|
New Page 1
|
SOLDIERS OF EMPIRES |
Soldiers of Empires v.1.5 Help ( December 25, 2005 ) NEW |
| Help contents
Basic principles.
Combat logic and principles. Purposes of game.
How the combat algorithm works?
Map modes.
Forming a new unit.
Renewing a unit and merging broken units.
Economy and statistics.
Options.
Saving and loading the game.
Ending the turn.
Help menu.
Last changes. Version 1.5 ( December 25, 2005 ).
System requirements.
|
Basic principles.
"Soldiers of Empires" is a PC game
based upon classic wargame principles. You choose the actions of your own units, which can
be to attack an enemy unit, to bombard an enemy unit with artillery fire, to move your
unit or to reinforce and renew your unit with more men, tanks or other equipment.
You can also form new units, adjust the rate of production of a particular tank or
ordinance and also share a war production amongst your units. After you have finished with
your turn you can choose to have your remaining units (with unused actions) to be played
by the computer. The opponent can either be a human player or be played by the computer,
depending on what option you have chosen at the start of the game.
|
Combat logic and
principles. Purposes of game.
Your primary task in the game, describing
events on the East Front ( June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945 ) - is to seize not less than 90%
cities, that were controlled by your enemies initially at the start of the game ie the
June 22, 1941 - this is a condition of victory in the game.
Use of principles of maneuverable war ( hint: use tank and motorized units
with their armour). You can destroy enemy economy, seize enemies cities ( hint: this
reduces your opponents production of war materials).
Power Your units depends on following factors:
Quota of max #/staffing of peoples, transport (cars,
horses), combat vehicles, howitzers, guns,... each division/brigade depending on game year
has a maximum based on the info supplied for the unit type in the New Unit tab.
High morale and experience.
Ammunition must be > 0
Also small special bonus (view info in window in bottom game screen...):
ADB- air defense bonus (reserved for next version)
DB- defense bonus
AB- attack bonus
for example:
armored units - best to use on plains
infantry units - best to be used in woods and cities
mountain units - has bonus's in mountains
Also: random factor acts in each combat.
Max unit experience = 600 points, max morale = 600 points, unit with exp=200 and
morale=200 - is highly experience and highly morale unit.
Can green units be trained before combat? Yes. Without
combat, green units can have max experience = 100 (1 day = 1 experience point). Experience
over 100 can gained only by participation in combats.
We recommended using small units (brigade's for example) for quick seizure of enemy's
cities during a mobile war, they should not use for massive combat.
To compare battle results, right click the mouse button on unit - for fast viewing of the
unit state before and after combat.
|
How the combat algorithm works?
Combat algorithms a highly tangled, but its
possible describe so ( very simplified description! ):
Order "Attack"
Power of Attack = function ( all combat components of
units, their features ) + 3*experience points ( only if experience > 99% ) + 2*morale
points ( only if morale > 74% ) + factor of random ( only 22-24/06/1941 ) + factor of
random ( adding to power (-50%) ~ (+150%))
Power of Defend = function ( all combat components of
units, their features ) + experience points + morale points + factor of terrain ( terrain
bonus )
Result of "Attack" = Power of Attack / Power of
Defend
Remark: 40% Power "Attack" - vs tanks, armor
cars, assault guns, self-propelled guns and howitzers. 60% Power "Attack" - vs
humans, horses, cars, howitzers, guns, AT guns, mortars, AA guns.
Order "Artillery bombard"
Power of Artillery bombard = function ( number of
howitzers and mortars, features of howitzers and mortars ) + experience points (
only if experience > 99% ) + morale points ( only if morale > 74% ) + factor of
random ( only 22-24/06/1941 ) + factor of random ( adding to power (-50%) ~
(+150%))
Power of Defend = function ( features of howitzers
and mortars ) + experience points + morale points + factor of terrain ( terrain bonus )
Result of "Artillery bombard" = Power of
Artillery bombard / Power of Defend
Remark: 10% Power "Artillery bombard" - vs
tanks, armor cars, assault guns, self-propelled guns and howitzers. 90% Power
"Artillery bombard" - vs humans, horses, cars, howitzers, guns, AT guns,
mortars, AA guns.
|
Map modes.
