Gunboat Empires
Descriptions: The following describes each military unit.
Light Infantry - A division consisting of mostly rifle infantry troops, some artillery. Best for defending regions.
Heavy Infantry - A division consisting of rifle infantry with more mortars, machine guns, artillery. More offensive firepower but still good for defending regions.
Mechanized Infantry - An infantry division with even more firepower and some motor transport (speed and mobility). Good for offensive and defensive operations.
Tank - An early armored division, circa 1935. Best for offensive operations.
Panzer - A more powerful armored division, circa 1943. Greater speed and mobility make this the ultimate offensive ground unit.
Biplane (Bi) - A squadron of World War I fighter planes. Better than nothing but not very powerful.
Fighter (Ftr/Ft) - A squadron of 1940-era fighter planes. Good for attacking enemy planes and providing a little combat bonus to army and navy units in the same region.
Bomber (Bmbr/Bm) - A squadron of 1940-era bomber planes. Poor at attacking enemy planes but provide a good combat bonus to army and navy units in the same region.
Jet Fighter (JF) - A squadron of late 1940's-era fighter planes. Excellent for attacking enemy planes and provide some combat bonus to army and navy units in the same region.
Jet Bomber (JB) - A squadron of early 1950's-era bomber planes. Poor at attacking enemy planes but excellent at enhancing the combat strength of army and navy units in the same region.
Escort (Esc/Es) - A flotilla of destroyers and frigates. Good for offensive and defensive operations.
Battleship (BB) - A single, large-gunned ship. Useful for offensive operations.
Dreadnought (DN) - A single, larger-gunned and armored ship. Useful for offensive and defensive operations.
Aircraft Carrier (CV) - A large ship that allows you to move air units at sea into combat. Very useful for offensive operations when accompanied by air units.
Type 1 Submarine (S1) - A pack of World War I era submarines. Useful for attacking enemy surface vessels.
Type 2 Submarine (S2) - A pack of more powerful World War II era submarines. Very useful for attacking enemy surface vessels.
Merchant (Mer/Mr) - A fleet of freighters and cargo vessels. May not attack and very poor on defense!
Sealift - An intangible representation of your ability to carry army units at sea.
Phase - Improvements
Concept: You can invest today's commodities to raise the production and military efficiencies for tomorrow. An economic efficiency level equals the quantity of a commodity produced by a given resource or industrial facility. When you raise an efficiency to a new level, each associated facility will produce at the new level but will still consume at the old level. (See Administrative sequence for consumption rates).
Limits: No efficiency may be raised more than 50 points per turn and no efficiency may ever be raised to a level higher than 999.
Effects: The new efficiency will take effect prior to the beginning of the Military Sequence.
BTech: The Basic Technology Level represents the country's relative scientific and industrial infrastructure. You may not raise your BTech beyond the 1000 point level.
Costs: Appendix F is the Improvement Cost Chart.
Phase - Exports
Concept: You can usually get a better deal with another player than you can on the Private Market and trading is a good alliance-building tool.
Limits: You can trade any or all the commodities in your stockpile to any other player regardless of geography, merchant fleets, access to sea lanes, etc.
Guarantee: There is no guarantee you will receive anything in return.
Effects: Your exports will be delivered to their destination during the recipient's Administrative Sequence. Your imports will arrive at the same time.
Blockades/Interdiction: Not possible in this game.
MILITARY SEQUENCE
Five items of jargon defined and three general rules explained.
Combat (or Attack): A task force of yours attacks (enters) a region you don't control. You will attack any forces that you encounter.
Movement: A task force of yours enters a region you control.
Control: A region (sea or land) is assigned to the last player to have military units present. In many ways, control of a land region is similar to ownership.
Plot: A sequence of adjacent regions through which a task force is ordered to move (or attack).
Task Force: A group of units that start in the same region and are given the same plot.
No Double Duty: No task force may be assigned a unit that has already been assigned to another task force.
Mobilization Takes Time: No unit may be assigned to a task force on the turn it is built.
Combat Resolution: With the possible exception of Submarine Combat, combat is resolved by taking the total attack combat strength of the attacking units, multiplying it by the attacker's military efficiencies and comparing it the the total defense combat strength of the defending units multiplied by the defender's military efficiencies. The resulting ratio is then compared to a combat resolution matrix in the moderator's program. One side will be eliminated and the other will (probably) take some losses. In general, the greater the ratio, the fewer the losses taken by the victor.
Phase 1 - Rapid Deployment Task Force(s)
Concept: These task forces help you reinforce weak points in your defenses. No combat is allowed in this phase.
Limits: Only air and army units may move in this phase. All movement must be between adjacent controlled land regions.
Base Movement: One task force of air or army units that start the turn in a land region may move to an adjacent controlled land region.
