In Armoured Commander II, you play the role of a tank commander in World War II, leading your crew through a campaign in one of the major conflicts of the war. It is a "roguelike" style of game, which in general means that it:

• emphasizes gameplay over graphics, using an extended Petscii character set rather than bitmap graphics;
  
• is turn-based and allows the player to stop and resume at virtually any point; and
  
• rewards mastery of the game mechanics and encourages multiple playthroughs.

The original Armoured Commander[www.armouredcommander.com] was very closely modeled upon and inspired by the 1987 board game Patton's Best[www.boardgamegeek.com], but ArmCom2 is an attempt to go beyond that model while maintaining the basic format of the player being in control of a single tank.

ArmCom2 is a strategic simulation of armoured combat that is often as brutal and unforgiving as the historical battles themselves. Your focus should be on survival rather than wanton destruction. No tank is invulnerable, so make full use of your terrain, concealment, smoke, movement, and your knowledge of the enemy to tip the odds in your favour and survive the combat day.


Pick your battles and focus on survival! You are commanding a single tank in a very large war, you cannot expect to roll into every encounter with guns blazing and survive. If you're up against something that's just too tough for you, then command your Driver to withdraw from the battle, and pick another path. Better to live to fight again than lose your tank and perhaps end your campaign.


Much of the information in the game is displayed in a compact fashion. You can always open the in-game Glossary to look up unfamiliar terms, but this quick reference card will help you understand most of the common info displayed for units:




The game runs well on the Deck, but a font size of 8x8 is recommended to get the sharpest screen image possible. You should also make full use of the View Mode in the Campaign Day and Scenario layers, which allows you to move a highlight around the map and view information on those hexes. You can use the right trackpad to move the mouse cursor around the maps as well.


In this game, a unit is any entity that can act independently in a battle, whether that be a single vehicle, a gun and its crew, a small specialist team of 2-3 men, or a squad of infantry. Normally you will be commanding an armoured fighting vehicle, but you will encounter many different types of units as opposing forces:

• Infantry Squad: A group of armed men on foot, usually armed with rifles and grenades. Infantry are difficult to dislodge from well-defended positions, but are very vulnerable in the open. May also have close combat weapons such as Molotov Cocktails or Demolition Charges, but these are too small to be visible at a distance.
  
• Support Weapons Team: A team of 2-3 soldiers operating a specialized weapon such as a mortar or an anti-tank weapon. They operate similar to Infantry Squads but are harder to hit, and their weapon is usually capable of taking out a tank.
  
• Armoured Car: A wheeled armoured vehicle with a machine gun or light gun as its main weapon. Usually used for scouting, they are fast and can pose a danger to lightly-armoured tanks.
  
• Tankette: A very small early tank, usually with a crew of two.
  
• Light Tank: A lighter armoured fighting vehicle with full tracked locomotion. Although light tanks are usually lightly armed and armoured, they are also often fast and small, making them difficult to hit.
  
• Medium Tank: The medium tank developed first as a support vehicle, but by about 1940 had become the main tank type on the battlefield. They have a good balance of firepower, armour, and speed.
  
• Heavy Tank: First deployed by France and the USSR, heavy tanks combine large-calibre guns with thick armour. Although powerful and difficult to destroy, they are often slow and prone to mechanical failure.
  
• Tank Destroyer: A vehicle, often either unarmoured or very lightly-armoured, designed to engaged armoured targets. Usually has a powerful main gun, but cannot survive long in a head-to-head battle with tanks.
  
• Assault Gun: A vehicle with a powerful main gun designed for supporting infantry and attacking fortifications. Normally intended to deliver high-explosive firepower to its target. Its large gun is normally not mounted on a turret but rather embedded into the hull.
  
• Anti-Tank Gun: A gun and crew intended for destroying armoured targets. Although they lack the armoured protection of a tank, they can be more difficult to spot, and can be dug-in or entrenched in a good position.
  
• Artillery Gun: A larger gun intended for firing over long distances. In a pinch, however, these guns can also be fired over open sights against armoured targets.
  
• Anti-Aircraft Gun: Initially a fast-firing, smaller-calibre gun, the heavier examples of this class fire large-calibre high-explosive shells. These larger guns can be deadly when trained on an armoured target on the ground.
  
• Self-Propelled AA Gun: An anti-aircraft gun mounted on a vehicle.
  
• Truck: A larger vehicle designed for transporting people or freight. The earliest examples used during the Second World War were civilian models, while military designs were introduced later on.
  
• Armoured Train Car: Early in the war some armoured trains were deployed, carrying specialized cars carrying troops, artillery guns, and machine guns. Their lack of mobility, and dependence on undamaged and unblocked railway lines to move about, however, limited their utility.

• Playtesting and suggestions kindly provided by flori2412, Turtler, and more on the Discord server
  
• Most current unit portraits were adapted or created by cjprince
  
• Mockups and unit portraits created with REXPaint[www.gridsagegames.com] Josh Ge, GridSageGames, and loaded with xp_loader[github.com], which is covered under a MIT License (MIT) and is Copyright (c) 2015 Sean Hagar;
  
• Some sound samples from the C64 sample pack by Odo[howtomakeelectronicmusic.com]
  
• Steam integration thanks to SteamworksPy[github.com], covered under a MIT License (MIT) Copyright (c) 2016 GP Garcia, CoaguCo Industries

From the Main Menu you can access all parts of the game.


To Continue or Load a campaign, it must have been saved with a compatible version of the game. The currently installed version of the game is always displayed at the bottom of the main menu. If the first version number (separated by single dots) matches, it will be compatible. Otherwise, you won't be able to resume your campaign unless you load it with a compatible version of the game. If this is your first time playing, these options will be greyed out.

If you start a New Campaign, any current saved campaign of the same type will be erased. You can only have one in-progress campaign of each type going at any one time. The game will prompt you before overwriting an existing saved campaign file.

The Tutorial is a special, three-day campaign that will introduce you to the basics of the game. Many features are turned off so that you can learn the basics before progressing to a real campaign later on.

Game Options can be accessed here and from the in-game menu as well.

• Changing the Font Size will change the window size and the size of individual character cells. For smaller-resolution screens such as that on the Steam Deck, the 8x8 font size seems to provide clearer text.
  
• You can toggle Fullscreen mode here. Note that Fullscreen mode is not supported on all machines, you need a video card that supports either SDL2 or OpenGL for this to be available.
  
• Ultrawide Fullscreen will stretch the screen area to wide very wide displays in fullscreen mode, and should produce a better looking screen.
  
• Sound Effects, including the music in the main menu, can be toggled on or off here.
  
• Main Menu Music can be turned off here, without turning off sound effects.
  
• Changing the Master Volume will change the volume of the theme music and all sound effects. This option is not available if Sound Effects are currently disabled.
  
• Message Pause changes the length of time that in-game pop-up messages are displayed before disappearing.
  
• Must Dismiss Messages means that every pop-up message will remain on the screen until dismissed by the player with the Tab key.
  
• Animation Speed determines how quickly on-screen animations (such as attack animations, precipitation, etc.) are updated.
  
• Unit Stack Display will spread out units on the Scenario map rather than stacking them on top of each other. This makes it easier to see multiple units in the same hex, but may be confusing for some players.
  
• New Inf/Cav Portraits is enabled by default, but turning this off will display the older generic portraits for infantry and cavalry units.
  
• Ready Rack Refill, if enabled, will have your loader automatically refill their Ready Rack after each battle.
  
• Several Keyboard layouts are supported, and you can set your own keyboard mapping by editing the "custom" dictionary in the keyboard_mapping.json file in the data folder (.../Steam/steamapps/common/Armoured Commander II/data), and selecting it here.
  
• Active Controller displays the currently active input device. If you have one or more game controllers connected you can toggle between them here.

The Mods menu will show you your mod folder, as well as a list of any active mods.

Your Campaign Records can be viewed from the main menu, but if this is your first time playing the game, you won't yet have any records to view.

The Unit Gallery displays information about all the different unit types in the game.

Acknowledgements displays info on many of the people who helped make this game a reality.

Armoured Commander II currently (as of version 1.0.0) has 47 unique campaigns. Your choice of campaign determines the types of tanks that will be available to you, the enemies you will face, and the terrain and time period you will fight over. Different campaigns can provide very different types of experiences.



Each campaign takes place over a fixed period of time, placing you in the role of a tank commander in the war. Please note that campaigns are organized by time period, and different time periods can be viewed by scrolling through them (default keys: Q and E). Information about the currently selected campaign is displayed in the main part of the menu:

• Player Force means the national military force that you will be a part of.
  
• Enemy Forces lists the possible national forces that will be your opponents in this campaign.
  
• Region means the region of the world where the campaign takes place, which will determine the types of weather and terrain that you will encounter.
  
• Combat Days means the number of days during the campaign that you will be called up for combat. You can change this setting for your campaign (default keys: A and D)
  
• Creator: if a player or mod creator had a hand in creating this campaign, they will be credited here
  
• Difficulty: this is a subjective description of the campaign's relative difficulty, from 1 to 10

While campaigns are based on historical evidence, they are not intended to recreate exact historical experiences of the war. The best way to think of them would be as being historically plausible rather than being historically accurate. Some unit types, for example, were only ever produced in small numbers, but you may encounter (and destroy) a few more of them in a campaign, and see them deployed in particular battles where historically they never appeared. But for the most part, campaigns are written so that the general narrative of the campaign, and the types of units you encounter, do reflect historical fact.

From this screen you can select a campaign to start, or have the game select one for you randomly. Note that you can only have one campaign in progress of any given type at one time; if you already have a saved campaign in progress of this type, the game will prompt you to delete it before starting a new one.


