Содержание

A strategic  game of leadership and cunning.

GENERAL

(English Version)

Objective:

For the cool guys: to destroy all the other states.

For the humanists: to unite the Earth under your wise rule and live happily ever after.

Means: Through total military conquest.

If you love playing with your friends rather than on your own, this game must hold your attention. It supports any number of players between 1 and 20. Any of them can be people, and the most interesting thing is that you won't know, which of the opponents is human and who is not!

Hotseat  mode is supported (the players move in turns, and the turns are then processed simultaneously, between the turns, as in Master of Orion and Deadlock). The game supports all connection types. You can play over local network, modem, or Internet (See Network game for more info).

So, you are the king, and in order to achieve your objective, you need to do the following things:

•	Sow Grain and Sell Excess Grain

•	Train Scientists  and Recruit Soldiers

•	Pay your Scientists' and Soldiers' Wages

•	Assign the Scientists Research Targets , and Place soldiers on the borders

•	Hire Generals  and Give them Orders

•	Conquer your Neighbors

Network game

Strong and Weak Points of the Game

A brief description of other cool games

Hardware and software requirements, troubleshooting UPDATE

About the author UPDATE

Acknowledgements:

The authors thank everyone for advice and assistance, and especially the following people:

1. Nevermelt  ( Netherlands, Laren ) jjp@xs4all.nl and

   Natalia Beletska  ( Kharkov, Ukraine ) nbiletska@hotmail.com - for translating this Help!

2. Joseph Veres  ( Usa, Boston ) veresj@hotmail.com - for translating battle texts in the game.

3. Levon and Andrey labsniisa@mail.ru for the music and graphics in the game.

4. Ivan Zhiltsov pvafight@chat.ru for the new map drawing algorithm.

_______________________________________ ____________________

General Main Central: http://newgame.da.ru

and http://www.chat.ru/~newgame/GeneralEng.htm

Here you will always find an upgrade, the latest version of General and information on upcoming changes to the software and on our new projects.

Enjoy!

Dmitri

____________________________________________________________


<new topic>
Strategic - Meaning boring because you have to think-before–you-click. But at the same time capturing and carrying away you far beyond our reality.


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Never confuse with HOT DOG!


Засев земли
Sowing Grain

Each country occupies some territory. Each of your peasants can sow 1 km of land with some amount of grain as determined by your agrarian research level. Next year, your yield of grain is twice of what you've sown, so half of the harvest is sown again, and the rest can be sold or stored.

If the number of your peasants is smaller than the amount of land available, you'll be able to sow as much land as you have peasants!

It is possible to have insufficient grain stock for sowing all the land, for instance if you happen to conquer more land in one turn than was sown before.

If you sowed X km of land, and the enemy took Y km, you lose the grain yield from that territory (however, the enemy would get nothing but empty land either). You will get the harvest from (X-Y) km.

You can sow grain in the Economy section. There is a Max button there, that enables you to sow the maximum available territory (all the calculations are automatic).

On the right in the Economy section you can see the projection of the next year's harvest (just the amount of grain sown*2).

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Продажа излишков зерна
Sale of excess grain

After harvesting and sowing again, you will find that there is still grain left. This is useful, since you need to train scientists and soldiers, pay their wages and finally, hire generals. And for all this you need cash.

What am I driving at? Oh, yes, just sell it!

Naturally, you sell grain in the Economy section; if you haven't yet sowed the maximum amount of grain, the sales slider number turns red as a warning. There is also a Max button, which sells your whole grain stock.

Of course, it is possible not to sell your grain right away, if you do not need any money at the moment. Afterwards you can sell it for a greater price (when the Finance research level goes up), or alternatively you can save it for some strategic purpose.

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Подготовка ученых
Training Scientists

Scientists: Persons  in  white labcoats often found looking around in a rather confused fashion and mumbling such things as 'I wonder where I left that vial of deadly viruses'.

The more scientists you have, the more research is done and the faster scientific breakthrough happens. Thus, is it highly recommended to have them.

To hire scientists you must go to the Economy section. The number of scientists you can hire depends on your financial resources. Hiring a scientist initially costs $100. Thus, when hiring M scientists you pay M*$100. The corresponding slider has a special button ">" that allows you to calculate automatically the number of scientists you can hire and still be able to pay their wages from the current money resources (as when you hire scientists, the money you have decreases, and their wages, quite surprisingly, increase · ). You will also notice a "Max" button, which allows you to hire the maximum number of scientists that you can without being unable to pay any wages at the end of the year.

However, there are some problems:

1)	The scientists do not fall from the skies, but come from peasants. Thus, when you hire one scientist, you lose one peasant, which sometimes can be important.

2)	Scientists, like the soldiers, need to be paid, the more you have them, the more you need to pay for their maintenance (the amount increases in geometric series, though not to a large extent). Have in mind that scientists' wages are lower than those of your soldiers. Here I've gone even farther than the creators of Deadlock, as there only soldiers required maintenance. You pay the wages automatically at the end of the turn. If you do not have enough money to pay your scientists, the ones not getting wages will leave you for good. See also Paying your scientists' and soldiers' wages.

