Getting Started

This tutorial will teach you the basics of the Campaign Leipzig game. By following the instructions below you will become capable at moving, firing and meleeing with the units under your command. So let's get started!

First, you need to start up the Main Program. The installer created a folder for Campaign Leipzig in your Programs folder found under the Start menu. Click on Start at the bottom left of your desktop and then select Programs and then the Campaign Leipzig folder. Choose the Main Program icon and the battle engine will start up.

The main program for Campaign Leipzig opens and you are on your way!

The first screen you will see is the Scenario Dialog. Here you will select the first Getting Started scenario. At this screen just click on OK as we will not be changing any of the selections.

Later on as you play different scenarios you will be making other selections. And you can open up an older game as well from this menu.

At the AI Selection Dialog change the French A/I selection to Automatic. We will not use Fog of War for this tutorial so you can see how the A/I reacts to your moves.

Next we will review the Rules settings in the Optional Rules Dialog. Click on the Rules button.

The Optional Rules Dialog opens. Your rules will be set to the Default settings. Click on the check boxes to have your settings be exactly as per the above image. The click on the OK button. Back at the A/I Selection Dialog click on the OK button. This will start up the game.

The Phasebox is displayed telling us that it's the Allied turn. Go ahead and click on the Phasebox to clear it from the screen. Click on the Phase image to clear it.

As the Phasebox image is cleared the French (AI) player makes his move using AI Scripts. You will watch the move and wait for the Allied player Phasebox to appear. Once it does go ahead and click on it to clear it. Now it is your move.

The game screen comes up to the Allied turn. Go ahead and click on the Phasebox to clear the image. The French (AI) Player will move first. Observe the movement and fire and then it will be your turn to move. When the Allied Turn screen comes up click on it to clear it.

You will now want to get used to the interface of the game. The interface is well laid out to help you in accessing the various commands and features of the game. First we will check the various menus. You will want to open the Main Program Help file from the Leipzig Start Menu folder to refer to as we go over the interface. This file is also found in the main game folder. It is called nbp.pdf.

In the file take a look at the Menu help text and pictures to get some idea of what each item does in the program. Then look at the Other Features heading (near bottom of headings on left side of screen) and the Hex Info Area, Toolbar and Status Bar sections. These are very helpful as you play the game. Once you are finished keep the document open in case you want to review any of this information again or look up other topics of interest.

Now that you are going to check out the interface settings under the Settings menu. Here you can determine if you want to see On Screen combat reports, set the initial view to your choice of either 2D Zoom In, 2D Zoom Out, 3D Zoom In or 3D Zoom Out. Open up the Settings menu at this time to get familiar with the various choices. Here is the default view of the Settings menu.

Here is where you will choose the options that you prefer when viewing the game interface. if you have any questions about the menu options refer to the Help file npb.pdf in the main game folder. The screenshots of the game in the Tutorial used the following settings:

Now we will look at the units under your command. You command the French troops that were holding the left flank of the Army of Berlin at the Battle of Dennewitz.

Maréchal Ney was attempting to take the town of Jüterbog (not shown on the map in the scenario - is part of the Battle of Dennewitz full battle scenario) in order to gain a line of communications with forces that the thought Napoleon was sending his way. A furious battle ensued for control of the village. This is the subject of the scenario.

Next, on the Toolbar, click on the button for Contours. This will help you to see the various terrain differences easier.

Now let's get used to the troops under your command. Choose the View menu and then select Show Organization.

Under the Prussian army click on the "+" sign and find the 3rd Corps and then select it. The entire organization is now highlighted on the map.

Now click on the "+" sign to the left of the 3rd Corps in the Organization Dialog to expand it so that you can see its full organization.

You will note that the corps has a total of six sub-organizations under its command. The 3rd-6th Brigades have a mixture of infantry, cavalry and artillery. There is a Cavalry division as well as an Artillery brigade.

To help you better understand the Prussian army organization here is instruction on the command levels of the game. We start at the Army level and work down to Wing, Corps, Division and Brigade. Some of these are not present in certain organizations in the game. For instance, an Army can have a Brigade directly under its command.

For the Prussians instead of the Division level in most armies they called them "Brigades." Under each brigade was one or more "Abteilungs" which were detachments. So when you see the 3rd Brigade listed above this is actually a Division level formation. Lets expand the 3rd Brigade so you can better understand how the it is organized.

