Couple of Newbie Questions on MC's for SPWAW

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 4:13 am

Hi,

Just discovered this forum from an article in PC Gamer on the Master Campaigns.

Am thinking about buying one of the Master Campaigns but have a few general questions for some of the vets here:

1. Could anyone tell me about the levels of experience that your units can achieve as you work your way through the campaign? Is is just a matter of "green", "experienced", or "vet"? And do you units achieve these levels relatively quickly in the campaign?

2. Does the game keep track of kills for the units under your command? And does it keep track by unit type as well? I.e., can you see which tank unit has taken out the most enemy tanks, etc.?

3. Does each unit have a particular leader assigned to it? If so, can you rename these leaders? If not, can you rename the unit itself? (One of the things I liked about Panzer General was giving a friend's name to each of the units and seeing how long they lasted. I know it's silly but it allowed me to relate to the units and keep track of them a little easier.)

4. Any suggestions which would be the best campaign to buy first?

Sorry if these questions have been asked before; I searched back four pages and didn't see anything that seemed to address this questions, and the game info on the site doesn't seem to have the answers either.

Thanks for any help!

LeibstandartePzD · Post by **LeibstandartePzD** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 5:23 am

Godzilla Blitz,

I'l do my best to answer yoru questions. I'm sure if I'm wrong on something someone will correct me.

1. Your units will increase in experience as the game goes on. The amount of experience gain and teh speed at which it increases is based upon how much "action" the unit sees. For example a tank unit always in the front lines making kills, etc. will gain more experience quicker than say a unit left in the rear and seeing little or no action.

2. Yes the game keeps track of your units kills but not by unit type. You see th etotal number of units killed is all.

3. You can do this in the normal games during scenarios and campaigns but I don't believe you can in a MC. At least I haven't tried but I think the names are hard coded in the mega campaigns.

4. My suggestion for yoru first MC would be the North Africian one. I think it gives a good feel with a little of everything to get you started. Although all three are excellent and well worth purchasisng.

Never worry abotu asking questions here. You will find that this forum has the biggest group of experienced, educated war gamers around.

Hope this helps and enjoy the game.

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 7:03 am

Thank you for the help sir. Nice of you to take the time.

I have been very impressed the level of posts on the board, and by the replies they generate. I am more of a gamer than strictly a wargamer, but I heavily favor slow, strategy games over "reflex" games, so I am very intrigued by some of these games. I do have an old version of Steel Panthers lying around, but never imagined it would still work. Now I find that it has been constantly upgraded, and is available for free, and with expanded scenarios! Good stuff! I always felt the scenarios in the original game were quite limited, and it seems that these MC's address all of the issues I felt were lacking!

Unfortunately the North Africa MC appears to be currently sold out. I think I will head to the Russian front instead.

Regarding the experience levels of the units, do you find that they quickly reach a peak? Is there even a limit to experience? What I'm wondering is if units max out at an "elite" status early on in the MC's. In Panzer General (very different game I realize) the units would reach the limit of experience relatively early on in the campaign, so that further experience quickly became meaningless.

Also, if anyone knows if you can edit your unit names in the MC's I would be grateful.

Thanks again.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 7:14 am

Ahh another fellow PC Gamer reader. That article caused me to buy 2 MC's who ever gets the profits from those gems needs to send William Trotter a fruit basket.

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 7:16 am

I got a subscription for free actually. This was the last issue, too. Lucky me. I may just renew if they keep tucking information like this in each issue!

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 7:24 am

Best PC magazine money can buy.

Im a hardcore gamer who will play just about anything so its money well spent.

My current addiction is wireless Ghost Recon on my notebook during class.....

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 11:54 am

Yes, I would think that wireless Ghost Recon while in class would qualify you as hardcore!

For some reason, I have been getting a Computer Games subscription sent to me for the past five years. I think I signed up for a free year from some special offer, and they just have never stopped sending the magazine. I actually like that one more than PC Gamer, but they both make for good reading.

kshinner · Post by **kshinner** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 11:53 pm

Back on the original topic ... I'm pretty sure you can change the leader's names in a MC.

