FIGHTING SAIL by Ted Greenhalgh Jr. INTRODUCTION: Fighting Sail faithfully recreates classic ship-to-ship battles from the golden age of sail. The first version of this game allowed for large fleet actions. It was acurate, but too slow and a single game could last up to six hours! Then I decided to try single ship engagements. This worked really well. Not only was it better to play, it gave you more of a 'being there' feeling. I generally use mouse control for all my programming, but it turned out to be impractical. The computer beat the player while the player beat the mouse. The key commands solved this problem. Chad Davis of Ft. Wayne, Ind., gets the credit for the game idea. He sent me a letter requesting I program the Avalon Hill game 'Wooden Ships and Iron Men.' I think it's a pretty good translation. GETTING STARTED: The archive should contain 5 files; FTNGSAIL.PRG FTNGSAIL.TXT SHIP.SCR SHIP1.SCR SHIP2.SCR Using the mouse double click on the PRG file. The game will load and you will not need the mouse again. First you'll see the title screen, next the credits, and then the first menu. 1) Campaign Game...This will allow you to command the USS Constitution during the War of 1812. To complete it will take about 45 minutes. 2) One Battle...This will allow you to command different sized ships in a single historical engagement. 3) Quit Game...This is the only way you should exit from the game. If you reset your computer after you have run this program, your keyclick will still be disabled. The 'Quit' option enables it again. The next important screen is the ship comparision. The campaign game will have other screens before you get there, but they're just for historical interest. The ship comparison screen shows the enemy ship, Brown/Blue on the left, and your ship, Black/White on the right. Hull is the structual strength of a ship. Rigging/Sails controls the ships speed and turning ability. Guns/ Cannons is the relative firepower of a ship. Crew is the active number men on board. Turn is the number of degrees per phase the ship can turn. Reload is the number of phases it takes the crew to reload the guns. Different quality crews reload,turn,shoot, and fight in different ways. Ratings are AVERAGE, GOOD, and EXPERT. After reviewing the ships the next keypress will send you to battle. SHIPS CONTROLS: The numeric keypad and the space- bar control the ship as such; KEY WHAT IT DOES Space Fires Cannons 7 Load Single Ball in cannons 8 Load Chain Shot in cannons 9 Load Grape Shot in cannons - LOad Double Ball in cannons 4 Turns ships' rudder left 5 Centers ships' rudder 6 Turns ships' rudder right 1 Raises sails to Fullsail 3 Lowers sails to Battlesail Sailing: In an age when ships move by wind power, how to control your ships speed was almost as important as having good gunners. The wind blows from the South to North. Gaging your speed and aiming your guns will take some practice. Try some of the single battles to get used to how the ship moves. The rudder will continue to turn the ship until you center it with '5'. The rudder indica- tor is just below your ship picture. As you hit '4-5-6' notice how it moves and watch how your ship responds. The bigger the ship, the slower it turns. Fullsails vs. Battlesails - Fullsails will increase your ship's speed and handling, but rigging hits are doubled. Also changing your sails takes crewmen away from the guns. When you raise or lower your sails you will not be able to fire your cannons. Shooting: Sailing Ships carried most of the cannons in rows pointed perpendicular to thier heading. This means to really do any damage to an opponent, they had to somehow get him to one side or the other of the ship. In game terms this means the more centered on your ship they are the more of your guns can hit thier target. After each broadside is fired your crew will set about reload- ing the guns. While they are reloading the 'guns' number will stay red. When ready to fire again it will be yellow. Single Ball - This is loaded at the start of the battle. It has the longest range and does equally well against all areas hit. Chain Shot - This type of ammo is used to damage rigging. It's maximum range is 3. Grape Shot - This ammo is like a giant shotgun blast. Very effective against the crew. Maximum range is 1. Double Ball - This is what it says it is, two solid cannonballs loaded in one gun. Really takes the fight out of anything it hits. Maximum range of 1. Changing ammo causes the reloading process to start over, so you should try to reload just after you've fired. WINNING OR LOSING: Watch your stats while fighting. If they get too low you might lose. Losing all hull points will sink the ship. Losing all sail points will cause the ship to lose speed and turning. Losing all crew points will cause the crew to surrender. Losing all the guns makes cannon fire impossible. RUNNING AWAY: It may not be brave but it may be necessary. If it looks like you might lose, try to run away. Raise fullsail and turn away from the enemy. He will chase you, so be alert! When you get to range 11 or if night falls, you'll escape to fight another day. BOARDING: If the ships should run together thier rigging may foul. Once this occurs you will be asked to assign a boarding party to swing over and take the enemy by sword and musket. All the crew that stays behind will man the cannons. It is best not to foul when the enemy crew out-numbers you. The computer is very smart and will assign the optimum boarding party. Either way one of you will win! Use '4' to add to the boarding party and '6' to take them back. Once you have your party ready, hit the spacebar to start the fight. THE SHAREWARE BEG AND BORING CREDITS This program is "SHAREWARE" and can be distributed freely. However, it may not be sold by anyone, or to anyone with out my permission. If you enjoy playing this game please send me $5.00. Ted Greenhalgh Jr. 144F Garden Ave. New Cumberland, PA 17070 Programmed with a HI SOFT Basic Compiler Programmer Ted Greenhalgh Jr. Music Julia D. Greenhalgh If you have an idea for a program and would like to see it happen, write me at the above address or leave me EMAIL at J.BROWN1 on GEnie.