QUICKSTART TUTORIAL

An Engagement

The simplest situation you can play is the scenario that pits the British
battleship Prince of Wales against the German battleship Bismarck. To get
started playing Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic quickly, just play
along with the following directions, which introduces you to the major
features of the tactical levels of the game.

After the opening routine finishes, select "Scenario" from the "Choose
Game" menu, then select "German" from the "Choose Sides" menu, and then
"Load" the first Engagement offered, "Gunnery Practice: The Bismarck
Toe-to-Toe with the Prince of Wales." If you want some background on this
Engagement, check out the description on p. 28 of the manual.

The first station you will see is the Flag Bridge, with its large map
dominating the center and left of your screen, and the Ship Control Area on
the right. The game is automatically paused when you get to this point (as
indicated in the upper left of the map), so you can take a minute to look
around.

First of all, take a look at the map. In the center you can see a blue line
with a white tip and a red square around it. That is the currently active
ship, the Bismarck, which you can tell by looking in the upper right of the
screen, at the top of the Ship Control Area, where the Name Plaque shows
the name. Or, you can move the cursor to the box containing the "N" in the
upper left portion of the map frame (fourth one down), and click the left
mouse button. This turns the name filter on, and the ship's name is
displayed next to the icon on the map. The other boxes with letters in them
are other "filters" that turn on and off other kinds of information. We'll
check out a few others in a bit.

Before we do, though, take another look in the upper left of the map. Above
the word "Paused" you can see that the time of day is 8:15 in the morning
(the game uses a military clock, so 8:15 in the evening would be 20:15
hours), and the speed of play is at 1:1 (x1). This is "real time:" one
second on your watch equals one second of time simulated in the game. If at
some points the action seems to slow for your taste, you can speed the game
clock up by selecting the SPEED item of the OPTIONS menu on the menu bar.

"What menu bar?" I hear you cry. Why, the one you call up by pressing the
right mouse button. Do this, move the cursor over the OPTIONS menu, and
click with the left mouse button. You will see the various items you can
select here, the game SPEED among them. However, it's probably better to
take things slow at this point, so click the right mouse button again to
get rid of the menus without selecting any item.

Looking back at the map, there are two other items of interest right now.
First, in the lower right is an arrow and a number. These show the wind
direction and speed. These are useful because a strong wind can affect the
accuracy of your gunnery. If you are firing at long range perpendicular to
the wind direction, your shells will tend to drift in the direction the
wind is blowing. If you are firing into the wind, the spray it whips off
the waves will degrade your gun's accuracy in less predictable ways.

The second thing to look for on the map is the grid, the square mesh
superimposed on the blue of the water. You can turn it on and off using the
"G" filter in the upper left of the map frame. Go ahead and try it!, but
for now leave it on. Each line is 10,000 yards from its neighbors. Since
battleships can fire about 40,000 yards, the grid makes it easy to tell
whether an enemy ship is in range.

Of course, you may now wonder, "Where is the enemy ship?" The easiest way
to find it is to zoom the map out, so that it shows a larger area of ocean.
You can do this by pressing the up arrow in the very upper right of the map
frame. You can tell that the map has been zoomed out because the grid lines
are closer together. They are still 10,000 yards apart, so the area of
ocean displayed has gone from 70,000 x 70,000 yards to 140,000 x 140,000
yards. And there, about 30,000 yards south of the Bismarck, lies the Prince
of Wales. You can tell it's British by its color, and you can tell it's the
Prince of Wales because it says so right there on the map (you did leave
the name filter on, didn't you?).

We have met the enemy, but he is not ours. Yet, anyway. Before we unpause
the game so the ships can start blowing the stuffing out of each other,
let's explore a bit further and form a plan of action. The first question is
whether the two ships are within range of each other, which we can learn by
turning the "M" filter on (on the left side of the map frame, remember?),
which displays two circles showing the maximum range of each ship's big
guns. No question here, both ships are well within range of the other. Turn
that filter off, and try the next one down, the "S" for the secondary
armament. Here's something interesting! The Prince of Wales is almost
within range of our secondaries, but its secondaries have a somewhat
shorter range. Since the British ship has ten main guns to our eight
(albeit 14" against 15"), we can gain some advantage by moving a bit closer
so that our six port-side 5.9" guns can harass His Highness while his 5.25"
popguns can't touch us.

