PANZER GENERAL III
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1
Quick Start............................................................................................................ 1
GETTING STARTED.............................................................................. 2
System Requirements
................................................................................ 2
Installing the Game
.................................................................................... 2
Electronic Documentations
.......................................................................... 3
Starting the Game
...................................................................................... 3
TUTORIAL................................................................................................ 4
Basic Information
...................................................................................... 4
Reviewing Your Troops
................................................................................ 5
Building a Unit
.......................................................................................... 8
Deploying Your Troops
................................................................................ 9
Turn 1
........................................................................................................ 11
Turn 2
........................................................................................................ 14
Turn 3
........................................................................................................ 15
Turns4&5
................................................................................................ 16
Lashing Out at Luga
.................................................................................. 16
Race for Riga
.............................................................................................. 18
THE BASIC SCREENS, MENUS, AND BUTTONS........................ 19
The Start Screen
........................................................................................ 19
Playing a Scenario
...................................................................................... 20
Playing a Campaign
.................................................................................. 22
Playing a Multiplayer Game
........................................................................ 25
Creating a Battle
........................................................................................ 29
The Headquarters Screen
............................................................................ 30
The 3D Battlefield
...................................................................................... 34
GAME CONCEPTS.................................................................................. 37
Game Turn
................................................................................................ 37
Movement
.................................................................................................. 38
Combat
...................................................................................................... 41
ARMY MANAGEMENT ........................................................................ 45
Leaders
...................................................................................................... 45
Orders
........................................................................................................ 51
Equipment
.................................................................................................. 57
Unit Class Descriptions
.............................................................................. 60
TROUBLESHOOTING .......................................................................... 65
CREDITS .................................................................................................. 67
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Can you be the next great general? You have four campaigns to find out.
From the burning waste of the steppes, to the outskirts of Moscow, you lead the forces of the
Soviets or the Germans as you battle across beautifully rendered 3D battlefields. In P
ANZER
G
ENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
your commanders are the key to the optimal use of every class of
unit, from Infantry to Bomber. Special abilities for leaders and units mean no two armies are
ever the same, and no two battles have the same result. Bold manoeuvering and careful use
of equipment can often mean the difference between victory and defeat.
Quick Start
Youcan install P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
by inserting the game disc in your CD-ROM
drive, and following the on-screen instructions. If you encounter difficulty installing the
game, or for more detailed instructions, see the section Getting Started, immediately following. Once the game is installed, double-click on the P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
icon
to begin. (You can also start the game from the
Programs
menu.) When the introductory movie
ends, the Main Menu screen appears.
Youcan begin a game from this screen, or if you want a brief introduction to the game, select
Tutoria
l from the Main Menu and open the manual to the Tutorial section beginning on page
4. It provides a step-by-step battle plan to familiarise you with the screens and basic features
ofaP
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
campaign. For more detailed information on or about
the game as a whole, turn to Basic Screens, Menus, and Buttons and Game Concepts, starting on pages 19 and 37, respectively.
In addition, hot text is available throughout the game. Hot text is a brief description of game
interface that is activated by placing the mouse cursor over a screen element. You can also
right-click on most buttons and options for a detailed explanation.
1 INTRODUCTION: Quick Start
GETTING STARTED
This section provides detailed information on installing and running P
ANZERGENERAL
III
S
CORCHEDEARTH
on your computer. If you encounter technical difficulties during installation
or game play, consult Troubleshooting beginning on page 65.
What Comes With the Game
Your game box should contain this User Manual, and a P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
CD. This manual explains how to play and contains important information on menus, campaigns, scenarios, unit classes and equipment. Additional documentation is available in PDF
format on the game CD. To get the game running on your computer, see the installation
instructions following.
System Requirements
To play P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
, be sure your system meets the following mini-
mum system requirements:
•
Pentium® 2, 266 MHz IBM PC or compatible
•32MBofRAM
• Windows® 95 or Windows 98 - NOTE: This is a Windows 95/98 game and cannot be
played on Windows NT systems, including Windows 2000. Multitasking is not recommended when playing
PANZER GENERAL III SCORCHED EARTH
•An
uncompressed
hard drive with 350MB free
• 8 X CD-ROM drive or faster
• A 4MB 3D Video Card
• A 100% Windows compatible mouse
In addition to the basic system requirements, the game requires that DirectX 7.0 be installed
to your hard drive. The option to install DirectX 7.0 appears during the game installation. At
the end of installation, you are prompted to register P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
electronically. For network play, you need a DirectPlay compatible network adaptor. For internet
or head-to-head modem play, you need a DirectPlay compatible modem.
P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
also features online game play access via the Mplayer
®
network. For installation instruction and system requirements, see What is Mplayer.com?on
page 26.
Installing the Game
You must install P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
game files to your hard drive and have
the P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
CD in your CD-ROM drive to play this game. Insert the
CD into the CD-ROM drive. When the pop-up window appears, click on the
Install
option. If
you have disabled the Autorun function, or if it does not operate,
explore
the CD and dou-
ble-click on the
Setup
icon. Follow all on-screen prompts to complete the installation.
