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TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC SSSSSSSSSSSSSS TTT CCC SSS TTT CCC SSS TTT CCC SSSSSSSSSSSSSS TTT CCC SSS TTT CCC SSS TTT CCCCCCCCCCCCCCC SSSSSSSSSSSSSS <<<< A TACTICAL COMBAT SIMULATOR >>>> >>>>Copyright 1989<<<< By: Michael J. Feldhake ************************************************************ ******** A Shareware program for wargamers ******** ******** ******** ******** If you like this program. Send $15.00 to: ******** ******** ******** ******** Michael J. Feldhake ******** ******** P.O. Box 47054 ******** ******** Indianapolis, IN 46247-0054 ******** ************************************************************ INTRODUCTION: TCS is a utility program that allows two players to control movement of company size combat units. It also allows you to place mines, set spot zones, scout areas of a map, set obstructions (such as blown bridges), transport units, and call in artillery fire and ground support. You can use TCS to play your own designed game. Or you can use TCS to play a premade game like "Panzer Leader." The best two parts about this program is its realism and versatility. Since each player has his daily password. You can only see what the computer tells you. You will have to use good sound tactics and intelligence practices to win over your opponent. The versatility of TCS is limited by your imagination. TCS can also be used for many different scenarios in different times of history. TCS CONFIGURATION: *To run TCS, you need 256K memory, any monitor, and one floppy drive. *The maximum number of combat units is 200 per player. *The maximum number of obstructions is 20. *The maximum number of mines is 40 per player. *The maximum number of zones is 100 per player. MAPS: A nice feature of TCS is the map. TCS uses grids to move units to and from. Don't understand!? When you define a point on a map to TCS, it is in the form Ncoord Wcoord where Ncood and Wcoord are integer numbers from 0 to 65535 each representing a map location. The position 0 North 0 West starts at the LOWER LEFT HAND SIDE of the map! So this means north is straight up. The north numbers go higher as you go more to the north. And the farther you go east, the higher the west numbers go! This is the Square Grid system. See the ADVANCE.DOC for more information. WEST 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 9 ---------------------------------------------- 9 N 8 | | | | | | | | | 8 7 | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | 7 O 6 | | | | | | | | | 6 5 | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | 5 R 4 | | | | | | | | | 4 3 | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - | 3 T 2 | | | | | | | | | 2 1 | | | | | | | | | 1 H 0 ---------------------------------------------- 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 This map shows what I mean about the square grid system. This map shows about half of the grid lines (represented by '-' or '|'). Notice that the map is numbered on all four sides for ease of reading. There is no actual map that TCS uses to play on. You design the map and keep it with you. This way is a Lot more beneficial to the realistic player. Because you can make several battle fields and overlay the grid lines to play on TCS. All TCS really does anyway is keep track of what is on and who is moving to what grid. HOW TO PLAY: PASSWORDS: Each day as you begin a new game or continue an old one. The program will ask for your password for the day. This password may be up to 10 characters in length. Enter as you wish. The program uses this to let you get into and see your units and other information while protecting it from your opponent. THE <ESC> KEY: The <ESC> (escape) key allows you to get out of the ENTER MINE, SET UP ZONES, ENTER UNITS, and the OBSTRUCTIONS routines, while you are at their top menus. All other routines are special. A SPECIAL NOTE: If you ever get in trouble and hit a wrong key and you are being asked to enter something. Hit <CR> or enter a zero until you are back to the menu you want. A zero in this game represents nothing. So you are safe. MENU ITEM ONE 1> Game: Before you can start playing, you will need to enter your units. If you have recalled an old game, then you will not do this part again. The screen will display twenty unit types with movement factors beside them. It will ask you for a unit ID# on the top right. Enter the ID# (must be integer/numeric only and no more than five in length) for your first unit (i.e. 345.) The number of units will show and it will prompt you to enter a unit type of the unit you have just created. Enter the LETTER of the type of unit you wish. It will now prompt you for the units North coordinate. Enter the numeric coordinate. If your not sure what to enter or you do not want to place the unit yet. Press <CR> and continue. Then it will prompt you for the West coordinate. Do the same as you did for the North coordinate. If you make a mistake on one of previous inputs. Enter a -1 for your next Unit ID# to