			      
			      ACROSS the RHINE
				     from 
				  MicroProse 

	It's June 6th, 1944. Since early morning, waves of American, 
	British, and Canadian soldiers have been coming ashore in 
	Normandy. Back in Caen, the 21st Panzer Division headquarters 
	is being bombarded by reports of American and British 
	paratroopers being dropped far inland. Allied fighter-bombers 
	have been constantly overhead, poised and ready to attack 
	anything that moves. Luckily, you listened to the Oberleutnant 
	and moved your 45 ton PzKfw V "Panther" back under some 
	heavy brush. It's a good thing. To be spotted now would mean 
	instant death. 

	Hauptmann Strader thinks it's nothing to worry about, the 
	whole operation is just a feint for the real landings in 
	Calais. Still, he is anxious. He is leading a panzercompanee 
	which is down to less than ten operative tanks. Soon it will 
	be moving to the coast and into action against the Americans.
	None of that bothers you, however. You have heard stories 
	about American tanks from old-timers who fought them in the 
	desert and in Italy. They say that they're no match for 
	German technology and that one of our panzers can hold off 
	ten of the enemy. You hope they are right. Your driver, an 
	seventeen year old from a small village outside Munich, 
	smiles at you. He can't wait to have a go at the Americans. 
	Next to him, you seem to be a combat hardened veteran 
	although you are barely twenty-two yourself. The year you 
	spent on the eastern front has aged you considerably but it 
	has also made you wise to ways of war. 

	You smile back at him not wishing to discourage his naive 
	exuberance, but inside you know full well the harsh reality 
	of war. Your tank was one of the first to run afoul of 
	Russian anti-tank guns outside Prochorovka, south of Kursk. 
	The wounds you suffered that day kept you in the hospital 
	for months. If Germany was not so desperate for manpower 
	it may have been enough to send you home for good. 

	Alas, it was not to be. Your unit was transferred to France 
	for rest and refit. When you were deemed well enough the 
	hospital discharged you directly to your unit. After having 
	tasted combat first hand, you find it hard to share your 
	driver's enthusiasm at the prospect of meeting up American 
	armor. 

	"Driver halt. Kraut tank at eleven o'clock!" Almost immediately, 
	the Sherman's turret swings around to meet the threat. Sure 
	enough there's a German tank partially hidden beneath a layer 
	of camouflage netting. 

	"Target front. Gunner--AP shell quick." The Sarge barks out 
	commands like a well oiled machine. The Sherman's tiny 76mm 
	gun has trouble dealing with heavier German tanks so he knows 
	from experience that speed, being quicker on the draw, is his 
	best weapon. Fortunately, his crew has learned this lesson also. 
	
	The Sarge named his tank Anjie. That's his girl back home 
	in Tennessee. He's counting on Anjie to take him all the way 
	to Berlin in one piece. I'd say this ole' gal just may do it. 
	High up in the turret cupola, the Sarge might as well be a 
	King. Seated on his throne he rules this tank and no officer 
	had better say otherwise.

	"Range,... six hundred yards, ... Fire!"

	KLLAAANNNGGG! The shell glances off the German's thick hull 
	armor harmlessly. 

	"Reload....... Fire!" The Sherman's second shot strikes home 
	sending a huge column of fire skyward from the ominous gray-
	green tank. A burst of machine-gun fire from the co-axial is 
	let loose to ensure that no one gets out of the burning hulk 
	alive. The Sarge wipes sweat from his eyes. That was close. 
	Looks like it's going to be a long, ugly war. 
 
	Across the Rhine is a tactical presentation of armored warfare 
	in western Europe during World War II. Play begins in June 
	1944 with the Normandy landings in France and continues until 
	the end of the war in 1945. The two main antagonists in this 
	simulation are the United States Army and German Wehrmacht. 
	From the moment the Allies step ashore losses mount quickly 
	on both sides. Far from being a blitzkrieg, the Normandy 
	campaign is a relentless slogging match. Small numbers of 
	German panzers are prepared to contest every foot of France 
	if need be. 