Once you have selected a campaign, you will be taken to the Campaign Options menu.


Several options can be toggled on or off in this menu, but once you select your set of campaign options, they cannot be changed again for this campaign. Each option will apply a modifier to your daily Victory Point score; if the option makes the game easier, you will receive a penalty, if it makes the game more difficult, you will receive a bonus. You can mix and match the campaign options to set the level of challenge that you want to play.

"Player Commander" means that your Commander represents you, and if he is killed or seriously injured, your campaign ends immediately. If your Commander is sent to the Field Hospital, you will miss a number of days of the campaign, and when you return, your old tank may have been destroyed, or you may rejoin some or all of your old crew.

Enabling this option means that at the start of each Campaign Day, you will be granted three “Fate Points.” Your current number of points is displayed as a number in the top right of your tank portrait. Any time there’s an incoming attack on your tank you will have the option of spending a Fate Point to ensure that the attack misses. Note that Fate Points cannot be used for Armour Penetration rolls.
If you also have Player Commander enabled, each fate point may also automatically be used to prevent a fatal injury on your Commander. Once you have exhausted your fate points for the day, no more can be used until the next combat day.

If your tank is knocked out, there's a chance that your on-board ammo will be ignited, causing an explosion within the tank. If this option is enabled, your crew will very likely all be killed by this explosion, as in real life.

You will be assigned a random unit those available at the start of the campaign and whenever you require a replacement vehicle. During refit periods you will be offered the option of switching to one randomly-selected model.

If you select this option, you will not be assigned any squadmates during the campaign.

The historical availability and rarity of unit types will be ignored, meaning that types of tank, etc. may appear in the game before or after they were historically deployed.

If this option is active, you may have access to armoured cars and other types of vehicles, if the campaign has included them. Otherwise you can only command tanks and similar armoured fighting vehicles.

Crewmen will be injured more often when exposed in firepower attacks and by spalling from incoming fire.

If this option is active, enemy units may possible maintain Rate of Fire, giving them multiple attacks per turn.

This can be set to one of four options. Harder settings mean that AI units will be more active and aggressive in Scenarios.


Campaigns take place in a Region, such as Northwestern Europe, that defines the parameters for the types of weather and terrain you will encounter. Depending on the region, you may encounter more severe winter weather, for example, or the terrain generated for the Campaign Day map may be more hilly, forested, and so on.

The weather conditions for each combat day will be randomly generated, and may change during the course of the combat day. The initial odds of each type of weather will be based on the current campaign region as well as the date in the calendar. Weather conditions fall into one of three categories:

Cloud Cover:
Clear, Scattered, Heavy, Overcast
Precipitation cannot fall if cloud cover is clear; no air support possible if Overcast

Precipitation:
None, Mist, Rain, Heavy Rain, Light Snow, Snow, Blizzard
Affects spotting checks and to-hit chances; if continues, can change Ground Conditions to Wet, Muddy, Snow, or Deep Snow

Ground Conditions:
Dry, Wet, Muddy, Snow, Deep Snow
Snow dampens effect of HE; increases chance of Bogging Down; increases travel time required on Campaign Day map

Wind Conditions:
None, Light, Gusty, Strong
Wind will dry out the ground quicker, and will cause fog, smoke, and dust to dissipate faster

Fog:
Makes spotting more difficult; applies a penalty to attacks; air support not possible in fog

A selection of tank models, perhaps joined by armoured cars or other vehicles, are available to you at the start of the campaign. Some types of tank will only become available later in the campaign, either because they represent tanks captured from the enemy, or because historically they were not delivered to the front lines until a later date.

During Refit Weeks, or if you have to abandon your tank, you will have an opportunity to select a new model. Pay close attention to the stats of your chosen tank, since you may be riding in it for some time.

One important tank stat to take note of in the Tank Selection menu - some campaigns will define a Victory Point Multiplier for certain underpowered or overpowered tank models. If you select one of these tanks, your total VP earned per combat day will be modified slightly to reward you for playing in a more vulnerable tank, or possibly apply a slight penalty for an overpowered one.

Virtually everything you need to know about a unit is included in its unit information display. Your tank's stats are especially important, so here is an example of how to read them:


Basic information about the unit appears at the top, above the unit portrait:

• M4 Sherman: This is the unit identifier, unique to each model of tank
  
• Medium Tank: This is the unit's class, indicating generally what type of unit it is

Weapons are listed on a dark red background:

• Guns may be short (S), long (L), or very long (LL) barreled
  
• Co-axial weapons are mounted on the turret alongside (or as) the main gun
  
• Anti-Aircraft (AA) machine guns (MG) can fire in any direction, but must often be fired from outside of the tank
  
• Hull MGs are fixed to the front of the hull

If a weapon is displayed in a light grey colour, it means that it is unreliable and has a greater chance of breaking down

Armoured or Unarmoured vehicles have their armour values listed here:

• The T line refers to turret armour, but if there is no rotatable turret it will appear as U (Upper Structure) instead. If the turret has a fast traverse, this will be noted by (FT). If it has a very slow traverse speed, this will be noted by (VST). If the turret has restricted space inside, (RST) will appear here. If the vehicle's gun has a gyrostabilier, this will be displayed with a G
  
• H refers to hull armour
  
• The two armour values x/y refer to front and side armour respectively for that area, higher values mean better protection from incoming attacks
  
• Rear armour values for any location are one level lower than its side level

The movement class of the unit is shown in green in the lower right:

• Fast and Slow movement classes have correspondingly better or worse odds of making a successful move on the Scenario map
  
• If a vehicle has light ground pressure this will be displayed in a light shade of green, if heavy ground pressure, a darker shade. Ground pressure affects the chance of bogging down.
  
• If a vehicle has an especially powerful engine, a plus sign will appear next to the movement class
  
• If a vehicle has an unreliable drivetrain, it will be shown by (u)

Any special vehicle features will appear below the movement class:

• HVSS stands for Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension; vehicles with this upgrade are slightly faster and less likely to bog
  
• Recce is short for reconnaissance, and means that the vehicle is less likely to be ambushed at the start of a scenario
  
• ATV means that this is an All-terrain Vehicle, and they are not affected by terrain modifiers when trying to move on the Scenario map

The size class of the unit appears below that. Larger targets are easier to spot and hit

The crew positions for your tank will be listed in the right column of the tank selection menu. A full crew will be automatically generated for your chosen tank.

From this menu you can select any tank model that is available to you. You can also name your tank, or you can give it a name later on. Finally, you can have the game select a random tank model from this list for you.

This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog. I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? By the grief of one dog.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Each crewman in your tank has their own set of stats, skills, and experience points. Names are randomly generated, but you can change these at any time, and can assign a nickname to each crewman. Crewmen have a position in the tank for which they are trained, but any crewman can work any position if needed in an emergency. If it’s a more complex position than they are used to, however, then they won’t be as effective as a trained crewman would be in that position.

Crewmen start at a rank appropriate to their initial position, and as they gain levels they may be promoted to a higher rank. Each promotion grants the crewman two free advance points.

Each crewman has four stat values, which are randomly generated at the start of the game but can be improved by spending Advance Points later on:

• Perception is used to spot enemy units during battle, and to hunker down or button up while CE when an attack is incoming
  
• Morale represents the crewman's ability to resist and recover from being Shaken or Stunned, and to recover from Fatigue
  
• Grit is used to resist being Stunned, recover from Critical injuries, and resist being Injured
  
• Knowledge applies a small bonus to all crewman skill effects, and increases the chance that a crewman will gain expertise in a random position in your vehicle

Most skills have a minimum stat requirements, so plan out your stat increases based on the skills that you plan to add to your crewman in the future.

At the end of each combat day, each surviving crewman is awarded experience points based on your total Victory Point score for the day. Depending on how many points they gained, they may go up one or more levels. Each time they go up a level, they are awarded with an Advance Point which can be spent increasing the crewman's stats or adding a skill.

See the following section for more on Crew Skills.

During the course of a combat day, your crew are subject to a number of Conditions that may negatively affect their ability to operate. The default condition is “Good Order” which indicates no penalties. If injured or subject to incoming firepower, crewmen may become “Shaken” which means that they more likely to be injured in a subsequent attack until they recover. “Stunned” means that they have been more seriously affected, and until they recover all their effective skill bonuses are reduced by half. “Unconscious” means that the crewman has been knocked out, and cannot perform any actions until they recover.

Most armoured fighting vehicles include hatches so that crewmen can exit the vehicle quickly in case of being knocked out. Not all positions have their own hatch, however, and some vehicles that lack a fully-enclosed roof (such as many tank destroyers) don't need them. Crewmen are always in one of two states:

• BU: Buttoned Up. This means either that the crewman's hatch is closed or they don't have a hatch. In either case, they are protected.
  
• CE: Crew Exposed. This means either that the crewman's hatch is open, or they are in a position that's not protected by armour in at least one direction. In either case, they are vulnerable.

Crew hatches can be opened or closed at any time on the Campaign Day map, or during the Command Phase on the Scenario map. You can also set the default hatch status for a given crewman in the Scenario layer, which will automatically be set at the start of every subsequent scenario.

