Julius Caesar

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.
Before doing anything else, set Preferences under the File menu item. The following items (except password) are under the General sub-menu.
1. Choose a password if you have not already. Do not change it once you start a game.
2. 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.
3. Enable "Mark Moved Pieces" if you want to track which units you or your opponent moved.
4. 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.

[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.
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.
Open your pool window (toolbar). The hide button here will flip these blocks upright.
Cleopatra and all legion have right-click commands to assign them to a side. (This is useful for Cleopatra and use of the Jupiter's Stone card.) The switch-side commands internally links the block with a particular side. The only effect is that those blocks will then respond to the global hide buttons on the main map and other windows. You can also take control of a block by simply turning it upright yourself. This also works adequately, but internally the software still thinks it is not your block. The only downside to not switching sides is the global hide buttons won't hide that particular block.
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 your colored dot, which is located beneath the draw and discard piles. (Make the Cards window bigger if necessary.) When the hand is done, you can send the discards to the draw pile with a right-click command on the discard pile. (Both decks have right-click menus.)
In this game, you draw 6 cards and discard one secretly. To keep it secret, put it on the draw pile instead of discards, but (of course) do it after your opponent has drawn his cards.
When you kill a block, send it to its pool. When you kill a leader, he appears in the top left corner of the game map. If Cleopatra is killed, she will appear in Egypt beneath Alexandria. You must change her side and manually drag her to the correct pool.
There is a battleboard on the toolbar that you may choose to use. Move your 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.
1. Use the target markers to point to blocks. It saves typing.
2. 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.
3. 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 battleboard.

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.