I have made a discovery which eases the mapping burden when tracking Strategic Conquest games. It turns out that the program disk will still run even if all system files are removed. I therefore advocate the following procedure:

Use CopyII to copy the program disk (sector copy, bit copy on track 79). Then remove the entire system folder thus quadrupling space for paint files (over 200K). Caveats: the program will hang if the Talking option is activated. The opening screen is replaced by garbage. And no matter how much free space, you can only save 10 paint files at a time.

I used this procedure to chart my most recent humiliation, and it worked just fine. I only had to leave the program once every fifty days.

As per your suggestion, I have added a comment feature to the mapping stack. Each BRIEF comment is attached to a flag which can be placed anywhere on the map; the flags are included when forming comparison stacks; an additional paragraph in the help message describes this feature. I suggest that at the very least we note the first enemy sighting. I also provided a button for deleting bad cards. Be sure to use my latest (2/89) stack to generate your next stack.

One of the packages on the main screen contains the nifty new Conquest Comparison stack. You can use this stack not only to compare your battles with mine, but also to compare ANY two campaigns. For example, you could use it to compare two different strategies, or a winning campaign vs. a losing campaign. Scanty Documentation is included.

I propose the following procedure from here on out. Each issue I will send a new game file. Return to me a standard mapping stack labeled "Paul 3/89" (use the current month for the date). To save disk space, I will publish only the comparison stack each time. I will also stop generating intro cards for this stuff. I suggest you store all maps and stacks in a permanent Conquest folder.

So that our our charts will coincide, I will adopt your scheme of reporting every ten days. Since the comparison stack offers a better readout of the rise and fall of troop concentrations, I did not bother to add a relative vs. absolute set of bar graphs to the standard mapping stack. Also, please let me know what you think of the comparison stack.