GENERIC RULES that apply to most games in Conflict-Series by Joni Nuutinen
...also see TERMS and MARKERS, Battle Support Explained, FAQ, and Privacy Policy
AIRFIELD:(rolling out 2026) Tapping an empty airfield will recon (reveal) some of the nearby area at the cost of 1 AirLift point. Three types of units can use airfields to 'airlift' to another nearby player-held airfield: Air Force units (no airlift points required), generals (1 airlift point required), and 0 or 1 HP units (airlift points cost depends on HPs and unit type). Air Force units can only move from one airfield to another airfield, within the rebase range, which is slightly bigger than the bombardment range shown with a blue circle around Air Force units when they have full move points (MPs). Notice: First usage of the Accuracy feature usually also gives +1 to the range.
Limitations: Airfield must be in-supply to be landed on - in other words, there must be a route from the airfield to your own supply city (marked with SU) or to a Supply Depot.
Build Airfield resources will become available from time to time as a reward for noteworthy achievements or via an action by a general. Build airfield resources must be placed on an empty hexagon (located in a province that is fully under your control, if provinces are included in the game).
In most of the games, a single Air Force unit can, per turn, either bombard enemy units, recon unknown enemy areas, provide aerial supply to one encircled own unit, or relocate. Air Force units also automatically protect nearby ground units from enemy air force strafing with some success.
If the scenario has physical fuel (logistics), then it goes without saying that the air force unit must have fuel (indicated by the orange color number or FU or FUEL followed by a number of fuel with the unit)
In some games it is possible to build over an airfield or clear the hexagon with an engineer unit.
Presently, there are no penalties for having several air force units at one airfield, but this might change in the future, so keep an eye on the change log.
VICTORY POINTS (VPs) and HALL OF FAME (HOF) high scores
Victory Points [VP, Victory Conditions, Game Over]: The target of the campaign is to gain Victory Points (VPs). These can be gained from cities by controlling the hexagon the city is located in. A game ends when the player reaches over the set limit of Victory Points (this varies by campaign; the required number of VPs is shown both at the War Status). Please note that in many campaigns you need to control MORE THAN the set limit of VPs or ALL the VPs. It is also possible that special victory conditions apply and cities need to be captured in certain order or a route opened between specific cities. Similarly, the campaign ends when the total number of VPs controlled by the player drops under the set limit (usually 1 or 10 Victory Points). Note that the VP victory conditions are checked AFTER the AI movement phase (which follows the player movement phase). In some very rare cases, it is possible to sack cities, which will lower the VPs. This can, in extreme cases, make the game unwinnable, since it will not be possible to control enough VPs to reach the victory condition.
Victory ONLY after controlling ALL Victory Points (VPs). This can be turned ON from Settings. Please note that when this is turned ON, your score will be added to the HOF ONLY after you control ALL the VPs.
The Hall of Fame (HOF) webpage lists all fairly current scores from the online database. The HOF is periodically cleared of the oldest scores, and in case of a major bug easing the gameplay too much, there might rarely be a full reset afterward. There is a setting to turn sharing your scores ON or OFF. The HOF will be periodically cleared of the oldest (time-based) scores to even out the playing field as the campaign gets tweaked and new features are added. Terms you might see in the Hall of Fame: Turns = turns spent finishing the campaign. VPs = Victory Points when the game ends. Less Units [Units-percent] means only a certain percentage of units in play to speed up game play, Encircle-score [enc]: Each turn an enemy unit is out of supply, the encircle-score increases by a number that is related to the HP and strength of that particular unit type (this score is then divided by 10 to keep the length of the entry tolerable). The text-string-only alias you provided will be uploaded, and no other personal or account information about you or your device will be transferred.
Alias = This name is used in the Hall of Fame and is not tied to any service or require login. The player is prompted for this non-account, no-password, text-string-only Alias when the game is finished victoriously. If sending high scores to the online Hall of Fame is turned OFF, your score won't be sent.
There is a setting to filter out the consecutive scores by the same player (the currently used Alias excluded).
In modern devices, the internet requests might be queued, so it might take a moment before your score is sent and processed. If you have started the app many times and several days has passed, drop me an email. Please notice that if you are playing with several years of version of the game, then the odds are high that those scores will no longer be included in the listings as so much have changed that the score is not comparable to the recent ones.
ELEMENTS ON THE PLAY SCREEN:
Minimap: In the upper-right corner of the game screen is a small map called the Minimap, which shows the entire game area. The area currently shown on the screen is marked with a square with white borders, and cities and units are represented as dots colored in various ways (supporting units usually have a different color compared to ground combat units). Roads and railways might be shown on the minimap depending on Settings. You can change the size of the minimap from Settings. Tapping on a location on the minimap causes the main map to jump to the area you just tapped on the minimap. To show a fullscreen map, tap on the round -MAP- button located in the upper-left corner of the screen. Potential issues: if you make the Minimap too large, it can cover other user-interface elements, and in some cases, rounding of values can cause cities located at the absolute edge of the map to not be properly visible on the Minimap.
