=============================================================== +:+:+: G L O B A L W A R 2 :+:+:+ Online game for Xenolink BBS by Janne Paakkonen Adapted from the IBM PC's Global War by Joel Bergen Instructions =============================================================== ABOUT GLOBAL WAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GLOBAL WAR is a fascinating wargame for 3-6 players. The object of the game is to conquer the world. It is not a difficult game to play, but it is important to familiarize yourself with the rules before getting involved in the game. The world is divided up into 6 continents: Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America Each of these continents is divided up into several count- ries. There are totally 42 countries. The first player to conquer all 42 countries (the entire world) wins the game. If the game is a Mission game, there are more than one way to win the game, but more about this later. THE WORLD ~~~~~~~~~ Here is a list of the six continents and their countries. North America Europe Asia Australia Alaska France Afghanistan E. Australia Alberta England China Borneo Mexico Germany India New Guinea E. U.S Scandinavia Irkutsk W. Australia Greenland Italy Japan Yukon Ukraine Kamchatka Ontario Spain Iran Quebec Mongolia W. U.S. Africa Siam Siberia South America Zaire Ural E. Africa Taimyr Argentina Libya Brazil Madagascar Peru W. Africa Venezuela S. Africa Note; the continents and countries were chosen to facili- tate play rather than to be geographically accurate. STARTING THE GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you start the GLOBAL WAR program, you will be shown a main menu with lots of information. For eg. which games are "in progress", which games "need more players", and which games "you are involved in". Games that are "in progress" are closed to new players. You may S:elect these games for viewing, however you cannot join a game once it's under way. Games that "need more players" are open to new players. You may sign up to play in these games by S:electing the game. After selecting one of these games you will be given the opportunity to vote on whether to start the game or wait for more players to sign up. BEGIN A GAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A game will start under the following circumstances: At least 3 players sign up to play, and ALL players vote to start the game. Six players sign up to play (the maximum number of players allowed). You may also R:emove your name from a game before it starts, or change your vote any time you like. You may also B:egin a new game. GLOBAL WAR will ask you several questions about the type of game, number of players and so on. Other players may then sign up to play this game, and it will eventually start as just described. When a game starts, the 42 countries on the map will be ran- domly assigned to each player. Each country will receive 3 armies. PLAYING GLOBAL WAR ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each player gets 1 turn per day. If you don't play on a given day, you forfeit your turn for that day, however you will still get credited with armies due to you (more about this later). Each turn consists of up to 5 phases: PHASE I - COLLECTING YOUR ARMIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At the beginning of every turn you will collect a certain amount of armies. The number of armies you get is determined like this: [ (countries / 3) + continent bonus ] x days since last call + bonus for commendation Where "countries" are the total number of countries you occupy. "continent bonus" are bonus armies you get for occupying all of the countries that make up a continent. N. America = 5 armies Asia = 7 armies S. America = 2 armies Europe = 5 armies Africa = 3 armies Australia = 2 armies "days since last call" is the number of days since your last turn "bonus for commendations" are armies you get for turning in a Set of Commendations. COMMENDATIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What's a Commendation? There are two types of commendations; Global and Individual The Global commendations work as follows: You earn a commendation at the end of every turn in which you successfully conquer a country. These commendations can be issued by the King, the Queen, or the General. If you acquire 3 commendations from any one leader, or one from each of the three leaders, you now have a "Set" of Commendations which you MAY exchange for additional armies at this time. If you receive five commendations, you are guaranteed to have a Set, and you MUST exchange your Set for armies. The value of these commendations increase over time. The first set of commendations turned in is worth 4 armies, the second set is worth 6, third is worth 8, then 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, etc. A "Set" refers to a set of 3 commendations turned in by ANY player. This means that when a player turns in a set, it will affect the total count of sets- turned-in - the next player who turns in a set will get more armies than the player before. Individual commendations The only thing that distinguish individual commendations from global ones is that the turned-in sets are counted individually for each player. This means that when you turn in a set of commendations and receive a number of armies, it will _not_ affect other players' sets-turned-in count. Therefore ALL players' first set will always be worth 4 armies, the second always 6, then 8, 10, 12 etc just like above. If you don't understand this now, you will when you have played a game with these types of commendations! PHASE II - SPECIAL EVENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sometimes you may get a special event, a kind of surprise. There are several types of special events that can occur, and nobody really knows what they are. Only one thing is for sure; a special event is a very powerful thing that will always give some kind of help for moment. Each player has one chance each turn per day to get a special event. PHASE III - DEPLOYING YOUR ARMIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After collecting your armies you will then place them on any countries that you occupy. The game will ask you for the name of a country, and how many armies to place there, and will continue doing this until all of your armies are deployed. Once you deploy armies, there's no changing your mind, so give this some thought first! If the game is a team game, you can also deploy your partner's countries. LOGOFF ~~~~~~ If you are logged off (hang up, lose carrier etc) during the deploy phase, you have 2 hours to call back to the BBS, if you don't, then your undeployed armies will be placed on your countries by a built-in AUTODEPLOY routine in the prog- ram. This routine will scan the surrounding countries to see if there are any enemies around before placing out an army. In other words, your armies won't get "locked" behind your own lines. When all the armies have been deployed, your current date is updated as if you had been there yourself. Note; this little routine will only take over if you don't call back within 2 hours after your logoff. You will of course be noted if the autodeploy routine has touched your armies. PHASE IV - ATTACK YOUR ENEMIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This part is optional. You may now attack any opponent's country adjacent to your own, from your own country, as long as you have a minimum of two armies on it, regardless of how many armies your opponent has. Countries connected by bright white lines are considered adjacent and battles can occur between them (for example, West Africa can attack Brazil in addition to Spain, Italy, Libya, E. Africa & Zaire). After selecting A:ttack, you will be asked what country you wish to attack and which country you wish to attack from. You must have at least 2 armies on a country in order to attack. The computer will determine the outcome of the battle. ENTERING A COUNTRY NAME ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE; when asked for the name of the country to attack or attack from, you don't have to type in the entire name, only the first few characters. For example, if you want to attack Madagascar, you only need to type "madag" or "mad". Also, GLOBAL WAR ignores spaces and periods in a country name, so in place of "W. Australia" you may type "wau", for example. BATTLE RESULT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The outcome of the battle is determined by a "dice" roll (the "dice" are random numbers of course). The attacker will roll up to 3 dice, one for each attack- ing army. The attacker must leave at least 1 army behind if he conquers a country, so one of his armies cannot be used for attack. Therefore, the number of dice he rolls is 1 less than the number of armies on the attacking country, up to the maximum of 3 dice. The defender will roll up to 2 dice (1 die if he has only 1 army). The outcome of the battle is determined by comparing the highest dice each has rolled. If the attacker's die is higher, the defender loses an army from the country under attack. If the defender's die is the same or higher, the attacker loses an army from the attacking country. The process is repeated for the second pair of dice (if there is one). The computer will do all the dice rolling and determine the outcome of each battle, so you don't need to be too concerned with this right now. OCCUPY A COUNTRY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you destroy all of the armies in your opponent's country, you must then occupy it immediately by moving some of your armies (at least 1) from your attacking country to the con- quered country. You must leave at least 1 army behind, since no country can be left unoccupied at any time. If you eliminate a player's last country, (thus elimina- ting him from the game) the former opponent's commendations become yours. If you now have 1 or more sets of Commenda- tions, you may exchange them (you must exchange a set if you have 5 or more Commendations) for additional armies at this time, then continue your turn. You may attack whatever adjacent countries you wish, as many times as you wish. For example, you may attack one or more times from one country, shift to another country and then back to the original. PHASE V - FORTIFY YOUR COUNTRIES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you are finished attacking, you may fortify your defen- sive position. If desired, you may move any number of armies from one and only one of your countries to any one adjacent country which you also occupy. You must leave at least 1 army behind. Play continues until