GAME MANUAL CONTENTS Designer notes 7 From The Beginning 7 That Special Thing 8 People Behind the Game 9 Final Thoughts 10 Part 1 ःGamePlay 11 1. Introduction 11 2. Getting Started 12 2.1. Installation 12 3. Understanding the Game Interface 16 3.1. Main Menu 16 3.2. New Game 17 3.3. Options 19 3.4. Advanced Options 22 3.5. The In-Game Interface 26 3.6. Further Interface Information 38 4. 1939 World at War Tutorial 54 4.1. Axis Turn 1 54 4.2. Axis Turn 2 73 4.3. Axis Turns – Winter 1939 77 5. Game Essentials 81 5.1. Key Areas of Gameplay 81 5.2. Hotkeys 81 5.3. Major and Minor Powers 82 5.4. Indicator Sprites 82 5.5. Orders 83 5.6. Unit Modes 86 5.7. Zones of Control 86 5.8. Combat 87 5.9. Raiding 88 5.10. Conquering Countries 89 5.11. National Morale 89 5.12. HQs 90 5.13. Supply Rules 90 5.14. Partisans 92 5.15. Maintaining Units’ Combat Effectiveness 92 5.16. Decision Events 93 5.17. Building Fortifications 93 5.18. Politics and Diplomacy 93 5.19. Weather 94 5.20. The Research Mechanism 95 5.21. Manual Upgrades 96 5.22. Automatic Upgrades 97 5.23. Automatic Industrial Mobilization 99 5.24. Military Production 99 5.25. Further Gameplay Tips 99 5.26. Ending a Turn 100 5.27. Saving a Game 101 5.28. Exiting the Game 101 5.29. Winning the Game 101 5.30. Support 101 6. Movement and Combat 101 6.1. Basics 101 6.2. Moving Units 103 6.3. Land Movement 107 6.4. Air Movement 111 6.5. Naval Movement 112 6.6. Combat 120 7. Advanced Gameplay Concepts 141 7.1. General Unit Characteristics 141 7.2. Combat Target Values 142 7.3. Headquarters Attachments 143 7.4. Building Fortifications 145 7.5. Surrendering Nations 146 7.6. Capturing Enemy Supply Centers 147 7.7. Plunder 148 7.8. Victory Conditions 148 7.9. The Game Engine’s Turn Sequence 149 7.10. Collecting Military Production Points 149 7.11. Supply 150 7.12. Resource Definitions 151 7.13. Maximum Resource Strengths 153 7.14. Supply Connection Rules 154 7.15. Besieging Resources 154 7.16. Port Supply to Land Forces 154 7.17. Artillery with Zero Supply 155 7.18. Raiding when at Zero Supply 155 7.19. Damage to Resources 155 7.20. Industrial Modifier 155 7.21. Unit Production 156 7.22. Reinforcement Costs 158 7.23. The Cost of Upgrading Units 158 7.24. Decision Events 159 7.25. Factors Influencing Combat Effectiveness 160 7.26. Naval Supply 163 7.27. Supply and Action Points Table 164 7.28. Supply & Reinforcements Table 164 7.29. Morale and Readiness 166 7.30. Supply Values 174 8. Unit Types 175 8.1. Land Units 175 8.2. Air Units 182 8.3. Naval Units 184 9. Research 188 9.1. Introduction 188 9.2. In Depth: The Research Mechanism 190 9.3. Viewing Progress 193 9.4. Progressing to the Next Level 193 9.5. Research Limits 194 9.6. Research Categories 194 9.7. Applying Manual Upgrades 195 9.8. Manual Upgrades 195 9.9. Automatic Upgrades 202 10. Politics and Diplomacy 207 10.1. Alignment Status & Mobilization Values 207 10.2. The Diplomatic Mechanism 208 10.3. Contested Diplomacy 210 10.4. Impending War Entry 210 10.5. Belligerence 210 10.6. The Wider Impact of Declarations of War 211 Part 2 ःDesiGninG your own CamPaiGns 213 1. Introduction 213 1.1. First things First 213 1.2. Using The Editor 214 2. Menu Buttons 215 2.1. File 215 2.2. Edit 219 2.3. Map 220 2.4. Campaign 230 2.5. Go To " Select Map Position 255 2.6. View 256 2.7. Preferences 257 2.8. Language 257 2.9. Mods 257 2.10. Help 257 2.11. Menu Buttons - Second Row 257 3. Scripts, the AI & General Advice 259 3.1. Editing Event Scripts 259 3.2. Editing Artificial Intelligence Scripts 269 3.3. Suggestions For Creating a New Campaign 271 3.4. Further Advice & Information 276 4. Scenario Design Guide 277 4.1. What do you Want to Simulate? 