GETTING STARTED: System Requirements 2
Uninstalling the Game
Choose Settings from the Windows Start menu, and select Control Panel. In the Control Panel,
select Add/Remove Programs, left-click on P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
, and click on
the Add/Remove button. The game and all of its components are then removed from your
hard drive, except for your saved games and edited scenarios.
Electronic Documentation
Located on the game CD are two documents formatted as Adobe Acrobat files.
Unitdb.pd
f con-
tains detailed tables listing the abilities of every unit in the game.
Refcard.pdf
is a brief summary
of useful game play information that can be printed for your reference.
If you do not already have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can install the software following
these instructions:
Insert the game CD in your CD-ROM drive,
explore
the CD, and double-click on the
acroread
folder, located in the root directory. Double-click on the file entitled
ar405eng.exe
and follow
the on-screen prompts.
Once Acrobat Reader is installed on your system, you can read the document by opening the
start menu, clicking programs and then the PGIII Scorched Earth folder and select either of
the two pdf files listed there.
Starting the Game
Every time the CD-ROM drive is closed with the CD in place, the Panzer General III Scorched
Earth Autorun program displays a menu with the options to run the game, install DirectX,
install Adobe® Acrobat®, and view the
Readme.txt
file. P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
can
also be started by opening the
Start
menu, selecting
Programs
, choosing the folder where the
game was installed and clicking on the P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
program item.
For complete and specific “how to play” information, please refer to the appropriate sections
of the manual. Some changes were made too late to include in this manual. Please read the
Readme.tx
t file in your game directory for more information.
Note
: Screen saver utilities should be turned off before starting to play
PANZER GENERAL III
S
CORCHED EARTH
.
Saving Games
P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
requires space on your hard drive for Saved Games and
temporary files. Each saved game can take up to 200Kb of hard drive space.
3 GETTING STARTED: Starting the Game
TUTORIAL
This tutorial is intended to explain basic menus and button functions, and to step you
through an introductory scenario. For detailed information about the menus and options in
P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
see Basic Screens, Menus, and Buttons, starting on page
19. For explanations of various aspects of play, see Game Concepts, starting on page 37. For
detailed strategy notes and game play hints, see the
Readme.txtorReadme.pdf
file, located in
your
PG3D
directory.
Basic Information
Before you run the tutorial there are a few things you need to know:
Using the Mouse
In this manual, the term “left-click” means move the mouse pointer to the desired area on
the screen and pressing the left mouse button. Left-clicking selects units, presses buttons,
and operates screen features.
“Right-click” means move the mouse pointer to the desired area and pressing the right
mouse button. Right-clicking once on a unit, piece of equipment, or leader icon displays a
card with information about that unit, equipment, or leader. Right-clicking on a button opens
a help box with descriptive text about that button’s function.
In P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
, whenever the mouse stops over a button or icon, smart
text describing the area under the cursor appears over the object in question. When the cursor stops over a terrain hex or unit, information appears in the small info cards in the bottom
centre of the 3D Battlefield. This makes identifying buttons and units easy during game play.
TUTORIAL: Basic Information 4
T-34 on the
advance.
Equipment Class and Type
In this tutorial, there are two important ways of referring to equipment (your units), one is
equipment class and the other is equipment type. There are eight different equipment
classes in P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
: Infantry, Tank, Recon, Anti-tank, Artillery, Air
Defence, Fighter, and Bomber. Within each class are numerous types, for example: within the
tank class of units, the T-34/76A is one type, and the KV-1 is another type.
Starting the Tutorial
At the Start screen choose
Tutorial
from the main menu, which brings you to the Campaign
map. Later in the Tutorial and in other campaigns, this screen allows you to choose the path
your army takes in a campaign. For now, there is only one battle available, indicated by the
Russian
flag
icon. When you click on the
flag
, a brief description of the battle to take place
appears at the bottom of the screen. Left-click on the
checkmark
that also appears to
Load
the Scenario
.
Once the
Loading
screen clears, the
Scenario Info
screen appears. The main feature of the
screen is a scenario briefing, which describes the objectives of this particular mission. In this
case your primary task is to capture the city of Novobila.
Continue
to the Headquarters screen
by left-clicking on the
checkmark
button.
Reviewing Your Troops
This screen is one of the most important parts of P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
because
this is where units are built by selecting equipment and assigning a leader. The screen has
three tents displayed: the Motor Pool Tent in the upper left, the Leader’s Tent in the upper
right, and the Command Tent in the lower left. The area in the lower right is the Parade
Ground where information about your units is shown. Across the bottom of the screen is the
Roster bar, a strip of tabs which is the roster of your units.