Click on the 3rd Brigade heading - it should look like the above image. Now all of the 3rd Brigade will be highlighted on the screen. Again the 3rd Brigade is a Division level unit. Within this organization are Brigade level formations. These are the fighting troops and their commanding officer.

Go ahead and inspect the 3rd Brigade as it appears on the map. You will notice that the commander of the 3rd Brigade is not present. That is because this was an ad hoc formation and the various units of the command actually fell under the command of another brigade leader. For game purposes the units in the 3rd Brigade have to function without a commander. This will make Disorder recovery a bit more challenging for you. We will cover that in the Command section of the Tutorial.

Get familiar with the troops in the 3rd Brigade and then look over the rest of your command using the Organization Dialog. All of the troops on the map are in the 3rd Corps. Later on you will get reinforcements that will be a part of the Prussian and the Swedish armies.

We will now get familiar with the Info Area of the game interface. With the mouse double click on the units in hex 7,20. There is a leader and two cavalry squadrons. Move the mouse pointer over to the top left of the screen where you see the Info Area.

In the game are five types of units: Leaders, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Wagons. Two of the types are shown in the Info Area. The Leader's picture appears and below it his name. Below his name is the organization level that he is a part of. In this case the "2B" of the "Cav" of the "3C." These are abbreviations for the command levels. See the Org. Dialog again if you have a question about their place in the command.

Look over each of the unit's in the Info Area as well. You will note that they also have a picture and an organization listing similar to the leader. They also have a Strength, Casualty level (in percentage which drops as it loses men), a Quality or Morale value, a Movement Allowance, Fatigue level (which rises as it accrues Fatigue), a Weapon value (in this case Lancers), and that its class is "Mounted."

Next you will want to read the Hex Info. The location is "Spotted" meaning that some enemy unit on the map can see this location. The terrain type is "Clear." This means that there is no defensive cover. The Elevation is 80 feet. The Prussian army has 80 rounds of ammo to use for its artillery units.

You will want to open up the User Manual at this time and read up on the Unit Types, Unit Formations and Special Units at this time so that you will be familiar with terms used in the rest of the Tutorial. The User Manual can be accessed via the Start Menu -> Program Files -> John Tiller Software menu.

Once you are finished reading up on these topics leave the User Manual open as you will want to refer to it later in the Tutorial.

Getting back to the Info Area go ahead and hold a right mouse click on it to see supplemental information. Here is the view of the Info Area:

As you can see the various ratings show up for the leader. He has a Command rating of E and a Leadership rating of C. He has 42 movement points (MPs). The value of 336 is the Stacking Value of the hex. More on that later.

For the next area of instruction you will learn about the importance of the leader' command radius and command control. First, let's select the "Leaders on Top" option from the Toolbar.

Now all of the leaders will appear at the top of the stacks. This is helpful when you go to check stacks that contain leaders to determine their Command Control range.

The organization of the units is very important for Command Control. As you can see this brigade only has two units on the map. Let's check the leader's command radius. Deselect the units in the hex but leave the leader highlighted. Then use the View menu and find the Command Range option and click on it.

We will now talk about the Command Control rules.

There are two values for each leader: one is the Leadership value and the other is the Command value. The first is helpful in rallying units. Stacking a leader with units of its own organization is very useful if they are routed. This way they can gain the Leadership value if it is higher than the Quality (Morale) value of the unit. If the Quality value is equal to or greater than the Leadership value then the unit will gain a +1 for morale recovery. This is essentially a d6 roll done during the Command Test. If the unit Rout recovery roll is equal to or less than the Quality value then it rallies.

Thus a Quality value unit of B (5) will recover from Rout on a roll of 5 or less. The Leadership value would reduce that to 4 if it applied a -1 to the die roll. A careful reading of the Command section of the User guide (user.pdf) will help you better understand all that goes into the Rout recovery process.

The Command Test is also done during the Command Phase and is very important. Units that Disorder can only recover to good order if they pass their Recovery Test. Leaders can greatly aid the recovery process if they pass their Command Test. Basically the test starts with the Army commander and goes down through the chain of command. For each passed test that leader will pass a +1 down the chain of command to the next leader who then does his test. If he passes his test then he would pass a +2 down to the next leader. Thus the more commanders which pass their test the better the odds are that the leader below will also pass his test.

