I'm going to write a more "summarized" AAR not a blow by blow AAR. I don't have the time for a detailed AAR now and my time will be even scarcer in 2018 so a summary AAR is all I can manage. It will hopefully also be more read-able than some of the AAR games that are played out on the forum blow by blow question by question.
I've played WIF on and off since 1985 as a boardgame and using Cyberboard/Vassal. I even attended a WIFCON in Providence RI once. I think at some point I was pretty competent in some version of WIF but I've honestly forgotten most of what I used to know. I hadn't WIF'ed in many years until the last few months when I noticed that MWIF seemed to be pretty mature and decided to buy and and start to play again. I've tried to "re-learn" most of what I used to know about WIF and some of my memories of the game and strategies have returned. [X(]
I really love MWIF. The huge map is outstanding compared to the boardgame map scale in Asia/Pacific/Africa/Mideast. I also like the enforcement of rules by the game. Many times while playing boardgame or vassal/cyberboard I've realized that I've played a rule wrong or my opponents have. With MWIF it's all built in and simple. The only problem I have with MWIF is that the convoy system is broken so you have to "fix" CW builds each build phase. But this only happens 36 times per game so not a huge deal.
The game of WIF is my favorite game and probably always will remain so. The interplay of economy, air, land, sea is unmatched in any other game I've run across and I've played a _lot_ of boardgames and PC games. It's not perfect but it's extremely deep and lots of fun to play. I'm also a fan of the WIF7 game more than the newer WIF8 which I'm playing a bit by Vassal. I think for the most part (with the possible exceptions of making it too easy for Axis to take Gib and align Spain without negative USE ramifications to offset it....and China being a little too easy to conquer....and Soviets being a little too easy to push off Euro map) MWIF/WIF7 gets it "right." So I don't mind at all that MWIF will be forever stuck at WIF7.
I always learn a lot reading AAR's. I'm going to give what I consider to be some really potent tips from the Axis POV (experienced guys will already know these I'm sure but probably not new or maybe intermediate players) but I'm not going to call them out as tips...I'll just let an astute reader absorb them if they can. I have spent a lot of time and brainpower(and my brainpower is in short supply as it is) to think through various strategies in the game and to read about how others carry them out and their thoughts on them and to ask questions on various forums and in emails and PM's. I can't credit everyone but my understanding of the game has really benefited from the help of players like brian, centuur, dabrion, jorge, John Hammond, and others. [&o] I'll mention some things I'm doing as Axis that I think can help to tip the game in Axis favor. There are also many things I'm not sure about as Axis (and allies of course) so I'm sure my play will only improve with time.
I'm playing against Ronnie. Ronnie was one of 3 guys who mod'ed CEAW which was a very good euro-focused WW2 game that was heavily mod'ed. I really enjoyed it. So I was happy to be able to pick up a couple of WIF games with Ronnie beginning in I think Sep or Oct 2017. Ronnie is really smart and analytical but is new to WIF. So his play is improving rapidly as he gains experience in the game. He's also a gentleman and a great sport. Neither of us are playing for blood, just for enjoyment and to have an interesting game so it's a good matchup. [8D] His game vs Pat was his first game vs a human and I think my game with him as allies (he played Axis) was his 2nd. It was also my first game of WIF in many years so I had a lot to re-learn. That game is at the end of 1941 and maybe I'll create an AAR for it eventually.
Now we have kicked off this mirror game where I'm Axis and he's taking allies. We are using a few house rules:
1) If any of the conditions for JP-SU mandatory peace are fulfilled that side can call for peace to be enforced. If this happens neither side can attack the other for 12 turns (2 years) and if SU calls the peace they have to give up Asia map possession entirely (move out so JP can walk into them). On the 13th turn the war can re-commence.
2) We wanted to simulate isolated reorg (which isn't coded in the game yet) in China so we have a house rule that if any unit in China finds itself isolated and flipped at end of a turn, it has to try to go back to its own lines. This will prevent things like JP units marching to lan-chow through the desert even though it can't trace a line of controlled hexes back to its own territory.
3) This isn't a house rule, but we both understand that the convoy system is broken in MWIF so CW production has to get "fixed" each turn by editing the game file during production. This can also happen for other countries but mainly affects CW. We fix any country that needs it during build phase. We just make sure oil saved is correct and then don't spend the hours that could be spent on routing convoys that always end up with CW production incorrect anyway. We create audit-able logs of what's shipped and produced so that we can be sure things are working correctly.
We play with what I consider the most efficient setup for playing MWIF. We use dropbox to share files back and forth. We use whatsapp to be able to ask questions of each other.
So for example if Ronnie wants to launch a search in West Med and I'm at a birthday party with the family, he can message me on whatsapp to ask me if I want to react any air or which ship I want to take a loss on or how I want to use surprise. I can see it on my phone and he can send a pic there if needed. I can get him a quick answer. This keeps things moving along quickly and prevents the frustration of having to do an impulse with many stops and starts. Generally speaking we can each go straight through our impulses while getting reactions from the other to avoid delay even if the other is pretty busy and not sitting at a computer.
We also have authorized each other to make decisions for the other to keep the game flowing. So I can choose which ship is lost, or whether a plane flies to 0 box to cover, or whether to choose asslt or blitz on a combat, etc. We don't have to do this too much but sometimes we do it when the other is totally unable to answer questions. It keeps the game moving along and in the big picture I think is a good way to progress the game without really changing the big picture. I know Ronnie usually chooses blitz table when defending in China and he knows I usually choose assault table for my Chinese for example. And many of the decisions in the game are almost no-brainers so no need to pause to wait for a response about trivial stuff. We also issue pre-instructions when appropriate. So I might tell Ronnie in advance that if he searches and finds my IT CA's in E Med I'll fight 1 round of combat then abort out of the sz. This way I can go to bed and he can piddle on with the impulse without me having to be available.
The important thing is to keep the game enjoyable and easy to play rather than get too overwrought about tiny details. [;)]
As a side note I make all of my game rolls (other than an occasional round of partisan rolls because there are a lot of those and it's a bit of a hassle) in ACTS die roller then enter them into the game. I really like doing it this way because it makes it clear that the rolls are fair and also it keeps a log of rolls so you can go back to look at what was rolled in case you have to re-create a situation for some reason. Say I run through a naval combat and my opponent isn't avail and I make a few decisions for him - maybe which ship to take a loss on. Then he mentions that he wouldn't take the loss on Hipper he'd take it on Bismarck. All I have to do is go back to the roller and use the rolls in the log to re-create the combat but switch which ship takes the roll from Hipper to Bismarck. Voila - situation recreated perfectly without having to remember each roll that happened. I highly recommend using ACTS for your games.
As I make this first post our game is nearing end of MA 40 and I've asked my opponent not to read this thread since I'll be laying out my strategy in here. As a sneak peek, I'll say that Axis has only had 2 clear weather impulses all game so that will give you an idea of where things are going by MA 40 - that is to say not very well for Euroaxis. [:(]
Here is a pic of optionals we are using in our game.
