Combat Commander, Vol I: Roads to Stalingrad

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. 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.

Initiative chits and Operation chits.

4. Each player's initiative chit is located in his respective "hand" window, which cannot be seen by the other player. Instead of a double-sided chit, there are two different chits. After you select the one that you want ("map" or "cards"), then mask it (right click and select "Mask") and place it on the board for the reveal stage.

5. Each player has a copy of the operation chit in his "hand" window, that can be placed in the area where the resource point was used.

6. If the player right-clicks on the chit, he can return the initiative or operation chit to his hand.

Working with the card deck

7. When drawing cards, open your "hand" window and drag the card from the top of the deck to your hand window. Your opponent cannot view this window.

8. If you discard a card in order to take a resource point, right click on the card and select "Discard." It will send the card to the discard deck, where it will remain upside down so your opponent does not know which card you discarded.

9. The draw deck is always shuffled.

10. Each player has a card that allows him to search his deck. If you play this card, then right-click on your draw deck and send it to the "Select-A-Card" deck which is located on the left side of the map from where the deck originated. From there, right-click on the card, select the card that you wish to take and drag it to your hand. Then right-click and send your cards back to your draw deck, which is automatically reshuffled.

The Battle Board & Combat chits

11. All combat takes place on the Battle Board. Place the "Battle" marker on the Battle Board in the combat zone as a reminder, and then move the combat units to the Battle Board. All of the basic combat chits start in the random draw cup for each player. Additional chits that have specific requirements are at the top in the "Unused combat chit" box.

12. At the top of the Battle Board are a series of menu icons, such as "Axis armor participating." If this is true, click it, and in this case, the "Panzer Attack" combat chits are added to the Axis draw cup.

13. During combat, draw out the number of chits that you need according to the rules, and place them on the Battle Board. The chits come out of the cup masked. When you want to reveal it, right click on the chit and select, "Play chit" and the chit will be revealed. All relevant combat chit data for conducting combat is on Battle Board. More detailed information can be found by clicking on the "Charts" icon on the icon toolbar.

14. After combat has completed, click the "Return combat chits" button located on the Battle Board and also on the chit cup. This will return all combat chits to their respective locations.

15. The additional combat chits that the Soviet player receives for playing the "Stavka Reorganized" event are located in the "Soviet Reinforcements" box. When the card is played, click the "Stavka Reorganized" button on the icon bar and the chits will automatically be moved to the Soviet Combat Chit Window.

Victory Points Track

16. The Victory Points Track is a quick way for both players to tell how the game stands at any point, by adjusting his marker on the track. It was not part of the original game, which explains the homemade graphics. Sorry, graphic design is not my forte.

Special Thanks

17. Thanks to user scrub from BGG for the player aids that were incorporated into the charts.