Once you have the Joy Of Hex application up and running, the first step to starting a new game, where you are playing against the computer, requires that you move the cursor into the application menubar, and select the New... menu item from the File menu. Of course you could have simply used the quick-key combination of Cmd-N to do exactly the same thing.
Having told the Joy Of Hex application that you want to play a new game, you must then select the scenario that you want to play. This requires the use of the standard open file dialog to locate and then open the file with the scenario that you want to play. Notice that at this stage the only files that you can open are files that have been created by the Joy Of Hex Editor.
After selecting the file containing the scenario that you wish to play, you must then set a variety of options. Since we're trying to play against the computer, we check that the radio button for the Opponent is set to Against Computer. We can also set the game's Difficulty level and the Side that we wish to play on.
After the computer reads through the scenario data and does a whole bunch of calculations that it needs to initialise a game, it will eventually display a game window. Since the game has just started it is now ready for you to plan out what you want done for the first turn.
From this stage on you can now save the game that you're playing and have no more need of the original scenario file. The present saved game file contains all the information that it needs in order to recreate the presently saved stage of the game in all of its entirety. Whenever you want to restart a game that you've saved to file previously, you simply go to the application menu and select the Open... menu item from the File menu, and locate the file with the standard file opening dialog.
Once you are happy with your plans, you can move the cursor to the application menubar and select the Execution menu item from the Phase menu. Alternatively, you could use the quick-key combination of Cmd-E.
On selecting the Execution menu item, you will have to wait a bit as the computer sits and thinks about what it wants to do for its turn. Once the computer is finished thinking, the game will start trying to execute the orders that both you and the computer have given it.
If there were battles, artillery units firing upon enemy units, aircraft flying barrage missions, or some other form of casualities being caused, then you shall see a series of animations occuring showing these events as they happen. Notice with the animations that the map is first cleared of all unit images and only those unit images that correspond to units being involved with action are shown in the animation.
If there were no records of casualities occuring then the game will go directly to the next planning stage for the next turn. If there were records of casualities, then the game will go into the After Action phase where you can read reports about the battles that occured. A hex where there is a record of a battle occuring is displayed in the After Action phase by the existance of a red border about the hex. If you then click on that hex, the red border will change to a green border to show that you have selected that hex and a series of messages shall appear in the toolbar that give a brief description of the battles and what were involved.
If you found yourself in the After Action phase and now want to move onto the Planning stage for the next turn, then all that you need to do is go to select the Planning menu item from the Phase menu. Alternatively, you could use the quick-key combination of Cmd-P.
All going well, after the scenario's alloted number of turns have passed, you should see a dialog box that tells you that the scenario has completed, which side has won and some details that went into calculating that score. Hopefully, you have done well enough to get a Decisive Victory - if you have then maybe it is time to try a higher difficulty setting?
Notice that once this dialog appears that there is no stopping the player from continuing to play out the scenario. Maybe you have just captured the main victory hexes and gained that decisive victory, but there are still large number of enemy units around to crush - this option to continue a game gives you the chance to have a good gloat over your victory by completely wiping out every enemy unit.