textfiles/apple/DOCUMENTATION/medevl.war

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---------------------------- MEDIEVAL WAR GAME------------------------------
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         For a one player version of the Battle of Agincourt, just run
AGINCOURT.1PLR (it is a SYS16 type file).  The file MEDEVL.WAR.2PLR (also a
SYS16 type file) is the two player version master program for MEDIEVAL
WAR.The file GAMEDATA is a TXT file containg the data for a generic sample
version battle for this game.  Please rename GAMEDATA to SAMPLE.GAME and
then rename either AGNCRTDATA.2PLR or CRECYDATA.2PLR to GAMEDATA to play
either the two player version of the Battle of Agincourt or a two player
version of the Battle of Crecy.

         This is now the first real version, one in that it is the first
two player version I have released and two in that I think all of the
obvious problems have been worked out.  I will say from the start that I am
not happy with both players having to use the same mouse for input, but
until I find a better solution it will have to do (any suggestions are most
welcome). This is also my first attempt at a wargame and I need some
feedback from other gamers as to what is right and what needs changing. So
don't be afraid to send me some criticism, that's why I sent this version.
The game also needs some additions, better graphics, easier user
interaction,  etc.  Unfortunately, I don't have a hard drive and only have
one 3 1/2 drive (which is supposed to be to little to use APW).  The
program is as large as I can produce with the work-arounds I use.  I am
planning on getting the Harddrive before I produce the final version ( in a
few months or so hopefully ).

**This info is included for those interested, if you are also curious about
Crecy there are many good books on the subject of medeival warfare. Sorry I
am to lazy to write about both battles.  The battle already named GAMEDATA
is just a fictional battle between two evenly matched sides on terrain
demonstrating all the types of terrain. **

This was the info included with the one player version.

         The battle of Agincourt was chosen because it seemed to be an easy
game for a one player version(plus it is a favorite of mine).  Here is a
little background on the battle (those that know the history of the Hundred
Years War will please forgive the liberties I took with the game, most are
due to my lack of finding a way to incorporate the into the game ).  In
1415, an English armada carrying Henry V and 8000 archers and 2000
men-at-arms toward France.  The English landed in Normandy, near to the
port of Harfleur. The Kings plan was to take the port and then march on
Paris. This plan was changed after a month long siege in which the English
won but lost over a third of their men.  King Henry decided that attempting
Paris was foolish, so he decided to march across northern France to Calais.
They of course did as much damage as possible in the process.  To make a
long story short, after a long and gruelling march the french trapped them
into a fight.  Much to the frenchmens' misfortune they chose a plowed and
muddy field just outside of the town of Agincourt.  The field was bounded
by woods and the field was sloppy with deep mud.  There wasn't nearly
enough room on the field to spread out the french men-at-arms and in their
heavy armor they were virtually immobile in the mud.  Henry V arrayed his
men with archers interspersed with men-at-arms and protected by sharp
stakes planted in the mud in front.  The French arrayed into three major
lines, the first and second were men-at-arms on the flanks they had mounted
men-at-arms and inbetween were crossbowmen.  The back row was mostly
mounted men-at-arms.  Most of the morning was spent staring at each other
across the field until finally King Henry decided that if he didn't do
some- thing he and his exhausted would lose by default (the odds were
against them, 5000 archers, 1000 men-at-arms against 60,000 Frenchmen).  He
called an advance and the line advanced to within bow range and the English
longbows began a deadly rain on the French front line.  The French
attempted to counterpunch with cavalry charges but the french cavalry was
destroyed on the stakes.  Then the front line of french men-at-arms
advanced into the arrows and they were virtually decimated before they even
reached the English line. And the English knights destroyed what was left.
Those that fled were trampled by the advancing second line which met the
same fate.  What was left, other than a few colorful incidents, was for the
French to flee the field defeated by the English longbow.

         This is hopefully the first in many battles I will upload ( as
well as a program to produce any game you want).  This version is designed
for ancient combat, but will produce a modern version soon also. So send
suggestion for battles (both modern and ancient). I will try to briefly
explain how to play the game, please send me a message with any questions
you have.

The screen is divided into three parts: top row -  lists each sides morale,
score, and the time. The English morale is the leftmost number (50 to
start). Next to this is their score. In the middle is the time and to the
right of the the time is the french score and morale in that order.  All
the way over on the right side is a blue square which is the exit button to
end the game.

