Installation
Requirements
Make sure that your computer either uses Windows 2000, Windows XP or
Windows Vista. Aggression – Reign over Europe is not compatible with non-
windows based operating systems.
In order to run Aggression – Reign over Europe, you have to install DirectX
version 9.0 or higher (you may perform the installation from our CD). If you
have an Internet connection, you may download the latest DirectX version
from the official Microsoft Corporation site: http://www.microsoft.com/
windows/directx/
Windows will try to auto play the disk and the installation menu will open
automatically. Select the Install game option in the menu.
If this does not happen, you can use Windows Explorer to find and run the
Setup.exe file located in the root directory of the Aggression – Reign over
Europe DVD.
The installer program will guide you through the installation process with
on-screen instructions.
Getting Started
Launching Game
To launch the game, select Start > Programs > Playlogic > Aggression – Reign
over Europe and select the executable file.
You can also launch the game by pressing the Aggression – Reign over
Europe icon on your desktop, by selecting Launch game in the DVD menu
after inserting the DVD in your DVD drive, or by running adico.exe in the
installation folder of the game.
From the main menu you can select the following sub-menus:
From any of the sub-menus you can return to the main menu by pressing the
escape button or by pressing the close window button located at the top right
corner of the sub-menu window.
Campaign
Aggression – Reign over Europe features unique campaigns for four
different nations. Each of the selectable nations has its own strengths and
weaknesses that you will have to deal with in order to win.
Select the flag of the nation you wish to play with by left-clicking on the
corresponding flag. Then select start to run the game and start the campaign
of the selected nation.
Settings
To change the game settings, choose Settings from the main menu. If you
wish to change these settings during the game, press Escape or select Menu
from the top bar at any time and click on Settings in the menu window.
The settings menu consists of four tabs: graphics, sound, gameplay and
difficulty screens.
Campaign Mode
Winning the Campaign
The goal of each of the four Aggression – Reign over Europe campaigns is to
conquer Europe before time runs out. You have to conquer all cities on the
Europe map in order to win the campaign mode.
You have to do this before the game reaches the date 1950 or two countries
develop the final technology, which indicates the start of the cold war.
You can scroll across the Europe map using the arrow keys on your keyboard
or by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen. You can zoom using
the mouse wheel. To rotate the camera, hold down the mouse wheel (or
middle button) while moving the mouse around.
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Top Bar (1) – From the top bar, you can access the main menu, enter various
menus detailing your nation’s statistics, view the game date, set the game
speed, view your nation’s resources and in case of a resource imbalance
trade resources.
Europe Map (2) – The Europe map represents the main playing field. It is here
that all the main game events take place: cities are growing, discoveries are
made, troops are hired, armies take over enemy territories.
Minimap Panel (3) – The minimap helps to track army movements or territory
control. The buttons on the left side of the map pane enable you to (bottom
to top): open the current task window, toggle minimap settings and the top
button toggles between the minimap view and the political alignment view.
Main Panel (4) – This panel displays information and options on any selected
character, city or fortification. If nothing is selected the main panel shows
the event log, describing everything of importance that happens, for example
another country developing a new technology or capturing new territory.
Command Panel (5) – The command panel contains command buttons for
the currently selected character, city or fortification. City commands include
buttons for unit production and character hiring. Character commands
include dismiss commands and build fortification commands.
Ministry (6) – The ministry shows all characters currently hired by the player.
When a character gets a new ability, the character icon starts flashing. You
can also select a character by clicking on the character’s portrait.
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Arrows at the bottom allow scrolling quickly through the cities. The Log icon
will take you back to the event log.
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You can check the political map (explained later) to see which political
alignments are supporting, neutral or opposing to your current political
regime.
Building Construction
The Construction window contains
building icons, arrows for scrolling
through cities, buttons for the
construction queue and toggling
auto-construction mode (the buildings
needed in the city are selected by the
computer).
You can cancel the construction of a building at any time while it is being
constructed by clicking on the building icon again. You will immediately
regain the resource cost of the building but you will lose the construction
time already spent on it.
Buildings that are completed are marked with a green checkmark. Buildings
in the process of construction are presented by partly darkened icons with
a percentage progress bar. Buildings in the construction queue are marked
by a sandglass icon. Buildings that cannot be constructed due to the lack of
resources are marked by a red dollar icon.
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All squads are recruited in cities via recruit buttons located in the command
panel whenever you have a city selected. The command panel shows from
which technology level you can recruit squads. New technology levels are
unlocked through research.
A highlighted icon means that a squad can be recruited within the city.
A darkened icon means it cannot be recruited because its recruiting
requirements are not met within this city. To start recruiting a squad, left-click
on a highlighted icon. The squad icon will appear at the bottom of the city
information panel with a progress bar showing how long it will take before it
is recruited. Once it is recruited, it will appear in the city garrison. Cities can
recruit up to 6 squads at the same time.
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In Aggression – Reign over Europe, there are more than 200 playable
characters, based on the actual historical figures of the first half of the 20th
century. You can control up to 10 different characters at any time and all
characters currently active in your empire are called ‘the Ministry’.
