FEUER AND GASSE A strategic simulation for the TRS-80 Color Computer. World War I (The War to End All Wars) has faded into history along with the men who fought it. To some extent this is an inevitable consequence of the conflicts which followed, notably, World War II, but there is more to it than that. World War I is unique in that it never generated the heroic tradition associated with other wars. Almost without exception stories about the war dwell on its horror, drabness, and impersonal nature. Was it worse than the ones which followed? Probably not, but it was immeasurable worse than the ones which preceeded it. America entered the war on April 6, 1917. The Western Front was stalemated along a 532 mile line extending from Belgium to Switzerland. Little changed from the original positions taken up by the beligerents late in 1914. Leadership on both sides was distinguished mainly for its mediocrity. A siege mentality developed which treated men as expendable as long as positions were held and careers protected. In June, 1917, General John J. Pershing (U.S. Army) visited the Front to assess the situation and report back to the War Department. General Pershing's observations led him to conclude that in order to win the War, the American Army would have to adopt a new structure and a radical strategy. He recommended that the standard division be doubled in size, that troops be trained to drive the enemy into the open, and finlly that field commanders be given the initiative once engaged in combat. His recommendations constituted a scathing repudiation of the premier military strategists in Europe. The German High Command tended to discount the fighting ability of the American Army, but recognized that sheer numbers could tip the balance of power towards the Allies. With the collapse of the Russian Army in 1917, the Germans momentarily found themselves with superior strength for the first time since 1914. General von Ludendorff (German Chief of Staff) recognized that this advantage would be shortlived. He quickly made preparations for a major offensive with the goal of capturing Paris before the Americans could begin arriving in strength. On March 21, 1918, his great offensive began with a shattering blow to the British Army in the Somme Sector. It was a staggering tactical success. By April 5, the Germans had advanced 40 miles, taken 70,000 prisoners and inflicted over 200,000 casualties on the Allies. However, they failed to drive a wedge between the French and British Armies. Bogged down by mud and out of supply, the German advance stopped. On April 9, the second phase of the offensive began with a massive thrust against the British Army in Flanders. Again, the Allies reeled and fell back under the intensity of the German attack, but the defense was stubborn, and by April 29, this advance also stopped due to lack of supply. After a short quiet spell while the German Army regrouped and resupplied, a third attack was started on May 27 aimed at the Chemin des Dames Sector. The French Army was taken by surprise and fell back rapidly. By May 29, the Germans were at Chateau Thierry, 40 miles from Paris with only the untried American 2nd and 3rd Divisions in their way. Victory seemed certain, but again, unprepared for the rapidity of the Allied collapse, the Germans had outrun their supply lines. The German 7th Army under General von Boehn, confident of an easy victory, decided to rest and fortify their advance position in Belleau Wood prior to the final push on Paris. This unexpected lull in the fighting gave the American Army the time it needed to prepare for a counter offensive. On June 1, the American 3rd Division successfully repulsed all German attempts to cross the Marne at Chateau Thierry, and on June 6, the Marines of the American 2nd Division began their advance on Belleau Wood. It was a nightmare. The Americans had no tanks, no hand grenades, no mortars, no air support, inaccurate maps, and only light field artillery for cover. They were subjected to bombardment from heavy artillery, repeated air attacks, poison gas, and enfilading fire from the well dug-in German machine gun nests. It took the 2nd Division 30 days and over 5000 dead before the sector was secure, but the battle proved the correctness of General Pershing's recommendations to the War Department. American Divisions, because of their size, had staying power and, because field commanders could exercise initiative, they were able to use this power to exploit weaknesses in the enemy which developed during the battle. After Belleau Wood, the rest was anti-climactic. By July 10, Vaux and Chateau Thierry were in American hands. Von Boehn's army was in retreat, and the stage was set for the Allied drive which culminated in the Armistice on November 11, 1918. THE GAME This game represents a complex simulation of an historical incident. It is unlikely that you will be able to play this game successfully without thoroughly reading these instructions. The program uses virtually every available byte of memory in a 32K machine. Before loading, you must PCLEAR0. Cassette users can accomplish this by typing POKE25,6:NEW . Disk users should POKE 25,14:POKE &HE00,0:NEW . Failure to PCLEAR0 prior to loading will cause the program to crash when you try to RUN it. Even with a PCLEAR0, you will encounter ?OM errors under certain circumstances. This is an artifact of the Basic interpreter. You can recover by typing GOTO21 . To begin the game, CLOAD "FIRE&GAS" (or LOAD "FIRE&GAS" for disk) and RUN. The title screen will appear for a few moments and then the playing map will fast scroll to the start position. You will be asked if you want a ew game or if you wish to ontinue a saved game. Press if you have never played the game before. You will then be asked to choose a level. Level 1 is essentially a practice