Tip: Scientists are cheaper than soldiers to maintain… and we all know that knowledge is power.

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Подготовка солдат
Recruiting Soldiers

Soldier: an armed guy who costs money and gives you nothing but headache

The more soldiers you have, the more land you can conquer from your neighbor, and the more chances you have to successfully defend your own. Thus, it is highly recommended to have them.

To hire soldiers you must go to the Economy section. Your money resources limit the number of soldiers you can have. Training one soldier costs $100. Thus, if you train M soldiers, you pay M*$100. The corresponding slider has a special button ">" that allows you to calculate automatically the number of soldiers you can hire and still be able to pay their wages from the current money resources (as when you hire scientists, the money you have decreases, and their wages, quite surprisingly, increase · ). You will also notice a "Max" button, which allows you to hire the maximum number of scientists that you can without being unable to pay any wages at the end of the year.

However, there are some problems:

1)	The soldiers do not fall from the skies, but come from peasants. Thus, when you hire one soldier, you lose one peasant, which sometimes can be important.

2)	Soldiers, like the scientists, need to be paid, and the more you have them, the more you need to pay for their maintenance (the amount increases in geometric series). Have in mind that it is more expensive to maintain soldiers than scientists. You pay the wages automatically at the end of the turn. If you do not have enough money to pay your soldiers, the ones not getting wages will leave you for good. See also Paying your scientists' and soldiers' wages.

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Забота об ученых и солдатах
Paying your Scientists' and Soldiers' Wages

The more scientists (soldiers) you have the more money you need for their maintenance. Therefore, it is recommended to have them in reasonable numbers. Money for scientists' (soldiers') wages are automatically taken from your treasury at the end of the turn. If you do not have enough money, the computer automatically sells all the excess grain you have in stock.

Tips:

1)	Have enough money in your treasury to pay the wages, don't count on the auto-sale feature.

2)	If you were counting on selling the excess grain by the computer, and next turn there is not enough money to pay your scientists and soldiers, don't blame the program right away. First think: maybe something happened last turn that decreased the expected grain stock. You might have conquered your neighbor's land and now you need more grain to sow. Or maybe your agrarian research level has risen, and thus you can now sow more grain on the same territory.

3)	Remember that if you are lacking money, you lose the soldiers first, and after them the scientists.

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Расстановка ученых по видам наук

Assigning the scientists research targets

When you have trained a certain number of your peasants as scientists, they appear in the Science section, as unoccupied scientists. In order to assign the scientists proper research targets go to this section. Unoccupied scientists are just lazybones from whom you gain nothing, so do watch what they are doing . The buttons in this section are easy to operate, just click them to see what they are doing.

There is a button that allows you make all your scientists unoccupied, and for each of the sciences there is a button "1Year" that allows to calculate automatically how many scientists you need to make that particular breakthrough in one turn. See Strong points of the game

For each of the sciences you see:

•	the current level showing you how far this particular science has advanced;

•	the current value corresponding to the level: for instance, for Population density this value initially equals 1 person per sq. km. This means that, until you have a scientific breakthrough in this field, the number of your citizens will not exceed your territory;

•	how many years you have left until there is a breakthrough: depends on the previous effort and the number of currently occupied scientists. See Strong points of the game;

•	percentage bar that shows how much of the work towards the discovery is made by the next turn. If it shows 100%, this means that next turn the next level will be discovered.

Sciences available in the game:

•	Population density

•	Population growth

•	Agrarian research

•	Financial research

•	Military training

•	Scientific research

Population density

The higher this value is, the more people can live on one square kilometer. In the beginning of the game this value equals 1, that means that your maximum population has the size of your territory. If your country reaches this figure, the population grows no further. If some of the land has been taken from you, however, it's OK, the people will not die, though the remaining territory may be overcrowded. See in the Economy section, the values for the current population and the maximum population.

Population growth

This value reflects the dynamics of the population growth. Increasing this index has nothing to do with producing more faulty condoms · . It means that you have actually reduced your mortality rate. If this index is N, it means that by next turn the number of people to be born = total population*N%. See the Economy section, it contains a forecast for population increase by next turn.

Agrarian research

This is the most interesting index. It shows how much grain a peasant can sow on one sq. km. The harvest is twice of what you've sown. I.e., the higher your agrarian research level is, the more grain you can sow and subsequently harvest. Remember! After you have increased this index, you need more grain for sowing. The computer takes this into account while auto-selling the grain, and thus you have less money for paying your scientists and soldiers. So, try to leave enough money to pay them in the treasury. See also in the Economy section, it contains a forecast, how much grain you are going to harvest next turn.

Financial research

In order to get money, you need to sell grain. You sell it to some mysterious virtual entity · , like in many other games. If your the index corresponding to your financial level is F, selling G grain gives you $G*F.