Effects of being BU:

• Crewmen are protected from the effects of small arms, MG, HE, etc. attacks on your tank; they only risk injury if the armour of your tank is penetrated
  
• Less chance of gaining fatigue during Cold and Extreme Cold conditions
  
• Harder to spot enemy units
  
• Usually the crewman's spotting distance is reduced, and the number of directions in which they can spot is limited, since they have to use a periscope or small porthole to spot
  
• Most AA MG weapons can only be operated if the crewman is CE
  
• Cannot throw Smoke Grenades when BU
  
• If the crewman is in a Restricted Turret (RST), then main actions will not be available to them, such as operating a gun, since these turrets are too small to be able to look out a hatch and also do something inside the tank
  
• BU crewmen in a RST also have an increased base chance of fatigue gain

Effects of being CE:

• Crewmen are vulnerable to the effects of small arms, MG, HE, etc. attacks on your tank
  
• If your tank was knocked out by a Close Combat attack, CE crewmen have a higher chance of being injured by the KO attack
  
• Increased chance of fatigue gain in Extreme Cold conditions, but reduced chance in Extreme Hot conditions
  
• The effect of commands such as Direct Fire and Direct Movement is increased
  
• If at least one crewman is CE at the start of a Scenario, the chance of being Ambush is reduced
  
• CE Drivers have a bonus to move actions and to HD attempts

Unconscious crewmen with an open hatch or in an open-topped position still count as being CE, but they won't be as vulnerable to incoming attacks, since they will be slumped down in their position.

Crewmen may be injured by incoming small-arms or machine-gun fire if they are not Buttoned Up or otherwise protected by armour. They may also be injured as the result of an incoming attack that penetrates your vehicle’s armour. Six separate injury locations are tracked for each crewman, and injuries in different locations have different effects during the day:

• Head & Neck: greater chance of becoming Stunned or Unconscious when injured; penalty to spot concealed enemy units if Heavy or worse
  
• Torso & Groin: Slightly greater chance of becoming Stunned when injured
  
• Arm & Hand: Penalty to actions that require the use of arms and hands
  
• Leg & Foot: Penalty to bail out of your tank if Heavy or worse

Certain locations are normally protected for crewmen; for example, a Leg & Foot injury is very unlikely for a crewman exposed due to an open hatch. Sniper attacks, in contrast, are much more likely to hit the Head & Neck than other locations.

Injuries start as Fresh and can be Patched-Up during a battle or automatically after a battle ends. Patched-up injuries apply a smaller penalty than fresh injuries. Healing injuries apply no penalty, but will be more likely to become freshly injured if the crewman is hit again in that location before it has fully healed.

Injuries get treated after the combat day is over, after which they will be healing for a period of a few days. Healed injuries may leave scarring in that location, which reduces a random stat by one.

At the end of each combat day, each Heavy or Serious injury that a crewman has taken increases the chance that he will have to be transferred to a Field Hospital for a period of time to recover, before he can rejoin your crew. Otherwise, all injuries are treated and considered to be healed at the end of a combat day.

Crewmen may die during the combat day. Their bodies remain at their position but they can also be moved to another position within the tank if required. If you are granted Resupply, then any bodies are taken away by the supply vehicle. Bodies are also removed from your vehicle at the end of the combat day.

Many crewman skills are available, but not all are available to crewmen in all tank positions. If a skill is restricted to one or more particular tank positions, a crewman must currently be in that position in order to purchase that skill. The Trained/Experienced skills do not affect this restriction.

Most skills have a minimum stat level required before the crewman can purchase them. Some skills require one or more other skills as a prerequisite. Some skills can be replaced by improved versions, but these usually have a higher stat requirement, and require you to purchase the lower level skill first. All skills apply some kind of bonus or give your tank an advantage as described in the skill description.

Campaign Skills cannot be purchased with Advance Points, and are only granted automatically at the start of a Campaign.

• Trained Commander: Allows crewmen to operate Commander positions without penalty.
  
• Experienced Commander: Allows crewmen to operate Commander positions without penalty and to gain Commander-specific skills.
  
• Trained Gunner: Allows crewmen to operate Gunner positions without penalty.
  
• Experienced Gunner: Allows crewmen to operate Gunner positions without penalty and to gain Gunner-specific skills.
  
• Trained Driver: Allows crewmen to operate Driver positions without penalty.
  
• Experienced Driver: Allows crewmen to operate Driver positions without penalty and to gain Driver-specific skills.
  
• Fire Spotter: Slightly increases effect of Direct Fire action.
  
• MG Spotter: Greatly increases effect of Direct Fire action when attacking with a Machine Gun.
  
• Gun Spotter: Greatly increases effect of Direct Fire action when attacking with a Gun.
  
• Driver Direction: Slightly increases effect of Direct Movement action.
  
• Lay of the Land: Greatly increases effect of Direct Movement action when attempting Hull Down.
  
• Forward!: Greatly increases effect of Direct Movement action when moving forward.
  
• Enemy Spotted!: Less chance of being ambushed at the start of a battle encounter.
  
• Explorer: Greater chance of quickly finding a crossing point when attempting to ford a river.
  
• Natural Leader: All other crewmen in the tank have a bonus to Morale checks.
  
• Coordination: All crewmen accumulate less fatigue due to good coordination and rotation of tasks.
  
• Tactical Retreat: Bonus chance to withdraw from a battle when Directing Movement.
  
• Improved Recon: Recon reports on enemy resistance will be more accurate.
  
• Keen Senses: Your observational senses have become sharpened and you keep a constant watch for enemy contact. Enemy units are more likely to start the Scenario further away from you.
  
• Primo Victoria!: You are a ruthless expert in close-combat fighting. Overrun attacks are more effective.
  
• Quick Trigger: Slightly increases chance of maintaining Rate of Fire when firing a Gun.
  
• Time on Target: Greatly increases chance of maintaining Rate of Fire when firing a Gun at a stationary target.
  
• Crack Shot: Slightly increases chance to hit when firing a Gun.
  
• Target Tracker: Greatly increases chance to hit firing a Gun at a moving target.
  
• Sniper: Greatly increases chance to hit firing a Gun at a long-range target.
  
• Target Focus: Reduces the effect of precipitation when firing a Gun.
  
• Knows Weak Spots: Slightly increases chance of scoring a Critical Hit when firing a Gun at an armoured target.
  
• Basic Gyro Use: Allows the crewman to use the gyrostabilizer on a Gun.
  
• Advanced Gyro Use: Allows the crewman to fully make use of the gyrostabilizer on a Gun.
  
• Gun Maintenance: Decreases chance of a jam or breakdown for the gun that the crewman is reloading. Also helps when attempting to unjam a weapon.
  
• Fast Hands: Slightly increases chance of maintaining Rate of Fire when reloading a Gun.
  
• Ammo Scrounger: Increased number of rare ammo available at start of day.
  
• Quick Shifter: Slightly increases chance of a successful Move Forward or Backward action.
  
• Eye for Cover: Slightly increases chance to achieve Hull Down status after moving.
  
• Eye for Terrain: Slightly increases chance to enter desired terrain type when moving or repositioning.
  
• Cautious Driver: Decreases chance of bogging down and triggering land mines.
  
• Mechanic: Decreases chance of breakdown when moving on the Scenario map. Also helps when attempting to unjam a weapon.
  
• Shell Tosser: Increases chance of RoF when crewman is on Pass Ammo command.
  
• Good Comms: Decreases chance of a friendly fire artillery or air attack on your squad.
  
• Burst Fire: Slightly increases chance of maintaining Rate of Fire when firing a Machine Gun.
  
• Eagle Eyed: When hatch is open, slightly increases chance to spot and identify enemy units.
  
• Fire Fighter: Less chance of a fire starting when tank is knocked out. Effect does stack if multiple crewmen have this skill.
  
• Infantry Specialist: Small bonus to all attacks against Infantry and Cavalry targets. Not possible to add any other Target Specialist skill after this one.
  
• Gun Specialist: Small bonus to all attacks against Gun targets. Not possible to add any other Target Specialist skill after this one.
  
• Vehicle Specialist: Small bonus to all attacks against Vehicle targets. Not possible to add any other Target Specialist skill after this one.
  
• Quick Reflexes: When hatch is open, slightly decreases chance of injury or death from incoming firepower attacks.
  
• Lightning Reflexes: When hatch is open, greatly decreases chance of injury or death from incoming firepower attacks.
  
• Gymnast: Slightly increases chance to successfully bail out.
  
• Acclimatized: Reduced chance of gaining fatigue from Hot and Cold conditions.
  
• Acclimatized (Desert): Reduced chance of gaining fatigue from Extreme Hot conditions.
  
• Acclimatized (Nordic): Reduced chance of gaining fatigue from Extreme Cold conditions.

Some skills will not stack with each other. For example, Crack Shot/Expert Shot, Target Tracker, Sniper, Target Focus, and Steady Hands, all of which affect to-hit chance, don't stack together, instead the best available modifier among these skills is applied to the attack.

Each nation in the game has its own set of decorations or medals, each with its own ribbon image that is displayed on your crewman's service record. A crewman's odds of being awarded a decoration are based on the average daily VP score to date in the campaign or the highest one-day VP score (whichever is higher), and the difficulty of the campaign. Player Commanders always have a higher chance of being decorated, and all crewmen have a higher chance of being decorated at the end of a campaign. Crewmen will be be awarded a decoration unless the Player Commander already has at least one of them. The game rolls for decoration awards during the campaign at the start of the first full week of each new calendar month, and at the end of each campaign.

Each crewman has a rank, usually as an Officer or a Non-Commissioned Officer. Your Commander will normally hold the highest rank of the vehicle crew, and crewmen will never be promoted over the rank of a Player Commander. The odds of being promoted increase as a crewman levels up, with each rank requiring a minimum level. Crewmen who are promoted gain two advance points that they can spend immediately. The game rolls for possible promotions at the start of each in-game week.

In the Campaign Calendar layer you can prepare for the upcoming combat day; you also return to this view at the end of a combat day. The Command Menu in the lower left has four tabs, and pressing a number key from 1 to 4 will activate that tab, and will also change the display in the main panel to the right.