UPPER-LEFT BUTTONS: Four round buttons are located in the upper-left corner of the main screen:
(U) button changes the size of the icons of units. Make unit-icons smaller if you want to see the underlying rivers and borders, and bigger if you just wish to see the units themselves better. Repeated taps will cycle through the different sizes (76 percent, 84 percent, 92 percent, 100 percent default, 108 percent, 116 percent), and then one option that hides all units (rolling out 2025), eventually returning the unit-icons to the default size, which roughly covers the hexagon the unit is in.
(-Z-) Zoom out on the main map (see more area, smaller unit icons).
(+Z+) Zoom in on the main map (see fewer areas, bigger unit icons).
(MAP) Map will be displayed in full screen mode. Tap the BACK key to return to the normal screen, or tap anywhere to focus the map on the selected area.
Status line: At the bottom of the screen is one-row status line. When the unit is a selected status line shows information about the unit (move points, battles, fatigue, underlying terrain, etc), and when no unit is selected then generic information about the campaign is shown (turns, scenario date, Victory Points, TMPs, etc). Tapping certain non-selectable items on the map or moving related notes might also be shown on the status line briefly (as opposed to showing a disrupting popup dialog).
SUPPLY:
Supply is essential for every unit except forts and similar structures. It is represented by cities marked with an S or SUP on the map. Ammunition, food, and fuel are delivered to units from these supply points. As a unit moves, the areas it passes through become part of the supply area of that side, expanding the overall area where units from the same side can receive proper supply. It is important to remember that if an enemy unit enters a hexagon that was previously part of your supply area, that hexagon becomes your the supply area of your enemy. This occurs when the enemy unit cuts off your the only supply line of your unit. When a unit is cut off from supply, it becomes out-of-supply, indicated by a red square on the unit. Out-of-supply units face several negative effects, including slower movement, potential loss of one Hit Point per turn, and decreased combat effectiveness with each consecutive turn. The longer a unit remains out-of-supply, the more severe the consequences become. There are a few exceptions to these rules. A completely surrounded city does not provide supply.
AIR DROP: In certain airborne campaigns, some units can receive supply through airdropped provisions.
SUPPLY SHIP/DEPOT: In specific amphibious landing scenarios, all player supply is delivered via supply ships, which transform into supply depots once they reach land.
Key concept: The supply route is calculated AFTER the AI movement phase.
Yellow Circle around a city indicates an active supply city (can be turned ON or OFF from settings). In the case of square city icons, the active supply indicator is square shaped with rounded corners.
Special Force units types usually can handle being out of supply better.
Encircled-number: Hall of Fame shows a different number than Unit Tally. HOF number (encircled-score) also calculates in the strength of the unit type which is out of supply, so cutting off tanks unit gives you a bigger increase in encircle-score than cutting off an infantry unit. Since HOF encircle-score could be a fairly big number, it has been divided by 10 to make sure all the data shown in HOF fits on the screen. Encircled-number in the Unit Tally lists the number of turns this type of units have in total spent out of supply, so for example if 2 regular infantry units are out of supply for 2 turns this number would be 4 (2 X 2 = 4).
UNIT SELECTION:
Stack: When a hexagon has more than one units and/or resources like mines in it. When you select and deselect units in a stack they are always selected in the same order (which is, the order they are in the memory).
Selecting a unit from a stack of units: Either continue to tap the same hexagon to cycle through all the units at the selected location one by one (tap 1: first unit selected, tap 2: first unit deselected, tap 3: second unit selected, tap 4: second unit deselected, etc.) until all units at the target hexagon have been selected once, then starting the loop again (default behaviour, see unit selection segment of settings) OR show a list of units at the selected hexagon.
Long-Press System: Pressing the NEXT-UNIT button for 1-3 seconds increases the priority of that unit during the use of the NEXT-UNIT button. Units with higher selection priority are marked with a yellow PR tag. Holding the button for over 3 seconds resets the selection priority. Pressing the DONE button for over 1 second marks the unit as PERMANENTLY DONE, meaning it will no longer be selected by the NEXT-UNIT button and remains marked as done in future turns until the unit is moved or manually marked as un-done. Pressing the revive button for over 4 seconds disbands the selected unit. The disband action can typically only be performed once per turn. Long-pressing the TACTIC/INFO button (the fourth button) for over 1 second opens a pop-up dialog, allowing the player to enter a custom yellow note of 2-32 characters for the selected unit. The pop-up also includes a reset button to remove any existing custom note. Note: Custon notes are per ongoing game, so after the game ends, all the custom notes will be reset.
As of 2026 there is a setting to always show a list of units when you tap a stack of units.
If you turn on "Allow moving of unselected unit" option, you can very quickly move units by swiping from an unselected unit with MPs to the adjacent hexagon to instantly move it (skipping the selecting process). This considerably speeds up the game play, but also increases the chances of accidentally moving a unit.
In some special cases, the unit might be greyed out. This can either mean that the player has manually set the unit to be excluded from NEXT UNIT selection loops, or that the unit cannot be selected by the player during particular turn. For example in Rommel game Italian units might be unresponsive for a turn, or in Finnish Defense, the second front is only activated later.
MOVEMENT:
Move: Moving a unit once (to an adjacent hexagon) costs one Move Point. Some units have only one Move Point per turn, others have more. If a unit has been forced to retreat in the previous turn(s), it may not be able to move at all. Units that still have moves left for the turn can be recognized from a small white square displayed in the upper-left corner of its icon.