Military training

The higher the level of your military training, the better your soldiers fight. Increasing this level influences all your soldiers, regardless of when they were recruited. The index reflects how much health your soldiers have. The higher it is, the more difficult it is to kill them.

Scientific research

"Eats like four men, works like seven". Sounds like some old fairy-tale · . That's how the things with your scientists are. At the beginning, each of them works with the efficiency of one person, and with the increase of the scientific research level their work output equals, for instance, that of 1.83 persons.

In other words, in order to discover the other five scientific levels the scientists themselves must perfect their research methods.

Tips:

1)	Aim at discovering sciences in one year, do not scatter your scientific workforce.

2)	First discover sciences for growth and development, and then for war.

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Расстановка солдат по границам
Placing soldiers on the borders

So, now you have soldiers. What next?

Upon the purchase the soldiers are assigned to protect your state by default. They can attack only under the command of a general.

Go to the section Boundaries. In this section you perform your military operations, by giving your generals orders and assigning to them soldiers.

In order to attack a neighboring country, you need first to direct your general to that state (i.e. he should have the order to Attack ), and then, after highlighting the general, you assign him the necessary number of soldiers from the number currently protecting the borders (there is a track bar on the right that enables you to do that).

If you cancel your general's order to attack, his soldiers automatically reinforce your border guard.

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Покупка генералов
Hiring Generals

Why do you need a general? To attack other states and command your soldiers in battle. Yes, you read that right: without a general you do not have the ability to do any offensive maneuvers with your army. When defending, things aren't that bad and if there is no general present when your country is attacked the soldiers will elect one from their midst (whose name, Stupid, very accurately reflects his ability).

Thus, if you don't want your army to go to waste and wish to be able to attack and defend at maximum deadliness, you need a general.

To hire a general, go to the Generals section, here you will see several slider bars, enabling you to set several statistics of your soon-to-be general.

Every general has certain statistics, the values may increase or decrease, but when buying a general you actually set his starting values.

•	Age

This value influences the actual period that your general will stay with you: once a general turns 60 he has an increasing chance of dying each year. A general can live to become a 100 years old, after which he will retire (or die, whichever). The age of a general does not influence his skill or learning abilities.

•	Skill

This statistics lies in the range from 1 to 100 and reflects the ability of the general to evaluate a given combat situation and to take appropriate action. All the orders that a general can give (ranging from holding the line to an all-out-assault) require a certain skill level of the general. Thus, to give the order for an outflanking maneuver, the general must have a minimum skill of 80. Skill can be increased by having your general spend his time studying or by letting him command an army in battle.

•	Grade

This statistics represents the studiousness of the general and how much his skill increases when he is ordered to study. Thus, a general with a "grade" of 5 increases his skill by 5 every year that he is given the Study command.

•	Speed

The speed value stands for how mobile your general (and through him, your forces) is. It represents the speed with which he carries out his orders. This influences the overall speed to such an extent that when military movements take place, the general with the highest speed rating can carry out his attacks first, after which the second-fastest general can strut his stuff, after which…etc. What this actually means is that when a speedy general is in command of a defending army he will be able to prepare his troops for any assaults and will thus have a 50% defense bonus compared to the (slower) opponent. Also, if two states are attacking a smaller and defenseless one, the faster general will be able to conquer land first, whereas the slower one might find no land to attack. See also Conquering your neighbors.

•	Morale

This statistics, ranging from 0 to 100, determines the morale of your general (or his general fighting spirit) and carries through to the troops under his command. It is always at 100 when a general is first bought and

it decreases when your general is involved in an attack or when he is protecting the boundaries of your country. A general with a low morale value fights much less effectively than the one who has a high one; to be able to give advanced tactical maneuver commands to your army, a general must have certain skill, as well as morale value. If your general's morale is falling low, give him the Rest order and he will regain morale at 5 points per turn.

Each of the players can have a maximum of 10 generals, but not more than the current number of frontiers +2.

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Отдавать приказания генералам
Giving your Generals Orders

Have you already got a general? If not, see Hiring Generals.

Go to the Frontiers section, where you can manipulate all your generals and soldiers.

In this section you should see a table containing your generals' names and their statistics.

You can perform the following operations:

1. Double-clicking on the cell Border directs the general to the current border selected (which is done in the top left corner where you see the list of adjacent countries). After double-clicking the order Attack shows up. Double-click the cell again to cancel the order. Do not forget to assign the general soldiers. On the right of the generals' table you see a track bar that allows you to relocate soldiers from border guard to the currently selected general.

Note: In order to attack a country, it must be adjoining to yours and you have to be in command of a general and at least one soldier.

2. Double-clicking the general's name fires the general.

3. Double-clicking on the "Order" cell changes the general's order, which, besides Attacking, can also be Rest, Study and Defend. All the corresponding operations take place automatically.

Thus, the Rest order means that the general will rest from the battlefield and gain 5 additional points of the morale.

The Study order means that the general will study tactics and increase his skill by the value of his "Grade" characteristics.

