1

KING GEORGE’S ARMY WARFARE KING GEORGE’S ARMY WARFARE KING GEORGE’S ARMY WARFARE KING GEORGE’S ARMY WARFARE

MANUALMANUALMANUALMANUAL

For newly commissioned Officers

Version 2,415c

1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4

2 Campaign ............................................................................................................................ 5

2.1 The timer ..................................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Battle victory ............................................................................................................... 6

2.3 Battle supplies .............................................................................................................. 6

2.4 Orientation - Controlling the battle map ................................................................... 6

2.5 Weaponry ...................................................................................................................... 7

3 Defensive Battles ................................................................................................................ 7

3.1 Placing defense units ................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Divisions ....................................................................................................................... 8

3.3 Unit stocks .................................................................................................................... 9

2

3.4 Demolition .................................................................................................................... 9

3.5 Dog tags ........................................................................................................................ 9

3.6 Air-Strikes ................................................................................................................. 10

4 Attacking Battles .............................................................................................................. 10

4.1 Victory points ............................................................................................................. 10

4.2 Paths........................................................................................................................... 11

4.3 Score ........................................................................................................................... 11

4.4 Supply drops ............................................................................................................... 11

4.5 Movement orders ....................................................................................................... 11

5 Battle Controls .................................................................................................................. 12

5.1 Mini-map .................................................................................................................... 12

5.2 Fields of view ............................................................................................................. 12

5.3 Issuing fire orders ...................................................................................................... 12

5.4 Time ............................................................................................................................ 13

5.5 Unit inspector ............................................................................................................. 13

5.6 Nightvision .................................................................................................................. 13

5.7 Screenshots ................................................................................................................. 13

5.8 Shortcut keys ............................................................................................................. 13

6 Aftermath ......................................................................................................................... 14

6.1 Total per type ............................................................................................................. 14

6.2 Average per unit ........................................................................................................ 14

6.3 Total / Supply cost ..................................................................................................... 14

7 Designing Units ................................................................................................................. 15

7.1 Loading and saving units ........................................................................................... 15

7.2 Unit stats .................................................................................................................... 15

7.3 Components ................................................................................................................ 16

7.4 Augmentations ........................................................................................................... 16

3

7.5 Customizing designs ................................................................................................... 17

8 Medals, Unlocks and Achievements ................................................................................ 17

8.1 Earning medals .......................................................................................................... 17

8.2 Unlocks ....................................................................................................................... 18

9 Editing Maps ..................................................................................................................... 18

9.1 Tile edit mode ............................................................................................................ 19

9.2 Prop Mode .................................................................................................................. 20

9.3 Terrain edit mode ...................................................................................................... 20

9.4 Automatic path generation ....................................................................................... 20

9.5 Bumpy shadow maps ................................................................................................. 21

9.6 Saving a new map & battle scenario ......................................................................... 21

10 Recordings ...................................................................................................................... 21

10.1 Saving a recording of an attack ................................................................................ 21

10.2 Fighting against recordings ....................................................................................... 21

11 Online Challenges .......................................................................................................... 22

11.1 Your online profile ..................................................................................................... 22

11.2 Challenge details ........................................................................................................ 22

11.3 Posting challenges ...................................................................................................... 22

11.4 Rating challenges ....................................................................................................... 22

11.5 Regimental badge editing and custom badges .......................................................... 23

11.6 Friends ........................................................................................................................ 23

11.7 Messaging ................................................................................................................... 23

12 Good Luck Soldier, Make This Your Finest Hour ....................................................... 23

4

1 Introduction Welcome Officer and congratulations on successfully completing the rigorous abridged

commissioning course! This is a glorious day, your aim as you join King George’s army to

help us finally bring this horrible war to an end by Christmas 1984. With you

commanding our troops in the trenches, we know we will be chomping on bratwurst at

the Kaisers expense by Christmas morning! Pay careful attention to all of the

information in the Kings Warfare Manual. It may save your life, and more importantly

bring victory to your King and Country. The King!

As you know, this war with Germany commenced nearly 200 years ago when Britain

proudly stood up for our closest European neighbours. We were not simply reacting to the

assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife and the shedding of

some green feathered plumes. After all, if an Archduke who was nearly fatally shot in

the morning chooses to travel in an open top limousine in the afternoon, that is his own

silly business. Nor did we enter the war over ‘a mere scrap of paper’. In fact, although

the lack of soft toilet tissue may have suggested otherwise, we had plenty of paper at

that time and we weren’t even recycling back then. We went to war on a matter of

principle and to ensure that there would be a buffer zone between our own shores and the

uber-mobile German front line, thereby safeguarding our own countryside from getting

all churned up, muddy and generally flattened. And in that, let us not forget, we have

been successful. No Hun troops have set foot on our soil, well except for those running

amok in the ‘Schöne Inseln im Kanal’, formally known as The Channel Islands. However,

what with their French ‘moules’ and low taxes we all know The Channel Islands were

only truly British when it suited them. The other uninvited Hun boots to have set foot on

British soil belonged to mad Rudi Hess. He popped over to try and negotiate peace and co-

incidentally place an order for some decent Scotch whisky; that was an ill-judged solo

cross-channel shopping trip that didn’t end well.

The Kaisers, past and present, have consistently displayed an unlikely sense of humour

in thinking that one day they will rule our green and pleasant land. So far, by some

fluke, our brave troops have prevented this and have fought gallantly on foreign soil to

defend our shores from invasion. However, Teutonic humour is no laughing matter and

this on-going threat to our homeland is real. Diplomacy is dead in the water, full of hot

air and floating belly up, so only the Military can save our Great Nation now. We must be

as valiant, invincible and ingenious in Battle as our great nation is at the art of empire-

building cricket railways tennis football literature rugby beef curling queuing.

It is vital that the military chain of command is maintained. Your General will provide

you with carefully considered battle orders along with a personalised message to

motivate and inspire the troops. Such optimism and belief in a swift conclusion to this

stalemate war must be disseminated down to the troops, irrespective of your own views.