• Tab 1 is the Proceed menu, which will allow you to start a combat day, or to proceed to the next day in the combat calendar if the day is complete
  
• Tab 2 is the "Crew and Tank" command menu. Here you can review each of your crew, see your tank's stats, and assign crew and tank nicknames if you have not done so already
  
• Tab 3 displays a journal, which you can review at the end of the combat day
  
• Tab 4 displays the Field Hospital, which is where badly injured crewmen may be sent to recover at the end of a combat day

To start your game, press 1 to activate the Proceed menu tab, and press Enter to start your combat day. If you survive your combat day, you will return to this layer from which you can proceed to the next combat day.

On each combat day you will be assigned one of five possible missions for the day. The mission determines the initial set-up of the Campaign Day map, the average enemy resistance level, the odds of friendly and enemy zone capture, and Victory Point rewards for capturing zones:

• Advance: Low enemy resistance, very high chance of friendly forces capturing zones, high VP value of captured zones, higher chance of Ambush
  
• Battle: Stronger enemy resistance, equal chance of friendly and enemy forces capturing zones
  
• Counterattack: Moderate enemy resistance, very high chance of enemy forces capturing zones
  
• Fighting Withdrawal: Stronger enemy resistance, exceptionally high chance of enemy forces capturing zones
  
• Spearhead: Normal enemy resistance, very low chance of any friendly or enemy zone capture, VP value of captured zones increases as you move up the map, higher chance of Ambush
  
• Hold the Line: You must hold a line of objectives until the end of the combat day
  
• Patrol: Very light enemy resistance, very low chance of any friendly or enemy zone capture
  
• Urban Assault or Urban Defense: These only occur in urban areas, but will involve unique terrain conditions and a higher level of danger

In Counterattack and Fighting Withdrawal missions, you cannot progress forward into a new map area (past the top row of the map), you can only withdraw backward (past the bottom row of the map). In Hold the Line and in both Urban missions, you cannot move into a new map area at all.


At the start of every combat day you must load (or reload) all the guns on your tank with ammo. Depending on your tank, you may have one or more guns, and each gun may be able to fire one or more types of ammo. You can load more than the safe amount of ammo into your tank, but beware that if your tank is knocked out when carrying extra ammo, it will be more dangerous for your crew, as the rounds are not safely stowed away and can ignite with potentially deadly consequences.

• HE (High Explosive) produces an explosion upon impact, and is more effective against infantry, guns, and unarmoured vehicles
  
• AP (Armour Piercing) is only effective against vehicles, and is best used against armoured targets
  
• APCR (Armour Piercing Composite Rigid) is much more effective against armoured targets
  
• APDS (Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot) is much more effective against armoured targets
  
• C (Canister or Shrapnel) is very effective against soft targets
  
• HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) is much more effective against armoured targets, but can also damage other targets as well with its explosive blast
  
• WP (White Phosphorous) produces smoke and as harmful to soft targets
  
• Smoke will produce concealing smoke upon impact, making it more difficult for enemy units to fire at you and your allies

Most guns have a Ready Rack to hold ammo that is very close to the gun itself. In combat, if you are reloading from the ready rack rather than the general stores, you will have a higher chance of firing multiple times per turn. You can load ammo into the Ready Rack now, but your Gunner or Loader can also move shells between your General Stores and the Ready Rack during the day. Further information on the ready rack is in the Scenario section below.

Some ammo types will have limited availability and only a few will be made available to you each day. Some ammo types were only issued to fighting units after a certain calendar date, and so will only be available to you from that date in your campaign.

If you're not certain what ammo to load, you can always use 'X' to add a recommended loadout. Don't forget to load each gun on your tank.

Machine Guns (MGs) do not need to be loaded; it's assumed that you are carrying ample ammo for them for the day. If your tank is only armed with Machine Guns, then you will skip this menu altogether.

Once you start your combat day, the first game interface layer that you will encounter will be the Campaign Day layer, with the Campaign Day map prominently displayed.



In this layer you lead your tank and squad across a terrain map of hex zones. Information on your own tank is displayed in the upper left of the screen, and several tabs of commands appear in the lower left. Current environmental and ground conditions are displayed in the upper right, campaign and day mission information on the middle right, and hovering the mouse cursor over any map zone will display information about it in the lower right of the screen. The current date and time appear at the top of the screen. The remaining daylight and time of the current combat day is indicated by the bar behind the time display, which fills up as the day progresses.

Each area of the campaign day map is made up of 41 hex zones, each of which are randomly generated as one of random terrain type, based on the Region in which your campaign is set. Campaigns taking place in North Africa, for example, will look very different to those taking place in the Nordic region. Urban missions will also look quite different. The terrain type of a hex zone determines the time required to travel into it, as well as the possible terrain for units on the scenario layer if a battle occurs there.


Dark brown and light grey lines joining hex zones are roads; travel along roads is usually faster than cross-country. Dark-brown lines are dirt roads and grey lines are improved/stone roads; improved roads are slightly faster to travel along than dirt roads. Dark blue lines along the edges of hex zones are rivers; these will take additional time to cross unless there is a bridge or ford that can be crossed, indicated by a dark brown cell with three horizontal lines. Some types of hex zone terrain are impassible to you, such as ocean and mountain zones.

In most missions, if you reach the top or bottom hex row (indicated by a row of arrows), a new map area will be generated and the map view will shift to it. For some missions you won't be able to move off the current map area.

Each hex zone is either friendly-controlled, enemy-controlled, or neutral territory. The front line between friendly and enemy-held or neutral territory is indicated by a red dotted line.


A red number between 1 and 10 in a zone indicates the level of enemy resistance in that zone. Any time you move into a zone that has some level of enemy resistance, there's the potential for a battle. Odds of a battle are higher if the enemy resistance level is higher in that zone. In the desert and in urban maps, enemy forces may be present even in friendly-held zones, since the front lines are less clearly defined in these situations.


Throughout the day, zones may be captured by either side; if you advance into an enemy-held zone and either encounter no resistance or you encounter resistance and win the ensuing battle, you will capture the zone and gain Victory Points. If you wait in place and your zone is attacked by the enemy, a battle will be triggered. Neutral zones cannot be captured by either side.

Control of the map zones has an important impact on your ability to resupply. If you cannot draw an unbroken path to the bottom edge of the map through neutral or friendly-controlled zones, you will not be able to be resupplied.


Four menu tabs are available in the command menu:

• Supply: Here you can view the stats of your tank's main gun, and manage the contents of the Ready Rack. From here you can also Request Resupply which, if granted, allows you to replenish main gun ammo, will remove any dead crewmen, and will allow your crewmen to rest and perhaps lose some Fatigue.
  
• Crew: Displays a list of current crewmen in your tank. From here you can open the crew menu for any of them, switch positions if needed, and open/close their hatch if they have one.
  
• Travel: In this menu you can select a direction from your current location, and either request reconnaissance information about an adjacent enemy-held hex, or travel to an adjacent hex. Recon will tell you what types of enemies to expect in a given zone, but this report may not be accurate. Before moving, you can toggle advancing fire and air/artillery/unit support requests on and off. Advancing fire uses up HE ammo but if a battle encounter is triggered, it has the chance of pinning enemy units before combat begins. You can also Wait in place, but there's a possibility that enemy forces may attack your hex.
  
• Squad: Lists any current members of your tank squadron. These tanks will fight alongside you on the scenario layer. You can set their default combat orders from this tab as well.

The combat day ends when you abandon your tank, or you reach the end of the combat day as indicated by the background of the time display in the top centre of the screen.

Most armoured vehicles in the game will be filled with a radio, but some will not, especially in the early part of the war. In both the Campaign Day and Scenario layers you can see whether or not you currently have a radio connection with your battlegroup (BG) and your headquarters (HQ). If you don't have a radio, or if your radio is broken or damaged, you can't have a radio connection to either. Radio connections may also get temporarily disrupted during they day; your crew will automatically try to reconnect.

Not having a radio connection to your battlegroup means that new orders sent to your squad might not be delivered. Not having a radio connection to your headquarters means that resupply requests may take longer and may get intercepted en route.

Depending on the campaign and the campaign week definitions, you may have a certain level of air, artillery, and/or unit support for the day. This represents ground-attack aircraft, artillery batteries, and friendly combat units that you can contact via radio and request their support. In the Travel menu tab you can toggle air, artillery, and/or unit support. This support is indicated as a percentage from 0-100%.

If you've requested support and move into a neutral or enemy-held zone, a silent roll will be made against the current support level. If it's successful, that support will be made available to you, and your support level will be reduced by a small amount. If you don't end up finding and enemy resistance, that support is lost.

Note that air support cannot be requested if the cloud cover is Overcast, if there is any fog, or if there is currently a Sandstorm. Unit support can be requested before waiting in place; if you are attacked in your own zone, the support request will be resolved.


If you request unit support, before you wait in place or move into a new zone, you will be shown a menu of possible unit support categories. The actual units that may arrive will be randomly selected from the list of the category that you choose.

If an air and/or artillery support request is granted and you encounter enemy resistance in a zone, at the start of the ensuing battle, your supporting forces will automatically attempt to attack. Air and artillery attacks can be very effective, sometimes destroying enemy units even before you can spot them. They can also often spot enemy units and communicate their identity to you. If unit support is granted, a random number and type of friendly units from the category selected will be spawned at the start of the battle.

Once you encounter enemy resistance on the Campaign Day map, or if you wait in place and are attacked, gameplay shifts to the Scenario layer where battles take place.


