README File for Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-1943
IBM  Version 1.0
September 22, 1992

        Enclosed are the final notes listing changes and new features
for the game:

1) This is NOT a Windows game!  If you use windows, we recommend that you
run this game from outside of Windows.  If you still want to run this
game, set your .PIF file for 100% usage and make sure you have
SMARTDRV.SYS loaded.  It would also help to have at least 4 Meg of RAM on
a 386/40 or a 486/33. We make NO guarantees that this game will run
under windows. Note:  SMARTDRV.SYS will help the speed of this game even
without Windows.)

2) There are two memory profiles for this game, the EMS and NOEMS
versions.  This program auto senses which version is appropriate for your
machine.  If the program cannot sense your EMS or thinks you have EMS
when you don't, you can override the program by typing GNBNA EMS
<Enter> for the EMS version or GNBNA NOEMS <Enter> for the NOEMS version.

3) If you wish, you can avoid the introduction by typing GNBNA386 <Enter>
instead of GNBNA.

4) Some of the ships don't exactly match the manual.  The following
differences have been made to the game

        a) There is only one ship type for each class.  Therefore, any
        aberrations listed in the manual are not in the game.  For
        instance, the Tirpitz will have no torpedoes, but the Gneisenau
        will have torpedoes.

        b) There is only one Carrier type in the game. It has a speed of
        30 knots, can hold 12 airplanes, is 660 ft. long, and has no main
        or secondary guns.

        c) The number of airplanes may not match the number of planes
        listed in the manual.  This is due to inconsistencies between the
        number of possible airplanes vs. the number of operational
        airplanes.

        d) All of the ship lengths in the game are in 30 foot increments,
        so they may not match the manual.

        e) The improved Z class German destroyer has 5, not 4 guns. The
        foreward turret has 2 guns.

        f) There is an armor listing for secondaries on the Hood. Since
        there are no secondaries, this is an error.

        g) We are not using casemate guns in the game.  They had poor
        angles of fire, were highly slow and inaccurate, and could not be
        used in rough weather.  The British during the war removed most of
        the casemate guns on the few ships that still had them.

        h) The Hipper class secondary guns have not been included in the
        game.  This is because they were, in reality, AA guns and did not
        carry the proper ammo or have the proper fire control to shoot at
        ships.

        i) The Nelson class battleship does not have the two foreward
        below waterline torpedo tubes.  They were only used once and were
        an abysmal failure. (Battleships cannot be maneuvered like a
        submarine.)

        j) The Renown class battlecruiser does not have secondaries for
        the same reason as the Hipper class.

        k) We removed the "E" class cruiser.  There were only 2 ships, and
        they were old and not very useful in ship combat. (Plus, the
        British have plenty of ships.)

5) Certain menu options are unavailable to the German player during the
campaign.  All menus options that involve Convoys and Patrols cannot be
selected.

6) The ports, "Hull" and "Wilhelmshaven" from the map on the back of
the manual are not used by the game.

7) Patrol and Escort Pool ships may only be added to or removed from Scapa
Flow and there is no delay in adding to or removing ships.

8) If a ship is released from Escort or Patrol duty due to damage or
effectiveness, they will appear in Liverpool.

9) "Refuelling" Task Forces will not rearm Task Forces.  You must
"Disband" a TF at a base in order to rearm a ship.

10) You will recover one point of effectiveness of every ship in port
with an effectiveness of 70% or better per day.  This will not repair
damage, but will get your ships and crews up to fighting trim.

11) "Repair" fixes damaged ships and ships with effectivenesses of under
100%.  The number refers to the number of days until the ship is repaired.

12) Repairs will take a minimum of 20 days.

14) All repair and effectiveness gains occur once a day.

15) The magnification numbers in the lower left of the Flag Bridge and
Tactical View screens refer to the number of miles vertically(V:) and
horizontally(H:) displayed.

16) If a German TF is being "SHADOWED", it cannot engage convoys.

17) The wind speed will affect the maximum speed of a ship in tactical
combat.  The gauge will not change, but you will not be able to speed up
past a certain speed.

18) The "Ship" switch in the "Circle" menu turns on the active ship's
range circles.  If you switch to another ship, it still only show8s the
circles from the previous ship.

19) When fighting merchant convoys.  Even though the convoy list might
show as many as 20 merchant ships, the combat will only have from seven to
ten merchant ships.

20) On the Flag Bridge and the Tactical Map, the colors on the screen mean
different things:
        Blue - German ships/planes.
        Red - British ships/planes.
        Lt. Cyan - Hvy. Caliber (11"-16") shell splashes.
        Cyan - Med. Caliber (8") shell  splashes.
        Lt. Magenta - Lt. Caliber shell splashes.
        Lt. Grey - Torpedoes.
        Dk. Grey - Smoke.
        Lt. Blue - Returning German planes.
        Lt. Red - Returning British planes.
        Yellow Flashing Icon - Ship has been hit.

21) Torpedoes travel for 80 seconds before they arm.

22) The German torpedo chart on p. 74 on the manual is missing the
following: GVIIaT1 (Long) 15300/30.

23) When selecting ships in the campaign game, click in the ship name.

24) On p.29, West of Newfoundland is actually East. (OK, you got us.  The
combat doesn't actually happen on land.)

25) On p.30, West of Montevideo is actually East. (OK, we were having
problems with east and west that day.)

26) The Status Report shows the undamaged version of each ship.

27) If the German player runs out of capital ships during a campaign game,
the game will end and the player will only get one-half of the points he
actually earned during the campaign.

28) If you have Scout or Attack planes in the air, you must recall them
before the end of combat or you will lose them.

29) There are four new scenarios not documented by the manual:

        Denmark Straits with Cruisers - This is the Denmark Straits battle
        with the Norfolk and Suffolk added in the battle.
        (The British get an added punch, maybe)

        Best Tradition of the Service - Coming out of a fog bank, the 
        Glowworm has accidentally stumbled across the Hipper.
        9:57AM     Beaufort Scale: 8     Range: 1000yds.
        (This is a quick one folks)

        Convoy HX-106 - This is a hypothetical battle of the Sharnhorst and 
        Gneisenau ecountering a convoy escorted by the Ramilles and two "E" 
        class destroyers.
        10:30AM     Beaufort Scale: 3
        (Try out your convoy killing tactics or practice defending convoys)

        Old vs. New - Another hypothetical battle pitting the Sharnhorst 
        and Gneisenau against the Renown and three "H" class destroyers.
        12:30AM     Beaufort Scale: 8
        (Coordination between the big ship and the destroyers is crutial)



Additional Testers:
        Don McClure
        Matt Vella


Final Notes:

        If the game should crash for any reason, REBOOT the machine.
The sound driver doesn't clean up after itself if the game crashes.

        We have included a text file called TUTORIAL with the game.  The
tutorial goes step-by-step through playing the "Gunnery Practice" scenario
and the "Operation Rheinubung" campaign games.

        We hope you enjoy playing this game as much as we had making it.
As we work on the scenarios and the scenario builder, we will continue to
work on improving the system.  If you have any comments or suggestions,
write to me, Ken Humphries c/o Strategic Simulations, Inc., 675 Almanor
Ave., Suite 201, Sunnyvale, CA   94086.  Watch out for those
torpedoes...


---Ken