The game has at present 3 different map modes
:
|
|
 |
Battlefield mode
Having chosen of one a unit from your coalition, you can
see the territory, available for moving and possible actions for your unit. This Your main
mode of game.
Range of displacement of unit depends on transport
facility correlations, needs for the transport and type of the territory. |
|
|
 |
Strategic map mode I
Useful for orientation purposes and fast move around the map of Europe
and Asia. Also useful for evaluating the strategic position. |
|
|
 |
Global map mode II
This is full map of the game. |
The battlefield mode is your main playing mode, in which you lead your
armies to victory, demonstrating your talent as a military leader. In this mode, once you
have selected a unit using the mouse, you can then perform one or several of the
following actions:
Attack an enemy unit, which expends "1 action". The enemy
unit must be adjacent to your unit and your unit must have ammunition available.
Bombard an enemy unit with artillery fire, which expends "1 action" .The enemy
unit must be two squares away and your unit must have howitzers, mortars or rocket
batteries with ammunition available.
Displacing a unit which expends "1 action" . Your unit cannot pass through other
units or impassable terrain such as sea or marsh.
Renew and reinforce a unit which expends "2 actions".
Creating a new unit. After the formation of a new unit, that unit can only perform actions
in the following turns. New unit have: 300 soldiers, experience = 1, ammo = 0.
Remark: Each turn a unit can perform a maximum of 2 actions. For attack
or bombard an enemy unit, Your unit must have Ammo > 0 !
Remark 2: as from version 1.3 images of units with
"actions=0" drawing as obscured for best viewing of player.
|
Forming a new unit.
|
|
 |
The "Select new
unit" Screen
Using this mode, you may create a new unit. This list showing all
division and brigade of current side (Germany or USSR). |
Using this mode, you may create a new unit so long as you
do not exceed the maximum allowable number of units for that particular country. A new
unit can only be placed in an empty city of the same national origin as the unit with no
adjacent enemy units. When the unit is first created it will be filled with 300 men from
that country's reserve pool. The following turn the unit can be further reinforced by
renewing the unit with more men, ammunition, combat vehicles, transport. Each country's
units are carefully modeled to reflect historical dates and accurate tables of
organization.
|
Renewing a unit and merging
broken units.
|
|
 |
The "Renewing
unit" Screen
Using this mode, you may renewing unit. In this menu unit can be
further reinforced by renewing the unit with more men, ammunition, combat vehicles,
transport. |
The following conditions must exist for the renewing of a
unit:
Unit must not take any actions in the current turn.
To renew and replenish ammunition, the unit must not be totally
surrounded by enemy units.
To renew and reinforce a unit with men, combat vehicles and transport
within prescribed unit table of organization limits, the unit must be based in a city
without enemy contact and the required renewing ordinance must be in available in the
warehouse pool.
You may renew unit by itself (click on buttin "+1",
"+5", "+10", "+100", "+1000") or entrust this
computer AI for fast filling (click on button "MAX").
|
Also, now player can merge broken units
(this is a new feature from "Soldiers of Empires" v1.2 !). How? Select unit and
press "S" on keyboard, if in window present next symbols: Q,W,E,A,D,Z,X,C then
unit from border cells can be added to base unit. Artillery unit can be added only to
artillery unit, Air Defense unit can be added only to Air Defense unit. |
|
|
|
Economy and statistics.
|
|
 |
The "Economy and
statistics" Screen
This screen will give detailed information on the economy, composition
of armed forces, combat vehicles in storehouses and under repair, losses... |
This very important mode. Aside from detailed information
on the condition of your armed forces, in this mode you can adjust combat vehicle and
ordinance production. Although there is an amazing amount of detail in of types and models
of combat vehicles and ordinance, adjusting production is a quick and painless process. We
have avoided the traditional error, in our opinion, of "buying units for conditional
money". As in real war, the number of combat vehicles and ordinance produced depends
on the real economic potential of a nation, which is quantified by the number of cities it
controls.