level; level 3 is the historical game (almost); and levels 4 and 5 simulate conditions if the German Army had not been overextended. You will be commanding the American 2nd Division. It consists of two Infantry Regiments (6 units) each represented by a green "I" on a black back ground, two Marine Regiments (6 units) represented by a green "M" on a black background, three Machine Gun Battalions (6 units) represented by a green "G" on a black background, two Engineering Regiments (2 units) represented by a green "E" on a black background, and three Field Artillery Regiments (3 units) represented by a green "A" on a black background. You will be facing the German 7th Army represented by purple check. All units (German and American) can stack on top of one another. The routine which permits stacking of units may, under certain circumstances, result in phantom units on the screen. The cursor will not reconize these phantoms, but you may find them annoying. Press ntelligence to clear the screen. This game uses a polling cursor routine to indicate which unit is eligible to move (a "<" to the right of the unit). You may manually override the polling routine by pressing the space bar. Press when the cursor is to the right of the unit you wish to move (You will have about 7 seconds to make up your mind. After that the computer will start to "THINK" about its move.) This will cause the unit to flash and chirp indicating it is ready to move. CAUTION! Once you have pressed you are committed to moving that unit. Plan your moves carefully. press the appropriate arrow key to move in the desired direction. Terrain affects movement. Forested areas are represented by either a green arrow on a black background or a black arrow on a green background. Mountainous terrain is represented by yellow, orange, and red rectangles. In general yellow terrain is easier to negotiate than orange or red. The Marne River is represented by blue rectangles. Crossing rivers can be difficult. All units except artillery can move through rough terrain (although with varying degrees of difficulty). Artillery must have help. This is accomplished by arranging your advance so that the artillery units pass over the top of another unit. Units which are done moving will turn solid white. When all movement for a turn is complete, the computer will automatically end the turn. You may end a turn early by pressing uit. At the end of each turn, the computer will scan the bottom two rows of the map. If they are free of Units (German and American), the map will scroll one row. The words Belleau Wood will also prevent the map from scrollng. Capturing Vaux will erase these words from the screen and permit you to continue your advance. Terrain affects combat. Any unit defending from rough terrain will have an advantage. Combat is also affected by the direction of attack. Frontal assaults (movement toward the top of the screen) are the most difficult. Machine gun and artillery units can fire their guns in addition to normal combat. This is accomplished by pressing ire in lieu of an arrow key. You will be prompted for a direction. Guns are most accurate when fired from a flanking position (enfilading fire) and least accurate when in front of or behind an enemy unit. You should have a clear target before firing. Blind barrages into the woods will be ineffective because the Germans are well dug in. American units will not be harmed by friendly fire. You will engage in combat any time you attempt to move onto a position occupied by the Germans. While in rough terrain, German units may not be visible unless YOU contact them, at which time they will become visible and remain stationary until captured or destroyed. Counter-attacking German units will only appear during the turn in which they attacked, and may move around. Should you be defeated in combat, your unit may retreat significantly. Be especially careful when attacking near the top or bottom of the screen. Americn units retreated off the screen are considered captured. This can reduce your strength dramatically. Much of this game takes place in real time. From the moment you go "over the top" you may come under fire.The Germans have air superiority at the beginning of the game and will make frequent strafing runs. As an incentive for you to advance quickly, you shoud know that the German aircraft will get several free shots at you as long as the name BELLEAU WOOD remains on the screen. The Germans also have long range heavy artillery and good maps of this sector (i.e., they don't miss). The German defenders of Belleau Wood are the shock troops of von Boehn's army. They are very aggressive and will counter-attack without warning. You can obtain intelligence at any time by pressing ntelligence. This will keep you informed of losses, how well you are progressing and how many occupation points are required to capture an objective. The intelligence screen will automatically return you to the battle after a few moments. You can call for air support by pressing ir. If available, your aircraft will make a strafing run on the German positions. Air cover is not available until Vaux is captured. Because of the real time features of this game, your situation could deteriorate should you be called away from the game by an emergency (e.g., dinner, the phone, etc.). Consequently, a pause feature has been incorporated into the game. To activate it, press