Okay, so how do we do this maneuver? It's time to look at the Ship Controls
on the right side of the screen. First of all, check the Control Mode
Selector, to make sure it's set to "M", for manual control (if it's set to
"A", or automatic mode, none of the controls below will have any effect;
the computer will be in complete control of the ship until you switch the
selector to "M" ("No, I don't think that's a good idea, Dave. I really
think you should reconsider, Dave. Daave, oi dooond theengk eu shuud ...
)).

Whew, that was close. Anyway, now that you have control of the ship, the
question is, what to do with it. First of all, you want to make sure that
the main guns are targeted on the Prince of Wales, so when you unpause the
game your gunners will begin laying their guns immediately. Move the cursor
over the upper box below "Main Target" and click. A dialog box appears at
the top of the map, listing the "Pr Wales." Point and click on that, and
look for two things. First, the name of the enemy ship should appear in the
box right below "Main Target," and second, a diamond should appear around
the enemy ship on the map. (If these don't happen, click on the box below
"Main Target" again and be careful in pointing and clicking on the "Pr
Wales." There are no points for sinking "No Target").

Next, you should set up the maneuver that will bring the enemy within range
of your secondary guns. You can do this by using the "Course" controls
alittle above the "Main Target" control you just used. Find the number
"270" with the arrows pointing in either direction away from it and click
on the left arrow. The number will change to "269," which means that the
Bismarck will alter its course just to the south of west (remember, 270 is
due West, 180 is due South, and 90 is due east, and 0/360 is due North on a
compass). Since this will bring us within range only ever so slowly, keep
clicking on that left arrow until it reads "225" (if you overshoot, use the
right arrow to bring the number back up). This course should bring the
Prince of Wales into range quickly, while still keeping it within the field
of fire of the Bismarck's rear guns.

One final thing before you unpause the game. Click on the right arrow under
"Speed" until the number reads "31." There's no point poking along.

Now you're ready for the action to begin. Click the right mouse button to
get the menu bar, click on the OPTION menu, and choose the item PAUSE GAME.
Note that in the future you can also pause and unpause the game by pressing
the hot key combination "Alt-P."

Almost immediately, you will hear the sound of gunfire, but not much else
will happen. This is because the main guns have fired, and the shells are
in the air. At 30,000 yards, it will take some time for them to reach their
target. To get a better view of the action, let's go to the main gunnery
station. Click the right mouse button, then click on the STATIONS menu, and
then on the MAIN GUN item. As soon as you see the new screen hit "Alt-P" to
pause the game for a minute.

As you look at this station, note the small version of the map in the upper
right corner. Since it looks pretty crowded, press twice on the down arrow
in the upper right of the frame, which will zoom it to about the right
level. Checking out the overhead view at the bottom of the station you can
see that the main guns are pointed south, which is good, since that's where
the enemy is. On the other hand, there's nothing to be seen in the
binoculars in the upper right, and the reason is that they're pointed due
north, directly away from the Prince of Wales, as you can see from the
bearing readout above (it points to "0"). Fortunately, the director has
already targeted the Prince of Wales, as you can see by its name in the
lower portion of the binoculars, so click on the black "L" just to the left
of the outside view, and when the "L" changes to white, the binoculars will
automatically center on the enemy ship. (This automatic lock is a handy
feature, but it may cause you problems in future games with multiple enemy
ships to watch. The left and right arrows on either side of the outside
view will normally swing the binoculars to the left and right, but not when
the lock is on. Keep this in mind when you have to move between two or
three enemy ships in other scenarios!)

(By the way, the same is true of the "C", or center, filter on the map and
the up/down, left/right scroll arrows (triangles) on the bottom and right
of the frame. While the "C" is on, the map will try to remain centered
between the active ship and its target. When the "C" is off, you can scroll
all over the place. For now, just leave the "C" on.)

You can tell the binoculars'' automatic lock-on has worked because the
readout above the binoculars now points to "180." But you still can't see
anything out there! Press the down arrow (triangle) just to the right of
the outside view, and you will see the "X1" in the binoculars change to
"X2," which means that their magnification has been increased. And sure
enough, there in the middle of the outside view is a black dot! Press the
down arrow again, and the dot becomes several dots ("X4"). Two more clicks
and you'll see a real ship there. Here is your enemy.