On the right of the scenario interface is the Scenario Map, made up of 36 hexes arranged in 3 rings surrounding a central hex. The map represents, in an abstract way, all terrain in a 1,440 meter radius around you. Your tank, represented in traditional roguelike fashion by the @ character, is located in the centre of the map with the front of your hull facing upward. Your turret facing is indicated by the line extended outward from the @ character. All other infantry, gun, vehicle, etc. units on the map are displayed from your point of view, so if you pivot your tank counter-clockwise, units will appear to rotate clockwise around the map. Likewise, if you move into a new map hex, all other units will shift around you.

Note that if there is a number displayed in a map hex, that means that there are 2 or more units stacked within the same hex. You can cycle the order of this stack by hovering the mouse cursor over the hex and scrolling with the mouse wheel. In the Game Options there is an option to display unit stacks spread out, so that the top three units are all displayed separately. Hovering your mouse cursor over any map hex will display its info, and that of the top unit in the stack if any, just below the map.

Remember that the map is an abstract representation of a real battlefield. Thus, the actual position of any infantry squad or tank on the map can be imagined to be somewhere within the hex depicted on the map. Similarly, although it appears to be a flat plain, the map can be imagined to be filled with hills, rivers, buildings, and others types of terrain. Thus, each pair of units on the map may or may not have a clear Line of Sight between them, dictated by the distance between them and the terrain they are currently in. If you do not have LoS to an enemy unit, neither can attack the other. Every time a unit moves or repositions, a new LoS is generated between it and every other unit on the map. You always have a clear LoS to units within your own squad, but each of them has a separate perspective on the battlefield. That means that a tank in your squad may have LoS to an enemy unit, whereas your own tank does not. Information about spotted enemy units is shared within your squad, so you might find that an enemy that is out of LoS for you is still spotted by a squadmate. You will have to still move or reposition, however, and get into a position where you have LoS on it, if you want to attack it.

Above and to the left of the scenario map is the Contextual Console, which displays different information depending on the current phase. Above and to the right is the Environmental Conditions console, which displays information about current weather conditions.

Play on the Scenario Layer proceeds though a series of Phases, each one of which either allows the player to perform certain actions, or allows allied and enemy AI units to act. Each set of phases makes up a game turn, which takes 2 minutes of in-game time to resolve.

In this phase you can open and close the hatch for each crewman that has one, and you can assign one command to each of your tank crew that is neither unconscious nor dead. Each command will allow the crewman to do different types of tasks in the remainder of the turn. The current field of view for your crewman is highlighted on the scenario map in blue; different hatch statuses and commands will result in different areas of the map where your crewman can spot in the following phase. Descriptions for each command are displayed in the Contextual Console.

Note that some commands will only become available when certain conditions are met; for example, you can only abandon your tank if it is immobilized or if you have 1+ crewmen who have been seriously injured. Some commands are only available to crewmen who have open or closed hatches; the list of available commands will dynamically be updated if you change your crewman's hatch status. You can also access the Crewman menu for each crewman during this phase.

During this phase no input is required from the player; any crewman who can do so will automatically try to spot any hidden enemy unit in his line of sight. If an enemy unit is spotted, its identity will be displayed in a pop-up message. Early in a battle it can be helpful to open crew hatches and have crewmen on spotting orders, so that you can quickly assess what the possible enemy threat is like, before then "buttoning up" for combat.

Certain crew commands require additional input or will result in automatic actions during this phase. For example, a Gunner can manage his Ready Rack, moving shells into or out of it, or the Commander might throw a smoke grenade, providing some concealment for your tank. You will need to select a crewman in order to see possible actions associated with his current command.

If your Driver is on the "Drive" or "Drive Into Terrain" command, then in this phase you can attempt to move your tank. The Driver can attempt to drive the tank forward or backward, pivot the hull, reposition, or attempt to move into a Hull Down position.

Pivot Hull
The driver is free to pivot the tank hull to face any direction, without ending the Movement Phase. As you pivot, your relative facing on the map remains the same; instead, all other units on the map are rotated relative to your direction of pivot.

Forward and Backward Movement
Since the battlefield is represented in a very abstract way, doing a move action will sometimes be successful, other times not. The odds of your tank moving far enough to shift the relative position of enemy units is displayed in the upper left console. Each failed attempt will increase the chance of a successful move in subsequent Movement Phases. If a move action is successful, your tank will remain in the same location on the map, but every other unit on the map (other than your squadmates, who always stay by your side) will shift position.


For example, in the image above, if the player completes a successful Move Forward action, then the unknown unit and enemy infantry unit will all shift downward one hex. The exception is if there is a unit directly in front of the player, in which case they leapfrog over the player and end up behind (the player moves past them and keeps going.) Reverse move actions would have the opposite effect. If an enemy unit would normally be pushed off the scenario map by a player move, they will stay in relative place instead. Enemy units can only move off the scenario map of their own accord.

Movement Chances
The chances of a successful forward or backward move action are determined by the following:

• Movement class of your tank
  
• Powerful Engine and/or HVSS
  
• Current terrain and ground conditions
  
• Light/Heavy ground pressure of your tank
  
• Bonus from a previous failed attempt in the same direction
  
• Commander on Direct Movement command
  
• Driver skills

Drive Into Terrain
This command allows you to make a forward or background move and select which type of terrain you'd like your driver to try and move into. You will see a menu of the available terrain types, the Terrain Effect Modifier for each, and the odds of a successful move into that terrain. If your move is successful, you have a chance to move into the desired type of terrain.

Hull Down
When starting a scenario and after a move action, the player may find themselves in a Hull Down position in one direction. This means that a hill or other large solid object is covering their hull from that direction. Any incoming attacks that would have affected the Hull coming from that direction will instead have no effect. The Driver can try to get the tank into a HD position in the forward direction with the Attempt HD action.

Reposition
If you want to move your tank into a different types of terrain, or want to try to change your Line of Sight to enemy units, you can have your Driver reposition you tank. You won’t cause a shift in enemy unit positions, but a new terrain type, HD status, and LoS will be generated for your tank.

Bogging Down
If the player's tank becomes bogged down, then the Driver must successfully unbog the tank in a subsequent Movement Phase before the tank can move again. Surviving player tanks are automatically unbogged at the end of a scenario.

Overrun
If there is a spotted enemy unit in front of your tank and you can still do a move action, you have the option of doing an Overrun attack. Your squad will move close to the hex immediately ahead of you, allowing you to attack them at very close range with MG weapons. While on an Overrun attack, your squad counts as moving, but there are no movement penalties to MG attacks.

During the Command Phase, one or more crewmen can be commanded to operate one of the tank's weapons, which they can then do during the Shooting Phase. Most player tanks will have a gun as its main weapon, which can usually fire High Explosive (HE) rounds, Armour-Piercing (AP) rounds, and later in the war, Smoke rounds.

See Section 9 of this guide for more detailed information on attacks.

Gun Stats
Guns are defined by their calibre, with larger-calibre guns producing more of an effect on both soft and armoured targets, and usually being better at long range as well. Guns can be short, long, or very long-barrelled, indicated by an 'S', 'L', or 'LL' following their calibre in millimetres. The loader for each gun normally has access to a Ready Rack of ammo nearby, use of which makes it faster to reload the gun. Guns will also normally have an innate Rate of Fire chance, which indicates the odds of reloading the gun fast enough to allow two or even more shots per shooting phase. Use of the Ready Rack, as well as crew skills, can greatly increase these odds.

Machine Guns (MGs)
Most player tanks and many other vehicles have one or more machine gun (MG) weapons. Note that coaxial MGs, mounted next to a gun barrel, cannot fire in the same phase as the gun fires, and vice-versa. MGs are only effective against soft targets and unarmoured vehicles; at present (Verion 5.2) they have no effect on armoured enemy targets. MGs have chance to maintain RoF for additional attacks in the same phase.

Rate of Fire (RoF)
You and your allies can maintain RoF, and if you have enabled the campaign option, so can enemy units. RoF means that a weapon will be able to fire two or more times during a single phase. The game will do a hidden check after every attack, hit or miss, and if it passes you will have the option of firing again at the same target. You won't know the outcome of your attacks until the phase is over, however.

Several factors influence the final chance of maintaining RoF. The chance can be modified several times to reach the final odds:

• if the weapon is a Gun and the unit moved that turn, no RoF is possible
  
• if the weapon is a Gun and no more ammo of the given type is available, no RoF is possible
  
• many weapons will have a set base RoF chance, otherwise 5% is the default
  
• if the weapon is a Gun and calibre is between 15mm and 40mm, RoF chance is doubled
  
• if the weapon is turret-mounted and the turret was rotated this turn, RoF chance is halved (or multiplied by 0.75 if it's a fast traverse turret)
  
• if the weapon is hull-mounted and the hull was pivoted this turn, RoF chance is halved (or multiplied by 0.75 if it's a gun on a turntable)
  
• if there is a dedicated Loader position and the position is empty or the Loader is not Reloading, RoF is chance is halved
  
• if the weapon is a Gun and the Ready Rack is not in use, RoF chance is halved

Finally, crew skills and campaign skills can apply a modifier to the RoF chance. If the weapon is a gun, the minimum RoF while using the Ready Rack is 5%, otherwise it's 2.5%. The RoF chance cannot be reduced to below 0%, nor improved beyond 85%.

Effect on Enemy Targets
Enemy targets hit with HE or machine guns will have Firepower applied to them; an abstract measure of incoming fire. Firepower stacks from different attacks and is resolved at the end of each phase, so a unit hit by a bomb from an HE shell as well as MG fire will have a large amount of firepower to resolve at the end of the opposing side's phase. Higher total firepower values increase the chance that the unit will be destroyed, its soldiers killed, wounded, or routed from the battlefield.
Armoured targets hit with AP will undergo an Armour Penetration check immediately after each hit.



