                        The Cheat Codes

                                               Union       Confederate
                        AI vs. AI              halleck     halleck
                        Reset clock to start
                        time                   buford      stuart
                        Fortify everyone       hooker      longstreet
                        Eliminate all stress   hancock     jackson
                        Increase experience    mcclellan   beauregard
                        Advance clock to end
                        time                   sedgwick    pickett
                        Bring up all
                        reinforcements         reynolds    hill
                        Rally all routed troopssheridan    lee
                        See enemy order of
                        battle                 custer      harrison
                        *See all troops        warren      hotchkiss
                        *This pauses the game as well.

                        How to input the codes

                        Press Shift-Enter, type in the code, e.g. halleck,
                        then hit Enter.

                        If you can't find a way to win a scenario, try
                        watching the AI play itself.  It may show you the
                        way.  Besides, it can be just plain interesting to
                        see how the AI handles itself.

                        I use the second cheat (reset clock to start time)
                        quite a bit.  The clock often runs out in the middle
                        of a player's last furious attempt to break through
                        and claim a VP site.   After the scenario finishes
                        I'll click the Return to Scenario button, then reset
                        the clock and play on.

                        Keep in mind that whatever unit is selected when you
                        type in the code will interpret your keystrokes as
                        commands.  For this reason, I click on a superior
                        commander before entering a cheat code so that I
                        don't have to clean up after the code's commands so
                        much.

                        The Multiplayer Question

                        The cheat codes can't be used in a multiplayer game.
                        Pressing Shift-Enter brings up a message window.  If
                        you type a code it will merely be transmitted as a
                        message to the other player(s).  That won't make you
                        look good.

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                        Changing the Order of Battle

                        Infantry

                        Let's say you're a big fan of the 1st Virginia.
                        After buying the game you discover that they're rated
                        veteran.  You're outraged.  Surely they were a crack
                        unit, you say.  Well, you can make them a crack unit
                        if you like.

                        In the Sid Meier's Gettysburg! folder you'll find two
                        files named obu.txt and obc.txt.  Respectively, these
                        contain the Union and Confederate orders of battle.
                        They can be altered with any text editor.

                                              Warning

                        Always restore obu.txt and obc.txt back to their
                        original state before playing a multiplayer game.
                        If they are out of sync with another player's files
                        they will upset play.

                        If you change information on units that another
                        player controls you will see the changes, but he
                        will not.  I don't know how the game deals with the
                        inconsistency.

                        If you change information on units that you control,
                        the change affects all players.   This can upset
                        play balance.  It also puts other players at the
                        disadvantage of not knowing that your units'
                        characteristics have changed.

                        Open obc.txt and find the 1st Virginia.  They have
                        one line of information reading:

                             122,i,209,1st Vir,V

                        Here's what it all means:

                            122 -  Attachment (1st Corps, 2nd Division, 2nd
                                   Brigade)
                              i -  Unit type (infantry)
                            209 -  Unit strength, i.e., number of men
                        1st Vir -  The name of the unit
                              V -  Their experience level (veteran)

                        The unit types are:
                             i - infantry, c - cavalry, a - artillery, C -
                        commander

                        The experience levels are:
                             G - green, R - trained (regular), V - veteran, E
                        - crack (elite)

                        So to make the change from the example above you
                        would change the V to an E so that their line reads:

                             122,i,209,1st Vir,E

                        The 1st Virginia is now a crack unit.

                        While you're at it you might decide to make them even
                        more powerful by giving them more men.  Their number
                        can be increased (or decreased).  Change 209 to 418,
                        for example and they have twice the firepower.

                        Their name can be changed as well.  Let's say you
                        live in Orange County and therefore always play the
                        Confederates.  You could change 1st Vir to read 1st
                        Cal.  This wouldn't affect gameplay, of course.

                        Adding/Deleting units

                        You can add or delete units as well.

                                              Warning

                        If you play a scenario that calls for a unit you've
                        deleted, the game will freeze.

