NATO Division Commander v1.5.0

A first turn as the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in The Covering Force Battle. The full rules are in the manual (docs/manual.pdf) and on the in-game Rules button.

How to begin

Read Your mission in setup. It states the score gap your side must achieve by the final turn. The Your victory target box beside Objectives & Score tracks the same target during play.

On the cover page choose New operation. On the setup screen pick The Covering Force Battle, command NATO, the Controller game and Regular doctrine, then press Take command. The Warsaw Pact moves first, so you will watch its first turn — red counters appear only when your units can see them. When the banner reads Your turn you are in your Intelligence phase.

The screen has three parts: the information sidebar on the left (situation, the selected unit, the Staff Board of your headquarters, objectives and score, message log), the map in the middle, and the controls sidebar on the right (phase track, End Phase, orders for the selected unit, the Staff Estimate slip, overlays, game buttons).

The toolbar above the map keeps Save, Load, New / Menu, Rules, Order of battle and Full screen available. On a phone, Map, Orders and Intel switch between the battlefield and scrolling panels while the toolbar stays visible. Select a unit on the map, then use its Orders or Details button to jump directly to its information. During a two-player handover, press Take over before issuing orders; Escape does not bypass the handover.

Command overview counts open the matching roster filter. Search by unit name, unit type or parent headquarters, then select a unit to center the map. Low ammunition means 0–1 remaining; phase options describe capacity, not a guaranteed route or valid target. Click any objective in Objectives & Score to locate it.

Plan before moving: click a white hex to preview the route, movement cost, remaining MP, command status and known hazards. Press Move unit to execute it or Cancel to retain your position. New enemy contacts can interrupt the route. The Preview moves before committing setting can restore immediate movement.

Find targets: the Orders panel offers artillery, air and assault target guides. Select a listed contact to review its estimate; this spends nothing. Assault estimates list MP, ammunition, sorties and headquarters staff costs. A shared headquarters cannot fund more supporting batteries than its available SP.

Controls

Turn order

Each game turn is eight hours. The first side plays its four phases, then the second side plays its four. The Covering Force Battle: Warsaw Pact first; Fulda Gap: The Main Battle: Warsaw Pact first; Counterstroke on Fulda: NATO first.

1. Intelligence. Press Reconnaissance sweep and click a hex east of your screen line: every enemy within three hexes is revealed for the rest of your turn. Direction finding instead fixes any enemy headquarters that spent three or more staff points last turn — mark it, then sweep it. If an enemy headquarters is in view or has just been fixed, Jam it (1 intelligence point, then click the headquarters ringed in yellow): on its next turn it has 2 fewer staff points and a shorter command reach. Brigade headquarters may draw a staff point from division here.
2. Command. Select 3-32 Armor on Hünfeld. It is in DEFENSE. Press DUG-IN (2 SP from the regimental headquarters) if it has not moved; dug-in units are hard to shift and fire on anything that comes adjacent. Units that will counter-attack need ASSAULT. Watch the Staff Board — staff points are the real currency.
3. Fires. Select 11 ACR How. Enemy units within ten hexes that you can see get a red cross-hair; click one, read the Fire Mission slip and press Fire. The battery is now located: enemy counter-battery fire against it is half again as strong next turn. A battery can instead press Smoke and click a hex in range: nothing sees out of or into that hex beyond the adjacent hexes, and no reaction fire passes through it, until the end of the enemy's next turn — cover for a withdrawal or an approach.
4. Maneuver. Move units, assault, then press End Turn. Housekeeping resupplies units in command and traces supply to the west edge.

Movement

Select a unit: white hexes are reachable this turn and hovering shows the path and its cost. Roads cost ½ in TRAVEL mode; woods and rough 2; unbridged river 4. A unit with full movement may always move one hex.

23 Engr can lay a minefield on an approach, bridge a river or clear a known enemy minefield: select it, press the task and click a yellow-ringed hex. A move that revealed nothing can be taken back with U. With Auto-select next unit on, the next unit with orders to give is picked for you, and End Turn asks for a second press while units can still move.

Before you move, press T: the known threat overlay shades enemy zones of control red, hatches the hexes where an observed defender will fire on you as you arrive, and tints the reach of known enemy artillery violet. It shows only what you know, so an empty patch of map is not necessarily safe.

Combat and scoring

A unit in ASSAULT mode with ammunition and at least half its movement left may assault an adjacent enemy: click the enemy. The Staff Estimate slip opens. Tick other adjacent units to join, tick artillery or helicopters in range for fire support (1 SP each), add air sorties, and read the odds column and the chance of each result before you press Commit assault. Tanks with infantry or cavalry shift one column right; a river or an unsuppressed dug-in defender shifts one left.

Scoring: each side earns the victory points of the objectives it holds and points for enemy steps destroyed. The attacker's margin over the defender is compared with the scenario's par.

Winning conditions

At the end of the last turn: an attacker margin 8 or more above par is an attacker Decisive Victory, 3 or more a Marginal Victory; within 3 either way is a Draw; 3 or more below par is a defender Marginal Victory and 8 or more below a defender Decisive Victory.

Losing conditions

You lose when the result above favours the other side. Losing headquarters is the quickest way there: their formations fall out of command, stop receiving ammunition and cannot change mode until they are re-attached. A unit that must retreat with nowhere to go loses another step.

Saving and restarting

After every enemy turn a Situation Report on the left lists your losses, objectives that changed hands and the key events. In Hot seat two players share the screen; between sides a hand-over screen hides the board. Order of battle (O) lists every formation under its headquarters with steps, mode, ammunition and command state; click a row to find the unit. If your division headquarters falls, the brigade headquarters with the most battalions takes over and its counter is marked DIV. When the battle ends the result screen charts the margin against par and the losses of both sides, turn by turn.

The game autosaves at the end of each of your turns and after each enemy turn. Save (or S) writes your own save slot, Load (or L) restores it, and Resume last game on the start screen opens the newer of the two. New returns to the start screen to begin again; at the end of a battle the result screen offers a new game or a last look at the map. If the browser refuses storage the game keeps running and tells you the save failed.