The Defend order directs your general to commanding your border guard. This makes your troops 150% defence bonus if the attacking general is slower than yours.

Note: If you are attacked and you have no general commanding your home guard army, a general will be chosen from amongst the soldiers. This general will have the rather revealing name of "Stupid".

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Война с соседями
Conquering your Neighbours

Making war rather than love is the only means of winning this game: only total world domination will suffice. In the Frontiers section you will be able to see a map showing all neighbouring states and a list showing their population. Using this information you have to decide which country to attack (a strong one or a weak one, or possibly the most troublesome).

In order to attack your neighbor you need to send to the respective frontier a general and soldiers. If there are no soldiers or they have no commander, there will be no battle.

In order to attack an XXX state, you go the the Frontiers section, select it in the list in the top left corner (naturally, if you have no common border with it, you will not see it there). Then double-click on the Border cell in the generals' table, belonging to the general you want to go to war. The cell will show then the name XXX. After that you allocate that general soldiers, using the track bar on the right. See also Giving your Generals Orders. . Below the track bar you see the area which the soldiers are going to occupy under the command of the given general.

When all players (human and AI) have finished their turns, battle resolution takes place. The order of battles taking place is determined by the speed characteristics of the generals commanding the attacking armies: the battles of those with the highest value take place first, after which the battles for those with the second-highest value take place, etc. If a general was ordered to rest, he will do so, if he was ordered to study he will be studying and if he was commanded to oversee border protection he will be doing just that. If the general had the order to attack, a battle between the attacking and defending state takes place. If the defending side has no commander, the soldiers select one from among their midst, an absolutely stupid one.

Battle resolution. The attacking side opens with their attack, after which the defending side retaliates. Repeat until either side is eliminated, or the battle has lasted so long that it has to be aborted.

The attacks go as follows:

The genral gives an order, according to his ability.  His troops carry out the order. Each action type uses the power of different units. Thus, the bowmen inflict more damage in defense, in the all-out assault the knights are most effective, and in an organized attack the damage inflicted is approximately equal.

Battle resolution might seem chaotic at the first sight, but trust me, everything has been thoroughly tested. If you spend time for careful analysis, you will see that. If you have any questions, send me save files, I'll analyze them. I can even send a complete table of attack types and a program for their editing.

Remember:  If the defending army has a faster general commanding them, they are be 1.5 times as effective in defense, but not in offensive maneuvers.

The ultimate spoil of battle is, of course, territory; which can be used for sowing grain and housing people. The game contains a clever algorithm of conquering territory. One soldier is capable of conquering 1km of the opponent's country, the second soldier conquers 0.001 less and so on. As the result, increasing the number of soldiers does not give a linear increase. Another important factor is the general's mobility. For instance, 100 soldiers under the command of the general with mobility 1 conquer 34 km, and under the command of the general with mobility 100 they conquer 190 km. Thus, the general's mobility influences the advancement into the enemy's territory to a great extent.

If your opponent's state was divided into parts as the result of the previous battles, you canget only that part of territory which adjoins your border, even if you have more soldiers than it is necessary to occupy it.

Also, as the result of military operations the generals increase their skill, the longer the battle is, the more experience is gained. A general can gain a maximum of 10 points of skill in one battle.

When attacking, a general loses 10 points of morale. When preparing to defense he loses 3 points and for every battle while on border defense he loses an additional 5 points(thus a general who repels 2 attacks on border defense loses 13 points of morale [3+2*5=13]). In order for the general to rest, see Giving your Generals Orders.lain}.

If the battle takes place on the border between two states, both generals lose 5 points of morale. The loser then goes to rest, and the winner, upon attacking the enemy's terrritory, loses an additional 10 morale points.

If two states attack each other in the same turn, the following happens:

1). There is a fight on the border of the two states, where the two attacking armies clash

2). The victorious army marches onwards into the territory of the losing country where it confronts the "home guard".

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Достоинства и недостатки игры
Strong and Weak Points of the Game

Weak points:

•	No colorful pictures (I'm not an artist, no, no · ). Had I been one, I would have made a great thing out of it.

•	Simplified economy, science, ordering generals and battles (in principle, that can be amended).

•	No diplomatic action.

Strong points:

•	Network game for up to 20 people + all connection types supported + Hot Seat mode (when playing on the same computer).

•	The map and the territory size are dynamic, i.e. you always play on a different map, like in all other good strategies.

•	Unlike some other similar games (e.g. Master of Orion or Deadlock) it is much more interesting to play as you never know, which of your opponents is human, and which one is a computer dummy.

•	This game, again unlike many others, has real computer intelligence! By no means truly excellent, but still much, much better than what I've seen so far. For instance, there is such thing in computer opponents as relations with the opponents. For instance, if the state is attacked by another, their relations worsen, and still more should the attacking state be victorious. The relations gradually worsen if one of the neighbors has larger territory and population. If one of the states "kills" another, the murderer's relational rating is lowered, even with those states that have no common borders with it. If your state does not attack the computer's state, the relations gradually improve. This is also the case when you are in possession of a small state. Thus, when choosing whom to attack, computer opponents would first consider the potential danger coming from the other states, and then, if the opponents are more or less equal, the relational factor comes into play. Naturally, these two factors are not exhaustive! Generally, the artificial intellect deserves a separate article, if you are interested, write to me.

