In this Article, a step-by-step guide is provided to demonstrate the game mechanics needed to embark land units onto landing craft and then disemark them onto amphibious assault landing zones. This is a very basic tutorial designed only to show the pointing and clicking necessary to complete an amphibious assault. Amphibious assualts take four main steps that span at least two turns to complete. To further understand which steps need to be complete in which turn, consider the following chart:


In addition to these basic steps, there are various tactics and strategies that can be leveraged to help ensure the success of the amphibous assault. These tactics and strategies will be discussed in future articles.

Before we get started with the step-by-step instructions, let's review some basic sceanario, objective and important information related to this amphibious assault example.

Cherbourg, France - May 1941

The Luftwaffe has cleared the English Channel of the British Royal Navy and German land forces are poised to invade Great Britain.


Objective: South coast of England; County of West Sussex
In this example the XIX Panzer Korps will be issued orders to embark onto landing craft, move to sea then disemark onto the southern coast of England.

Before moving on to the first step of issuing those orders, let's review critical game information and navigation buttons that will assist in the conduct of an amphibious assault.

Basic Game Display

The active combat unit (6), the purchase button (4) and the Amphibious Transport Unit Action button (5) are the primary buttons on the desktop that will be used for the amphibious assault. The other sections identified in the screenshot above have no user functionality assigned to them. They are for information only. From top left going clockwise those sections are describled in detail below:

1. Mini Map
   The red rectangle in the Mini Map shows the area of the map being displayed on your computer's desktop. The desktop screen display can be moved by pointing and clicking within the Mini Map. This is a good method to quickly navigate the desktop from one edge of the map to the other. It is much faster than scrolling. The Mini Map also displays the Month and Year of the turn as well as the turn counter. In this example, this is the 21st turn of a 70 turn game. There are other important functions that are contained in the Mini Map and they will be discussed in future SWiE guides.
   
   
   
2. Production Points
   Production points are the game's currency. Production points are used to purchase STP - Strategic Movement Points (movement by rail), SMP - Strategic Transport Points (movement by transport ship and supply convoys), AIP - Amphibious Invasion Points - (movement by amphibious landing). Production points are also used to puchase combat units, supply convoys and to fund research and development. In this example, there are 598 PPs available for allocation.
   
   
   
3. Amphibious Invasion Points
   AIPs need to be purchased in order to supply land units with amphibious landing craft. Landing craft are not actually purchased, rather, each land unit requires a certain amount of AIPs in order to embark onto an LCA unit. In this example, there are zero AIPs remaining / of zero AIPs available.
   
   
   
4. Purchase Button
   Use the purchase button to acquire land units, air units, naval units, Strategic Movements Points (rail), Transport Points (sea transports and convoys) and Amphibious Assault Points. As Amphibious Assualt Points (AIP) are purchased, the AIP count in the AIP lettered button in the General Information Bar will increase.
   
   
   
5. Amphibious Transport Unit Action Button
   This button is used to load troops onto landing craft. If the button is black, there are insufficient AIPs to load the troops of the active unit. If the buttion is green the active unit can be loaded into landing craft
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Active Unit
   Left click on unit counters to make them active. The hex border that contains the unit will become highlighted in [color=red]red[/color] indicating that the unit is active. There is a plethora of information contained in the hex and unit. The hex is a port (white icon under the unit) named Cherbourg and is located in rough terrain. Cherbourg is worth 1 victory point [color=red](red)[/color] and contributes 5 production points [color=black](black)[/color]to its owner each turn. Presently, it is raining in Cherbourg. A German, level 2, Panzer Korp with a Commander occupies the hex. The unit has an effective strength of 16 attack point and has 6 action points remaining for the turn.
   
   
   
   
7. Unit Information Screen
   The unit information screen will pop up when the unit is activated. The XIX Panzer Korps has an attack strength of 9.0 however due to its Efficiency Rating, Experience Rating and Commander (Von Manstein) the effective attack strength of the unit is 16.0.
   
   
   

Notes:

When the Purchase Button is clicked, the Purchase Window will pop-up.

1.4.1 Select the [color=yellow]"Other"[/color]tab
1.4.2 Select the [color=yellow]"Amphibious Assult Points"[/color] item
1.4.3 Left click the [color=yellow]"Buy"[/color]button
1.4.4 Left click the "Exit" button
While the purchase window is open, this information can be useful.
Now that sufficient AIPs have been purchased, the unit can embark onto the Landing Craft.

Notes:


Left click on the LCA icon to activate the pop-up window.
Left click on the Close button when finished.

Everything that has been needed to prepare the XIX Panzer Korp for the amphibious assault has been completed.

Return to the game and finish out the turn.

The commands needed to execute sea movement of the LCA 317 and disemark the XIX Panzer Korp will happen in the next turn, June 1941.

The Fleet Infomation and Command Window will pop-up.

The "Move fleet" Button will take you back to the game desk top.

LCA 317 is now out to sea in "The Channel" sea zone. Also note that there are German 4 Submarines in addition to the LCA at sea in "The Channel".

The following Fleet Information and Command Window will appear.
Note: There are two German fleets in "The Channel" Sea Zone. Fleet Unterseebootflotille is comprised of 4 submarines, U-12, U-9, U-1 and U-33. The second fleet in the sea zone is Task Force 106 which is the amphibious assualt fleet and contains LCA 317.

Proceed to Step 4: Disembark which is the final stage of an amphibious assault.

Note: The "E" symbol shows all of the hexes that are eligible to be landing zones.








"a check is made whether the invasion was interceted by enemy fleets. Fleets from adjacent Sea Zones will also join in to intercept an invasion. An interception chance is counted separately for each fleet. Also, the intercepted fleet can avoid the attack (a special algorithm is applied to calcuate this; the player has no influence on the interception decision).

If the invasion was NOT intercepted, or the intercepting fleet was defeated, units can unload.

When unloading, another check is made and the invading unit may as a result take some losses or even get destroyed." [1]

If the invasion was intercepted, a pop-up window will alert you that Disembarkment failed.

In this case, the invasion sucessfully landed however some losses were taken.

Congratulations. The XIX Panzer Korp has successfully landed in England and can proceed with attacks on Southampton, London or any other hex in the highlighted range of movement.

1. Wastelands Interactive, Strategic War in Europe Game Manual, section 10.11 Guide for Unload Land Unit from Landing Craft, Poland, 2012, page 39.