5 TUTORIAL: Reviewing Your Troops
Motor Pool
Slots Available
New Unit
Roster Bar
Change Sort Order
Available Leaders
Change Leader
Sort Order
Exit Headquarters
Roster Bar
If you examine one of the roster tabs, you can see that there are two icons plainly visible on
each tab. The icon on the left represents the equipment type, the icon on the right represents
the leader. On the left end of the Roster bar is a circle containing a number, in this case it
should read
02
. This is the number of unit slots you have in your army that can be filled by
building units.
At the right end of the Roster bar are scroll arrows, the
Change Sort Order
button and the
Exit
button. Left-clicking on the
Change Sort Order
button changes the order that units are dis-
played, indicated by the small icon above the button. The choices are:
• Tank Icon: Sorts the roster by equipment class in the following order: Infantry, Tank, Recon,
Anti-tank, Artillery, Air Defence, Fighter, Bomber
• Flag Icon: Shows the promotion level of the unit’s leader with the highest on the left
• Heart Icon: Shows the unit’s health
• Arrows Icon: Shows the number of actions remaining
Move the cursor to the bottom of the screen and right-click on one of the units in the Roster
Bar. Two large cards appear in the Parade Ground. These cards reveal an important aspect of
the game, since each unit consists of a leader (on the right) and an equipment type (on the left).
Unit Cards
All of the information that appears on the Leader and Unit Cards is discussed in detail later in
this manual, see Leader Cards and Equipment Attributes starting on pages 46 and 58 respectively, so for now only what you need to know to play the tutorial scenario will be explained.
The most important information on the Leader Card at this time is the round icon next to the
leader’s portrait and the row of symbols (iron crosses) below it. The first round icon represents the equipment class of the leader. A leader can be assigned to command any kind of
equipment, but if they are assigned to an equipment class they don’t match, they suffer certain restrictions. See Orders, starting on page 51 more information.
TUTORIAL: Reviewing Your Troops 6
Class
Promotion Level
Number of Kills
Promotion Level
The row of symbols indicates the promotion level of the leader; the number of actions, called
regular orders, that this leader may perform in a given turn. Some examples of actions
include: move, fight, dismount from transport, rally from suppression, entrench, resupply, or
refit. Actions are also used to activate veteran orders which are unique to each equipment
class and give the unit benefits for a particular kind of action. These symbols are different
for each nationality in P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
: the Soviets have red stars, the
Germans have small, gray crosses.
The equipment card shows a photo of the equipment and a
firing tank
icon above a
truck
icon just to the right of the photo - all three have rows of green dots beneath them. The dots
below the equipment photo represent the
Strength
attribute of the equipment. As a unit takes
damage, these dots change colour. The row beneath the
firing
tank icon represents the
Fire
attribute, the number of times that equipment can shoot. The row beneath the
truck
icon
represents the
Move
attribute, which is the maximum number of times the equipment can
move. These factors are limited by the capability of the leader attached to a particular type
of equipment. No unit can move or attack more times than the leader has actions.
Across the bottom of the Unit Card are the unit’s statistics; the higher the number, the better
the rating. The shaded graph above each rating gives a quick reference of the relative
strength of each rating. The ratings are:
•Hard Attack •Air Attack •Air Defence •Firing Range
•Soft Attack •Defence •Sighting Range •Profile
•Close Combat •Indirect Defence •Move •Ammo
More information about these can be found under Equipment Attributes starting on page 58.
Click on the cards to close them and clear the way to build a unit to fill your available unit slot.
7 TUTORIAL: Reviewing Your Troops
Equipment Attributes
TypeName
Equipment Class
Equipment Specials
Equipment Statistics
Building a Unit
There are some leaders standing in front of the Leader’s Tent, go ahead and right-click on
each in turn. As their Leader Cards appear in the Parade Ground, note which equipment icon
is shown, and the number of actions they can perform. For this scenario, they are unlikely
to have more than three actions, so their equipment class is an important factor. Leaders are
generated randomly, with differing levels and class abilities. You have only two open slots
available, so you will want to chose the tank leader with the highest level by left-clicking on
its figure, which moves that leader into the Roster bar and a new tab with a green background appears. If no tank leader is available, you may select a different class leader. The
number of slots shown on the left end of the Roster bar changes to
01
.
Equipment is selected from one of the eight classes represented by the icons in the Motor
Pool Tent in the upper left part of the Headquarters screen; Tank, Anti-tank, Infantry,Fighter,
Artillery, Air Defence, Recon, and Bomber. Left-click on a piece of equipment to display the
array of equipment types available to you at this time. These appear in a row in front of the
tent. Move the cursor over the motor pool tent, and then click on the tank icon, located in the
upper-left corner of the tent. The available tanks that you can requisition will be displayed in
front of the motor pool tent. You can view the equipment information by right-clicking these
tanks. Holding the cursor over a piece of equipment gives you a quick look at it for easy comparison of the different types available. You will notice that the tank on the far left, a
Panther
A
, has the highest ratings. Choose this tank by left-clicking on it, which moves the equipment
onto the tab, assigning it to the leader you selected previously.
