Contents

About Siege for windows (c)

Hardware\Software Requirements

Quick start

Rules of play

Using the menus

Creating a player

Deleting players

Remote players

Setting options


About Siege! for windows

Siege for windows(c) is a strategy game played on a board.  The object is to control the most territory after a set number of turns.  You may play against the computer or another person. You can even create your own players.  Watch out!  Siege uses an artificial intelligence, so the computer players learn from their mistakes.  To play against a friend you may use a network, or a modem. Of course you may elect to play against a friend on your computer.


HardwareRequirements
Hardware\Software Requirements

Siege! for Windows (c) is a windows application.  It should run on any configuration supported by windows.  It is recommended however that you have a 386 or better and a VGA monitor.  The application automatically takes maximum advantage of your displays resolution. This means that it will work on an EGA but may be difficult to read in All Clues Mode.  It works well on a standard VGA and great on Super VGA.


Quick start

You install Siege for Windows (c) using a special install program on the game disk.  Place the game disk in a drive (A: or B:).  Startup Windows as you normally would. From the program manager, select File and then Run.  The computer will prompt you for the name of a program to run.  If you placed the game disk in drive A:, type 'A:\INSTALL'  if you put the disk in drive B: type 'B:\INSTALL'.  Press Enter or click on the OK button and you're off.  The install program will ask you where to install the program and where it can find windows.  If you don't know (or care) where you install the game, accept the defaults by pressing enter for both prompts.

Click on the SS (Strategic Solutions) icon located in your program manager window.  There should be an icon for Siege for windows (c).   Click twice on this icon.  From the open application, select "Play" from the menu.  Click on "Begin Tournament".  You're now free to play.  The default settings include music, "you" (human) playing against "me" (computer), 3 games per tournament, and 21 turns per game.


Rules of play

Siege! for Windows(c) uses on a 6x8 grid of territories.  The object of the game is to control the most territory after a fixed number of moves.

Building fortifications

You control territory by building fortifications. During each turn, both players add fortification to a single territory.  You may fortify any territory not currently fortified by the enemy forces. The more you fortify a territory the harder it is to conquer and the more influence it has over other territories. A territory may have up to three levels of fortification.

 Garrisons

By fortifying an open square, you place a garrison on that position.  You also exert one "point" of influence on the positions North, South, East and West.

 Forts

If you fortify a territory that already has a Garrison, the territory becomes a Fort, and exerts 2 points of influence on the surrounding territories.

 Castles

If you fortify a territory that already has a Fort, the territory becomes a Castle and exerts 3 points of influence on surrounding territories.

 Outposts

An outpost is another way to control territory.

Creation or destruction of an outpost occurs automatically when one army exhibits more influence then the other.

Territorial influence

To control a territory, you must exhibit more influence over it then your opponent.  Each level of fortification adds one point of influence on that territory and each territory with which it shares a border (North, South, East and West).

If your territory is next to the opponent's territory and the number of points you exert on his position is greater than the number he exerts, you will cause revolution, and conquest of his territory.  This will destroy the enemy structures on that territory.

Attacking the enemy

To attack the enemy, build a fortification on his border that causes you to have more influence than he does.  A state of siege exists when you build up fortifications against an enemy's territory that provide influence equal to that of the enemy's. The territory under siege will raise a flag for help.  If the enemy does not fortify that territory in his next turn, you may conquer it by building an additional fortification adjacent to the territory under siege.  The new attack does not need to come from the same territory that caused the initial siege.

A Fort under siege.  Whenever an enemy has as much influence as the owner a fortification is under siege. The fortification raises a flag and closes its door.

NOTE:  For a more challenging game, you may turn off the siege warning in the option menu.

The element of surprise

Since an outpost is not actually a fortification, you may build a new fortification on an enemy outpost.  This is normally not good practice because at a minimum you place your fortification in siege. Destruction of the fortification will occur if your enemy exhibits enough force on the territory.

When you build a fortification on a territory however, you have the element of surprise.  What this means is that your point of influence is applied to the attack before your opponent may counter-strike.  If you place a new fortification on an enemy outpost adjacent to an enemy fortification under siege, the fortification will be destroyed.  Since the fortification no longer exists, it no longer exhibits influence on your new territory.  This may allow the fortification to survive the counter attack where it would normally not be able to.

Chain reactions

When a fortification is destroyed, it ceases to influence the surrounding territories.  As a result, these territories may also be instantly destroyed if the enemy now exhibits more influence.  The territories protected by these territories may also be destroyed causing a chain reaction.