Furthermore, all rumour of psychosis and breakdown in the upper ranks must be

absolutely quashed. However, in the unlikely event that you should encounter the odd

‘mad dog’ General, do remember that these are trying times and therefore try to be

5

tolerant. Failing that (i.e. if the General fits into the ‘rabid mad dog’ category), confiscate

all bootleg gin and little blue ‘tonic’ pills at once. Do not fail to inform HQ, all

psychological discharges are taken seriously cancelled; we are busy enough trying to win

a war.

Each Great War is fought through a series of battles. We must defend the ground that we

have gained and offensively (you have free reign to be as offensive as you like to Fritz

and his like) push the Hun back into his fatherland. If the Kaiser and his Fatherland

troops should ever reach our beloved Motherland who knows what dysfunctional offspring

would be generated?

Once and for all we must end this war by unconditional surrender of the Kaisers Men

and total victory for us. We must dispel the public perception first crystallized by

Churchill’s grossly exaggerated 20th century statement: ‘Never in the field of human conflict

has so little been gained, by so many generations, at the expense of so much’. Let us be the

generation that ends this war to end all wars.

2 Campaign The current campaign in the Great War is made up of a series of battles as shown in the

campaign map. You must win a battle before moving onto the next and all battles can be

played at 3 levels of difficulty. Most battles can be played either as the defending force or

as the attacking/offensive force, the choice is yours.

There are two phases to each battle irrespective of whether you are the attacking or

defending army. The deployment phase where you strategically place your forces on the

battlefield is the proverbial calm before the storm-troopers and is swiftly followed by the

mayhem of battle.

2.1 The timer Right slap-bang in the middle of the top of the

screen is the battle timer. At the start of the

battle, it is paused and there is a ‘start battle’

button instead. This initial phase of the battle is

called ‘deployment’ and you get to place units

without waiting for them to build. You can also

reposition placed units. When you are ready to

let battle commence, hit ‘start battle’ and the

timer will start counting down. When the timer runs out and the air-raid siren is heard,

that indicates the end of the supplies for the attacker but any existing units or supplies

they have will continue to be used. The battle is only really over when the enemy is

destroyed. For you… defeat is not an option. Think of your sweetheart back home.

Remember your promise to King and Country.

6

2.2 Battle victory Each battle is won or lost depending on whether the attacking army is successful in

getting a critical mass of units and supplies past the defending forces, across the map

and exiting the battlefield as denoted by ‘victory points’ gained. If you are playing as the

defending army you must prevent the enemy units and, in particular their supplies,

breaking through your defenses in significant numbers and exiting the map. For each

map there are a critical number of victory points required by the attacking army in order

for the attacking force (allied or enemy) to win. Once you have selected your battle, this

figure is found at the top of the screen just right of center (e.g. 0/200 = number of victory

points gained by attacking army/number of victory points needed by attacking army to

win the battle). If the attacking army fails to reach this number, it has lost the battle

and the defending army (allied or enemy) wins. I hope that’s as clear as trench water.

2.3 Battle supplies See that number at the top of the screen, just to the left of center? That shows you the

supplies the attacking force has available right now. We will be doing our best to re-stock

throughout the duration of the battle, so you will see that number creeping upwards.

Obviously every time you requisition some troops or structures from the Quartermaster’s

office, this number goes down. Not every unit you deploy costs the same, so keep an eye

on what you are placing. You will also find that there is an ‘upper limit’ on the available

supply level. If it reaches that limit, you will be warned, and you need to start placing

units right away, otherwise you are effectively wasting potential supplies, have wandered

off for a cup of tea or frankly are just not up to the job and are probably not giving

Tommy the best chance to thoroughly humiliate the Hun.

2.4 Orientation - Controlling the battle map As Commanding Officer, you won’t actually be getting your boots muddy personally. Lord

no! You will be back at local HQ with a glass of fine French wine and a nice leather chair

to sit in and go through the battle reports. I know, you’d much rather muck-in with the

lads in the trenches, but regrettably we need you to take a ‘hands-off’ controlling view of

the battle. One of our airships is always in position over the battle, so you get a

magnificent air-ship’s eye real-time view of the battle!

Of course you won’t be much use as Commander unless you know what you are looking

at. In battle, you will have complete control to move the camera all over the place.

Maybe you want to zoom out and take in the entire battle, or maybe you want to zoom in

and see our brave boys giving the enemy a damn well-deserved thrashing? You can zoom

in using the wheel on your mouse. If your mouse has been commandeered for some lucky

Tommy’s bubble and squeak lunch, you can use shift+add or subtract to do the same

thing!

As well as zooming here and there, you can move the camera view around in various

ways. Hovering the mouse by the edges of the screen will do the trick, as will the WSAD

keys or the arrow keys on your keyboard. If you want to be really efficient, you can grab-

and-drag any blank area of the map with the mouse to move around. If you want to show

7

off even more, you can click and drag your mouse around on that handy ‘mini-map’ at

the bottom left of the screen.

2.5 Weaponry The range of weaponry at your disposal (although this does not mean that the weapons

are disposable) is:

• laser-gun emplacements,

• missile launchers,

• flamethrowers,

• machine guns,

• cannon/ballistics.

3 Defensive Battles It’s probably best to start off by looking at your role from a defensive point of view as

your first battle will be defending our position and making sure the advancing enemy

does break through our line and hence move one goose-step closer to our shores. It is

solely your responsibility to select the infantry and turrets and strategically place them

so they can best defend our position until the death if necessary. Retreat is considered an

activity for the sensitive scholar or deluded infirm, not the hardened soldier.