The chance of the hit penetrating the target armour depends on the gun calibre, barrel length, distance from target, and thickness of target armour on the location hit. Especially powerful guns will automatically penetrate all but the thickest armour, as shown here. Enemy armoured targets that are penetrated are destroyed.

During this phase any other tanks in your squad will attack enemy targets automatically.

During this phase enemy units will move around the map, and may attack you or your squadmates.

During this phase something random might occur in the battle. It won't trigger every turn, but sooner or later one of the following events may happen:

• Friendly Air Attack: If you have air support available today, they will attempt to attack enemy units. No air support is deducted.
  
• Friendly Artillery Attack: If you have artillery support available today, they will attempt to attack enemy units. No artillery support is deducted.
  
• Enemy Reinforcement: A randomly selected enemy unit appears on the battlefield.
  
• Sniper Attack: An enemy sniper may try to hit any crewman who is CE.
  
• Enemy Vehicle Immobilized: A random enemy vehicle may become immobilized for the rest of the battle.
  
• Enemy Air Attack: If air support is available to enemy forces, they will attack your position.
  
• Enemy Artillery Attack: If artillery support is available to enemy forces, they will attack your position.
  
• Friendly Reinforcements: A randomly selected friendly unit may appear on the battlefield.
  
• Squad Member Immobilized: A randomly selected member of your squad becomes immobilized and will have to drop out of your squad.
  
• Radio Breaks Down: If you have a radio, it breaks down and cannot be used for the rest of the day.
  
• Infantry Harass Player: Any enemy infantry units within range fire small arms at your vehicle, potentially injuring any exposed crew.

Sooner or later, your vehicle will be knocked out, and your surviving crew will have to bail out of the destroyed vehicle. The bail-out sequence is a separate part of the game from the usual layers. You cannot save your campaign during bail-out, you will need to complete the sequence first before being returned to the Campaign Calendar layer. The goal in bailing out is to get all your surviving crewmen to safety, but smoke, fire, hatches, and enemy units all complicate things.


Bailing out lasts for up to 10 rounds. In each round, the status of your vehicle and crew is updated, enemy units have a chance to fire harassing fire at you, and each crewman who is alive and not unconscious has a chance to act.

Right away the effects of the hit that knocked out your tank are resolved. If you are unlucky, then it's possible that the hit ignites fuel or ammo held on board, resulting in a massive explosion that may further injure or even kill your crew. The interior of your vehicle may catch on fire, risking further injury to any crewmen still inside. Finally there can be smoke inside or around your vehicle. Interior smoke makes actions inside the vehicle more difficult, which smoke outside the vehicle reduces the effect of incoming firepower.

If at any time all surviving crew have moved to a safe location, or all your crew are dead, the bailout sequence will end. Otherwise you have 10 rounds to save your crew.


Live, conscious crewmen will have a number of actions available to them in each round. The list of possible actions will depend on whether they are inside the vehicle, on its exterior, or in a safe location.

• None : Do no action this round
  
• Return to Vehicle: Move from a safe location back to the vehicle exterior.
  
• Move to Safe Location : Move from the vehicle exterior to a safe location, away from enemy units.
  
• Covering Fire: Use small arms to fire at nearby enemy units, decreasing the chance of them firing at your vehicle and exposed crew.
  
• Aid Crewmen Bailing Out: Help any crewmen attempting to bail out from the vehicle, increasing the chance of their success.
  
• Rescue Unconscious Crewman: 'Pull an unconscious crewman out of the vehicle, either through an open hatch or an open top.
  
• Carry Unconscious Crewman to Safety: Move with an unconscious crewman to a safe location, away from enemy units.
  
• Open Hatch: Attempt to open the hatch in this position.
  
• Throw Smoke Grenade: Throw a smoke grenade, giving your vehicle some cover from incoming attacks.
  
• Push Unconscious Crewman Out: Move an unconscious crewman in the same location out of the vehicle, through an open hatch or open top.
  
• Swap Positions: Swap positions with a dead or unconscious crewman.
  
• Move Unconscious Crewman: Move an unconscious crewman to another, empty position within the vehicle.
  
• Bail Out: Leave the vehicle. Depending on the crew position, there may options to do so through an open top, through a hatch or large hatch, or through a hatch in a nearby position.
  
• Go to Position: Move to another position within the vehicle.
  
• Aid Fellow Crewmen: Give first aid to other crewmen in the same location, increasing their chances of recovering from a negative condition.

Attacks in the game are always either Point Fire or Area Fire attacks. Point Fire is used for guns, where there is a single projectile aimed at the target. Area Fire is used for small arms, explosives, and so on where there are many projectiles affecting the target. Point Fire attacks can result in a Critical Hit, a Hit, or a Miss. Area Fire attacks can result in Full Effect, Partial Effect, or No Effect. Hits from explosive projectiles and Area Fire attacks apply Firepower to the target, which is totaled up during a phase and resolved at the end of the phase.

Point Fire weapons such as guns use the to-hit roll process. The base chance to hit is based on the type of target and its range from the attacker. Vehicles are easier to hit than other types of target, and closer targets are easier to hit than ones further away.

This base chance will be modified by a number of factors, including the size of the gun, weather effects, whether the target is in motion, and so on. Each modifier and its effect is listed on the attack display. Most modifiers will stack, except for fog, smoke, or dust concealment; only the one of these that has the most effect will apply.

If the attacker hasn't spotted the target yet it is much more difficult to hit; they must fire in the general area where they think the target is. If the target has been spotted it's easier to hit, but the attack will be subject to more modifiers based on the target's status, for example its size.


Area Fire weapons such as machine guns use the to-effect roll process. The base chance for Area Fire attacks to have any effect is based on the amount of Firepower applied by the weapon. Infantry and Gun targets are slightly easier to affect than Vehicle targets.

Flamethrowers are special weapons and use their own to-effect roll which is not subject to many of the usual modifiers.

Close Combat attacks also use a unique set of modifiers - these will most often be used by an infantry squad or team against the player or another target.


Sometimes the player's weapons are just not powerful enough to have any chance at destroying a vehicle target. They might, however, be used to immobilize it by destroying its tracks or tires. The player can opt to make an attack into an Immobilization Attempt, which is more difficult than a standard attack but in the case of a hit will immobilize the target. Wheeled targets are much easier and half-tracked targets are somewhat easier to immobilize than fully tracked targets.

Whenever an attack hits an armoured location on a vehicle, an armour penetration roll must take place. This roll compares the armour penetration strength of the attack to the strength of the armour, and determines whether the attack bounces off harmlessly or penetrates the armour protection of the target. The game rolls two virtual six-sided dice and adds them together, giving a final roll between 2 and 12, with results around 7 being much more likely. If the roll equals or beats the required Armour Penetration target, the shot penetrates.


The location hit by the attack will often have a big impact on its effectiveness. Side and rear armour is often lighter than that on the front of vehicles. Overrun attacks will always hit the side armour of a target if the attack came from the target's front, or the rear armour if the attack came from the target's side or rear. Close combat attacks from infantry will always hit the side armour of the target.


Weapons have a base AP score based on their innate AP power. For guns this will vary according to their calibre and barrel length.








Several modifiers may be applied to the base score depending on the attack:

• Rear-Facing Hit: +1
  
• Critical Hit: Applies modifier equal to the base score
  
• AT Rifle, <=1 hex range: +2
  
• AT Rifle, 2+ hex range: -2
  
• AP Gun Hit, calibre <= 25mm, <= 1 hex range: +1
  
• AP Gun Hit, calibre <= 25mm, 2-3 hex range: -1
  
• AP Gun Hit, calibre <= 25mm, 4+ hex range: -2
  
• AP Gun Hit, calibre > 25mm, <= 1 hex range: +1
  
• AP Gun Hit, calibre > 25mm, 4+ 1 hex range: -1
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre <= 57mm, <= 1 hex range: +2
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre <= 57mm, 3-4 hex range: -2
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre <= 57mm, 5+ hex range: -4
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre > 57mm, <= 1 hex range: +2
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre > 57mm, 3-4 hex range: -1
  
• APCR Gun Hit, calibre > 57mm, 5+ hex range: -3
  
• APDS Gun Hit, <= 1 hex range: +1

Finally, any armour rating is subtracted from the AP score required, unless it's a Flame Thrower or Molotov attack.

As commander of a tank or other fighting vehicle, you will need to make good use of terrain both to protect yourself and to deny the enemy that same protection. Terrain has a number of effects in the game, one of the most important of which is the Terrain Effect Modifier (TEM) which is applied to incoming attacks on a target unit.

Each campaign takes place across one or more regions, which define seasons, weather patterns, and the types of terrain encountered on the Campaign Day and Scenario maps.

The terrain of a zone on the Campaign Day map determines the types of terrain that can be encountered if a battle takes place there. For example, if you enter a battle while in a Forest zone, you'll be likely to encounter Brush or Woods terrain during that battle. It also affects the base amount of time needed for your battlegroup to move into that zone.

Terrain on the Scenario layer is randomly generated per unit, and is newly generated every time a unit moves or repositions. The terrain that a unit is in has a number of effects on that unit:

• Terrain affects the chance for a vehicle unit to gain Hull Down status, whether randomly as a result of moving into that terrain, or as a result of a HD attempt by the driver.
  
• The chance for a unit to successfully move into a new hex on the Scenario map is modified by the terrain they are currently in. Rougher terrain will be more difficult to move out of.
  
• Rougher terrain increases the chance of vehicles to become bogged down.
  