These are the people that will make and change history. Their special abilities
develop as time goes by according to a simplified role-playing system
reflecting the characters’ development. After learning a profession, the
characters reveal new abilities and become more effective in the chosen
profession as time passes.
Character Panel
The main panel (bottom of the screen) becomes the character panel at any
time you select a character from your Ministry. The character panel has three
tabs.
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Character Professions
The profession of a character determines the effect a character has on your
empire. Different professions come with different bonuses and choosing the
right professions will be the key to victory. Characters will come with one or
two default professions based on their historical background but at any point
you put these professions on hold and give the character a new profession to
your liking.
To add a new profession, click on Add New Profession and select the
profession you wish to learn. You cannot learn more than three professions
per character and you cannot unlearn chosen professions, so choose wisely.
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To choose a new ability, click on Add New Ability, select the desired ability
and press Add.
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Upon selecting a character in the list: the character portrait, a brief bio and
the profession list (with the corresponding levels) are shown at the right side
of the window. Select Hire to add the selected character to your Ministry. The
character will be added if you have enough Education points to pay for their
services. Otherwise, you will be prompted to add the character to the order
queue and it will be hired once you meet the resource requirements.
Captivity
If a ‘civilian’ character is attacked by a character with an army, the former
is considered to be taken prisoner. The winning side may choose to execute
him, release him, invite him into the Ministry or keep surveillance over the
character. The same fate awaits any spy caught in the enemy territory. Keep
in mind though that your decisions may not work out as expected, there is
a level-based chance that a captured character will successfully escape.
Higher-level characters have a higher chance of escape.
All military squads in the game are divided into two groups: basic and
advanced. In order to recruit basic squads, you need to construct specific
buildings. Advanced squads require additional technology research on top of
building requirements.
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Armies
Characters with the general and/or leader profession are capable of leading
armies. These armies have a maximum size of 50 squads of units.
A window will appear above the character panel displaying icons for all
squads present in the character army.
Character armies are the only way for your squads to move from city to city
or attack and conquer enemy territory. To transfer squad, select a character
that is capable of leading an army and then right-click on the city you wish
to move squads from or to. Once the city is within the influence sphere of the
character, an army transfer window will appear.
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Disbanding Squads – If you find some units no longer useful (infantry and
recruits are very likely to become so) you can disband your squads by
selecting them in the garrison window and selecting the Disband Squads
button in the command panel. The city will receive a boost to its population
equivalent to the amount of people ‘drafted’ when the squad was produced.
Keep in mind, that former soldiers will stay and live in the city where their
squad was disbanded, not where it was initially recruited.
Fortifications
All generals have an ability to build permanent fortifications that appear
on the campaign map and look like small forts with a flag over them.
Fortifications are used as an additional stronghold for concentrating
defensive forces (+50 squads). They also provide additional field fortifications
and a number of artillery bombardments in a tactical battle.
Each province can have only one fortification. The construction time of a
fortification depends on the general's experience level.
You can transfer squads from character armies to a fortification in the same
way as transferring squads from character armies to a city.
Auto Attack – Fortifications have the border protection mode on (by default)
and automatically attack any enemy character (characters you are at war
with) that steps into their influence circle. You can turn this mode on or off by
selecting the fortification and then toggling the Auto Attack command located
in the command panel.
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Historical tasks usually have a large impact on the game and depend on the
chosen campaign. Random tasks have a smaller impact and are handed out
randomly. They will be different each time you play Aggression – Reign over
Europe.
Historical Tasks
Historical tasks represent decisions that
the chosen nation has to take in the context
of world events. Historical tasks appear in
a separate window on predefined dates.
Sometimes they imply choice-making.
However, in some cases you will need to
accomplish certain objectives in order to
evade a negative turn of events or to get a
reward. You may postpone your decision for
a certain period of time if you lack necessary
resources or when you are unsure of which
route to select. You can view the task's relevance time, its objectives and
consequences in the Historical Task window (see above).
Random Tasks
Apart from historical tasks you will have
to deal with so-called ‘random tasks’.
Random tasks are less significant, yet their
accomplishment or failure will affect your
nation’s well-being. Random tasks may
repeat over time and are not connected with
any specific date.
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Events
Historical events in the game do not depend on the player's actions. They
add a historical atmosphere and reflect important (or in some cases even
insignificant) events that took place in the first half of the 20th century.
Politics
The political map window reflects the population's
political views and the relations between different
factions. The political map window can be toggled
on and off via the corresponding button on the
minimap panel.
If a new head of the state supports ideology other than the current one, the
numbers of supporters, conformists and dissidents also change. This may
lead to some serious domestic issues and raise the level of unrest (or even
cause revolts in the cities). The political alignment position in regard to each
other is constant and is not influenced by any factor whatsoever.
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Technology
In order to raise the production efficiency and get access to new military
units, you have to research new scientific technologies. The technology
window can be opened via the corresponding button located on the top
bar or by pressing the hotkey T. The Technology window shows the list of
researched technologies for each technological age (bottom part of the
window), the list of technologies available for research (upper left corner)
and a description of the current technological age.
