Newbie - How best to learn?

[crackerjack747]

Hi!

I purchased AWD this weekend and have gone throught the tutorials. I'm in the process of skimming through the manual (like everyone else not much for reading these things) tyring to pick up what would seem to be the key points, or at least know where to find things.

I'm eager to get a game going. I really want to PBEM but I think a couple of AI games are needed to learn first. I was hoping that some of you may be able to suggest how to get started i.e. what scenario, power, game settings, etc. I was hoping to go through a couple of games against the AI, first some thing simple and then perhaps play another scenario to build on what I learnt the first time around.

Suggestions?? Any advice would be appreciated. Hope to also play some of you by email in the future.

Cheers,

Brad

[WanderingHead]

There are of course a few ways to try it.

The tutorials could be worthwhile, though I admit I haven't tried them since way back when GGWAW first came out.

Way back with GGWAW, I found it helpful to first turn all players to AI controlled and watch what the AI does. There is a setting for the speed of AI animation in the settings window (I can't recall off hand what it is called, something like "nonplayer animation speed"). You may wish to reduce the value (small value = less time to accomplish move animation) so it progresses faster.

Note that ctrl-p will pause the game at the end of an AI turn, so you can recover control. But after hitting ctrl-p, the game continues until the end of the turn, so be a little patient.

Then, you may try just Germany player controlled, everyone else AI controlled. Some people suggest using autosupply to start, but personally I think you should just go for full Advanced Supply with Autosupply turned off right from the get go.

There is a typical German schedule to try when starting out:

• Su39 W Poland, move everything remaining to W Germany.
• Fa39, move everything to W Germany
• Wi40, take the Low Countries, garrison with infantry and artillery. Leave armor in W Germany (to defend W Germany, then your inf/art in TLC and your armor in W Germany can hit either W or E France).
• Sp40 capture either W or E France, causing French surrender.

Immediately after capturing regions remember to repair factories. You can use the repair screen, or the way I find preferable is to select the factory then right-click on its pop-up icon.

Repair rail as needed. You can repair resources right away or wait (Germany doesn't face a resource crunch until war with the SU).

Go from there.

After you finish a game with Germany, then I'd suggest a game as Germany and Japan with the Allies AI controlled. For this, you may wish to start in the 1941 scenario so that some of the tedious build up for Japan is skipped. Japan will give you a feel for fleet actions and amphibious operations.

Do be sure to read the manual. There are lots of little things that will take a long time to figure out if you don't.

[christian brown]

Well, just playing against the AI on Hard for a while and really paying attention to what it does can be pretty darn useful when learning this game...............I'm a bit experienced with AWD and I can have a really hard time against the AI under the right circumstances[8|]  (it's a pretty good AI!)
 
Another thing you may wish to try is to post a thread in the Opponents Wanted Section of this Forum for a noob opponent, you'll both learn a thing or two there........
 
Best of luck and a warm welcome to the AWD community !

[GKar]

Yeah, welcome crackerjack747!

Good to see that you decided to buy the game after all. I don't think you'll ever regret it!