Genesis Advanced Military Commander On-Line Manual
by Nebelwurfer
Table of Contents
I.
Overview
II.
Campaign
III.
Winning a Scenario
IV.
Movement/ZOCs
V.
Attacking
VI.
Scouting
VII.
Upgrading Units
VIII.
Supply
IX.
Economics
X.
Weather
XI.
Unit Menu
XII.
Option Menu
XIII.
Unit Types
Advanced Military Commander is a
strategy wargame which recreates the major battles of World War II. Individual
battles from 1939 to 1945 can be fought, or the player can take part in a
campaign of connected scenarios which span the entire war period. In the
campaign the player directs the Germans. It is possible for the Germans to do
better than they did historically and invade Britain, capture Egypt, or knock
the Soviets out of the war.
The game is turn based. You move and attack
with all your forces and then your computer opponents do likewise. As the war
progresses, scenarios take progressively longer to complete as the number of
units you are allowed to control increases as well as the size of the maps you
are fighting on.
It will require persistance and dedication to complete
the campaign. You will probably need an average of 10 hours to complete each
scenario. When you consider that you will have to work through 20 or so
scenarios, you are talking about 150-200 hours of playing time. Why devote so
much time to a game with such dated graphics and lame sound effects?
One
reason to keep playing is that the tanks, planes and ships are constantly being
improved during the war, and you can upgrade your veterans to the newer models.
This gives the game something of an RPG flavor and you can get quite attached to
some of your units whose experience took a long time to build up. Its also
interesting to see how much more capable the late war tanks are than the ones
being used at the outset.
Of course the other reason is to try and do
better than the historical outcome. If you were in command, could the D-Day
invasion have been driven back into the sea? Could the Battle of the Bulge have
succeeded in capturing Antwerp leading to an Armistance on the Western Front? Or
could you hold off the Soviets at the gates of Berlin?
During the course
of the war you will have some interesting decisions to make about the
composition of your force pool. You can build up a huge air force, but bad
weather can render them useless. How many slots do you want to have tied up with
transport vehicles? There are many units that can barely move and have to be
transported to get to the front lines.
There's also a Rock/Scissors/Paper
aspect to the different unit types. Some are good against aircraft, some are
good against infantry units, some are good against armored vehicles. So you
don't want to lean too heavily on any one type.
People who like fast
paced arcade action should look elsewhere. But if you like puzzle solving and
can put up with a limited amount of resource management, you will find a lot to
like here. The following sections go into a lot more detail on the various
aspects of the game.
The AMC campaign is a sequence of
scenarios, beginning in Poland in 1939 and usually culminating in a last ditch
defense of Berlin in 1945. The first scenarios in the campaign are used for
training. New Unit types are gradually introduced and the force pool grows from
an initial limit of 8 units to over 20 units by the time that Poland is
conquered.
Up to 4 scenarios take place in Poland, ending with the
capture of Warsaw. From Poland, you next invade Denmark or Norway. Next up is
France. Depending on how quickly you dispatch the French, you can be sent to
North Africa, invade Britain, or deal with Yugoslavia and Greece. At some point
you will have to attack the Soviets and either win outright or follow the
historical path where Germany was driven back and eventually forced to
capitulate.
When playing campaign scenarios, a briefing will be displayed
at the beginning and a debriefing will be displayed at the end of the scenario.
Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out a way to modify this text in the game
because it uses some sort of compression scheme. Translated briefings would add
a great deal to the enjoyment of the game. Perhaps someone else can figure it
out and pick up where my work left off.
The most important thing to
remember during the campaign is that you are racing to complete each scenario as
soon as possible. Certain scenarios will not become available unless you
complete the preceeding scenarios in record time. So if you always play it safe
and don't drive your men hard, then you will end up in a bunker in Berlin for
sure.
Starting with the second scenario, the map begins empty and you
have to deploy your forces (or purchase new ones) around your HQ before you can
move them off towards the enemy. You are allowed to deploy/purchase units on the
HQ hex itself, the 6 hexes surrounding the HQ, and any of your cities that are
within a 5 hex radius of the HQ hex. Air units must be deployed/purchased on
airports you control within a 5 hex radius of your HQ. And for the few scenarios
that include naval units, they must be purchased/deployed on ports you control
within a 5 hex radius of your HQ. In some of the later scenarios, it can take
several turns to get all of your units deployed on the map, especially the air
units because the supply of airports is always limited.
The computer
player operates under the same restrictions. Any new units that he purchases
must be placed within a 5 hex radius of a HQ he controls. When you capture one
of his HQs, you prevent him from building any new units in that area. This also
makes it difficult to capture an enemy HQ, because the computer opponent can
keep popping up new units every turn in eligible hexes if you don't occupy them
with your own units or capture them with your infantry units.
To win a scenario you must
either capture or destroy all enemy HQs, or destroy all enemy units. It is
usually easier to capture/destroy all enemy HQs, because the computer opponent
will have an opportunity to buy additional units each turn. You lose if you run
out of time or have your own HQ captured or destroyed by the
enemy.
Destroying all Enemy Units
Assuming that you are trying
to win by killing all enemy units, there is a screen that will come in handy.
