A new soul captured!

[JMI]

Hello everybody!

I'm totally new to the game. Being an old A&A fan, I think this game is much more me than RTS HOI2... But I'm a bit worried about the learning curve here though. With all the manual errata's and rule opdating, it's quite a jungle to enter! [:)] But I can easily see the qualities of this game already! So in the swamp I dive! [:)]

I'll start a game as Germany in the 40' scn. What are the absolute DO's and DONT's for the first few rounds? What to attack, and more importantly, in what strenght? What to build, and why? I'm asking this because I would like to have some feeling with a valid opening strategy for Germany. Hope it makes sense.

I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions as I get deeper into the game!

Thanks in advance!

[JanSorensen]

Welcome aboard JMI,

I assume you have downloaded the latest patch (1.087).

My suggestion for your first game is that you keep it as simple as possible.
- Play with simple supply (not entirely without supply though)
- Do not play with Fog of War (you want to see what the AI is doing - even if its not always smart)
- ignore the naval aspect (mostly)
- ignore submarine warfare
- ignore North Africa, Norway and Spain.
What I suggest you try to get a feel for the game is:
- turn 1:
-- Take Netherlands with maybe 4 inf, 1 art and 1 aa.
-- Have 1 or 2 bombers bomb W. France and then have your panzers take Paris.
-- Take Denmark but do not take Norway.
-- Have the Italian bomber attack Yugoslavia (to unfreeze the Balkan minors) and then have the MIL around Yugoslavia take Yugoslavia.
- Move the German fleet to the Baltic sea w/ transports to get the Swedish iron home
- Move the Italian Navy to the Central Med to control that area as long as possible - ferry the Italians in North Africa and Sicily back to Italy.

Then build 8 more panzers right away so you have a total of 15 for next year's Barbarossa.

Tech wise you will want to tech up evasion to 9 and land attack to 10 for those panzers and for FTR you tech up speed (how far the plane can fly), evasion and a2a attack once each. Once thats done you should consider teching up your INF evasion to 7 and teching up with ART evasion and land attack.

As a rule you will also want to build some supplies unless you already have atleast 100. Once you get more experienced this number will fluctuate greatly over the course of the war but lets go with 100 for now.

Now, your aim is to attack Russia in the summer of 1941. At that time you want all your panzers, your airforce and some assorted other units on the Eastern Front - while you want 1 AA, 1 ART and a couple of inf/mil in Italy, France, the Netherlands and Denmark to deter invasions. The AI is timid so you do not need alot on the west wall. You may want to build a few more AA / ART to have 10 of each though.

As you take areas you need to decide if you want to repair the infrastructure or not. Generally, you only want to repair what you actually need. This means that in most conquered areas in the west you only want to repair one set of rails and only halfways. For now I suggest you just repair all the factories and resources in the west though.

Once Summer 1941 comes you attack the Russians and see where that takes you.

Mind, none of the above is "perfect play" - but its a way to ignore several parts of the game without putting yourself into too large a disadvantage so I think its a good way to start out. I already made a long post - and I only began to scratch the surface - so there are still alot of blanks to fill in.

[JMI]

Thanks for your quality answer, Jan! Well, I managed to win my first game on normal settings, so things are going just well. But I can't seem to figure out some numbers: When I check the battleinfo, sometimes units are given a penalty for having been shot at, and sometimes not. Also the numbers are a bit weird. When it says that units are given a -1 modify, it's actually -3, sometimes -4, depending on wheter it's a land- or naval battle it seems. Is there an updated list with these modifiers around? Sure would be helpful.

Thanks again for your help!

[JanSorensen]

JMI,

The modifers fall in 2 main categories.

Evasion Mod:
This lowers the evasion of the defending unit.

Combat Mod
This is added to the die roll.

As Inf have a durability of 4 / others have a durability of 3 an evasion mod of 1 is worth as much as 4 or 3 combat mods depending on the type of defender. (the defenders value is calculated as evasion*durability - so lowering evasion by 1 lowers the effective value by 3 or 4).

You can see the various modifiers in the manual.


When you say that "sometimes units are given a penalty for having been fired at and sometimes not" I am not sure exactly what you mean. If you could elaborate on the issue (as much detail as possible) I will be happy to try to explain whats happening though.

