1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Description
CIVILWAR BATTLE SET Version 2.4 is an EGA tactical level war game based on battles from the American Civil War. It represents over four years of research, programming, and play testing. It is an evolution of the prize-winning ASCII game which has earned accolades from wargamers around the world. The game is easy to play, yet difficult to master, and provides an almost endless set of variations and challenges.
“Winning” the battles depends on relative casualties, number of units eliminated, and controlling a key location on the battlefield (the ‘objective’). There are several types of units and varying terrain situations, all of which affect the battle outcome. With this game, you can create, customize, and reconstruct Civil War battles. As much as possible, the game allows you freedom to not only play the scenarios, but also adjust the armies, and even modify most of the important aspects of the game itself.
If you are not a registered user, you should become one and receive the latest version of the game, more scenarios, along with technical support. For details on how to register, see the file REGISTER.DOC.[1]
1.2 Hardware Requirements
This version requires EGA graphics or better (VGA or SVGA). It is written in Microsoft Program Development Basic 7.1 and requires DOS 2.1 or higher. The program is provided in compiled form, and all required files are included.
1.3 Files
There are 2 main program files, 2 utility files, and several supporting data files:
- CW22.EXE – the main CIVILWAR EGA game program
- CS22.EXE – the CIVILSET EGA scenario editor
- xxx.CIV – EGA battle data files, each representing a battle scenario. Ones with a ‘$AVE’ prefix are used to save games in progress
- PREFER.CFG – configuration file to save your customized game parameter preferences
- UNION.LDR – file of 15 Union leaders and ratings
- REBEL.LDR – file of 15 Rebel leaders and ratings
- TERRAIN.EGA
- STDICON.EGA
- MISC.EGA
- ALTICON.EGA – EGA icon files (MUST HAVE!)
- REBEL.EGA
- YANK.EGA
- GENERALZ – history file of games played and scores, by player name
- MAXSKORS – high scores achieved for each scenario played
- NEWHI.SCR – high scores for each scenario completed
- MONTHS.DAT
- PNAMES1.DAT
- PNAMES2.DAT – supplemental files for CS Editor
- RNAMES.DAT
- YNAMES.DAT
- [1]Currently, the full game with all scenarios is available free, this portion of the documentation is no longer applicable.↩