Before you unpause the game, though, take a moment to see how your crew has
the gunnery set up. The left hand knob below the binoculars is set to
"Bside," which means "Broadside," or that all main guns are firing together
at the same target. Depending on the number and location of the enemy, you
can also set this knob to control the forward ("Fwd") and aft  turrets
separately. The knob on the right side is set to "Spot," which means that
the gun crews will wait for each salvo to hit before firing another, which
avoids wasting ammunition before the exact aim has been determined. Later,
this will be switched to "Full," so that each salvo will be sent on its way
as soon as it is loaded. The time to reload is given in the readout to the
right of "Ready," while the time left before the salvo in the air hits is
show under "TOT" (for "Time on Target").

Now unpause the game and watch the TOT number count down. When it reaches
zero, you will see splashes around the Prince of Wales, and you can also
see greenish markings near it on the map. You will probably also see
splashes near the Bismarck; these are made by the enemy's shells aimed at
you! Immediately, you will hear the roar of your guns, and see the tongues
of flame shoot out from them in the overhead view. You may also see the
burst of flames in the binoculars as the enemy fires back at you. Watch
your TOT count down again, and also keep track of your reload time. As your
director acquires the target, the right hand knob should switch to "Full,"
and your guns will begin firing steadily. You may begin to score some hits,
and you may begin to suffer some as well.

Looking at the overhead view, you will notice that your guns are begin to
point somewhat forward. This is because your ship is heading to the
southwest, just as you ordered it to, trying to move close enough to use
your secondaries. Turn on the "S" filter if it is not still on, and check
how close you are to that point. Watch your gunnery and messages about the
enemy's while you wait for the Prince of Wales to come within your green
circle on the map.

Once the enemy ship is within that circle, your secondary guns will open
up. Pause the game and use the menus to go to the Navigation Station at
this point, so you can turn the Bismarck before it moves into the enemy's
secondaries' range. At the navigation station, switch the Control Mode (to
the left of the ship's name) to "M" for manual, and then click on the
control labeled "BRG" just below the "HDG" readout, which should change the
letters from gray to red, while the red letters "RDR" below it change to
gray. This changes your control mechanism from the rudder ("RDR") to the
bearing controls, which are both the compass and the readout  with the
arrows at the bottom of the station labeled "BRG." You can use the bearing
controls to enter the exact course you want the ship to turn to, but at
this point use the compass instead. Click on the "W," and the blue line in
the compass will point to it, and the "BRG" readout will change to "270."
Now that we have closed the gap between the two ships just enough, it is
time to switch back to heading due west. The "HDG" readout of "225"
indicates that the ship is still headed southwest, but once you unpause the
game, it will gradually swing to the desired direction.

Before you resume the battle, this would be a good time to check for
damage. Use the menus to switch to the Damage Station, which will show the
condition of your ship. At this point you should leave the station on
automatic, but return here periodically to keep tabs on the health of your
vessel.

Now go to the Air Ops Station to launch your float plane. This will both
improve the accuracy of your gunnery and reduce the danger of the plane
going up in a burst of aviation fuel from a shell hit. Click on the
left-most box above the airplane information and illustration, and select
the Prince of Wales to be the target. Next, click on the box just to the
right of the first box (which now should say "Pr Wales," and it will change
from "None" to "Shadow." Press "Launch," and once you unpause the game the
aircraft will fly away, to circle around your enemy and report on the
accuracy of your guns.

After resuming play, return to the Main Gunnery screen and watch the
action. You should be able to follow the exchange of gunfire, while seeing
your ship move to a westerly course on the map. You should also see your
plane move toward the enemy, and eventually your guns will shift to point
off the beam. The two ships will continue to pound at each other, and you
can watch the rhythm of reloading, TOT, and the gradual expenditure of
ammunition. Try moving to the various stations listed in the menu, and try
out some of the other choices listed there too. Remember that the game will
pause while you read the background material contained in the "Briefings,"
so you may want to sample some of these as well. If you want to become more
involved in the action, then switch more stations to manual (the Damage
Control Station usually requires considerable attention). Or, if you want,
just turn up the speed to "X2." Depending on the fortunes of war, it should
not be too long before one ship or the other slips to a watery grave.




An Operation

To help get you started quickly with the Operational and Campaign level
games, this tutorial will walk you through the first portion of a sortie by
the battleship Bismarck.

After the introductory routine finishes, select "Campaign" from the "Choose
Game" menu, the select "British" from the "Choose Sides" menu, and then
"Load" the first Operation offered, "Operation Rheinubung: the Bismarck
Sets Sail." If you want some background on this Operation, check out the
description on p. 39 of the manual.

