Herzog Zwei Play Tutorial

By David W. Jeske, June 28, 1998

1. Preface

This is a description of the Sega Genesis game 'Herzog Zwei' by Techno Soft. It may eventually mutate into the play description of my derivative game "HZ".

1. Game Overview

You have a main ship which you fly around, this main ship is the 'cursor' with which you control your army. You can also get involved and fight with this ship, but any time you are fighting you can't be building or controlling your army, so it's a tradeoff.

There are units you can build to become part of your army. You can not directly control these units, but you can carry them wherever you would like with your mainship. You can only carry one unit at a time.

There are bases distributed throughout the map. Each player has a 'mainbase'. The object of the game is to destroy the enemies main base. main base damage is not repairable, so guard your main base. There are also a collection of 'mini-bases' throughout the map. Minibases can be owned by either player at any time in the game. In order to own a minibase you have to send enough infantry units into it to capture it. The more minibases you own, the more money you get. When you produce a unit, you can pick it up from any minibase you own, or from your mainbase.

You mainship, like all units in the game, has a finite amount of resources: damage, ammo, fuel. However, your mainship is immortal. If you run out of ammo or fuel your ship will be 'destroyed' but it will reform at your mainbase. This does not cost you any money. This only costs you time, because now you must fly back to where you were. You are advised to refuel your mainship often by flying over minibases you own, or over your mainbase, and staying there until your ship is refueled. (watch the bars on the top of the screen)

2. Game control

There are three control buttons. If you are flying your ship around, the buttons do this:

Button A: when you are over land, this button will 'transform' your plane into a walking robot. When you are a plane you are 'in the air' when you are a robot you are 'on the ground'. If you want to shoot at units you have to be in the same place as they are. So if you want to shoot at ground units you have to be on the ground.
If you are above one of your units (i.e. you are a plane, and the unit is on the ground below you) then pressing this button will pick up the unit so you can carry it around or reprogam it. (more later)
Button B: This button always shoots
Button C: This button toggles you into the production screen when you are not carrying a unit. If you are carrying a unit, it toggles you into a similar screen which lets you change the program on a unit or observe it's current damage, etc.

3. Producing Units

One of the key elements of the game is constructing units. You construct units by pressing 'C' to goto the construction menu. When you are in the construction menu, you have a cursor along the left side of the window. You can move this cursor up and down. If you press right or left, it will change the value of the line the cursor is pointing to.

The top line is the unit you wish to produce.

The next line is the task/program you wish that unit to fulfill.

The next line is the map. The map has nothing to do with purchasing units. However, it's located in this screen as well. You can toggle the map between 'whole map' and 'local scan' with right and left. I've never found the 'local scan' to be very useful. However, the 'whole map' is very useful because you can use it to figure out where you are on the map. In the rest of this document this will be referred to as 'the map' and if you want to see it, now you know where it is.

3.1 Units

The units you can produce are listed here:

Infantry: The infantry unit is the weakest in terms of battle strength. However, infantry are used strategicly to capture minibases and increase your cash flow. (more later)
Motorcycle: The fastest unit in the game, although their shots don't do much damage and they don't have much armor.
Armor Unit: Stronger and slower than a Motorcycle, but more expensive.
Tank: Tanks are the strongest mobile unit. They are the workhorse of both your defensive and offensive army.
Boat: This unit is like a tank, but can only operate on water.
SAM: Surface to Air missile. This shoots a missle at your enemies 'mainship'. It does not attack any other units in the game and thus it is completely vulnerable to even a lone infantry unit.
Turret: The most expensive unit in the game, it has both surface to air missles, and ground fire capabilities. However, it cannot move on it's own.
Suppily Truck: All units have a finite amount of ammo, damage, and fuel. If you leave a unit unattended too long, it may run out of something. All mainbases and minibases are a source of these resources. A suppily truck will refuel nearby units from it's own suppily. However, it must be near enough to one of your bases to resuppily itself.

3.2 Tasks/Programs

Programs are divided into defensive and offensive. Defensive programs have yellow icons, offensive programs have orange/red icons. Programs costs different amounts of money. In general defensive programs are cheaper, and programs which require less movement are cheaper.

