Getting Started Guide – WarTactical

Getting Started Guide

WarTactical is a simple to play game, at a very basic level you have 2 choices per unit per turn (1) move  and (2) attack. When you have a unit selected, left-click a location to move, or right-click an enemy unit to attack. The dashboard at the bottom of the screen shows the result. After the battle you can move the mouse to the bottom left of the screen to show how the attack was calculated and the score.

To select a unit Left-click it or use the left and right arrows. You can select enemy units by left-clicking or using the right and left arrows.

When you right-click an enemy unit to attack it, you will see a checkbox with a tic and a cross to confirm or cancel the attack, while this checkbox is visible you can Press the left or right arrow keys to cycle through close targets (you will see the battleMod change).

When you attack the dice are thrown and the battleMod is applied, the white dice are always the players, and the red dice are always the computers in attack and defense.

The Dashboard is where information about the game can be seen. When you have a unit selected it shows Unit Description, Strength, Armor, Anti-Armor (AP), TEM (Terrain Effects Modifier), and Combat Range. Further towards the center it also shows more unit information: Fired or NotFired, Moved or NotMoved, Shaken or Unshaken, and finally, one of the most important pieces of information:  ‘CombatHQ’ ‘Has HQ’ ‘!NO HQ!’ combatHQ are the leader units and when a friendly unit is within range of a combatHQ it receives a bonus to the distance it can attack and move (when a friendly unit is selected and in range of a combatHQ it will show on the dashboard ‘Has HQ’). If a friendly unit selected is out of range it gets no bonus and shows !NO HQ!. The computer’s information is a little different you see computer, etc.

The Shaken Modifier can show 0, -1,  or -2, when a unit is hit by a successful attack it receives a -2 shaken modifier  and all further attacks against it receive a +2 added to the BattleMod that turn (multiple attacks work well). Then the next turn it reduces to a -1 and then 0 the turn thereafter.

The TEM (Terrain Effects Modifier) calculates if your unit is in a good location for cover and adds the TEM to the BattleMod.

You only get to move and attack once per unit per turn.

When you have selected a friendly chit, a line will be drawn from the chit to the mouse cursor, but only if you have a move or attack allowance left, and the mouse is within the units range,  as well as the distance for the command bonus for being in combatHQ range. If you don’t see this line you may be beyond the units range or you have moved and fired this turn.

When you have moved and attacked all you wish, press end turn and watch the computer move and attack. At the end of the computers turn a results page will appear (image below), Left-click to close it.

Image 1.
The above battle result is worked out like this: on the left is the attacker, on the right is the defender.
Str>=3x the defender, so attacker gets +2.
Defenders Arm > 0 so you Add attackers AP (in this case 0) and then subtract defenders Arm (in this case 1), resulting in -1.
Shk-2 is good for the attacker, so attacker gets +2.
Now add them all up and you get a BattleMod of 3.

When a target is selected for attack by the computer or you the shaken modifier is for the target.

Some units don’t move but can fire (chits 13,14,and 15) these chits are fixed on the dash, they are for non moving units such as MG nests or artillery. The computer chits that don’t move are 12,13,and 14.

The battleMod is a value calculated for the attacking side, it adds and subtracts up all modifiers to the dice roll, you can see a description in the help01.png.

Everthing in the game is calculated from the units center, movement, LineOfSight, Walls, attacking.

The Movement, attack range,command radius of a HQ are squares (NOT circles), on a wide screen will look rectangle. Think of the board as being a squared area but small squares of pixels, and you can move diagonally.

Press ‘R’ to toggle on/off CombatHQ command zone indicators.

Press ‘T’ to display the selected units available targets, remember the targets have to be in LOS & in range.

The skull & crossbones will show as a casualty is hit, but will disappear if the next attack is a miss. So you can watch the computers turn and see in real time when a hit is scored. when you fire at the computer in your turn this also happens.

Visual Tour

You saw one visual image above, but here we provide you with a number of additional images with explanatory notes. Hope these are helpful!

help_new2
Screen #1

 

Screen #2
Screen #2

 

Screen #3
Screen #3

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