looking to buy, but have important question?

[themetalcrow]

ive been looking into this game a great deal the last week and want to buy, but 80-90 dollars is alot for a game and i must know if the grand campaign is dynamic or pretty linear? im ok with historical starting conditions but i need a game that is dynamic from there? is it dynamic enough to get the feeling of never playing the same game twice or what?

thanks garrett

[John Lansford]

If you intend to play the AI, the developers have programmed it with 12 different "strategies" on how it will conduct the war.  Some of them are similar to what actually took place in real life, others are not.  There's not any "linear" progression to this game; you decide where you'll conduct your offenses or prepare your defenses, although you'll realize fairly quickly there were very good reasons why the war went in the direction it actually did.

I'd warn you that it is VERY detailed and requires quite a bit of micromanagement if you want to maximize your effectiveness.  If that's what you want, though, then AE is a superb game of the Pacific WWII theater.

[themetalcrow]

that's what i want. like i said though i couldn't figure out if the grand campaign was very dynamic and replayable or not.

thanks garrett

ps sounds like it is

[Mistmatz]

Well, the map never changes and thus certain areas are more or less valuable but even that is strongly dependant on the strategies used by yourself and the opponent. I'd think of it as a game of chess, just a couple of magnitudes more complex. [8D][;)]

[themetalcrow]

most of the real time games i love have set maps for skirmish too, but can play out differently every time, a la company of heroes, and supreme commander mostly. im just worried about if you can play through the campaign 5 times and each time is different, be it how the AI operates or different pilots having different careers and such.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: themetalcrow

most of the real time games i love have set maps for skirmish too, but can play out differently every time, a la company of heroes, and supreme commander mostly. im just worried about if you can play through the campaign 5 times and each time is different, be it how the AI operates or different pilots having different careers and such.

Be aware that playing through the GC five times will probably take you five to ten years of real life time. You can do 1, 2, or 3-day turns, but even so this is not a light game. I started a Grand Campaign against the AI in early September 2009, have played almost every day, sometimes three weeks of turns in an afternoon, and I'm only at November 1943. As the Allies, your turns get slower as the game progresses because the number of units, task forces, bases, and operations you're running increases ten-fold.

I also play Company of Heroes; this is not like that.

[fflaguna]

Supreme Commander is a lot of fun, but too fast and complex for me! (And I consider myself a serious gamer!) I still play it from time to time, but I'm nowhere near the level of the people who still play online.

I've read all your replies here, and I think you'll love this game. I was very apprehensive about paying $80 for a game... a 2-dimensional hex-based game, no less! But I have been greatly surprised. All the situations that pop up are historically plausible, and task force battles or air strikes all seem to do just the RIGHT amount of damage you would expect them to. I didn't know the layout of the Dutch East Indies or the exact location of the Philippines in relation to everything else, or even what an Oiler was before I played this game... but this game is right up my alley, and it seems like it'll be up your alley, too.

I'd suggest getting the digital download plus paper manual... I have read EVERY page of the manual from chapter 2 to the end, and you definitely will, as well. I wish I had ordered the paper manual. It's 300+ good-sized pages of IMPORTANT information.

Now if you'll excuse me, my opponent just sent me his play-by-email turn... I have to go see how many of his fleeing cargo transports and destroyers I killed around the Philippines this last turn!

[c_m_kwong]

Thats what I want to say as well...

I have played this game (WitP, WPO, and AE) for around two years, but I have just finished ONE grand campaign and two finished 50%. And I still consider myself a newbie because I have to check frequently for information from here (don't really need to ask because the answers are all there). Its around 5-6 times more complex than than Victoria and Hearts of Iron III. But I really think its worth of the price...

Dunno why, watching a torpedo hit on a Japanese carrier (the whole thing in 2D graphic) is much more satisfying than watching a tiger tank blow up in CoH. This is not to downplay CoH, though, it is a good game.

Cheers,
K

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58

ORIGINAL: themetalcrow

most of the real time games i love have set maps for skirmish too, but can play out differently every time, a la company of heroes, and supreme commander mostly. im just worried about if you can play through the campaign 5 times and each time is different, be it how the AI operates or different pilots having different careers and such.

Be aware that playing through the GC five times will probably take you five to ten years of real life time. You can do 1, 2, or 3-day turns, but even so this is not a light game. I started a Grand Campaign against the AI in early September 2009, have played almost every day, sometimes three weeks of turns in an afternoon, and I'm only at November 1943. As the Allies, your turns get slower as the game progresses because the number of units, task forces, bases, and operations you're running increases ten-fold.

I also play Company of Heroes; this is not like that.

