********************************************************************************************** TALONSOFT'S BATTLE OF BRITAIN README (Version 1.01; EXE Date 4/15/99) ********************************************************************************************** ********************************************************************************************** WARNING FOR BOB VERSION 1.01 ********************************************************************************************** Changes and updates to various BoB data files for Version 1.01 may not appear in saved games that you are currently playing, because a lot of information about the saved game is saved in the game file itself. To ensure that all new features/changes in 1.01 are working properly in your BoB game, you should start new games with version 1.01. You may continue and finish your saved games begun under Version 1.00, but understand that some changes/updates may not appear in those games. ********************************************************************************************** TROUBLESHOOTING FOR VERSION 1.01 ********************************************************************************************** (1) "My BoB Game Keeps Locking up or Crashing, especially when playing the RAF." If you are having this problem, we recommend that you turn down your system's hardware accelleration. (2) "I cannot get video playing in the game." A "possible" solution to this problem is to update your Windows Media Player. Follow these instructions: Anyone running Windows 95 osr2 or earlier will need to download and install media player updates from the following website: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/download/Win32Otherx86.asp Once there, read the instructions carefully. There are also seperate instructions for Windows 98. ********************************************************************************************** NEW FEATURES/ENHANCEMENTS FOR BOB VERSION 1.01 ********************************************************************************************** NEW FEATURES (1) RANGE INDICATOR: The German player can now click on a target to see how far it is from the closest Luftwaffe airfield. Move the mouse arrow over a target (like Biggin Hill) and left-click. A white line and box appears on the map connecting Biggin Hill to a Luftwaffe field. The box and line stays on the map for a short time, and a message box showing the target's name and range from the connecting field appears. (See features 2 and 5 below for more information about other ways to use this function.) (2) COMMAND HIGHLIGHTING: As an added interface feature, you may now click on any HQ shown on the map. When selected, all attached airfields and subordinate commands highlight in blue. Once you have a command group highlighted, if you THEN click on a British target to view range (see feature #1 above), the game will find the nearest airfield of that highlighted group. And, depending upon the max range you've set on the "Set Bomber Targets" tab (see feature #5 below), a red range circle appears showing you the maximum mission range that units from that command group will fly (if you allow your staff to plot raids for that Luftlotte). IMPORTANT: THIS FEATURE ONLY WORKS IN THE German Raid Planning Phase and the British Movement Phase. (3) AUTO-PLAN MISSIONS (on/off) [Hot Key: CTRL-A]: This is a new feature added to the German Raid Planning tab. If this feature is toggled ON, your staff will auto-plot all your missions for the upcoming day, based on what it thinks it can plot comfortably. The plotted raids appear immediately in the "review missions" list, and you may modify them normally. If this feature is left toggled ON, then in the next Raid Planning Phase, your missions will already be plotted. [NOTE: In conjunction with this feature, a "Continuous Play (ON/OFF)" button has been added to the Reaction Phase tab for the German player. If you are playing with the Auto-Plan Missions feature toggled ON, then you may turn on continuous play to have the game continue running Reaction Phases until it reaches a point where it cannot plot raids (based on the parameters you've set for each Luftflotte; see features 4, 5, and 6 below). (4) COMPUTER CONTROL (on/off): This new feature appears on the "Set Bomber Targets" tab and can be toggled on by Luftflotte. If it is toggled ON for Luftflotte 2, for example, your staff will automatically plot all raids for LF2 each turn, starting with the turn AFTER you set the feature to "on". So, each time you enter a new Raid Planning Phase, all missions for LF2 will be plotted for your review and modification (if necessary). (5) MAX TARGET RANGE: This new feature appears on the "Set Bomber Targets" tab. Setting a max range here (in miles), tells your staff to plot raids against targets within the range indicated. So, if you set the range to 100 miles for LF2, your staff will only plot missions against targets within 100 miles (give or take) from the form-up airfields. This new feature is also connected with features 1 and 2 above. Whatever range you set here is displayed in a red range circle on the map AFTER you have selected a target with a command group highlighted. If, for example, you have LF2's max range set to 100 miles and you have all LF2 airfields highlighted on the game map (using feature 2 above), a 100 mile red range circle appears immediately after selecting a target, and this shows you the full range your staff will plot its raids from the highlighted German airfield. (6) MAX TARGET DAMAGE: This new feature appears on the "Set Bomber Targets" tab. Setting the max target damage tells your staff to plot raids against targets within the damage range indicated. For example, if you set the max damage range at 65, your staff will review its recon photos and plots missions against targets with 65 or less points of damage. It will not plot a raid against a target with 66 or more points of damage. (7) ORDER OF BATTLE DISPLAY: A new Order of Battle display has been added to the score SUMMARY tab. At the bottom of the tab, select "Show Order of Battle" to open your side's list