3.1 Placing defense units So far all you have learned is how to look at stuff. Good fun, but we need to get stuck-in

and make use of this fine, inspiring army we have given to you. As defender, weaponry

is either mounted on turrets or carried by infantry. You will therefore be placing a

combination of turrets, infantry and support units before and during battle. Each has

their role to play, and they all have very different capabilities. You probably need to mix

and match a bit of everything to ensure the enemy is taught a lesson. Placing units is

easy. The bottom of the screen shows all the different types of unit you have in the

barracks. You can place them by simply clicking on one of them and dropping them onto

the map. When you click one of them, you will notice the map changes to different colors

to show you where you can, and cannot place each unit. Now you know why the Army is

concerned about your color vision. However, if you pretended not to be color blind or the

recruiting officer forgot to ask you (they do seem to be getting slack these days), don’t

worry I’m sure you’ll pick it up.

The three different defense unit types are turrets, infantry and support units.

8

3.1.13.1.13.1.13.1.1 TurretsTurretsTurretsTurrets

Turrets house weaponry like laser-gun emplacements, missile launchers, flamethrowers,

machine guns and cannon/ballistics. These all come in three different sizes, and

normally they take time to construct and supply, but at the start of the battle in order to

give Tommy a sporting chance, they can be placed instantly. Turrets tend to be good

against enemy tanks and Mechs, although flamethrower and machine gun turrets are

pretty good against infantry too. Turrets must be placed on good strong foundations, so

they can’t be positioned just anywhere on the map.

3.1.23.1.23.1.23.1.2 InfantryInfantryInfantryInfantry Infantry belong in trenches and bunkers, so this is the only location you can place them.

Infantry get a defensive bonus from hunkering down in these, so they can last a good

time against dastardly enemy guns. Infantry can be good against other infantry, and the

good news is they are always deployed instantly. A trifling communication problem (or

between us Officers, a potential desertion problem) means we can’t get troops out of the

trenches once they are in there. The number of infantry that actually gets dropped

therefore depends on how much room there is within each emplacement.

3.1.33.1.33.1.33.1.3 Support sSupport sSupport sSupport structurestructurestructurestructures Support structures are very special. Our top boffins have designed some extra-clever

buildings such as field-hospitals, command bunkers and repair-facilities. Each of them

can only be placed in a few very specific locations (not all battles have room for them at

all!), and they affect all friendly units in the surrounding area. Clicking an existing

support structure shows the radius of effect, but every unit it affects will display a little

icon in any case, so you can tell which units are being supported.

Once you have strategically placed units on the map, they will carry out their duties

without further intervention from you as their training kicks in and they open fire on

enemy units. Your main job is selecting who, what and where, rather than

micromanaging each unit. That’s what the junior officers do! Always respect the chain of

command, do you hear? Gentlemen, The King!

3.2 Divisions When you have a few years of battle hardiness under your belt, you will have designed a

long list of different units to do battle with. At this point, navigating the list of units at

9

the bottom of the screen may become tiresome, (even after you learn to use the

mousewheel to scroll between them all). This is where divisions come in.

That button at the middle top of the ‘deployment bar’ (the long strip of icons at the

bottom of the screen) launches the ‘Divisions manager’. This allows you to create custom

lists of units (divisions) in whatever arrangement you desire. You might have a list of

‘defensive units’ or ‘small turrets’ or even ‘turrets with nice green gun barrels’ if you so

desire. By arranging your designs into such lists or ‘divisions’ you can keep better control

of things.

The currently selected division is the one that gets used by the deployment bar to show

you your list of designs. You can enter the division manager at any time during the battle

(the battle will pause) to select a different division, or edit existing ones.

If you want to rapidly swap between divisions without editing them, you can simply use

the ‘Tab’ key during battle, or ‘Shift+Tab’ to swap in the opposite direction.

3.3 Unit stocks Supplies are one limit on what you can deploy, but there is also a limited stock of any

particular unit size. For example, there are only 4 ‘large

turrets’ available at any one point in time. This applies

across all ‘large turrets’ regardless of their design. The

moment you deploy a unit, your underlings at the

Quartermasters office will requisition fresh units, but they

take a while to arrive. If the number of units available is

below 4, an indicator and a ‘re-stock’ timer will show up on

that specific unit’s icon. You will probably find it more

prudent to substitute different units rather than just wait for

re-stocks, especially if you are approaching the upper-limit on supplies.

3.4 Demolition Every now and then you will make a tactical mistake. Yes, I know you’re feeling

invincible right now but keeping a cool head (or indeed any head) in the heat of real

battle is somewhat different to simulated training. Sending that camel regiment to fight

in Norway was definitely a good example. Will the IXth Indian lancers ever let us forget

that one? Anyway, if you find that the location of a turret is not optimal, you can

demolish the turret and get some of its supply value back. You can then use those

supplies to build elsewhere. To do this, just right click a turret and select the ‘demolish’

button that appears to the right. You will see a red countdown timer appear, as our brave

Royal Engineers do their deconstruction work.

3.5 Dog tags If you are especially vigilant during the enemy attacks, you will sometimes notice that

the last enemy soldier in each squadron to fall to their death, drops their dog tags. They

don’t last long, they normally sink into the mud or get crushed by the tracks of some

infernal enemy tank, but if you spot them and collect them (just click them) you will get

10

a nice reward from the Quartermaster. The Quartermaster collects enemy dog tags you

see, so remember ‘a dog tag in the hand is worth two in the mush’.

3.6 Air-Strikes As defender, once you have been granted the ability to order air-strikes, these can be a

cunning way to take out attacking forces. Clicking an air-strike icon lets you place a

targeting cursor for where you want an air strike to hit, but be aware that each type of

strike has a delay, so you will want to place them ahead of the advancing enemy. Also,

I’m afraid to say that our own forces are not immune to a bit of ‘friendly fire’ so ensure

you don’t place the air-strike targeting cursor too close to our chaps, otherwise there will

be a lot of tedious letters to write home to parents.

Supplies of air-drop munitions can take a while to be re-stocked so be careful how you

use them, and also be aware that they have a cost in supplies, just like any other unit.