• Rougher terrain increases the chance that Line of Sight between this unit and another unit will be blocked.
  
• Terrain applies a Terrain Effect Modifier (TEM) to a unit when it's targeted by an attack. Some types of terrain apply different TEMs to different unit types; for example, Infantry or Deployed Guns can make better use of Broken Ground to get into cover, whereas the benefit for a Vehicle is not as good. TEMs always decrease the odds of a hit or effective attack.

Terrain can have an effect on a unit that's hit by a High Explosive attack:

• Woods, Jungle, and Bamboo Forest terrain applies an Airburst Effect, as the projectiles are more likely to detonate in the air above the target. This increases the effective firepower of the attack by 25%.
  
• Hamada terrain applies a Hamada Effect, as the hard surface reflects the explosive impact and shards of stones are transformed into shrapnel. This increases the effective firepower of the attack by 25%.
  
• Marsh terrain applies a Marsh Effect, as the soft wet ground tends to absorb explosive impact. This decreases the effective firepower of the attack by 25%.

Armoured Commander II allows certain elements of the game to be freely modded. Unit definitions, portraits, campaigns, and sound effects can all be modded. This is a brief guide to how mods have to be organized so that the game can recognize and load them correctly.

All mods need to be located in their own folder within the /mods folder:
You can also view the location of the mods folder from the mods menu, accessible from the main menu.

To create a new mod, create a new folder in /mods.

Mod files will either be JSON, XP, or OGG files.

• JSON is a standard format, and many text editors have built-in syntax checkers.
  
• XP files store ASCII art; to edit these, you will need to download the free editor REXPaint[www.gridsagegames.com]
  
• OGG files store sound; Audacity[www.audacityteam.org] is a popular free program to record and edit sound, and can export OGG files.

Different elements of the mod need to be stored in different subfolders within your mod's folder:

• Custom campaigns should be stored as JSON files in {your_mod}/campaigns
  
• Custom sounds should be stored as OGG files in {your_mod}/sounds
  
• Custom unit definitions should be stored as one or more JSON files in {your_mod}/units
  
• Custom unit portraits should be stored as XP files in {your_mod}/unit_portraits, which itself can contain subfolders for different categories of variant portraits

If you want to make more substantial changes to the game, the Python source code is Open Source and available in the folder. You may not distribute any of the game's data files but you may adapt the source code for your own projects.

Custom campaigns should be saved as a JSON file and stored in a 'campaigns' subfolder. If you create a modded campaign with the same filename as a standard campaign, it will replace the standard campaign in your game. Otherwise the custom campaign will be added to the list of campaigns.

If there is a syntax error in the JSON data for a campaign, the game will display an error message upon trying to open the New Campaign menu. It will display the line number and type of the first syntax error that it found.

The best way to learn how to code a campaign is to examine a standard campaign to see how the data is organized.

• name: The name of the campaign.
  
• creator: A place to record the author of this campaign.
  
• difficulty: Should be a number from 1 to 10. Higher-difficulty campaigns will be more likely to reward the player crew with decorations. Otherwise this is simply for the player's information.
  
• start_date: Earliest possible combat date in the campaign, in yyyy.mm.dd format. Determines which campaigns can continue into this one.
  
• end_date: Latest possible combat date in the campaign, in yyyy.mm.dd format.
  
• player_nation: The nationality of player forces. Must correspond to a valid entry in the nation_defs.json data file.
  
• enemy_nations: A list of possible enemy nations that may be encountered during the campaign. Each must correspond to a valid entry in the nation_defs.json data file.
  
• region: The region of the world where this campaign takes place. Determines terrain type and some special rules. Must correspond to an entry in the hard-coded REGIONS definition.
  
• desc: A narrative description of the campaign.
  
• player_unit_list: A list of unit types that the player can possible command. Each must correspond to a valid entry in the standard or modded unit definitions.

• player_squad_list: Optional. Dictionary where each key corresponds to a unit listed in player_unit_list. Each key is followed by a list of unit types that could be included as squadmates if the player is commanding that type of unit. For example, here if the player is commanding a Panzer II A, their squadmates may be spawned as Panzer II A or as Panzer II D/E.
  
• tank_vp_modifiers: Optional. Dictionary where each key corresponds to a unit listed in player_unit_list. Players will receive a VP modifier at the end of each combat day if they are commanding this unit type. Values over 1.0 increase awarded VP (eg. 1.2 would mean +20%) and values lower than 1.0 apply a penalty (eg. 0.8 would mean -20%)
  
• campaign_skills: Optional. A list of skills that are automatically granted to each eligible crewman at the start of the campaign.
  
• player_air_support: Required only if one or more campaign weeks have an air_support_level entry. List of air units that might attack during a player air support attack.
  
• player_arty_support: Required only if one or more campaign weeks have an arty_support_level entry. List of artillery units that might attack during a player artillery support attack.
  
• player_unit_support: Required only if one or more campaign weeks have a unit_support_level entry. Dictionary with one or more categories as keys. Each key has a list of units that might be spawned after a successful player unit support request for that category. The 'Armoured' support category is automatically generated and added based on the player_unit_list data.
  
• friendly_transported_units: Optional, only used if player_unit_support is defined. Dictionary with each key corresponding to a unit listed in one of the player_unit_support categories. The data is a dictionary of unit types that might be spawned as that unit's passenger, with a percentile chance of spawn. For example, here the German SPW 251/1 has a chance of being spawned with Riflemen, HMG Team, or Flame Thrower Team as passengers.

• enemy_air_support: Optional. Dictionary with one entry per nation that may have air support. Data is a list of air units that might attack during an enemy air support attack.
  
• enemy_arty_support: Optional. Dictionary with one entry per nation that may have artillery support. Data is a list of air units that might attack during an enemy artillery support attack.
  
• enemy_unit_list: Required. Dictionary with one entry per nation defined in enemy_nations. Data is a list of units that may be spawned as enemy units.
  
• enemy_unit_class_odds: Required. Dictionary of unit classes and a percentile chance of that class being spawned. Should include one entry per class represented in the enemy_unit_list entries. These odds are the default at the start of the campaign, and can be modified by campaign weeks.
  
• enemy_transported_units: Optional. Dictionary with one entry per nation defined in enemy_nations. Data is a list of units that may be spawned as enemy units. Data is a dictionary of unit types that might be spawned as that unit's passenger, with a percentile chance of spawn. For example, here the Polish Polski Fiat 621 has five different units types that might spawn as passengers.
  
• combat_days: Required. Total base number of combat days per campaign. Should not be more than the total possible number of calendar days as defined by the calendar_weeks entry. Players will have the option of playing a full campaign, or a proportionally shorter one.

The calendar_weeks field contains the most data of all the required fields for a campaign. It contains a list of definitions for each 'week' of the combat calendar. Each entry may define a period that is shorter than 7 days, but for game purposes they are called campaign weeks. Each campaign week defines a discrete part of the campaign, which might represent a particular historical operation, or just another routine week of a larger battle.

Campaign weeks should appear in the JSON file in chronological order. Skipping calendar days between campaign weeks is perfectly fine.

• start_date: The earliest date that is included in this campaign week, in yyyy.mm.dd format. Should not overlap with a previous campaign week.
  
• end_date: Optional. If you don't want this week to last for 7 calendar days, you can end it earlier by defining a date here in yyyy.mm.dd format.
  
• location: Optional but Recommended. Geographic location of the player during this campaign week, in decimal format. This data determines the sunrise and sunset times, and thus the total length, of each combat day. If not entry is provided, the game will select a default value.
  
• combat_chance: Required, a percentile number between 1 and 100. The chance of any calendar day from this week being selected as a combat day when a campaign is generated.
  
• average_resistance: Required, a number between 1 and 10. The average enemy resistance level encountered by the player. May be further modified by the mission type for the combat day.
  
• week_title: Required.A descriptive title for the combat week.
  
• week_description: Required. A narrative description of the historical situation that calendar week.
  
• mission_odds: Required. A dictionary with at least one entry, the keys correspond to a valid Campaign Day mission type. The data of each key is its percentile chance of being selected as the mission for any given combat day. Some mission types, such as Urban Assault and Urban Defense, modify the Campaign Day terrain and other aspects of the game.
  
• enemy_nations: Required. A list of enemy nations that may be encountered by the player this combat week. Must be a subset of the list defined in the root enemy_nations entry.
  
• air_support_level: Optional. The starting percentile level of air support available to the player. If not defined, no air support is available during this combat week.
  
• arty_support_level: Optional. The starting percentile level of artillery support available to the player. If not defined, no artillery support is available during this combat week.
  
• unit_support_level: Optional. The starting percentile level of unit support available to the player. If not defined, no unit support is available during this combat week.
  
• terrain_odds_modifier: Optional. This entry can override the default Campaign Day zone terrain odds for the campaign's region. This can be used to represent a combat week in a heavily wooden area, for example. These never apply during urban mission days, and only affect the current campaign week.
  
• enemy_class_odds_modifier: Optional. This entry can modify the current enemy_unit_class_odds data. Any modification here will remain in effect for the rest of the campaign, or until changed by a subsequent enemy_class_odds_modifier entry in a later campaign week.
  
• enemy_fortifications: Optional. If defined as "TRUE", enemy units will be more likely to spawn dug-in, entrenched, or fortified. This can be used to represent a combat week in an area that was heavily fortified by the enemy.
  
• coastal_chance: Optional. Percentile chance of the Campaign Day map having a row of Ocean hexes on the left or right edge.
  
• landmines_chance: Optional. Percentile chance of any Campaign Day zone having landmines in place.
  
