GAME: MACARTHUR'S WAR FORMAT: FLOPPY DISK PUBLISHER: SSG TEL: N/A This is a limited 7 turn demo for Strategic Studies Group's MacArthur's War. This game contains a recreation of the intense and bloody battles of the Korean War. MacArthur's War comes with eight scenarios, "Across the 38th", Taejon, Naktong Bulge, Unsan, Chongchon, Chosin Reservoir, Chipyong and Imjin. This demo lets you play seven turns of the battle of Imjin. PLAYING THE GAME In MacArthur's War, you use the arrow keys to move up or down within game menus, the Return key (RET) to select a menu choice, and the Escape key (ESC) to move out from a menu to the previous menu. SCENARIO INSTRUCTIONS You have just stepped into the shoes of General Milburn, commander of the United Nations 29th Brigade in Korea. The date is April 22nd, 1951. You are deployed on the Imjin River, north of Seoul, with about 6,000 crack troops. Facing you across the river is General Peng commanding about 20,000 troops of the Peoples' Republic of China, beginning the 1st Step of their 5th Phase offensive. General Ridgway's "meatgrinder" tactics have caused heavy attrition on the Chinese forces and they have been forced to replace many of their veterans with green troops. Still, you can expect the Chinese to attack with their usual reckless courage, and it won't be an easy job to hold them off. If you fail, it is very likely that Seoul will fall yet again and that won't do your career any good at all... START INSTRUCTIONS Start the program by typing MWPLAY (RET). SCENARIO INSTRUCTIONS After the program has started, you will be presented with a menu with two choices: and . Use an arrow key to locate the line and type (RET) to go to Menu N (Enhanced Opponent). We must now decide whether to play an enhanced computer opponent. Since we are just starting out, this probably isn't a good idea. Locate the line and type (RET) to go to Menu F (Handicap Utility). Since this is only a tutorial, we will give ourselves a break. The handicaps below the line benefit the Allies/United Nations, those above benefit the Axis/North Koreans. Use an arrow key to locate the Allied line and type (RET) to go to Menu G (Player Select). Locate the line and type (RET). The cursor has been thrown into the briefing screen and you have the opportunity to change the commanders' names. Do this if you wish, otherwise type (RET) until you get back to Menu E (Edit Utility). Have a last look at the briefing screen and you'll see the Allies have a major handicap advantage, the Axis forces will be run by the computer and the Allied forces will be run by human hands. Use an arrow key to locate the line and type (RET) to go to Menu H (Game Master). THE FIRST TURN A current turn briefing appears to the left of the menu window. This scenario starts on the pm turn and it is turn 3 of 19. Subsequent lines tell you the time of day and the date, the atmospheric weather and the expected weather forecast. The weather is light overcast but stable. The and lines in the menu have been overprinted with a solid bar to show that you cannot access them. The solid bar will disappear from the line after the line has been accessed. This is to guard against accidentally selecting before issuing your orders. The line will always be overprinted during the game. The computer does not want you to see what it is doing! Locate the line and type (RET). This brings you Menu 1 (Daylight Operations). Your choices here are , or (unthinkable). The screen will be showing part of South Korea, around the junction of the Imjin and Hanton rivers. Below the map is a summary of your corps identity and the victory points you have accumulated to date. REVIEWING YOUR FORCES Before issuing orders we'll review our forces, examine the battlefield, the objectives and the enemy forces. Select the line to go to Menu 4 (General Reports). This is just a branch menu. Select the line to go to Menu 5 (Unit Status). The name of each of your divisions appears beside its I.D. code in the menu window. You have only one division under your command, the 29th Brigade. (For the purposes of this scenario, the 29th Brigade is treated as a Division to simulate the tactical options available to the UN commander. Regiments are therefore the equivalent of Battalions and Battalions are approximately equal to Platoons.) Select the
line to display it. This screen displays the status of an entire division at a time. There are four brigades all of which are on the board at the start of the scenario. Of the Divisional Assets (at the top of the screen) only the 45th Rgt of Royal Artillery is available. The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars will arrive on turn 9, the Philippine armoured unit and the Puerto Rican infantry on turn 8. The status screen is quite useful and should be consulted about once a day to get an overview of the condition of your troops. Type (ESC) until you return to Menu 4. Select the line to obtain Menu 6 (Examine Friendly Objective). The cursor will rest on the Ui Jongbu Road hex at the bottom of the screen. The text summarizes the turns for which Victory Points are received, the number of VPs per turn, and any VPs awarded for control at the end of the game. The icons show that the objective is on Lowland terrain and is Allied controlled. The arrow keys will cycle through all of your objective hexes. Use them now to look at all of your objectives to gain an idea of your overall requirements for winning the game. There are nine other objectives. Check this screen often as the game progresses to make sure you are on track. Consider the display in the bottom right of the screen. The solid area is the overall map size. The smaller white box represents the location of the hexes currently on the screen. As you move the cursor to different parts of the map, the small box will move to show the relative location of the current screen against the overall map. Type (ESC) to return to Menu 4. The left of the screen lists the current divisional objectives for each division if any are current. In this case, with only one division available, we have not assigned any specific objective to it. We will content ourselves with ordering smaller formations. ISSUING ORDERS Type (ESC) to bring up Menu 2 and select the line. This will allow access to the line. Select this to bring up Menu 8. Select the
