Getting Started with First World War Campaigns: France 14

Transcription

1 Getting Started with First World War Campaigns: France 14 Welcome to First World War Campaigns: France 14. In this, the first title in of the First World War Campaigns series of operational combat in World War I, we will be experiencing the battles on the Western Front in the first year of the war. From August to November 1914, the Germans invaded France with the intent of winning a quick and decisive campaign against the French, British and Belgians, which would allow them to turn east to face the Russians with their full might. Victory seemed assured as the Germans crushed everything in their path until they reached the Marne River, where the Allies launched a desperate counter offensive which eliminated all hope for a quick German victory to the war. Following the reversal at the Marne, a new phase in the campaign began where both sides attempted to outflank the other from the Aisne River to the English Channel. Once the front reached the English Channel and neither side was able to decisively outflank the other, the Germans launched a massive campaign in October to November in the Flanders area to smash through the allied line and seize Callas and other channel ports. Once this too failed, both sides began to dig in and prepare for a long conflict of siege warfare that would not end until While veterans of the Panzer Campaigns and Modern Campaigns series may feel familiar with the mechanics in France 14, and while it might be tempting for them to skip the introductory scenario, it is still advisable that they briefly read 1

2 over this document to observe the differences between this and Panzer Campaign and Modern Campaigns. But for now let s move on with this introductory scenario! SCENARIO SELECTION Insert the France 14 CD, if you haven t already, and after the introductory cinematic you will be taken to the File Selection Dialog. Click the scenario #00_Started and then OK. This takes you to the AI Selection Dialog where you choose the side you wish to play. For the purposes of this tutorial select Central Powers AI "Manual" for yourself and "Automatic With FOW" (Fog of War) for the Allied Powers. Click OK to get the game underway, you are now the German commander. The Rules button can be used to choose optional rules or reset the optional rule selections to the default state, but for now leave the rules set alone. Your first Command Report will appear with information relevant to the first turn. Note its contents and click OK to close it. While there isn t much information this time you will 2

3 notice when the second turn starts you will have much more information present in this report. OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME In the Menu Bar along the top of the screen, select the Info menu and scroll down to select Victory This will bring up the Victory Dialog box which shows how many points the first side must earn for each level of victory. As you can see, to obtain a major victory in this battle you must earn 550 Victory Points by the scenario s end. Click OK to close the Victory Dialog. If you look at the map, you ll see some colorful flags with number below them in a small rectangle. These are your objectives. The number located within the rectangle below the flag is the number of points this objective gives to the side that holds it at the end of the scenario. To win at least a minor victory, you will need to take enough objectives and inflict enough enemy casualties to or surpass 450 points. These points that you gain through capturing objectives and inflicting losses on the enemy are called victory points. Victory points are calculated by adding up the points from enemy losses and the points from capturing or holding objectives and then subtracting points for losses that you suffer. As you incur losses to your forces, points are taken away from your total. 3

4 You can also click on Info on the menu tool bar and then select Objectives. This will bring up the Objectives Dialog box which shows all of the objectives in the scenario, their point value, the current owner, and the hex coordinates in which they are located. Clicking on the actual objectives in the box will take you to the hex where the objective is located on the map. Click OK to close the Objectives Dialog box. 4

5 TURN 1 The Guns of August started scenario covers the final stages of the German reduction of the fortified area of Liège. After closing the command report, click on the icon of a small radio looking icon in the tool bar along the top of the map. Clicking this button will open up the Artillery Dialog box. The Artillery Dialog box is the window that you will use in First World War campaigns series to plot artillery strikes. Unlike in the Panzer Campaigns or Modern campaigns series where artillery is executed immediately when called for, the artillery in First World War Campaigns must be plotted in advance. This may lead to real world issues of the period such as lack of effective coordination, bombarding a location after the enemy has left the area, forgetting to plan artillery or, in the worst case, friendly fire. The Artillery Dialog shows which artillery units are setup and available to fire (all artillery units listed in the dialog are setup), and it shows their location by hex coordinate. Artillery units listed in grey text are artillery units that currently have no *known* enemy units within line of sight of their subordinates. You may still plot artillery fire with these units on a map location if the hex is within range of the guns. Keep in mind that any artillery strike called on a hex that is not within the line of sight of a spotting unit of the same organization, then the artillery fire will be largely ineffective when it is executed. You may have the urge to just plot 5