Middle map -  The map and units. the following types of terrain are
possible (the number following them is the number put into the battle
file).

clear          - 1 upslope east   - 2 upslope west   - 3 upslope n or s - 9
hedge          - 3 woods          - 4 water          - 5 ford           - 6
ditch          - 7 town           - 8

Each area(which is five pixels square) also has an elevation level 0 to 4
(0 lowest), a movement rating 0 to 9 (0 being easiest to move over, the
highest movement rating is 5 for cavalry so any rating above that will act
as a five rating. Later versions of the game will probably have more unit
types so it may become applicable.), a combat rating from 0 to 9 (0 being
worse ground to fight from and 9 the best defensive terrain around. I do
not recommend a number higher the 5 or so because a unit should be about
invincible). several things to think about are that a unit gets the benefit
of the spot under the center of its symbol. The combat section takes many
things into account, a unit at a higher elevation has an advantage as well
as the type of terrain.  In the battle files I have created, for example
the hedge terrain type. The Hedge is near the west edge of the map and one
side(the red side) will probably use it for defense.  So I made the combat
rating of all terrain to the west side of the hedge for 15 pixels a higher
number.  That way when a red unit is sitting right behind the hedge, the
hedge will increase their strength as it would in reality. The same is try
beside all slopes, the areas at the top have higher combat numbers so a
unit at the top will have an advantage and the movement numbers on the
slope are higher so moving up the slope is slower(the slowest a unit can
move is 1 pixel per turn so a unit moving at 1 will move the same speed
over all terrain. You can really see the affects when you send out cavalry
at 5.  The only terrain affect on archery is elevation( firing down on a
unit is a big advantage).  For more info read the section on the battle
file.

The unit types are -  A unit with two lines is men-at-arms(ie infantry).
Units with one diagonal line are mounted men-at-arms(ie Cavalry). And units
with a dot in them are archers (ie artillery).  The units have a dot on the
side that they are facing.  To command a unit(the english are the only side
you can play right now) you point the mouse arrow at the unit and click.
the command region will appear and you can give the unit its orders.

To exit out of command mode and restart the battle (the game is in suspense
while you are using the command screen) just click in the lower region not
in a button.

Lower command/message region - during play messages will appear in this
area. These messages are anything from what a unit is doing to the death or
injury of a leader. when you click on a unit the main command screen will
appear. this will be described in detail later. Other screens that can be
called up are the unit info screen which tells you strength and morale and
other info on the unit and the leader screen which lists leader and their
condition. to exit a screen click in the command screen not in a button
(there are no buttons on the message, leader, and unit info screens)


COMMANDS - Different commands that can be given are:

movement - to command a unit to move just click where you want the unit to
move and make sure the unit is facing that direction. units will not move
any direction except forward. Movement is affected by terrain and other
units zones of control.

facing   - turning a unit is done by clicking in one of the triangles on
the left side of the command screen. the top triangle will turn a unit
counter-clockwise, the other triangle clockwise. a unit can't turn when in
another units ZOC (zone of control).

speed    - the speed will be shown in the speed box in the lower left side.
the maximum for units is: cavalry   - 5 infantry  - 2 archers   - 3

clicking on the number lowers it by one, and clicking on zero changes it to
the fastest speed. A unit with a movement of zero will not move.

formation - the formation affects speed and combat effectiveness. you can
change the formation by clicking on the present formation which is
displayed in the box. some of the formations are line, wedge, march.  March
is best for free movement but terrible for combat.  Wedge is good for
defence but then not as good for offensive. Line is best for attacking but
not as easy to defend. sometimes because of combat a unit is disorganized.
you cannot affect a disorganized unit until its leader gets control of it
and gets it organized. this is done automatically, you just have to wait
(if there is no leader though the unit will never get organized so just use
it as best you can).

charge/fire - To use this click on the charge/fire button (the button will
invert) then click on the unit you want to charge or fire at (then the
button will be outlined).  Cavalry and infantry can charge, archers fire
arrows at the chosen unit. A cavalry unit charging another unit can do lots
of damage with the charge and can quickly disorganize them. but can also
take lots of damage if the unit is set and ready for the charge.  Once a
unit contacts its target it will stay and fight until you give it another
command or the unit is destroyed.  Archers fire at the designated target
until given other orders or the unit is destroyed or the unit is out of
range.  The range of archers in the Agincourt version is approximately 1/5
the width of the screen. If you order archers to fire at units outside
their range they will just stand still.

defend/spike - this is the defensive mode for when a unit is expecting to
stand for an enemy unit charge.  for cavalry or infantry this is a
defensive stance, for archers however it means they set their stakes in the
ground in front of them. this takes some time, so the button will not turn
until the stakes are set.

retreat - is just what it says, the unit will retreat towards the home
edge(the left edge for the English). sometimes because of loses in combat a
unit will become demoralized and begin to retreat on its own. you can't
change this until the leader gets control (this is not the same as
disorganization where you just can't change formation - this is where the
unit is completely out of control. If the leader can't get control before
the unit flees off the map the unit is considered destroyed).

patrol - (probably not named right) this is the same as charge/fire except
that it is not directed at any particular unit. by giving this command a
unit will sit until an enemy unit moves within range, which is 1/5 of the
screen width. cavalry and infantry will charge the first unit to move
within there range, archers will fire at the enemy unit.

red rectangle - will bring up the unit info screen.

green rectangle - will show the leader screen.


