Solitaire?

[undercovergeek]

For anyone, indeed if there were any, who will play WiF against themselves - solitaire mode as i understand it - is it possible to explain whats achieved here for someone who doesnt understand how you surprise attack yourself?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

For anyone, indeed if there were any, who will play WiF against themselves - solitaire mode as i understand it - is it possible to explain whats achieved here for someone who doesnt understand how you surprise attack yourself?

It depends on whether you have a problem with short-term memory loss.[;)] A definite problem for older folks.[:D]

[Zorachus99]

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

For anyone, indeed if there were any, who will play WiF against themselves - solitaire mode as i understand it - is it possible to explain whats achieved here for someone who doesnt understand how you surprise attack yourself?

Wif is one of the easiest games to play solitaire. Set a plan for both sides, make the best decision on either side, and see how WIF distorts and ruins all plans [:D]. You cannot make a perfect play in this game. There are almost no gaurantees of any sort. The dice gods will merely torment you [:@]

[Mike Parker]

Also Solitaire is useful for implimenting a plan on one side, and seeing how it effects the other side.
 
So if your not entirely sure how effective something will be, you can try it as one side, see how it effects the side that does it, then on the other side see how it effects them.  If it was the AI you cannot determine this very easily, and another human might be more than willing to communicate how it makes them feel but it won't be as accurate as you seeing it yourself.
 
So if your a bit vague on how a certain rule works or interacts, you can play both sides and see.. or how a certain strategy effects other nations opportunities etc etc

[IKerensky_alt]

I played it a lot all by myself and believe me you WILL surprise yourself quite a lot.
 
In fact, when you are playing several MP all by yourself your attention to every detail is quite lessened as a result you will often judge your defense quite good then when you switch country you suddenly realise some major gap or weak defense that could be exploited.
 
The thing you probably wont be doing is a backstabbing paradrop on an undefended capital... but I dont think that is the kind of thing you want to try to achieve in multiplayer either.
 
What will surprise you the more will be your own unit counters, I remember a game when I totally forgot I had a paradrop planned with the germans and realise a few impulse later that there is something under this ATR...
 
You could also activate FoW ( I am unsure MWiF do it the way CWiF did ) but in this case you will need fractionnal odds and even then I think it make the game a bit too hard on the attacker. Be sure your own mind will provide a lot of FoW by itself, just dont reload and correct your mistakes... play them

[csharpmao]

ORIGINAL: Greywolf
You could also activate FoW ( I am unsure MWiF do it the way CWiF did ) but in this case you will need fractionnal odds and even then I think it make the game a bit too hard on the attacker. Be sure your own mind will provide a lot of FoW by itself, just dont reload and correct your mistakes... play them

If I correctly read another post, there will be no FoW in MWiF, at least in version 1.

[Mike Parker]

Yep no FoW, and if ever implimented I think it will be hard to compensate for the effect.  It might be nice, but it will sure make attacking alot harder.

[undercovergeek]

thanks for replies - i just couldnt figure out how you would attack yourself, knowing exactly how to defend against it!

I may try solitaire to begin with - thanks

[micheljq]

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek

For anyone, indeed if there were any, who will play WiF against themselves - solitaire mode as i understand it - is it possible to explain whats achieved here for someone who doesnt understand how you surprise attack yourself?

See it on the positive way, you are almost sure to win! and loose at the same time! [:)]

[Cheesehead]

My recommendation when playing solitaire is to play an impulse, then walk away from the game for a while before playing the other side. Even if for only 15 minutes. It provides a good change of perspective.

Cheers

John

[macgregor]

Fact -If you smoke a lot of pot you will forget your previous move. My guess is that if you need to play solitaire, you probably live alone. Why not just setup the boardgame in the room next to your bed?

[mlees]

No room to setup up the boardgame.

[obermeister]

Will the saved games be in an excel format or something like that? One of the things I'd really like to do in solitare mode is be able to set up a game to mimic what's happening in our biweekly cardboard game. That way I can try out strategies in simulation before trying it in the "real" cardboard simulation. [;)]

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: obermeister

Will the saved games be in an excel format or something like that? One of the things I'd really like to do in solitare mode is be able to set up a game to mimic what's happening in our biweekly cardboard game. That way I can try out strategies in simulation before trying it in the "real" cardboard simulation. [;)]

The unitfied map versus the 6 different map scales in WIF FE makes this unworkable. Sorry.[:(]

[Sewerlobster]