Finally, if the Brigade leader passes his test he could potentially add in a +5 (Army, Wing, Corps, Division, Brigade = +5) to the unit. The unit has a value of "1" for the Recovery Test. Any modifiers he gets from his Brigade leader are added to this value. If any leader fails his test then no bonus is passed down the chain of command.

Thus it is very important that you keep your units in command range and also keep leaders within the command range of their superior officers. You will want to check the command radius of all superior leaders to get an idea of how far their radius extends. This is absolutely vital as the units will eventually Disorder and become reduced in combat ability. Read the User guide on the penalties of being Disordered. You can click on other leaders while the Command Range is highlighted to see their command ranges.

Tip: get to know the shortcut keys which will allow you to quickly perform functions in the game. For instance the Command Control can be enabled by typing CTRL + K.

Now that you are somewhat familiar with the Command rules let's move on to actually moving your units. For the first two turns follow the instructions on where to move the units. After that you will be on your own for a few moves until reinforcements arrive.

To deselect the Command Range you can use the View menu to turn off the Command Range. Another tip is to toggle the Visible Hexes button on the Toolbar. See if you can find this button and toggle it on and off. If you like pick a unit and see what its visible hexes are. We will use this later when we fire artillery.

Now you will move your cavalry forward. Select that stack of cavalry again in hex 7,20 and move it one hex at a time by using the following method: with the units selected right click on the adjacent hex to the northeast of its present location. Note the amount of Movement Points (4 MPs in this case) used for the movement.

Continue moving the cavalry forward until they reach hex 11,13 as shown in this image:

As you can see the cavalry were able to move over the artillery. This is because they did not violate the Stacking value of the hex where the artillery battery is located.

A check of their Movement Points (MPs) shows that they only have 1 MP left. Thus the units are through moving for this turn as they could not enter another hex. We will be opening up the Parameter Data to check out the various MP costs in the next step.

You now need to learn about Stacking. Each unit has a manpower value (except leaders and wagons) which will add against the stacking limit of a hex. In the Campaign Leipzig game the Stacking Value is usually set to 1800 men. You can open up the Parameter Data information by going to the Help menu and choosing Parameter Data. Do this now. A dialog box will show up which looks like this:

Look carefully over the various values. The first heading is called "General Data." Here you find the Title, First Side and other values that are independent of unit types or other categories. Below that are the "Time Parameters" values. Now look down to the Stacking Parameters. Note that the "Max Stacking" value is 1800 men. However, note that cavalry has a max stacking value of 900 men. Thus cavalry add in a value of "x2" to the Stacking Value of any hex.

Check the cavalry Stacking Value again. It was 336 men. Actually there are only 168 troopers in the hex (the leader doesn't count) but the Info Area shows the total value as it applies to the hex. So if you were to deduct 336 from 1800 you would have a remaining Stacking Value of 1464.

Artillery also have a different gauge for stacking. The maximum number of guns you can stack in a hex is 14 according to the Parameter Data. Thus every gun is worth approximately 125 men. A check of the foot battery in hex 9,19 shows that they account for "1000" towards the 1800 limit. Our cavalry were worth 336 so they were able to pass over the battery with no problem.

Infantry count for x1 amount thus 500 men are worth 500 Stacking Points. They work on a "1 for 1" basis. Supply Wagons can stack for free but only 1 wagon may stack in a hex. This is important to know when you go to move several wagons in close proximity to each other. You will not be able to move one Supply Wagon unit onto a road hex, for instance, and then move another Supply Wagon unit into the same hex with the other wagon.

Lets scroll down to the Movement Costs for each unit type so that you can get used to how much it costs for each type of terrain. Look over the Cavalry costs first to get an idea of how much it costs them to move on the battlefield. Some terrain types are prohibitive such as Blocked or High (which are High Wall hexsides). There are two terrain types: full hex and hex side terrain. Some of them cannot be passed through except by special rule. An example of this would be Water hexes being crossed by units that HAS BOATS capability. Impassable hexes are just that: you can never move into them.

Refer to the file in your main program folder called TEC.pdf. This is the Terrain Effects Chart for the game. Most of the scenarios use the values found in the chart. Familiarize yourself with the movement costs and then close the Parameter Data information and return to the game. We are going to learn how to detach skirmishers next.