Once again, as the game begins, you will see a large map, but this one is
on the wall of the Admiralty building. Since the game is paused, you should
take the opportunity to become aquatinted with the displays and controls
before the action starts.

Looking at the map, you can see that it encompasses the entire North
Atlantic. Surrounding it are the familiar controls in the frame: the scroll
arrows on the right and at the bottom, the zoom and unzoom arrows in the
upper right, and the filters in the upper left. Don't bother with the
scroll and zoom controls at the moment -- they work like the ones on the
tactical map, -- but the filters are worth a look. Three are already
selected: "B", "C", and "T", which stand for Bases, Convoys, and Task
Forces. Click on "B" a few times and see how the squares turn on and off:
these are yours and the enemy's bases. Do the same with "C", and you can
see where your convoys are and how they're represented. The same goes for
"T", although you may not see much happen. There is a Task Force already in
Gibraltar, which is the British (red) base in the lower middle right side
of the map, between Spain and Africa. The Task Force is the bright red "T"
against the darker read of the square representing the Base.

When you toggled the Bases on and off, another set of icons toggeled as
well, the "P"s in the ocean between Greenland, Iceland, and Northern
Scotland. These are Patrol Zones, areas where the Royal Navy keeps ships
constantly on station to intercept any German raiders trying to move
through these gaps into the North Atlantic shipping lanes. Together, these
four elements -- the Bases, Task Forces, Patrol Zones, and Convoys -- are
the primary elements of your command. They contain individual ships, of
course, and you will often move vessels between them, but they are the
units with which you mainly work. You will almost always want to keep all
three filters on.

Before you begin giving orders to them, however, there are a few other
filters worth examining. Specifically, the "S", or Search, filter, shows
the range of air searches from each base. As you can see, by May, 1941, the
entire northeastern section of the ocean was pretty well covered, but if
the enemy breaks out, there is plenty of ocean down south for him to hide
in. And remember, the searches are most effective near the center of a
circle, and become less useful towards its periphery. Again, by May, 1941,
the immediate area between Greenland and the UK is pretty well covered, but
even the hinterland south of Iceland and west of Ireland is less well
patrolled than it first appears.

Turning off the "S" and turning on the "A" filter you will see a number of
much smaller circles. These show the range of shore based attack aircraft.
Any ship venturing within these circles will quickly find itself at the
center of a swarm of angry aircraft. Avoid these places.

Okay, now its time to assess the situation. Since the Germans will be
coming out of the North Sea, there's no point viewing the whole North
Atlantic, so click on the Zoom-in (down) arrow in the upper right of the
map frame one time, which zooms your view in on the area from Greenland in
the upper left to France and Germany in the lower right, with the United
Kingdom, Iceland, and the gaps between in the middle. It is through here
that the Germans must move. (The English Channel between southern Britain
and the European continent is guarded by mine-fields, coastal craft, and
airplanes, symbolized by the colored blotch on the water. Similar defenses
guard other areas of the map, with the color of the blotch indicating who
is defending, and thus implying who will be hurting if they enter.)

Begin by checking on your Patrol Zones. To check on all ships assigned to
patrol duty, call up the menu bar by clicking on the right mouse button,
click with the left button on REPORTS and select the PATROL POOL item. This
brings up the Patrol Pool Report, showing that five cruisers are currently
available for patrols. Two each are assigned to the western and central
gaps, and one supplements the air patrols and strike aircraft covering the
east. Click on "Exit" to return to the map.

To get another view of the patrol situation, click on the left most Patrol
Icon itself. This brings up the Control Display for the Greenland-Iceland
gap. Since two cruisers is plenty for the moment, there is no need to make
any adjustments, but this is where you can specify more or fewer craft of
each type in future games, and where you go to take ships away from the
zone in an emergency.

Returning to the main map, it's time to get down to business. You know that
the Bismarck is about to sortie, so it would be good to get some of your
ships at sea. The question is, where are they? Go to the menu and call up
the ALL SHIPS report, and you will see that most of your battleships are at
Scapa Flow (with some at Gibraltar/Force H), while many of the lighter
craft are already at sea, but are committed to patrol duty and escort
service.