•	The complexity of the game depends only on the number of the opponents. This actually means that there are no additional resources for any of the players. The more opponents you have, the more difficult it is to defeat all of them. This is a great advantage, in comparison to many other game developers, who compensate their "stupid" algorithms by resources assigned to the difficulty levels. You know how this is done: On easy levels they give lots of resources, on the difficult ones they are scarce – but this is wrong, because ideally, the difference in more difficult levels should be that the computer "thinks" better).

•	The computer plays absolutely honestly. It has the same starting economy indices as the human. All economic and military procedures are processed equally for humans and computer opponents. The computer sees only its neighboring states! It cannot look into your economy, science or generals. It does not even suspect that you are human!!! For it you are just an ordinary opponent.

•	Everything in the game is interconnected. For instance, increase in the population growth leads to the birth of more peasants, as the result of which you can cultivate more land, if you did not have the maximum capacity previously. Thus, next turn you will need more grain to sow than it was projected. Alternatively, if you see that you cannot pay your peasants or soldiers, it is better to make them peasants again, so that they would not starve.

•	The science is unlimited. You choose how many scientists to have and what to discover. And the most important thing, to what level!

•	No random events like barbarian invasions (like in Civilization), or finding artifacts (Warlords, Master of Orion). Everybody develops only on merit.

•	Rapidity. You do not have to waste several days for the game. 3-4 hours is absolutely sufficient. You can conquer your friends' territories in one evening. In order to see who's dragging the game behind, there is a timer in it. The time is counted from the moment of pressing the Ready button, to the end of your turn. The time between the turns is not counted.

•	The processing is semi-automatic. You do not have to screw your brains in order to count, for instance, how much land you can cultivate this turn, or whether you are going to be in the red next year. In the Science section you can press the button 1year, and the required number of scientists will be placed in the appropriate area. You needn't count how many go where. Remember that this is a game for a strategist, and not a bookkeeper!

•	There is a Pass button. It gives you the possibility to let the computer take care of your turn, like in chess. As the result, you can see for yourself that the computer plays honestly, and you might even find something to learn from it.

•	Saving games works properly. While this is not an issue in one-person game, when several people are playing, save file restores the settings for all the participants, and while loading, gives a reminder screen showing the current player. See Heroes 1,2. In all difficulty levels, except for the Expert, Autosave is enabled.

•	General is a turn-by-turn strategy with the simultaneous turn processing capacity. There is no difference whether you are the first or the last to make your move. Anyway, the first opponent to attack is the one who has a more mobile general (or who purchased the general earlier, given equal mobility). You don't have to engage in the battle, attempting to point the cursor at some particular soldier. All you have to do is to think, hire a general, train him and send to battle. After that you draw conclusions.

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О других, хороших играх
About other good games

My favourite games with comments:

•	Civilization 1,2

Surely, it is the best game. I have played it for a whole year, until realized that on the hard levels the computer cheats. After that, the fun somehow was lost. Afterwards I found out that at the hardest level there are 10 tanks assigned to each city. The tanks are travelling but the city prospers, under democracy · .

A wonderful concept and great economy and science of the game combine with:

1. Absolute imbecility of the computer opponents;

2. Presence of random events like villages and barbarians;

3. Stupid diplomacy;

4. One and the same artificial "tree" of sciences (everything is discovered according to the same scheme, though for an inexperienced person science might seem totally incomprehensible);

5. Absence of normal and purposeful military action (especially in the beginnig of the game);

6. Absence of simultaneous turn capacity, though there is a network play capacity;

7. On difficult levels the computer openly hates the human player;

8. Everything is randomly defined. You have had bad luck - no problem, just reload the game!

Plus several annoying trifles. Like this: We advance science by 100 bulbs per turn. 10 bulbs are left. If you do nothing, you just lose 90 bulbs. So, the only thing you can do is to change that turn the proportion Science/Tax, in order to get 90 additional coins. Such things require little thinking capacity, but are an awful time waster.

In the second version of the game there was only better graphics, new sciences and military units, but none of the real drawbacks of the first vesrion were amended. It's a pity...

As for Alpha Centaury: Plain rubbish. I've played the Russian version, it's even worse. Funny: Russian version is for sale, but there is no normal English version. The game is too difficult to control. I don't think it is going to be popular. It sure has some sound ideas like constructing new units like in Master of Orion, and the concept of borders. But there is also a concept of resources. They've been renamed, but their essence stayed the same. The question is why do we need then to get used to the new name... The drawbacks of the previous versions this game has corrected by 30 per cent. But now there are new nasty things, like the worms, all they can do is crawl and disrupt the game balance. WE DON'T WANT Alpha Centaury, we want Civilzation, BUT WITH AMENDMENTS AND ADDITIONS. Now everybody is writing articles about it. They agree with me, that warms my heart.