Go to hex 13,17 where the 2nd East Prussian Grenadier battalion is located. We are going to detach a skirmisher from this unit, advance it and fire on the enemy. Select the unit by clicking on the unit's picture in the Info window area. Optionally you can double click on the unit too. Note that the background shading in the Info area changes when you select units. You can select an entire stack by double clicking on one hex that contains a stack of units on the map or you can click on each unit picture in the Info area. You can also deselect units by clicking on their unit picture after they have been selected.

Now while the unit is selected go to the Toolbar and select the button circled in blue:

Once you do this one skirmisher company will be detached from the parent unit and be available to move on its own. Note that the unit is called a Skirmisher. These units are more fragile than the parent unit and can easily be destroyed so care must be given in how you use them. They can be run over by charging cavalry too.

Now move the skirmisher forward one hex as pictured below.

We will now fire on the French unit in hex 17,16. With the skirmisher selected go ahead and click on the Move/Fire mode button on the far left side of the Toolbar. It looks like this:

Then with the skirmisher unit still selected go ahead and right click on the target hex (17,16). The Target Dialog will appear:

You can select either unit by using your mouse to left click on the unit of your choice. For now leave the selection as is and we will fire on the 1/Fred. Aug. IR unit. Click OK to perform the fire combat.

I still have On Map Results in the Settings Menu turned off so that you can see the full details of the Fire Combat. Here is result of the Fire Combat from the skirmisher at the Saxon unit turned out:

As you can see the fire from the skirmishers did not cause any losses on the Saxons. The Fire value was 60 and was modified by 20 percent for the morale grade (A) of the skirmisher unit. However, there was a -20 percent negative modifier for firing uphill. As you play the game more you will learn more about the various modifiers for each situation.

If you want to learn more about the different types of weapons there is a Weapons Effectiveness Chart in the main game folder. The file is called WEC.PDF. Open it up when you get a chance and get to know more about the capabilities of the weapons in the game.

Go ahead and click OK and you will go ahead and move another skirmisher found in hex 14,15. This is the Frewilige Jager company of the Colburg Infantry Regiment #9. These units were formed of volunteers but as you can see their morale (D) is not that great. Here is where they are located on the map (see the red outline):

First, go to the Move/Fire mode button on the Toolbar and click on it so that the Move mode is activated. Move them to hex 15,15 and fire them at the units in hex 17,15 after changing the Move/Fire mode button back to Fire mode. You should get a Target Dialog box like this one:

Choose the Spiegel Gren(adier) unit. It is selected for you already so just click OK and then note the Fire results as before. Here is what I got when I fired on the unit:

The result was that the grenadier battalion lost one man. The elevation difference caused a -20 percentage modifier. The Morale D rated unit and did not qualify for the Quality Fire Modifier as in our previous example.

Skirmishers give a defensive benefit to all fire that is traced through their hex. If the Saxons had a foot battery in that hex and it fired through the skirmisher hex it would give the defenders behind them a defensive benefit from fire attacks. Units in the same hex as the skirmisher do not receive this benefit.

Now select the artillery battery in hex 9,20. We are going to fire on the unit in hex 17,16 but this time we will use a shortcut key to speed up the firing process. Change the Move/Fire mode button back to Move mode. Now press on the CTRL button and notice that the Move/Fire mode button the Toolbar toggles back to Fire mode. Go ahead and select the battery and then hold down the CTRL key and right click on hex 17,16. The Target Dialog comes up again. Leave the 1/Fred. Aug. IR unit selected and press OK.

This time the fire report looks a little different than last time. Here is what mine looked like:

Why were both units fired on? Because the setting of Column Pass Through Fire was set in the game Options when we started up the game. In order to check on the Options in use in a game select the Setting menu and then the option "Optional Rules." This will show you the Optional Rules Dialog. You saw this when you started up the scenario. This allows you to check on the Optional Rules for any game you are playing. It is helpful for Play by Email games as your opponent may have selected the wrong options.

As you have now fired on a few units we will step back and check out the victory conditions. There are Objective hexes on the map. One is located at hex 14,14. Others are located adjacent to this location. Note that these all have a Prussian flag. That means that they are controlled by the Allied player. There is another Objective that the French control located at hex 15,8.