Roads: There are TWO different road systems in use. In most games the road MIGHT give a free movement (no reduction in the unit's MPs) if there is enough safe own area in the nearby hexagons. In the handful of games in which infantry has 2 MPs as a default and movement on plain ground consumes 2 MPs, the road will give 1 MP reduction on the movement. Exception: in few desert games there are two classes of roads: main roads and paths, and paths are less likely to give free movement.
Traffic Jam: Ground combat units moving into a hexagon already occupied by another ground combat unit will experience an increase in fatigue (known as Traffic Jam). The traffic formula multipliers are: Infantry=1, Motorized/Artillery=2, Tanks/Armor=3. The traffic formula is the following: Unit-1-multiplier x Unit-2-multiplier x campaign-specific coefficient (usually 3) = percentage points added to fatigue. Example #1: Infantry moving on motorized: 1 x 2 x 3 = 6 points more fatigue. Example #2: Tank moving on motorized: 3 x 2 x 3 = 18 points more fatigue. Traffic rules are the same for both sides, but small traffic-related tags and notes are often not shown for AI units because they could fill up the screen. After fatigue reaches 100 percent, the unit will carry out a revive-action between turns, meaning it will spend the number of MPs on that unit type to halve fatigue, which can be thought of as fractional MPs. Certain light support unit types, like generals, do not affect traffic. The First Aid resource can be used to reduce fatigue. Concentrating several armored units in a small area can lead to horrific traffic jams and skyrocketing fatigue.
Fog of War (FOW, FOG): While the terrain of the whole map is visible to you at all times, the enemys moves behind the front line are not. Areas not visible to you are covered by the Fog of War and appear darkened on the map. The visibility of a hexagon is affected by a variety of factors, including terrain, weather, the number of units in the surrounding area, the amount of area controlled nearby, recent activity in the hexagon, and so on.
WAYPOINT: The player can set automatic movement for a unit toward a target destination, speeding up long-distance travel. To set a waypoint either: select a movable unit with Movement Points (MPs) and tap few hexagosn BEYOND its current movement range. The unit will move as far as possible this turn, and the remaining travel is marked with a waypoint for automatic movement at the start of the next turn. Or, a second way: if the unit is out of MPs: Long-press a distant hexagon to queue movement toward that location, provided the unit regains MPs between turns. Visual Indicators: A Recycling marker appears on the unit when it has waypoint set. The same symbol appears on the target hexagon if unobstructed by other visuals. Tapping the waypoint symbol on the map selects the unit set to move towards that point. Clearing Waypoints: Select the unit and choose the 'clear' action to remove its waypoint. Restrictions: Waypoint targets must match the unit's movement plane (e.g., ground units move towards ground hexes, naval move towards water). Waypoints are not set by tapping an adjacent hexagon. Important Considerations: The AI movement phase occurs after waypoints are set but before the player's automatic movement is carried out. Setting waypoints near the frontline is risky as enemy movements may render the area unsafe. Automatically moving your valued oil tanker in front of the enemy fleet does not end well.
Auto-move several hexagons at once: The selected unit in secure rear area faraway from the front line with multiple move points (MPs) can be automatically moved several hexagons with one tap - providing the destination hexagon is not enemy controlled area or near enemy area, not too far, and the target hexagon is empty of units. Several factors like roads and traffic jams affect the selection of the route.
Extra Movement in Secure Rear Areas: A unit located in a fully controlled province may gain extra Movement Points (MPs) based on its distance from enemy-controlled territory. Combat units with 0 or 1 HP benefit from relaxed rules for earning extra MPs, as transporting smaller forces (e.g., 10 tanks instead of 100) is logistically easier.Note: In earlier editions, even a single enemy-held hexagon could deny extra movement. The current rule uses a relative system, meaning full hexagon-by-hexagon control is no longer strictly required.
TMP: TACTICAL MOVE POINTS:
Tactical Move Points (TMPs), Key Tactical Locations (Green +1 TMP Diamonds), and Tactical Routes (yellow-green arrows between hexagons): Key Tactical Locations (green diamonds) produce TMPs when they are located in a province you fully control. A yellow-green arrow between two adjacent hexagons indicates a Tactical Route (a time-limited tactical opening in the circumstances). If you have TMPs, a unit can then move between two hexagons sharing a Tactical Route using Tactical Move Points (TMPs) instead of the regular move points of that particular unit. There is a button at the bottom of the screen to turn the TMPs system temporarily ON/OFF so you can prevent a unit from spending TMPs when they move via Tactical Route (if, for example, you want to save TMPs). There is also a game-wide setting to turn the whole TMP system ON/OFF. Depending on the campaign, generals might be able to exchange 10 TMPs for the Operational Movement resource, which allows one unit to gain 4-6 regular move points in the rear area (away from the front line and active battle).
CITIES:
Cities provide Victory Points (VPs), usually at max 10, althought in later games at 9. Some cities provide supply (SU/SUP) and are highlighted with a yellow circle. If cut-off well enough, most cities will stop acting as a supply city. In some rare games all towns act as a supply source and then the special highlights are not shown as they would clutter the map visually.