If you change your mind about the unit you built, scroll through the Roster bar until you see
a unit tab with a green background, this is your new unit. Left-clicking on this tab disbands
your unit and returns the equipment to the Motor Pool and the leader to the Leader T ent.
Youravailable slots goes back up to
02
if you disband this unit, and goes back to01when you
build a new one. For your second new unit you might consider a bomber or second tank.
Promoting a Leader
TUTORIAL: Building a Unit 8
Activate Promotion Cursor
Parade Ground
Promote Leader
You begin the campaign with three promotions which you may give to your leaders; based
on how well your army does in the battles, you may be rewarded additional promotions during the course of a campaign. It is up to your discretion which of your leaders receives a
promotion, though a leader can only receive one promotion per battle.
To promote a leader, left-click on the
medals
display located on the back wall of the Leader’s
Tent.Thiswill bring up red flags on the parade grounds above the Roster bar where the leaders you chose stand for review. You may then select the leaders to be promoted by
left-clicking on their icon in either the Roster bar if they are assigned to a unit or their icon
in front of the Leader’s tent. If you have more than six unassigned leaders in your army, you
may view up to twenty of them at once by left-clicking on the blue sign on the post outside
the Leader’s tent.
Since the battle you are about to fight in the tutorial is a short one, you will want to promote
the leaders which are already assigned to units so they will have the greatest mobility and
power possible at the start of the battle. An easy way to decide which leaders to promote is
to sort them according to promotion level by left-clicking on the sort button located to the
right of the Roster bar until the flag icon appears. You can then scroll to the right to find the
lowest ranking leaders. Left-click on the last three units in the Roster bar to move the leaders onto the parade ground for promotion. Award each leader a promotion by left-clicking on
the red
flag
beneath his icon.
Once you have finished building your units and promoting your leaders, left-click on the red
button with the
X
on it at the far end of the Roster bar to proceed to deployment.
Deploying Your Troops
9 TUTORIAL: Deploying Your Troops
View Strategic Map
Exit Deployment
Currently Selected Unit
What YourScreen
Might Look Like
After Deployment
The locations where you are able to deploy units are highlighted with brighter spots and the
cursor changes to include the “Deployment OK” symbol (two curved downward pointing
arrows). Click on one of the highlighted spots to deploy the unit you just built. A good spot
would be to shore up your right flank by placing your new unit on the bridge below and
to the left of the town of Uryupinsk, which is held by your
Grenadiers
. If you decide you
would like to place the unit in another spot, you can click on the unit again, putting the
unit back in the Roster bar, and then select another deployment spot by clicking on another
highlighted location.
Viewing the Game Map
In order to place your troops where they will be most effective you may need to manipulate
the map. Once play has started, rotating the screen in a 3D environment is critical to finding
both your units and the enemy units. Rotating the 3D environment will also allow you to take
full advantage of the terrain and Line of Sight.
Scrolling across the map in P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
is achieved simply by moving
the cursor to the map edge of the direction you wish to scroll. To rotate the screen, right-click
on the map and hold it down. Then move the mouse pointer to the centre of either the right
or left side of the screen. The screen will rotate to either the left or right depending on what
side of the screen you moved the mouse pointer.
Zooming the map is a similar process. Simply right-click and move the cursor to the top of the
screen to zoom closer and move the cursor to the bottom of the screen to zoom farther away.
To tilt the map vertically, use the
PageUp
and
PageDn
keys.
Viewing the Strategy Map
During your deployment phase, you may wish to view the overall battlefield. Click on the
Strategy Map
button, the one that looks like a compass, located on the bottom-left side of the
Interface bar. This takes you to the strategic map where you can review the entire battlefield
from a bird’s eye perspective to locate objectives and plan your strategies. See Strategy Map
on page 36 for more detailed information.
When you are finished reviewing the map and deploying your new unit, click on the red E
XIT
D
EPLOYMODE
button in the lower-right corner to start your first turn.
TUTORIAL: Deploying Your Troops 10
City
Airfield
Turn 1
Your turn begins with a view of the game map; your
Stosstruppen
unit is selected.
Scouting the Area
Select your
PSW 234/2
reconnaissance unit as the active unit by either clicking on it in the
Roster bar or on the tactical map. If you are unsure which unit is the
PSW 234/2
, you can
briefly hold the cursor over the various units on the map and the right-hand card in the centre of the interface bar will change to indicate the type of equipment under the cursor. The
type of terrain, along with its elevation and map coordinates, is similarly displayed when the
cursor is not over a unit.
Once you have selected the unit, a yellow highlight appears under the unit to indicate it is the
active unit, while the green highlights indicate where that unit can move. The active unit is
also highlighted in yellow on the Roster bar. The small info cards in the centre of the interface
bar now change to display information about the selected unit with the equipment type and
Strength attribute on the left side, and the leader portrait and number of actions on the right.