of units by command. You may then select a specific command to highlight all airfields on the map attached to that command. You may also select individual units in the list to see where they are currently located and then review further details. The "R" column indicates the number of ready (servicable) aircraft in the unit; the "U" column indicates the number of unavailable (out of service) aircraft in the unit. Units with an asterisk (*) beside their name are units with nighttime navigation equipment. (8) NEW AIRFIELD ADDED FOR GERMANS: A small satellite airfield has been added just south of Stavanger. ENHANCEMENTS (1) Adjustments have been made to make it easier for the British Observer Corps to visually site German raids flying at 1,000 feet or lower. (2) The Radar Circles will now toggle on/off more quickly, making it easier for you to play with radar circles on. (3) Damaging/Destroying Aircraft on the Ground: Adjustments have been made to improve the German player's ability to destroy RAF aircraft on the ground. In addition, a feature has been added to the RAF damage column on the score SUMMARY screen. The "on ground" feature shows two numbers divided by a colon (0:0). The first number is the number of RAF aircraft destroyed on the ground; the second number is the number of RAF aircraft damaged on the ground. Keep in mind that even with this adjustment, there will almost always be more damaged aircraft than destroyed aircraft. (4) To AA Fire Feature: A feature has been added to the German damage column on the score SUMMARY screen. The "To AA Fire" feature shows two numbers divided by a colon (0:0). The first number is the number of Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed by AA; the second number is the number of Luftwaffe aircraft damaged by AA. (5) Electric Power Plants: More light AA has been added to electrical powerplants to make low-level bombing attacks against them more difficult. (6) Low-Level Raids: In conjunction with enhancements 1, 3 and 5 above, British light AA has been made more effective overall to help deter German low-level bombing. (7) German Fighters Attacking Barrage Balloons: The aggressiveness of German fighters swooping down to attack Barrage Balloons has been reduced. (8) Replay Feature: The "save" buffer for games has been increased to improve the performance of the Replay Feature. Saved games are now slightly larger, and you should be able to see more of your raids performing their missions, especially those launched in the afternoon and evening. ********************************************************************************************** BUG FIXES FOR BOB VERSION 1.01 ********************************************************************************************** (1) One Scroll Bar problem associated with the List Raids function. (2) Scroll Bar Buffer Increase: You can now review up to 99 plotted raids in the Review Missions function (German Raid Planning and Reaction Phases). (3) Altitude level adjustment: Aircraft will now only rise up to their ceiling altitude, even if you plot raids with higher altitudes. Therefore, remember that when you plot raids, if you want all of your aircraft to fly at the exact same altitude, you must set an altitude that all aircraft in the raid can reach. (4) A graphical glitch where units will sometimes get stuck over targets. In addition to this, the amount of unit "drift" in an inbound/outbound Germain raid has been reduced. Units should now fly more tightly together for better mutual support. (5) The zero altitude bug (which is most often associated with the German staff-plotted recon missions). (6) German Shuttle Missions should now work properly. If a raid you have shuttled to another field gets hit hard with interceptors before it reaches its target, and if it aborts the mission because of it, it will decide which airfield is closest (the home airfield or the shuttle airfield). Which ever is closes is the one it will return to. *********************************************************************************************** SCORING CHANGES FOR VERSION 1.01 *********************************************************************************************** (1) 1940 and 1941 One-Week Campaigns: The British Player now gets 3 points per German bomber, fighter-bomber, dive-bomber, recon and night intruder aircraft destroyed. (2) 1940 One-month and Full-Length Campaigns: As the German player, you must now score a combined total of 16 points to win by the end of the game. Also, at the end of the first 31 days of a full-length campaign, in order to continue play, you must have accumulated a total of 5 Air Superiority (AS) points. (3) The "Critical Level" for Electric Powerplants (POWER), has been reduced from 700 to 500. Please make a note of it on page 62 of the manual. *********************************************************************************************** RULES CLARIFICATIONS *********************************************************************************************** (1) SCORING IN THE 1940 LONG CAMPAIGN You CAN achieve a non-air superiority victory within the first 40 days of the campaign by scoring a total of 16 victory points across all three damage categories. However, if you wish to try to win just an Air Superiority victory, it can only be achieved in the first 40 days by scoring at least 8 AS points. (2) GERMAN AIRFIELDS AND CAPACITY Like British airfields, German airfields also have a capacity. Large airfields have a capacity of 4 and small airfields have a capacity of 2. However, the only effect of overstacking German units on airfields is that they have a slower repair rate. (3) WHAT IS ENDURANCE? An aircraft's Endurance number (see page 17 of the players guide) is the number of minutes the aircraft can fly before it must return to base. (4) American Pilot Replacement Numbers For each turn, the Commonwealth receives 10 American pilots as replacements. But these replacements are not used in any other units except "american-specific" units. This large amount of replacements merely ensures that American units will never run out of replacement pilots.