Lightning War, Tutorial 1

This page will tell you all you need to know to get started with either the single player or the two player game.

Scale

Lightning War uses the following scale;

• Hexes are 500m across.
• Elevations are in 50m increments.
• Units have strength points representing 50 men, 5 tanks, 5 aircraft or 3 guns.
• Four game turns represent a complete 24 hour day.

Orders

First you need to give orders to your troops and then send those orders to the server. Most of the time in Lightning War you will be giving orders to the battalion commanders, and the individual companies will work as a unified team to carry out the battallion's orders. Sometimes you may want to give individual companies their own specific commands

In turn one you can give commands to the battalion commanders. The commanders are embedded in the companies with the two bar insignia at the top, as shown in the picture. Click on one of the battalion HQ companies to reveal the list of orders you can give to the battalion.

Click on the Move orders and drag the resulting destination lines around to give your battalions orders to go somewhere. Or you can do the same with Assault and Probe commands. When you have given all your battalions orders select the Orders menu and then Send Orders. Then the turn will execute.

Your units will now move and encounter the defending German units. The German companies are in Improved Positions (in fox holes) so they are harder to hit with rifle fire, and harder to dislodge with Probe and Assault attacks, than companies in the open.

• Probe and Assault. These two orders send your troops to a destination and they will use close combat against any enemy troops in their way. Assault is more agressive than Probe and can cause more casualties to both sides. Probing troops will often retreat.
  
  
• Defend and Delay. These two orders tell your troops to try and hold their ground. If troops with these orders remain 3km (6 hexes) away from enemy troops then they may dig in (that is, dig fox holes), as the Germans have done in this tutorial.
  
  
• Move. This command asks your troops to head at speed to a destination. Where sensible the troops will form into march column and will follow roads. Column formation is very bad if it comes under fire from enemy troops. This usually only happens if the enemy troops were not visible before the column moved into range.
  
  
• In Battalion. Follow the Battalian Commander's orders. If the HQ company has assault orders then they will assault, if they have defend orders then defend, etc.

Disorganized Troops

During close combat the attacking troops may become disorganised or very disorganised. Disorganised is only slightly bad. The troops move a but slower than normal and have a higher chance of becoming very disorganised.

To reorganise disorganised troops must maintain a distance of at least 500m (1 hex) from the enemy and have defend or delay orders. Very disorganised troops take two turns to fully reorganise.

Terrain Effects

You will notice that hexes on the map have diferent elevations. The elevations represent a height difference of about 50m. The darker the shading of the hex the higher it is. Of course a rise of only 50m over a length of 500m is not really steep, so where there is a steeper incline, going from one hex to another, it is marked as shown bellow.

There are 3 grades of slope: minor slope slows uphill movement a little and minor advantage to defenders at the top. major slope slows uphill and downhill movement and major advantage to defenders at the top. cliff, prevents both movement and close combat across that hex edge.

Each hex also has a terrain type that can effect movement, visibility, fire combat and close combat.

• Clear terrain is easily moved over, does not obstruct visibility and does not effect combat.
  
  
• Woods reduce visibility, obstruct movement (especially vehicles) and provide defensive advantages in combat.
  
  
• Towns provide similar effects to woods.
  
  
• Bocage offers really rugged going for movement, provides good defensive terrain and reduces visibility.
  
  
• Roads allow troops in column to move along them, ignoring the terrain. Major roads allow faster movement than minor ones. Troops on roads are more visible than normal for the given terrain and do not gain any of the terrain defensive value.
  
  
• Rivers and streams slow down movement unless crossed by a bridge. Close combat attacks across a river or stream give the defender a big advantage. In tutorial 2 you will learn about getting vehicles over rivers and the ability of engineers to destroy, repair or build bridges.

Scoring Points

The primary method of scoring is to eliminate enemy units.

• 2 points for eliminating a company.
• 4 points for eliminating the last element of a battalion.
• 8 points for eliminating the last element of a regiment.
• 20 points for eliminating the last element of any higher ranked formation.

There are also points for contesting or capturing objective.

The outlined area is an objective. It is outlined in red if the axis forces control it, in blue if the allies control it and in grey if it is contested. A side gains control of an objective when they are the only side with troops inside the boundary. An objective becomes contested if forces from both sides are inside the boundary.

To find out how many points an objective is worth for either controlling or contesting an objective move the mouse over the objective The number outside the brackets is for complete control, and the number inside is for contest. So, in this example the axis player gets ten points for complete control and five for contesting the objective.

At the end of the game the side with the most points wins! Hurray!

Supply and Chain of Command

Although there are supply sources in this tutorial, it is unlikely any of the troops will run out of supplies (because it is a short battle). The battalions on both sides are also quite independant and don't have to worry about commands from their superiors. More info to follow in Tutorial 2.