6 artillery for every unit just to keep them gainfully employed, but constantly plotting artillery on open hexes may leave cause your guns to become unavailable for a turn due to lack of ammo. This may cause some of artillery units to be unavailable for plotting targets at a crucial moment. With the Artillery Dialog open, click on the 2./kz.Marine.Kanonen unit. When this is done, the map cursor will jump to the artillery unit, and the map will be shaded with a highlighted area around the selected artillery unit. This highlighted area is the map area that is within this selected unit s effective range. You may plot an artillery call on any hex within this highlighted area. When you clicked on the artillery unit in the Artillery Dialog box you may notice that all of the friendly units on the map became highlighted in red. This is highlighting all friendly units which are within the same organization as the selected guns, which are units that are able to spot for the selected unit. This particular unit is attached to a high level HQ so every unit on the map can spot for it. However, you will find that most artillery units are attached to lower level HQs and their spotters are restricted to fewer units. Now, observe the Unit Box area on the left side of the screen. You will see a portrait of the 2./kz.Marine.Kanonen gun battery, which contains two guns. Move the mouse cursor over to the portrait of the gun unit and then hold down 6

7 the right mouse button. The unit s portrait will now change and you will be shown various statistical data about the unit s attack ratings, defense rating, assault rating, speed, as well as the unit component s name an organization. In the lower right of the info box, you will see various special attributes for the unit (if it has any). This particular unit, which is a 42cm Mörser battery, contains two of the famous guns known to history as Big Bertha. This unit has the Siege Guns attribute which provides it with a bonus when it bombards a fortress or redoubt. Now, release the right mouse button and right click on hex 18,4. This will plot an artillery strike on Fort de Pontisse, which will execute on your next turn. As you can see, there is now a red target on the map in hex 18,4 and the words Plotted now appear over the artillery unit s portrait After you have plotted this artillery strike, click the End Turn icon, which has the appearance of a wrist watch, on the top Tool Bar. Once you do this, your turn will now end and the enemy AI will now play its turn. 7

8 TURN 2+ Once the AI has played through its turn, your plotted artillery calls will now execute just before your command report is displayed. Make sure to pay close attention to your artillery strike results. Your siege guns will now execute their fire on Fort de Pontisse and you should see a result similar to the one in the image. Depending on how lucky or unlucky you are, you will most likely have disrupted at least one of the defending units inside the fort. This is denoted by the yellow text in the result displayed on the map, and the D to the right of the report. In the above image, 30 men were eliminated and at least one of the units in the hex was disrupted. Once your artillery strike has been resolved, your command report will be displayed again. This report will have much more information than the first. The Command Report dialog will show you important information such as which units recovered losses, which units recovered from disruption, gained fatigue, recovered from fatigue, constructed fortifications, and many other things. This command report will also let you know when you have air units available for use and, most importantly, when reinforcements have arrived. Take a few moments to review the information in this report and then click OK. Once you have closed the Command Report, left click on the enemy hex at 18,4 and observe the portraits of the enemy units. If all three enemy units do not have a label Disrupted on their portrait, then continue to plot fire on Fort de Pontisse (18,4) in the Artillery Dialog using the same 2./kz.Marine.Kanonen unit. If this unit is not available in the dialog then it is currently unavailable because of lack of ammo. If that is the case here, then simply end the turn and plot with it on the next turn. 8

9 Hex 18,4 has been frequently referred to here as Fort de Pontisse. Hold down the SHIFT key to activate the map labels. With map labels on, you can see the names of all the fortresses around Liège. Once you have disrupted at least one unit inside Fort de Pontisse from the bombardment, begin moving up a few infantry battalions to the fort to prepare for the assault of the fortress. Do this by left lick on one of the infantry battalions near the fortress, such as I./IR.16 at hex 16,6. Now select the unit by either left clicking on the infantry battalion s portrait on the left (its border will then turn red), or by double clicking on the hex itself (which will select all units in the hex). After selecting the unit, right click on the hex just north of it and the unit will move there immediately. You will now see a red arrow on the map originating from where the unit came from, and you will hear the sound of the infantry moving. The enemy in Fort de Pontisse may return fire on this unit when it moved, through the use of opportunity fire. You can continue moving another hex if you want (you still have movement points remaining for this unit in this turn), but you do not want to move adjacent to the fortress until all enemy units are disrupted or you may take heavy losses from the fortress garrison. You may also move a unit by selecting it, then click and hold the left mouse button over the unit s hex on the map, and then move the mouse and release the left mouse button on the hex you want that unit to move to. Now look to the northwest of the fortress where you will see the II./FüsR.90 and its machine gun company in hex 16,2. Move the infantry battalion 9

