Victoria Cross

Introduction

Victoria Cross is based on the battle of Rorke's Drift, which was fought between approximately 100 British soldiers and 4000 Zulu warriors on January 22, 1879. It was designed by Mike Wylie and Grant Wylie, and it was published in 2004 by Worthington Games. Victoria Cross is owned and copyrighted by Worthington Games. Please visit the Worthington Games website at http://www.worthingtongames.com/. They sell a bunch of interesting games, and if you enjoy this one, you owe it to them to buy a real copy! This Vassal mod was created by Stan Hilinski in January, 2006.

General Vassal Notes

If you right-click on any unit or marker, you will get a menu just for that piece.

In most block games, your blocks are standing on edge, and only you can see their faces. In a Vassal module, they are facedown when on edge and faceup when they are exposed. When you start a game, Vassal does not automatically assign units to you or your opponent. Instead, you take ownership when you turn blocks facedown. Ownership is linked to your Vassal password, so choose a password (file/edit_preferences) before you begin. Then turn all your blocks facedown by pressing a button either on the buttonbar or an order of battle window depending on the game. You will always be able to see the faces of blocks you own even when facedown. Do not turn down your opponent's pieces because you will then own them too.

By default, when you flip a piece facedown, your opponent will be able to still move it, but he will not be able to turn it faceup because you own it. This is fine in real-time play, but it can be a burden in email play. You may allow your opponent to turn your blocks faceup by selecting File/Edit_Preferences/General and checking the box "Opponents can unmask my pieces." Both players should do this. It does compromise security, but it is very convenient when playing by email.

If you play by email, each turn you create a log, which is a snapshot of the current game plus each move you make that turn. You email your log to your opponent as an attachment. When you receive a log, you load into into Vassal (File/Load Game), and then you step through your opponent's moves. You then turn on your log (File/Begin Logfile) and do your turn. When finished, you save your log to email to your opponent (File/End Logfile).

Victoria Cross Notes

When you start a new game, the first thing you must do is to choose a password. Next,select File / New Game and then choose a side. Choose the British if you plan to play the solitaire game. Then press the Flip British or Flip Zulus button on the right side of the main map toolbar or in the special order-of-battle windows. This turns your units face down, and you will see them with a dark border, but your opponent will see solid-color squares. Your button will only flip down your faceup blocks, so you can use it at any time on the main map.

The British player should then deploy his units. Note that the Zulu player cannot open the British units window. Then the Zulu player opens the Zulu units window, flips his units face down, and deploys them on the map. Both players can open the Zulu window (for solitaire play), so the British player should not open this window especially during deployment.

The Markers button (right half of button bar) opens the Markers window. These markers should help you play the game, and you may use them any way you wish to make the game easier. You can use the red 1 through red 10 to track hits. The target marker can indicate shooting and target zones. Use the black button to indicate which zones the Zulu have captured if you wish.

The turn track and Hospital Fire track are on the right side of the main board. For the Hospital fire track, you have a choice. You may track the fire with the fire track, or you may drag fire markers from the Markers window and place them on the hospital (for a more realistic atmosphere). Once placed, you must shift-click on a fire marker to select and move it, and it will always appear beneath other pieces.

If the Zulu player moves units off board, he should place them on the "tray" on the left edge of the board.

The Charts button opens a tabbed window where you can find the sequence of play, most game charts. The optional dice tables are here, and you can also find the indispensible "Fire Table."

The Zulu losses window tracks losses. You have a choice here. To track losses, you can use the table, you can drag Zulu units here, or (my favorite) you can drag red hit markers here.

When you move units in this game, they are "marked moved" with a bright yellow border. You can manually mark moved by right clicking a unit and choosing that menu option. To remove the moved markings, press the "unmark moved" button, which is on the extreme right of the button bar.

The fire button rolls the Hospital Fire die, and the other dice roll that number of dice. The "tombstone" window shows killed leaders and British units. You should experiment with each button to understand its function.

If you right click on any unit, you get a menu of commands for that unit. You can apply casualties or recover steps. mark moved, flip over, and kill a unit. Killed units will either be sent to the Eliminated Blocks window or to the Zulu Units window as per the rules.

To help the Zulu player remove steps, I have added a 9-8-7-6 unit to the game, which is not in the original. You can get the 9-8-7-6 unit by right-clicking any 10-5-2-1 unit and selecting "Change." The unit will toggle to the 9-8-7-6 unit or back again if you select it again.

The Solitaire Game

The special rules for this game are in the charts. When you start a new game, select the British side. Deploy the British units followed by the Zulus as per the rules. You may choose to flip both sides face down because the blocks are then outlined with a dark border making them easier to see. There are red and black buttons on the right side of the toolbar that you may use to temporarily turn face down one side or the other. Do not use these buttons in normal game play.