IgorLab Software
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SOLDIERS OF EMPIRES
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Soldiers of Empires v.1.6
Help
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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 1.6 ( September 12, 2010 ).
System
requirements.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Map modes.
The game has at present 3 different map modes :
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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.
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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.
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Global
map mode II
This is full map of
the game.
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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.
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Forming
a new unit.
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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).
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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.
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Renewing
a unit and merging broken units.
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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.
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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").
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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.
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Economy
and statistics.
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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...
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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.
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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)
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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
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End
turn.
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The "End turn" Screen
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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.
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Help
menu.
In this game menu, you may learn of authors of the game and find other
small additional instructions and advices.
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Last
changes. Version 1.6 ( September 12, 2010 )
Windows
Vista and Windows 7 support added
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System
requirements:
Pentium-II
333MHz or higher.
64mb RAM (128mb recommended).
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/ 7
DirectX 7.0 or higher.
DirectX-compatible sound.
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Also... If You have any
question, see FAQ about
"Soldiers of Empires"
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