With Fog of War turned on, you can't see the entire map. You can only see the
immediate area around your units and cities you control. How can you tell if
that enemy infantry unit over there is the last one left? There is a screen that
you can call up that will show summaries for all factions, showing how many
total infantry, tank, etc. each faction currently has. You call it up by
selecting the Options Menu, then selecting HQs, and pressing the "C" button
while the HQ list is displayed. You will see a screen like this:
Unit Totals Screen - Click to see Full Size
Here's what each of the
letters in the table stand for:
F - Fighter
A - Attack Plane
C -
Air Transport
B - Level Bomber
P - Tank
U - Artillery
R -
Anti-Aircraft
T - Ground Transport
Q - Anti-Tank Gun
G - Fortress
I
- Infantry
W - Warship
Z - Submarine
So you can tell by
looking at the graphic that Poland has 4 tank type units and 5 infantry type
units remaining. You would need to eliminate all of these to win the scenario
without capturing or destroying the Polish HQ(s). Note that most units contain
10 vehicles at full strength. However there are exceptions to this, such as
Level Bombers and Air transports which may only contain 6 vehicles at full
strength. Also only a count of the number of warships appears in this table,
instead of totaling the current strength of each
warship.
Capturing/Destroying Enemy HQs
Infantry are the only
unit type capable of capturing enemy Cities, HQs, Ports, and Airports. If an
infantry unit has suffered damage, it will be less effective in taking control
of a city. A city or HQ has a base fortification rating of 100. The
fortification rating can be increased by a construction vehicle. It can be
lowered by a Level Bomber attack or Capture attempt.
To capture a HQ, an
infantry unit must drive its fortification rating below zero. This may require
several capture attempts, especially if the infantry unit is inexperienced or
damaged or both. If a city is not captured or destroyed it will gradually
rebuild its fortification level to 100 over the next several turns on its
own.
To destroy a HQ, use Level Bomber bombing attacks until the
fortification level is reduced to zero. This turns the HQ city into rubble. Note
that Level Bombers are not introduced until the first French scenario, so
capture of enemy HQs with infantry is the only option available until
then.
Factions
Sometimes the forces opposing you will be
divided into more than one faction. For example in the Low Countries scenario,
enemy factions include Belgium, Holland, France, and Britain. Each faction can
contain one or more HQs. The moment you capture the last HQ in a faction, the
faction's remaining cities switch to your control and all that faction's
remaining forces are eliminated from the game. If you destroy the last HQ rather
than capturing it, the remaining cities in that faction go neutral instead of
switching to your control.
Enemy HQ Screen - Click to see Full Size
One last thing to
consider is that all units will be refuelled and repaired at the moment that the
scenario is won. So you could operate your planes past the point of no return if
they helped you to capture/destroy the last enemy HQ before the planes ran out
of fuel and crashed.
Movement plays a key role on the
battlefield. Most weapons in the game are direct fire weapons, meaning that you
have to be adjacent to an enemy in order to use them.
All units have a
specified movement rating. This rating is dependent on the unit's mode of
propulsion and can be adjusted based on other factors. For example most tank
vehicles are tracked and have a movement rating of 5. If a tank was weighed down
by exceptionally heavy armor, then its movement rating might drop to 3.
Conversely a tank or other tracked vehicle with little or no armor might have a
movement rating as high as 8.
How far a unit can move depends on its
movement rating, the terrain it is passing through, and its propulsion type.
Some units are prohibited from entering certain terrain types. The following
paragraphs summarize the most common propulsion types found in the
game.
Wheeled
Wheeled units have a base movement rating of 8.
As long as they stay on roads, they can move 8 hexes each turn. Going off-road
will severely impede their progress as every other terrain type will cost them 3
or 4 movement points each to enter. Wheeled vehicles cannot enter Hills or
Mountain hexes.
Note: some Recon vehicles are equipped with big balloon
tires. These Wheeled ATV vehicles can move through clear terrain as easily as
roads. They also pay less of a penalty to enter rough
terrain.
Tracked
Tracked vehicles navigate rough terrain better
than any other ground vehicle type. Clear and Road hexes only cost tracked
vehicles one movement point to enter. Most other terrain types cost 2 MP to
enter. An exception to this is Hills, which cost 3 MP to enter. Tracked vehicles
are prohibited from entering Mountain hexes.
Towed
Towed units
only have 1 Movement point. In order for them to keep up with your advance they
will need to be loaded and then unloaded from a transport unit.
Fast
Tracked
This is a movement type found on some light tanks. The tracks are
removable and the vehicle can then travel on the road at a high rate of speed on
its underlying wheels. This unit type pays penalties to move off road and cannot
enter Hills or Mountain terrain.
Half Tracked
Half tracked
vehicles have road wheels in front for steering, but movement is provided by a
tracked chassis in back. Typically half tracked vehicles are conversions
incorporating an obsolete tank chassis. If a half tracked vehicle is a
conversion of a Fast Tracked vehicle, it will share the same unsuitability to
off road use. Unfortunately, I didn't have room in the Unit statistics window to
differentiate between the two, so you'll have to experiment to see if the half
tracked vehicle is one of the lame versions.
Leg
Infantry units
only pay 1 MP to enter roads, clear and forest terrain. Most infantry units have
a movement rating of 3, although some heavily loaded infantry units only have a
movement rating of two. This is the only ground unit capable of entering
mountain or river terrain.
Flying
Flying units ignore terrain
types and can move one hex for each movement rating point. Planes typically
receive from 10 to 14 movement points.
Moving a Unit
To move a
unit select it with the cursor, press the A button to bring up the Unit Options
Menu, then select the "Move" button. Move the cursor to the hex where you want
the unit to move and then hit the A button again. If the unit has enough
movement points to reach that hex, then it will move to that location and you
will be asked to confirm the move by either attacking or selecting "Defend" to
just stay there. If the cursor location is beyond the unit's movement rating,
then nothing happens when you hit the A button.
If you are using the DGen
emulator to play the game, then there is no visual indication given of the
movement radius for a unit. You often have to move a unit several times,
checking to see if it had any remaining movement points, then cancelling and
trying to move again before finding the optimal move.
