iOS guide

[Husserl]

The Battle of Gettysburg

In Ultimate General: Gettysburg, you re-live the Battle of Gettysburg as Commander of either the Army of the Northern Virginia (Confederate), or the Army of the Potomac (Union). Innovative player control and game mechanics enable you to command historically accurate forces from skirmishers to the full strength of each army. You have the options to develop and implement different strategies and tactics as the battle develops. Ultimate victory - or defeat - is dependent upon your crucial decisions and military expertise.

Campaign: The campaign battle offers the historical battle organized into ten unique scenarios per side. When the cannon first roar, you begin with just a few units. As the battle develops additional corps and divisions arrive on the field and eventually you will command tens of thousands of troops during battle.

Map: The map was created by blending satellite imagery, topographical research data and historical maps into a unique, clear art style. All major terrain features such as houses, ridges, hills and forests are depicted as accurately as possible. Ultimate General: Gettysburg also features all the necessary mechanics to make full, tactical use of the map: cover, movement, line of sight, fields of fire and more.

Armies: Both armies include all historical units that fought at Gettysburg. The Union army deploys efficient artillery, quality armaments and well-drilled troops, while the Confederates have superior morale, inspiring leaders and deadly close combat proficiency. There are five types of units available in Ultimate General: Gettysburg: infantry, artillery, cavalry, skirmishers and command staff. You must use them wisely to utilize their advantages and adjust for their weaknesses.

Smart Artificial Intelligence (AI): Your opposing AI commander evaluates and gains tactical superiority in real time and will employ different commanding skills, acting aggressively or defensively, heroically or cunningly, as effectively as a competent human foe.

Unique Controls & Unit Self-Awareness: There's no need to micromanage your units, because they are able to act on their own initiative and realign to switch targets, withdraw and form battle lines without player input.

Advanced Lines of Sight: Elevation and obstructions  affect unit visibility and fire combat realistically. Your units will make use of concealment and "dead ground," or defilade, to survive artillery barrages, surpise enemy units and more, but beware -- the AI will attempt to do the same to you.

 Numerous Tactical Factors: In Ultimate General: Gettysburg, you will discover that military units are not “machines” that blindly follow orders, but are composed of real men, with all that implies, who will need to conserve their strength and courage for decisive actions on the field of battle. Every basic tactical element that you would expect of a great strategy game is incorporated into gameplay. Most importantly, morale is affected by many factors, including flank or rear attacks, casualties, powerful initial volleys from enemy units, artillery fire and fatigue.

 

NOTE: Ultimate General: Gettysburg is compatible with iPad2 and up. The game WILL NOT run on earlier generations of the iPad.

 

Main Menu

When the game is launched, you will see the Main Menu. At the top of the page you can start an interactive tutorial, view player’s statistics, adjust game’s options and view the developer team or select side and start/continue your campaign battle.

Tutorial: The interactive tutorial will guide you through the basic game controls. After completing it, you should be able to jump in the game and command your army efficiently.

Statistics: Here you can see your progress so far, including the current rank and statistics about the number of the played battles, kills/losses, wins/defeats, etc.

Options: In Options tab you can adjust the music/sound levels, the number of soldiers per unit and the number of corps. In weaker iPad models you may need to reduce the Soldiers/Corpses numbers to gain performance.

Battle selection: After you have selected your side the battles menu page appears:

There are ten scenarios available per side. Every victorious scenario unlocks the next one, and also helps you to build your career. You start the campaign as a corporal and you can end it as a Lieutenant General. Use the slider below the map to select the next scenario or an unlocked one to replay it. Choose your desired level of difficulty from the box on the right side.
Battle preview: After you have selected the Battle button, the pre-battle menu page appears:

Here you see the starting positions and the expected number of forces (infantry and guns) for both sides. In the middle there are battle’s details, a brief description of the tactical situation on the field, and the objectives for the upcoming battle. Select the Fight button when you are ready to enter the battlefield.
Battle outcome: When the battle is over the outcome menu page appears:

Here you see the battle result and aftermath, including possible promotion, etc. By selecting the Statistics button, the detailed outcome report appears:

The Statistics window includes a list of the units involved, information about unit type, starting and remaining strength and losses and casualties inflicted. This list can be sorted by side and by type of units..
 

Battle interface

The battlefield (1) is the center of the action where you’ll command your army and fight your battles. The armies are presented in brigade level except skirmishers, cavalry and sharpshooters which are presented as regiments. Every unit carries its name and the current number of men along with an indicator for the side and the type of the unit. The number of stars next to the indicator, indicate the unit’s skill rating (normal, superior, elite).
In every scenario there are up to three Victory Points (VP). To win the battle, you must capture and hold the number of VPs that was specified in the pre-battle window. VPs are indicated with a white flag with a circle around it. When a VP is captured the flag changes to the colors of the side that has seized it.

At the upper middle (2) you see several information about the current battle: date, time, available Victory Points, the time bar and the Menu button. Select the Menu button if you want to restart the battle or return to Main Menu.

At the upper right corner (3) there are the Pause and Map buttons. Select/deselect the Map button to show/hide the elevation contours on the map:

Unit controls: The basic unit actions can be easily performed by simple fingertip moves. Check the interactive tutorial in the Main Menu to practice with these controls. Here is a quick reference about them:

• Tap on unit and drag a path to move it.
• Double tap on a moving unit to halt it.
• Tap once on a target for a range attack or twice for a charge.
• Tap, hold and rotate, to rotate a unit.
• Make a circle around a group of units to group and command them as a single unit.
• Stretch/Pinch to zoom in/out map.
• Drag map with two fingers to pan.

