Theaterwide Tactical Warfare

Corps and air wings fight over seven regions of a European front, with an escalation ladder. WOPR answers every rung you climb with one of its own. The top rung ends the game with no winner.

Start it

wopr tactical

Or log on, type LIST GAMES, and pick number 13 from the list. It also answers to 13 and theaterwide-tactical-warfare.

Screenshots

Click or tap a screenshot to see it larger.

The opening: the front picture, the rules, and the map of seven regions. WOPR asks AIR1 for its first order.

Turn 2: three units hold the FULDA GAP. COR1’s ESCALATE raised the ladder to CHEMICAL, and WOPR’s reserves arrived at the ODER.

WOPR answers with TACTICAL NUCLEAR. Fallout covers the picture and destroys WOPR’s own COR1.

How to play

Win by holding five of the seven regions, or more regions than WOPR after ten turns. If the ladder reaches STRATEGIC, every unit and every city is lost, and nobody wins.
Each turn WOPR asks for one order per unit (AIR1 IN CHANNEL PORTS:). Then both sides’ orders take effect together. Every move comes first, then every attack, then everything else. An event card comes last.
Name a region by its number or by its name: MOVE 4, ATTACK 5. Region 1 is your rear, and 7 is WOPR’s. The first letters of a word in the name work too: MOVE FULDA. You can shorten MOVE, ATTACK and HOLD to M, A and H.
Corps (COR) move one region and attack the next region. Air wings (AIR) move up to three regions and attack up to two regions away. A * after a unit means it lost one of its two steps. It then fights at half.
You must type ESCALATE in full, and it works once a turn. The ladder climbs CONVENTIONAL, CHEMICAL, TACTICAL NUCLEAR, STRATEGIC. Each rung adds 2 to every attack on both sides. From CHEMICAL on, civilians die every turn. At TACTICAL NUCLEAR, fallout costs a random unit a step every turn.
ROUGH ground shifts the odds one column toward the defender, and a CITY shifts them two. Results: NE means no effect, and AE means the attacker loses a step. EX means both lose a step. DR means the defender falls back (or loses a step). DE means the defender loses a step.

Controls

You type	What it does
`MOVE 4 or MOVE FULDA`	move to that region, as far as the unit can, not through the enemy
`ATTACK 5`	attack an enemy there, if it is in range
`HOLD (or an empty line)`	stay in place
`ESCALATE`	climb one rung of the ladder (typed in full, once a turn)
`END (or DONE)`	hold every unit not yet ordered and play the turn
`STATUS (or MAP)`	show the map again
`HELP`	list the orders and the combat results
`Esc, Esc`	leave the game and return to WOPR

Tips for winning

Do not escalate twice. WOPR answers every ESCALATE with one of its own on its next turn. So your second rung reaches STRATEGIC, and nobody wins.
Do not get far ahead without winning. Once WOPR has 3 steps fewer than you, it climbs the ladder by itself, a rung a turn. So take five regions quickly when you lead.
Take the FULDA GAP (4) on turn 1. It is rough ground, so WOPR’s corps will not attack your corps there. From it, your corps can attack the INNER GERMAN BORDER (5).
Keep your air wing in a region with a corps. An attack always hits the strongest unit in a region. So the corps (defence 6) takes it instead of the air wing (defence 2).

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