Operations table → Campaign, against the computer. The campaign saves itself: “Continue the campaign” picks it up where you left it, battle in progress included.
A map of 9 × 7 hexagonal regions: your capital in the west, the enemy's in the east. You start with the four columns along your edge, the enemy with the other five: no region is neutral.
Only a region next to your army can be attacked; a mission region, next to any of yours, is played with its own forces. Won, it is yours, your army is stationed there and it pays a bonus of 10; lost, it does not change hands and you can come back.
Your army faces the enemy on a random map, smaller than in a free game, for short battles. The region's landscape tells you the ground: grassland, forest, hills or marsh. The ground favors the enemy: more relief on its side, the two victory points of its half already its own and, when it defends, its infantry dug in.
Every region you hold keeps its garrison, 24 units at most: one regiment per region at the start. It defends its region, along with the army if it is stationed there. A lost or ceded region pulls its garrison back to the nearest regions.
Pick one of your regions to send units to a neighbor, or to bring the army there: one region per turn for each. On its region, the army trades units with the garrison freely. Moving does not end the turn.
Each side in turn: you attack or wait, then the enemy responds. Each attack or turn waited moves the campaign on one turn: funds come in, the wounded heal and the enemy advances. Defending or ceding a region does not.
Units change places on an order sheet that drops onto the post: two columns, on either side of the dotted line. Click a unit to move it to the other side; grayed out, it can't. “Done” closes the sheet.
In the file of one of your regions, “Send units”, then pick a neighbor on the map: the first region's garrison on the left, the neighbor's on the right. A unit moves only once per turn, and a garrison holds only 24.
On the region where the army is stationed, “Trade with the army”: the army on the left, the garrison on the right. On the spot, trades are free, up to 24 on each side.
After a battle, if the army or the defended garrison goes over 24 units, the sheet opens by itself and the campaign waits for your choice: who stays, on the left, and the reinforcements, on the right. These join the nearest garrisons; whatever doesn't fit is lost.
You start with 40 funds and a reinforced regiment line: an engineer, a mortar, two trucks, three infantry squads, two light tanks and a scout.
The army keeps only its survivors, with their wounds. Between two battles, each one regains half of its lost hit points. At most 24 units: beyond that, you choose who stays in the army; the others go as reinforcements to the nearest garrisons, and those that do not fit are lost.
Retreating gets half of the survivors captured, rounded down, the most wounded first: they are gone for good. A mission is exempt, since the army takes no part in it.
Every campaign turn: 10, plus 2 per region held and 10 per depot. A captured region pays 10, a mission won 40; a lost battle costs 20.
A recruit costs 5 per production turn: 10 for infantry, 30 for a heavy tank. The barracks offers its foot troops; vehicles and helicopters need a factory or a heliport. Recruits join the army, or the garrison of the region you pick on the map while recruiting. A threatened region gets none, and neither does an army stationed there.
With the army at full strength, its recruits stay in the garrison of its region.
Four buildings, each on two regions of the map. Held by the enemy, the factory and heliport give it the same reinforcements as you.
FactoryUnlocks vehicle recruitment: tanks, guns, supply trucks…
HeliportUnlocks helicopter recruitment.
HospitalHeals the whole army between two battles, instead of half its wounds.
DepotPays 10 more every campaign turn.
Every campaign turn, it may threaten one of your regions bordering its own, the capital and bonus regions first: a 35% chance on the first turn, 5% more each turn, up to 75%. After two turns in a row without a threat (three on easy, just one on hard), the next one is sure to bring one.
Take a region that still touches his and he may threaten it at once, instead of the usual draw: 40% risk on easy, 70% on normal, 100% on hard. At the gates of his capital, the counterattack is certain at every level.
As long as the threat lasts, no attack and no waiting. Defend the region with its garrison, and the army if it is stationed there (all their units on the field), against an offensive enemy of 24 units: lost, it goes to the enemy. Or cede it without a fight. Either way, it is then your turn. No reinforcements can reach a threatened region: neither the army nor a recruit. And anywhere on the map, no sending units and no exchanges with the army.
10 to 14 units on the regions that touch yours at the start, 3 more per column toward the east, 24 on its capital; these figures rise by one unit every two campaign turns. Without a factory or heliport, it has no vehicles or helicopters, and on the first turn, it fields none from the outset on its first column: there it must first build its heliport during the battle. You only know its forces on the regions that touch yours.
These figures are for the normal AI. On easy, the enemy fields 4 fewer units, 2 more per column instead of 3, and threatens from 25% to 50%; on hard, 4 more, 4 per column (24 at most) and from 45% to 90%. The level also sets how it plays in battle and in missions.
Six regions carry one of the operations, harder and harder toward the east. They are played with their own forces: your army stays safe, whatever the outcome. Won, the mission gives you the region and 40 funds; failed, it waits for your return. If threatened, such a region is defended on a random map.
General Clumsy