However, you'd be wise to make sure you have the latest, much-anticipated 7.1 patch before you start (coming soon to a download site near you). Several of us have run into some issues a couple of scenarios into it and it's a little disappointing to start over when you've put so much time into it already.

skukko · Post by **skukko** » Tue Mar 19, 2002 11:58 pm

Howdy guys and whellcome

I would like to know if this Trotter article is available in net somewhere... hint...

MCs:

I haven't tried to rename core in MCs. Why should I? : There is already named peoplefrom forum and team that did them

Inamed some auxiliary units after regular forum people. For example one of my long time pbem friend is hiding in one rocky bush with MG34 and is surrounded by Sovjets skitroops...

But I understand your point, its worth of trying. In case it don't work we know it then

I think that experience and other values have limit, but is it at 255 what can be set in editor,or is it lower, that I don't know. In regular campaigns I remember some speak of 140 exp tankers wha had survived hell and came back...

mosh

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 2:12 am

In the Villars Bocage Scernaio I played this morning Whittman had 190 exp.
He could hit a lice with an 88mm shell from 1000 yds if he had too.

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 8:41 am

kshinner, skukko, fallschirmjager:

Thank you for the info.

I am looking forward to buying the game, but after reading a bit more on the bugs with MC's and 7.0, I think I will hold off until I hear that everything is working fine.

Today I downloaded SPWaW 7.0 and that should keep me happy for a few days until 7.1 comes out and saves the day.

What a massive download that was though. Took over an hour even with a cable modem.

skukko: That Trotter article is short (one column of text), and doesn't really say all that much about the MC's, other than they are quite an enhancement to SPWaW. I get a sense from the article that he didn't play much more than the first couple of scenarios in the Russian Front MC; in any case he doesn't go into any depth beyond that. The article might be part of their website, or you could stop by a newstand and read the whole thing in about a minute. As a pointer article to get people to come here it was worthwhile, but otherwise was of minimal informational value.

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:07 am

I get the feeling that hes pretty well known in the wargaming community.
I read a scenario file that Wild Bill made and it said Trotter helped him make it so they may know each other.

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:12 am

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
....Today I downloaded SPWaW 7.0 and that should keep me happy for a few days until 7.1 comes out and saves the day....

Somebody asked where you downloaded 7.0 in another thread. They can't find it on the site. Inquiring minds want to know!:)

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:21 am

The link marked products then scroll down to find spwaw click info then on the spwaw page click downloads and click what you need.

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:26 am

Originally posted by Fallschirmjager
The link marked products then scroll down to find spwaw click info then on the spwaw page click downloads and click what you need.

And that's 7? I thought it was only 5.x or 6.something?

I'll be..........

Thanks a lot

Godzilla Blitz · Post by **Godzilla Blitz** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:26 am

I used the links from the sticky in this forum:

Go Here

To be honest, I didn't directly download 7.0, but rather took the 6.1-then-update-to-7.0 route.

I tried last night but could only get 35kps, so I gave up. This afternoon I got 120-130kps, so things went very fast. Maybe about an hour or so? Then another 30 minutes for the sounds. The patch to 7.0 is tiny so I grabbed that last night.

Good luck!

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:30 am

Originally posted by Godzilla Blitz
I used the links from the sticky in this forum:

Go Here

To be honest, I didn't directly download 7.0, but rather took the 6.1-then-update-to-7.0 route.

I tried last night but could only get 35kps, so I gave up. This afternoon I got 120-130kps, so things went very fast. Maybe about an hour or so? Then another 30 minutes for the sounds. The patch to 7.0 is tiny so I grabbed that last night.

Good luck!

Damn. Well thanks for the info. I got 7 with my MC. Thought that was the only way to get it. Oh well

Fallschirmjager · Post by **Fallschirmjager** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 9:42 am

Ok I figured it out, ite worse than the Russian plan at Tannenburg but I got it.

Get 5.0 then youll have to ger several pathces to upgrade to 7.0

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 20, 2002 10:26 am

Thanks man I appreciate the info

Bing · Post by **Bing** » Thu Mar 21, 2002 2:11 am

What's wrong with getting 6.1 and patching up to 7.0? The links allow you to do that - unless that particular link is broken.

Bing