line to bring up Menu 9 and then select to bring up Menu 13. We have four regiments to give orders to. Select . The flashing cursor indicates that the regiment is in the state. This fact determines what sort of orders we can give. The component battalions of the regiment have been highlighted and their target is indicated by the target marker. Select the line. The arrow keys will cycle the cursor through the component battalions of the regiment. We can see that we have three battalions of veteran infantry, and two battalions of artillery. All units are fresh and have suffered no losses. To the right of the unit description you can see what type of terrain the units are in, which is either clear or hilltop. The line is always available from this menu. Use it to keep up with the location and condition of the battalions in each regiment as we go through them. Type (ESC) to return to Menu 14 and select the line to bring up Menu 18. This is the menu with the actual orders for a regiment in the state. Our contact options are , , , . Select and you will be returned to Menu 17. Type (ESC/f1) to go to Menu 13 and select Reg 2. Reg 2 is in a state. Hitting RETURN brings us to Menu 16. Select and use the cursor keys to cycle through the objectives to "West C'sing" and hit RETURN. The Glosters will now attempt to deny the ford to the enemy. Now select , also in a . Hit RETURN again you will find that the Ulsters are Deploying. Allow them to do so. We will avoid giving them a specific objective until we see how the battle develops. Reg 4 is , that is, right up with the action. Hit RETURN to go to Menu 18. Against the large number of Chinese troops flooding south, is probably the best option. Select it then type (ESC/f1) twice to return to Menu 9, Division Orders. Select and you will see that you have 25 support points. Regs 1 and 4 are in contact with the enemy and should receive all the help. Press the return key until the flashing cursor at the bottom right of the screen is next to . Type in the number 12. Press return again so that the cursor is beside . Type in the number 13 - unlucky for the Chinese, we hope. Hit (ESC/f1) to return Menu 9. We have now assigned 12 air support points to REG 1 and 13 to REG 4. Now to assign divisional assets. Selecting will give us Menu 11. Only the 45th Royal Artillery is currently on the board and it is assigned to REG 1. Hit RETURN, select and we may now select the regiment to which the asset will be attacked. Currently it is supporting REG 1 and it is best to leave it that way for the moment. You should check your assets for each division every turn, and assign them, especially artillery, to the brigade that requires them. THE FIRST TURN REVIEWED We have issued defend orders to Reg's 1 and 4 of Division 1, directed REG 2 towards an objective and deployed REG 3. We have allocated air support to our assaulting formations, assigned a divisional asset to REG 1 and examined all the troops under our command. Now it is time to fight. Type (ESC) until you return to Menu H, the Master Game Menu. If you think all is ready select . Combat and movement will then occur. The Chinese may not attack you attack on the first turn, but you will get a combat report if any combats do occur. Hit the space bar to continue after reading each report. After the first turn is finished you will be returned to Menu H. THE GAME PLAN The fortunes of war being what they are, it is not exactly possible to say how things will run. The Chinese troops are going to flood on in huge numbers and although you have some very good soldiers on your side theirs will not be an easy task. You cannot stop them completely but you must force them to take heavy casualties for their territorial gains and slow them as much as possible. TACTICS Some brief points to help you win the day. Your veteran troops, with their heavy air support, are man for man, easily a match for the opposition. But they have more men per man. You must therefore deploy your troops carefully to defend key points, moving you small reserve around as necessary. On occasion, a well-supported attack will be effective but you must watch fatigue and supply levels. More than anything this small feature illustrates the amazing flexibility of the Battlefront Game System. There are no hard and fast rules as how to play each game. You must tailor your tactics to suit your objectives, the forces you have in hand and the opposition you face. What works in one situation must be re-evaluated to see if it will work when circumstances change. SSG has a large and growing range of games for the IBM. Titles include: Warlords - an epic, eight player, fantasy/strategy game, with armies, heroes, monsters, battles and conquest. Currently Computer Gaming World's Number 1 wargame. Reach For The Stars - a four player game of galactic colonisation and conquest. Halls of Montezuma - battles of the USMC, including Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Hue. Rommel - match wits with the Desert Fox in North Africa, scenarios include Kasserine, Cauldron, Alem El Halfa. Panzer Battles - armoured warfare on the Russian Front, battles of Minsk, Moscow, Kharkov, Kanev, Prokhorovka, Korsun. American Civil War Vol II - battles include Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga. American Civil War Vol III - Atlanta, Nashville, Franklin and others. American Civil War Vol I - Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville. Gold of the Americas - exciting game of the exloration and colonisation of the New World. Build your empire and defend it against all comers. WARPLAN AND WARPAINT All of SSG's historical wargames come with our unique WARPLAN and WARPAINT utilities. WarPlan lets you alter any scenario or create entire new battles from scratch. WarPaint lets you alter the color and appearance of any screen icons, so you can truly customise your game. RUN 5 MAGAZINE Run 5 is SSG's own magazine, published four times per year. It contains extra scenarios for our games, game replays and hints, reviews and other useful info. For more info on Run 5 and SSG games please contact: In North America: Strategic Studies Group 8348 Monticello Drive Pensacola, FL 32514 Phone: (904) 494-9373 Fax: (904) 9374 Elsewhere: Strategic Studies Group P.O. Box 261 Drummoyne 2047 Australia (02) 819-7199 We can also be contacted on Compuserve: 72040, 34 AppleLink AUST0161, MCI Mail 384-8467. This demo is copyright 1990 SSG and may be distributed freely.