In some rare scenarios, it is possible to loot and reduce the city's VPs. If done enough, this can make the game unwinnable, as it will be impossible to gain enough VPs to fullfil the victory condition.
Provinces are marked by the light grey/white (depending on your screen) dashed lines on the screen. The significance being that certain resources like hospitals are only active the player controls the ENTIRE province. In addition, certain things like dugouts can only be placed on hexagons that are (or very nearly are) border hexagons.
TERRAIN: RIVERS
Terrain variation: Certain elements of the map - like forest, swamp, hospitals, etc - might change from game to game to provide a slightly new environment for operations. This build-in variation also prevents the scenario from becoming such that certain types of players can calculate everything with an accuracy of single move point from game to game.
River Crossing = Crossing a river costs 1) Maximum number of move points from that unit type 2) one MP for each enemy-controlled hexagon adjacent to the hexagon you are entering; 3) two MPs for each enemy unit adjacent to the hexagon you are entering (the effect of these enemy units can be blocked by your own units).
Cliff = Too steep hill (cliff) is indicated by the Red line between hexagons, and units cannot pass through it. Supply can still flow through here. This is an extra game engine element.
WEATHER:
Storm [OO]: Storms are by default OFF, if turned ON, 5 options are available on how transparently storm symbol is drawn over the map (it covers a lot of elements, so this can get messy). Moving into a storm (marked with the letter O in light blue) will likely consume 1 move point. If any unit is located in a storm hexagon at the start of the turn, it may lose none, some, or all MPs. Storms generally move in the southeast direction if there is not prevailing weather pattern in the area. Each storm has a slightly different base speed, although there is a lot of variation built in.
Freezing rivers (mostly in games taking place in WWII eastern front): During January-February, rivers north of the city of Tula (south of Moscow) will froze solid and halve the MP cost of crossing a river for all the units except tanks.
Too cold: Mechanized units (tanks, motorized, trucks, air force, etc) might lose 1 MP due to extreme cold during winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb). Being located more north and being close to storms might have some effect on likeliness of being caught in the extreme coldness.
In few selected games, where historically a major storm played a big role, there might be a generic reduction of move points or combat efficiency at specific turns. This is declared in the War Status.
Temporary swamp/mud: Storms leave behind them mud (temporary swamp) during Spring/Autumn months (March, April, September October). This storm-mud is marked on the map just like a regular swamp (just a little bit lighter) and it will act as a swamp. Mud will disappear in a turn or two. Turning Storms OFF will not prevent Spring/Autumn mud.
FUEL:
In certain scenarios fuel element is present. The amount of fuel in unit is shown with a orange marker. Fuel sources are either oilfields, supply cities (in some cases also for battleships), or harbors for battleships. Fuel Depot is a slow unit that can transport a lot of fuel closer to the front lines. Fuel trucks are smaller and faster units, but cannot transport that much fuel at one go. Once a combat unit with HPs is out of fuel it cannot move, but it might be able to, once per turn, carry out a special action of exchanging HP into fuel (imagine this as distching some tanks).
Fuel Tanker (in naval games): Transfer fuel from harbors (anchor symbols) to Destroyers. Note: Fuel Tanker also needs fuel to be able to move.
In certain scenarios there are also emergency fuel resources that give few points of fuel. In some campaigns it is possible to seize enemy fuel depots which either give fuel ot emergency fuel resources.
In selected games, the entire FUEL element can be turned OFF, but keep in mind that those games were usually designed to be played with fuel logistics on.
Difficulty Level: Difficulty Level offers 7 different options, from Ultra Easy via Normal to Ultra Hard. The level can be changed at any time, but the new Difficulty Level will only be applied to a new game (a game started after changing the Difficulty Level - in other words, the Difficulty Level for the ongoing current game cannot be changed mid-game). The difficulty level affects many (well over hundred) different aspects of the game, some of which are more notable and some more based on having a tiny but cumulative effect. The biggest effects come into play via combat, fatigue, the effectiveness of enemy strafing, resource availability, enemy replacements, how easily enemy-controlled areas are seen and converted to be under your control, etc. Difficulty Level switch can be found in Settings. The Difficulty Level of the current ongoing game can be seen at the bottom of the War Status report. Please notice that the selected difficulty level will also be the default for all future games until you manually change the setting again.
Fatigue: revive: Fatigue stands for how tired and disorganized units are. Actions like battles, nearby enemy controlled hexagons and enemy units, having negative move points between turns, traffic jams, difficult terrain, storms, and being far away from your own city (during front line service) all increase fatigue to varying degrees. If fatigue reaches 100 percent between turns, the unit will involuntarily spend the maximum number of its move points of the unit type between turns to halve the fatigue (this process is called revive), and, as a result, the unit will not have MPs at the start of the next turn. The player can also voluntarily choose to carry out a revive-unit action, which consumes maximum move points of the unit type to halve the current fatigue, while the first aid resource removes 66 percent of the fatigue of the selected unit. Restoring full HPs by resting in a hospital located in a fully controlled province or rear area city (whichever one is available in the campaign) will also decrease the fatigue over the turns spent at that location (no need to carry out a revive-action or use a First Aid resource on a unit which is resting or starting a resting process), while the First Aid resource removes 66 percent of the fatigue of the selected unit. Fatigue is increased mainly during the following three activities: combat, movement near the front-line (causes of movement fatigue: traffic jams, adjacent enemy units, nearby enemy area, moving in a contested province), and between turns (adjacent enemy units, nearby enemy area, negative MPs, distance to own city while near enemy area). WORST you can do is to move from a hexagon which is adjacent to several enemy units to another hexagon which is adjacent to several enemy units. In this case, the number of enemy units will have sort of an exponential effect on fatigue. Certain non-combat unit types, like generals, mines, etc., do not track fatigue.