However if you are
using the Gens Emulator, all the hexes that the unit doesn't have enough
movement points to reach are darkened, while the hexes that it can reach are
displayed normally. This is a great aid in movement and the Gens emulator is
highly recommended for playing AMC.
After a unit moves, a small "E"
character will appear next to the unit to indicate that it has already taken an
action this turn and will be unavailable until next turn.
Zones of
Control/ZOCs
Enemy units restrict your units movement. An enemy unit is
said to exert a "Zone of Control" into each of the 6 hexes adjacent to it. The
effect of a ZOC is that your units have to end their movement upon entering an
enemy ZOC, even if they still have unused Movement points remaining. If you
begin your turn in an enemy ZOC you can freely leave, using your entire movement
allowance. However if you try to move from one enemy ZOC to another, your unit
will only be able to move one Hex in that turn.
In order to project a
ZOC, an enemy unit must have a weapon capable of damaging the moving unit and it
must have at least one round of ammunition remaining. Early in the war, most
ground units are incapable of attacking airplanes, so flying units can roam
freely over the battlefield, except where they encounter enemy planes. Also some
early war infantry have no weapons effective against tanks, so a tank unit can
move right through them like they weren't there.
You can (and should) use
ZOCs to your advantage. Consider the following graphic, which is taken from the
first campaign scenario.
ZOC Example - Click to see Full Size
One key tactic involving
ZOCs is to use your tanks (which have better defensive ratings) to screen off
enemy units from attacking your weaker units (like infantry). At the top of the
graphic a German infantry unit is about to try to capture a Polish city. The
enemy cavalry unit that is nearby can't attack the infantry unit before it gets
there because the two enemy tanks restrict his movement. About the best thing
the computer could do would be to move from one ZOC to another, ending the turn
next to the city and positioning himself to attack the German infantry when he
moves into the city next turn.
One other thing to note is the blunder
that has occurred on the left hand side of the map. A cavalry unit has 5
movement points and treats forest like clear terrain. The German player has left
a gap between the two tanks near the German HQ that the Polish cavalry can ride
through. The German HQ will definitely be subject to a capture attempt on the
upcoming Polish turn, possibly resulting in the immediate loss of the
scenario.
Ambush
Fog of War affects the battlefield, meaning
that you can only see enemy units that are within the viewing range of your
units and cities. If you blindly send a unit into unscouted territory and it
moves adjacent to an enemy unit that can attack it, then its movement halts and
it will be ambushed. When a unit is ambushed, only the enemy gets to fire and
the defensive rating of the unit being ambushed is lowered due to its surprise.
This frequently leads to the loss of the ambushed unit, as the computer will be
able to finish it off in its upcoming turn before it can be pulled back to be
repaired. Air units can be ambushed as well as ground units. The subject of
scouting out enemy territory is so important that it has been given its own
section later in this document.
Identifying Units that Haven't Moved
Yet
In the later scenarios where your force pool grows to 50 or 60 units
and the maps are large, it is easy to forget to move some of your units that are
scattered towards the far edges of the map. Rather than manually scrolling
across the map with the cursor and scanning for units that don't have an "E"
mark on them, you can call up a menu to help you out.
To do this go to
the Options Menu and select the "My Units" option. This will display a list of
all the units currently in your force pool. What you want to do is to filter the
list to only show you the units that haven't moved yet. To do this, press the C
button and select the "Condition GO" option. The following graphic shows the
list after it has been filtered this way. Selecting one of the units on the list
will dismiss this screen and scroll the map to center on the selected
unit.
Condition GO List - Click to see Full Size
Attacking plays a key role in the
game, as you will need to destroy enemy ground, air, and naval units in order to
clear the path towards your objectives. Each weapon in the game is rated for its
effectiveness against 5 different categories of units. These categories are:
air, hard targets (tanks, etc.), soft targets (infantry, etc.), ships, and
submarines. If a weapon rating is zero, then it cannot be used against an enemy
unit of that category. For example the weapons on the PzKw35t
are only effective against Hard targets and Soft targets.
Direct Fire
Weapons and Initiative
Each weapon also has a range. If the range is 1,
then the unit must be adjacent to its target in order to fire the weapon. This
is a direct fire weapon. All direct fire weapons have an initiative rating.
During an attack, the attacker's weapon initiative rating is compared to the
defender's weapon initiative rating. Whoever has the higher initiative rating
will be allowed to fire first. Only the units which survive the higher
initiative weapon's attack will be allowed to fire back.
Ranged
Weapons and Accuracy
If the weapon's range is greater than 1, then it can
shoot at a target up to that many hexes away. It is important to note that you
cannot move a unit and then fire one of its ranged weapons in the same turn.
Ranged weapons don't have an initiative rating. Instead they have an accuracy
rating. If a ranged weapon has an accuracy rating of 60 then it has a 60% chance
of hitting a target 2 hexes away. For each additional hex of distance, accuracy
is lost. If a ranged attack misses, then it will randomly strike one of the
hexes adjacent to the target hex. Thus the attack can fall harmlessly on an
empty hex, strike a different enemy than the one you had intended, or even land
on one of YOUR units. This "friendly fire" can be devastating and may lead to
the damaged unit being lost before you can pull it out of the line to be
repaired. Ranged weapons consist mostly of artillery which fire against ground
units and Air Defense which fire against planes. The 105mm
Artillery is an example of a Towed Artillery ranged fire
weapon.
Experience
Units gain experience from damaging or
eliminating enemy units. Units also gain experience when they are damaged by an
enemy attack. The more experienced a unit is, the more effective its attacks
will be. Units can increase their experience to a maximum of
250.