                        Here's an example.  According to Steve Blount, the
                        63rd, 69th and 88th NY of Kelly's Irish brigade
                        fought together as a single regiment.  The Irish
                        brigade was also considered one of the elite units of
                        the Army of the Potomac.

                        This is how Kelly's brigade looks in obu.txt:

                             212,C,30,Kelly,R
                             212,I,224,28th Mass,V
                             212,i,75,63rd NY,V
                             212,i,75,69th NY,V
                             212,i,90,88th NY,V
                             212,i,66,116th Penn,V

                        Let's combine the three NY regiments and upgrade the
                        entire brigade to crack status.   The result would
                        look like this:

                             212,C,30,Kelly,R
                             212,I,224,28th Mass,E
                             212,i,240,Irish NY,E
                             212,i,66,116th Penn,E

                        If a scenario individually called for the fourth or
                        fifth regiment of the brigade, the game would freeze
                        as there are now only three regiments.  However,
                        before I made this change I looked at the scenarios
                        files in which the Irish brigade is a participant.
                        Only the brigade as a whole is called for, not its
                        individual regiments.  This change will be okay.

                        However, there is the possibility that a custom
                        scenario will call for the fourth or fifth regiment
                        individually.  Be prepared to restore the original
                        version of obu.txt from the CD or from a backup copy.

                        [sagging_confederate_infantry_flag.gif (1207 bytes)]
                        [sagging_confederate_infantry_flag.gif (1207 bytes)]
                        [sagging_confederate_infantry_flag.gif (1207 bytes)]

                        Cavalry

                        Cavalry information is in the same format as that of
                        infantry.  The corps is always a C. For example,
                        here's the 6th NY Cav's line:

                             C12,c,218,6th NY Cav,R

                        C12 means Cavalry Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Brigade.

                        [sagging_confederate_cavalry_flag.gif (1080 bytes)]
                        [sagging_confederate_cavalry_flag.gif (1080 bytes)]
                         [sagging_confederate_cavalry_flag.gif (1080 bytes)]

                        Artillery

                        The format for artillery is a bit different.

                           * Since they aren't attached to divisions, their
                             division number is 0.
                           * An extra field is added to indicate the number
                             of guns.
                           * Napoleans are indicated by a lower-case
                             experience level.  Rifles, with an upper-case
                             experience level.

                        Here are two examples:

                             103,a,124,Reynolds,V,6

                             This is the 3rd battery of the 1st Corps.  It
                             has 124 men.  It's a veteran unit with a capital
                             V.  That means it has rifles.  The last number
                             means it has 6 of them.

                             D04,a,72,Kinzie,r,4

                             This is the 4th battery of the 12th Corps.  It
                             has 72 men.  It's a trained unit with a
                             lower-case r.  That means it has napoleans, 4 of
                             them.

                        How does D mean 12th?

                        In the interest of single characters A means 10, B
                        means 11 etc..  That means that C should mean 12, but
                        C is already taken by the Cavalry Corps so Firaxis
                        apparently skipped over it to D.

                        [sagging_confederate_artillery_flag.gif (1212 bytes)]
                        [sagging_confederate_artillery_flag.gif (1212 bytes)]
                        [sagging_confederate_artillery_flag.gif (1212 bytes)]

                        Commanders

                        The format is the same as that of infantry.  Here's
                        an example of a division commander:

                             310,C,30,Birney,R

                        As with artillery, there is a zero where an
                        attachment doesn't apply.  Birney is a division
                        commander so he has no brigade number.  He's the 3rd
                        Corps, 1st Division commander. Unit type is indicated
                        by a capital C.   Unit strength is always 30.  I
                        assume 30 is just an arbitrary number that Firaxis
                        adopted.   Experience levels are the same as that of
                        other units.  However, for commanders, SMG uses
                        different words to describe them:

                             G - mediocre, R - competent, V -
                             experienced, E - superb

                        Birney is, therefore, competent.

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                        Altering Scenarios

                        The scenarios are the .scn files in the Sid Meier's
                        Gettysburg! folder.  They are simply text files so
                        they can be altered.  They are pretty thoroughly
                        commented so you can figure out a lot on your own.
                        However, further explanation is provided by the
                        following two sources.