ause. The game will stop until you press any key to restart. It is possible to abuse the pause feature by using it to stall the game and prevent German counter-attacks. To discourage this, the pause feature exits to the German counter-attack subroutine. This game takes 3 to 6 hours to play. Because of that, there is a save feature. Press ave. The program will automatically determine if you have a disk or cassette-based system and provide appropriate prompts to save the game. The game ends if American strength fails to around 70% (it varies) or if the German Army surrenders or after 37 moves. You will be shown a final battle report which will display your losses and the degree of victory you attained (i.e., Overwhelming, Decisive, Limited, Draw, Defeat). OBJECTIVES Your primary objective in this game is to force the surrender of the German Army. However, to do this you must first accomplish the capture of Vaux, secure Belleau Wood, and capture Chateau Thierry. At the lower levels, you may be able to force surrender before reaching Chateau Thierry. Capturing towns is related to the occupation points listed on the intelligence screen. For example, at level 1, you must march 2 units over the V in Vaux (or 1 unit twice) to get the 2 occupation points needed for capture. Chateau Thierry is captured the same way by marching units over the T in Chateau or the T in Thierry. The number of occupation points increases with play level. If you are retreated off an objective before it is captured, the occupation point counter will reset. Capturing Vaux will free up your air support, partially demoralize the German Army and allow you to advance beyond Belleau Wood. Capturing Chateau Thierry will stop German reinforcements and further demoralize the German Army. Demoralization of the German Army is critical if you expect to capture any German units. Capturing a German unit may be accomplished by surrounding it and then waiting for the inevitable counter-attack. How much surrounding you will have to do depends on the morale level of the Germans, how strong they are and how strong you are. At the beginning of the game, German morale will be high. Surrender is unlikely. However as you slowly box them in, cut off thier source of supply, capture Vaux and Chateau Theirry, the Germans will tend to surrender rather than counter-attack if surrounded. This sounds easier than it really is. Don't be surprised if a German unit tries to break out even in a hopeless situation. Don't give up. Reducing German strength by capture is a sound tactic and absolutely essential at the higher levels. Because the German units can stack, it is possible that while you are surrounding a strong unit, a weaker one you weren't aware of will surrender. This can cause some confusion. Check your intelligence to confirm what happened. The reverse is also possible. You may be positioning yourself to capture a weak unit and a strong unit will break your line without warning. War is hell! HINTS AND TIPS Don't be dismayed by the initial high casualties you will undoubtedly incur. This was typical of all battles in World War I. Timidity in the face of the enemy can be disastrous. It is important to remain on the offensive and drive toward your objectives. Aggressiveness will be rewarded by suppression of the German counter-attack subroutine. However, don't confuse aggressiveness with foolhardiness. Mindless assaults will result in your defeat. Your only real defense against German air attacks is proper deployment of your troops. Avoid advancing in long columns. Anti-aircraft fire is controlled by the computer Don't allow the Germans to bog you down in Belleau Wood. It is critical that you attack and capture Vaux before the Germans have a chance to reinforce the town. Failure to capture Vaux is not the end of the world, but makes it very difficult to win. You may bypass German units temporarily as part of your overall plan, but you will have to deal with them eventually. The American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) operated in World War I using the following principles. You should too. 1. Every military operation must have a clear objective. 2. Only offensive action achieves decisive results. 3. Maximum available combat strength must be applied when the enemy is engaged. 4. All maneuvers should be directed towards placing the enemy at a relative disadvantage. As with all PICOSOFT games, FEUER AND GASSE can be played and won without prior knowledge of the battle. However the game is based on an historical incident and reading about the battle and events leading up to it may enhance your overall enjoyment of the game as well as aid you in developing effective strategies for overwhelming the German Army. The "Doughboys" written by Laurence Stallings and published by Harper and Row in 1963 is a very readable account of the A.E.F. in World War I. HISTORICAL NOTE In the actual battle, the American Army attacked from the west. In the game, you will be attacking from the north (The direction prompts for gunfire are screen oriented and not true directions.) All American units will have to pass through Belleau Wood. Actually, only the marines moved through the woods. The regular army units attacked Vaux and Chateau Thierry sequentially after the Marines secured Belleau Wood. Vaux was shelled into submission, and Chateau Thierry was a relatively minor battle. Due to memory limitations and in the interest of playability, some dramatic license has been taken. However, the problems you will face are the same as the 2nd Division commanders faced, and the battle(s) which develop during the game will be very similar to actual events. NOTE Every effort has been made to make this game error free. However, given the complexity of this type of program and the infinite variety of inputs the player is allowed, errors are possible. DON'T PANIC! Most errors can be bypassed by typing GOTO21 and pressing . This will redraw the map and return you to where you were prior to the error. COMMAND SUMARY Prepares unit for activity. Intelligence. Quit turn early. Save game.

Pause game (press any key to restart). Fires guns. Air cover (not available until Vaux is captured. Manually overrides polling cursor. Controls direction of movement.