Attack Modifiers
The effectiveness of a weapon can be
reduced by the type of terrain that the defender is in. Trenches and cities
provide excellent defensive cover and can reduce the attacker's strength by up
to 50%. Moving the cursor over various terrain types will indicate how much of a
bonus that they offer to a defender.
One last thing to note is the
defensive rating that a unit possesses. All units have 2 defensive ratings. One
is used when the unit is being attacked by an air unit and the other is used
when the unit is attacked by a ground or naval unit. A unit's defensive rating
is improved based upon its experience level.
Typically Air units have
better ratings against air attacks than they do against ground attacks. Ground
units are mostly better against ground attacks than they are against air
attacks.
How Attacks Are Resolved
The way attacks are resolved
is to assign a percentage chance to each attacking vehicle in a unit for scoring
a hit against the enemy and then rolling a 100 sided die for each attacking
vehicle. Each time the die roll falls within the percentage, an enemy vehicle is
destroyed.
This percentage is displayed when you select a weapon system
to attack with and then scroll through the list of available targets that weapon
can reach. If your attacking unit has 10 vehicles and the "POW" rating displayed
is 40, then you would have 10 40% chances against that target. You would expect
on average to inflict 4 casualties to the enemy unit. If you are lucky you could
cause more casualties and if you are unlucky you could cause fewer
casualties.
Because of the offensive and defensive benefits of
experience, you will want to build up a core group of highly experienced
veterans as soon as you can.
Counter-Attack Weapons
You will
notice that every unit has 4 weapons slots, but some of these slots are not
used. The fourth slot from the top is special in that it is reserved for a
counterattack weapon. A counter-attack weapon can only be fired in defense, when
an enemy unit attacks you. You can't use it to attack an enemy unit during your
turn. Examples of counterattack weapons would be the Machine guns that are
mounted on a Level Bomber as in this example of the DO17Z.
With the fog of war option turned on,
you can't see enemy units that aren't near one of your units. This can lead to
your units being ambushed if they blindly enter territory that hasn't been
scouted out first.
Every unit is rated on how far out it can see. The
unit statistics screen assigns each unit a View rating. This is the radius of
its search area. Most units have a view radius of 2, which is insufficient to
give you a clear picture of the enemy's dispositions.
The best ground
units to use for scouting purposes are light tanks and recon tanks. Most light
tanks have a View radius of 4, while the better recon tanks have a view radius
of 5. Either of these unit types is not very heavily armored and should avoid
combat whenever possible. They are best used to finish off highly damaged
enemies that your main battle tanks attacked first. An example of a light tank
is the PzKw35t,
and an example of a recon tank is the Sdkfz232.
Once
planes become available, they can assume some of the Scouting burden. The Bf110C
Fighter/Bomber for example has an excellent view radius of 5, and enough fuel to
loiter over the battlefield for an extended period of time.
You should be
aware though that plane view ranges suffer more during bad weather than ground
unit view ranges. So the prudent general should always keep some recon or light
tanks in his arsenal.
As the campaign
progresses, more effective models will become available and existing models can
be improved through variants. A good example of model variants would be the
workhorse PzKwIII series tank. You begin with the PzKwIIIE
model, followed by the PzKwIIIG, PzKwIIIH, PzKwIIIJ and PzKwIIIN variants before
this model becomes obsolete and is withdrawn from service.
In order to
field new models and variants, you first have to pay for their research and
development cost. At the beginning of each player turn, the computer will
determine if any new units or variants are available. At that time, the player
can pay the associated R & D fee and then be able to use that new model or
variant.
New models and variants will generally become available when
they did historically. Early in the war you will have a hard time deciding how
much of your money to spend on R & D, since some variants deliver marginal
improvements at best. If you decide not to purchase R & D, you will
eventually gain the ability to build it anyway, just not right away. And
occasionally the computer will provide you with multiple opportunities to
purchase the same R & D item. So if you don't have enough money right now,
you can cancel and hope to get another chance later, after you build up more
cash.
Its a good idea to maintain a reserve of cash to purchase whatever
upgrades become available. Experience will teach you which upgrades are more
desirable. Also it is always more expensive to purchase the R & D on a
completely new model than it is to purchase the R & D on a model
variant.
Once you pay the R & D cost for new models and variants, you
still need to upgrade your units to take advantage of them. This is accomplished
by using the Level Up and Convert Unit commands. These commands can only be
performed by ground units in cities or HQs you control. Air units must be in an
airport that you control to execute these commands and naval units must be in
ports that you control in order to use them.
Level Up
The most
advanced models of a particular unit type cannot be purchased directly. The only
way to obtain them is to raise a unit's experience to the maximum level of 250
and then use the Level Up command. This swaps out the unit's equipment with the
next higher level and resets the unit's experience to zero. The following
graphic shows the designs available for the tank unit type in a
scenario.
Tank Upgrade Screen - Click to see Full Size
The only new tank
units that you can purchase are the PzKwIIIH models. When these gain maximum
experience, they can be leveled up to PzKwIVE model. Once these gain maximum
experience, they can be leveled up to the VK6501 model. There is a modest cost
which must be paid in order to level up. Note that leveling up ends a unit's
turn.
Reviewing Available Level Up Models
The Options Menu has
a "My Design" entry. Selecting this item displays the following screen:
Design Screen - Click to see Full Size
This shows all the
different unit types that you are allowed to purchase in the current scenario.
Furthermore you can select any of the unit types and view all of the Level Ups
for that unit type that are currently available.
Convert
A unit
can use the convert option to upgrade an existing model to a later variant, or
convert the unit to a different type altogether. If you just want to convert to
a later variant then no experience is required.
