From: Sean Emerson[SMTP:semerson@transport.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 12:12 PM To: ohara.walter@hq.navy.mil Subject: Re: [w_g_p] New modules AHGW enclosed: ====================================================== Enclosed in this archive you should find the following files: gw_read.txt (this message) Module directory: GlobalWar.GPF GlobalWar.GPG Savedgames directory: GWClassic.gps A classic setup file for A3R/EoRS combined GWA3RSort.gps A setup file for using the module for A3R only GW EoRS only.gps A setup file for using the module for EoRS only GWcarddemo.gps A setup file demonstrating use of card locations (see below) VERY IMPORTANT! Because of the complex nature of this game, it uses some advanced features of the WarGame Processor! To get the most out of your Global War Module, BE SURE TO READ THIS ENTIRE TEXT FILE! You must own copies of Advanced Third Reich and/or Empire of the Rising Sun to be able to use this module. To install with your WarGame processor, put the files in the appropriate directories under your game processor root directory. This should have been done by the self-extractor. This module was originally intended for both the Global War Classic and the Global War 2000 variants. Neither Scott nor I are intimately familiar with GW2K, and the more we researched it, the more we realized that this might be a problem in our module implementation. We added all the additional named Capital Ships and many support counters to the counter mix, but from what we were able to gather talking with GW2K aficionados, we got the impression that GW2K has sort of an open-ended forcepool capability, allowing breakdowns of virtually all units, not necessarily confined to the counter mix, the way GW classic is. This made us decide that the GW2K community would be better served by having a dedicated GW2K module designed by someone who knew the system better than we do. This module is a good foundation, if someone is willing to take up the task, I’m always available for assistance and comments. We have tried to be as accurate as possible with respect to the maps. If an error has crept in, the published paper map overrides the WGP map. Each unit has two names assigned to it. The Primary name uses the combat factors and unit type since there's no other way for the replay to detail how many factors were involved in a combat. For the Purist, use the "Unit Control -> Use Alternate Unit Names" menu option to get the actual unit designations, or names of Capital Ships. There are six values on the right side of the screen. They are: Cmbt: Ground combat value Mvmt: Ground Movement factors (will show the lowest in the stack) Navl: Fleet Factor (FF) equivalent. NAF: Naval Air factors SW O: Offensive Strategic warfare value (U-boats & bombers) SW D: Defensive Strategic Warfare Value (Flak and ASW) We have named all ground based air units "AAF" (Army Air Force), to differentiate them from the NAF units. There are additional counters to represent Vichy French (light blue) and Lent Italian (Italians with a black dot) available. If you are using Variants, Task Forces (Rising Sun), MAGIC Intercepts or Strategic Warfare, you will have to use WGP with a secure, Password Protected game system. To do this, when you load one of the enclosed set-up files, you will be asked to designate how many players. It's not recommended that you designate more than two players, an axis or an allied. If you're playing a multi-player game, be sure all the allies on each side have the right password. If you are playing a multi-player game and every player has their own password, you face a security issue with respect to cards. The other side might not know what you have, but they could go offline from the main sequence of moves with you and have one player deal all your undealt variant cards to the other player, and thus deduce by elimination which variants you currently hold. For this reason, it’s recommended that only two players are defined. Once the players are defined, player (side) 1 will be asked to enter his name and password. Once this is done, the game should be saved and sent to the opposing player(s). When they load the saved file, they will be prompted to initialize their name and password. Then play can continue normally. To load a file, you will be required to select your name from the drop-down list and enter the correct password. Strategic Warfare: Strategic Warfare Counters are provided for all nations according to the counter mix. These counters all say "SW" on their front side, and have the actual unit counter art on the back side. When you have initialized player names and passwords, the next step will be for you to select ALL of your Strategic Warfare counters, turn them to their back side, and then Hide their identification. This way you will be able to see the counter information, but your opponent will not. He will see only the "SW" side, and "??????" for the name. Units hidden this way will be designated with a "h" after their name. Task Forces: Players using task forces should hide the units which compose the task force. When you designate units in a task force, it’s probably easiest to just keep the units that comprise the task force together in the same hex as the task force marker. Completely hide the units which make up the task force, but not the task force marker. Then when you move the stack, your opponent will only see the task force marker moving. You may stack them together with the task force counter, or in the appropriate task force box. Players may wish to use a designated game-master to monitor the composition of the task forces and prevent movement of units between task forces. The GameMaster will have to be designated when players are defined. Magic: If you are using the Magic rules of Rising Sun, then every turn the Japanese player will have to deal four cards from the magic deck to the American player. These cards will tell how many magic points each card is worth. The American player, when playing a magic card, will reveal it to the Japanese player and return it to the deck. Variants: If you are using Variants, each side must "deal" the appropriate number of variant cards to the opponent. If you are using variant rule 72.71B, you will have to designate six "locations" when you assign players. These locations should be named "Axis 39-40", "Axis 41-42", "Axis 43-45", "Allied 39-40", "Allied 41-42" and "Allied 43-45". Then to properly set up the cards before play, one player will have to deal ALL the variant cards from A3R to the other player. Then that player will go through his hand and place each of the cards in the appropriate location. Then play may continue normally. A demo file has been provided with this already set up. To access the demo file, the default axis password is "axis" and the Allied password is "allied". Players should change these passwords if they’re going to use this setup file for play. Map errata: All borders for partitions and subdivided countries (Vichy, Ukraine, Polish Corridor, communist China), are shown in dotted lines. The 1944 start line in Russia is a purple dotted line. We added this start line, because it's critical for the British surrender conditions. Refer to the paper maps for all other start lines. Individual island nationality on the Pacific map is shown by text for isolated islands, and by a colored band around the hexes of island groups. Green is US, brown is British, light blue is French and yellow is Japanese. It was very hard to discern many of the beaches as such, so I took the liberty of placing a blue arrow pointing at every beach hex. Port Moresby was not obviously a mountain jungle hex on the map. Per the errata, we have made it so. All the minor units are in their boxes in the lower left corner of the play area, stacked by country. I tried to keep the color schemes true to the counter mix, except when they became completely unreadable. Japanese minors (chindits and Indian nationalists) are just below the Japanese task force box. The extra units required for the variants are in the two forcepools named "Axis(Allied) var/res". The research units are in this forcepool as well. The US units stacked below the US boxes are stacked in groups representing the availability in DoW +2, +4, +6, +8 and +10. The naval breakdown counters are in various off-map areas around the play area. There’s a turn record track between the maps. There is an Oil Effects track above Russia; to use it, place an appropriate control marker on the effect(s) implemented. The tension tracks are in the upper right of the play area. Pink areas in the tension tracks are for tension effects peculiar to GW2K. I have supplied a number of counters named "Supply Line." These can be used to designate naval supply routes graphically to your opponent. Simply place the counter on the source port and then move it hex by hex to the destination. One of the force pools is labeled "GW2000," and contains most the additional units which would be available on this map if the Global War 2000 version is played. There are areas under each BRP track for "Ships Waiting Repair." These areas are used for GW2000 only. We have changed the colors of the US carriers to represent type, as there wasn't enough room on the counter for letters. CVE's are light green on dark green, CVL's are yellow on green, CV's are light blue on green, and CVB's are white on green. Please address comments to: semerson@transport.com Keep up to date on WGP developments and modules: http://www.wargamesbymail.com