delete the last unit. Continue until you have entered all your units. Press <CR> at the ENTER UNIT ID# prompt when complete. The program will continue to the next player or take you back to the main menu. Once back at the main menu. You may not enter the GAME selection again! However, you may now use ENTER UNITS to move your units. MENU ITEM TWO 2> Enter units: This routine will allow you to do many things. It will allow you to view your units and positions. Select a unit and either assign it a new location, call in artillery fire, transport a unit, assemble, or deploy the unit. First, there are three different classes of units. These classes determine what you can do with that unit. The first class, CLASS 1, is the class in which all regular units fall into. These are all units except the artillery and transport units. CLASS 2 units are the artillery units. And CLASS 3 units are the transport units. THE DISPLAY; The display of the units shows the unit's ID#, type, movement factor, present location and location heading to. It will list nine units at a time. This display will show some things that are not discussed here. See the Deployment And Rally Points, Transports, and Artillery sections in the ADVANCE.DOC for more information. But for now, continue on. Use may use the view keys (UP/DOWN ARROWS, PageUP, PageDOWN, And HOME) to see and scan through your units. Press <P> to choose a unit. Then, enter the number (1-9) that IDs the Unit you wish. CLASSES OF UNITS; After you have entered the units ID# of the unit you want. If the unit is a CLASS 1 unit type, then you will see the unit's ID# and type show below. The program will then prompt you to enter the New North Coordinate. Enter a number between 0 and 65535 and press <CR>. The program will then prompt you to enter the New West Coordinate. Again enter a number and press <CR>. You have just given the unit a new location to move to. This is how we move our units. If you liked what you have entered, then press <SPACE BAR> to ok it. Press <-> to nullify the order. If you did not place the unit when you created it. The program will first ask you for a starting North and West location. If the unit is a CLASS 2 unit, class 2 again being the artillery units, the program will prompt you to enter <M> to move the unit or <F> to assign the unit a fire-mission. If you want to move the unit, Again, assign it a new location. If you are wanting to assign a fire-mission to the unit, the program will prompt you for a north coordinate and a west coordinate. This is the target information. Again <SPACE BAR> to ok it and <-> to nullify it. See the section on Artillery in the ADVANCE.DOC. If the unit is a CLASS 3 unit, class 3 being the transportation units. The program will prompt you to enter a <M> to move, <P> to pick up a unit or a <D> to drop off a unit. If you want to use the transport unit to transport another unit, Press <P>. Then enter the unit's ID# you want to transport. If your transport unit has already transported a unit. And you are at that location you want. Press <D> to drop off the carried unit. That will now release the unit being transported. At the "ARROW UP/DOWN, PGUP, PGDN, HOME <P for pick unit>" prompt. Press <ESC> to return to the main menu. MENU ITEM THREE 3> Place Mines: This selection will ask for your password and then display your mines if there are any. It will ask you for a map location (two entries) for your next mine. If you only wanted to view your mines press <CR> twice (to tell the program not to create a new location) and then follow the prompts as you wish. Setting a mine at a location will alert the player who is moving a unit onto that location, that his unit has ran onto mines. You can now take that unit and take off damage if so desire. Just like in the real world, when you run onto a minefield. You have up to twenty mines in this game. After one is set. You may not reset or change its location. MENU ITEM FOUR 4> See Obstructions: This selection will allow you to do two things. First, you will be able to view the obstructions. Second, you will be able to create a new obstruction. An obstruction in TCS represents a point on a map which one can not move on. A good example of a obstruction is a blown bridge. If at location 12N 5W (that is north coordinate # 12 and west coordinate # 5) there is a bridge that extends over a small river. You want to blow the bridge so your opponent will not be able to cross over the river with one of his armored units. You will then set an obstruction at 12N 5W. This will now make that armored unit stop before it gets to the bridge and therefore prevents it from crossing it. MENU ITEM FIVE 5> Set up zones: This is the most complex part of TCS. And it is also the most fun. This area will allow you to create two types of zones. An AREA type and a LINE type. A zone is an area on the map that you are observing. A good example of a zone is: You occupy a small village. North of this village is a large flat plain. This plain could be defined as a rectangle 5 points to the