Defensive Programs:

Stationary Defend: This looks like a yellow plus sign (+). This means that the unit should not move, ever. It should just stay where you put it and shoot at enemy units. This is the cheapest program. It is also the only program you can assign to the 'Turret' unit.
Circle Defend: This looks like a yellow circle. This means that the unit should drive around in circles and shoot at enemy units. This extends the range that a unit can run intereference in. However, because it takes fuel for units to move, a unit running a circle pattern will run out of fuel and require either manual refueling or a suppily truck.
Aggressive Defend: This looks like a line/arrow pointing up, and another line in the shape of a half-circle pointing from top to bottom. This means 'stay in one spot, when you see a unit, go out and intercept him. When you have killed him, come back to your original spot' This is the most useful defensive program, but it's also the most expensive.

Offensive Programs:

Enter the nearest minibase: This is a program which can only be given to Infantry units. It looks like an upside-down and square 'U' with a fat arrow pointing up into the opening of the U. This tells the infantry unit to proceed to the nearest minibase and enter it. Once you get four infantry units into a minibase, it becomes yours. When it is yours, it gives you more money and you can pickup units you build from it.
Attack units at the nearest minibase: This program has the same upside down U desribed above only smaller. The upside-down U again represents a minibase, however, it's in the upper right hand corner, and there is an arrow pointing from the lower-left corner up to the minibase. This means that a unit should head for the nearest enemy owned minibase and destroy any units which are guarding it. If you capture this minibase, then any units sitting outside it will continue on to the 'new' nearest enemy minibase.
Attack the enemy base: This looks like an orange flag. This tells a unit it should proceed to the enemy base and shoot at it. It will not attack any units on the way, or protect itself, it's mission is clear, to attack the enemy main base.

3.3 Building a Unit

To build a unit, while in the production screen, you select a unit with your cursor, then move your cursor down, then select a program. Then press the 'A' button. The unit will start to build. You will see a wrench flash near the top of the screen. While the wrench is flashing the unit is building. You can only build one unit at a time, and once you start to build a unit you can not stop it, you must wait until it finishes.

3.4 Picking up a Unit

When the unit is finished being built, an 'OK' symbol appears where the wrench was. This indicates to you that there is a unit which is built which is ready for pickup. To pickup the unit, fly your mainship over any minibase you own, or any of your mainbases, and press the 'A' button. You cannot build another unit until you pickup and place this one.

After you are now carrying the unit, you will see a payload attached to your ship. Your ship now flies slower, and consumes more fuel. If your ship is desroyed while carrying a unit, the unit is destroyed also, so if you are in danger of being destroyed, drop the unit you are carrying.

You drop the unit by pressing 'A' again when you are over suitable terrain. You can not drop a tank on water, or on a tree, and you can not drop a boat on land. When you drop the unit, it will carry out it's program. You can pick up the unit again at any time just by flying over it and pressing 'A'.

4. Getting Started

A good way to get started is to goto one of your minibases and build four infantry units set to 'enter the nearest minibase'. As each one is built, just pick it up from the minibase and drop it right outside the minibase, then build another. They will walk to the nearest minibase and capture it. Then go to another minibase and do the same thing. Carefully choose the minibases based on their proximity to unoccupied or enemy minibases. Then go check out what the enemy is going.

When your main base is being attacked you will hear an alarm, and see an 'SOS' icon on the screen. You can either wait until the enemy runs out of ammo, or you can fly back to your main base to destroy it. It's a good idea to start building defensive units near your base to protect it so that enemy units will be destroyed when they get near your base.

You can sometimes distract the enemy by sending a motorcycle to his main base. The motorcycle won't do much damage, but it will cause the alarm and SOS icons to show up, causing him to think his base is in danger.

Herzog Zwei Pages

Herzog Zwei Fan Forum
Classic Brilliance Herzog Zwei
Herzog Zwei F AQ at gamefaqs.com
Game of the week at C lassic Gaming
Herzog Zwei at Emulation Zone - strategy, units and orders
scan of the original pri nted manual
mentioned in ZDNet's A History of Real-Time Strategy Games