The left of the equipment card are two rows of coloured lights with the Fire and Move
attribute icons next to them. The top row only displays three green lights, meaning that this
unit could fire three times. The rest of the row is black, indicating that three is the maximum
number of times this type of equipment could fire. The bottom row has four green lights,
three yellow lights and the remainder are black. This unit could move up to seven times if
the leader that was assigned to it had that many actions. If this leader improves later, some
of the yellow lights will become green.
Move your
PSW 234/2
reconnaissance unit by left clicking on the green highlighted hex that
is the farthest along the road towards Novobila. This will bring your unit within spotting
range of a Russian Conscripts unit and a KV-85 tank. Leaders in the Recon class have a special ability they may use only when assigned to Recon equipment type; namely, their first
move is always free. So there are still three green lights for both attributes, Fire and Move.
11 TUTORIAL: TURN 1
Zveroboy:
A Soviet ISU-152
"Animal Killer"
tank destroyer.
The reconnaissance unit’ s primary function is spotting enemy units, and you can increase the
effectiveness of this by using an action to have your unit send out patrols which increase its
spotting range. Click on the
Recon Patrol
action button (the
binoculars
icon in the first row of
buttons) to activate this special ability called a Veteran Order. Note that now, both the Fire and
Move indicators have only two green lights, this is because the
Recon Patrol
order used up one
of the leader’s actions. Doing so reveals a Russian
45mm
Anti-tank unit south of the forest.
Charging the Line
One of the key concepts in modern warfare is combined arms tactics, which is the use of different weapons together to deliver a swift and lethal attack. You will want to use these tactics
in order to break through the defensive line formed by the Russian units near the road.
Select your
JU87G
Bomber and fly it over the Russian tank by clicking on the green highlight
in the hex with the tank. The highlight turns red when the Bomber arrives over its target to
indicate that the tank may be attacked. Move the cursor over the
KV-85
tank and it changes
to an attack reticle, with numbers on either side of it. These are the estimated losses for this
combat, friendly on the left, enemy on the right. These are not guaranteed, and may be
altered by special abilities or unknown factors for either side such as an unspotted artillery
piece. This is merely a tool for estimating any given unit’s ability to damage another unit
it is capable of attacking. When this cursor appears in the hex over the
KV-85
tank, fire on
it by left-clicking.
Youcan examine the battle results by right-clicking on the enemy unit to bring up its Unit Card.
Red indicates a strength point that has been destroyed, yellow indicates a suppressed strength
point, green means OK. Suppressed Strength attribute points return at the end of the turn but
are not available on attack or defence until then. Click to close the card. Your first attack is
unlikely to have destroyed or fully suppressed the Russian tank unit, so you will want to attack
it a second time; and then bring up your
StuGIIIG
Anti-tank unit to finish off the
KV-85
.
Artillery is generally very effective against Infantry units, so select and then move your
15
sFH 18
artillery unit within firing range of the Russian
Conscripts
. The
15 sFH 18
has a range
of 4, which you can check by right clicking on the unit, either on the tactical map or in the
Roster bar, to bring up its equipment and Leader Cards. Select the artillery unit and left-click
on the furthest highlighted hex down the road, which should put your unit within range.
Dismount
the artillery so it is ready to fire by clicking on the far right button of the lower row
of the unit actions (the two arrows at right angles). Moving and dismounting use one action
each, leaving the
15 sFH 18
a single action, unless you promoted its leader. You may now
fire on the
Conscripts
by left-clicking.
It is important to note before making a direct attack on the
Conscripts
, that they are in forest
terrain. Forest gives Infantry an advantage over other equipment classes by providing cover
for the Infantry and making it difficult for tanks to manoeuver. You therefore want to use your
own Infantry to make the attack, so select and move your
Stosstruppen
unit into the forest
next to
Conscripts
. This requires two moves. Again, if the first attack is insufficient to destroy
the enemy, you will want to make a follow-up attack. If the unit retreats, however, you should
use the
Stosstruppen
’s remaining action to pursue the enemy. By having one of your units
adjacent to the damaged enemy unit, you prevent that unit from refitting and regaining its
Strength
attribute. Move your Tiger tank down along the road in preparation for an attack on
the
45mm
Anti-tank gun. Also move your
Panther A
down the road west of the river to guard
against an attack by the enemy, as well as setting up your own flanking attack.
TUTORIAL: Turn 1 12
Preparing Your Defenses
Now that you have beaten back the enemy’s forces, you should use your remaining units and
actions to prepare for a possible counterattack by the enemy. Bomber units, for example, are
vulnerable to enemy Fighter attacks, so protect yours by bringing up your
Me 109g
Fighter
unit. Select the
Me 109g
, and then click on a highlighted hex adjacent to the shadow your
Bomber casts on the ground. This puts your Fighter next to the Bomber so that it can provide protective fire if an enemy attacks. You should also move your
20mm(Q) FlaK
Air
Defence artillery into a position to protect any vulnerable units. A good place to set up your
ADA would be on the road at the edge of the forest. Be sure to remember to dismount your
ADA so it is ready to fire.