Each Objective is worth a certain amount of Victory Points. You can determine the value by clicking on the Objective hex and then looking at the Hex Info area. Here is what the Hex Info for the hex at 14,14 looks like:

The Objective is worth 50 points. Now we will look at the Victory Dialog. Pull down the Info menu and pick "Victory." The Victory Dialog will appear and it should look like this:

As you can see the French Play has 25 points and thus a Major Victory. This may seem odd to you but we generally make it harder for the Human player (that's you) to win in the Solo scenarios. You will need to eliminate a lot of French units and hold onto the Objectives in order to win.

Losses are calculated based on the values of 3 points per 25 infantry destroyed, 5 points per 25 cavalry destroyed and 6 points for each gun destroyed. You can find a Victory Point Calculator in the main folder of the game. It is called "VP_Calc.pdf" and will help you better understand how many men you will have to eliminate in order to win. And your score will be reduced for your own losses so the Total Points are in effect a differential of both player's losses.

You could get a Major Victory by destroying 3,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and about 15 guns or some combination of this while losing none of your men. So obviously you will have to destroy something like 4,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry and 20 guns while losing a much smaller amount of your force in order to get at least a Minor Victory. Oh yes, and those Objective locations will help too!

Now that you have checked out the Victory Dialog let's look at moving more of your force. You are going to learn how to change formation. Find the battery in hex 9,19. This is the Prussian 6lb Foot #5. Select the unit and then limber it by clicking on the "Change Column/Line" button on the toolbar. The button is circled in blue in illustration below:

You can also use the Command Menu -> Change Column item as well.

Now move the unit from its present location to hex 11,18 as seen below:

The unit is moving forward to support the defense of the village. It is now stacked with the cavalry.

Next, you will find out about how a unit can Disorder through movement. Open up the Terrain Effects Chart found in the main game folder. Look at the chart. Find where the chart lists Orchard and then cross reference that terrain type with the Cavalry unit type. Notice the "D" after the movement value? That means that that terrain type will Disorder that unit if it moves into that kind of terrain or if it were to use a road to enter that hex and then another friendly unit other than a leader enters that hex as well. Remember that Roads, Paths and Pikes negate terrain movement costs and allow certain types of units to enter hexes that otherwise would Disorder them.

Study the Terrain Effects Chart well as it will aid your game play immensely. Also get to know the various buttons on the Toolbar as well as the shortcut keys that are available. Many of them help cut down the amount of menu use you will have to do during a game.

For instance one of my favorite shortcut keys is for the Command Range. Earlier we saw how useful it is to be able to highlight the Command radius of a leader.

Lets learn another button on the Toolbar: the Moved Units button. On the toolbar find this button as illustrated below:

Click on this button and then note that the units that have moved are highlighted on the map.

You still have several units that can still move. You are now going to move a group of units in the Prussian 6th Brigade of the 3rd Corps. Find the stack in hex 6,10. Move this stack forward to hex 9,12. Then move the unit in hex 6,11 to hex 9,13. Continue moving the rest of the brigade forward. There are two more units to move.

Your units should be arranged together in a line like this:

Were you fired on by the Saxon batteries on the hill to the east? They can fire at your forces using Opportunity Fire while they move, change facing/formation or commit to meleeing a stack. In my movement one of my units was fired on and lost 5 men. It did not cause a morale check so the unit is still in good order.

The three unit states are Normal, Disordered and Routed. A unit can also be Low on Ammo or Out of Ammo if it can fire and is not artillery. Artillery can fire as long as they have ammunition. Do you remember from the earlier discussion on the interface on where to find the amount of ammunition that your artillery can use before they no longer can fire? Yes, it is in the Hex Info area. Currently the ammunition is listed as 79 rounds. You will get more ammunition if you have more artillery batteries arrive as reinforcements. The amount will increase as they enter the map.

There is a Supply Wagon located at hex 6,14. Go ahead and move the wagon to hex 9,13. Units that are "Low Ammo" can be resupplied as long as they are within 4 hexes of the wagon. The an ammunition amount equal to 1 point/10 men will be deducted from its value. Thus 400 men will reduce the wagon by 40 points. If the amount needed to resupply a unit is not available from a wagon then the unit will remain Low Ammo/No Ammo. Units resupplied from either state no longer have a firing restriction.