UNIT SELECTION LOGIC : NEXT UNIT
Selection Order of the Next Unit Button Firstly, nearby units have priority to prevent the screen from jumping all around the map. Secondly, units are prioritized by the following factors: 1) new reinforcements or units that have recently returned from rest 2) non-combat support units (for example, generals, artillery, the air force, engineers, and so on). 3) Currently resting or encircled units 4) HP-less units. 5) Extra MP units in a secure back area. 6) Units that have never been selected before At the beginning of the turn, each unit is at selection level 0 (zero), and as long as there are units at selection level 0, the previously listed conditions are followed (until each unit has been selected at least once and either out of MPs or at selection level 1). Any time you select a unit, the selection level of that unit increases by 1, meaning that unit is now at the bottom of the selection stack. Once all the selection level 0 units have either used all their MPs, or marked done-for-the-turn, or moved to the next selection level, the selection logic starts to go through all the units at selection level 1. After hitting Next Unit, the game selects any unit that has just finished resting (if any). If you do nothing with this now selected unit (just hit the back key, leaving MPs intact), it goes to the bottom of the selection stack (by moving to the selection level 1, while you continue to go through units on selection level 0). Just keep hitting the Next Unit button until you have moved all the units or marked them done-for-the-turn, and it will start to make sense to you after a couple of turns.
Mark Done. Unit marked done will not be selected during this ongoing turn. The done-tag will be removed from all units after the turn is finished with the End-Turn button. You can reset the done-tag by manually selecting the unit marked done, and then selecting Undone-button.
You can mark a unit permanently DONE by long pressing the DONE button for over 2 seconds when the unit is selected. The state of being marked permanently done is shown with a white border around that unit. That unit will not be included when you press NEXT UNIT button, and this Marked Permanently Done status will carry on to the coming turns. You can cancel the marked permanently-done status any time simply by moving the unit or by selecting the unit and choosing UNDONE.
HIT POINTS (HP), REINFORCEMENTS AND REPLACEMENTS
A unit has a number of Hit Points (HP), marking its condition (number of soldiers or vehicles). HPs are shown on the lower left corner of a unit. Non-combat support units like artillery, generals, the air force, and supply ships, do not have HP. When the hit points of a unit drop below zero, the unit gets destroyed. HPs may go down as a result of combat, being out of supply (encircled = no route to the own supply city, supply depot, or airdrop supplies), or when the enemy air force strafes or the enemy artillery bombards the unit between turns. Units with zero HP cannot move into an empty hexagon under enemy control. Units with 0–1 HP cannot attack enemy units, but they can still defend against an enemy attack. The number of HPs affects the combat strength of the unit. HPs can be gained back by resting in a hospital (or if those are not available in the campaign, resting can be done in a rear area city), by assigning a +1 HP resource to a unit (replacements), or by assigning a Call-for-Support resource to a unit, in which case the unit will receive 1 HP from a nearby unit of the same type (there is a range limit: you cannot get support from the other side of the map). In some early campaigns, there is an HP skill that might give the unit an extra HP when it finishes the resting process.
Regain lost HP: There are the main types of reinforcements and replacements.
1) Getting brand-new units, listed in the Reinforcements section of the War Status report, and on the map they usually have the "New Unit" tag.
2) An increase in the Hit Points of existing units with various resources like +1 HP (replacements), which can be gained automaticlaly, by disbanding an existing unit with HPs, or in some games via Resource Depot etc element on map that allows the player to control what is produced/requested. In some very rare cases, Auxiliary replacement might be given as a reward for seizing a key city.
3) Using the Call For Support resource (which transfers one HP from one unit to another NEARBY unit of the SAME TYPE). Typically, generals can request Call-for-Support resources with the cost of few MPs and the resource will be available immediately without time delay.
4) Resting: Rest and repair in a hospital (green cross symbol on the map) or in the case of naval units, in harbors (anchors). In order to gain an HP increase for a resting unit, the unit needs to be in a hospital which is located in a province you fully control (or in case of Naval ships in harbor: the anchor symbol). Just one unit per hospital is allowed. Note: In some very early campaigns there are no hospitals, and units can rest in quiet rear area cities.
5) In newer, bigger games, generals might be able to raise/summon Auxiliary/Security units. There is limit to their number and rate. and these usually are smaller, lower HP units.
6) In a couple of games, a unit might earn +1 HP 'skill', which allows it to gain one extra HP over the usual limit when it finishes its rest-and-repair at hospital.
