WiF vs WiE

[scout1]

I've played WiE (a long time ago), have have followed this forum over the last few months with a great deal of interest, but have never played WiF. Could someone who has experience in both please provide a comparison between the two ?

[Manic Inertia]

What's WiE?

[Peter Stauffenberg]

WiE is War in Europe. It was created by SPI and now sold by Decision Games. See this link:

http://www.decisiongames.com/wwii/bwie/war_in_europe.htm

Most of the units in WiE are division sized while most of the units in WiF are corps sized. WiE covers WW2 in Europe and North Africa. It's a true classic and was reprinted by Decision Games a few years ago. Both WiE and WiF are games any wargames fan would be proud to play.

The map space needed for WiE is enormous. It's almost like playing the Europa series (Fire in the East etc.). So it's a great game for those who want many hexes play with. WiE has a very interesting production system where you produce units who will be finished after some cycles, just like WiF. The air war and naval war are abstracted to focus more on the ground war.

I like both WiE and WiF very much. WiE for the division level WW2 struggle in Europe and WiE for the corps level. There is an old DOS based (very good) version of WiE. I read that Decision Games want to make a brand new version of computer WiE. Here you can download a demo. Look here for the link to the DOS version of WiE:

http://www.decisiongames.com/wwii/europe/europe.htm

[wfzimmerman]

ORIGINAL: Manic Inertia

What's WiE?

War in Europe is SPI's War in Europe, the ETO-wide version of War in the East.

War in Europe is divisional-scale, mech movement SPI style, with naval and air largely abstracted.

WIF is global, corps and division scale, with naval and air explicitly modeled, lots of chrome.

[macgregor]

WIF is global, corps and division scale, with naval and air explicitly modeled, lots of chrome.

WiF in a nutshell. Nice work.

[oldtimer]

I own an unpunched copy of SPI's WIE. Never found a person wiling to play. Now thinking of selling it on eBay.

[Manic Inertia]

Hey guys, did you ever play the SPI/TSR game ETO? It was a totally playable WW2 Europe hex based job, corps sized units, more or less same scale as WiF.

I cut my nerds teeth playing that .. Aaah it's making my eyes water just thinking of the game that cost me my history degree ..

There were several editions, including a companion PTO that linked in, and now Decision Games have produced an updated version they're calling Advanced ETO.


Has anyone tried Advanced ETO? How does it compare to WiF?

[YohanTM2]

ORIGINAL: oldtimer

I own an unpunched copy of SPI's WIE. Never found a person wiling to play. Now thinking of selling it on eBay.

Let us know if you post it so we can track it and maybe buy it [X(]

[scout1]

War in Europe is SPI's War in Europe, the ETO-wide version of War in the East.

War in Europe is divisional-scale, mech movement SPI style, with naval and air largely abstracted.

WIF is global, corps and division scale, with naval and air explicitly modeled, lots of chrome.

How about playing time ? Are these two beasts comparable in terms of real time to complete (again from a given player who has played both and presumably would have a consistent approach/style as game time would be very player specific).

Also what is the timeframe (gamewise) per turn in WiF ? Monthly ?

[TemKarl]

oldtimer,

"I own an unpunched copy of SPI's WIE. Never found a person wiling to play. Now thinking of selling it on eBay. "

It should bring in excess of $300 on EBay. Decision Games have just found a few copies of the 1999, reissue which they've made available in the past few days - and they are asking $250 for these. The SPI verision is more sort after ... I knew I should have bought two back in 1979!

[oldtimer]

Now I know I'm going to sell it. I was thinking $75 to $100 but $300 was much more then I ever expected. Maybe give this community first bid for it at $200. The box is a little faded from time and the sun but that doesn't hurt the contents.

Thanks CWIE for the info. Now to figure out how eBay works. Never sold anything on it before.

[scout1]

How about playing time ?

So, how do the two compare for time invested ?

Also, how do they compare for overall strategy ?

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: scout1

How about playing time ?

So, how do the two compare for time invested ?

Also, how do they compare for overall strategy ?

Well, using some brain cell storage that hasn't been refreshed for 20 years, I can offer the following opinion.
WIE is more tactical with a higher concentration of units on the map. The emphasis is primarily on land combat because the game system originated with simulating the Germany-USSR conflict. As I recall the scale of the map has more hexes for the comparable area (Europe) in WIF. There were some problems when adapting the system to cover the conlfict in Western Europe and the Mediterranean since the original design did not include much concerning the naval units (e.g. invasions). As always there is the difficulty of having a single system work well for both the early and late years of the war and in all the different types of terrain. But that is a problem for WIF too.

From a player's point of view, I think of the two games as comparable in size and effort required. WIF definitely has more rules, especially for handling the interactions between the 3 branches of the military (4 if you include the merchant marine as a separate branch).

In a nutshell: WIE is Europe, WIF is the World.

[tigercub]

had never seen WIE would loved to have played it back then, but was mose likely playing Europa series (Fire in the East). now a computer is comming out as well cool i would buy that as well.going to download the demo now!

[tigercub]

ORIGINAL: tigercub

had never seen WIE would loved to have played it back then, but was mose likely playing Europa series (Fire in the East). now a computer is comming out as well cool i would buy that as well.going to download the demo now!

after playing the WIE demo for a bit i will say it allso will be a fine war game in divional level what i allways wanted! dislike the airpower very abstracted surely it would now take much to change this.all in all from what i have seen of world in flames and WIE.
world in flames would be a better way to go for me.