Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mailer22

This thread will be a basic guide on how to play the game. It is meant to be a simple guide that tells the unitiated the basic flow of the game. It will have a few installations and hopefully others will contribute.

First Turn---things you want to do--

1. Assemble your troops into armies, corps, and divisions.
2. Assign generals to those armies, corps, and divisions
3. tweak your economy and start developing buildings.
4. Invest in europeon diplomacy
5. start building more troops, artillary, cavalry to put in your armies, corps and divisions.
6. DONT FORGET TO GIVE WEAPONS to your troops. Many of them will start with pistols and sabres. This is done by clicking on an individual unit. in that unit's window will be a picture of whatever weapons they have. Click on the picture and it will give you a list of weapons to buy for the unit. Do this for Every brigade you have. Of course the tough part is budgeting it out, you won't be able to affort weapons for every unit at first.


okay, so how do you assemble an army--

First you must understand the army, corp, division system.

They appear on the map as follows--

Brigade--looks like actual unit
Division--flag with XX above it--a suitcase for your brigades
Corps--flage with XXX above it--a bigger suitcase that holds your division XX suitcases
Army--flag with XXXX above it--A big ass suitcase that holds your CORP XXX suitcases, which are full of DIVISION XX suitcases.

or

A BRIGADE is a TOY SOLDIER. Put some of your TOY SOLDIERS into a BOX (DIVISION XX), now load several of those BOXES onto a PALLET (CORPS XXX), now load a few PALLETS onto a TRUCK (ARMY XXXX). Now drive your TRUCK (XXXX) to the FIELD OF BATTLE.



the basic unit is the BRIGADE--a brigade is one unit of troops, represented by an icon of the ACTUAL unit--an infantry BRIGADE will look like a Confederate or Union soldier on the map. In detailed combat, BRIGADES are the actuall units you move and fire with.


a DIVISION XX is a collection of BRIGADES--think of it as a little suitcase for your units. Five or six Brigades come together to form a DIVISON XX. A division looks like your nations flag and has this symbol above it on the main map XX. To load the division with troops, click on a Brigade of troops and hover over the division. A little down arrow will appear. when you click the mouse button, the unit will be go inside the DIVISION XX flag. If you right click on the flag, you will actaully see the units inside the division listed in outline form.

A CORP XXX is a collection of DIVISIONS XX, and looks like your nation's flag with XXX above it. Once you have filled your DIVISIONS XX with troops, you can click your Division XX and hold your mouse above a CORP XXX. A little down arrow will appear and when you click, the whole division XX will go inside the Corp XXX. If you right click on a Corp XXX you can see all the Divisions XX you have put into the Corp XXX. This table will look like an outline, or like the file trees you use in Windows Explorer. from here you can move the troops around, and swap them between Divisions XX by simply clicking on a unit and dropping it into whatever Division XX you wish. You can even drop troops directly into the Corp as well.

An ARMY XXXX is a collection of CORPS XXX. Now think about that for a minute. If you fill a Division XX with five or six units of troops, the put 3 or 4 Divisions XX into a CORP XXX--That Corp probably has a lot of troops in it. Now take 2 or 3 of those CORPS XXX and put them into an ARMY XXXX, and you have a big ass force collected at that point.

IN SUMMARY: Dump all nearby units into an army (flag with XXXX above it). Then right click on the Army XXXX icon and sort your troops out in the window that opens.


ASSIGNING GENERALS--

Once you have put all your armies together, you need to dump some Generals into the Army XXXX. Simply click on your generals and then click on an Army XXXX located in the same province. When you right click on the Army XXXX, you will see all the generals clumped together in the list. From this window, you can move your generals into whatever Corp or division you like.

1 star general will be automaticaly assigned to a brigade during detailed combat, so you should drop several of them into Divisions where you have troops.

2 star general commands Divisions XX, and ONE should be droped into each of your divisions to command it.

3 star generals command CORPS XXX, and ONE should be Dropped into any CORPS XXX you may have in your army

4 star generals command entire ARMIES XXXX, and ONE should be dropped into your main ARMY XXXX icon.

Notice the Plus and Minus symbols. You can open or close divisions, corps and army to make it easier to navigate and sort through your divisions. once again, it works JUST LIKE WINDOWS EXPLORER.


so you have assembled your army, next you need to look at your economy.


ECONOMY--


Each province produces 4 MAIN RESOURCES. HORSES, IRON, LABOR, GOLD--but here is the catch, you have to decide which TWO of the FOUR resources each province will produce.

In the detailed city screen, at the bottom you can see a box with these resources and how much the province can produce. If you click on one, it will switch production to THAT resource.

So basically you must make two choice--will this Province Produce MONEY or LABOR and then click on the one you want that province to produce. Then you must decide, will this province produce IRON or HORSES. and click on the appropriate one.

For the most part, you should leave the production on what it started as, then occasionally switch production in certain provinces to make up for short falls as you need them in the game.

and don't forget, EVERYTIME you SWITCH PRODUCTION in a province, it makes the GOVERNER a little ANGRY.


Other Resources--guns, and such, are produced directly by buildings. and should be built as you need them.

SOME TIPS ON BUILDINGS--

CAMPS--you will need a decent number of these. Each CAMP on the map will generate 500 men per turn which are AUTOMATICALLY assigned to your depleted units every turn. Buid a TELEGRAPH in provinces that have a few camps in them, as this MULTIPLIES the effect of camps in the same provinces. the CATCH--CAMPS cost a LOT of HORSES.

BARRACKS--you want to have at least one PROVINCE with THREE (3) barracks--it takes three barracks in a province to build an army--you know, the flag with the XXXX above it. At first you will be able to cram all the troops in the Army XXXX you already have, but eventually your army will be full and you will need another one.j--plus you may want to put an army on the west front as well. ON a side note, it takes TWO (2) Barracks to build a CORPS XXX, and ONE (1) Barracks to build a Division XX or ANY OTHER MILITARY UNIT.

FOUNDRY--required to build ARTILLARY--you probably already have a couple on the map. Build more if needed.

HORSE FARMS--build these in provinces where you intend to continue producing HORSES--it is pointless to build these in a province where you are producing LABOR instead of HORSES. Same goes for mines which produce IRON, FACTORIES which produce LABOR, etc.

MANSIONS AND PLANTATIONS-- you must have one of these for every FOUR buildings in the province. If a Province only has one mansion, then you will not be able to build more than four buildings there. Plantations are just like mansions, but better in some ways.


PLEASE FEEL FREE to ask questions or request advice on other features. I will later elaborate on general gameplay flow.