If you wish to switch
from one Model type to another, such as converting a PzKwIB Light Tank to a
sIGIB Assault Artillery or a PzJgrIB Mobile Anti-Tank Gun, then the unit being
converted must have the maximum 250 experience points.
Unlike Leveling
Up, Converting to a later variant or a different unit type does not consume any
of the unit's experience points. There is a cost associated with each variant
upgrade or type conversion. The following graphic shows a PzKwIB tank being
converted to a sIGIB Assault Artillery unit.
sIGIB Convert Screen - Click to see Full Size
Each Unit type has a limited amount of
ammunition for its weapons and fuel that allows it to move. A ground unit can
replenish its supplies in a city or HQ that you control, or by drawing from a
supply vehicle that it is adjacent to. Air units can only resupply at airports
that you control. Naval units can resupply at a port that you control or from a
supply ship.
Once ground units run out of fuel, they are immobilized
until a supply vehicle can get to them. If a flying unit runs out of fuel at the
end of a turn and is not located on an airport that you control, then it crashes
and will be lost. Also note that a flying unit will always consume at least half
of its movement rating in fuel each turn, even if it doesn't move. Thus it is a
chronic problem to keep flying units with small fuel tanks such as the Bf109E
fighter supplied.
Repairing Units
Units using the "Supply"
command in a city, HQ, airport, or port that you control will also be repaired
if they are damaged. The amount repaired is random and you must have enough
money to pay for the repairs. The cost of repairing a unit is porportional to
the cost of a new full strength unit. For example, if you had built a Fighter
unit for $1800, then it would require $180 to repair each point of damage that
the Fighter unit suffers.
Therefore it makes little sense to drain your
bank account to build up a huge Air Force if you cannot then afford to repair
the inevitable damage that will occur when they enter
combat.
Re-arming Units
Some unit types are allowed to change
the weapons that they carry. This is accomplished with the Re-arm command. The
two unit types which use this capability the most are infantry and flying units.
The standard entry level infantry weapon load is to carry 6 rounds of Rifle
ammunition. However you can use the Re-arm command to change the weapon load to
2 rounds of Rifle ammunition and 4 rounds of Anti-Tank Rifle ammunition. This
will allow the Infantry unit to defend itself against attacks by hard targets
such as enemy tanks and should be standard operating procedure for your entry
level infantrymen. The Re-arm command can be issued in any location where the
unit can draw supply.
Rearm Infantry Screen - Click to see Full Size
Flying units
have the greatest amount of weapon load options as they can choose to carry
extra fuel tanks, different bomb loads, etc.
The Economic system in AMC is very
simple. Each turn you collect money for each city or HQ that you control. A city
will produce money equal to its fortfication rating. Thus a city or HQ will
produce a maximum of $100 unless it is fortified with a construction vehicle.
Each city or HQ can then produce a maximum of $250 each turn.
Money can
be spent on R & D, purchasing new units, upgrading/converting units,
repairing damaged units and resupplying units. The following screen is displayed
when the Options Menu entry "My Cities" is selected, indicating your income for
this turn.
Cities List Screen - Click to see Full Size
Weather can have a significant effect on
the battlefield. The type of weather encountered each turn can be clear, cloudy,
rain, storm, snow, or blizzard. The probability of any particular weather
occurring is influenced by the Region the battle is occurring in and what time
of year it is.
Battles occur in 5 different regions in AMC. These are
Northern, Central, and Southern Europe, Desert and the Arctic. Rain conditions
are more likely to occur in the Spring and Fall, while Snow will only be
encountered during the Winter months.
Weather Effects
Whenever
it rains or snows, precipitation will begin to accumulate on the ground. Rain or
Snow raises the accumulation level by 1, while Storm or Blizzard raises the
accumulation level by 2. A Clear turn lowers the Accumulation level by 1, and a
Cloudy day leaves it unchanged. The current accumulation level can be monitored
by selecting the "HQs" item from the Options Menu. If there is no accumulation
then the Condition will be listed as "Normal".
Rain Accumulation
Effects
Once the Rain accumulation level reaches "Wet 3", Clear terrain
hexes become Mud hexes. This doubles the movement cost for tracked vehicles and
raises the wheeled movement cost to 4. If the accumulation level reaches "Wet
5", then all road hexes will become "Mud" hexes as well. This makes it much more
difficult to shift your forces to a different sector. Wheeled vehicles with
their dependency on roads will virtually grind to a halt.
Snow
Accumulation Effects
Once the Snow accumulation level reaches "Frz 3",
Clear and Road hexes become Snow hexes. This imposes movement penalties similar
to Mud on all units. If the Snow accumulation reaches "Frz 5", then rivers
freeze solid. Ordinarily, only infantry and amphibious vehicles can enter river
hexes, but if the river is frozen then any ground unit may do
so.
Weather Effects on Units
Bad Weather affects ground units
by reducing their View range and preventing them from attacking Air
units.
Bad Weather affects Air Units by severely reducing their View
range and prohibiting them from attacking ground units. However Level Bombers
are still allowed to Bomb hexes in Cloudy Weather. Also Air units are allowed to
attack other Air units unless severe Storm or Blizzard conditions are
present.
To issue a unit command, move the
cursor on top of a unit that hasn't performed an action yet this turn and press
the "A" button. That will pop up the Unit Commands menu. Different units will
have different Commands available depending on their
abilities.
Move
When this option is selected, you can move the
cursor to the hex you want to move to and press A again. If you don't have
enough movement points to reach the new position of the cursor then pressing the
A button will have no effect. Most units that have weapons with a range of 1 can
fire them after moving.