10 in this hex to the southeast in the same manner in which you moved I./IR.16 mentioned earlier. Do this by selecting only the infantry unit, otherwise if both units are selected then you will not be able to move them. The reason for this is because the machine gun unit which is stacked with it must be placed into travel mode in order to move, which is the icon on the Tool Bar that has the appearance of a wheel. Travel Mode also helps infantry units move quicker along roads (see the User Manual for more information on Travel Mode). For now, ignore the machine gun unit and the travel mode button and only move II./FüsR.90. Once you have moved II./FüsR.90 southeast, observe the unit s portrait on the left of the screen. You will notice that II./FüsR.90 s name is in orange, and its morale is in yellow and is rated D, which is lower than I./IR.16 s morale, the unit you moved earlier. The yellow morale denotes that it is lower than its optimal amount. Any unit value which is less than optimal is always displayed as yellow, whether it be the unit s morale level or its strength. The unit s name is in orange text because it is currently out of range of its HQ unit, which is the HQ Infanterie.Bde.34 located at hex 12,6. Left click on hex 12,6 and select the HQ s portrait on the left side of the screen. Now press H, which is the hotkey to shade the HQ s range. You can now see that II./FüsR.90 is currently two hexes out of command range from its parent HQ. If you want, you can move the HQ unit two hexes northeast to bring the II./FüsR.90 within its command range. Orange text units out of their parent HQ s range have their morale reduced by one step (in this case from C to D ). However, if you move the II./FüsR.90 s HQ into range this turn, then its morale will not be restored until the following turn. Now that you have moved the infantry units into assault positions, continue to plot fire on Fort de Pontisse and continue to end the turn until all Belgian units in that fortress are disrupted. The reason you want all Belgian units in the fortress to be disrupted before you assault is so that you can drive them out of the fortress. If at least one of the units is not disrupted when you assault then there is a possibility that the assault will get repulsed, possibly at a horrific loss. If you don t like waiting for the time it takes the AI to play its turn, you can speed up the AI s move by selecting the A/I menu in the top Menu Bar, then scroll down and select Fast A/I Processing. 10

11 Ideally you want all defenders of a hex to be disrupted before you launch an assault, however, you may still have success as long as most of the enemy units are disrupted (but you will need to assault with a lot of troops to ensure it). Once you have all Belgian units in Fort de Pontisse disrupted, and depending on how unlucky you are this should only take several turns, then you are now ready to begin the assault and take the fort. First, move your infantry units which are around the fortress until they are adjacent to it (in the same manner as described above). Once the infantry are adjacent to the fort and the Belgians have completed any opportunity fire, select an infantry unit in the same manner in which you are instructing it to move, and then order it to move into the fortress hex. You will probably receive more Belgian opportunity fire at this point. It is worth noting that if any of the German infantry battalions are disrupted (either before you attempt to assault, or after you tell it to assault and the enemy opportunity fire cause disruption to occur) then the assault will not be possible. See the User Manual for more information on assaults. If the assault is valid then you will see a red and white target symbol over the fortress hex. Now go to the top Tool Bar and click the Resolve Assault icon, which has the appearance of a red arrow head. At this point, you should hear the unit carry out the assault and the results will be displayed on the map. The assault results will be displayed as friendly losses on the left of the slash, followed by the enemy s losses on the right of the slash. If the assault goes well, the enemy units will now be pushed out of the fortress, and the 100 point objective will now change to a German flag to represent its new owner. Any Belgian units that retreated from the fortress should now be surrounded, on this and subsequent turns, and assaulted in the same manner until they are eliminated. Once the enemy units are out of the fort and in the open, you may choose to fire on them with your infantry by selecting the infantry unit, then holding down the CTRL key, then right click on the enemy unit. In this manner you will execute direct fire on the enemy, and this can be done with any unit that has a line of sight with another unit. 11

12 ADDITIONAL TURNS You should now know enough to be able to continue plotting artillery on the remaining forts and how to capture them by assault when the occupants are disrupted. The Guns of August scenario is by no means an exhilarating scenario of maneuver, but it does allow the Central Powers player to experiment with various features without worrying about too much time running out or without worrying about actively maneuvering enemy units. Time is still important in this scenario though, since you have to capture at least three or four fortresses within the 20 turns to get a victory. With that in mind, you will be unable to capture all the necessary fortresses in the allotted time with only the use of 2./kz.Marine.Kanonen. At some point in the first day of the scenario, possibly on the 4th or 5th turn (it varies), you will receive a command report stating that reinforcements have arrived. At this point, after you close the command report, you should click on the Arrived Units button on the top Tool Bar which has the appearance of a downward pointing red arrow on a map. Once this button is pressed, the Arrived Dialog box will be displayed. This box shows which units have arrived on this turn. Double left click on the unit s name in this box and the selected reinforcement will be placed on the map. This particular arriving unit (in the dialog image below) will be a two gun 30.5cm Mörser 11, which history has made famous by the name of Schlanke Emma. These stubby, yet massive, Austro-Hungarian made howitzers are also siege guns and should be used in conjunction with the 2./kz.Marine.Kanonen to reduce the remaining fortresses. Two batteries of two gun 30.5cm Mörser 11s will eventually arrive during the course of the scenario, giving you a total of three siege gun batteries to deal utter destruction on the occupants of the fortresses. Once the arriving unit is placed on the map, you will notice a white horizontal line on the bottom of the unit s icon. This denotes that the unit is in Travel Mode, which basically means the guns are disassembled and / or 12

