The Troop – General Gameplay Guide

Guide to Gameplay

Game Modes

• Training – lightweight tutorial setups designed to introduce the primary game mechanics. No objectives, no failure, restart whenever you like and follow instructions (or not) as you wish.
• Story – A series of scenarios telling the story of the campaign in Normandy. These scenarios are presented in chronological order from D-Day to Falaise, covering a wide variety of locations and units. The scenarios increase in complexity and size if played in order, introducing units and features as they go, but the player is free to play them in any order. Most scenarios are playable as both factions. We recommend new players start here after training.
• Skirmish – Most story scenarios are also playable in skirmish mode. In this mode the player is free to choose their own force, weather, engagement size and difficulty. The enemy will likewise select its own force, although the player can impose some restrictions.
• Campaign – Take command of a persistent force of units across a historically-inspired series of linked scenarios. Losses are permanent, but units that survive deployment will gain in experience and ability. Recommended for players with some experience in Story mode already.

Gameplay

The Troop is an I-go-you-go turn-based game in which all units belonging to a faction can (by default) take action on that faction’s turn. The amount of action that can be taken by each unit is dictated by their available action points (split into movement and gunnery points) and the unit’s steadiness.

Each scenario has a turn limit (usually 20 or 30 turns) with one turn being counted only once both factions have had their chance to act.

Movement and Gunnery points

Green and blue pips in the UI HUD and in the unit tag (info above a unit in game world) denote movement points (MP) and gunnery points (GP), respectively, available to a unit. These pips replenish at the start of each turn.

Movement (MP, green)

Most tiles cost 1 MP to move into, rough terrain generally costs 2 MP, very rough costs 3 MP and roads cost 0.5 MP to vehicles. Some tiles, like walls or hedges, can only be moved “through”, not “into”.

Infantry can move in any direction, vehicles must choose to advance, reverse or rotate on the spot. The latter 2 options tend to cost more MP than advancing, although some perks affect this. When previewing movement of a vehicle, the unit’s final orientation (rotation) will be previewed with a white arrow on the proposed movement target tile.

Gunnery (GP, blue)

Gunnery points apply to units equipped with a heavy weapon, generally a cannon of some kind, and represent the unit’s ability to traverse the weapon, aim at a target and fire…. all of which takes time and skill with a heavy weapon. Most units in game to which this applies are tanks of some description.

The number of gunnery points available is a reflection of the unit’s turret traverse speed, and the effectiveness of the aiming equipment/gunnery crew. In order for a unit to fire its heavy weapon it must have actively aimed at a tile AND have at least 1 GP remaining. It is common for units to aim at a tile but use all their GP in doing so. They must wait until next turn to fire, but will accrue cumulative aim accuracy in the meantime. Equally some units with very slow turrets may have to use more than one turn to traverse their turret to the direction they wish.

Vehicles taking damage or crew member casualties will find the amount of MP/GP available to them to use each turn reduced.

Infantry and independent vehicle attacks

Infantry and independent weapons mounted on vehicles (hull/pintle MGs, flamethrowers) do not use gunnery points. These attacks may always be executed by a unit as long as it has not taken a final action. Infantry can execute their attacks in any direction, but vehicles may have restricted firing arcs for independent attacks.

Steadiness

Steadiness is one of the most important mechanics in The Troop. It represents a unit’s ability to take action competently at a given moment in the midst of battle. Steadiness of a unit is indicated by the vertical meter to the right of the centre bottom HUD and by the horizontal yellow bar in each units tag in the game world.

The 2 most important effects of steadiness are on 1. attack accuracy and 2. a unit’s ability to conduct multiple actions in a single turn – referred to as “final actions”.

1. Accuracy – any reduction in steadiness from 100% will be reflected in the accuracy of a unit’s attacks (apart from those attack types with a fixed hit chance) along with other factors.
2. Final actions – in default settings, any action that reduces a unit’s steadiness to 0 will be counted as a final action, and the unit in question will be unable to conduct further actions in that turn.

• Steadiness is reduced by movement, turret rotation/target acquisition, suppression.
• Steadiness is increased by cumulative aim (heavy weapons, can go above 100%).
• Steadiness of units generally returns to 100% at the end of THAT faction’s turn.
• Primary attacks (firing tank main gun, firing infantry small arms, throwing a grenade) are always counted as final actions, regardless of a units steadiness at the time of firing.
• The extent to which steadiness is reduced by movement differs from unit to unit, but a good rule of thumb is to assume that a unit (unsuppressed) using more than 75% of its MP will have no steadiness left.

Some examples

1. A Panzer IV moves 2 tiles (reducing its 100% default steadiness by 40%), then rotates its turret a little to aim at an enemy tank (reducing steadiness by another 10%). At this point the Pz4 still has 50% steadiness remaining and CAN take another action. But a shot taken now would immediately be at a -50% to hit penalty due to the loss of steadiness this turn… in addition to other factors like range and cover.

So, the Pz 4 decides to wait until next turn…

Next turn, the Pz4 steadiness is back up to 100% and he is already aimed at the enemy (which has not moved) so he doesn’t have to take any actions before firing – he can fire at 100% steadiness.

Additionally, because he aimed at the enemy LAST turn, and neither he nor the target have moved, he gains a cumulative aim bonus of +25%. A much better shot!

2. An infantry unit takes machinegun fire during the enemy turn. The fire causes no casualties but it does cause 20% suppression. At the start of the infantry unit’s turn, its steadiness has ALREADY been reduced to 80% by the suppression carried.

The player wants this infantry unit to move 1 tile and then take a shot at an enemy unit. Moving 1 tile reduces the inf unit’s steadiness by a further 10% to 70%, leaving it with a hefty total -30% accuracy penalty for the subsequent attack… too much.

Luckily the player has a HQ unit nearby that has the “rally” ability. It uses the ability to restore 20% steadiness to the infantry unit, leaving it with 90% steadiness for the attack.

3. The player moves infantry unit A 4 tiles round the corner of a building and reveals a hidden enemy halftrack armed with a pintle MG a few tiles away pointing right at them. Inf unit A has moved 4 tiles and has reduced its steadiness to 0, it can do no more this turn and will be at the halftrack’s mercy!

The player decides to move another infantry unit (B) 2 tiles around the other side of the building from which position they can fire their small arms at the halftrack from the side. The halftrack is an “open” vehicle and as such can be suppressed by small arms fire (though not damaged), the player’s hope is to cause enough suppression to the halftrack to reduce its steadiness next turn – reducing its accuracy when it inevitably attacks inf unit A.

Unit B fires at the halftrack at close range and sure enough causes 30% suppression, a great result, but will it be enough to save inf unit A?

The enemy turn arrives and the halftrack decides that inf unit B is the better target! It rotates on the spot to bring its MG to bear on the new target. The rotation movement action will cost the halftrack a lot of steadiness, but the new target is so close he is confident that it will not matter…. BUT. The halftrack is carrying 30% suppression and the rotation movement reduces steadiness by a further 75%. This means the rotation movement reduces steadiness below 0 and counts as a final action, the halftrack is now unable to do anything else this turn… including fire. A costly error.