Newbie suggestion on Command & Control

[Christophe Jaureguiberry]

As stated in the title, I am new to SPWAW and got it about two weeks ago.

During this time, I have played around seven or eight small scenarios (the biggest I played was Kufra) and found that it is a fantastic game, which in my inexperienced opinion gives a good rendition of what I imagine the conditions on a battlefield would be.

I play with all the options turned on, except command & control. I have tried three times to start a scenario and teach myself how to use C&C properly, but each time I became so frustrated that I stopped the game in the first turn.

Before everyone jumps on me and tell me to read the manual, I want to state that I have carefully read the C&C section in the manual but unfortunately I did not find it enough. I think that part of the problem is that (as a newbie) I don't really understand what the C&C function is supposed to model (meaning what kind of problems real-life commanders found on the field) and because of that, maybe the manual is not sufficiently explanatory. This is not a cheap shot on the manual which I find far superior to any manual I have got in any "professional " games for the last five years, but merely what I hope to be constructive criticism.

I do not know if many newcomers to the game experience the same kind of difficulties I do on the C&C issue. I think the best solution to this problem would be to have a small C&C tutorial scenario, where a veteran of SPWAW would be able to point successive steps to a good C&C mastery and highlight the most common mistakes.

If anyone find it in his time to make such a tutorial, I would be very grateful. And if it is made, by all means include it in the game and the manual.

Thank you and Best Regards,

Christophe

[Latka]

Christophe,

As it was explained to me (and my partial understanding thereof)... try this in the tutorial:

In the deploy screen, set an objective for each command unit (I may have said that wrong, but what I mean is "B0", "C0", "D0", etc). Then, when you start the game, you should see that you can move your units towards the objective with no problem (and sometimes even away from the objective, but they still seem to need to travel generally towards it).

I hope that helps somewhat

Andy

[Tankhead]

Hi Christophe!

Check the link for a good explanation on C&C. http://www.matrixgames.com/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002377.html

Tankhead

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Rick Cloutier rcclout@telusplanet.net
Coordinator: Tankhead's SPWAW Resources
http://tankhead.home.icq.com

[Christophe Jaureguiberry]

Thanks for your help guys.

Regards,

Christophe

[Wild Bill]

Good idea Christophe. We'll see what we can do.

C&C adds realism but also makes play more difficult.

Someone recently requested that in all scenarios and campaigns the objectives be pre-assigned to make it easier for the human player.

We (or at least I) are doing that now. I hope it makes for better play and also makes it easier to use C&C.

You got some good solid replies here so I wont go into more detail.

We'll see if we can get some sort of tutorial or help for using C&C. Thanks for the suggestion.

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

[Pillbox]

To get an idea of how tough command and control was in WWII, I would recommend "A Bridge Too Far" by Cornelius Ryan. It details the Operation Market-Garden affair and demonstrates VERY well how difficult it was to keep units in contact with their commanders, how spotty radio contact was and a myriad of other things that make the C^2 rules so cool. The entire operation was plagued with C^2 issues and, along with much stiffer German resistance than Monty expected (or cared to admit), took its toll in bogged down units, out of contact battalions who were unable to get new orders from their HQ's. Its an amazing book.

So, how does that apply to SP:WAW? Well, when you're units are stuck somewhere in the woods, without a defined objective to capture, no radio contact with any HQ anywhere and no commanding officer capable of leading a charge and getting the troops moving again, think back to the embattled Brits in Holland. Huddled in battered stone houses, using faulty radio equipment, the Brits found out during Market-Garden just how difficult command and control was and what a terrible toll it can take on an operation when it can't be maintained.


-P.