Advice for an ASL player? PBEM?

[crackerjack747]

Hi!

I play a lot of ASL by email. PBEM works well for me because of scheduling, etc...real life seems to always get in the way with any on line play.

I'm thinking about buying GGWAW since it would represent a change of pace from ASL - grand strategy vs small unit tactics. I see that PBEM is supported. How does this game play out by email?? Is it manageable?? Can only 2 people play by email?? Is there an oppenent list available?

Also can you comment on the learning curve required to get into this game. Are there any tutorials, or do you have to plow through a large manual??

Thanks in advance for your help!!

CrackerJack

[JanSorensen]

PBEM is very manageable. Each turn will take you from 15-60 mins to play and there are 4 turns per year. So, even with just 1 turn per day you can finish a full game in less than a month.
 
Anywhere from 2 to 5 can play though 2 is the most used and 4 the player alternative (Germany and Japan vs Russia+China and US+CW).
 
The "Opponents wanted" forum here is where I tend to find opponents personally. As you can see in that forum a large tournament is currently going on.
 
There is a tutorial and the AI provides a very reasonable opponent for a beginner to learn the basics against. The game does have a noticeable learning curve though so expect to spent the first weeks just getting to know the very basics. If you want to be good you will want to read the manual though - but you can start playing without doing so.
 

[GKar]

AWD rocks in PBEMs - enough said! [:)]

You could try the demo of WaW (the predecessor) to get a first impression, but be aware that the game has been improved considerably since then. And Jan is right about the learning curve, the game is much deeper and harder to play well than you might think at the first glance.

[kondor]

ORIGINAL: crackerjack747


I'm thinking about buying GGWAW since it would represent a change of pace from ASL - grand strategy vs small unit tactics. I see that PBEM is supported. How does this game play out by email??
CrackerJack

Go for AWD straitgh! It is a great game![;)]
PBEM is working fine... (about 200-300kb save file), no problem there...
I suggest you start by playing against AI, so that you learn moves, supplys etc... and than go for PBEM so that some of this guys (or me[:D]) can show you how is it done...

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: kondor

and than go for PBEM so that some of this guys (or me[:D]) can show you how is it done...

Yes, expect a lot of suspense and fun when starting to play PBEMs - and a few painful lessons! [:D]

[GKar]

ORIGINAL: crackerjack747

I'm thinking about buying GGWAW...

ORIGINAL: kondor

Go for AWD straitgh!

Just to make things clear for crackerjack747: "Gary Grigsby's World At War" (usually abbreviated GGWAW or just WAW) was the first incarnation of the game engine, "Gary Grigsby's World At War: A World Divided" (called AWD) is the second and the one to buy if you see fit. [:)]

[crackerjack747]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your feedback.

Correct me if I'm worng please, but I have a concern about the size of the AWD community. As I said I'm interested in PBEM eventually. I've looked around and there are only 6 people signed up on the Wargamer ladder. It also seems that the current PBEM tourney also has a similar number of participants. This is not really all that encouraging. Coming from ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) this seems rather limiting. I've had no trouble finding oppenents at all levels to play ASL by email. Maybe there are more players out there then there appear to be????

Cheers,

CrackerJack

[Joel Billings]

The original WaW community was/is larger as AWD has only been out for 3 months now. However, I've never seen anyone have to wait more than a day or two to get a PBEM started. I also notice that there are a lot of players that don't post on the forum but end up responding to players that post asking for a game. There are 15 people in the tournament, with about half of those players being expert players (the cream of the crop). Hopefully some of those that play PBEM can speak to how hard it is to get opponents.

[GKar]

I never had a problem finding a PBEM opponent. Quite the opposite, I ended up with more offers than I could fulfill.
Some people simply don't post when they've found an opponent, thus their thread in the "Opponents Wanted" forum stays open. There's a significant number of players lurking under the surface from what I can tell.

Same for "Opponents Wanted" and the "Battle League" over at the Wargamer site: Their ladder system doesn't seem to work well with the scores we want to use, that's why there's little activity. Hopefully this will get sorted out or we'll start using a different system at some point. Most people simply play for the fun and don't talk about it that much. [:)]

[Forwarn45]

I agree with these comments. Although it might be nice if there were even more people involved with this game, I haven't had any trouble finding opponents. As noted, there are 15 people in the tournament and there are quite a few other players that play/post sometimes in addition to these. The wargamer ladder may see a little more activity soon because of the tournament (although it would be nice if they allowed scoring differently).

[JagdFlanker]

i plan on getting involved in PBEM soon, but no plans on joining the ladder so i'm sure there are other like me...

edit - that would be Focker's!

[Lebatron]

Skull One rules. Is that Veritech pic piloted by Roy or Rick[:D]