[balto]

Jan, wow that was great. How do you know about that Yugo thing.., man, that was great.

JMI, lets try a battle. Let me give you some background. I have been reading the manual for about a week. AI beats me the few times I play. I am tired of playing AI.

I have played many strategy games before, but this one is really tough, which is good.

I think we would be a great match, because I am not good.., yet!

If you challenge me, please let me be the Axis - that is all I know. I have left the Japanese as AI, so I will be guessing with them. And can we use the Advanced Supply and Fog of War? That advanced Supply is super tough for me, but I want to get used to it.

I have soooo many questions, but lets give it a try.

[Uncle_Joe]

When I check the battleinfo, sometimes units are given a penalty for having been shot at, and sometimes not

IIRC, if a unit is fired upon by the same unit twice in the same combat, it does not suffer the 'previously fired upon' penalty. This is most likely to happen with Artillery units that fire twice in a combat. So if the same Arty targets a unit with its initial shot and then later on in the combat targets that unit again, the defender will not be penalized.

Is that the situation you are seeing?

[JMI]

Thanks for your replies, guys! I really apreciate it!

I won my second game yesterday, while trying to figure out how production and naval warfare works. I haven't read the manual fully yet, but I think I got the idea of how production works, with potential and actual output. One thing is trade though. I can't seem to figure out how that woks exactly, but I guess it's covered in the manual? Is it just me, or do subs die really fast in this game? [:)] But I guess that's also how it worked in real life, so...

As for the missing been-shot-at-penalty, it was like this: German inf. 134 vs. WA. inf. 122, German scores a hit. German inf.135 vs. WA. inf. 123, German scores a hit.

Then:

WA.inf 122 vs. Ger inf. 134, Misses and Ger inf. 134 has +3 mod. because of WA.122 been hit.

WA. inf. 123 vs. Ger inf. 135, Misses, but there is no +3 mod for the german inf. although WA.123 has been hit.

Am I missing something here?

To balto: I would like to have a game with you! It can't take place this weekend though, as I'm going traveling, but let's work something out for during the week maybe? Although I have won my two first games (as Germany), I still have a lot to learn, and I think you'll probably kick my butt, but if I can learn from it then that's quite ok. [:)]

This is really a great game! I suspect it to be on my drive for a long, long time!

[Lebatron]

Hi JMI, I'm an old fan of A&A too. And like you I love the similarity this game has with A&A. But I like WAW much more for it's slight increase in strategic depth without going over the top like HOI. Anyway you mentioned your having trouble figuring out the details of free trade. I would like to point out that there is a very good thread that will explain this well. Look in the War Room for the 'top' thread called "free trade investigated and explained." In fact look over all the top threads as they are put there to explain the common questions newbies always have. Enjoy the game[:)]

[balto]

JMI,

Great, let me know when you are ready etcc., and I am ready. I am playing sptifire right now. It is my first game. I have no idea what to do as the Japs.., but one of these days I will.

Jan,

Your info about Yugo. I do not get it. I bombed Yugo and I attacked with all my militia, and they were wiped out!! I know I am missign something, but could you provide more details on that? After I bomb, what do I do? And can those Yugo infantry attack me in Czech or areas like that?

Thanks

[Forwarn45]

Your info about Yugo. I do not get it. I bombed Yugo and I attacked with all my militia, and they were wiped out!! I know I am missign something, but could you provide more details on that? After I bomb, what do I do? And can those Yugo infantry attack me in Czech or areas like that?

You need to attack with enough militia to force any remaining Yugoslavian infantry to repeat. Yugoslavia is rough, which means you need a 3-1 ratio in ground units (infantry or milita) after combat is over (you only need a 2-1 ratio for non-rough terrain). For instance, if Yugoslavia has 3 infantry left, you will need 9 militia left after combat - accounting for 3 possible hits on your militia, you may need to attack with 12 militia. If Yugoslavia had 2 infantry left after the battle, you would only need 6 infantry and/or militia to force the retreat.

The troops in Yugoslavia will become WA troops if you don't take it. They won't be able to attack unless the WA somehow get some supply there or to an adjacent area.

[balto]

Forewarn, thanks.

About the supplies and attacking. ., thanks again. I thought with supplies you attack with less power. I did not know you could not attack at all. Thanks.., man, this is complicated., BUT very interesting.