• refitting: Optional. If present, no other data is required other than start_date (and, optionally, end_date). This week gives the player an opportunity to switch vehicles.

Nearly all the sound effects in the game can be modded. All sound effects must be saved as 48khz .ogg files.

The standard set of sound effects can be viewed in the /sounds folder. All sound effects have at least one variant with the filename ending in '_00'. Additional variant sound effects for that event can be added using additional numbers.

For example, there are two 'armour_save' sound effects in the basic game. You could create a new one by naming the file 'armour_save_02.ogg'. The game would load this sound effect and add it to the other two, selecting one of the three at random each time the sound effect needs to be played. You can also replace stock effects by providing a sound effect file in your mod with the same name as a stock effect.

All sound effect files must end with an underscore and a two-digit number, otherwise the game may not load it correctly. Sound effects should also be provided to the game in sequence; for example, don't add a 'armour_save_03.ogg' if 'armour_save_02.ogg' does not yet exist.

Mods may supply music tracks to be played while the player is on the Campaign Day layer and on the Scenario layer. Music should be in 48khz .ogg format with the files placed into two subfolders within the root mod folder:


The game will randomly select a track from the appropriate folder to play during the game.

Unit portraits are stored as .xp files and edited with REXPaint.

You can download REXPaint for free from the Grid Sage Games website[www.gridsagegames.com](makers of Cogmind).

You will need to set up REXPaint to use the ArmCom2 font. Open the /data/fonts/_config.xt file in the REXPaint program folder, and add the following line:


Drop the c64_16x16.png font file[www.armouredcommander.com] into the same fonts folder.


Portraits must be 24x8 cells in size. Each cell can only contain one glyph/character, and can only have one foreground and one background colour.

Modded portraits should be added to a unit_portraits folder within your mod folder. If you want a particular portrait to be used as a context-dependent variant (such as winter camouflage), then it should be placed within an appropriate subfolder:


If a mod contains a portrait that was part of the standard set, it will be loaded instead of the standard portrait. You can also provide new portraits for custom units defined in the mod.

Unit definitions are contained the /data/unit_type_defs.json file. New unit types should be in their own JSON file in a mod folder, but you can consult the unit_type_defs.json file for examples of unit definitions. Any new unit definitions in a mod will be added to the game; any definitions that share a unit ID with an existing definition will replace that definition in your game.

Each unit definition is structured as a unit ID and a dictionary of data. Some data is required, others are optional.


In the example above, "M4 Sherman" is the unit ID, and what follows is the data for that unit definition. The unit ID must match exactly any references in campaign definitions. Maximum length for a unit ID is 25 characters.

• category: The type of unit being defined. Has a number of effects on gameplay. Possible categories are: Vehicle, Gun, Airplane, Train Car, Infantry, Cavalry, Naval Support.
  
  
• class: Within the general category, the type of unit that this is. For example, a Vehicle could be a Light Tank, an Assault Gun, a Truck, etc. Determines whether and how often a unit is spawned, among other things.
  
  
• origin_nation: Optional. Country where this unit type was designed and/or manufactured. Does not limit the national forces that can make use of it, just adds additional historical detail. Does not have to match one of the in-game nation definitions.
  
  
• portrait: The filename of the portrait for this unit, must be a REXPaint file.
  
  
• size_class: In general, how large this unit is, used for spotting and to-hit modifiers. Has no effect on Airplane, Infantry, Cavalry, and Naval Support units. Possible size classes are: Very Small, Small, Normal, Large, Very Large. If nothing is defined here, game will assume Normal.
  
  
• movement_class: Determines how and how fast the unit moves. Possible movement classes are: Infantry, Gun, Cavalry, Slow Tank, Slow Wheeled, Tank, Wheeled, Half-Tracked, Fast Tank, Fast Wheeled, Airplane, Naval. Airplane and Naval are just for completeness and have no effect in the game.
  
  
• powerful_engine: Optional. Used for vehicles with an especially powerful drivetrain, increasing the chance of a successful move action.
  
  
• HVSS: Optional. Value is a string between 1 and 100. Percentile odds that a give unit of this type will be fitted with Horizontal Volute Spring Suspension, which improves speed and decreases chance of bogging down.
  
  
• wet_stowage: Optional. Used for vehicles with any type of effective ammo storage protection. Decreases the chance of an ammo explosion when knocked-out.
  
  
• smoke_mortar: Optional. Used for vehicles that have a fixed pistol-type smoke mortar fitted. Value is the name of the crew position that can operate it. Units with a smoke mortar will automatically have rounds for it loaded.
  
  
• ground_pressure: Optional. Whether this vehicle exerts lower or higher than usual pressure on the ground. Used to modify bogging chance. Possible values: Light, Heavy. No effect on units other than vehicles. If nothing is defined, game will assume Normal ground pressure.
  
  
• unreliable: Optional. This vehicle's drivetrain is relatively unreliable and prone to breaking down or stalling. Any value will set this to true. Only effects vehicles.
  
  
• very_unreliable: Optional. Similar to 'unreliable' but with a more severe effect.
  
  
• reverse_driver: Optional. Used for vehicles with a rear-facing driver who can drive the vehicle in reverse very quickly if needed.
  
  
• turret: Optional. Defines the type of turret on this vehicle. Possible values are: FXT (Fixed Turret / Superstructure), RST (Restricted Slow Turret), FT (Fast Turret), ST (Slow Turret)
  
  
• gyro: Optional. Used for turreted vehicles. This vehicle has a gyroscopic stabilizer on the turret, which will proper crewman training, improves gun accuracy when moving and firing in the same turn.
  
  
• deploy_to_fire: Optional. This Support Weapon Team must first deploy their weapon before they can fire it. Used for teams that operate larger weapons such as mortars.
  
  
• gun_shield: Optional. Used for Gun units. This provides the crew with additional protection from firepower attacks that come from the gun's front.
  
  
• turntable: Optional. Used for Gun units. This is for guns that can pivot very quickly and easily. Reduces the to-hit penalty for these units when pivoting and firing in the same turn.
  
  
• off_road: Optional. Used for Vehicle units. This vehicle has excellent off-road performance, and is less likely to get bogged down.
  
  
• recce: Optional. Used for Vehicle units. This vehicle is designed to be fast and stealthy, and is less likely to be spotted by the enemy.
  
  
• no_radio: Optional. Used for armoured Vehicle units. Any armoured vehicle is assumed to have a radio fitted unless this is defined as True.
  
  
• radio_after: Optional. Used for units with no_radio defined, this unit will have a radio on and after the date specified in the data field. The date should be in the format yyyy.mm.dd
  
  
• no_turret: Optional. Used for vehicles that have had their turret or superstructure removed. Any hit that would normally affect the turret is instead a miss.
  
  
• open_topped: Optional. This vehicle has no protection on its top, meaning that any attacks coming in from above will do more damage to its crew.
  
  
• open_rear_turret: Optional. The turret of this vehicle has no protection in its rear facing.
  
  
• description: A text description of the unit and its history. Format is a list of strings which will be combined together by the game. Maximum length is 416 characters.
  
  
• rarity: A dictionary of dates and rarity factors. Indicates how common this unit type was during different historical periods. A maximum of 8 entries can be included. For each, a key of a standard date 'yyyy.mm.dd' is followed by a string between 0 and 100. A unit with a current rarity factor of 0 will not be spawned. Otherwise if the game is spawning units in this category and randomly selects this unit type, it will roll against its current rarity factor to see if the unit type is selected.

Some data has a more complex structure but is very important, especially for armoured fighting vehicles.

Optional. Used for Vehicle and Train Car units. Format is a dictionary with up to four armour factors: turret_front, turret_side, hull_front, hull_side. For each armour location, a string must be provided indicating the level of armour in this location. As a general rule, 0 points of armour represents 1-10mm of good-quality armour at 90 degrees, 1 point would be 11-20mm, etc. Better or worse quality metal, or slanted or curved armour surfaces, may merit a slightly higher armour rating. The rear armour of a vehicle is always effectively one point lower than the side armour in the same location. The top armour of a vehicle (used for airplane attacks and ballistic direct hits) is always one half (rounded up) of the side hull armour of a vehicle. If a vehicle is armoured, it must include values for all four factors.

Optional. The weapon_list entry is a list of weapon definitions, each of which has its own data structure. Note that many aspects of weapons are hard-coded in the game, especially with regard to gun calibres and ammo types. The initial 'type' field defines the basic type of weapon, and determines the type of data that must follow. Best practice for modding is to copy an existing weapon and make minor changes where required.

Only required for vehicle units. A list of crewman or personnel normally assigned to this unit type. Each entry here has its own data structure. If this is intended to be a player-controlled unit, then a maximum of six positions can be defined.

• name: The name of the position, must be exactly the name if referenced elsewhere in the unit definition, such as in the weapon data.
  
• location: The location where this position is in the vehicle. Value must be either 'turret' or 'hull'.
  
• open_top: Optional. This location has no protection from above. The crewman cannot button up. No bu_visible should be defined for these positions.
  
• crew_always_exposed: Optional. This position has very little protection, and the crewman always counts as CE.
  
• hatch: Optional. This vehicle position is fitted with a hatch that can be opened and closed. If this is included, then both ce_visible and bu_visible entries should also be included.
  
• large_hatch: Optional, for positions with hatch already defined. This hatch is relatively large, which means it offers better visibility but provides less protection to the crewman.
  
• hatch_group: Optional. If defined, all hatches in the same group on the vehicle must be opened or closed together.
  
• ce_visible: A list of the hextants visible to a crewman in this position when exposed. Value is a list of strings, including one or more of the numbers 0-5. 0 is straight ahead, 1 is to the front-right, etc.