Flight Leader - Umpired Game Addendum A VASSAL Module See the Flight Leader module wiki at www.vassalengine.org for version/update history. Overview This is a module to play Avalon Hill's Flight Leader wargame using the VASSAL engine (http://www.vassalengine.org). IMPORTANT: This version of the module is designed as a "double blind" or refereed module, intended for players to use with Optional Rule 16.2, the Umpired Game. In the Umpired version, players can only see opposing aircraft if they have a controller or if they have a visual tally or radar lockon. Depending upon the type of contact and range, players may only know a "bogey" exists and not much more. This brings out the advantages of smaller aircraft and improvements in radar as well as ramming home the fighter pilot's adage: "Lose sight, lose the fight." As with other double-blind modules, the game requires three participants: the Alpha and Bravo Force players and the Umpire. The Umpire sets up the game, keeps track of visual Tallies and radar Lockons and adjusts the counters on each player's map accordingly, and coordinates all communications among players. This text file only outlines the differences between the standard version of the module and the Umpired version plus specific notes keyed to rule section 16.2. Please download and read the ReadMe.txt file from the module page for additional important notes and information. Where the ReadMe file and this file differ, this file takes precedence when playing the Umpired Game. To keep version numbers consistent with the standard game module, this module is released as 1.1 even though it is the initial release of the umpired game module. General Notes: Due to the number of extra windows that had to be created for the Umpired version to work, windows have been gathered into two toolbar menus labeled Player Menu and Umpire Menu. The Player Menu has options to show/hide each player's map and Aircraft Status Card windows. The Umpire Menu has options to show/hide the Acquisitions window, the Turn Record Chart and the Impulse Chart. Note that just because a given window appears in one menu or the other does NOT necessarily mean access is restricted to the players or Umpire. For example, the Umpire can open either player's map or Status Card window. Similarly, the players can open the Turn Record Card. Aircraft counters now have an Umpire sub-menu for making aircraft invisible and/or making them appear as bogies (see 16.2.2 below for more detail). The Change Callsign and Change ID items are now located in a Setup sub-menu in an effort to clean things up a bit (a modification that is now also part of the standard module as well). Status Cards are now Private Windows, accessible to the Umpire as well as the appropriate player. Alpha and Bravo cannot see each other's Status Cards (cf. Rule 16.2.2.2). NOTE: Due to an apparent bug in VASSAL 2.9.9, free rotation does not appear to work correctly in private windows. The menu command remains in hopes this will be corrected in a future version of the VASSAL engine. Aircraft, Bogey and Missile counters now have expanded keyboard movement controls. Players can use several different key combinations to turn the counters and move them forward: Ctrl- F, W, or Up arrow = Move forward Ctrl- L, A, or Left Arrow = Turn L Ctrl- R, D, or Right Arrow = TUrn R Note that the hotkey for Delete is now CTRL-SHIFT-D for all pieces. Notes keyed to rule sections: 1.2.2 Status Units Initiative counters have access restricted to the Umpire. Since the players can no longer see each other's Status Cards or initiative markers, the Umpire will be responsible for Initiative determination and will need to inform the players when each aircraft moves. 16.2.1 Game Setup The Umpire is responsible for setting up the game. Thus, he should be the first to join the game and set up the required number of Status Cards for both Alpha and Bravo forces. The Umpire should communicate with players how they want their Status Cards arranged (rows or columns) if multiple flights exist in the scenario to be played. The players should still be required to correctly set up Callsigns and Aircraft IDs and communicate this information clearly to the Umpire prior to the start of play. The Umpire may wish to set up a game beforehand as a saved game and load it before players connect to save time. The Scenario Pack for the Umpired version has saved setup files for all the scenarios listed in the rulebook. All Game Marker counters except for the red and blue Missile counters are restricted to the Umpire only. The Turn Record Card is a normal Map Window, however all the pieces normally used on it can only be moved by the Umpire. 16.2.2 Umpired Sighting The Umpire has a separate Private Window called Acquisitions for tracking Tallies/Lockons for both forces. The Umpire may elect to merely inform each player as to Tally/Lockon status and require each player to maintain these on their own Status Cards. This board also has an area for off-board storage, such as for aircraft to enter play later, or spare Tally/Lockon counters. There is a section to keep duplicates of each side's aircraft. Umpires should be careful to Hide these aircraft or change them to bogies as needed before transferring them to the mapboards. Each aircraft and Missile unit (18.3) has a "Hide" menu item (hotkey Shift-H) usable only by the Umpire. When an opposing aircraft is successfully Tallied or Locked-on, the Umpire uses this to reveal the counter to the player. If the Tally/Lockon is later lost, the Umpire selects Hide to make it invisible to the player once again. To make the Umpire's life a little easier, aircraft (but not Missile units because this would give away the presence of AM missiles) are set to auto-report to the chat window when they are hidden and revealed. Note that the built-in die roller for VASSAL is visible to all players, and umpired acquisition rolls (among others) are to be made secretly. If possible, the Umpire should roll an actual d10 or use any one of a number of on-line Internet die rollers and record the results in the Notes window as a Delayed note to be revealed at the end of the game. 16.2.2.1 Aircraft units now have two Mask properties which the Umpire can use to change aircraft units to either a red or blue Bogey unit for purposes of this rule. Unlike the standard version of the module, there are no player-accessible Bogey units. For some reason, Masks do not appear correctly when a piece is rotated unless the Peek command hotkey is defined (I do not know if this has been changed with VASSAL 3.0). The Umpire will need to use Peek (Shift-P) to see which units are which. In the standard module, each aircraft's Callsign did not rotate with the piece for readability. In order for the Bogey Masks to work correctly, this had to be changed so the Callsign now rotates with the piece. Also, Movement Trails are no longer visible to all players. Also note that Movement Trails don't work as expected when a piece is revealed after being hidden. The trails will only show the piece's start hex and the hex where it is revealed with a straight line between the two, regardless of how many turns were made while invisible. They do work normally with Masked (Bogey) units, though. 16.2.3 Communications Communications are critical in this version. The Umpire should maintain a Private Message window with each player. To avoid giving away the positions of unseen aircraft, auto-reporting for movement is limited to displaying which player is moving on which map. Since the Umpire controls the Initiative counters and must inform each player when to move, it should be fairly simple to keep track of which aircraft is moving and update this on the opposing mapboard. Judicious use of the Notes window and chat window will also keep the game running smoothly. 17.6 Impulse Movement Access to the Impulse Marker is restricted to the Umpire. Though the rulebook does not recommend using this rule in conjunction with the Umpired Game (it would take WAY too long doing via snail mail), it is probably doable in an on-line format. Players brave enough are free to give it a try.