I've played Call to Power, the guys have made a thourough job of it. A good thing. But it has a drawback, still: I didn't like playing it · .I don't quite understand why. Probably others like it?

•	Master of Orion 1,2

An excellent game, both versions of it. Many thanks to the designers. Governing planets and directing science development, like in Civilization, are combined with the wonderful idea of constructing fleet and leading it to battle. Constructing your own people is great. The possibility of simultaneous turn! The drawbacks: Cheating and stupidity of your opponents on hard levels is nothing but amazing. Absolutely disbalanced planet distribution. Finding artifacts while discovering planets often gives unfair advantage. The game has network play capacity, but the play is faulty even after upgraiding. When you have many planets, controlling them all becomes a pain. Lots of annoying trifles, the most obvious of which is the incorrect evaluation, in how many turns the science is going to be discovered. Also, you always know which of the opponents is human, and in my game it's not at all easy to guess who's who. See Strong and weak points of the game.

•	Deadlock 1,2

Great idea, poor implementation. The first version is more convenient in control. Possibility of simultaneous turn processing! A really advanced idea of the necessity for maintaining your troops, and not just recruiting. The sum necessary to maintain the army grows in geometric series (just like in real life). But: instead of giving strategic directions to the economy, 90% of the time is wasted for moving your men. Isn't it clear that labor resources must be controlled in percentages, but not as giving commands to actual units! Discovering sciences is only visual, it's a pity it can't be seen as a percentage, and of course, a forecast, how many turns are left. After playing this game, I learned so much how things should not be. However, still this game is No1 candidate for the title "Intellectual Deathmatch", due to the ideas of fast turn (you needn't build roads and move units like in Civilization, everything is abstract) and independency from the speed of clicking.

Great IT game, I was able to play with Americans even through my pitiful connection.

•	Master of Magic

This game is an excellent example of combining good strategy with magic. Very much like the Civilization, and battles are great. It's cool working with the heroes. Great possibility to choose your people and magic skills. Drawbacks: Lost of these... The most important one is random events. All whom I know played like this: You go to battle, get an artifact, if it's not good enough, reload the game.

•	Heroes Master of Magic 1,2,3

Cool game. For some people it's not a strategy. This depends on how to play it. I played it with my friends, and used some additional rules: Equal territory, no magic above the 4th level, and in the battle above the 1st level, and no dragons. The random element then practically disappears, and it tuns into a proper strategy. Now the weak points: The computer is stupid. On higher difficulty levels seems to think even worse, as it throws its huge resources to waste. Battles are not better in the subsequent versions. Maybe, the developers think that great graphics and music is all that matters. When several people play, saved game starts with the last saved player, with no indication who it was.

I've tried the third version... Disappointment. Of course, it's nicely done, lots of small things added/improved (aha, now there is an indication when the game is restored), but nothing really was changed. I hoped for a larger battlefield map, the possibility for building castles, diplomacy and simultaneous turn processing. I've played a similar game on the playstation, by Japanese developers. The battlefield there was tens of times larger. There you could really employ your brains! I've seen other people, who are by no means strategy maniacs, were playing the game for weeks. They could do one battle in some days, trying to reduce the casualties to the minimum.

I've read a review of this game on www.ag.ru . Some guy (a pro, as he writes?!) loses to the computer players and moreover, he does not even control the battle, as he says, the computer has become smart!!! Isn't that a cool guy! I have three or four times less casualties than the computer players, given equal forces! Dear users, never read foolish reviews, you gain nothing of them. They just take up space on the site.

•	Kings Bounty

The granfather of Heroes. A super cool game. No stupid missions like in Heroes. The world of the game consists of four maps between which you can move. There is a goal and many ways for achieving it. The game is still playable. Wasn't that great when a crowd of monsters was after your head, and you just took a boat and departed in an unknown (for them) direction. Why isn't there a worthy sequel? This must be a job for me!

•	Might and Magic III-VI

It is not a strategy, but strategies badly lack the elements present in this game. The skills of your heroes can be compared to scientific discovery. The basic skills are given, but you decide yourself, what to develop and to what extent. Lots of different kinds of weapons, and it's good that the properties of a particular weapon are evident from its name. Why in Civilization it was impossible to make a wooden Bomber, or underwater Legion, just like in this game? Weaknesses: Your opponent is just cannon fodder. The game is too long. There is too much money, especially towards the end of the game. You get as many goodies as you turn over dead bodies. If something goes wrong, don't be lazy - just reload!