Now let's take a look at the leader in hex 6,14. His name is "GM Hessen-Homburg." He commands the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Corps of Bülow's Wing. Let's see which units he commands by selecting him and then pressing the "Highlight Org" button on the Toolbar. As can be seen below the units in red belong to the 3rd Brigade.

Now let's check his command radius by pressing the "K" shortcut key on the keyboard. The command radius is highlighted on the map and the rest of the map is darkened:

As you can see his range does not include the village area. You will want to move him closer so that he can help the units in the village recover should they become Disordered. Move him to hex 9,15. If you leave the highlight feature enabled you will be able to see the new extent of his command range.

Here is a view of the new Command Range:

Toggle off the Command Range by pressing the "K" shortcut key again. Let's end the Prussian Player Phase and allow the AI to make its move. The AI will perform fire and movement and perhaps perform some Melee attacks on the Prussian units during its turn. To end the phase press the "Next Turn" button on the Toolbar. It is the fifth button from the left.

Here is the situation after the AI made its move in my game.

Your screen may differ as the AI may have attacked your skirmisher in hex 15,15. And it may have routed too! If that happened you will want to know that Independent skirmisher companies rally easier than the skirmisher companies that are detached from your line infantry battalions that are listed as "Can Deploy" in their Unit Info. The skirmisher companies of Guard and Light infantry. Hex 13,16 has a unit that is listed as "Light" infantry. Any of the companies that detach from that unit are capable of self rallying. Any companies from a unit that is listed as "Can Deploy" will need to be within four (4) hexes of their parent battalion.

Now we are going to move some more units and importantly set up our cavalry for a charge for the next turn. As your game results may vary I will walk you through the basics of the charge and skip over any other movement detail.

First, we want to move our cavalry to where they will have a clear charge path to the enemy units. So I am going to move the cavalry in hex 11,18 to hex 14,17 and then I am going to change their facing to the left one hexside. To do this you will select the cavalry units and then use the "Counterclockwise" facing button on the Toolbar to have the units face to the left. Click on this button once with both units selected.

This is how my cavalry looks after I have moved them and changed their facing:

Note that the arrows under the Unit info for the cavalry units now faces to the northeast. This will allow us to perform a charge if French units are within movement range and still in the charge arc which is all hexes extending out of the front hexes of the units. Cavalry cannot change facing during a charge.

The French may try and form square in the next turn or simply move out of the charge arc. I am going to make some basic moves at this point and then end the turn. Here is what the turn looked like after the French made their move.

If the cavalry did not Disorder or Rout away then they should be able to charge one of the Saxon units this turn. First determine the movement needed to reach the target. Use the Terrain Effects Chart if you have to as once you start moving the cavalry you are committed.

The stack in hex 15,15 is Disordered because the AI moved an infantry unit in Line formation into a hex with infantry in Column. However, this stack still may pose a problem in defeating so I will pass up on it and attack the unit in hex 16,15.

Some notes on movement causing Disorder: Both the cavalry and infantry will Disorder when the stack with each other during movement. The exception is if you move skirmishers into the same hex as Cavalry. Only the Skirmisher will Disorder in that case. And any unit can freely mix with Artillery as long as the terrain would not otherwise Disorder the units. You will have to move the units around to learn fully which units will Disorder under different circumstances. The Terrain Effects Chart is intended to be a beginning point and will not list all reasons why units will Disorder.

I will now perform the charge move and attack. You can follow along and then try it out in your game. I want to attack the unit in hex 16,15 - the 2/Fred. Aug. IR infantry battalion on the flank. This will mean that the cavalry charge path would take me through the hex containing a Prussian skirmisher. Thus I will need to move it out of the way. Hex 14,16 works fine and it also reduces any casualties that the unit in hex 13,17 may take.

Now I will initiate the charge. I select the cavalry units in hex 14,17. I then click on the "Change Charging" button on the Toolbar to have them enter Charge mode. This button is shown in the following illustration circled in blue.

Now I will perform the charge with the units. First I move to contact with cavalry to their target. Then I initiate melee. Here is the view before I start the melee.

To initiate Melee select one stack of units that will be attacking (as you can attack a unit with multiple attackers). Then right click on the target hex. A Melee Status dialog box will appear. This is what it looks like:

Note that the effective strengths and the actual strengths are different depending on modifiers. Our cavalry got a bonus for charging and having a leader as well as attacking the target unit on the flank. Cavalry that is of the "Cossack" type do not get a charge bonus. This is not isolated to just Russian Cossacks but also can include cavalry with little to no training.