Move your
Elefant
forward to protect your artillery. However, leave your
Grenadier
Infantry
unit in Uryupinsk in order to protect the town. This is your enemy’s primary victory objective, and if your enemy captures it, you lose the scenario. Units automatically entrench at the
end of your turn if they have the available actions.
Finally, you can use your
PSW 234/2
unit’sremaining actions to either chase down any damaged enemy units, or move it adjacent to one of your forward units to help camouflage it from
enemy spotting. The latter is a special ability of reconnaissance units, and can be used very
effectively in setting up ambushes to trap the enemy.
Before Ending Your Turn
Look at your Roster bar, if all of your units have moved the background colour of their tab is
dark gray, if any have actions remaining the tab background is light gray. Now might also be
a good time to go through your roster and examine all your units for damage. Any units with
yellow dots indicating suppression, and any actions left, can try to
Rally
using the button with
the flag on it in the regular orders row. End your turn by clicking on the red button in the
lower-left corner of the screen.
13 TUTORIAL: TURN 1
Current Weather
End Turn
Options Panel
What the 3D Battlefield
May Look Like at the
End of Turn 1.
Turn 2
If possible, you will first want to hunt down and destroy any enemy units you attacked and
damaged in the previous turn in order to finish them off while they are in a weakened state,
thereby saving your own units costly attacks against refitted units.
Hunting the Enemy
It is likely that the Russian
45mm
Anti-tank gun and/or
Conscripts
retreated towards the
river if they were damaged but not destroyed. Move your
Panther A
across the river to
search for enemy units in that area, and attack them if possible. Your reconnaissance unit
should prove valuable in seeking out the enemy, so move along a sweeping path through
likely enemy areas. For example, you can skirt along the edge of the forest and approach the
enemy airfield, using the
Recon Patrol
order to spot well hidden units. Then, as you find the
enemy, move in other units to destroy them. With its long range, your
JU87G
Bomber is espe-
cially useful in mopping up retreating enemy units like the
45mm
Anti-tank gun.
Taking Care of Your Troops
You should also refit any of your units which suffered serious damaged. Left-click on the
Change Sort Order
button until the
heart
icon is visible, which sorts your units by their
Strength
attribute. Notice that some of your units now have a red background instead of the
light gray. This indicates that they have suffered damage in combat. As a unit becomes more
and more damaged, the red background spreads across the tab. Units with more than 25%
damage, have a small amount of red, units with more than 50% damage have a greater
amount, and units with more than 75% are red all across. The other important factor about
having taken damage is that the unit may suffer damage to a specific attribute, either
Move
or
Attack
, and lose actions in one area while retaining actions in another. The green or yellow lights for your unit’s actions on the Interface bar turn red if this is the case.
Units can run out of ammo and/or become damaged during combat. A yellow warning flag
appears on a unit when its ammo supply is running low; and this flag turns red if the unit is completely out of ammo. Two of the buttons on the
Orders
row remedy this situation. If they are not
adjacent to an enemy unit, for one action the
Resupply
order replenishes a unit’s ammo supply.
The
Refit
button can also only be used when no enemy units are adjacent. This order takes
the entire turn, but restores all destroyed strength points and provides full resupply while
repairing one attribute, either
MoveorFire
. More information is available under Refit and
Resupply on page 52.
Preparing for an Assault
The Russians may have responded to your attack by sending an
IL-2M
3 Bomber after one of
your units. If the Bomber is visible, intercept the enemy with your Fighter. Remember ,you can
determine an air unit’s exact location by its shadow on the ground. Select your
Me 109g
and
then click on a spot adjacent to the enemy Fighter’s shadow. Once your Fighter has moved,
attack by clicking on the enemy air unit. This should eliminate the
IL-2M3
or send it fleeing.
Since your army is still slightly out of reach of its primary objective, concentrate on setting
up for an assault on your primary objective during this turn. This is best achieved by moving your armoured units such as tanks and Anti-tanks into forward positions, with support
units such as artillery just to the rear.Group your units in this manner on the road, with your
Tiger
tank in the lead. If there is an enemy
T34/76C
next to that attack it with your tank. Go
ahead and attack any other units within range as long as it does not expose your own unit.
After all, it never hurts to soften up the enemy before an assault.
TUTORIAL: TURN 214
Turn 3
At times during the course of a battle, you may be given the opportunity to bring in reinforcements. The turn information pop-up indicates when new slots are available. Slots also
become available whenever you lose a unit in combat. Since it is often difficult to rush reinforcements to the front lines, you usually want to bring them in as soon as they become
available, as is the case at the beginning of turn three.
Bringing in Reinforcements
Click on the
Headquarters
button, the flag on the right hand side of the interface bar, in order
to return to the Headquarters screen to build a new unit. Do this in the same manner as at
the beginning of the battle, selecting both a leader and a piece of equipment to form the unit.