4 Attacking Battles Defending a fixed position against a dastardly enemy is all well and good, but there

comes a time when you have to put Fritz on the defensive and push forward in the name

of King and Country. Almost any battle in Gratuitous Tank Battles can be played as the

attacker, or as the defender. Attacking is very similar, with a few key changes. The main

one is obviously that your objective is different. As attacker your troops and units will be

on the move. Weaponry is conveyed by the twin peak pinnacles of ordnance, our

gloriously innovative Tanks and Mechs.

Indeed, if the enemy had not stolen our revolutionary Mech blueprints, we would have

already crushed them underfoot like the insignificant cockroach that they are. All

pernicious propaganda that suggests we in fact stole a German designed ‘protomech’

from Munich University Robotics Department is a complete fabrication. Furthermore,

under no circumstances should our ‘by Royal appointment-with-death’ Mechs be referred

to as Volksmechs. This was originally banded about in an ironic manner and must be

stopped; specifically lederhosen must not be spray-painted onto these awesome fighting

machines. The fact that our purely British Mechs are left-hand drive is a co-incidence

and that they are surprisingly efficient is solely down to our technical expertise and

superiority.

Remember, your attacking aim is to use our Mechs and Tanks to their best advantage

and keep pushing forward and get as many troops and units as possible past the enemy

defenses and off the map. You will be awarded ‘victory points’ for your efforts.

4.1 Victory points Victory points are awarded for every unit that makes it through enemy lines and off the

map in one piece. Not every unit has the same value, infantry and support units

(especially supply trucks) are worth disproportionately more victory points than Mechs

and Tanks. The main aim of the game is thus to get infantry and supply trucks to the

end of the path(s). The Mechs and Tanks are primarily used to soak up damage and

11

clear the way for these more vital units to push through. If you hover the mouse over a

design icon, or click an existing unit, you will see how many victory points each is worth.

Don’t forget Winston Churchill’s wise and surprisingly sober words ‘Victory points at all costs,

victory points in spite of all terror, victory points however long and hard the road may be; for without

victory points there is no survival’.

4.2 Paths As the attacking force, your troops are constantly on the move but you have to keep

them under control, they cannot just wander anywhere. If you hit the ‘R’ key you will be

able to toggle on and off the display of routes your troops will follow from their

deployment positions, which are marked in green. You will also see one or more ‘exit

points’ marked on the map at the end of each route. Troops that reach this point are

safe, and even if they claim to be shocked by the odd shell, will be able to fight again

another day and count towards your score.

4.3 Score Your score is shown at the top right. It also displays the score required to ‘beat’ this

particular mission. The more you exceed that score the better, because this counts

towards your high score for this battle, on this difficulty level. This might just seem like

a number, but it dictates the all-important decision as to whose turn it is to buy drinks

in the Officer’s mess each evening. Bottoms up! The King!

4.4 Supply drops Occasionally, our slap-dash boys in blue bungle things and air-drop some vital supplies

ahead of our forces rather than safely behind. When that happens, they get very excited

if our troops spot the fallen supplies and return them to the depot. If any of your units

make it far enough to grab some supplies, we are given a special reward by the

Quartermaster in the form of a supply truck. Supply trucks cannot be deployed in any

other way. The only purpose these trucks have is to earn victory points, but they are

worth a LOT of them. Make sure you protect them if possible, and victory will be ours.

Also be aware that Air Marshall Tiny Tedder is a sneaky old chap. He will not release a

second supply drop until he has noticed you bothering to pick up the first one, so don’t

dilly dally!

4.5 Movement orders Normally there is little option on where our troops go, as the roads are pretty narrow,

but occasionally, those poor chaps are left to make actual tactical decisions. To help

them out, you can select some of your troops, then right click on the path to give them a

preferred route, which is shown in red. Doing this is just a suggestion. If they get caught

in some mid-battle traffic jam, they may take an alternative route.

12

5 Battle Controls Controlling the battle isn’t just a matter of saying ‘tally ho!’ and clinking champagne

glasses. There are all sorts of things to keep an eye on once battle is engaged.

5.1 Mini-map At the bottom left of the screen is the ‘mini-map’. Think of this

as a view of the entire battle, allowing you to quickly glance at

the strategic situation. Your troops, and the dastardly enemy

troops are shown in different colors, and newly constructing

units show as green, deconstructing ones in red. Light blue icons

represent supply drops. You can click on the mini-map to move

the camera to a specific position.

Guide to mini-map icons:

• Yellow: Inferior Enemy units

• White: Superior Friendly units

• Green: Units under construction

• Red: Units under demolition

• Light blue: Supply drop

• White X: Path exit

• Light Grey: Path

5.2 Fields of view Despite the best efforts of our dear lady Doctors in the genetics labs, our brave boys still

do not have eyes in the back of their heads. As a result, you have to remember that all

units have a specific ‘field of view’. You can see it as the brighter colored area when you

select the unit and show their range overlay. Infantry that are moving have quite a

limited ‘eyes forward’ field of view. Stationary troops will happily turn to face any

available target, as will infantry in trenches. Mechs have a restricted field of view,

basically 180 degrees facing forwards, whereas tanks can swivel 360 degrees. Units will

not open fire on enemies that are outside their current field of view.

5.3 Issuing fire orders Although you can ignore your units during-battle, sometimes you may notice a

particularly annoying enemy unit you wish to eliminate and the ground troops

frustratingly seem to be occupied elsewhere. To issue a specific fire order, first select

your units you wish to carry out the order, either by holding down shift and drawing a

box around them with the mouse, or double clicking one to select all identical units (or

13

just single-click one). You will see them turn yellow. Next, right-click on the offending

enemy target. You will see fire-lines drawn in yellow indicating each units ‘preferred

target’ is now set. Note that the troops will (on pain of docked pay) ignore the preferred

target until they are within range.