BATTLE FILE - The battle is loaded when you click on the initial screen.
The game loads the file GAMEDATA from the directory the game is in. I have
uploaded a game already called GAMEDATA, and two historical battles -
AGINCOURT.WAR and CRECY.WAR.  To use either of those or any file you create
just rename it GAMEDATA.

         If you would like to create your own battles just create an ascii
text file of the format of the ones I uploaded.

         section 1 is one line. the line is all numbers these are: 
              2 digits - the number of red units 
              2 digits - the number of blue units 
              2 digits - reds morale at start 
              2 digits - blues morale at start 
              2 digits - reds score at start 
              2 digits - blues score at start 
              1 digit  - tens digit of hours at the start of game 
              1 digit  - ones digit of hours 
              1 digit  - tens digit of minutes 
              1 digit  - ones digit of minutes 
              1 digit  - tens digit of hour for game to end 
              1 digit  - ones digit of hour for game end

section 2 is the map.  there are four lines per row on the map.  since
there are thirty rows to the map there will always be 120 lines. there are
66 digits to each line, one for each column on the map. The first line is
the type of terrain, the second is the column movement rating, the third
line is the combat rating, and the fourth is the terrain level. Then you
start over again and do the four lines for the next map row.

section 3 is the leader list. Each unit starts with five leaders so the
number of lines is this section is 5*(number of red units + number of blue
units). each line has 2 digits and the leaders name. The first digit is the
leaders value (1 to 5). The second digit should always be a 3 because that
means the leader is alive and leading the unit.  The last is a string. The
progam reads the string(no quotes necessary) until the first blank space or
the end of the line. If you wish blanks in the name put *'s in place of the
blanks and the program will replace them with blanks.

section 4 is the list of units. there will be one line for each unit in the
game(ie. red units + black units) the red units should ll be first and the
black units second, other than that the order does not matter. The numbers
are:

3 digits        - x coordinate(ie side to side) the screen is in 320 mode
so anything outside the 0 to 320 range will immediately be destroyed
(leaving the map destroys a unit) a units coordinates are for the upper
left corner of the unit so if you give it a coordinate of 320 it will
actually be drawn of the map.

3 digits        - y coordinate(ie. top to bottom) the limits are 10 to 160.

1 digit         - unit type( right now there are 3 types possible). 0 -
cavalry 1 - infantry 2 - archers

2 digits        - units strength (1 to 99)

1 digit         - initial facing 1 - north 2 - northeast 3 - east 4 -
southeast 5 - south 6 - southwest 7 - west 8 - northwest

1 digit         - units initial speed setting (units are not moving at the
start but it is annoying to have to change the setting of each one at the
start) the maximums are: cavalry  - 5 infantry - 2 archers  - 3

3 digits        - the distance the units bows will reach if they are
archers( the 3 digits must still be there even if the unit is not archer
type) I have made the scale about 70 for longbows down to 30 for crossbows,
but this will depend on the scale of the game you create.

1 digit         - units morale to start ( 1 to 5)

1 digit         - not used now - so just put any digit in. It will be used
later when I have added AI to the game to play either side and when I have
added group commands string - this can be of just about any length, it
reads until the first blank so use '*' in place of blanks, the program will
remove them. No quotes are needed, just put the string.

section 5 - this section is not used now, it will be used later when I have
added group commands and AI to run one of the sides. Just have ten rows
with 99 in them(see one of the files included.

I recommend you just copy one of the files and change things, that seems to
be the easiest way. Be careful, there are not many checks in the program
yet. One digit wrong and the game can bomb(if that happens watch how far
the program gets and you can tell which section has the problem. If it
draws the map and then crashes before the units are drawn you may be
missing a leader line or the number in the first section may have the wrong
number of units listed, etc.)


GAME CONSIDERATIONS - All factors are used in figuring results (terrain,
state, morale, facing, etc.) Each unit is roughly equivilant in size,
however matching archers against men-at-arms is not very smart. a well
timed charge can break a lines organization, but poor charges will destroy
your cavalry. these and other common sense tactics must be followed.  The
English won by intelligent use of the longbow, this is a must for a win
(but remember that your men are tired and their moral won't holdout for
that long). Speaking of moral, it is far and away the most important item
in the game. pay close attention and remember the only way to increase it
is by doing some damage to the enemy.