You want a unit that can get to the battle quickly, and nothing does this better than a paratrooper, called a
Fallschirmjäger
in the German army. Once you have created one, return to
the tactical map and click on the
ToggleDeploy
button in order to deploy the
Fallschirmjäger
.
Place your
Fallschirmjäger
in the airfield so that you can paradrop the unit on this turn.
Making a Paradrop
With the
Fallschirmjäger
unit selected, notice that the cursor changes as you move it beyond
the unit’s ground movement range, when it stops over an otherwise legal hex. Before performing the paradrop, scout the target area as much as possible. Dropping into the midst of
enemy units would likely mean the end of your paratroopers.
Use your reconnaissance unit to scout the area around the airfield. Protecting the town is a
Katyusha 132
artillery piece and a
GAZ/37
Air Defence unit. The latter should be your first
target, since it prevents your Bomber from being able to make an effective attack. Move the
closest of your tank units to attack the
GAZ/37
, destroying it if possible.
Once the Air Defence artillery has been taken care of, you are ready for the paradrop. Select
your
Fallschirmjäger
by clicking on it in the Roster bar. Then move your cursor to an unoc-
cupied hex next to the
Katyusha 132
which should be in Novobila, and click on that location.
The artillery can provide support fire for units defending the town, inflicting severe losses on
you for any attack which doesn’t first take care of this threat, so attack the enemy’s artillery
once your
Fallschirmjäger
has landed. If this does not significantly suppress the artillery,
attack the
Katyusha 132
with your
JU87G
Bomber.
15 TUTORIAL: TURN 3
City of Novabila
Airfield
End Turn
Capturing Your Objective
Once the enemy’s artillery is damaged and suppressed, concentrate on capturing Novobila
itself. First, you have to break through any enemy units preventing you from reaching the
town. Armoured units, such as tanks and your Anti-tank units, are best suited to this task.
Next, you should use your own artillery to attack the Russian Infantry holding the town’s primary position, indicated by orange HQ building and radio tower.
Once you have completed your preparatory attacks, move your
Stosstruppen
Infantry unit
adjacent to the town for the main assault. Attack with your
Stosstruppen
Infantry as many
times as you can, and if this is not enough to dislodge the defenders bring in any other available units to complete the job. You want to go all out in this attack since capturing Novobila
on this turn will earn you a major victory.
Turns4&5
If the Russians proved especially tough or your own units did not have enough actions, use
the remaining turns to keep up the assault in a similar fashion until the town is captured.
When the scenario ends, there is a brief victory animation, followed by the Summary screen
where you can view your tally of enemy units in one of two ways: total units destroyed and
units destroyed by leader.
Left-click on the
checkmark
in the lower right corner to proceed. At this point, you are given
the option to save your game. Do this, giving it a descriptive name such as,
Mid Tutorial
.
The Campaign map now shows your progress in the campaign with your victorious battle
indicated by the German flag. You are also presented with two choices of where to fight your
next battle, each with a different type of victory condition. The battle to the east,
Lashing Out
at Luga
, requires you to destroy designated enemy target units in order to win. The battle to
the south,
RaceforRiga
, requires you to exit several units from the map. You may choose either
of these battles to play first; then once you have completed it, you can load the save you made
after the end of your first battle in order to play the other.
In either case, you will proceed first to the scenario briefing screen, where you may wish to
review the new equipment and leaders; and then to your army Headquarters. Here you can
build new units or reorganise your army to better suit the upcoming battle, and award your
leaders with the promotions you received, either four or two depending on whether you
scored a major or minor victory in the previous battle.
Lashing Out at Luga
As the briefing states, this scenario is a search and destroy mission, and you should keep this
in mind when building your units.
Customising Your Army
One of your additional slots should be used to build a new reconnaissance unit to help you
find your targets. Since mobility is often more important than sheer fire power in a search
and destroy mission, replace your
15 sFH 18
artillery with a self-propelled artillery piece,
such as a
Wespe
, and your
Elefant
Anti-tank unit, which has a low movement rating, with
something faster, such as the new
JgdPz IV/48
you received in your motor pool.
TUTORIAL: Turn4&5 16
Of course, to ‘destroy’ is the other half of the mission, so you want to add another unit which
packs a hefty punch. Either an additional tank, such as the new
Panther G
you received in
your motor pool, or a Bomber would be a good choice.
Mission Tactics
Your first task in this scenario is to find the designated target units that you have been
ordered to destroy. There are six of them: three Russian
Guards
Infantry, two
T-34/76B
tank
units and one
IS-2
tank unit. Each of these is identifiable by an icon, a red target reticle,
placed above the unit.
