August 2001

ATTACK-IN-THE-WEST 1940 ADDON

Provisional readme for beta testers (just a summary with no credits).


Introduction **********

This addon intends to figure out  the May-June 1940 "Blietzkrieg", as far as EAW allows. Given the short period and the fast moves of frontlines and airbases, EAW cannot be used in a conventional way to play campaigns, I mean without the source code. This addon includes a DOS program which manages the careers instead of EAW.
The program automatically  generates campaign missions at a frequency choosen by the user. According to the date, it automatically moves the frontlines, the location of bases and it changes the way aircraft appear during missions. Furthermore, each kind of aircraft may have different skins/markings. These skins/markings are randomly choosen by the program and copied into the main EAW directory. Of course, the aircraft skin/marking of the aircraft flown during a career does not change, unless upgraded by the program (e.g. MS406 to D-520).
Endly, the addon allows single missions playing. The single missions can be played at a date (and corresponding frontline) choosen by the user.


Main features ********
- DOS  Program (W40.exe) which automatically generates missions in careers, changes the frontines and airbases locations according to the date and selects in both scheduled and random ways the aircraft (50 different  planes)  in missions. The program also manages the logbook, display screens and end-of-career screens in careers.
- 22 differents frontlines cover the whole campaign
- 21 careers are available : 9 german, 7 french, 1 british, 2 belgian and 2  dutch.
- Classic Western Europe map but with airbases and targets relocated near the western boundary of Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium and France. More than 80 airbases/targets have been relocated.
- Simple and easy setup procedure
- Auxilliary DOS program (SMissW40.exe)  which sets up EAW for single missions at any given date between 10 May 40 and 22 June 40.
- Dunkirk evacution fleet present at the correct period in both campaign and single mission modes.


Addon Setup *********

The addon requires a NEW SEPARATE EAW INSTALL WITH ECA PANEL INSTALLED (the Hard Drive where EAW is installed must be C:). After completing the new EAW install, THE EAW MAIN DIRECTORY MUST BE RENAMED AS " AITW40 " (instead of " European Air War ").
The addon has files in six separate autoexecutable zip files (W40A_v2.exe; W40B_v2.exe; W40C_v2.exe;  W40D_v2.exe; W40E_v2.exe and W40F_v2.exe). All six exe files are necessary to get the addon working.
Run each exe file, one by one, in the right order (A to F). The default directory displayed when running the *.exe is C:\ . Do not modify this path. 
Just click on Unzip (or "Dcompresser" in French). After running all six executables, the addon should be installed in C:\Program Files\Microprose Software\AITW40\W40 and ready to start.


Addon usage for campaigns  **********

Before running EAW, you must run W40.exe, one of the two executables present in the newly-created W40 subfolder.
 It will manage everything. Follow the instructions, choose a career, type your name, choose your rank, the rate of missions, let the program loading everything and when the program stops, close the DOS window. Then, run EAW, click on 'Career', click on 'Load' and select the career corresponding to the data you entered into the program (usually the first mission starts on 10 May 40). Play the mission. When over, click on OK and go to the room/office. At that step, DO NOT CLICK ON "NEXT MISSION" BUT QUIT the room and EAW. This is essential since, as said above, the career files must be managed by the W40 program and not by EAW. It is necessary to quit EAW (not Ctrl/Esc). Whether not,  the frontline will never change (EAW checks the frontline only once, at the start). Run the W40.exe again. The program will indicate that the mission has been flown and it will ask you for another one. Then, do as described above till the end of the campaign. 


Notes about the campaign mode of the addon ******************

You can run the DOS program at any time,  either after or before playing a mission. It will indicate whether the last mission has been played or not. Thus, at any time, the program can be run without troubles for the current campaign. If you don't remember having generated a new mission the last time you played a career, run the program to check. As well, there is no interference between the Career file generated by the program and those that are already present in your savedata folder. As a matter of fact, the Career file generated by the addon is recorded as CareerXX.sve. Therefore, it cannot  overwrite your other career files named Career00.sve, Career01.sve and so on ... There is a limitation : only one career can be played at a time with the addon.


Addon usage for single missions  **********

Before running EAW, you must run SMissW40.exe, one of the two executables present in the newly-created  W40 folder.
The program will automatically manage the EAW setup for single missions. It will load 1) the map files 2) the files of flyable aircraft 3) the frontline corresponding to the date you want to play a single mission. In that aim, the program will ask you for a date between 10/05/40 and 22/06/40.
Close the DOS window when the process is over and run EAW. Single missions are ready to be played.

IMPORTANT : there is absolutely no interference between the Campaign mode and the Single Missions mode of the addon. In other words, you may start a campaign, stop it whenever you wish, play single missions, continue the current campaign and so on ... Even if you play other campaigns in other theaters, the campaign data are saved and the career can be continued at any moment. Running the W40.exe program will load everything required for the campaign you previously started. However, be sure not to erase the corresponding career in EAW (CareerXX.sve). In such a case, career data cannot be recovered.


Dominique   Dominique.Legrand@univ-lille1.fr

Note : A french Air Control Tower speechpack By Alain-James is available at Check-Six for the french careers : a must have ! The terrain files and specific ground objects are not included in the addon.