5.4 Time It can sometimes be a tad frantic in the middle of battle, with guns and lasers and god-

knows-what going bang and fizz and zap and ‘arggh’ all at the same time. If it gets a bit

too hectic, breathe deeply, focus and channel calm thoughts. If that still doesn’t work for

you, you can slow down time using the speed buttons above the mini-map. But frankly

hasn’t this war gone on long enough. You can also freeze time entirely using the pause

button, and all this can be done using the ‘+’ or ‘-‘ keys with ‘P’ to pause. Under no

circumstances is this option to be used for listening to the football results. You can even

advance the battle when paused by a single ‘frame’ using the top-secret ‘f’ key. In

particular, do not to let that information fall into the wrong hands (e.g. the lower ranks

who complain that battles seem to go on for hours whilst leave passes in a flash).

5.5 Unit inspector Clicking on a friendly unit will activate a handy little pop-up window

at the bottom right of the screen showing the status details of that

unit. A series of progress bars show their shields (blue) armor

(brown) and health (green), plus information on their victory point

worth. This screen also shows the individual ‘components’ in this unit

and how badly damaged they are (red!). Units take damage unevenly,

so it’s possible to lose your weapons but be able to continue moving,

for example.

5.6 Nightvision After extensive research in the 20th century it was found that eating lots of carrots did

not in fact improve vision but just turned you slightly orange. Sometimes it can be a right

pain seeing where the enemy are during those sneaky night-time battles the Hun are so

fond of. As a result, the boffins in our labs have developed a night vision mode for these

battles. There is a button to toggle it on and off underneath the mini-map, or you can use

the ‘N’ key.

5.7 Screenshots You can take a screen-grab at any point by hitting the button to the right of the mini-

map, or by simply pressing the ‘PrintScreen’ key on your keyboard. You should try using

‘P’ to pause and ‘F’ to frame-advance to get really nice souvenir shots! The screenshots

all get saved in \my documents\my games\gratuitous tank battles\screenshots.

5.8 Shortcut keys Sometimes you need a fast way to activate certain features, and there are even some

handy little features that are hidden from the common soldier, only usable by shortcut-

keys or ‘hotkeys’. Here they are all:

14

‘R’ : Toggles display of attacking routes.

‘N’ : Toggles nightvision.

‘M’ : Toggles the mini-map.

‘H’ : Toggles display of health indicators for all your units.

‘U’ : Toggles the entire user interface on and off.

‘Q’ : Starts the battle, the same as clicking the button at the top.

‘P’ : Toggles the pause mode on and off.

‘F’ : Advances a frame, if paused.

‘+/-‘ : Increases or decreases the speed.

‘PrtScrn’ : Saves a screenshot.

‘Tab’ : Cycles through divisions of unit designs, If multiple divisions are available.

‘Shift + Tab’: Cycles divisions in the opposite direction.

6 Aftermath At the end of the battle, it’s no good crying into your beer or spending the whole evening

singing bawdy songs in the Officer’s club! You should be scanning the post-battle

statistics to see how things went! The stats screen at the end of battle has 3 modes, and

make sure you use them wisely. Know your enemy.

6.1 Total per type This mode shows you which design of unit dealt the most damage to the enemy. The unit

doing the most damage is highlighted in

green. This is a good way to get an overall

feel for what stopped an attacking enemy,

or which of your invading units did most

damage. The final column also shows you

how many victory points those units earned

for escaping, if you were the attacker.

6.2 Average per unit This view is better if you want to look at

the individual type effectiveness. You may

not have been deploying enough of your ‘star’ unit type, and this is a good way to check.

6.3 Total / Supply cost This is like a ‘value for money’ chart that shows you what was achieved, divided by the

cost of that unit in supply terms. Don’t forget that as attacker, damaging the enemy is a

15

secondary goal; you really just want to get victory-points for advancing across the finish

line. Some units cost a lot more than others, so this is a good way to work out where you

are getting value for money, and where you are wasting it all.

7 Designing Units Your army is started off with a few decent designs that the boffins at the Ministry of

Creative Destruction devised, but there is plenty of scope for you to customise these units

and come up with your own. There is no limit on the number of different unit designs you

have, so feel free to experiment. Designing units is carried out outside of the battles, on

the unit design screen, accessed from the main menu.

7.1 Loading and saving units The center top of the screen has controls for loading and saving units, and for selecting a

different ‘hull’ to start from. Note that the ‘hull’ is a fixed framework for a unit, such as

a specific model of heavy tank. Hulls do not have any weapons or other components, you

put the components into a hull and then save it out as your own personal ‘design’. You

can have dozens of different designs, all based around the same hull. You can even have

units that share the exact same design, but different outward appearances, if you like

that sort of thing.

The buttons in the center allow you to load and save designs, as well as delete existing

ones, and you can also choose a different hull from here too. You also have the name and

the description for the current design, both of which can be edited by clicking on them.

It’s worth having a helpful description for your designs, as they appear in popup tips

during battle, when you are trying to pick the right design for the task.

7.2 Unit stats At the bottom of the screen, in the middle are stats about the current design. These are

as follows:

7.2.17.2.17.2.17.2.1 Cost:Cost:Cost:Cost: This is the cost, in supplies, for a single unit of this type. Obviously better units cost

more, so you might need to trade-off numbers against quality. Part of the cost comes

from the basic hull, the rest from the selection of components added to that hull.

7.2.27.2.27.2.27.2.2 Speed:Speed:Speed:Speed: This is how rapidly the unit will move, or zero for fixed emplacements. When defending,

this is moot, but when you are attacking, you want your forces to be able to move at a

decent speed. Apart from anything, you don’t want our brave healthy fit young men

queuing up behind a slow moving tank like a gaggle of nervous schoolboys! Faster moving

units are harder to hit, and also get to their destination quicker. Speed is a function of the

engines / footwear, offset against total weight.