The question now is, where is Scapa Flow. Hit "Exit" to return to the map,
and turn the "N", name, filter on. Now you can see Scapa Flow, conveniently
located at the entrance to the North Sea. Click on the square icon, and you
will move to the Base Overview Display. At the top you can see that the
base has 10 Swordfish ready to attack if the Bismarck should stray within
range, and 10 Catalinas with which to search. In the middle of the screen
is the long list of ships based here, and at the bottom are the buttons
used to undertake various activities.

At the moment, you want to get a Task Force under way, so click on the
"Form TF" button (the others let you add ships to the Patrols and Escort
Pools or send ships into repair). The screen now divides, with the ship
list on the left and a blank list labeled "New TF" on the right. To begin
forming the new Task Force, click on the battleship Hood (a BB), and it
will jump from the left-hand list to the right. Click again on the Prince
of Wales (BB), the Kenya (CA, a cruiser), the Electra (DD, a destroyer),
and the Aschates (DD), and leave the rest.

Now click on "Orders," and you will move to the Task Force Overview
Display, exactly the same Display you would see if you had clicked on a
Task Force icon on the map. This is similar to the Base Overview Display,
showing the aircraft controls at the top (which would have airplanes were
there an aircraft carrier with these ships), the ship roster in the middle,
and the activity buttons below.

Since we want to order this Task Force out to sea, click on "Plot." This
brings up the strategic map again, but this time with some controls on the
right side. But the main control is the map itself. To order the Task Force
(the bright red "T" on top of the darker red square for Scapa Flow) to
move, simply point at the map and click. Specifically, point to a place
just below the "V" in "Reykjavik" in Iceland and click, and a yellow line
will appear. This is the path the Task Force will follow. Furthermore, the
number next to "Waypoint" in the controls to the right will go from "0" to
"1", indicating that one leg of the journey has been plotted. Each Task
Force can be given up to ten <<Right?>> waypoints, and if you make a
mistake and want to start over, you just have to click on "Clear."

In this case, the move to Iceland should suffice, so click on "Done" and
you will return to the Task Force Overview Display. There is one more thing
to do here: in the upper left area are controls for the Task Force's speed.
It is now set for cruise speed, 15 knots, which is economical, but may not
get us there in time if the Bismarck dashes for the Greenland-Iceland
straits. Therefore, click on "Max", and the speed should jump to 30.

Before you start the game, there is one other assignment you should make.
Click on the Convoy icon (the flattened "C") to the west of Ulster, which
brings up the Convoy Overview Display. You can see that the battleship
Rodney and four destroyers are escorting this convoy. To increase your
chances of catching the Bismarck, click on "Detach", which will bring up
the New Task Force Display. This process works just like forming a Task
Force at a base: just click on each ship in turn to transfer it from the
Convoy to the Task Force. Once all five ships have been transferred, click
on "Orders" to move to the Task Force Overview Display, and then click on
"Plot." Point to a position just southwest of the little island about
half-way between Britain and Iceland and click, which becomes the Task
Force's destination. Click on "Done" to return to the Task Force Overview
Display, set the speed to "Max," and "Exit" to the main map.

You are now ready to unpause the game. Hit "Alt-P" and watch as time begins
to pass. You will get messages indicating when the enemy has been spotted,
and you will see the icon marking the location, and you will get various
messages about the status of your own forces. Turn on the "M" ("Movement")
filter, which shows where you have plotted your Task Forces to move, and
watch as they move toward their destination. Before much time passes, click
on Scapa Flow again and make another Task Force including the King George
V, the Repulse, the Victorious, the Edinburgh, the Anthony, and the Echo,
and plot it to move at maximum speed to a point in between the destinations
of the other two forces.

If the Forces reach their destinations without the Bismarck having been
spotted, immediately order Force B (the one with the Hood) around to off
Reykjavik, and order the newest one (Force D) to where Force B had been.
Now all you can do is wait for the German to show himself, This he will do
eventually, most likely to one or two of your patrolling cruisers. When he
does, order them to "Shadow" him, and plot your Task Forces to intercept.
Remember to zoom the map in steadily; what appear to be minor distances at
the higher zoom levels take on a whole new aspect when viewed close up.

Once one of your Task Forces intercepts the enemy, the game will move to
the tactical level. If you succeed in sinking the Bismarck, the game will
be over and you will have won; if it gets by, he may well bag one or more
convoys, and at the least  you will have to play cat-and-mouse across the
wide North Atlantic. You can still win, but the struggle will be much
tougher. Whatever happens, though, you should be able to take the lead from
here.