At this point you would perform the melee by clicking on the "Resolve Melee" button on the Toolbar. It is located in the middle of the toolbar and looks like this:

Here were the results of the melee:

The Defender retreated and here is what the map looked like after the cavalry won the melee:

I now can continue to move my cavalry if I wish or attack the same unit again (since the Multiple Cavalry Melee option is in effect). I choose to attack again. Here are the Melee Results:

I have one more hex I can move and I choose to move just one of the cavalry units forward to help block the path of retreat for the Saxon infantry facing my Prussians.

Now I move up some infantry after having them change from Line to Column using the Change Column/Line button on the Toolbar (we discussed this earlier - see above diagram and instructions). These units were in hex 13,15 and 13,16. You can do the same attack if you like and see how to use infantry in melee. You may take fire from the Defender as you commit to attack. For stacks always select the entire stack of friendly units that will attack and then commit them to melee. Never select them individually and commit to attack the enemy as each time you are open to take opportunity fire. Here is the Melee Status for my attack with the infantry against the French infantry in hex 15,15:

When I clicked on the Ok button the French infantry fired back. Here are the results of this fire:

I then pressed the Resolve Melee button on the Toolbar. Here are the results of the Melee.

We lost! Our commanders will not be happy about this!

Note that we did not have 2:1 odds which seems to be about where you want to be at a minimum for an attack. Sometimes the modifiers will work in your favor but even a good flank attack with a leader on your side helping out can turn into a loss. You will have to gain experience with the game before you get some idea of what constitutes a good melee.

At this point go ahead and play through the remainder of the scenario on your own. Your goal is to hold the village, take the hill objective and destroy as many French units as possible.

Refer to the Help files if you have a question or you can always submit a Support form at the John Tiller Software website at:

http://johntillersoftware.com/Support.php

We will be happy to answer any questions you have on the games.

The next page has some tips that will help you be a better player. Once you have finished this scenario try the next Getting Started scenario which is 001. Getting Started #2 - Möckern Village. In that scenario you are the Prussians again and will this time be the attacker. Your goal will be to take Möckern once you have assembled a good force and then destroy as much of the French VI Corps as possible. Good luck and enjoy!

Here are some tips to follow during game play:

1. Always keep a good front line. Paint an imaginary line across the front and keep as few gaps as possible between your units. Allow for cavalry units to move through these gaps in order to avoid disordering infantry.

2. Keep good fire lanes for your artillery. Place them in a location where they are in range and have as wide of a line of sight as possible. The best targets are infantry in square and cavalry. Avoid firing on skirmishers and leaders unless they are the only target available.

3. Keep skirmishers with formed units or in protective terrain if cavalry are present. Otherwise put them in front of your formed units to help screen them from incoming fire. Just remember that cavalry can overrun skirmishers in Clear terrain.

4. Infantry advances best in Column but fires best in Line. Infantry in Line if defeated in melee will retreat facing their enemy. Infantry in Column will have their facing turned to one of their flank hexes and be vulnerable to fire and flank attacks.

5. Use leaders in melees sparingly. If lost they will be replaced but only with less quality leaders. Often the gain in using a leader in a melee is offset by their loss in combat and thus in the Command Test to follow.

6. Division, Corps, Wing and Army leaders can help Rally units. Corps, Wing and Army leaders will help rally any unit adjacent to them during daylight turns.

7. Keep a reserve! Expect the unexpected. Putting a couple of units in square behind the lines is not a bad idea. Putting artillery in a square is a good idea as well as they cannot be overrun by charging enemy cavalry. Cavalry is useless against a square .

8. Should you overrun a battery melee it with other cavalry in the same turn if possible or occupy it and then melee it in the next turn. Otherwise it can be recrewed if its location is reoccupied in future turns.

9. I use the Contours view which makes the elevation levels distinct and easier to see at a glance. This was explained earlier in the tutorial.

10. Use the Line of Sight button the Toolbar as much as possible to get an idea of where your best firing positions are located. Place artillery where they can "sweep the field." Also use this button to find out what enemy units can see. You can sometimes sneak up on a unit with cavalry and pull off a devastating charge.