Turn summary
Turn Summary
At the start of each game turn (except obviously on Turn 1), a summary of the previous opponent’s turn is presented.
This Summary window has various tabs that allow you to see most action of the previous turn the start of each game turn (as well as at the start of each of the turn’s phases), a warning message or animation is presented.
Those tabs show the Victories (those you won against the opponent during the latter’s turn), the Defeats (where your opponent defeated you during his turns), the Sieges that occurred (both won and lost), the number of Casualties suffered by both sides, and the Cards that were played by your opponent and by the AI on your behalf (battle cards when you were
defending). See Illustrations 7.0a to 7.0d.
Note that for EACH battle, Victory or Defeat, you can access a detailed battle report by clicking on the information icon on the left-hand side of the battle. See Illustration 7.0e below.
The Victories (those you won against the opponent during the latter’s turn)
The Defeats (where your opponent defeated you during his turns)
The Sieges that occurred (both won and lost)
The number of Casualties suffered by both sides
The Cards that were played by your opponent and by the AI on your behalf (battle cards when you were defending).
A detailed report of each battle is accessible from the Victories or Defeats list. When you close the detailed report, you return to the battles’ list.
During the opponent’s turn, the player’s side may have lost some regions due to enemy action. This is usually indicated in the summary header (regions lost) and also directly on the map by displaying on top of lost regions a set of dark purple stripes. See Illustration 7.0h below.
If you want to observe more closely the lost regions, just temporarily hide the summary window by using the arrow in its top right corner. The window will disappear from view and you will be able to see the whole map.
To proceed with the next phase, just re-display the summary window, which you can do by pressing the down-pointing arrow located in the top-right corner of the interface (the one circled in red in Illustration 7.0h above).
A / Events Phase
The game turn usually starts with this phase (although there could well be a scenario without events – non existing now but feasible – especially for those wanting to mod with the game editor). As a rule there is NOTHING to do except reading the events’ descriptions. But this is important reading, as it gives you indications on key aspects of the game and upcoming facts, such as movement restrictions, reinforcements, morale bonus or penalty, weather changes, etc…
You can read the list of current or past events when hovering the mouse on the top-right, over the turn number, as shown in Illustration 7.1a below. If you let the mouse in this place for a few seconds more, the Event descriptive text will be added in a tooltip box (so you can refresh your memory in case you forget the event’s context and effect), as you can see from Illustration 7.1b.
NB: you can read the events from both side, unless they are ‘secret’ (i.e. some events have information and content that is only readable by the side benefitting from them).
Events can have repercussions and lasting effects over more than one turn. If this happens, an event icon (like shown here on the right) will be displayed to indicate it.
B / Cards Phase
The game turn continues, after the events, by the Card phase (although there could well be a scenario without cards – non existing now but feasible with the game editor). As a rule each side will draw two new cards during this phase in the game. See Illustration 7.2 below.
Gameplay of Cards is described in section X.
NB: the first draw of cards on the first turn may be slightly slower (because the game is making the initial sorting).
Important Note: some Cards, when played provoke the draw of extra cards, so you can receive more than two cards in a single turn.
C / Reinforcements
This is the phase that follows Cards draw. It only occurs during turns where the scenario has a planned reinforcements, or if a card in your hand was played previously (this turn or even the previous ones) and was giving reinforcements. See Illustration 7.3 below
NB: the Reinforcement window may be changed during late release of the game (the current illustration is from version 1.0)
When you ignore where reinforcement is arriving, you will be able to click on the region name indicated. The game map will then zoom and center on to the said region.
Some reinforcements arrive in regions which are within a given area and it’s then up to the player to select where to place them, from a list of yellow-colored regions (click on the one where you want to place the reinforcement). See Illustration 7.3a below.
Gameplay of Reinforcements is described in section XII.
D / Supply
This phase takes place after the Reinforcements phase (if any). Cards that impact supply must be played at the start of that phase.
As shown in Illustration 7.4, regions where the player’s side is supplied are indicated via green stripes (falling towards the right). Supply sources have specific icon and the green stripes are brighter.
Those regions where the player is not in supply for now are in red stripes. Enemy regions are showing grey stripes.
Gameplay of Supply is described in section XIV.
E / Air Movement (Offensive)
The player with planes may move his air units, as stack or individually, (see Illustration 7.5 below)
As a major difference from the other movement phases, some combat may occur during the movement of air stacks / units (such as interception by enemy fighters or Anti-Aircraft fire) and will be solved automatically by the engine (using a similar procedure to the usual battle procedure – see H below – but behind the scenes). Information about the combat will be given by a tooltip as in Illustration 7.6 below.
Surviving victorious units will pursue their mission till they successfully reach their destination. Units or stacks which lost those intervening battles automatically abort and return to their original base. At the end of the air movement, air units of the player may thus be present in regions containing enemy units (or only enemy structures without units, or seas) and, if those regions are now in battle, those will be solved in the ensuing phases. Cards impacting air movement or combat must be played at the start of this phase exclusively.
Gameplay of Air Movement and Combat is described in section XVI.
F / Land Movement
This phase can only exist in scenario where land units a present for at least one of the sides. Players may move their units one at a time or as stacks (see Illustration 7.7) and engage enemy in battle.