Remark: as from version 1.3 you can select turn length (1
turn as 1 day or as 4 days).
In this screen You can see a 6 information pages:
First page of this screen
shows total war and economic factors for all countries, which participating in battle on
East Front. Here You may see a total number of control cities, amount of human and other
reserves.
Second page of this screen
shows vehicles total amount in Your and enemy units. Statistics shows all types of combat
machines.
Third page of this screen
shows all types of combat machines, which inhere in country's reserve pool. It should
be noted that the game also allows for the use of booty combat vehicles, which are seized
during the retreat or capture of enemy units.
Fourth page of this screen
shows all types of combat machines, which inhere in repair plants.
Fifth page of this screen is
page of adjustments of orders on war machines production.
Important! How work war-economic engine
of game "Soldiers of Empires"? You need only to choose the type of combat
vehicle being produced and select:
"+" - to increase production.
"-" - to reduce production.
"=" - to maintain production at the current level.
Your production orders will be executed as much as
possible, insofar as the required economic production corresponds with the real
economic production. What is up with the economy points, how do they work, how are they
calculated? In the real world a translation of industry on the mode of wartime can not be
a sovereign by leaps and bounds. As well as in the game, since we tended to the maximum
realism. 22/06/1941 each city gives 10 production points, via 90 days - 100
production points (this maximum for each city!), production on each vehicle models can
increase in day to one no more than... (max - 255 per day! ). Also, see news about version
1.3!
Sixth page of this screen shows total
amount war losses.
|
Options.
"Game timer interval" - for adjusting a scrolling of game
map.
"Sectoring battlefields" - game screen sectoring ( elemental
cell 20*20 km ).
"View FPS" - You can see Frame per second (depends on
"Game timer interval").
"View local time" - You can see local time in game screen.
Remark: as from version 1.3 at this screen drawing information
about type of game ( realistic or fast)
|
Save and load game.
The "Save and load game" function
is only available with the registered version of the program. Game state (save files) -
slot1.sav,...,slot5.sav
|
End turn.
 |
The "End turn" Screen
|
Opposing player turns can be handled either by a human
player or by the computer AI.
If you want, you may take actions with only the units you want and have the
computer AI control the remaining unused units thus eliminating much of the repetitive
tasks involved in wargaming.
Regardless, the control production of combat vehicles and ordinance is a
human prerogative and the computer will only adjust production for its coalition only. How
work computer AI in mode "AI completed Your turn"? You can make actions with
important units (50...100...150 on front line), deploying their, to adjust orders on war
vehicles production - other playing for You AI!
What actions game engine are executed when
changing a playing day? Executed orders on combat vehicles production ( on measure of
correspondence orders to real economic potential), is repaired part of combat machines,
basing in repair, part wounded dies, part wounded is brought back into put on elite
reserve, appear new recruits.
|
Help menu.
In this game menu, you may learn of authors
of the game and find other small additional instructions and advices.
|
Last changes. Version 1.5 (
December 25, 2005 )
Updated algorithm "computer AI: control production of
combat vehicles" - now AI more rationally uses economy potential and more rationally
select models of combat vehicles for increasing / decreasing of productions.
Updated algorithm "Capture of enemy unit" - guaranteeing capture of enemy unit
if their morale < 80 Otherwise - as if "retreat"
Updated algorithm "cities economic potential" - now the seizure of enemies city
set its economic potential <= 20 and all captured enemies cities can't enlarge their
economic potential higher 20.
Now computer AI can use feature "Merging broken units".
Corrected prices on combat vehicles.
Decreased soft attack for flamethrower tanks.
Doubled number of new recruits (each day).
Added midi track.
Some small corrections in algorithms.
|
System requirements:
Pentium-II 333MHz or higher.
64mb RAM (128mb recommended).
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
DirectX 7.0 or higher.
|
Also... If You have any question, see FAQ about "Soldiers of Empires" |
|
|