•	Warlords 1,2,3

A super game. Probably, it's the champion as to the time wasted on it. The second part was good: randomly generated maps, more unit types, the possibility to buy production facilities. A dream! The third part was rot. Nothing new or useful. Weaknesses: It's inconvenient to control the troops once you hace many. Random battle resolution. If in the first part it was predictable, in the following parts you get different results with the same regiment. No possibility of simultaneous turn, which is important as each of the players may need up to 30 minutes to complete it. No tactics in battle. No science. The castles cannot be well developed, like in Heroes Master of Magic. The artifacts are not balanced and their finding actually disrupts the game. I've thought of an algorithm for fair and predictable battle resolution in this game. I'd love to give it to the designers of future series, but how to contact them? Can anybody help?

Soon Warlords4 will come out, now it's going to be a real-time game. AWFUL! They want to deprive us of our favorite strategy by making it REAL-TIME!

•	Fantasy Empires

Not many people know this game. Nevertheless, it is one of the best examples of combining a turn-by-turn and real-time strategy. It's interesting that there is a great number of heroes, so when you lose one or two it's not the end of all. Original, but very sensible battle control. It is possible to play with friends at the same computer. Weaknesses: Primitive graphics and controls. Stupid opponents. No network support. Only one map.

•	Dune 2

The first real-time strategy. It was cool. Beatiful, interesting game with great potential. No one was to know that it was the beginning of the end for strategies and turning them into something like Quake. Weaknesses. Stupid opponent. Victory greatly depends on how fast you can click. I played and won for the Harkonnens (red) and the Ordos (green). Couldn't make myself play for the Atreides (blue), got tired of it.

•	WarCraft 1,2 and StarCraft and other real-time games

In these three games you can trace the growth, maturity and fall of the genre. The first part was brilliant. it gave me an unforgettable week of playing. The second part took me a week, too, but the last levels got me bored. The third part was uniquely stupid. Everything stayed the same, only the names and types of units were changed, three races, like in Dune2 appeared. The game became just a passtime for those who wish to play without thinking. There was not a firm that would stay away from making such strategies. Over a short time span the 7th Legion, Age of Empires, C&C, Total Annihilation, Dune 2000, War Wind, OutPost etc., etc. Only one of these was decent, that was Seven Kingdoms. Not without faults, it contained great ideas, such as diplomacy, science, spies, trade, possibility to win without using brutal force).

•	Transport Tycoon (Deluxe)

An excellent economy real-time strategy. Almost everything is up the mark.

Some disadvantages, though: The game accomodates only up to 2 human players. It is difficult to forecast the usefulness of the current construction, you need to rely solely upon your experience. No marketing research. Computer opponent always loses. I have lost of ideas how this game can be improved, but no one seems to want to develop this game further. It's odd, there could be lots of money in it.

•	RailRoad Tycoon 1,2

See above. No random maps, but plenty of random events · . The second part requires such system resources that it hardly runs on 166/32/4.3/4ATI · . Nothing new in the economy. My choice is Transport Tycoon!

•	Sim City

The idea, on the scale of 10, deserves 11! The implementation is, however, ugly, with the exception of graphics. I've played it on ZX Spectrum, it was 48K large, and it was not worse! Too many economic indices, you can't possibly control them all. No sense in the game, it's unclear what I must do so that the computer would tell me I've won. The game has a huge potential, and even larger room for improvement. The most important thing is to give the game the sense, competitiveness and network support.

•	Capitalizm

A great idea, the problems the same with Sim City. The weaknesses: The competitors are too stupid. On hard levels their only advantage is large starting capital. As soon as your resources are equal, the competitors are dead meat. Everybody who played it for a long time, found weaknesses in the algorithm and won the game just by exploiting them.

•	Setlers 1,2,3

A nice, pleasant game. No drawbacks... However, it is easier to take weaknesses out of some other game than to try to improve this one. It is a game for an accountant, not for a strategist, as there is no room for thought and imagination. You are made to develop according to one and the same scheme. The first mission is OK, the second is a bit boring, when you get to the third you just abandon the game for good, because it's the same thing, all over again. If you likes Settlers, however, turn your attention to Bumpkins and Knight and Merchant.

•	Lords of Realms 1,2

Quite an interesing game. Cows, grain and money. Strategic essence is combined with tactical battle. Some diplomacy. Great implementation of recruitment and equipping your army. Weaknesses. No random map generator. The territory is not equal in value. The opponents at difficult levels openly hate the human player. The battle is not up to the standards of real-time strategies. Too few elements for governing your state. No science. Awkward controls.

•	UFO 1,2,3

The first part of this remarkable game left everybody breathless. An original idea and good combination of real-time game and turn-by-turn tactical battle. It was great producing hi-tech machinery and then selling it. Just some small details had to be amended. Then the second part came out, and weaknesses appeared. A logical question: Why it was issued at all? I believe, just to earn some more money on the old idea, without any additional effort. The third version was a totally non-playable game with great graphics and perverse controls. A long-time favorite of mine, Microprose, which by that time had issued some snaggle Magic the Gathering (strategic maps · ) and 7th Legion (someone on cyber-horse · ), completely lost its face. Sid Meier, my idol, left it. That's the person I'd love to work with!