In some cases, the enemy may be overrun during moving when entering a region where the enemy is much weaker than the moving stacks (usually a power ratio of 10:1 in terms of hit points, the mouse cursor will change to show the possibility). A stack that moved cannot be moved again, and a move already effected cannot be cancelled (in this version). Cards impacting land movement must be played at the start of this phase exclusively.
Gameplay of Land Movement and Combat is described in section XV.
G / Battles
Battles take place only after the movement phase is over. The only exception is that of air movement which can trigger immediate air combats during the move (see F above). If a battle involves only air units on one side, those being able to attack land or sea targets will be resolved during the relevant battle phase (land or sea battle).
Players can select battles to be solved in the order they want, by selecting them from the battle list window (see Illustration 7.8), then each battle is solved immediately before going to the next (see Illustration 7.9).
Cards playable during battles must be played upon the opening of the battle window, before the fighting actually starts. The attacker must play his cards first, followed by the defender. Some cards may even cancel the whole battle (such as a retreat card), in which case the game moves on the next unresolved battle (or next phase if this was the last or only battle).
Battles are always resolved along the same process, described in details in section XVII.
At the end of a battle, a check is made to see if there is a victor, if one side has routed (test effected when losses are higher than the side’s morale), if there is a pursuit (only after a rout or via card play), a breakthrough (see below) and if leaders are injured or killed.
When a battle generates a breakthrough, the winning player may make an immediate extra move with his all, part or none of his breakthrough-able units and leaders, limited to any one of the adjacent eligible regions (see also section VIII / E and Illustration 8.8), then solve the breakthrough battle if there is one. Breakthrough battle may themselves allow another
breakthrough in this game (2 Max.).
Battles are one of the main sources of VP, and after all battles have been resolved a summary window will display the results (see Illustration 7.10) showing gain and losses of all sides involved.
Some battles will create Pursuits (a phase which basically allows the victor to shoot one more time without retaliation to the defeated side) and, if terrain and units allows, a Breakthrough may occur (Armor and leaders may breakthrough in most terrains, and some mechanized / motorized and air units may accompany them ). See Illustration 7.11 below.
Check the end of the manual for an explanation of a land battle in section XXV.
H / Return to Base and Second Air Movement (Defensive)
The first part – return to base – is automatic and takes place immediately after the battle phase is over. All air units which are in regions without friendly airports must return to the airport or base they have originally moved from. Player has nothing to do, just see it. While units return to base, no air combat or AA fire takes place (in this version of the game).
Once air units have returned to their base, players may order a second air movement (termed as defensive – see Illustration 7.12) with their units, with the important restriction that the air units can only end their movement on friendly or empty nonenemy regions. This process is useful for the player to anticipate the enemy possible moves and position in advance his
airpower to contribute to his future defense (e.g. above the player’s own stacks to provide additional air support, or above regions where he feels his own interceptor air units could intercept enemy air flying by).
Note that interceptor type air units inside friendly air bases (airports or aircraft-carriers) are not obliged to make a move; they will automatically intercept enemy air units that would move over their bases during enemy air movement. See also section XVI below.
I / Sieges
This phase can only take place when at least 2 friendly land combat units are in the same region as a fortified enemy structure (non-fortified structures are automatically captured). As for battles, a list of ongoing sieges is displayed and the player has to choose which one and in which order they will be solved.
Cards playable during sieges must be played upon the opening of the siege window, before the resolution actually starts. The besieger must play his cards first, followed by the besieged. Some cards may even cancel the whole siege, in which case the game moves on the next unresolved siege (or next phase if this was the last or only battle).
See the detailed explanations on Sieges in section XVIII.
J / Replacements Delivery
Each side usually receives 1 replacement (minimum) every turn, except if cancelled or changed by Events and Cards.
Sometime more than one is received and the replacements have to be assigned on the unit(s) able to receive them, i.e. units damaged which have their hit points gauge not filled up to maximum. see Illustration 7.13
See the detailed explanations on Replacements in section XIII.
K / End of Turn
This phase is there to tell the player that his turn is now complete. Some cards may be played at the start of this phase.
Some specific victory conditions (such as sudden death or tension index limit) may cause at this stage the victory of a player, even if he is not currently leading in terms of VP. See sections V and XIX.
L / End of Game
That phase only occurs at the end of the last turn of the scenario, showing it is now ended. A window displaying the final VP tally appears with a display of the victorious side (or, rarely, no victor if both sides have strictly the same VP score).
At this stage, the game will end. In another version of the engine, there will be options to continue playing beyond the set time/turn limit.
NB: Note that, for now, the players may alter scenario duration through the editor.
Note on Chronology of Phases and Actions
Phases are always solved in the above chronological order. However, within the phases themselves, the actions are left to the player choice in terms of order. See above section IV, Next Phase 8.
To go to the next phase, players must click on the top-right arrow button. When the button is not present or grayed-out, it means players must still solve some actions in the current phase before being allowed to move to the next. For instance, in the card phase, you can’t continue if you have no discarded cards in excess (and the Next arrow button won’t be displayed before the action is satisfied).
Warning: when playing too fast, you may go to next phase by error. In that version of the game, there is no way back. The only option is to load the autosave of the game (or the player’s own save) and restart from that point onwards. It is advised for new players to leave the autosave function on (which is the default setting).