The fork

Another attack strategy is the fork.  If you can place a fortification between two enemy fortifications (north-south or east-west) such that both territories are under siege, the enemy cannot protect both of them.  He will have to make a decision and protect only one leaving the other vulnerable to attack.

Score Card

One the right of the screen, you'll see you and your opponent.  Below that, the number of territories that you control.

After you've won or lost games, you might look at your player's history.  Select "File" from the menu, and click on "View a player".  All of the games played by that player are listed, including his win and loss record, and with whom the tournament was played.


Using the menus
To select a pull down menu, hold down the Alt key and press the first letter of the menu name. You may also select a menu option with the mouse or move the cursor to the menu by pressing F10.  For more detailed instructions, read your windows manual or on-line help

File

Create a player

Creates a new computer or human player.  Computer players start dumb but learn quickly.  They analyze the results of each game and their opponents strategy and adopt.  A history file is kept for each computer and human player.  See Creating a player.

View a player

Allows you to view the tournament history for all known players.  The history shows the number of games won, lost and tied for each tournament the selected player was involved with.

Delete a player

Deletes all information (strategy and history) for a player and removes him from the roster.  Before the player is deleted, you will be prompted to confirm.

Save options

Saves all game options so that the next time you play everything will be set to your preferences.  This includes everything in the options menu, everything in the remote player options and the current players names.

Restore options

Restores the options to the last point where they were saved or to defaults if Save Options has never been used.  This happens automatically when the game is started but you may use this option to 'undo' settings made since the last Save or restore.

Exit

Exits the program.  If you are currently in a tournament, you will be asked if you wish to end it.  If you do not choose to end the tournament, the program will not exit.

Edit

Select White player

Selects the white player.  The white player always starts the first game of a tournament

Select Black player

Selects the black player.

Set options

Allows you to set options which control game play factors.  This includes difficulty level, music, siege warning, learning, number of turns and number of games per tournament.

Remote

Open remote

Opens a connection for a remote player.  You will be asked to specify either a network or communication port connection.  To play against a remote player, you must also select remote for either the White or Black player. See Remote players on page {pageref remoteplayer|10}.

Close remote

Closes an open connection.  This option is only available when a remote connection is open.

Settings

Allows you to change settings for a remote player on a communication port. See Communications connections on page {pageref commport|11}.

Window

Small

Changes the window size to small.

Medium

Changes the window size to medium.

Large

Changes the window size to large.

Play

Begin a tournament

Begins a new tournament against the two players selected.  If one of the players is a remote player and you have not yet opened a remote connection you will be prompted to open one.

End tournament

Ends a tournament in progress.  Ending a tournament in progress is considered a loss.  You will be prompted to confirm this option.

Help

About Siege for windows

Shows the about dialog box.  This is useful if you need to know the version of the program.

Help on using help

Produces a generic windows help screen explaining how to use help

Index

Shows an index of Siege for Windows topics.  The on-line help covers the same material as the manual.

Registration/ordering

Produces a help file explaining how to register the program.

Product support

Produces a help file explaining product support available from Strategic solutions.


Creating a player

Siege! for Windows (c) comes with some players but you may want to create your own.

To create a player, select "File" from the menu, and click on "Create a Player".  Siege! for windows(c) will want to know if the player is a human or computer.  Of course, the difference is that if the player is a human, the computer won't make the move, but if you select a computer player, it will.  You may wish to create human players for each person who plays so that you can keep their history. A name will also be necessary.  There are restrictions on the length of a name.  It can't be more than eight characters.

To get your new player in action, select "Edit" from the menu, and click on "Select a White player" or "Select a Black player".  A list of players will appear and you can select one.  The player on top will always go first.


Deleting a player

You have the option to delete a player as well.  To delete a player, select "File" from the menu, and click on "Delete a player".  A list of players will appear.  Select the player to delete.


Remote players

You can play siege with a friend on another computer.  You attach the two computers through a network or communication port.  The player not playing on your computer is known as a remote player.  To play against a remote player you must do two things.

1) Choose either 'Play\Select White player' or 'Play\Select Black player' from the menu and then select '<remote>' as the name of the player.

2) Choose 'Remote\Open connection' from the menu. Select communication port or network  and proceed through to create a connection (see below).

These two steps may be performed in any order.  If you have selected a remote player (step 1) but not opened a connection (step 2) before starting a tournament,  you will be prompted to create a connection.

