How long with the grand campaign take

[Enforcer]

How long with the grand campaign take to play?

[MilRevKo]

Several hundred hours...

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: MilRevKo

Several hundred hours...

The real game takes 150 hours for a group of 5 people playing at a medium rate, looking at the rules, discussing, eating, drinking, calculating odds, thinking, moving counters all other the place just to remember the situation, manpulating force pools, etc... Fast players can complete the game in 100 hours. Really slow players in 200 hours.

The game last for 36 turns, made of an average of 125 +/-10 impulses per side (total about 250 impulses).

The computer game should have about the same average number of impulses.

However, the computer game should be faster because there is no searching in the rulebook, no rules discussions, no counters manipulations.

I'd say that the game can be played in half the time.

I've myself played 2 full campaigns from S/O 39 to 1946 (the game was extendable to 1946 -- The normal end being J/A 45), and I remember that it was fast.

[Enforcer]

is the turns by hours or by day impulses?

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: Enforcer

is the turns by hours or by day impulses?

Don't understand.
A turn is 2 months, and is a variable number of impulses, about from 3 to 15.
An impulse is played in about 15-45 mn, depending on the period of the year. Can be as long as 1 hour if there is a lot of action. The latter impulses in a game turn are usually shorter, because lots of units are "expended" already, so options are narrower.

[Enforcer]

Wow 2 months... that makes it pretty abstract doesnt it?

If I am japan and I am using carriers I do not want to pass 2 months.

YOU have to understand I have never played this game so I really dont understand turns and impulses. I play War in the pacific with each turn + 1 day so that is what I am used to.

I will not even think about getting this game if each turn is 2 months

[Froonp]

The impulse is the place where units are moved and where they fight.
1 turn has a variable number of impulses, so units move and fight multiple times per turn.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Enforcer
Wow 2 months... that makes it pretty abstract doesnt it?

If I am japan and I am using carriers I do not want to pass 2 months.

YOU have to understand I have never played this game so I really dont understand turns and impulses. I play War in the pacific with each turn + 1 day so that is what I am used to.

I will not even think about getting this game if each turn is 2 months

But not much happens in War in the Pacific most turns/days does it? I've never played the game, but I can't imagine moving each individual naval unit in the Pacific on a daily basis for 4 years (1200+ turns * several hundred naval units).

WIF simulates the land and air war, as well as the naval engagements. To do that it models 4 basic naval operations: convoys, naval transport, fleet engagements, and invasions. Here is a brief overview of those 4 systems.

Convoy pipelines are built by deploying convoys in contiguous sea areas so that resources can be transported from a source to a destination; they can be attacked by submarines, land based naval air units, and surface fleets (including carriers); they can be defended by land based air and surface fleets. If a convoy pipeline exists at the end of a turn, resources flow through the pipeline (very abstract). If the pipeline has been broken, even if it is only broken in one sea area, no resources flow through that pipeline for that turn.

Naval transport is done with transporting naval units (which includes amphibious units) and its 'cargo'. The cargo is another unit, either a land or air unit. This is how the British get the Australians to North Africa and how the US gets its short range fighters to the South Pacific. It is also the preparatory stage for invasions, bringing the land units that are going to invade into the sea area that borders the invasion hex. Rather than sitting at sea for the entire turn, like convoys, naval transports can simply run from one port to another. However, they are vulnerable to interception if there are enemy units patrolling the sea area. And unless the timing is just right, invasion fleets sitting in their invasion sea areas are vulnerable to sorties by enemy naval fleets.

Which brings us to patrolling sea areas. The British usually put a fleet out in the North Sea to act as a blockade of the German Navy. The Germans can still come out and play, though there is always the possibility that the fleets will not 'see' each other and simply sit in the sea area, side by side for the turn. Each impulse, the players could search for the other fleet by introducing new units into the sea area (even 1 new unit is sufficient). Weather affects this and the use of aircraft increase the likelihood of finding the enemy fleet.

So, the players deploy their fleets to defend convoys, set up invasions, or simply to discourage naval moves by the enemy. When combat does occur there is always the possibility of 'surprising' the enemy and combat bonuses are awarded to the fleet the achieves surprise. Who surprises whom is modeled by several factors that I won't go into here. Combat is either submarine, surface, or naval air - 1 of these 3, and only 1 of these 3 each combat round. If after a combat round each side decides to stay in the sea area, rather than flee to a friendly port, then additional rounds of naval combat can occur. You could have repeated naval air combat rounds or a submarine combat round followed by a surface combat round, or any combination. Since a search is required for each additional combat round, the end result could be that the opposing fleets remain in the sea area contesting it at the end of the turn (battered, and bloody, but still willing to fight).

Lastly, there are invasions which requires bringing land units (aboard either naval transports or amphibious units) into a sea area theat borders the invasion hex. Usually they are accompanied by sufficient surface ships to lay down a heavy shore bombardment in support of the invasion, and if they are lucky, there might be land based aircraft in support as well (e.g., a Normandy invasion). If the land combat is successful, then the land units survive in the coastal hex. If the invasion fails, then the land units all die.

I have just touched mightly on the naval rules here, to give you a flavor for WIF. Understanding the land and air rules is vital to using the naval units effectively (especially the air combat rules). WIF (and Matrix's computer version, MWIF) is a different animal from War in the Pacific, primarily because it is simulating the entire war, around the entire world, and involving all branches of service.

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: Enforcer

Wow 2 months... that makes it pretty abstract doesnt it?

If I am japan and I am using carriers I do not want to pass 2 months.

YOU have to understand I have never played this game so I really dont understand turns and impulses. I play War in the pacific with each turn + 1 day so that is what I am used to.

I will not even think about getting this game if each turn is 2 months

You have to remember it's a global game. It's on such a vast scale that the turn/impulse system works really well. In each turn you move and conduct combat with your forces several times but each combat is usually a big affair. Don't worry. This system rocks.

Cheers, Neilster

[Froonp]

Each impulse, the players could search for the other fleet by introducing new units into the sea area (even 1 new unit is sufficient).

No need to introduce new units to activate a search into a sea area. You just need to have remaning face-up unit. This may be a ghost of the WiF5 past.

[38special]

50 hours tops.
The computer is doing all of the heavy lifting.
Just adding attack strengths on a large battle involving multiple hexes is a chore with big hands.[:D]

I'm a fast player usually anyway.

[mlees]

Also, with the computer's help, setting up is faster. (I have only played the board game solo. Setting up takes me the better part of a day.)
 
You can save and restore the game just as fast. (No more pets and little siblings wreaking havoc over half a continent.)