In the case of the first two, reinforcements and HP-related resources enter the game at predefined yet varied times/intervals. But the overall state of the campaign and the difficulty level can also affect how often the player received replacements.
COMBAT: BATTLE:
Combat formula: The biggest elements in the battle are the hit points (HPs), support from adjacent combat units, and any possible encirclement (after the first turn of being out of supply). After that, the strength of the unit type, fatigue, terrain bonuses, and various assigned resources play a noteworthy part. Only certain core parts of the combat formula, like HPs, are always counted in the same way; other components have built-in variation (sometimes the river crossing bonus for the defender is small, sometimes big). Similarly, the amount of support from adjacent units depends on the strength and HPs of those units; please notice that some or all of the units can be blocked by nearby enemy units.
Support in Battle: Units engaged in battle automatically receive support from surrounding units. The extent of this support is calculated in the following manner: 1) First, each unit friendly to the attacker and adjacent to the hexagon in which the defender is located is marked to be giving attacking support. 2) Then, each unit friendly to the defender and adjacent to a unit giving attacking support nullifies one of the attacking supports. 3) After this, each unit friendly to the defender not employed in phase 2 to nullify attacking support and adjacent to the hexagon from which the attacker is attacking is marked to give defending support. 4) Finally, each unit friendly to the attacker not marked in phase 1 to give attacking support and adjacent to units giving defending support nullifies one defending support.
Unit Strength: Unit types differ in how well they fight or how likely they are to scatter or withdraw. Tank units, for example, are predictably stronger than common infantry. Certain unit types might have special bonuses, like the German Tiger tank unit having a bonus vs. other tank formations; however, Tiger tank units were smaller in size, therefore having fewer hit points (HPs). In some rare cases, the strength of the unit type can change over time; for example, Soviet motorized formations have gotten better over the years. Most relevant information can be found either in the unit type section of the guide or in the developer notes of each particular campaign.
Experience: Each battle gives a certain amount of experience points (roughly reflected in the battle count of that unit). In addition, units gain experience by doing frontline duty, capturing cities, or being near a scattering enemy unit. In some scenarios, the more experienced units gain special skills, like attack, defense, or movement bonuses.
RESTING: HOSPITALS:
Resting: In order to gain back lost HP (Hit/Health Points) units can rest and refit and repair in a hospital, which must be located in a province you fully control. It might take a turn before the process begins as the unit in hospital must first recover to full MPs. The resting process starts once the unit has full MPs at the start of a turn. No need to reset Fatigue as it resets during the resting. Limiting rules: Only one unit can heal at a time in each location. If the game has provinces (white borders around cities), then the hospital must be located in a province that you FULLY control. This hospital is considered to be 'active' and is drawn with more intense colors. If the game has no provinces, then there cannot be enemy-held hexagons within a 'resting range', usually 2 or 3 hexagons. This should be shown as a green circle when a unit that has lost HPs is located in a hospital hexagon. The actual resting process then over the turns automatically restores HP and reduces fatigue over time without requiring usage of revive-action or First Aid resource. Generals can request build-hospital resource (this action might alternate by turn, so it might be available every other turn), and if generals are not included in the scenario, then build-hospital resources will automatically appear from time to time, if hospitals exists in the game. There are settings to skip-resting-units so they are not selected when you keep hitting that NEXT-UNIT button, plus it is possible to turn ON a confirmation before the game allows you to move a resting unit (which obviously interrupts the resting process). In some rare campaigns, there is an HP skill that might give the unit an extra HP when it finishes the resting process.
In most games, resting is carried out in hospitals, but in some early, smaller-scale scenarios, the resting process takes places in a city.
Harbor (anchor symbol) usually indicates a place where naval units with HP can refit and repair (=rest).
+ Ground combat units (=has both MPs and HPs) can rest and repair in hospitals (regain HPs and reset Fatigue)
+ Only available in fully controlled provinces (you must control all the hexagons which belong to this province BETWEEN the turns when the hospital status is checked and determined, otherwise the hospital is drawn as smaller and greyed out to indicate it is NOT active). One province can have multiple hospitals in it.
+ Only one ground combat unit (=has both MPs and HPs) can rest at a hospital at a time, multiple units interrupt the rest
+ The resting process starts once the unit has full MPs at the start of a turn. No need to reset Fatigue as it resets during the resting.
+ Generals can request more hospitals. NOTE, in some campaigns, Request-Hospital action alternates with Request-Airfield action by the turn. In some games Engineer units build hospitals. Plus Buld-Hospital resource might be rewarded after a major feat like conquering a big city.
NAVAL:
Harbor (anchor symbol) usually indicates a place where naval units with HP can refit and repair (=rest).
GENERALS: ACTIONS: (vary by campaign)
A general with MPs can passively support the closest combat units in battle at the cost of 1 MP (this support cannot be prevented if the closest general has MPs). The closer the general is to the active unit, the bigger the bonus (being located in the same hexagon gives the biggest bonus but also risks the general if the combat unit is forced to withdraw between turns). The support range is shown with a dotten green circle when a general with MPs is selected. The selected general can also HASTEN (give up 3 MPs), and the closest ground combat unit will gain +1 MP, and in some low-HP cases in the rear area, +2 MPs. If an enemy unit attacks the general, it will retreat, most likely several hexagons, and lose several extra move points. If a general cannot escape or has been out of supply for several turns, it might be removed from play. If there are more than zero airlift points available, generals can also jump from an airfield to another nearby airfield (requires having MPs). There is an option to turn off the entire unit type or desired random percentage of them from Settings
Generals have various ACTIONs, like seek breach, operational movement, resetting small unit supply depots, requesting minefields or hospitals, requesting railway points, etc., available to them in the menu called Actions (these actions vary by campaign). For example in games like Japan in WW2 or Union there is a wide array of unique actions.
