I don't know the solution, but maybe it would help others to know what version of DOSBox you are using.

EMS needs to be switched off for WCA to work, so leave that off.

Also, in my experience, WCA has some problems with having too much free memory. So, before you start the game, type "loadfix" at the DOSBox prompt.

As a bonus, I'll tell you that I've found that WCA works best at 3263 cycles. (normal core, 0 frameskip)

i see. well i am using dosbox 0.63. also i type in loadfix but then if i type armada.exe it does not work. the only way it works is if i use the file armada.exe on top of the dosbox shortcut icon. any suggestions there?

Maybe try using a frontend like D-Fend - it might be able to set up DOSBox for you with the proper settings for that game. Another possibility is to try running with an experimental but newer CVS version of DOSBox (see the development forum for more details).

the forgotten wrote:

i see. well i am using dosbox 0.63. also i type in loadfix but then if i type armada.exe it does not work.

"it does not work" is a little vague. If you mean the game doesn't even attempt to start, then you've probably not mounted the directory in which it is installed. I'm not gonna tell you how to do that, since it's explained in the DOSBox readme and has been discussed on these forums more often than I can count.

Using a front-end is a good idea (assuming it has the possibility to specify that "loadfix" should be executed before the game).

D-Fend has.

BTW the next version of dosbox doesn't need loadifx for WCA (unfortunate that didn't fix wc2 lvl2)
(and doesn't need ems off either).