Airplanes/Mechanization/Jet Engines: Fighters, Bombers, Jet Fighters, Jet Bombers, Mechanized Infantry, and Panzers may move up to two regions in this phase. Other units (Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Tanks and Biplanes) would be prohibited from joining this faster task force but a task force consisting of slower and faster units could still move one space and stop.
Neutral Regions are ground regions shaded on the map. They represent the Belgiums, Switzerlands, and Chinas of this game. They generally have decent economies, excess population, and decent military defenses. Some neutrals, particularly the islands, have naval units. Military efficiencies range from better than any player's starting efficiency to miserable. All the uncontrolled regions in and around the large "home" continent are neutrals. Neutral regions have an Intrinsic Defense equal to 1 Light Infantry.
Colonial Regions are shown as unshaded regions in the colonial subcontinent. They represent late 1800's Africa and Asia in this game. They generally have little industry, some resource facilities, excess population, and military defenses ranging from negligible to formidable. No colonial regions possess naval units. Colonial regions have no Intrinsic Defense.
Sea Regions are labeled on the map with two letters, a hyphen and two numbers. No significance exists to the names of the oceans and the players are welcome to make suggestions in their press releases. Exceptions to this rule: the regions labeled GL-04, GL-05, and GL-06 are not Great Lakes sea regions. They are ground regions with clear terrain.
Rough Terrain is a land region containing a picture of Mountains, Swamps, or Forests. They are pretty obvious on the map but if you have doubts, ask, or check your program.
Clear Terrain is a land region with nothing much in it except the region number.
Islands: Countries 1, 2, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 are "islands". They start the game with some naval advantages: a base of 6 shipyards, 16 Escorts, 6 Battleships, 10 Merchants, a Sealift capacity of 6, and an Air/Navy efficiency of 250.
Peninsulas: Countries 3, 4, 5, 9, 11, 17, and 18 are "peninsulas". They start the game with a slight naval advantage: a base of 5 shipyards, 12 Escorts, 4 Battleships, 8 Merchants, a Sealift capacity of 4 and an Air/Navy efficiency of 225.
Gold Bonus: At the beginning of the game, each player will receive 5000 GPs. At the end of the first turn each player will receive 4000 GPs, and so on, 1000 fewer free GPs for each of the next three turns. All five of these distributions will be in addition to the stockpiles generated by the country's economy (production - consumption).
APPENDIX K - ABBREVIATIONS & GLOSSARY
Abbreviations
:AP = Agricultural Point
BB = Battleship
Bi = Biplane Squadron
Bmbr/Bm = Bomber Squadron
BTech = Basic Technology Level
CV = Aircraft Carrier
DN = Dreadnought
EC = Energy Complex/Energy Plant
EP = Energy Point
Esc/Es = Escort Squadron
FC = Farming Complex/Farm
FP = Food Point
Ftr/Ft = Fighter Squadron
GP = Gold Point
HvyInf/HI = Heavy Infantry Division
JB = Jet Bomber Squadron
JF = Jet Fighter Squadron
Lab = Research Laboratory
LIC = Light Industrial Complex
LP = Light Point
LtInf/LI = Light Infantry Division
Mech/MI = Mechanized Infantry Division
Mer/Mr = Merchant Fleet
MC = Mining Complex
MP = Mineral Point
Panzer/Pzr/Pz = Panzer Division
RP = Research Point
S1 = Type 1 Submarine Squadron
S2 = Type 2 Submarine Squadron
SP = Supply Point
Tank/Tk = Tank Division
Attack: See Combat
Capital: Every player-country has one region designated as its capital. It has a disproportionate share of the country's starting economic resources.
Coastal Region: A land region adjacent to a sea region.
Combat (or Attack): Occurs when one of your military task forces enters a region that you do not control. (See Movement for the alternative)
Economic Facility: A Heavy Industry, Light Industry, Mine, Energy Plant, Farm, or Research Laboratory. Each produces commodities (SP, LP, MP, EP, FP/AP, and RP respectively) at a rate directly dependent on the related efficiency.
Military Facility: An Air/Army Depot or a Naval Shipyard. Each permits the construction of one military unit per turn in the region where the military facility is located.
Move (or Movement): Occurs when one of your military task forces enters a region that you already control. (See Combat for the alternative)
Region Relationships: Regions have a movement relationship with each adjacent region that define what type of units may move between the regions. The four types of relationships are: Land-to-Land (LL), Land-to-Sea (LS), Sea-to-Sea (SS), and Sea-to-Land SL).
Region Type: There are three type of regions: Sea regions (S), Coastal regions (C), and Landlocked regions (L).
Terrain: Land regions are grouped into two categories of terrain, Clear (C), and Rough (R). Rough terrain is defined as a land region with a mountian, swamp, or forest symbol. (Don't get too picky - if a region has a millimeter of a mountain inside it and the other 99% of the region looks empty except for the region number, then obviously has clear terrain).