Network connections

Siege will work on most networks without any complex installation procedures. To play over a network, you and your friend must be able to share access to the same file. Some networks don't allow sharing of files.  Yours probably does if you see a network disk drive.  To connect, you must specify the same file name, in the same directory, on the same disk.

If you're not familiar with the terms above, ask your network administrator to help.

Network connection dialog box

Communication port connections

You can also connect two computers through their communication ports with or without modems.  To connect to computers without a modem you will need a 'null modem cable'.  You can find one at most computer stores.

Comm port connection dialog box.

If you have connected the computers with a null modem cable, select direct. If your using a modem, select dial or answer.  If you select dial, or course your friend must select answer.  You must also specify the communication where you have attached you modem or cable (usually one or two).

You may also need to visit the communication settings dialog box to set up communication speed and a phone number. The screen displayed here will have a bunch of "Greek" on it.  If you don't know what those things are, DON'T TOUCH THEM!  Otherwise, you may enter the phone number on this screen.

Phone communications is not easy, so if you have problems, ask someone who uses the modem often.


Setting options

There are several options that control the way games are played.  You may set the options by selecting 'Edit' and 'Set options' from the menu.  These options will remain in effect until you end Siege! for Windows or change them.  You may also make these option the startup defaults by selecting 'File' and 'Save options' from the menu.  You may erase changes to the options by selecting 'File' and 'Restore' from the menu.

Difficulty level

Changes the expertise of computer players.  You may specify one of five levels, Very easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard, Very hard.

Play music

Toggles music on or off.

Siege warning

Toggles siege warning on or off.  With siege warning on (default), a castle under siege closes it's door and raises a flag.  Turn this feature off for a more challenging game.

Allow computer players to learn

Toggles computer learning on or off.  With this option on, computer players learn from all players that beat them (computer or human) and adopt to their tactics.  You may want to turn this option off to prevent computer players from changing once you have programmed them the way you want.

Turns per tournament

Changes the number of Turns per tournament.  The default is 21 but you may change it if you like shorter or longer games.

Games per tournament

Specifies the default number of games per tournament.  The default is 3.


Support Policy

          _______

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  --|       |    |-------------------

    |   ____|__  |  Association of

    |  |       |_|  Shareware

    |__|   o   |    Professionals

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       |___|___|    MEMBER

Stategic Solutions provides user support to registered versions via mail, telephone, and CompuServe Information Service (R). for 3 months after registration.

Strategic Solutions will answer questions and fix serious bugs during the three month period. For problems involving a specific hardware or software environment or feature, we may choose not to modify the program. In that case, if a problem is reported within three months after purchase,then we shall offer to refund the user's purchase price.

If a program bug prevents you from evaluating Siege for windows during the first 30 days (prior to registration), Strategic Solutions will attempt to assist but is not under obligation to resolve issues beyond our control.

   Phone     : (817) 232-8781

   CIS       : 71321,2745

   Address   : Strategic Solutions

               7908 Firefly

               Fort Worth, Texas  76137

You may share Siege for windows with others for the purpose of evaluation as long as it's unaltered and distributed in its entirety.

Strategic Solutions is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


Cross Words Deluxe Ordering information
Siege for windows Registration and Ordering information

This program is COPYRIGHTED to Strategic Solutions with all rights reserved.  You may evaluate Siege for windows (c), for a period not to exceed 30 days, for the purposes of determining its usefulness. If you find this product of value and continue to use its service then you are required to register it with Strategic Solutions. This registration fee, when paid, entitles you to full usage and support of this product.

If you find Siege for windows (c) a useful addition to your software library, please register with Strategic Solutions.  When you register, you will receive a copy of the software without the registration prompt. You will also be entitled to receive user support directly from Strategic Solutions.

       CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION/ORDER FORM

If you have already registered, thank you for your support.  It's nice to know that there are people who believe in the try-in-before-you-buy-it shareware concept!

Additional copies of Siege for windows (c) may be ordered directly from Strategic Solutions.

To order or register, print and fill out the order form and mail a check or money order to:

          Strategic Solutions

          7908 Firefly

          Fort Worth, Texas 76137

          Care of Games division

If a printer is not available place your order on a sheet of paper.  Include which books you wish to receive (see order form), your name, address and the total.


Cross Words Deluxe Order Form
Siege for windows(c) Order Form and Registration (WSSW1)

Please fill your name and address.

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Please indicate the quantity desired.

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 NOTE: Prices are effective Jan 1 1993 and subject to change.

Send check or money order payable to:

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          7908 Firefly

          Fort Worth, Texas 76137

          Care of games division

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