Additionally, there are up to four control buttons at the bottom right (4) for special actions, which, with the above touch actions, complete a powerful unit control system in Ultimate General: Gettysburg.

Use the Charge button if you want your unit to auto-charge on the nearest threat. If you manually first select a  target then    your unit will charge that specific unit (as you can do with double tap on the target).

The Limber button is available only for the artillery units. Select it to limber/unlimber guns and redeploy them faster on the field.

Select the Halt button to halt a moving unit. When this button is selected it turns to the Fortify control button (see below).

Select the Halt button to halt a moving unit. When this button is selected it turns to the Fortify control button (see below).

Select the Fortify button to order your unit to defend its ground more tenaciously. Your unit will hold position and formation until it receives new orders or withdraws due to low morale.

Select Fallback button to make your unit fall back, always facing the enemy. This action will limit casualties and increase morale slightly.
 

Auto fire: In Ultimate General: Gettysburg units are always in auto fire mode. When the enemy is in range and within a unit’s line of sight, the unit will automatically open fire. You can always assign a manual target but keep in mind that your unit will continue to follow your order until you re-assign it or its target goes out of line of sight. Artillery units use three types of ammo, solid, shell and canister, and will automatically select the best type depending on the distance to target. 
 
Unit GI: The unit graphical interface (5) provides information about the status of your units. It appears at the lower left corner of the screen when a unit is selected:

In the panel you can see the historical portrait, name and rank of the unit’s commander, the position of the unit in the army's order of battle. The number of stars indicate the skill rating of the unit. At the right top of the panel are the kills and casualties meters. Four dynamic colored bars indicate the unit's current morale, condition, cover and reload time.

The Morale of your units is a critical factor that affects its capability in combat. It is dependent upon the condition of the unit and its army, its deployment position and the success of your plans and actions over the course of the battle. There are three additional symbols that may appear in the morale bar that indicate unit state and/or action.

Target

The target symbol appears when your unit becomes the target of a hostile unit. A targeted unit will experience a drop in morale.

Melee

The melee symbol appears when your unit has been engaged in a hand to hand combat. Repeated charges will drain unit’s morale. A unit with low morale will be out of your control and either will retreat temporarily to a safe position, to recover, or withdraw completely from the battlefield.

Replenish

The replenish symbol appears when a unit is inspired by his Corps commander’s presence (see below about this special unit and its abilities).  

 

Cover depends on the position of a unit and is affected by terrain features. A unit with good cover will be better and more resistant to morale loss, but will have reduced line of sight. Depending on the type of terrain, additional symbols appears in the cover bar:

Grass

 

Forest

 

Water (in Gettysburg’s vicinity these are mainly small creeks)

 

Urban

 

Fortify

The additional fortify symbol is not related just to terain. If you order a unit to Fortify (see above in unit’s control buttons) your unit will gain a cover bonus, simulating that your men are using the best defensive positions the current terrain can offer.

Condition is a combination of the current physical state of the unit and an "abstracted" status of its supplies. The unit's condition is affected by its speed, terrain and the distances it has to cover. The use of firepower increases unit fatigue and the need for resupply. You have to be cautious when using your Run or Charge orders to conserve a unit's condition. Constant assaults will exhaust and disorganize units. Infantry units are not suited to engagements involving long marches. Remember that a unit in bad condition will lose its morale more quickly.

Reload is a time factor affected by weapon type and the unit’s condition and morale. Units in bad shape have lower rates of fire. If you order an artillery unit to limber/unlimber it will need some extra time to reload/load. This side effect should considered in order to coordinate effectively artillery redeployment. 

Corp’s commanders: Generals are special units and their panel has some differences from those of the other units. The General's info panel displays information about the units under his command and not that of the General unit itself:

Generals are not fighting units (they cannot attack or be attacked), they will fall back automatically to evade potential threats, so they have fewer controls. Their presence inspires units, replenishes morale and improves condition more quickly. By selecting a General unit, you can see its command radius as a circle and the units under its influence highlighted in green. The highlighted units within the radius get bonuses to morale and condition recovery.

Messages (6) appear at the upper left corner of your screen and will inform you about the arrival of reinforcements on both sides. AI movement will only be reported if it takes place in a visible area.

 

Line of Sight & Fog of War

Ultimate General: Gettysburg comes with an accurate Fog of War system that simulates Line of Sight. Simply put, units can only spot what they can directly see. In the image below you can see the visible area that is inside the total line of sight of the whole player’s army and the black, blocked area under the fog of war:

If you select a specific unit you will clearly see the visible area of the unit (very bright area), but you will be still able to see the total line of sight of the whole army (semi-dark area):

The selected unit (Candy’s brigade) will react only if a hostile unit enters in its own line of sight (the limited very bright area around it). If the enemy enters in the semi-dark area it will be visible by the player - because at least one of your command's units can see it -, but it won’t be visible by Candy. In this case Candy will not auto-react, even if the enemy is inside his range of fire.
It is important to remember that you may be able to see a hostile unit because it is inside the line of sight of at least one of your units, but this does not mean that all of your units can see it too. Hostile movements under the fog of war (black area) will not be visible by the player.
For more details about the line of sight along with other important factors and game mechanics please see the related chapters of our detailed online guide for the PC version at: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/746-on-line-guide/