Attack
When this option is selected,
you can select from one of four possible weapons to attack with. Some weapons
are better against some unit types than others. You can see how strong your
attack is going to be before you commit to the attack, so you can select
different weapons and then cancel to decide which one to use. The stats screen
has all the details for weapon effectiveness against the different unit types.
After selecting a weapon you can use the arrow keys to cycle through all the
potential targets. Most weapons have a range of 1, so you have to be adjacent to
the target to attack it. When the attack occurs, a graphic depiction of the
battle between the two involved units is shown.
Defend
After
moving, if you don't want to attack anyone, then this command ends the unit's
turn.
Capture
This option is only available to infantry. To use
it, you must be in an enemy controlled HQ, city, airport or port. This attempts
to convert the facility to your control. Often it will require several capture
attempts to take control of an enemy facility, especially if the Infantry unit
has suffered damage or is inexperienced.
Load
Units can load
onto a transport vehicle, by using this command. The transport vehicle's
statistics screen will indicate what types it can carry as well as how many of
each type it can carry.
Unload
Units loaded onto a vehicle can
exit by using this command.
Disband
Use this command to
eliminate a unit from your force pool, freeing up a slot to build another
unit.
Build
Construction vehicles can perform actions such as
building roads and fortifying cities with this command. There is a cost
associated with each option, and materials will be consumed. A construction
vehicle can only perform three operations before it will need to be
resupplied.
The complete list of construction vehicle build options is as
follows:
Fortify Cities
Raises a city, HQ, Airport, or
Port's fortification rating and makes it harder for the enemy to Capture or
Destroy. If the facility is a HQ or City, this increases the money it generates
each turn as well.
Build Trench
Can only be performed in
Clear Terrain. Creates excellent defensive terrain for your units to stay
in.
Blowup Trench
Destroys a trench, creating a clear
terrain hex.
Blowup Railroad
Since German Trains cannot
travel on the Soviet Railroad gauge track, you need to destroy existing Soviet
track before you can rebuild it in the standard European gauge. Bombers can also
be used to destroy railroad hexes, allowing you to save your construction
vehicles for repairing the damage.
Repair
Railroad
Repairs destroyed railroad track, converting it to European
gauge if it was formerly Soviet gauge, so that German trains can use
it.
Fix Bridge
Bridges can be destroyed by Level
Bombers. This command allows a bridge to be repaired. Unlike all other Build
options, you must be adjacent to the bridge hex to be able to repair it, since
you can't enter a river hex with a tracked vehicle unless the river is
frozen.
Repair Road
Roads can be destroyed by Level
Bombers. This command allows a road hex to be repaired.
Repair
Damage
This Build command is used to repair destroyed cities,
Airports, and Ports.
Build Bridge
I presume that this
command is used to build a new bridge, but I have never seen it come up in one
of my games. Even with a construction vehicle that had maximum experience, this
command was not available.
Build Road
I presume that
this command is used to build new roads, but I have never seen it come up in one
of my games. Even with a construction vehicle that had maximum experience, this
command was not available.
Supply
Units have a limited supply
of fuel to move with and ammunition for their weapons. When ground units are
adjacent to a supply vehicle, their fuel and ammunition can be replenished. Also
ground units can resupply in a city that you control. A city also causes damaged
ground units to be partially or fully repaired when the supply command is
invoked. Air units must resupply/repair at airports and naval units can
resupply/repair in port or draw supply from an adjacent supply
ship.
Level up
When a unit reaches 250 experience, it can move
to a friendly controlled city, airport or port (Ground, Air or Naval unit) and
invoke this command. Doing so replaces the unit with a more effective model. It
also reduces the unit's experience rating to zero. This action will not be
allowed if the Model is already the most effective design that the German
military can produce.
You can review the available upgrades for all the
different unit types by going to the design screen. To call it up hit the "C"
button twice and select the bottom entry. Then cursor to the unit type whose
upgrades you want to inspect and press the "A" button.
Leveling up is
essential. When you purchase new units, they will not be top-of-the-line models.
They will have to work their way up to the better
models.
Stats
You will spend a lot of time looking at this
screen. It lists a model's Type, Speed, Fuel, Ground Defense Rating, Air Defense
rating, View Range and information on up to 4 different weapon systems. The key
elements of a weapon's effectiveness are its Initiative rating and its range.
When two units fight, whichever unit has the highest initiative rating is
allowed to fire first. While most weapons have a range of 1, some units like
artillery pieces have a range of two or more.
Bomb
Only allowed
for Level Bombers. This can be used to destroy a bridge or a city (enemy or
friendly controlled) It may require several attacks to completely destroy a
city. Bombers can also be used to attack other facilities such as Airports and
ports to deny them to the enemy. Also Bombers can attack roads and railroads.
Level Bombers can still Bomb during Cloudy weather, when most other air attack
capabilities are lost.
Merge
This command allows members from
one group to transfer to another. Experience levels will be averaged out as
members are transferred, as will fuel and ammunition loads. Note that transfers
between different model variants will not be allowed. So members of a PzKwIA
tank unit could not transfer to a PzKwIB unit, even though they are virtually
identical.
In order to keep your advance going, you can combine two
weakened units into one full strength unit and then send the leftovers unit back
to a city to rebuild itself.
ReArm
Some units have different
combinations of weapons that they can carry. Ground units in a friendly
controlled city and Air units in a friendly controlled airport can attempt to
change their weapon load.
For example, at the begining of the game,
Infantry units carry 6 rounds for their rifle and no ammo for their anti-tank
rifle. You can use the re-arm command to change their ammo load to 2 rifle
rounds and 4 Anti-tank rounds.
