The battlefield is unfamiliar, a clear valley dotted by copses of trees and cultivated fields. The town at the valley's center is the strongpoint of your army's defense, held by stout infantrymen against two massed enemy assaults already this morning. Now, having fought off the enemy, you prepare the counterattack. Your lines, populated by more hearty infantrymen, extend away from the village on both sides to the foothills on the flanks, where your elite cavalry brigades await your word to attack. Your plan is ''feint in the center, envelope the flanks, then, as the enemy's resolve begins to weaken, crush the enemy with a massed infantry assault by your Elite Guard reserves...''

...And you have the cards in your hand to make the plan work! But what cards is your enemy still holding? Will he play REGROUP to rally his center and hit you again? Or a SUPPLY card or a LEADER to coordinate a spoiling attack on your cavalry wings? Or will his GUERILLAS harass your advance and impede your flow of reinforcements? What if he has his cavalry positioned to WITHDRAW and then turn on you with a COMMITTED ATTACK? Or has he prepared a nasty AMBUSH on your route of march? So many ''what if's...,'' but time is fleeting -- the time to Manoeuvre is now!

Manoeuvre is a fast-playing game of battlefield command, set in the early 19th century. Multiple geomorphic game maps provide the chessboard-sized battlefields over which eight different armies of the period move and fight in one-on-one battles. As the commanding General of a nation's army, you have at your command units and a 60-card national deck which represents your army's specific troops and unique strengths. Your job is to utilize those assets and manoeuvre your forces to achieve battlefield supremacy.