Civil War OnLine

Rolling of the Drums

Player Support Page:
Reading the ROTD Position Report


At the start of each turn of a GITM campaign, each player receives a position report showing him or her the status and position of the units under his or her command, and information about the enemy that those units can detect. This help page explains the format of the report and how to interpret it.

The position report contains three sections: Strategic Map, Tactical Maps, and Unit Status. Each is discussed in turn below. Look at the sample position report and become familiar with it before continuing.

Note that every player receives a different position report showing the information that is visible to the units commanded by that player. Information may be available on your position report that is not available on the position report of other players on the same side as you. Similarly, other players may be able to see things on their position reports that are not visible on yours.

1. Strategic Map

The first section of the report shows a portion of the strategic map. This map will show every strategic square within 5 squares of any unit on which the given player is commander or deputy commander. If the square contains impassible terrain - water, swamps, or impassible mountains - the color of the square shows the terrain type. Otherwise, the color of the square indicates the nationality of the square's population. See the map legend for details.
A square may contain either of two types of icons. First, it may contain an icon showing terrain within the square; forest, hills, mountains, rivers, and cities. If the icon is a city icon, clicking on the icon will reveal the name of the city, the side controlling the city, and the amount of supplies stored in the city. Second, it may contain an icon indicating the presence of units in the city. Blue flags indicate the presence of friendly units, red flags indicate the presence of enemy units, gray flags indicate the presence of neutral units. There may be more than one color flag displayed for a given strategic square. In particular, red and blue flags in the same square imply contact between hostile units that could result in a battle. Clicking on a flag icon will reveal the terrain, if any, in that strategic square. It will also reveal the sides of all the units present in the square, the approximate size of that side's force in the square, and its composition by branch. I indicates infantry units, C indicates cavalry units, A represents artillery units, and H represents headquarters units. The letters will be listed in decreasing order of number of units present. Thus, IC indicates the presence of both infantry and cavalry, but more brigades of infantry than cavalry, whereas CI also indicates both infantry and cavalry, but more brigades of cavalry. Strength reports will be accurate for friendly units but may not be for enemy units. For strength reports, a "division" implies approximately three brigades (including headquarters brigades) present, "corps" indicates at least six, and "army" indicates at least 12.
Friendly units will be marked on the strategic map if they are within 3 strategic squares of any of the player's brigades, or within 5 squares of an army headquarters unit. Enemy and neutral units will be marked if they are in the same or adjacent squares, or within 3 squares of cavalry units (2 squares if the cavalry is out of communications) which can trace a line of contact to the sighted unit. In general, the absence of a flag icon in a strategic square on the map does not mean that the square is empty of units, unless the square is within the detection ranges give above of the player's units.

2. Tactical Maps

The second section of the report shows the tactical maps of every strategic square where the given player is either commander or deputy commander of at least one brigade. The entire tactical map will be shown. The color of each square indicates its terrain - see the map legend for details. Each square is also marked with a number from 0 to 4 indicating the suitability of its terrain for defense, 0 being least defensible and 4 being most defensible. A square marked with an asterisk indicates the location of the named city on the strategic map located in that strategic square, and the name of the city will appear at the bottom of the tactical map.
Each square may contain an icon indicating the presence of units. As on the strategic map, blue flags indicate friendly units, red flags indicate enemy units, and gray flags indicate neutral units. Clicking on a flag icon will reveal the identities of the units present in the square. All friendly units in the tactical square will be marked on the map. Neutral and enemy units will be displayed if they are the closest unit (or one of several closest units) to any friendly unit along each of the eight directions. A neutral or an enemy unit will not be marked on the map if it is shielded from view by other enemy or neutral units between it and all friendly units. Two players on the same side or allied sides will see exactly the same units on tactical maps that appear on both of their reports.
One can locate a given tactical map within this section of the report quickly by using the "Find" feature of one's browser to search for the name of the strategic square within this section of the report.

3. Unit Status

The third section of the report shows the status of every unit on which the player is commander or deputy commander. The first line shows the commander and deputy commander of the unit. The second line shows the strategic and tactical location of the unit. Clicking on the word "strategic" will display the strategic map at the top of the report, and clicking on the word "tactical" will display the tactical map on which the unit is located. The third line of the report shows the unit's strength in men and batteries. The fourth line shows the quality, experience, morale, and fatigue of the unit. (Note: Morale is presently unused in the game, but is reserved for later expansion.) The fifth line shows the unit's present supply and ammunition load. The sixth line shows the source for supply and communications the unit will use on the coming turn. (Note that the unit may specify an alternate supply source if it chooses to do so.)
One can locate a given unit's status report quickly by using the "Find" feature of one's browser to search for the ID of the unit. One can similarly find all units with a given player as commander or deputy by searching for the player's name, or find all units in a given tactical square by searching in this section of the report for the name of the strategic square (eg, G7-T5).


Page maintained by Stephen Schmidt. Last updated 4-11-13.