16

7.2.37.2.37.2.37.2.3 Armor:Armor:Armor:Armor: Armor is the physical strength of all that metal strapped to the tank / mech /

individual. Armor is good against ballistic weapons like cannons and so on. It’s not so

good against energy beams, which tend to melt it, but our boffins are working on that.

7.2.47.2.47.2.47.2.4 Shields:Shields:Shields:Shields: Shields are those prototype glowy energy-sphere thingies that some whizzkid at

Cambridge no doubt invented one lunchtime. Damned fine invention! Shields are great for

reflecting enemy laser beams, which mostly bounce off them, but pretty useless for some

reason against actual shells and bullets. They really must fix that one day.

7.2.57.2.57.2.57.2.5 Weight:Weight:Weight:Weight: Weight is always a problem. It’s no good having a tank that’s totally indestructible if it

takes forty minutes to get from one end of a cricket pitch to the other. You will need to

trade-off defensive capability against weight to get the best compromise.

7.3 Components The left hand window on the design screen shows the different components you can use to

put together designs. You do this by dragging the ones you want onto the ‘slots’ on the

blueprint in the middle of the screen. They come in all different types, and can only go in

the ‘right’ slot, which you will see are visible when you try to drop them. Dropping a

component replaces the previous one, if it exists. Every choice automatically updates the

stats at the bottom of the screen, so you can compare a variety of combinations. The

components you choose have no effect on the physical appearance of the unit.

You may note at the start of your career, that some of the components are ‘greyed out’.

We can’t have you playing with those just yet. Top secret stuff, don’t-you-know! Maybe

one day, when you are a bit more battle-hardened, we will let you play with the rarer,

more specialist components.

At the bottom left of the screen is a window showing details on the current selected

component. You can click any component to see details on it here. There are a number of

juicy statistics to cast your eye over here. You might want to join us in the Officers mess

for a game of ‘laser cannon top trumps’ when you really get the hang of what all the

stats mean. No pressure.

7.4 Augmentations Components are just part of the fiendish puzzle of custom unit design. There are also

‘augmentations’. These are a way to ‘tweak’ an existing unit design to give it more

GRRRR or more VRRRRMMM, and so forth. Augmentations affect an entire design, and

change a vital statistic about that design, such as boosting engine speed, or the damage

done by the weapon. Augmentations do not weigh anything, but they do cost. Using

augmentations gives you many more options for customization than just components. For

example you can transform an otherwise short-range weapon into a better-ranged

variety by using an augmentation.

17

7.5 Customizing designs So far we have just talked about the technical design of a unit, such as a tank or those

wonderful walking tanks (Mechs). Of course, this is all very exciting if you are an

engineer or technician, but the real fun starts when you hit that ‘customize’ button in the

middle of the screen and go into customizing mode. This screen lets you adjust the way a

unit will look in battle. You might be doing this just for aesthetic reasons, or to help you

differentiate between varying units in battle. The Generals obviously take a grim view of

altering standard issue camouflage colors but as this war has been going on for 200 years,

let’s be honest, we know the Bosch are there, they know where we are and we know they

know where we are. Anyway, the chances of a General being anywhere near the front

line and seeing a customized tank for himself is as slim as a trench rats whisker. If the

troops want to see polka dots they could drink the bootleg gin but that’s not to everyone’s

or even anyone’s taste.

7.5.17.5.17.5.17.5.1 VariantsVariantsVariantsVariants On the right hand side of this screen are the unit variants for this specific hull. Some

hulls have very few, some have lots. They often differ in what turret or gun barrel is

employed. You can select the variant of your choice simply by clicking it. When you do

this, the blueprint image will reflect the change, and you will see the ‘layers’ in the strip

along the bottom change as well.

7.5.27.5.27.5.27.5.2 Layer cLayer cLayer cLayer colorsolorsolorsolors That strip of layers shows how a particular unit is built up. You can select the ‘current’

layer by clicking on it. To change the color of a layer, select the layer and click one of the

colored squares on the left. There is a grid of ‘common’ colors that are officially

supported by His Majesty’s Government, and some spare slots to which you can add

extra colors, for your own convenience, with a right click. To pick a totally new color,

you simply click on the color picker at the top left. Try to avoid the temptation to have

pink tanks with yellow highlights. They clash awfully, don’t you think?

8 Medals, Unlocks and Achievements

8.1 Earning medals Where is the glory of war to be found if not in a chest-full of fine medals, polished to the

point of blindness-

inducing? You will earn

medals as your career

progresses, right up until

the point where we crush

the Hun, or you get your

head blown off by a tank

shell. Either way, you

will find your current

stash of medals on

display on the user

18

profile screen. Hovering your mouse over each medal will tell you why you were awarded

it, in case you’ve glugged down too much patriotic port afterwards and it’s all a bit of a

blur.

8.2 Unlocks When you first start out as an Officer, you don’t really expect us to hand you Gatling

lasers and nanotech-engineered sanguine-Chobham armor do you? If you do, I’m afraid

you are woefully mistaken. You have to earn the right to get first pickings of the new

technology coming out of the boffins labs. As you complete battles, you will unlock new

equipment. One piece will be allocated to you for each battle you fought and two pieces if

you actually win it. You get some limited choice in which equipment becomes available,

but not *too* much choice. This is the Kings army, not some department store in Oxford

Street!

8.2.18.2.18.2.18.2.1 Rank and Rank and Rank and Rank and XPXPXPXP Various actions will result in you earning experience points (XP), and through more and

more experience points you will raise your rank. Your rank is a useful way to broadcast

to the world how inferior they are, and alert them to their need to salute, and where

appropriate buy drinks / open doors. The exact formula for experience points and ranks

is still closely guarded by the SIS, but we understand that editing new maps, and having

them highly regarded, and playing online challenges etc., are all good ways to boost your

status and career chances.

9 Editing Maps If you are observant, you might have noticed that as well as ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ buttons

for every battle, there is also an ‘edit’ button. This lets you design your very own battles,

from scratch. This is not something for the feint-of-heart, but then, what are we doing

recruiting feint-hearted commanding officers in any event eh? The edit screen may look

complex but basically it can be split into three different modes. There are buttons at the

19

very top of the screen to select which mode you want to be in.