one player conquers the entire world. This player then earns a promotion in rank. RANKINGS AND ALL TIMES HIGHEST LIST ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each time a player earns/loses points, the ranking list is updated. The highest rank a player can reach is the Supreme Commander. When you've achieved that rank, then ALL player's scores are initiated to zero. The Supreme Commander's name will be logged on the All Times Highest list. The game will thereafter continue like before. COMMANDS ~~~~~~~~ At any time during the game, the following commands are available: R:ead mission Shows your mission, if you are a player in that game. If you complete the given mission OR conquer the world, you win the game. This option will only work in mission games. S:how player info This will list all the players currently in the game, how many countries they occupy, continents occupied, how many days since they last played a turn, when they are eligible to take their next turn, and how many commendations they hold. Note: You can only see HOW MANY commendations they hold. Who the Commendations are from is private. W:orld Report This very useful command will list all the continents and countries on the globe, who occupies them, and how many armies are on each country. This will show you at a glance where all your (and everyone else's) countries are. N:ews Report This will show you the game history (who did what and when). Three different types of news reports are available. C:omplete news will list the entire history of the game since it began. N:ew news will show you what happened since you took your last turn. D:ays ago will ask the player for a number of days, go that many days back in the news report and start the history from there. M:essages Lets you send messages to other players. You must be a player in the game to send messages. 1-7:View Continent Allows you to take a close up view of a particular con- tinent. MISSION GAMES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is one thing that makes a mission game different from a normal game: each player gets a mission! A mission game can be finished in two ways; a player com- pletes his mission, or conquers the world. (There is a third way; the sysop deletes the game!). STRATEGY HINTS FOR ADVANCED GLOBAL WAR PLAYERS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where should I deploy my armies? Usually you will be attacking your opponents with the goal of conquering an entire continent. You will probably want to deploy some or all of your armies on the countries from which you want to attack. You may also want to defend your countries from attack by your opponents, particularly if you occupy a conti- nent. An alternative strategy is to place armies right be- hind your border as a second line of defense. Another good defensive move is to prevent your opponents from conquering an entire continent. By capturing at least 1 country from your opponent's continent, you will prevent your opponent from collec- ting his bonus armies on his next turn. Should I turn in my Set of Commendations or wait? There are several reasons why you might want to hold on to your Set of Commendations. The value of your Set of Commendations increases over time. The first Set of Commendations turned in is worth 4 armies, the second Set is worth 6, third is worth 8, then 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, etc. Remember, a "Set" refers to a set of 3 Commendations (1 from each of the 3 leaders, or 3 from any 1 leader) turned in by ANY player. Another reason is that you may not need the armies right now. Saving the Commendations for later would be clearly advantageous. Note; the above applies only to games with global comm- endations. If you play with individual commendations, then you better turn in the sets as you get them. It is always better to have armies than a bunch of commenda- tions. If you turn in a set in an individual game, it won't affect other players' sets-turned-in count, remember? Should I always attack during my turn? Attacking almost always costs you armies and therefore weakens your position. Sometimes not attacking is necessary when you have to build up your defenses. If you avoid attacking and instead place your armies in defensive positions, you may create a considerably stronger attacking force for your next turn. If your opponents are attacking each other, why not just sit back and wait for them to deplete each other's forces? I can attack several times during my turn. When should I stop? The disadvantage of attacking is that you lose armies as you gain countries, and your armies get dispersed over a larger area. This can severely weaken your posi- tion and allow your opponent to easily conquer your weakened countries. It is clearly advantageous to conquer at least 1 country per turn in order to earn a Commendation, which you can later exchange for additional armies. In general, you should stop attacking before your front line becomes too weak to repel attacks. When I conquer a country, how many armies should I move into it? Usually all but 1, but it depends on the strengths of your opponent's adjacent countries. Try to keep as many of your armies towards the front lines as possible, where they can be used for battle. ============== END OF GLOBAL WAR 2 INSTRUCTIONS ===============