| NETHER EARTH
Was it really only five eons ago that the Insignians first burst through the Earth's mantle? What terror, pain and suffering they have inflicted since. No-one even suspected that there was a race of beings under the rock crust developing weapon systems that could in a few short years completely dominate the Earth and leave the human race as litlle more than slaves. Yet no-one has ever seen an Insignian! They never step out of those terrible war machines, produced, now by human slave labour, in factories all over the Earth. But things are changing... We all know that the human resistance movement has been active for years but for the first time since the domination an Insignian war base has been captured and this means that a full scale attack has a slight chance of success. It is expected that all the factories first contacted by the human resistance under the command of Captain Fergus McCaffery will come over to the human cause but that those first visited by the Insignian war machines will be devoted to supplying their war effort. McCaffery has learnt the lesson of the last five eons - he intends to fight this war from within war machines identical to those used by the Insignians. With the war base at Kerberus under his control he intends to take the three Insignian bases at Tarras, Faretra and Diolkos but this all depends upon how quickly the factories can be taken and their production used to build war machines under human control! It is hoped that this, the 17th offensive against the Insignians, is the long expected but not yet found - Last War! Battle Orders Objective: Capture or destroy all three Insignian War Bases whilst keeping our base and factories in production. Area of Battle: The third sector North - a strip of land 512 miles by 16 miles. Home base.Kerberus is to the far West edge of the sector. Insignian bases are 208 miles East (Tarras),316 miles East (Faretra) and 512 miles East (Diolkos). Automated factory units are spread throughout the area and their product is prominently displayed on the roof of each building. Intelligence reports suggest that no factories are currently in production but that the first robot, to arrive at each site can re-start production immediately. Ideally we need to have as many factories of each type as possible but one of each type is better than all of a particular type. The six factory types produce: Chassis modules Electronic support modules Nuclear, Missile, Phaser and Cannon weapons Resources available: It is estimated that we start with 30 resource units (labour,parts, materials & forces) and that for every day we continue the struggle further resources will become available to us. We expect each factory to contribute two resource units per day - specific type related to their production, and that war bases contribute five general resource units each day. Construction control: Up & Down Moves module selector Fire Selects modules or de- selects if already selected — no robot can have two of the same module. Left&Right Select Start Robot or Exit menu. Start Robot sends the robot currently under construction into the sector to await orders. Exit menu scraps the current construction and returns to the combat sector. Robot Control: When your anti-grav has landed on top of one of your robots it stops moving and you can then take control, pass orders or enter combat mode. Up & Down Moves option selector Fire Selects highlighted option Direct Control: Direction keys move robot as required and fire stops robot, and returns you to menu selection. When you have selected this option you have the orders sub-menu to select from. Possible orders are: Stop & Robot stays in present Defend: position and fires on any enemy robot within range. Advance?? Up & Down keys select miles: distance between 0 & 50 miles. The robot then moves East the required distance before reverting to Stop & Defend orders. Retreat?? As above but moves West. miles: Search & Takes you to sub-menu Capture: offering Neutral Factories, Enemy Factories or Warbases. Robot moves to the nearest target and tries to capture it. Search & Sub-menu offers Robots, Destroy: Factories or Warbases. Robot moves as above but destroys target. Warbases can only be destroyed by nuclear weapons. If any order cannot be carried out by the robot concerned, because for example the robot is not nuclear equipped or you are trying to capture enemy factories when there are none, then the robot reverts to stop and defend. Combat Control: The robot is controlled as described above under direct control but you have a menu allowing you to select any weapon fitted and fire it independently. The Move Robot control is identical to Direct Control as described. Capturing Factories: In order for a robot to capture an enemy factory the robot must occupy the factory for at least 12 game hours. Captured factories display a flag on the right if in Insignian hands and on the left when controlled by human beings. Robot construction: Resource units can be used to build robots for combat, defence and factory capture. Each robot must have one chassis module, between one and three weapon modules and may have an optional electronic support module. Chassis Units: Type Specification Bipod Slow but cheap and rugged. Can't get over hills but can cope with rough ground at a pinch! Best used on flat level ground. Tracked Considerably more manoeuvrable than bipods but twice the resource units. Anti-Grav By far the best system, it simply flies over the ground whatever its difficulties. This is the only chassis that can span ravines! Weapon units: Cost Range Lethality Resource Type Miles Units Units Cannon 10 2 8 Missiles 14 3 4 Phasers 10 4 4 Nuclear 8 See Note 20 Note: Nuclear weapons destroy all robots and factories within an 8 mile radius of the robot carrying the device - this includes the carrying robot. This is currently the only method we have to destroy factories and war bases! Electronic Support Modules: This module increases weapon accuracy, giving a notional added range of 3 miles to each weapon type, Advance warning of attack contributes to the slightly increased resistance to damage from enemy fire when this unit is fitted. Airbourne reconnaissance: Your command team has a single anti-grav vehicle at its disposal for reconnaissance and order transmission purposes. To recce an area simply fly over it using the normal control sequence. To pass orders to a robot land on top of the unit concerned and then select the correct command sequence from those in the command menu. To build robots land the anti-grav on the heli-pad at your warbase and construct robots from the menu offered by the warbase computer. Robot construction: Whenever you land on a warbase heli-pad you are presented with the robot construction unless: you already have 24 robots in the sector or something, usually a robot, is blocking the warbase exit. Control details: Standard control system: Control Spectrum Commodore Amstrad Joystick Kempston Port 2 Joystick Interface 2 socket Keys (all versions have re-definable keys) Up Q Q Q Down A A A Left O O O Right P P P Fire Symbol Space Space Shift Pause 1 f1 Delete Abort Game 9 f2 Escape Save Game 5 none T Campaign orders Previous war experience suggests that this campaign should be fought in three distinct stages: Stage one: Early Days only Use all available resource units to build small robots with orders to capture neutral factories. This maximises the chance of building bigger better defended robots at a later stage. Stage two: Build large robots with good defences and electronic support units with orders to destroy enemy robots and capture enemy factories. A few should also be despatched towards the middle of the battle sector to prevent enemy robots taking our factories. Stage three: Build giant nuclear robots with orders to destroy Insignian bases. Only commanders in thr field can decide when a stage one battle changes to stage two etc. Please use your discretion ans skills to best effect. Clock Status Insignians Humans Main sector display screen = = = = = = = = = = Resources Units = Radar screen = = = |