This command is primarily used for air
units, to change bomb loads or add or drop fuel tanks to extend a plane's
range.
Convert
When a unit is in a city, airport or port
(Ground, Air or Naval type) then it can Convert to a later variant regardless of
experience level or switch to a different type if it is at the maximum
experience level. Converting to a different type is usually reserved for
obsolete tank models such as the PzI and PzII series, although there are
exceptions.
Mobile
This command allows you to use Bomber and
Air Transport planes that are equipped with Gliders to transport units to enemy
territory and not have to land at an airport, like Air Transport is normally
restricted to. To see an example of a Bomber that is equipped with Gliders, run
the 1940 Britain scenario with you controlling the British. The Level 3 British
Bomber is equipped with Gliders and you can use it to experiment with the Mobile
command. Since the Germans don't seem to have any planes equipped with Gliders,
its doubtful you will ever need to worry about this command in the campaign
game. The only exception would be if you were able to produce Helicopters, which
probably have similar transport capabilities to gliders.
Hitting the "C" button brings up
the Options Menu. There are 3 levels of Option Menus, and multiple presses of
the "C" button will be required to bring up the nested menus.
Option
Menu Level 1
This screen shows you an overview of the entire map and
allows you to scroll a cursor around to jump to a particular section of the
map.
Option Menu Level 2
The Second Option Menu has these
commands:
My AI
There are 4 settings here. The effect of
toggling them on is to have each of your units that are capable of that action
perform it at the beginning of your turn without you having to issue an explicit
order.
So if you had Auto supply toggled on, every unit that was capable
of drawing supply would do so automatically at the beginning of the turn. If you
had Auto Capture turned on, every infantry that could make a capture attempt
will do so automatically. If you had Auto Build toggled on then every
construction vehicle that was capable of issuing a Fortify Cities command will
do so automatically. You should use care in issuing such blanket commands, but
they can be a great time saver.
Map
This shows a larger
picture of the entire map and can be toggled to remove units from the map and
darken the area of the map that is not currently in one of your unit's viewing
range.
My Units
Shows you a list of all your units,
their location and what their condition is. There are a number of filters that
can be applied to this list, the most useful of which only displays the units
that haven't taken an action yet this turn. Selecting a unit from the list
centers the map on that unit.
You can also disband units from this screen
directly, rather than deploying the unit first and then issuing a disband
command on the following turn. To disband a unit use the select button when the
unit is highlighted and a disband confirm menu will be displayed. This is
particularly useful if you want to get rid of unwanted naval units, since there
are few scenarios that have ports within 5 hexes of your starting
HQ.
HQs
This useful screen displays all the enemy HQs
that you have to take out, indicates what percentage of the facilities on the
map that you control, and shows the current weather and the amount of
precipitation that has accumulated on the ground.
My
Cities
Lists all the cities and HQs that you control and what the
income they produce each turn is.
My Design
Lists all
the unit types that can be purchased in the current scenario. Selecting a unit
type displays a screen showing all the level ups that are available for that
unit.
Option Menu Level 3
The Third Option Menu has these
commands:
Game
This allows you to save or load your game
from one of three available slots. Since you are using an emulator on a PC
instead of playing on an actual Genesis console, the number of save positions
you have is only limited by your hard disk space, and this feature can be
ignored.
You also have options to terminate the current game and return
to the main menu.
Song
There are only 7 different
background music songs in the game and they grow tiresome quickly. This option
allows you to turn the music off and preserve your
sanity.
AI
Each faction in a scenario can be controlled
by the player or the computer. This command cannot be used in a campaign, only
in one of the stand alone standard scenarios.
View
This
command allows you to turn the fog of war option on or off. It takes a lot of
the enjoyment out of the game if you can see where every enemy unit is, but to
each his own.
Weather
This command allows you to ignore
the weather. As with the View command, it takes a lot of the enjoyment out of
the game if you don't have to worry about the
weather.
Options
4 Options are available here, that can
effect gameplay.
Game Speed
This can be set to REAL (default),
AUTO, and FAST. On the FAST setting, it doesn't bother to show you the animated
battles when attacks occur. I don't know what the AUTO setting is
for.
The later scenarios in the game can take 30 minutes or more for the
computer to make its move, even if you have the game set to the FAST speed. If
you are using the GENS emulator you can speed up the computer's turn
dramatically if you increase the Skip Frame value to the maximum of 8. Then
reset GENS skip frame rate to Auto when the computer's turn is
finished.
Hexgrid
This option controls whether a Hexgrid is
displayed over the map. Default setting is ON.
Enemy Stats
This
setting controls whether you are allowed to call up the statistics screen for
enemy units. Default setting is ON.
Select Counterattack
Weapon
Ordinarily this setting is off. When your unit is attacked, the
computer will select what weapon to fire back with. It will always choose the
weapon that can do the most damage to the enemy, regardless of the weapon's
initiative.
Ordinarily this is what you would want. But there are a few
cases where it can be useful to select the counterattack weapon. For example if
you have a Light cruiser that is being attacked by a destroyer, you would
probably want to use your main guns to shoot with because you would get the
first shot and likely sink the destroyer before he could shoot back. But the
computer will select a torpedo attack for you since torpedoes do slightly more
damage than your main guns to an enemy ship. So both of you will fire at the
same time and you will sustain needless damage.
You might want to
consider turning on the Select Counterattack Weapon on if the scenario has Naval
units and you haven't yet eliminated all of the enemy's surface fleet.
This list should not be considered
comprehensive, I'm just hitting the most common types.