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: themetalcrow

ive been looking into this game a great deal the last week and want to buy, but 80-90 dollars is alot for a game and i must know if the grand campaign is dynamic or pretty linear? im ok with historical starting conditions but i need a game that is dynamic from there? is it dynamic enough to get the feeling of never playing the same game twice or what?

thanks garrett

Welcome thermalcrow!

You will, as the others said need much time to finish the first campaign against the AI. So its much bang for a buck, probably more than any rts is able to give you.

Learning the game is already more time consuming than every other game I know of, but rewarding and fun. Just read the AAR thread, every PBEM is an interesting story without predecessor.

[freeboy]

yep, if you want to play a very detail, expansive game with LOTS of options, AE rules!!!.. for instance changing one setting, turning realistic, poor, torpedoes off and giving the US subs at start good torpedoes totally changes the sub war in 42... and for either side lots of replay in how you attack/defend... save a game against the ai, invade an area.. screw up massively.. oh well you can reload and try again.. trust me you will be scratching your head figuring this one out, its not too hard to understand but it is intricate... not rocket science but more like learning how to produce and market every item at a shoppoing mall plus shipping... poor analogy but I try....
I think you will find this game both challenging and fun if you like big strategy games, its tops....
and then after you learn the game try your hand at some pbem, or not... if you want it its there for you...
I would buy this and play against the ai if thats all there was.. BUT now play intirely pbem.... good luck and please let us know what you think after you get this monster....

oh and one final shot, the forums make the experience, as the manual at 300 pages still leaves lots of what about this ?'s, you will find the poeple here helpful if not kind and a great resource, truly I could not have gotten up to speed on AE without the GREAT HELP HERE!!![&o][&o][&o][&o]

[DeriKuk]

Wait a few more weeks . . . until they fix some of the truly cheap cheats in the AI.

I'm posting a thread on this elsewhere.

[themetalcrow]

im not really looking for a fast paced game, mainly dynamic and replayable. i just gave those other 2 games as examples of preset maps but dynamic play each time on the same map to the person who said the map never changes. both those games the unit ai is good enough and almost plays itself enough where you don't need fast clicking to at least stalemate it. even then i find myself watching the battles after i give orders every once in a while. that's what attracts me to this game. i want to be commander, not captain, and not every little soldier. i want to trust my subordinates to carry out my orders after i give them to whatever their skills and ratings and game rules might be, with a decent ai opponent.

[c_m_kwong]

Then AE is probably what you are looking for...

And, just as real life, unexpected things happen in game, and i think this is why AE attracts me; u will have the real feeling of being a commander during the war. Sometimes the unexpected events can be unpleasant or frustrating: I once had my carrier torpedoed by a lone IJN destroyer... at the beginning i was like "it is not possible" - then i figured out the many factors at work: luck, moonlight, radar, aggressive rating of the commanders etc etc...(but i still don't know if deep/shallow water or confined waterways matters - cant anyone answer me?)

Sometimes I find "problems" in the game - but often (not 100%) they are only areas of the game unknown to me - lesson learning is always part of military experience anyway...

Can't describe my excitement when watching my long-planned invasion of Formosa slowly takes place...I guess thats the feeling u want from the game?

ORIGINAL: themetalcrow

im not really looking for a fast paced game, mainly dynamic and replayable. i just gave those other 2 games as examples of preset maps but dynamic play each time on the same map to the person who said the map never changes. both those games the unit ai is good enough and almost plays itself enough where you don't need fast clicking to at least stalemate it. even then i find myself watching the battles after i give orders every once in a while. that's what attracts me to this game. i want to be commander, not captain, and not every little soldier. i want to trust my subordinates to carry out my orders after i give them to whatever their skills and ratings and game rules might be, with a decent ai opponent.

[themetalcrow]

one other thing i haven't found out. can you build more ships after campaign start? i mean, you can build planes at factories, can you build more carriers and destroyers and such? or when you lose ships can they be replaced?

thanks garrett

[JuanG]

Ship construction happens 'automatically' for the Allies, that is, you get more ships at certain dates, based on historical availability.

You cannot control this process (ie, you cant decide you'd like two more Iowa's instead of some Essex CVs).


For the Japanese, its slightly more flexible. You have a list of ships "under construction", similar to the allies, but you can influence this list by stopping construction on some, and accelerating others. So you could halt Shinano, and accelerate Taiho.

The bigger the ship, the more expensive this is, so its best used on smaller ships. You cannot add new ships to the list however, nor can you 'modify' any on this list - Shinano will arrive as a horrid semi-CV no matter what you do - unless you leave it completely halted.

The limitation here is your industry - you only get so many points, and thus cannot accelerate everything, and once the allies start bombing, might not even be able to build everything.


Of course, all these things can be modified before the scenario starts through use of the editor. Overall though, this is probably one of an otherwise brilliant games weakest points in my opinion.