north and 7 points to the east. See display below. WEST 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 13 o------------------------------ p2 N | . | 12 | . | O | . | 11 | . | R | ....grass plain.... | 10 | . | T | . | 9 | . | H | . | 8 p1(town)----------------------- o 7 P1 represents the town. And p2 represents the rectangular point which defines the length and depth of the area you are observing. The o's represent the corners of the zone. This rectangle (a six by seven area) is an AREA type of zone. If any of your oppenent's units (except air units) goes into this predefined area. The game will alert the observing player during the MOVE UNITS selection. The other type of zone is the LINE type. This will allow you to observe a narrow gap or one selected point. See display. WEST 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 13 p2(town) N | / 12 --trees-- / O | / 11 / R / | 10 / --hill-- T / | 9 / H / 8 p1(trees) 7 This time p1 is located in some trees. And p2 is a point which represents a town. Since you cannot see though the hill and look through the thick trees. The line is all that you can observed. And for each location on the line. The surrounding points are viewed also. This is the LINE zone type. The menu in this selection will allow you to observe, delete, and create your zones. If you are creating a new zone. TCS will ask you for five things. BASE NORTH: ;this is the north coordinate of the base of your new zone. (p1) BASE WEST: ;this is the west coordinate of the base of your new zone. (p1) SPOT NORTH: ;this is the north coordinate which defines either the area or line. (p2) SPOT WEST: ;this is the west coordinate which defines either the area or line. (p2) TYPE: ;this is the type of zone. 1 for AREA type and 2 for LINE type. NOTE: Zones use X, Y coordinates on a Cartesian Coordinate system. This will allow you to use any point weather the area or the line is going North, South, East, or West. As you can see, these two types of zones could come in very good use. During the move phase of the game. If one of your zones becomes occupied by the opponent. The program will erase that zone. See the Zones and Scouts sections in the ADVANCE.DOC for more information. MENU ITEM SIX 6> Move Mode This is the heart and sole of TCS. And this selection will do a great many things. It would be useless to list them, but I will provide a shortened version. This algorithm shows what happens and what is checked. player = 1 play x = 1 loop Unit x is moved one position. All obstructions are checked for same position. All opponents units are checked. Positions are checked around unit x. If unit is a scout or spotter type. Positions "plus" are checked. All mines (both player and opponent) are checked for same positions. All opponent's artillery strikes are checked for same location. x = x + 1 IF x not = to 0 GOTO loop ELSE Check all zones for any units spotted. List all air activity of opponents (except for those located in safe area.) player = player + 1 IF player = 2 GOTO play ELSE Done. Again this is the shortened version of the algorithm. But it shows you how TCS's Move Mode works. This process can get slow depending on the amount of your units and zones. But it does a thorough job. A few points now about the operation of this mode. *If a unit makes contact with the enemy. That unit will automatically stop. You will have to give it a new point to get it going again. This is done so you won't run over the enemy. Although thats possible in real life. Your combat results will have to determine the outcome. The SCOUT, SPOTTER PLANE, and Air Units are exceptions to this rule. *Besides just giving contacts. TCS will also alert players about artillery fire, zone activity, air activity, and report zone base's found by your scouts. *Every time the program needs to alert a player of a contact. The program will ask for a password and then give the information. MENU ITEM SEVEN AND EIGHT: Both of these are obvious in their functions. One note about these. They both save the game. The program will write to five .BIN files that contains the information pertaining to your game. The five .BIN files are: UNIT.BIN 16000 Bytes ;contains all unit data ZONE.BIN 2000 Bytes ;contains all zone data MINES.BIN 160 Bytes ;contains all mine data OBS.BIN 80 Bytes ;contains all obstruction data *If these files do not exist on the disk. The program will create them for you. CONCLUSION: If you have not noticed. TCS does not provide a combat results section. Since TCS can be played during any era. TCS could not provide all of the situations that become available. See the ADVANCE.DOC for more info. This should be enough to get you started. Use TCS awhile before going to the ADVANCE.DOC. That covers a lot of small but useful tricks. I have written this program to be as close to realism as one could get it. There are some flaws (not bugs) in TCS that can not be avoided. If you have any suggestions, PLEASE write, and I will try to accommodate it! ************************THE END**************************