                        [Firaxis' Official Guide to the Game] Firaxis'
                        Official Guide to the game.

                             [Firaxis' Official Guide to SMG]

                        [The 14th Brigade] The 14th Brigade

                             [The 14th Brigade]

                             Follow the Editing Info link in the left pane.

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                        Changing the Artwork

                        The artwork for the game is in the .pcx files in the
                        Sid Meier's Gettysburg! folder.  However, these files
                        are encrypted (although just barely).

                        If you click the Additional Links button at the
                        bottom of Firaxis' SMG home page you'll find a link
                        to the art patch.  It's a self-extracting file
                        containing unencrypted versions of most of the .pcx
                        files. You can use them to tweak the appearance of
                        the game. It's also where I got many of the images
                        for this Web site.

                                      [Firaxis' SMG Home Page]

                         [The Sullivan Art Files] The Sullivan Art Files

                        Ted Sullivan has spruced up the SMG artwork by
                        modifying some of the .pcx files in the art patch.
                        To see them in the game, download the file above and
                        unzip it into the Sid Meier's Gettysburg! folder.  If
                        you think you might want to return to the old
                        uniforms, back up your .pcx files first.  The links
                        above lead to the 14th Brigade site.

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                        Changing the Sounds

                        The game sounds are the .wav files in the Sounds
                        folder of the Sid Meier's Gettysburg! folder.  You
                        can replace them or modify them with a sound editor.
                          The Sound Recorder app (Sndrec32.exe) that comes
                        with Windows will do the job.   Note the Mix with
                        File... comand in the Edit menu.

                        [The Smith Sound Files] The Smith Sound Files

                        Brian Smith has modified and replaced some of the
                        game sounds to give them a more intense feel, e.g.,
                        more gunshots, stronger explosions, fife and drum
                        following commands etc..  The files are a good
                        example of what can be done with the Sound Recorder
                        app.   To hear them in the game, download the file
                        above and unzip it into the Sounds folder of the Sid
                        Meier's Gettysburg! folder.  If you think you might
                        want to return to the old sounds, back up your Sounds
                        folder first.  This is a 1.9 Megabyte file.

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                        Loopholes

                        Halting a Retreat

                        When a unit retreats it won't follow orders until it
                        has stopped.  While it's true that you can't make it
                        stop by clicking Halt, I've found that retreating
                        units always stop if I give them a formation command
                        - Line, Column, or Skirmish.   Note that I'm talking
                        about retreating rather than routed units.

                        The Pause and Volley trick

                        Volley fire can be devastating.  However, there's no
                        way to coordinate it with more than one regiment.
                        This is realistic.  It would have been almost
                        impossible that a brigade commander, for example,
                        could be heard simultaneously by all of his regiments
                        during a battle.

                        In SMG you can easily get around this when playing
                        the AI.  Here's how:

                          1. Pause the game and issue the volley command to
                             as many regiments as you like.  This will
                             instruct them to load and hold their fire.
                          2. Resume the game and wait a few seconds.
                          3. Pause the game again and issue the volley
                             command to the same regiments.  This will
                             instruct them to fire.
                          4. Resume the game.

                        You'll now see smoke pour simultaneously from the
                        muskets of all the regiments.   This is an effective
                        way to break enemy units that are on the brink.

                        Getting Help from Frozen Units

                        Frozen regiments are marked by black flags.  You
                        can't control them, but they will move and/or fire if
                        provoked.  If this happens, you gain their extra
                        firepower, but any casualties they take won't count
                        against you.

                        The most effective way to involve frozen regiments is
                        through the use of skirmishers.   Here's what to do:

                          1. Position your skirmishers with frozen regiments
                             at their rear and enemy regiments at their
                             front.
                          2. Have them engage the enemy, then fall back
                             toward their frozen allies.  AI units will
                             usually pursue.

                        If all goes well the AI units will get too close to
                        the frozen regiments who will turn and fire.  That's
                        what's happening below.