278 4.2. Scenario Data and Information 278 4.3. Map Research and Scaling 280 4.4. Game Map Design 280 4.5. Country Information 282 4.6. Unit Map Ratio 282 4.7. Event Scripting 283 4.8. Artificial Intelligent Scripting 284 4.9. Play Testing 284 4.10. Graphics 285 4.11. Conclusion 285 4.12. Map Design Example 286 5. Reference Tables 289 5.1. Combat 289 5.2. Convoy Raiding 294 Credits 298 DESIGNER NOTES From The Beginning Starting in 2002, the Strategic Command series has seen numerous releases, including this one, that have covered virtually every aspect of WWI and WWII. In addition, we’ve also been able to produce a number of expansion packs to fill the void between major releases. However, one item that has never been included is a chapter discussing the history, inspiration and people behind Strategic Command. When asked to include Designer Notes this time around, it took me some time to step back from the day to day and decompress all the events, time and years spent on these games. For myself, and after many years of working on the Strategic Command series, I had to remember just why I decided to pursue game design, strategy games and more importantly this specific series in the first place. While the final chapter in the story of the Strategic Command series has yet to be written, the story up to this point is perhaps mostly the story of my life for the last 20+ years. I realize that sounds a bit clichéd, but as with all stories, there is a beginning to this one in that had several specific events not occurred, I most likely would not be sitting down to write these Designer Notes at all. If I can think of a starting point to the adventure that has been the Strategic Command series it would probably go back to a fateful night in 1993. I had unfortunately totaled my car leaving me with just enough of an insurance claim settlement to purchase, of all things since I was not allowed to purchase another vehicle, my first PC. While I was now back to taking the bus to high school, I quickly discovered the addictive nature of PC gaming and at one point was devouring games like Civilization, Doom and Wolfenstein 3-D. What I learned from probably playing way too many hours of these games, was that of all the games I discovered, I really liked strategy games and that I had gained a great interest in how they worked and that it was something I wanted to pursue further by learning how to program. I then took every programming class I could in high school, and followed that up by pursuing Computer Science at university. By the time I graduated in 1999 I was at a bit of a crossroads as I was now at the point 7 in my life where I could either go out to find a job, or take some time off to design my first full game. I decided that it was worth the risk to pursue game design on my own with the thinking that if I was successful I could perhaps sell it and make a living making games. If not, I had hoped that the time off spent on a gaming project would at least look better on my resume than just having a Computer Science degree alone. I gave myself 6 months and in the end the game took nearly 2 years to develop. Luckily enough the game was a hit and it did happily allow me to pursue game design as a living. That Special Thing So what makes Strategic Command special? At the time I began development in 1999, there was in my mind a bit of a void when it came to grand strategy WWII PC war games that were approachable and somewhere in between what a grognard would like to see, and what any war game “lite” player would be interested in. Clash of Steel was probably the closest game to the above and really the type of game I had enjoyed the most, but it had been released 6 years earlier and was now a bit dated with nothing on the market to really replace it. Other games that I had loved playing were Panzer General and the Axis and Allies board game and later PC version of that game. For me these games hit the sweet spot between a serious PC war game and something that would be generally a lot of fun to play for the casual gamer. Ultimately, they had a very strong influence on the design philosophy I wanted to pursue with Strategic Command which was to combine all the best elements of these very specific games that I had enjoyed playing so much. My immediate goals were for Strategic Command to cover the European Theater, play as a grand strategy game, include items of interest such as experience medals, show colored control changes on the map, and be quick and easy to play. Much of which, at least in this type of combination which is probably surprising to hear today, simply did not exist in a more serious PC war game back in 1999.