	Eventually though, weight of numbers decides the issue and 
	American tanks bludgeon their way out of the Normandy hedgerow. 
	With General George S. Patton now in command, American armored 
	units swing south and around the open flank of the German army. 
	In an attempt to seal this breach and cut off Patton's men 
	from the beaches, the Germans mass their remaining armor in 
	an attack near Mortain. The Mortain offensive is a disaster. 
	Allied aircraft subject the concentrated panzer forces to a 
	savage pounding from the air.

	Bound by Hitler's orders to stand and defend to the last man, 
	the Germans linger too long southwest of Paris. Most of 
	Germany's panzer forces in the west are encircled by Patton's 
	fast moving Third Army near Falaise. Like cornered animals, 
	however, the panzertruppen fight a viscous battle and manage 
	to extricate themselves from the trap. Paris is liberated as 
	remnants of the shattered German army fall back and prepare 
	to defend the homeland. One last ditch line of defense remains, 
	the Rhine river. If the Allies succeed in pushing Across the 
	Rhine Germany will lose the war.
 
	AtR brings the scale of this massive campaign down to a very 
	personal level. When we say this simulation is tactical, we 
	mean it. Although players are able to control up to company 
	sized formations, most combat is resolved on a tank vs. tank, 
	squad vs. squad level. Battles are resolved in real-time 
	although time compression is used to advance the campaign 
	during periods of relative inactivity. 

	To a certain degree AtR could almost be considered a role-
	playing game because of its tactical nature. Players start 
	the game as either a Sergeant (or Unteroffizier) commanding 
	a single tank. As the campaign unfolds players are promoted 
	according to their battlefield successes. With more rank comes 
	more responsibility. Players can command sections, squads, 
	platoons, and finally tank companies. 

	Of course, achieving rank takes time. For those who can't 
	wait, AtR has an instant promotion feature which allows 
	players to have access to the higher level commands from the 
	very beginning of a battle or campaign. The preferred method 
	is to "earn your stripes" through combat promotions, however. 
	There's a certain learning process that goes hand-in-hand 
	with being promoted. In other words, learn to walk before 
	trying to run.

	As a tank commander your responsibilities are centered 
	around just a single tank. Your concerns are immediate. Do 
	I bound forward to take cover in the woods ahead or do those 
	trees conceal an anti-tank gun protected by a squad of 
	infantry? Should I crest this hill to get a good look around 
	or will I merely silhouette my tank and make for an easy 
	target? These types of decisions have to be made constantly. 
	Do I stick to the road and forego surprise or do I get off 
	the road and take a chance on bogging down?

	AtR comes to you only after months of meticulous research 
	drawn from archival and first person sources. The day-by-
	day progress of the campaign through France and Germany 
	is represented in painstaking detail. The level of historical 
	accuracy is such that if it were not already a simulation 
	it could be used at any Military Academy as a teacher's 
	reference guide. Fortunately as a simulation it is as much 
	fun to play as it is educational.

	Battles tend to be gear-grinding, heavy metal, tank vs. 
	tank contests. All of the most notable armored vehicles 
	are included. All seven variants of the M4 Sherman, 
	including the Jumbo and Sherman 76, are included. If you're 
	like me, I bet you didn't even know there were seven different  
	types of Shermans! In addition to Shermans there are two 
	versions of the M5 Stuart Light Tank; the M10 Wolverine, 
	M18 Hellcat and the M36 Jackson. 

	A German player gets to command the Pzkfw IV, Pzkfw V 
	Panther, Pzkfw VI Tiger I and Tiger II. Along with this 
	assortment of panzers are assault guns and tank destroyers 
	such as the STuG III, Hetzer, Jagdpanther, and Jagdtiger. 
	On average German vehicles possess a certain qualitative 
	superiority over their American counterparts. The trouble 
	is that there just aren't enough to go around. In most 
	instances the German player is confronted by an enemy with 
	more tanks, more guns, and especially more infantry units 
	than he. Every allied tank he knocks out is easily replaced 
	whereas a German tank lost at the front, is gone for good. 
	Both sides have a wide range of support forces available. 
	These forces include infantry squads, artillery pieces, 
	anti-tank guns and aircraft. For the Americans there's 
	nothing quite so satisfying as watching a group fighter-
	bombers strafe a German column. The Luftwaffe can be effective 
	also but it is seen far less frequently. The Germans rely 
	much more heavily on their indirect support weapons. They 
	are masters at employing artillery, AT guns, and multi-
	barreled mortars.