9.1 Tile edit mode Tile edit mode is where you select most of the gameplay-related options for a specific

battle map. That means such things as defining which force can place a unit where, the

paths that the attackers can take, and so on. It also allows you to position fixed

emplacements such as trenches and bunkers, and for some reason, this is also how you

place road segments (although that is automated, to some extent).

Before going any further, we should probably explain how to control the map. You can

zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, or use the arrow keys on the keyboard. You will

notice that zooming zooms to the current cursor position, so you might not need the

arrow keys much at all.

The key to tile edit mode is selecting tiles and then editing them. You can do shift+click,

single click a tile, or drag-select a group of tiles to highlight the ones you wish to work

with. You can then edit that tile with the right-click menu, or you can apply a particular

emplacement to it by clicking an emplacement icon on the far right of the screen.

When you right click a tile, or have a bunch selected and then right click, you get a whole

host of buttons. These apply to all currently selected tiles. The different buttons do the

following:

Arrow keys:Arrow keys:Arrow keys:Arrow keys: These toggle the path direction on or off. They show the routes an attacking army can take; you can have

more than one arrow per tile. Make sure

every path is complete from entrance to

exit. Be aware that paths can have multiple

branches. When you use these arrows on

defensive positions, they set the default

facing for turrets placed on that tile.

Exit icon:Exit icon:Exit icon:Exit icon: This button toggles this tile as being an exit or not. Exits are the positions

attacking army units must reach in order

have advanced through the enemy line. On

reaching the exit the unit or supplies will disappear off the map, and contribute all

important victory points to the attacker. You MUST have some exit icons on every map,

and a clear path from entrance to exit.

Clear path icon:Clear path icon:Clear path icon:Clear path icon: Resets the paths so there are no path settings for this tile.

Deployment colors:Deployment colors:Deployment colors:Deployment colors: Green denotes positions on the map where only defenders can be placed, red is for positions where attackers enter the battle. The green stripes are for

defending army support-structures such as hospitals. Grey clears the tile so nobody can

deploy there.

20

Rotations:Rotations:Rotations:Rotations: These turn the current emplacement through 90 degrees in either direction. They are used for bunkers and for paths. You shouldn’t have any need to use them for

trenches as there are many configurations of trench tiles available.

Clear emplacement:Clear emplacement:Clear emplacement:Clear emplacement: Removes any path, trench or bunker on that tile.

9.2 Prop Mode Prop mode is the most fun you can have on a battlefield without shooting anything. This

is where you get to decide where the trees, craters, dead bodies, tank traps, barbed wire

and other fluff gets placed. You will notice in prop mode that all of the props have a red

outline drawn around them.

9.2.19.2.19.2.19.2.1 Moving props:Moving props:Moving props:Moving props: To move a prop just click once to select it (it turns white) then click again to place it

down. Note that you can draw a box to select a whole bunch of props at once if you like.

9.2.29.2.29.2.29.2.2 DeDeDeDeleting props:leting props:leting props:leting props: To delete a prop, select it, then press the delete key, or alternatively right click.

9.2.39.2.39.2.39.2.3 Scaling props:Scaling props:Scaling props:Scaling props: With a prop selected, use the mouse wheel to make them bigger or smaller

9.2.49.2.49.2.49.2.4 Rotating props:Rotating props:Rotating props:Rotating props: With a prop selected, use CTRL + mouse wheel to rotate either way.

9.2.59.2.59.2.59.2.5 Placing Placing Placing Placing nnnnew props:ew props:ew props:ew props: The prop selector on the far right lets you click a new prop for placement on the map.

There are three types of icon, the normal ones which select a specific object, the

‘random group’ ones, for stuff like some trees, which selects a random tree from that

group each time it is used, and the ‘brush’ icons which place a whole bunch of trees with

each click.

There are also two buttons at the bottom of the prop selection window. The left hand one

swaps between fixed and random angle. This allows you to place down a whole bunch of

objects with a different random angle each time, if you choose. The other button switches

from single placement to multiple placement mode, where each click on the map creates

another prop of the same type. Right clicking cancels that mode.

9.3 Terrain edit mode The final mode on the map editor is for the terrain. You will notice the grid size gets a

bit larger in this mode. This is where you get to determine the background of the map.

Select an existing tile, then select it’s new terrain type on the right. This only changes the

actual texture, not the bumpy shadow map, more on the bumpy shadow map later…

9.4 Automatic path generation The two buttons to the right of the save button automatically create path textures for

any path you have defined. They each use a different set of path textures. They will

remove existing paths and replace them with new ones. This saves you a lot work.

21

9.5 Bumpy shadow maps The hills and bumps on the map are automatically generated when you save out your

map, to follow the contours of the paths you have chosen. If you drastically edit an

existing map, the shadows may conflict during editing, but it will be fine once it is saved

out. Note that, using magic, the bumpy shadows are slightly different for everyone who

will play the map.

9.6 Saving a new map & battle scenario Once you have got everything on the map as you want it, press the ‘save map’ icon to

save it out as a new map. This will launch a new window. First, it will advise you to

create a new name and description for your customised

map.

Most of the data on the ‘configure scenario’ window

should be self-explanatory. Here you get to set all the

variables that determine how frantic, fast, or well

supplied the battle will be.

If your ear drums haven’t been burst to smithereens,

and you care about such things, you can pick the

background music although ‘It’s a long way to

Tipperary’ still isn’t an option.

Dust-type affects what dust is kicked up by tanks, and

ambience changes the background sound effects. Time of day determines whether there

will be night time effects and night-vision mode.

Saving a map might take a little time, as our super-clever technology assimilates an

image of the map for later use.

