may be placed on automatic so that you will not be prompted
on each turn for a move. A unit with no automatic mode is said to be "Awake."
Units on automatic will temporarily awaken when something interesting happens,
such as running into the enemy, when the automatic instructions are illegal or
silly (i.e. attacking a friendly unit), or a fighter has reached the "point of
no return." At this time the compass controls may be used to temporarily alter
course, after which that automatic instruction will be followed; or new
instructions may be given.

Sentry Mode is used to tell a unit to sit and wait for something to happen.
Armies are most often sentried, either to garrison a city, to wait for a
transport, or simply to watch a coastline for invasions. Fighters in sentry
mode consume only one unit of fuel per round and prompt for a move when the
fuel remaining is less than or equal to the distance to the nearest landing.

Destination Mode is used to have the a unit automatically moved from one point
to another. (When prompted to move a unit, pointing to any location on the map
and clicking is sufficient to give the unit a destination command.) For
fighters, the range will be checked, but otherwise it is possible to select an
impossible destination. (It is your responsibility to insure that the fighter
path is clear!) A "shortest course" is used, but it is not always the path you
would have selected.

Direction Mode is used to send a unit in one direction. This is often used
during exploration. Fighters with a direction command awaken temporarily when
at half fuel level, range 10.

Random Mode applies only to armies and tells the unit to wander aimlessly. If
a unfilled transport is encountered, the army boards and awakens.

Wake Mode awakens the unit. If it is selected for transports or carriers, any
armies or fighters currently on the ship are also awakened.

Land Mode instructs a fighter to land at the nearest city or carrier. It is
your responsibility to insure that the carrier stays in range.

Editing

Edit mode may be entered during your turn by clicking the EDIT control. While
in Edit mode one unit or city will be "selected."  By default, the unit that
was currently prompting for action will be selected, but you may change the
selection by pointing to a friendly unit or city and clicking. The automatic
mode, hit level, and passengers of a unit will be displayed on the control
window. If a city is selected, the production and garrison information will be
displayed on the message window.

While in Edit mode, you may change the automatic mode of any unit or awaken it
by clicking the appropriate control. For cities, you may change the production
with the Production menu.

Automatic Modes can also be assigned to all units in a city by selecting the
"Army Command" or "Fighter Command" control. You will be prompted to select
the desired mode. These city commands will apply to any army or fighter that
enters or is produced in a city. A typical use of this facility is to have the
army command of an inland army producing city be "destination" to a port that
produces transports. The army command of the port would be set to Sentry.
After this has been set up, no further interaction will be needed, and every
thirty moves a loaded transport will be ready to set sail!

Winning

In theory, the game could continue until one player holds all of the cities in
the world, and the other player has no more armies with which to take a city.
The Enemy is not that fanatical and will surrender when that result is
inevitable. The Enemy's reasoning is complicated, but it will generally
surrender when it is outnumbered two-to-one. Following the surrender, the
Enemy and Real maps are available to you on the Maps Menu. The Player can
surrender by stopping play.

Hints on Playing

While there are many theories of play, there are some guidelines that should
always be followed. The game is not won by skill in battle so much as skill in
exploration and production management. Therefore, the primary rule is to
always keep exploring for new cities and the second rule is to carefully
choose the production of each city.

Generally, the first city on each new island should produce armies so that
the island can be explored without reinforcement. The second city on the home
island usually produces transports so that exploration for other islands can
begin quickly. Cities far from the "front lines" are good candidates for
producing ships and fighters. Fighters because they can get to the action the
fastest, ships because the invested production time does not need to be
defended by a large garrison.

===== HELP WITH EDITING: =====

Editing is the process used to examine and change unit movement orders and
city production and army and fighter standing orders.

ENTERING EDIT MODE:

There are two times when it is possible to enter Edit Mode, when it is your
turn and when you are stopped between rounds in Orders Mode.  When prompted to
move a unit, enter Edit Mode by clicking the "Edit" button.  If you click the
"Edit" button while your units are moving automatically, without prompting,
you enter Edit Mode with the next unit to be moved pre-selected.  If you click
the "Edit" button during the Enemy turn, you enter Edit Mode at the start of
your next turn with the first unit to be move pre-selected.  When in Orders
Mode, enter Edit Mode by selecting "Edit" from the "Orders" menu.

EXITING EDIT MODE:

To exit edit mode, click the button labeled "End Editing".  If you entered
editing from Orders Mode, you will return to Orders Mode, otherwise, your turn
is resumed.

SELECTING THE EDIT OBJECT:

To select an object to edit, click the object on the map.  Only units that are
visible on the map can be edited, units in cities, armies on transports and
fighters on carriers cannot.

EDITING UNITS:

When a unit is selected for editing, the type of unit, current movement
command and when appropriate the hits left and units carried are reported.
Editing a unit is the same as responding to a prompt to move the unit.

EDITING CITIES:

When a city is selected for editing, the production, time remaining to
completion, units in the city and the army and fighter standing orders are
reported.  To change the production assignment for the city, select the
desired assignment from the "Production" menu.  When the production assignment
is changed, the first unit of the new type takes the larger to complete than
subsequent units.  To change the army or fighter standing orders, click the
"Army Command" or "Fighter Command" button and enter the new standing order
the same as giving the order to an individual unit.  The changed standing
order is passed to any armies or fighters in the city.

====== HELP WITH THE FILE MENU: ======

The FILE menu is used when CinC is started to begin a new game or to resume a
saved game and when stopped between rounds to save the game, print the world
map and exit the program.