13 limbered up and capable of movement, but not capable of firing. Either double left click on this unit s map hex, or left click on the hex and then left click on the unit s Unit Box on the left to select it. Next, move the unit down the primary road, as far as it can go, towards the town of Micheroux (again, hold the SHIFT key to activate map labels). Move the unit by either right clicking the mouse, one hex at a time along the road, or by left clicking and holding on the unit s map icon, and the drag the mouse down the road and release the left mouse button. Either way, the guns should now move down the road and you will again see the red arrows along its path and hear the sound of the unit moving. Once the guns have reached this position just northeast of Micheroux, go ahead and play the remainder of the turn (plot your artillery again) and end the turn. On your next turn, select the Travel Mode s.küstenmörser unit and press the Change Travel Mode button mentioned earlier which has the appearance of a wheel (or press T which is the hotkey for this button). When you do that, all of this unit s movement points will be spent, the horizontal white bar on the unit s map counter will be removed, and the unit will start setting up in that hex to prepare indirect fire missions. Heavy guns and siege guns require the full expenditure of their movement points to enter or exit Travel Mode, so if you move the unit during a turn then you will not be able to enter or exit Travel Mode with this unit until the next turn. Not all units have this strict requirement on entering and exiting Travel Mode, only cumbersome or heavy units have this restriction. See the User Manual for more information about the different units and for more information about Travel Mode. After the s.küstenmörser unit exits travel mode, then it will require several turns for it to setup. While this unit is either setting up or is in Travel Mode, it will have a label on its portrait Setup Required. This denotes that this unit must be setup in order to fire. Once the unit is deployed from Travel Mode, it will begin to setup automatically (no further action is required). Until the gun unit is setup, it will not show up in the Artillery Dialog. Once the unit is setup, you will receive a notification in the Command Report and you will now be able to plot artillery strikes with it, so once the s.küstenmörser battery is setup, begin plotting artillery on the other fortresses with it. For maximum effect, concentrate the fire from all siege guns on the same fort. Repeat this process of moving and setting up from Travel Mode once the other s.küstenmörser battery arrives. Once all three batteries are in action, no fortress will last long against their awesome firepower. Continue to target, disrupt and assault until you have reduced enough forts to gain a victory. 13

14 On the 6th turn, the visibility will drop to one hex and night will fall. Night turns are denoted by the red turn marker box (in the lower right of the Status Bar along the bottom of the screen) as being in the black colored area. The light colored area in this box signifies daylight turns and the black area signifies night turns. The red box itself signifies the current turn, with the width of the box represent the number of hours in the turn. Think of the entire bar as a 24 hour period. Another sign that the current turn is at night is that you will no longer year background sounds of gunfire, but will instead hear night related sounds. On night turns, you should be resting units and moving and firing as few of them as possible so that they can recover from fatigue and losses. Another reason why you do not want to be too active at night in First World War Campaigns is because of night disruption. Basically, if a unit moves at night in any other method than Travel Mode or Rail Mode movement along roads or rail lines, then it will become disrupted. Disrupted units are less effective in combat and do not get replacements. The green arrows in the image to the right shows some of the valid movements that will avoid Night Disruption, while the red arrows in the image show movements that would cause Night Disruption to occur. See the User Manual for more information about Night Disruption and Replacements. 14

15 FINISH THE SCENARIO Now, continue to target, disrupt, and assault the fortresses until you have captured enough objectives to gain a victory! This getting started scenario covers many features of the First World War Campaigns series, but it does not cover all of them. Most notably, cavalry units have unique abilities in this series and you should briefly read about them in the Users Manual before moving onto the next scenario. Once you have familiarized yourself with their special abilities, then you will be well on your way to learning the basic mechanics of this series. 15

16 FURTHER INFORMATION This guide is designed to make you feel comfortable with what s going on in First World War Campaigns, but it is no substitute for the User Manual, which is the series rulebook. You can access the User Manual while playing by pressing F2. The General Help manual, (also known as the Main manual) discusses the various elements of the interface in helpful detail. You can access the General Help while playing by pressing F1. If you wish to delve inside the game designer s head, you can access the Campaign Notes while playing by pressing F3. Pressing F4 while playing will bring up the Parameter Data Dialog. This dialog has all the values and variables that are set to make the game play out a certain way, and are usually the subtle details of the gaming experience. You can view these information in the Parameter Data Dialog, which includes movement costs, terrain benefits, stacking limits, and many other things. 16

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