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Nation Statistics
The statistics window allows
comparing nations by a
number of important game
factors. It can be accessed
via the corresponding button
on the top bar or by pressing
the hotkey S.
The statistic window
provides information on
the following statistics for
each nation: Industry and
Education production, the
number of researched
technologies, army strength,
Ministry size, number of
cities, relative power of
members of the alliance and relative power of the nation. You can bring up
a pop-up hint with more detailed information by holding your mouse cursor
over a line in the table.
Country Information
The My Country window displays detailed information about your country,
cities, characters and progress. You can access the window via the
corresponding button on the top bar or by pressing the hotkey C.
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The top row and the first column of the table contain different nations' flags.
Icons in the cells at the intersection of rows and columns reflect the type of
diplomatic relations between the corresponding nations: peace, alliance or
war. Move the cursor over a cell to see a pop-up tip with a numerical value of
the countries' relations (a higher number means a better relation). Left-click
on a nation's flag to see the country's brief information or to change your
diplomatic relations with this nation. The buttons to the left of the flag will
open the country's description or its statistics.
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Resource Imbalance
Sometimes you will find yourself in a situation where you do not have enough
of a resource (education or industry), but plenty of the other one. If one
resource significantly outnumbers another, a button in the top panel will
become active. When you select it, it will determine the object of shortage
and present you with an opportunity to exchange one resource for the other.
The exchange rates depend on
the number of Shipyards built in
your cities; more shipyards give
you more options in overseas
trading thus improving the
exchange rates.
Battle
Initiating Battle (Campaign Mode)
This only applies to battle initiated within the campaign mode.
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Areas where your squads can be deployed are marked with lighter color than
the rest of the map area. To move a squad, select it by left-clicking on it, then
right-click on the desired location.
Press Enter when you are done with the deployment phase and are ready for
action.
Squad Control
You can control your squads via mouse commands, hotkeys and the
command panel. Left-click on a squad or drag-select several squads while
holding down the left mouse button.
When you have a squad or multiple squads selected, you will get access to
the following squad control options displayed in the command panel (Please
note, that some of these options are available to certain squad types only).
Move – Select move and then left-click on a location on the battle map to
move your squads.
Stop – Select stop to have your squads to hold fire.
Attack – Select attack and then left-click on a target to attack the target.
Patrol – Squads will patrol between the current and target location.
Hold Position – Squads will not move from their current location.
Turn – Select turn and then right-click to indicate the new direction.
March – Squads move at walking speed.
Run – Squads move at increased speed.
Prone – Select prone if you want your squads to go prone and take cover.
Ambush – Selecting ambush will command your squads to go prone and
cease fire until the enemy comes closer.
Grenades – Toggle grenades to command your squads to use grenades in
combat.
Call for Attack – Selecting call for attack will temporally stop morale
decrease on nearby squads.
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All of the above listed commands have hotkeys listed below in the hotkey
section.
Bombers – A bomber will fly to and bomb the target location. Each of your
bomber squads can be called in once during battle.
Recon Planes – Send a scout plane to the target location.
Fighters – Send a fighter plane to the target location. The fighter will patrol
the area and attack all hostile airplanes in the vicinity.
Artillery – An artillery bombardment is called in on the target location.
Call for Reinforcements – Send a request for reinforcements, which will
appear on the tactical map in 5 minutes. The reinforcements are available if
the player has less than 50 squads currently in action. The countdown timer
on the request button shows the time left until reinforcement arrival.
Character Abilities
Character abilities are only available during the full campaign.
Victory Conditions
Battles are won when you meet any of these following requirements:
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Hotkeys
‘Numpad+’, ‘Numpad-’ – Increase/decrease game speed by 1
‘Pause’ or ‘Space’ – Toggle pause
‘Esc’ – Open the game menu / Close the open window
‘Delete, Numpad 1’ – Toggle left panel
‘End, Numpad 2’ – Toggle central panel
‘Page Down, Numpad 3’ – Toggle right panel
Campaign Map
Ctrl + Tab – Forward scroll through the player's cities
Shift + Tab – Backward scroll through the player's cities
C – State overview screen
D – Diplomacy screen
T – Research screen
S – Statistics screen
I – Toggle characters' info icons
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F5 – Quick save
F9 – Quick load
Battle Map
R – Request reinforcements in a battle. If available, reinforcements will
appear in the deployment area
A – Attack
M – Move
S – Stop
T – Turn. Left-click to select direction
H – Hold position
P – Patrol
Z – March
X – Run
C – Prone
B – Ambush
G – Use grenades
Ctrl + (0-9) – Assign group for the selected squads
(0-9) – Select a corresponding group
Shift + (0-9) – Center view on a corresponding group and select the group
Ctrl + Space – Center view on the selected object
Ctrl + A – Select every unit on screen
Ctrl + A (twice, quick) – Select every unit
Double click or Ctrl + E with a unit selected – Select every unit of the
matching type on screen
Ctrl + E with a unit selected (twice, quick) – Select every unit of the same
type.
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