ORIGINAL: undercovergeek
thanks for replies - i just couldnt figure out how you would attack yourself, knowing exactly how to defend against it!
I may try solitaire to begin with - thanks

As with most strategy board wargames you can't really defend against any attack completely anyway. I agree with Zor99, you simply set up each country like you would if you were just playing that country; then since the Axis go first and have the initiative -- you try what you want with them. No matter what your Allied plans may be, the success or failure of the Axis drives the timing of those plans.
Don't get me wrong, If for example you decide Japan is going to, say, ignore the US and try and conquer India; you can be pretty sure that the "Allied player" will know about it. But when you are taking the Allied player's turn you simply do not act on anything but what the board presents. If you were playing a real person and there are suddenly all the Japanese transports with troops lined up to swamp the subcontinent you'd react; but if those same transport are more centrally located you'd be forced to defend as much of what an Allied player would normally think of as important. Play the solitare game the same way.
Honestly it work exceptionally well with WiF.

[brian brian]

The main things you need to decide in advance when playing a solitaire game of WiF is some basic Axis strategy for each of their countries. Then you need to decide on what to have Japan and Russia do. Playing a little brinkmanship to generate some sort of trade deal with a new Neutrality Pact is probably not a possibility playing solitaire. So you have to decide how things look for each country based on what the other one is doing in Siberia, because as was mentioned, a complete surprise attack isn't really a possibility. So in advance it helps to decide a Japanese policy for the Middle East, a Japanese policy for a Barbarossa-assist, a Russian policy for Persia, and a general Russian Far East policy should Germany start showing signs of planning Sea Lion or a 42 Barbarossa. Then wait and see what happens when these policies intersect, again with decisions based on what each country can see on the board.

The European strategies and tactics are far more simple to just play out solitaire.

[IKerensky_alt]

   As I said on another thread, if you plan to play solitaire use the Hotseat feature and play as 2 different player. It help conceal a few thing from your conscious mind it also help in a subconsious way : when you click the windows that tell you now is the time for Irving the German Player to play uncounsciously you feel more into the rôle. Our mind is something that work well with compartement and classification, by 'incarnatating' several character rather than playing one see-all move-all entity I noticed I got a more enjoyable and more challenging game.
   The other effect is the "Fresh Eye" as we say in computer programming, this tiny instant when you got out out from the windows then back as another player do quite a lot to refresh your personnal view of a situation. Often when playing solitary I chained attack, counter, escort, interception, bombing following a single idea, but when I switch player between action I very often realised an opportunity I neglected : an interception, a ground support, an undefended factory, a cuttable line of supply... All this because my mind cannot enter a rout or a preset view of the situation. The simple fact of changing player make some things appear.
   I understant that could sound like a psycho-mumbo-jumbo but that is really my experience in playing. I often quitted a solitary game because I feel bored and not implicated enough, but in a hot-seat game, especially if roleplaying a bit the different players (no cross-dressing, just strategical option selection and cooperation) the game become just that much more fun.

[Caquineur]

ORIGINAL: obermeister
... try out strategies ...

ORIGINAL: obermeister (in this thread : Simple survey, page 4)
Question: ... would I have more freedom to 'overrule' dice results in Solitaire?
... it would give me the ability to ... run simulations to test certain plans.

I was wondering, would it be possible to add an option to select the values of the die rolled (instead of having them random) in Solitaire mode ?

• First, il would facilitate trying out strategies and testing certain plans, as obermeister suggests.
• Second, it would allow to create non-random game reports, for example in order to simulate the actual events (or, more precisely, the diplomatic and military aspects) of the second world war.
  
  Of course, it would require a very good knowledge of the timetable, the order of battle, etc... of the war, and take a lot of time and effort.
  
  But I guess it would be be interesting, and coud bring to the game some people more interested in history itself and the simulating process than in the gaming process of WiF.
  
  Such "game reports" could also be a good introduction to the game itself for beginners and potential customers

What do you think ?

Alain

[IKerensky_alt]

That is a debug function in CWiF and I am pretty sure it is avaliable in MWiF too. Trouble will be to have it avaliable only in solitary and not in PBEM - Netplay... will need a bit of coding I think.
 
But I second it as it is a nice choice to have when playing by yourself.

[Neilster]

Years ago, when I suggested a replay feature (ie, a game movie to watch), one of the reasons was so that a MWiF version of WW2 could be created. This could be shared so that anyone with MWiF could enjoy it.

Unfortunately a replay feature won't be in MWiF 1 but this still may happen in the future.

Cheers, Neilster