	The heart of AtR is its campaign system. In campaign mode, 
	the player "joins" an American or German armored division. 
	American players may choose between the 4th, 7th and 10th 
	Armored Divisions. German players choose between the 2nd, 
	116th Panzer Divisions or Panzer Lehr Division. These 
	divisions were selected because they represent the most 
	experienced and successful formations available to both 
	sides. 

	Some campaigns are longer than others because the player 
	controls the degree of commitment to any particular campaign. 
	Once he "joins" a division the campaign system tracks 
	that formation's historical performance. The player can 
	potentially enter combat on any particular day of the 
	campaign. Another unique feature allows the player to jump 
	into a campaign at certain points along its track, thereby 
	shortening the overall length. 

	As an individual tank commander, or even a company commander 
	for that matter, you cannot change the course of the war. 
	No matter how well you do as a German player you cannot 
	single-handedly cause Germany to win the war. You can, 
	however, have a direct influence on the outcome of a 
	particular battle. The campaign game system is locked into 
	following history but this does not result in linear game 
	play. Campaigns can be replayed over and over without 
	experiencing any duplication of action.
	Resource and force management are essential elements of any 
	military operation. Vehicles lost due to mechanical breakdown 
	remain out of action just as surely as those destroyed in 
	combat. As an individual tank commander in AtR, vehicle 
	maintenance is something you don't worry about unless its 
	your vehicle that's broken down. As a platoon leader or 
	company commander, poor maintenance and mechanical reliability 
	can render your entire command ineffective. Ain't it great 
	to be in charge?        

	Rarely is a unit's strength on paper achieved in the field. 
	However, successful commanders in AtR are rewarded by having 
	their units receive the lion's share of available 
	replacements. Battles are not simply fought, they are 
	managed and being a good battlefield manager can pay off in 
	big future dividends.

	In addition campaign play, AtR includes a number of set-
	piece battles. Players are able to recreate these actions 
	and perfect their tactics and command skills. A Battle 
	Builder has been included to enable players to create their 
	own battles and situations. One feature of the Battle 
	Builder allows the player to select friendly forces, and 
	then let the Battle Builder do the rest. Talk about the 
	element of surprise! You'll know just how the men of the 
	7th Armored felt when a mass of German armor hit their 
	outposts in mid-December, 1944.

	If AtR does nothing else it will dramatically demonstrate 
	two things; the inferiority of American armor in WW II and 
	the superiority of Germany's small unit leadership even 
	late in the war. In this respect AtR is a history lesson 
	that you can participate and enjoy. It is the culmination 
	of almost 2 1/2 years of effort aimed at providing the player 
	with solid game design.

	The AtR team is led by James Day, a talented game designer 
	and noted expert on armored warfare. Mr. Day got his start 
	in the gaming industry as a freelance board game designer 
	back in 1979. His early design work includes such games as 
	ARMOR, PANZER, and 88 by Yaquinto Publishers Inc. More 
	recently, The Avalon Hill Game CompanyTM has published two 
	armor oriented board games; MBT (Main Battle Tank) and IDF 
	(Israeli Defense Forces). 
	
 Across the Rhine also supports modem/direct link for head-to-head 
 competition. This feature can be used in all facets of combat: 
 Battle Builder, set-piece battles, and campaigns.

 Across the Rhine supports SVGA 256/color with textured mapped terrain 
 and objects. 

	   Brought to you by MicroProse On-Line Services.
 
 The ACROSS THE RHINE DEMO is Copyright 1994 by MicroProse Software Inc.