Below are some of the most common ACTIONS:
-- Prioritize Railways (General Action): Exchange the remaining MPs in the selected General into Railway Move Points (RMPs), with the following rate: 1 MP = 3 RMPs, 2 MPs = 8 RMPs, 3 MPs = 14 RMPs, 4 MPs = 22 RMPs. RMPs will be available immediately.
-- Request build hospital resource. Available immediately.
-- Request build airfield resource. Arrives with delay. The MP cost of this action will go up each time it is used, and the price will automatically decrease between turns.
-- HASTEN: Exchange 3 MPs from the selected general with the closest ground combat unit, usually within the range of three hexagons. To avoid wasting these MPs, the general first tries to locate units without negative MPs, and failing that, also looks for units with negative MPs. The logic behind this is that usually giving +1 MP to a unit with minus 8 MPs is not beneficial, while giving +1 MP to the closest unit with the ability to move is beneficial.
-- Seek Breach: A general can perform the Seek Breach action, which randomly alters some of the nearby tactical routes (yellow-green arrows between hexagons), potentially allowing a new beneficial direction for free movement using TMPs (Tactical Move Points). The cost of carrying out this action is 1 move point. Tactical routes are always slowly evolving on their own, but a general leading from the front might be able to generate new tactical openings
-- Shift Focus (General Action): Give up 5 MPs from the selected General to give 2 MPs to the General closest the selected General (marked with yellow SF marker). Usually results in negative MPs for the selected General, and not full MPs during the next turn as the General still recovers from the negative MPs.
-- Request Call-for-Support resource. Available immediately. The resource allows moving 1 HP between two units of the same type.
-- Request Sabotage: Some of the nearby hexagons change hands for this turn (most likely switch back to enemy by the next turn if surrounded by enemy area/units). These hexagons are marked with an explosion marker that is used both for pre-determined bombardment and acts of sabotage and rebellion. The general needs to be close enough to the enemy area for this action to work.
-- Request dugout: A dugout will arrive the next turn (might be just one even if multiple are requested). The MP cost goes up, but will automatically slowly decrease back to base price between turns.
EXTRA GAME ENGINE ELEMENTS:
Moving units leave behind a supply depot (small yellow diamond on the map, yellow SU marker on unit when standing over one) in the previous hexagon they occupied. If enemy forces capture this supply depot, the fatigue of the unit in question will increase 50 percentage points. This means you cannot just carelessly move around enemy units, but you have to give some thought about the consistency of the front line and flanks.
Less Units feature (in only a few games): Some players want quicker turns with fewer units to control to move the campaign along in a speedier manner. If the campaign has enough units, it is possible to reduce the number of units to certain percentages like 55, 66, etc. Some key units might always be available, but the rest are randomized with some effort put into grouping by unit type so that you do not, for example, lose all the panzer divisions. The Less Units setting is only active during the first turn, so change Less Units to the desired number, and restart the game to see the effects. The Less Units setting affects both the initial units and reinforcements, for both sides. Naturally, in a very complex system, it is impossible to balance everything automated and varying perfectly for each of the million setting combinations the player might choose, so some of the resources might be plentiful if you play with only 50 percent of ground combat units, but this is to be expected. If you notice anything horribly out of whack, send me an email.
DISBAND: Any unit the player can select can be disbanded (permanently removed from play) by selecting it and pressing the third button (usually REL-button) for more than 4 seconds. Any possible HPs will become available in those or similar HP replacements (except for ships) slowly over time (the player might get one replacement instantly). Disbanding a no-HP unit will not release any replacements. Most resources assigned to the disbanded unit will be released into the resource pool. One random extra resource might also be made available (reward for freeing future supply). Usually only one disband action is allowed per turn.
Air strike, artillery barrage, or bombardment: These types of actions can result in a loss of HP, loss of one or more MPs, or increase in fatigue, or no result at all in which case the result is shown as ineffective (IE). The following factors increase the likelihood of a good hit: Multiple units at the same hexagon, high HP count, unit is known, unit is encircled, unit type cannot move. The following factors can reduce the chance of a good hit: low HP count, difficult terrain like swamp, unit is unknown (showing just question mark).
UNDO MOVEMENT: The player has 40-50 simple undo movement actions available per new game. Only movement to an adjacent hexagon that the player already controls pre-move can be canceled. A move into an enemy-controlled area or a movement resulting in combat cannot be canceled. To access undo-movement action after accidental movement, deselect the unit immediately (if not already automatically deselected) and tap UNDO from the top of the main menu (if undo movement action is available, it will replace the EXIT button; otherwise, the exit button will be shown). When the undo movement action is carried out, the location of the unit, move points (MP), fatigue (FA), and possible fuel will reset, but all the other data stays as is (if you gained visibility into the enemy area, this stays visible) due to memory limitations (thanks to all the random variation data, which cannot be calculated backwards, so everything would have to keep in memory, which simply is too much memory usage for lower-end devices). The number of UNDO movement actions per ongoing game is limited to prevent cheating. Artillery barrages and air force strikes cannot be canceled.
