ARMY User's Manual 0.0.1

Ben Asselstine

Programmer who cloned this GTK+ version of ARMY.

Dwain Goforth

Original Author of ARMY Shareware game.

Feedback Information

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the game, the editors, or this documentation, see the ARMY Project Page.

Table of Contents
Preface
How To Play
Copying This Manual

This game is a clone of a 1989 shareware game of the same name, written by Dwain Goforth. Every attempt is made to recreate the gameplay faithfully. The text of this manual is taken from the original manual, altered only slightly.

How To Play

ARMY is a turn-based strategy game where two players can play.

The object of the game is to defeat the opposing captain while protecting your captain from attack ("capture the flag".) There are four kinds of pieces, a board with various kinds of terrain and two rafts which can be used to cross the lake.

Each turn consists of the play of four dice. For each die, a piece can either move or fight. Movement is limited by the die value, the movement power of the piece, and the terrain that will be crossed. Fighting is limited by the the die value and the fighting power of the attacker versus the defender's die value and fight power.

Here is what the main game screen looks like:

Figure 1.

It's pretty much that simple, move or fight for four pieces per turn, so the novice can learn to play instantly.

The game does, however, have a lot of rules - which the computer sees to it are enforced. The following sections summarize the army pieces, terrain and rules:

Game Pieces

Captain

The captain, in a forest.

Figure 2.

The piece shaped like a tent (either blue for the west team or red for the east team) is your captain which you must protect at the cost of the game. It is limited to a move of 1 (for a move die of 1) or 2 (for a move die of 2 to 6). It has a fighting power of 1.75 times the die making it the strongest piece. The captain can fight with impunity against any other piece except the other captain; that is all fights initiated by a captain end in victory for the captain or a draw. The captain's attack range is 2 spaces but unlike all the other pieces can only be attacked from an adjoining space. Because of this, your captain is completely protected if it is surrounded by your men, water or walls (but see artillary and and walls). Captains cannot cross water either to move or fight (they don't want to get their boots muddy) but they can use the bridges or ride the rafts.

Artillery

Artillery near a road.

Figure 3.

The cannons are second in fighting power (1.5 times the die) and can attack from within four spaces. There are five each to start with. Artillery have the unique ability to destroy walls by using a six die to fight against a wall (only a six will work). After the wall is destroyed the pieces are free to move or fight through it. While powerful, they are the slowest of the main pieces, having a move ability of only .75 of the die value. They cannot cross water (they would rust) but can use the bridges and rafts. They can, however, fight across water (cannonballs fly through the air, right?) Cannons cannot attack over walls; none of the four units can do that.

Cavalry

Cavalry in the forest next to a raft.

Figure 4.

The horsemen have a move ability of 1.25 times the die value so they are the fastest pieces. They can cross water (if the far shore is within range) but the water will slow them down to just reaching the far shore no matter if the die value is greater. Their fighting power is 1.25 times the die and they can attack within three spaces. Fighting across water will reduce their fight power by one. Each player starts with ten.

Infantry

An infantryman, minding his own business.

Figure 5.

The foot soldiers take the brunt of the fighting and are often called on for suicide missions (just like real life.) They have a fight power of one and a move ability of one times the die. They only have an attack range of one so they cannot fight across water but can move across water with the same restrictions as calvary. Each player starts with 15.

Terrain

Plains and Roads

A road through the plains.

Figure 6.

These two areas allow moves at the regular one times the move value. Roads are simply fast paths through the forest; where there is no forest, there is no difference between roads and plains. Do be aware of the subtle turns in the roads as you may not find out you landed in forest until it is too late. Bridges are the same as roads but be aware they were designed to slow down galloping horses. (The hummocky areas next to the rivers are in fact plains, and the hummocks are used to show they are different from adjoining forest.)

Forest

A forest.

Figure 7.

Rate of movement in the forest areas is 1/2 times normal, but only when you STARTED on forest. That means crossing forest from a start on road or plains still gives the move ability of road/plains.

Water

Rivers and the bay of a lake.

Figure 8.

The rivers and lake on the board are barriers to captains and artillary (except for bridges and rafts). No piece can land on water but calvary and infantry may be able to cross it. Water slows down travel and weakens the fighting power of calvary.

Walls

Brick walls.

Figure 9.

Walls are barriers to all pieces, but can be broken down by artillary fighting them with a six die. No piece can fight across a wall, no matter the normal range.

Rafts

A raft.

Figure 10.

The two rafts provide quick transport across the lake. All you have to do is move to them and you will be on your merry way. Note that the raft will stay on the other side until you get off and you or your opponant again moves back on to them. Moving from a raft is 1/2 times normal (same as forest.)

Rules and Miscellanea

When you fight, the computer will role the opponents defense die, announce the winner and display the score. A little practice with the scoring will give you a feel for fighting ability.

No piece can move past an enemy piece if the path (determined by the computer of course) would land on the location of the enemy piece.

Also, captains and cavalry cannot fight a piece if the path to that piece is blocked by an enemy piece. This is not true for artillery because cannonballs fly through the air, remember? Infantry can fight only one square away, anyway.

Once you have chosen a die you must use it; you must use it to either attack an enemy piece or move one of your own.

After the game has progressed you may occasionally receive reinforcement army pieces arriving near where your pieces started (west or east roads.)

Well that's about it. Don't forget that you must be right next to a captain to fight it.

A Caveat

Since the computer is calculating your route of travel across the board you may find that some moves that look ok will be denied. All I can say is you can't argue with the umpire. However, I can give the umpire a lobotomy so forward your suggestions.

Disclaimer

This game was written by a pacifist. Any references to real armies, guns, bullets, and killing is purely coincidental to the goal of producing a fun game. While one person can play ARMY it is much more fun with two real live humans. My six-year old loves to ride the rafts and shoot cannons at walls. I think games should be social, most computer arcade games leave me dry.

Copying This Manual

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This manual is part of a collection of GNOME manuals distributed under the GFDL. If you want to distribute this manual separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the license to the manual, as described in section 6 of the license.

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