Subject: List of improvements from Roger Keating
From: comsat@picknowl.com.au (Chris Merchant)

Looks like Christmas is here early for us TAO'ers :-)

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Roger for spending his valuable
time improving this gem of a game; and also to Peter for his tireless efforts
getting TAOEdit up and running. Well done, chaps!

ps my TAO site now has a www board which might be handy for finding future
PBEM opponents: http://www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/comsat/tao.htm

Game changes in TAO2

1.      Allied forces are active from Turn 1. They can move, blow bridges
etc. The British are still restricted until activated by Axis units.

2.      Networking has been disabled in this version.

3.      The email system has been enhanced and players can use the secure
feature. It means that each turn may be played once only and you can't open
another players turn. The replay feature is mostly complete, but wired out
of this version, and will be finished at a later date.

4.      Units can have enhanced combat capability or bullets. A unit with 1
bullet operates as an original TAO unit did. Peiper's (1SS) regiment now
has 4 bullets. A unit in supply automatically gets the maximum number of
bullets it can hold. It can use 1 bullet each turn for combat or enhanced
movement. Only if a unit has no further bullets is it deemed 'in the red'
and thus, very vulnerable.

5.      Many units can trade their combat capability for enhanced movement.
The double arrow button at the bottom left of the screen will activate
enhanced movement or undo it if activated. By clicking the button a number
of times the player can see the extra distance the unit can move.

6.      If a divisional unit is selected then other hexes with divisional
units in them will highlight to show the player where they are. If a supply
truck is selected other supply trucks will highlight.

7.       If the divisional 'XX' symbol appears in the window at the bottom
it means that the unit is receiving a divisional bonus. The attack and
defense bonuses are now the same. If all units of the division are within 5
hexes they receive attack and defense bonuses. If only 1 unit remains in
the division then no bonus is possible. If there are a reduced number of
units, generally two, then the combat bonus is the same but the attack
bonus is reduced by 50%.

8.      There is a new Dice Roll screen. The numbers are usually displayed
as x/y where x represents the total number of that die roll and y
represents rolls in the current turn. The loads value at the top is for
email games. It indicates the number of times the game has been loaded and
should be the same as the number of turns made. If the turn is terminated
for whatever reason then the value will increment.

9.      In email games, files to be sent will be found in the 'send' folder
below the 'email' folder.

10.     If an attacker can't come up with at least 1-2 odds then they will
not be able to attack.

11.     If a defending stack has no attack capability, engineers /
artillery / supply trucks, then the attacker will only suffer loses on a
'1' die roll. The defender suffer loses normally.

12.     The AI has had some minor tweaking.

13.     The low-end map is not available. The map has been replaced by a
new one, which has a few minor changes. There are a couple of rivers added
in the south that will aid a defender.

14.     Supply has been changed slightly. If a truck has zero 'resistance'
it will have 'ok' printed on the indicator. It also gets a 20% increase in
it's supply range. If it suffers a resistance between 1 and 9 then it
operates normally. After 10 it's range starts to be reduced and at 25 it is
deemed out of supply. It means that air interdiction markers have a greater
effect on Axis supply especially when the Axis forces are around the Meuse.

15.     Artillery units have their ranges printed on the main screen.

16.     Scroll bars have been removed and scrolling is now accomplished by
moving the mouse to the side of the screen.

17.      The front line markers used for control have been changed to
represent more of a front line effect.

18.     CD music is still played if a CD is in the drive. Just place your
favorite Axis or Allied music in the drive for atmosphere.