•	Panzer General, Fantasy General, Star General and other SSI rot

I've played the games of this company on ZX Spectrum. They never change. Just new unit names and new graphics, the engine stays the same · . Yes, no mistake! This firm invented a strategic engine 10 years ago or so! They sell this non-patented invention of theirs a few times a year, hardly changing the wraps. The idea of the game is as follows. You move your units and their subsidiaries, then the opponent moves his. Of course, the computer cannot move them as efficiently, so it compensates its stupidity by larger forces. I remember landing the allied forces on the French coast, taking part in Stalingrad battle, I even played for Napoleon against I don't remember who, all on Spectrum computer. All these games were absolutely wonderful and absolutely the same. SSI, in short, three in one · .

The firm persistently issues its products, now waiting to release Panzer General 4. If someone wonders what it is about, I can tell right away: It's an exact copy of all the previous 20 or 50 Panzers. You move units on hexagonal field. Step left, step right - Boom!

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Snaggle
Snaggle: a totally non-playable game. Cf. snaggletooth


Программная и аппаратная поддержка.
Hardware and software requirements

General requires:

•	Computer i486 or better

•	OS Windows 95/98/NT

•	 Video mode 800*600 or 1024*768, small system fonts, Hi color(16 bit) and better for correct color rendering in maps

•	 For network game: DirectX v.3.0 and higher (for playing on NT, install SP3)

•	Sound logical capability · and knowledge of other strategic games.

In fact, nothing out of the ordinary.

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Об авторе
About the author

General Main Central: http://newgame.da.ru

Dmitri Gusarov, 25

E-mail: newgame@ru.ru

ICQ: 30616931

Almost all my life I had a dream, to work in a professional game writing team. This way I would be able to combine work and my hobby. I'm 25, workaholic and never lacking ideas. I think of designing games so much that you could say games are my whole life

Given a choice, I would work on AI algorithms or design game ideas (including elaboration of logical schemes). However, there is little demand now in Russia for people with such skills, so I am currently

LOOKING FOR JOB

I badly want an opportunity to realize my potential.

Yours truly, Dmitri

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Сетевая игра
Network game

For network game you need DirectX v.3.0 or higher. For playing on NT, install sp4.

This means, that the following connection types are supported:

•	local network (IPX)

•	modem

•	internet (TCP/IP)

•	com connection (by the rope · )

Up to 20 people can play at the same time.

Network game procedure:

1. All players select the item "Network game"

2. One of the players (the server) creates a new game by selecting New, the others (the clients) select Join.

3a. The server enters the name of the game (any string is possible) and his own name.

3b. Depending on the connection type, the clients dial a number (for a modem, enter IP addres (for Internet) and connect to the server. They see the name of the game specified by the server, click on it and type their names. If there is an error during the process (which is possible, especially in IT play), the procedure is repeated.

4. All the players get into the Waiting room. It is a chatroom, in which the server creates/loads the game, defines the time, and the players can chat. All the players must press Ready to confirm the beginning of the game. Remember, in order to load an old game players' names must be the same as when it was saved. The server knows all the names.

5. The game starts. The server prepares a new map automatically and randomly distributes countries among the players. This guarantees that nobpdy knows who's who. After that the server transmits the data to the clients.

6. The players make their moves and enter the waiting mode, while other players finish their turns. While waiting, the player can see his map and the list of battles (for analysis), it is also seen who is already finished with the turn. When all the players press End of turn, the clients transmit the data to the server, it processes the moves and sends the data to the clients. Loop.

7. During the network game a Transparent Chat is working. This is my own invention. It actually means that the players who have already finished their game or those who have joined to the company during the game can chat with the players and even see the whole map (not to get bored)!

8. If the server leaves the game, it selects another player automatically. This can happen both when the server has lost, and when it just leaves. While leaving, the server can order the other players to stop the game.

9. In network game the server autosaves the game after each turn. The savegame file name is formed from the list of the current players. This gives a 100 per cent guarantee for restoring the game even if the players are disconnected, as the server always holds an autosave where everybody is present.

10. Network game can be loaded even not all the players are present. The server then receives a warning. Also, it is possible to load a saved game if there are "extra" players in the chatroom. Naturally, these do not enter the game and remain spectators.

11. If a player left the game, and others played without him, the game is not lost for him! He can enter the chat and ask to have him back. The server must give the order to stop the game, then load the last save, where, apparently, that player is not present. However, upon loading, that player is returned his country, the state of which depends on how well it was governed by AI.

Computer players play in network game just like in an ordinary game (i.e., they are just MONSTERS · )

Network game can be continued alone, but cannot be started alone.

There are going to be improvements to the network game, so visit the game homepage often!

Possible problems:

1. In a modem game the number is not dialed. It means that you need to put letter P (pulse) or T(tone) before the number. Number 222222 will thus look like p222222 or t222222.

2. While connecting to the server (over Internet) you saw the game, typed in your name, but an error occurred. Just try once more, the problem is probably with your IT connection.

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