10 Recordings

10.1 Saving a recording of an attack Once a battle ends, if you were the attacker, you have the option to save out a recording

of the attack. You might do this for two reasons. One is so you can re-play the battle

map as a defender against your own army (excellent for practice). Another is so you can

include your well-honed attacking forces in a challenge game.

10.2 Fighting against recordings When you go to play as defender on a map, if someone (you or a challenger) has included

battle recordings with the map, you will see it as an option. You can then select the name

of the recording and fight against it.

22

11 Online Challenges Fighting against AI is all well and good, but far better to actually beat real troops and

Mechs eh what? That’s what gives you bragging rights in the Officers mess, after all.

Indeed, Officers able to unwind from the stresses of war might well be thought of as the

more gregarious types always at social events, glass of fine wine in one hand, and service

revolver/laser-pistol in the other. What’s the point of glorious victories if you don’t get to

boast about them over port and cigars eh?

Do not uploadDo not uploadDo not uploadDo not upload offensive images or words or you and your regiment will find offensive images or words or you and your regiment will find offensive images or words or you and your regiment will find offensive images or words or you and your regiment will find

yourselves ‘missing in action’, yes the General does have someyourselves ‘missing in action’, yes the General does have someyourselves ‘missing in action’, yes the General does have someyourselves ‘missing in action’, yes the General does have some morals morals morals morals ––––you have you have you have you have

been warned. been warned. been warned. been warned.

11.1 Your online profile One of the options under ‘battle’ is ‘online / profile’, selecting that option (above the

campaign map) will connect to Bletchley Park. Before you get anywhere, you need to

enter your top secret serial code, and pick a unique username. If you successfully clear

security, you can either pick a random Regiment and Commanders name, or type in your

own hilarious and original witty inventions. Once online communications are open you

can download decoded transmissions of other Officers maps and battles. You can limit

which battles are shown on the list using the filter buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Challenges from friends are labelled with charming little icons. The online screen also

lets you edit your username, regiment name and logo and your Generals name. This is

effectively your military CV.

11.2 Challenge details Selecting a challenge will provide you with some information about the map and the

Officer issuing the challenge. They might be a fine upstanding honourable General such

as one of ours, or possibly a sneaky two faced cowardly General such as you might expect

from the enemy. In either case, you can compare your rank and experience against

them, and see notes fellow Officers have left about the map. You can also delete the

challenge here if you are the author, or fight the battle as attacker or defender.

11.3 Posting challenges At the end of a battle where you played as the attacking force you have the option to post

the map and attacking army online as a challenge. This can be on a custom map you

designed yourself, or on a regular map. When posting a challenge, you can pick who to

send it to, or choose ‘all’ if you are happy for it to be an open challenge. Private

challenges are only viewable by you and the person you challenged.

11.4 Rating challenges At the end of playing a challenge someone else has set, you get the option to rate it, and

to post a comment on what you thought of it. You can use this to offer honest impartial

feedback but don’t let the Generals hearing you say a good word about the repugnant

rotters from across the Rhine or the terrific Teutonic technology, at least not without a

good dose of Anglo Saxon sarcasm.

23

11.5 Regimental badge editing and custom badges You will notice that initially a random regimental badge has been generated for you. Your

badge is displayed to both friend and foe, for example on loadings screens for challenges

played by others, on the details screen for challenges, on the ‘compare friend’ screen and

of course on the gravestones of the tens of thousands of poor chaps that died under your

command etc…

The good news is you can edit it. Click ‘edit badge’ to do so.

You then get to play around with various combinations of

insets, surrounds, backgrounds and color tints, plus size

and position editing. You can skip all that and just load in a

custom jpg image from /My Games/Gratuitous Tank

Battles/Bitmaps. Once you are happy that your new badge

reflects the history, ingenuity or fighting spirit of your

regiment (or it simply looks delightful against the grimness

of war), click the ‘save’ button to commit your design to

Bletchley Park.

11.6 Friends In war, all men are brothers, excluding the horrendously, heinous Hun, obviously. Should

you wish to stay in touch with Officers, you can add their usernames using the ‘add new

friend’ button. This allows you to filter challenges by those friends. You will see your

friends listed on the user profile screen, and you can delete them (or just their name,

depending on how badly they have fallen from favour), send them a message (we suggest

something along the lines of ‘tally ho old fruit!’), or compare your career achievements

to theirs.

11.7 Messaging Just had an idea for a new top-secret weapon? Concerned that you haven’t bragged about

your latest medals to your friends? You can send any fellow Officer a message, or read

incoming messages from others using the buttons in the messages window. It’s always

good to stay in touch, although obviously remember that the patriotic chaps in the

censorship department will blank out anything top-secret.

12 Good Luck Soldier, Make This Your Finest Hour

I know what you are thinking, you don’t need luck. You are a soldier in the Kings army,

and we are bound to have this nasty affair with the Kaiser all sewn up by Christmas this

year (1919 1945 1982 2218). However, far be it from me to dampen a chaps’ spirits, but

we have to say that statistically speaking, you are somewhat disadvantaged. Just ask

your parents, or their parents, or any of the fine line of ancestors you have that did their

patriotic bit for King and Country. Top show!

Recent reports have suggested that our troops may have become a tad entrenched in the

routines of war and can’t really see an end to this stalemate situation and this may be

24

affecting morale. One particular concern highlighted is that the women and infirm

appear to be running Blighty surprisingly well without us able-bodied men and the

average Tommy can’t easily envisage a role for himself back in civvy street. Rest

assured that our dear little women, who have done an admiral job in literally all walks

of life, even engineering, are aching to return to the domestic life of bliss.

I think we’ve fought long enough by the mantra of battle-happy Churchill: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts’. Let’s just put a bloody end to it, eh what?

Now do your duty, and remember it’s not just your sweetheart you are fighting for, but

King and Country. Good luck soldier. See you for cocktails and pretzels in Berlin on

Christmas morning!

………………………………………………………………………………….

Field Marshall Jonty Huntingdon Cumberbunch IVth