Basics

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Revision as of 14:48, 11 July 2006

Note: In the process of creating a page for each individaul unit to provide a slightly more indepth run down of each unit. If you would like to work on one of the Unit pages feel free to click on the hyperlink and get working, images are available for all. The old Unit section can be found in the Old Unit page for reference.

Controls

Movement

Probably the most important aspect of Battalion is positioning your troops, or moving them around.

To begin moving a unit on a map, it must first be selected. To do this just click one of your units that haven't been used yet, you can typically find these units easily as available units have a tendency to hop around and look more colorful than units that have already been moved. After selecting a unit, a white shade in overlaid the map showing where the unit can move on that turn. From here simply select a square in this white shade to move a unit there. Once a unit is moved a circle of options pop up (Attack, Undo, Wait, Capture, Cloak, Uncloak), but only those applicable to the situation and unit will be displayed. These topis will be covered later in this guide.

Now there are a few factors that govern where a unit can move.

    1.  It's Movement Range
    2.  The Terrain
    3.  Position of Enemy Units

A unit's Movement Range is pretty straightforward. It is the number of Movement Units, which can be thought of as a Square of Plains, that a unit can move into.

Moving through or into a square of Terrain well cost, or requires, a certain number of Movement Units. Each different type of Terrain has a different amount of Movement Units required to move through them, depending on the type of unit used. For example, an Infantry unit can move into a forest and only use 1 Movement Unit, but a Tank uses 2 Movement Units and an AT Array uses 3! Also certian Terrains prevent Movement by certian units, the most recognizible example is that a Mountain allows ONLY Infantry units to move on or through them, meaning a Tank would need to find another route. Careful planning about ones surroundings is crucial to an effective turn of moving.

One's surroundings will typically include multiple Enemy units. An Enemy unit will prevent a unit from entering or passing through a Square. Now remember, your Enemy is bound by the same rule meaning, just as he/she can block your units, you can block his/her units.

Attacking

Now while moving units are critical, if they don't fight each other its kind of pointless.

Now when it comes to Attacking, they are a few tiny variables at play:

    1.  The Weapon of the Attacking unit
    2.  The Armour of the Defending unit
    3.  The units themselves

While there are many different units in the world of Battalion, most share Weapons. Different Weapons are more or less effective than other Weapons on different types of Armour. Machineguns and Gauss are effective against Unarmoured, Air, and Sub units, but less effective against Armoured and Naval units. Cannons and Rockets are effective against Armoured and Naval, less effective against Unarmoured, and CAN NOT Attack Air or Sub units. And lastly the specialty weapons:Missiles are highly effective against Air, Torpedoes are highly effective against Naval units, and Bombs can only attack Ground and Naval units.

The types of Armour have different effects on the way a unit Defends against an Attack. All Infantry are considered to be Unarmoured, having defiencies against Vulcans, Machineguns, and Flame, while are not so affected by Cannons and Rockets. There are various classes of Armour in the Armoured classification (Truck, Light Tank, Heavy Tank, Annihilator) but all behave similiar, except for their relative effectiveness. They are not so effective against Cannon and Rockets, and Machineguns and Vulcans are less effective. Naval Armour can with stand most Vulcan, Machinegun, and Flame attacks, Cannons and Rockets can peirce these mighty hulls. Air Armour is broken up into High and Low. All Air units can not be touched by Cannon, Rockets, and Flame, only the High armour avoids the Machineguns. But both classes have staggering defiencies against Vulcans and Missiles.

And lastly, the units themselves have an additional modifier for their respective Weapons and Armour. Most are used to increase or decrease the effectiveness of thier respective Weapons and Armour. As a rule of thumb the more expensive the unit, the more effective their Weapons and Armour.

Capturing, Building, and Understanding Income

Besides the standard Terrain (Mountains, Forests, etc.), there are Buildings (Cities, Capitols, Factories, Ports, Airports) which provide bonuses outside of Terrain Defence.

All Buildings can be Owned by a player. At the start of a game, the Map Maker decides to "give" select Buildings to Players or he/she makes them Neutral and must be fought over by the Players. All Buildings owned by a Player give that Player a certain amount of Income and also serve as Repair Facilties.

For Neutral or Enemy Buildings, a Player can perform a Capture which, if successful, will switch a Building to the Player's color and Ownership. If the building was Owned by the Opponent, he/she will lose Income, Repair Facilities, and the ability to Build new units.

Factories, Ports, and Airports all have the ability to Build new units but can only build one type of unit. Factories can Build only Ground units, Ports can Build only Naval units, and Airports can Build only Air.

At the begining of every Turn, a Player recieves Income from all the Buildings he/she Owns. The most Income is generated by Capitals, but the main source of Income are the Cities that can be fought over. All Production Facilities generate a marginal amount of Income but, of course, have more important functions.

Using Terrain to your advantage

Units

Infantry

While the world of Battalion only has two types of Infantry units, their usage in a game can affect the overal result of a map. They have two bonus above that of normal units:

    1)  Infantry can cross mountians, albeit at a slower rate than over normal terrain.
    2)  Infantry units can be loaded into Transports, ASW's, and Heavy Scorpions

AT Commando

Naplam Commando

Tanks

Their are six different tank units in Battalion. While this may sound intimidating, each tank has a specific use that distinguishes it from all of the others.

Scorpion

STAT

Heavy Scorpion

Annhilator

Hovertank

Shadow

Artillery

The four Ground Artillery units (the only Naval Indirect Unit, the Frigate, will be covered in the Naval Section) have a unique method of Attack, by indirectly engaging the enemy, without the fear of a Counter-Attack. While the uses of these units are boundless, there are a few conditions that must be met:

    1.  A unit must be within the range of the Indirect unit, meaning an enemy
           must be close enough to be Attacked
    2.  The Artillery unit's weapon must be able to Attack that class of
           unit, meaning that an Indirect Unit with a Cannon weapon, it
           CANNOT Attack an Air unit.
    3.  An Artillery unit cannot Move AND Attack.  NOTE: 
           To Attack with an Indirect Unit, you must select it and then
           click it again and select Attack, which will only be available
           if there are units in range.

Mortar Tank

AT Array

AA Array

Longbow Artillery

Transport

Transport

Naval

The seas of the Battalion world are frot with danger and powerful units. All Naval units must be built from a Port and can only move on Sea tiles ('Sea, Reefs, Shores, and Ports).

Carrier

U-Boat

Destroyer

Frigate

Air

The Air units in Battalion are further broken down by Low and High qualifications. The Low units are the helicopters (ASW's amd Gunships) and can be Attacked with Gattlings meaning that Infantry and Tanks can Attack the Low units. The High units are the airplanes (Interceptors and Nova Bombers) and can only be reached with Vulcan and Missile weapons.

ASW

Gunship

Interceptor

Nova Bomber

Terrain and Buildings

Terrain

These tiles exist and create the world for Battalion, each having its own Movement Cost and Terrain Defence.

Plains

Road

Forest

Mountain

Wasteland

Desert

Bridge

Sea

Reef

Buildings

These tiles all have the same Movement Cost and all but one have a Terrain Defence of 3, also they can be Captured by Infantry.

Capitol

City

Factory

Airport

Port