Ground
Units
Light tanks
You start with the anemic PzI
series and can eventually upgrade to the PzII and Pz38T series models. These
tanks feature high speed, range, and a good view rating. However the armor
rating is low, and the Main gun is underpowered compared to the heavier tanks.
An example of this type is the PzKw35t.
Tanks
This
series starts with the PzIII and upgrades to the PzIV series and beyond. These
tanks feature better armor, and a stronger main gun than the light tanks. They
also carry a larger ammunition load. However their Fuel rating and view rating
is generally poorer. An example of this type is the PzKwIIIE.
Infantry
The
backbone of your army, and the only way to capture enemy cities. Infantry are
fragile and should avoid combat, unless they attempting to eliminate a crippled
unit that only has 1 or 2 of it's original 10 strength points remaining. There
are multiple levels of infantry. The Pioneer unit can utilize devastating
flamethrower attacks. Take care of your infantry and they will take care of you.
An example of this type is the Inf39.
Recon
Tanks
These lightly armored and speedy units are prized for their
high view rating. Move them first to locate enemy forces, then send in your
heavier forces to fight. Recon Tanks have weak attacks, so they should generally
be used to mop up infantry or eliminate crippled units. An example of this type
is the Sdkfz232.
Towed
Artillery
Towed artillery has a terrible movement rating, so you will
want to load it onto a truck for it to keep up with your advance. Artillery can
conduct ranged attacks, with higher level artillery having greater range.
Artillery rounds are generally devastating to soft targets like infantry, less
so against hard targets such as enemy armored vehicles.
Also Artillery
rounds are subject to "drift". That is, there is a possibility that the
artillery barrage will not land where you aim it. It may land on a different
enemy unit, an empty space, or one of your units that was adjacent to the target
hex. Yes, this game simulates "friendly fire."
One last note about towed
artillery. It cannot move and then conduct a ranged attack. Keep this in mind
when positioning your towed artillery units. An example of this type is the 105mm
Artillery.
Assault Artillery
Artillery that has been
mounted on a tracked vehicle. This unit can move and then fire in the same turn.
The fuel and ammo ratings for these units are often poor, so a supply truck
should be kept nearby for them to live up to their full potential. An example of
this type is the sIGIB.
Towed
Anti-Tank Gun
A gun that specializes in attacking tanks. It shares
the poor movement qualities of towed artillery. Anti-tank guns will often be
more effective than tank guns of the same time period, because they aren't
constrained by the size limitations of a tank turret. An example of this type is
the 37mmPak35.
Mobile Anti-Tank Gun
An anti-tank gun that has been
mounted to a tracked chassis. The vehicle has an open top instead of a turret,
so the defensive rating is much poorer than that of a tank. An example of this
type is the PzJagIB.
Ground
Transport
A unit used to carry ground units. The most common example
of this type is a Truck. Ground transports will have little or no weaponry,
terrible defense values, and high speed. Wheeled vehicles (Trucks) must stay on
a road to get their maximum movement rating. Halftracked vehicles (Leveled up
Trucks) function equally well on or off road.
Ground Transport units gain
experience by carrying things. An example of this type is the Opal
Blitz.
Supply Vehicle
This vehicle allows you to
resupply your front line units with fuel and ammunition outside of a city that
you control. You start with horse and wagons, and can level up to wheeled and
then tracked supply vehicles with more supplies and a higher movement
rating.
Supply vehicles gain experience by giving supplies to other
units. An example of this type is the Supply
Cart.
Construction Vehicle
This vehicle allows you
to fortify a city and build railroads among other things. Refer to the Unit Menu
section of this document for a comprehensive list.
Construction vehicles
gain experience by building things. An example of this type is the Bulldozer.
Anti-Aircraft
These
units are primarily used to attack enemy aircraft. However their high speed
makes them valuable in ground combat for "shooting cripples", especially during
bad weather when they can't fulfill their primary mission. The drawbacks to this
type are its lack of ammunition and weak defense ratings. An example of this
type is the SdKfz
D7.
Towed Air Defense
The towed Air Defense gun is
capable of ranged attack against enemy aircraft. It also serves as an excellent
ground attack weapon, but its poor movement rating makes it difficult to engage
the enemy on the ground. An example of this type is the 88mmFlk36.
Air
Units
Fighter
The fighter is primarily used to
attack other enemy aircraft, but can also be used to bomb and strafe enemy
ground units once air superiority has been achieved. Since there isn't much
difference between initiative ratings for German and enemy fighter weapons, you
want to have units with high experience as this modifies initiative slightly and
may allow you to get off the first shot. An example of this type is the Bf109E.
Dive
Bomber
The Stuka is the most common unit of this type. It is
primarily used to bomb enemy ground units. It has a very weak attack against
enemy aircraft. It has a much better defense against ground units than it does
against air units. An example of this type is the Ju87B.
Level Bomber
The Level bomber is the only unit capable of destroying cities
and bridges. It can also attack ground units, although less effectively than a
dive bomber can. An example of this type is the DO17Z.
Air Transport
The Air transport can load a ground unit at a friendly air
port and then unload it at a friendly or enemy controlled airport somewhere
else. Air transports can primarily carry one infantry unit. An example of this
type is the Ju52g5e.
Fighter Bomber
This unit is capable of tactical bombing or air combat. It
performs each task less effectively than its dedicated counterparts. It is also
expensive compared to the other aircraft types. A final bonus is that the view
rating for this aircraft is the best of any of the aircraft types. An example of
this type is the Bf110C.
Ships
I'm
not going to bother talking about ships, since they occur in so few of the
scenarios. The only thing you need to know is that only destroyers can attack
submarines with their depth charges.
