THE CONTROLS

Note: SHIFT + left click can substitute for a right-click on the mouse.

Selecting a BattleTron:
Selecting is done by left-clicking on the BattleTron. A selection box will appear on the selected BattleTron.

If your BattleTron is selected during your tern, will get a green selection box during move phases, and a yellow one during attack phases.  Enemies will have a red selection box.
Note: Selected enemy BattleTrons display their distance which you can compare with your weapon's range. See below how to change weapons.

Moving a BattleTron
This can only be done in a move phase. Right-click on an empty space or another BattleTron. A path, if available, will appear, made up of X marks and ending with a double-circle. To confirm using this path, right-click on the double-circle at the end of the marked-out path.
Note: Parts of the path in red means that the move indicated cannot be executed completely because the selected BattleTron lacks movement points. However, you can still choose to confirm using this path and the BattleTron will move on as much of the path as possible by using the available movement.

Attacking
This can only be done in an attack phase. Right-click on a BattleTron or obstacle which you want to destroy and the current weapon will fire on it. Note that it may not always fire exactly at where it was told to.

Ending a Turn
Click on the End Turn button on the lower-right of the display.

Examining/Changing Weapons
Click on the weapon box (the box with the weapon name on the status screen). The status screen will change, and the current weapon's stats will appear. Click on CHANGE to change the current weapon, and OK to return to the original screen.

Changing the Viewed Area of the Map
This can only be done by clicking on the miniature map on the upper-right of the screen, right-clicking on the large display with no BattleTron's selected (the display will center on the clicked area) or using the arrow keys.

Quitting
Clicking on the red X mark on the upper-left corner. You can end the current round or start all over again.

THE OBJECTIVE

The player who wins the most rounds wins.

Players start out every round with a single robot called a BattleTron placed on a random map.

Players take turns moving their BattleTrons. There are two phases, the move phase and the attack phase. The move phase comes first, and is followed by the attack phase, and is followed by another move phase, and so on. All the players get one turn for the move phase then all get one turn for the attack phase. At the start of the game, the player who was first in the game setup menu gets the first turn, the one who was second gets the second turn, and so on. The game play uses a round-robin sequence. When the next move phase comes, the sequence of turns starts from the player who had the second turn for the previous two rounds, and ends with the player who took the first turn for the previous two rounds.

BattleTrons have the following attributes:

Energy regenerates at a rate of 5 per attack phase. Speed is reduced by movement, but is restored to maximum at the beginning of the movement phase. This maximum represents the speed of your BattleTron.

Weapons have the following attributes:

During the move phase, players can only move their BattleTrons, using up their movement points:

No points are lost for turning. The map is made up of ground tiles, and two types of obstacles — a solid type, and a destructible type. BattleTrons cannot pass through obstacles, though firing at destructible obstacles with weapons can destroy them.

During the attack phase, players can only fire their BattleTrons' weapons. Weapons cannot be fired unless the BattleTron has sufficient energy/ammo. A particular weapon can only be fired once per attack phase. The discharge from the weapon can deviate within the angle of its inaccuracy rating. In addition, a penalty of 5 degrees from the deviation angle is added for every change in a BattleTron's facing after an initial firing of a weapon. This represents the penalty in accuracy resulting in having to aim and hit at more than one target.

Weapons can only damage BattleTrons, whose armor is reduced by the weapon's damage rating; and certain blocks of terrain, which are levelled by the blast. There is no damage radius for a weapon hit, i.e. only the obstacle that received the weapon's impact gets damaged.

When a BattleTron's armor is damaged to zero, it is destroyed. Other BattleTrons can move and fire through their debris.

Random power-ups are scattered on the map. A BattleTron can move over it to get it. The BattleTron gains a random bonus to its attributes.

To win a round, a player must have his BattleTron be the only survivor on the map. When this happens, he wins for the round. The next round is set-up, and all the BattleTron get their original attributes (minus damage and power-ups.) The winning BattleTron, however, gains a level. The higher the level, the greater a BattleTron's base attributes are. All BattleTrons start at Level 1. A BattleTron that gets killed go back to Level 1.

E-mail for comments, suggestions, obtaining a copy, etc.