NEW:

Select the NEW option to start a new game.  When this is selected, a graphic
is shown indicating that a new world is under construction.  Making a new
world may take several minutes ( but much less than six days ).  Construction
completes with a dialog with eleven buttons.  Ten of them are numbered 1
through 10 and are used to select the desired game difficulty.  Difficulty 10
is the most challanging.  Not all difficulty values are available on every
map, so some of the buttons may be dimmed and are inactive.  Click one of the
active difficulty buttons to start a game.  If the desired difficulty is not
available, click the New World button and the construction process will be
repeated.  Note that calculating difficulty values is not an exact science.

OPEN:

Select the OPEN option to resume a  game saved with the SAVE or SAVE AS
options.

SAVE:

Select the SAVE option to save the state of the game in progress.  If the
current game does not have a file name assigned to it, you will be asked for
one.  If a name was given to the game in a previous SAVE or the game was
resumed using the OPEN option, the remembered name will be used.

SAVE AS:

Select the SAVE AS... option to save the state of the game in progress with a
new name.  The name you supply becomes the name assigned to the game.

PRINT:

Select the PRINT option to print the map of the world.  When the Enemy has
surrendered, you are allowed to look at the Enemy and Real maps.  The map that
is printed is the one that is displayed.

[ Currently, the PRINT option uses two dialogs to select style options.  The
combination that has been found to work best is Legal and Wide. ]

QUIT:

Select the QUIT option to exit the program.  If you have played any rounds
since the last save and the Enemy has not surrendered, a dialog will give you
the opportunity to SAVE before the exit or cancel the option.

====== HELP WITH MOVING UNITS: =======

When you are prompted to move a unit, the location of the unit on the map
blinks slowly.  The type of unit to be moved, the order assigned to the unit,
the number of hits left (for ships) and the number of units carried (for
transports and carriers) are written on the prompt line.  You can either give
the unit a single move or give the unit an automatic movement order.  If you
give an automatic movement order, the unit then moves with the new order.  In
some situations, units with a movement order other than "Awake"  prompt for a
move and may require a single move or a change of movement order.

SINGLE MOVEMENT:

To move a unit into an adjacent square, either click the adjacent square on
the map or click one of the direction buttons labeled "N", "NW", "W", "SW",
"S", "SE", "E" and "NE".  To not move a unit this round, either click on the
unit on the map or click the unlabeled button in the center of the direction
buttons.  If an army or fighter is not moved, any other units of the same kind
in the same place that are "Awake" or on "Sentry" also do not move.  Giving a
unit a single move does NOT change the movement order assigned to the unit.

AWAKE MOVEMENT:

Click the "Awake" button to give the current unit this movement order.  When
the current unit is a transport, clicking "Awake" gives the order to any
armies aboard and when the unit is a carrier, clicking "Awake" gives the order
to any fighters aboard.

Units with movement order "Awake" normally prompt for every move, but units
with no move available do not prompt.

SENTRY MOVEMENT:

Click the "Sentry" button to give the current unit this movement order.

A unit with movement order "Sentry" normally does not move.  This is a useful
order to give to armies waiting for or riding aboard transports.  Units on
"Sentry" prompt for a move when next to something they can attack.  Armies on
"Sentry" also prompt for a move when next to a transport that is not filled to
capacity.  Fighters on "Sentry" prompt when the distance to the nearest
landing equals the fuel remaining.  Note, fighters on "Sentry" use only one
unit of fuel per round.

DIRECTION MOVEMENT:

Click the "Direction" button to give the current unit this movement order.
Then select a direction from the labeled direction buttons or the unlabeled
button to cancel the new assignment.

Units with a direction movement order prompt for a move when a obsticle is
encountered.  Fighters with a direction movement order prompt for a move when
the fighter is half empty ( or half full ) of fuel.

DESTINATION MOVEMENT:

Click the "Destination" button to give the current unit this movement order.
Select the destination from the map or the unlabeled button to cancel the new
assignment.  Clicking the "Destination" button is optional, selecting a
destination on the map is assumed to be a destination.  If the desired
destination is not visible on the map, click the area with the desired
destination in the overview map.

Armies with a destination that is out to sea prompt for a move as do ships
with a destination that is inland.  Fighters with a destination to a friendly
city prompt for a move if the city is captured by the Enemy.  Fighters with a
destination to a carrier will "track" the carrier and prompt for a move if the
carrier is sunk or moves out of range.  Attempting to give a fighter a
destination that is out of range gives a warning beep and the fighter is not
given the order.

RANDOM MOVEMENT:

This movement order applies only to armies.  Click the button labeled "Randon"
to give the current army this movement order.

FILL MOVEMENT:

This movement order applies only to transports and carriers.  Click the button
labeled "Fill" to give the current transport or carrier this movement order.

A ship with this movement order acts like it was on "Sentry" except that when
it is filled to capacity it automatically changes to "Awake".  Note that the
capacity of a ship is reduced when the ship is damaged.

LAND MOVEMENT:

This movement order applies only to fighters.  Click the button labeled "Land"
to give the current fighter this movement order.  The fighter is given a
"Destination" order to the nearest friendly city or carrier.  If there is no
landing within range, the movement order of the fighter does not change.


====  HELP WITH THE ORDERS MENU: ======

PLAY:

Select the PLAY option to start continuous play of rounds. In each round, your
units move and then the Enemy has a turn.  Use the STOP option to stop the
continous play.

PLAY ONE ROUND:

Select the PLAY ONE ROUND option to play one round, stopping at the end of the
Enemy turn and returning to Orders Mode.

STOP:

Select the STOP option to cancel the continuous play started with the PLAY
option.

EDIT:

Select the EDIT option to examine and modify unit movement commands, city
production and city Army and Fighter automatic commands.  Editing with this
option works the same as editing with the Edit Mode button during play.  See
HELP WITH EDITING for more information.