Caesar's Gallic War

1. When you start a new game, you must choose a side or "Solo" if you wish to play solitaire. There is more solitaire information below.
2. Before doing anything else, set Preferences under the File menu item. The following items (except password) are under the General sub-menu.
• Choose a password if you have not already. Do not change it once you start a game.
• If you trust your opponent and are playing by email, you might enable "opponents can unmask my pieces." This lets your opponent reveal your blocks in case you forget.
• Enable "Mark Moved Pieces" if you want to track which units you or your opponent moved.
• I like to enable "Moving stacks should pick up non-moving pieces." It means when you put units on a stack, they automatically create a new stack.
3. [2-player only] All blocks are laying face-up on the board. Press the "hide" button on the toolbar to flip your blocks upright. Each block will have "hidden" printed in its lower right corner. These buttons do not work in solo mode.
4. Every card or piece in a Vassal module has its own command menu. You see it if you hold the cursor over the object and click your right-mouse button.
5. Open your pool window (toolbar). The hide button here will flip these blocks upright.

Working with tribe blocks that can be Roman, German, or Neutral

6. In the game, neutral Gallic tribe blocks are gray or green and lay face down on the board. When they ally with one of the players, they stand up and face that player. However, the screen cannot show 3-dimensions, so in order to overcome this, a neutral Gallic block is all gray or all green, but if it is allies with the Roman player, it becomes half gray and black or half green and black, since Roman blocks are black. Likewise, if it is recruited by the German player, it becomes gray/blue or green/blue.
7. If you are playing solitaire, and cannot tell which side the Gallic tribe block is allied with, park your mouse pointer over the block and it will tell you. For example, it might say, "Helvetii - 1 (Roman)" or "Helvetii - 1 (German)".
8. To change the allegiance of a block, right click and select "Switch to neutral", "Switch to German" or "Switch to Roman". Note, the right-click menu will not show the current allegience. For example, a Roman-allied Gallic Tribe will not show "Switch to Rome" as an option.
9. In most cases, a neutral block that becomes allied with a side became that way because it was attacked by the other. Therefore, if a neutral block becomes allied to a side, it shows up at full strength by default. If for some reason, this is not the case, adjust it, but this should cover the large majority of the cases.
10. Likewise if a block goes from Roman to German allegiance or vice-versa, it is because it returned home at the end of the turn to find the other side has control of the area. Because of that, if a Roman-allied Gallic tribe becomes German controlled or vice-versa, it shows strength-1 as default. This will cover the majority of the cases, but if it does not, you can adjust the block, or if a minor revolt makes a tribe become neutral and return home, only to switch sides by default, switch the allegiance to neutral first and then the other side, and it will be full strength.

Working with the card deck and selecting the "Massive Revolt" card.

11. The card deck and discard piles are in the Cards window. Open your hand window and draw cards to it. You don't need to shuffle the deck because Vassal automatically shuffles it. You will see a "hidden" icon on the drawn card in the lower right corner. This means it is face down and hidden from your opponent. You will need to either drop it on the discard pile or turn it face up (right-click command) so he can see it. When you play a card, place it in the Cards window over the colored dot located beneath the draw and discard piles in that window: Rome (Brown) on the left and Germania (Green) on the right, because Rome always reveals his card first. When the turn is completed, you can send the discards to the draw pile with a right-click command on the discard pile. (Both decks have right-click menus.)
12. In this game, you draw 5 cards. The German player has the option of drawing the Massive Revolt card into his hand if Rome starts a turn controlling 13 or more tribes. To do this, right click and select, "Send to discard deck (so "Massive Revolt" card can be selected)." That will move all the cards to the discard deck. Then right-click and select "Draw specific card" and select the Massive Revolt. Drag it to your hand (it's probably a good idea to first put it out on the board, so that your opponent can see what you did). Then right-click on the discard deck and select "Send to Draw Deck".

The Battle Board

13. There is a battle board on the toolbar in case your battle contains more blocks than the area can hold. Move the blocks here, and don't forget to flip your blocks so they are revealed. The hide button here (unlike on the main map) both reveals and hides blocks.
• Use the target markers to point to blocks. It saves typing.
• Use the 1-4 markers to designate hits (especially in PBEM). You can duplicate and delete them. The Markers window on the toolbar has more of them.
• When you move blocks here, put the battle marker in the map area to remember where they came from. The battle marker has a right-click command to return it to the battle board.
14. Solo Play: The colored buttons with the "S" are for Solo play. They do not work unless you choose "Solo" as your side. Likewise, when doing Solo, the hide buttons only work in 2-player mode. If you press either S button, the blocks of that color will turn over to their solid colored side.

The Dead Pool

15. The Dead Pool is a place to store eliminated units that will come back to the board.
16. When a unit is eliminated in combat, right-click the unit and select "Send to Dead Pool."
17. In the Dead Pool, German units are stored on the left and Roman units are stored on the right. Tribes are stored at the bottom. Regular units (German infantry/Roman legions) are stored at the top.
18. At the end of the turn, when eliminated Gallic Tribes go home, look at each stack (German and Roman). If the block has switched allegiance, change the allegiance of the block in the dead pool.
19. After all allegiances have been determined, you can hide units and send them home to their respective locatiots by clicking the buttons at the top in the icon menu, or by right-clicking on each unit and selecting "Go Home.
20. NOTE: Leaders do not have a "Send to Dead Pool" option. Instead, they have a "Kill" option, since they are permanently removed from the game. They stack up above the victory point/supply/tribes controlled track.