GENERALS: ACTIONS:
-- Exchange 3 MPs from the selected general with the closest ground combat unit, usually within the range of three hexagons. To avoid wasting these MPs, the general first tries to locate units without negative MPs, and failing that, also looks for units with negative MPs. The logic behind this is that usually giving +1 MP to a unit with minus 8 MPs is not beneficial, while giving +1 MP to the closest unit with the ability to move is beneficial.
-- Reset Supply Depot action by General: The supply depot of the unit with SR tag will be relocated into the hexagon the RS unit is currently located in. For example: When a unit withdraws it leaves the small supply depot behind (near the enemy and the front line) which can easily be seized by advancing enemy units causing more fatigue to your withdrawing unit. General can prevent this by giving focus (=MPs) to the withdrawing unit and pulling the supply depot into the same hexagon in which the withdrawing unit is located (instead of leaving the supply depot behind the unit). This action is only available in campaigns which offer small supply depots for each unit and when that feature is turned ON from Settings
-- Shift Focus (General Action): Give up 5 MPs from the selected General to give 2 MPs to the General closest the selected General (marked with yellow SF marker). Usually results in negative MPs for the selected General, and not full MPs during the next turn as the General still recovers from the negative MPs.
-- A Breach action: A general can perform the Seek Breach action, which randomly alters some of the nearby tactical routes (yellow-green arrows between hexagons), potentially allowing a new beneficial direction for free movement using TMPs (Tactical Move Points). The cost of carrying out this action is 1 move point. Tactical routes are always slowly evolving on their own, but a general leading from the front might be able to generate new tactical openings
MISC:
Unit's parent formation number. In most games there is a setting to show as a marker the unit's higher-level regiment/division/corps/army it belongs to. There are several known issues with this: firstly, units were regularly shuffled around, especially in big, long battles or in chaotic situations, so your OOB (Order of Battle) might be from a week later and show different information. Secondly, the marker system that has to function in very limited space has been designed to handle 2-letter or 2-number data, so units belonging to parent units like the 398th Division are shown at a very small size. Thirdly, sometimes the parent units were something like "Army Poznan" or "Battlegroup Mius", or like when the WWII eastern front threatened to collapse, Germans might put a Panzer Division in France on the railways and throw it across the continent. Clearly, that unit is not a corps reserve, or an army reserve, or even an army group reserve, but something else entirely. As a result of all this chaos, I have sometimes, for some units, implemented a logic that the new unit simply gains the parent formation number from nearby own units. Plus, in a few games with a year-long time scale, some units simply get the army number of the army that currently still exists but has the lowest number of units in it.
Expire: Certain resources will expire, meaning they are removed from either the unit they are assigned to or from the resource pool. Special Order will expire between turns after you have assigned it to a unit. Unused Air Strikes and recon flights will expire between turns. Certain resources will expire after a certain amount of usage and variation, for example Flamethrower assigned to a unit will eventually be Exhausted. It is also possible that under certain extreme conditions, the game engine might be so filled with units and resources and other data that it will remove the most common resource to free up some space in the system.
HOW TO WIN?
It would be practically impossible to tell what the best way to achieve victory is. There are, however, a few things that we feel we should mention to get you started. If nothing else, the following paragraphs should give you an idea how the game engine works, and what the mechanism behind the games is.
Encircling enemy forces: encircling enemy units is a powerful technique to master. The more units you can lure into being out-of-supply, the better, as these units lose Hit Points (HPs) simply by being out-of-supply, no battle required, thus making it easier for you to destroy them. Out-of-supply units also have the need to break through and get back within the reach of their own supply lines, which often means moving back to where they came from. This puts them at a disadvantage because units fight better when defending than when attacking, and units that are out of supply have a lower fighting capacity. The downside of attempting to encircle the enemy is that you often need to commit your fast-moving units to carrying out the plan, exposing your most valuable units to the risk of ending up being encircled themselves. It is therefore crucial to plan your strategy in such a way that a maneuver to encircle enemy forces in one place does not slow down your plans elsewhere excessively.
Concentrating your forces: Building groups of units is also important, as advancing or retreating towards a common target with more than a single unit brings with it a number of advantages. For one, it is easier to defeat an enemy unit when attacking it repeatedly within a single turn. Each successive attack causes more fatigue to the defending unit, making it weaker.
Similarly, each time an enemy unit has to retreat, it loses Move Points, making it far more difficult for the enemy to take control of the situation on its own turn. Another reason why a group of units is more than the sum of its parts has to do with momentum. While the enemy can fairly easily influence the direction in which one of your units is heading, it is far more difficult to stop or re-direct a larger force. Even if one of your troops loses momentum, the rest of the group will keep going. It is also far more difficult to encircle your units when they move as part of a larger formation, leaving behind them a wider line of supply.