Key to victory in this scenario is using the combined arms tactics that you learned in the
opening scenario. As you advance your attacks, soften up your targets with indirect fire, followed up with the hard hitting spearheads of your heavy armour. Also important is the ability
to contain the enemy forces you encounter. Nothing is more frustrating to a commander than
hammering the enemy with everything he has only to see it retreat to safety where it can
refit. Use your light equipment to pursue and contain damaged enemy units.
At the beginning of turn three in this scenario, you will receive two auxiliary reinforcements
which appear at the edge of the map near the town of Berestova. These are units which you
may use to supplement your regular forces much as you would if you had received a slot
increase or replaced a destroyed unit. Auxiliary units, however, are transferred out of your
army at the end of the scenario.
If the course of the battle is going well for your forces, you may wish to try to capture one of
the secondary objectives that your army is tasked with. Secondary objectives are represented
on the tactical map by an orange command tent.
17 TUTORIAL: Lashing Out at Luga
Russian infantry
supporting an attack.
Race for Riga
Not surprisingly in breakout or retreat scenarios in which you must exit units from the map,
the speed of your units is a critical factor to the success of your mission. Replace your towed
equipment, such as your
15 sFH 18
and
20mm(Q) FlaK
, with self-propelled versions of the
same equipment type, even if their attack or defence ratings are lower.
Also, take advantage of the special abilities of certain equipment types. For example,
Pioniere
Infantry have the Bridging special which make them more useful than the
Stosstruppen
heavy Infantry when you need to get your forces across rivers.
Although employing air power is generally an excellent tactic for protecting your units, you
should have noticed in the briefing screen that the weather is rainy, which will severely hamper any air operations for an indeterminate length of time. In addition, only ground units
may be exited from the map. Therefore, you may want to replace your
JU87G
Bomber with
another reconnaissance unit to help you scout for possible enemy ambushes.
Keep in mind that highly mobile equipment types often gain their speed by sacrificing heavy
armour and/or firepower, so you also need to make sure your units can be protected long
enough to reach their objective. Fill out any open slots in your army with equipment types
that combine both mobility and protective characteristics. For example, taking an additional
self-propelled artillery piece would be a good idea, as would including the new
Panther G
tank that you received in your motor pool.
When you examine the units in your Roster for this scenario, notice that two of the units have
a gray background. These are auxiliary units which have been temporarily assigned to your
army to help you achieve your objectives and which are already deployed on the battlefield
at the beginning of the scenario. You will not be able to replace them, however, and they will
be transferred out of your army at the end of the scenario.
Crucial to victory in this scenario is careful planning, especially in the route you plan to use.
You should, for example, expect the heaviest resistance at key points in the region such as
near cities and at river crossings. These are often unavoidable, so approach them in force in
order to break through quickly. Examine the tactical map to find the exit points on the map.
There are two of them, located on the central roads leading off the south edge of the map and
designated with a large arrow. To exit a unit, move it onto the arrow.
Careful planning of your units’ individual moves is also important. Keep your units in a tight
formation as you move across the map. It does you no good to have a fast unit way out in
front of the rest of your units, or to allow a slow one to straggle far behind. The enemy can
easily swoop in to pick off isolated units.
Although you are only required to exit six units to gain a victory, it is possible for you to
improve your score if you are able to get extra units safely off the map. Remember, however,
that your score is also dependent on how long it takes you to complete the victory. If you have
many damaged units or they are far from the exit points, you may want to settle for the victory you already have in hand. Should you choose to continue the battle, you will be given
the option to quit the battlefield at the end of each turn.
TUTORIAL: Race for Riga 18
BASIC SCREENS, MENUS, AND BUTTONS
These sections provide step-by-step suggestions to familiarise you quickly and easily with the
basic screens, menus, and buttons in P
ANZERGENERAL
III S
CORCHEDEARTH
.
The Start Screen
When you begin
Panzer General III Scorched Earth
the first screen represents an historian’s desk.
As you move your mouse pointer over the graphics in the office the text option becomes highlighted in the centre of the screen. You can either left-click on the graphic or on the text in
the centre of the screen.
Play Scenario
Brings up the Scenario Selection screen, from which you can select and start a single player
scenario. For more information, see Playing a Scenario, beginning on page 20.
New Campaign
Brings up the Campaign Selection screen, from which you can select the army commander
for your army. This also determines the nationality and theatre of operation for your game.
For more information, see Playing a Campaign, beginning on page 22.
Options
Brings up the System Options dialog box, from which you can choose the game options you
wish to have on or off during game play.
• Animations: Slider increases or decreases unit animation - speed.
• Music On/Off: Enables or disables the volume control slider for in-game music.
• Sound On/Off: Enables or disables the volume control slider for in-game sound effects.
• Hot Keys: Displays the list of hot keys.
• Fog of War: Enables or disables Fog of War, your ability to examine enemy units and leader
statistics and specials.
19 BASIC SCREENS, MENUS, AND BUTTONS: The Start Screen
Credits
Multiplayer
Load Game
Quit
Tutorial
Options
New Campaign
New Campaign
High Scores
Battle Generator
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