How to begin to play?

[krafen73]

I read the manual.
I played Guadalcanal to understand the game concpts. The game rocks.
I read again the manual.

Now I would want to play the Campaign. I want to play Japanese, as the most of fun (at beginning) is here.
I looked the full map....

So. How to begin to play this game the first time?
The map is very large, huge of units, so many territory and targets.
All is confusing for me.

I think have to deep study my forces and their organization. Write down on notepad their disposition. Than study a plan and assets usage. I have to study the reinforcements table. An huge work.

Have you some suggestions? How did you start playng this game? Should i begin as allies?

I need your help, Thank you, Alessandro

[USSAmerica]

Hello and welcome aboard, Alessandro!

Starting with the Allies would be easier, but doesn't mean you can't start as Japan.  You've already become familiar with the game mechanics, so I would suggest starting a Campaign game and playing several weeks or a month or two.  Make lots of mistakes.  Make note of your mistakes and learn from them.  Completely screw up the Japanese economy and strategic situation.  Then, start over and do it again.  Try not to make all of the same mistakes as your first time, but they will still happen.  New mistakes will happen, too.  Make note of them and learn.  Repeat.  [:D]  After a "learning start" or two, you will still make lots and lots of mistakes, but you should be able to carry on through them. 

I forgot the most important part.  Have fun!!!  [8D]

[Grfin Zeppelin]

Well not long ago I was in the same situation. I realy had the urge to play the Japanese but decided to play my first game as the Allies. I never played Witp before also.
Allies are overwhelming too but at least you have different theaters. I started with Malaya.Its reasonable small and then decided what to do there.I decided then to stick with the British and moved my way over Burma to India and so on.
China is the most confusing tho.I simply decided to put all my troops not at the frontline to rest and train including the planes and thats it.After a few turns I made my first (small) move there also.

Simply start small like I did with Malaya. You will make alot of errors but hey this gives the Allies a true historical charm.

[thegreatwent]

I started playing allies against the AI in WitP. I recommend playing with the goal of planning just a few operations each turn. As time passes you'll likely gain awareness of important parts of the map, limitations of your units etc...

Don't worry about mistakes those tend to be the best lessons. One of mine was leaving my CV aircraft on training while sailing into danger, I don't think I'll do that agian[:D] Like Mike says have fun and when you've learned the basics find a PBEM opponent and take the game to the next level.

[thegreatwent]

Also read the forums, lots of info here. If you get really lost ask questions, there are players on these boards who have forgotten more than I know about the game.

[topeverest]

I would echo the advice to start playing the allies, because of the added production complexity and the need to run offensive operations. My advice if you choose Japanese would be to play 4 weeks of the game and just playtest various items until you have a feel for them. Keep playing and restarting after 4-8 weeks, and after a 2-4 trys you should be ready for a human opponent. If you are looking for strategic war progress advice, following Japanese historical advances is not a bad place to star until you get your feet under you. Let me suggest you stay at Pearl Harbor until you have sunk all the BB's or you force a CV fight. Pay particular attention to the indonesian oil and fuel bases. They are vital concern, as you will only have about a year or so of fuel to run your economy. Lastly, know that Jap subs are hyper effective early on, so take advantage of them where you can. Think carefully where to put them, as there isnt enough to go around.

One last piece of advice for playing either side...do not underestimate enemy air power. Avoid major air bases with your ships if at all possible. attempt to reduce them via air strikes before moving in. "Surprise" enemy air strikes on your capital ships has been the end of many a players' offensive intensions.

good luck wont hurt either!

[krafen73]

Thank you all. I will try your suggestions, with quiet china at begin.

[Q-Ball]

IMO, you could start playing Japan, but do it with the idea that you will probably re-start after a couple months. But no matter what you do, you'll make a pile of mistakes early. It's just that as Allies, you can recover from all of them; as Japan, you can't.

[dasboot1960]

Q-ball has it. I haven't got the stones to try the IJ yet (but I will be coming for you GUBI). But starting this game is like deja-vu to the old WitP board game; a massive bolder that you struggle to make roll. As it speeds up, it becomes harder to steer and at some point it's almost as if it's running itself regardless of what you do. Once strategic commtiments are made, they are very difficult to un-make.

[Xxzard]

Yeah, to add to what some others have said about starting as Japan, it's certainly reasonable, and possible, you are in a much more organized position, you'll have the upper hand for the first months. This makes it much nicer when you inevitably re-start your game after you decide you could do a better job or try a different strategy.

[DivePac88]

You'll need a notebook or pad for notes;
#I make notes while the combat reply is running on reactive things that need done.
#I make a note of all ground unit loadings, and the TF they loaded into, where from, and the objective.
#I make a general note of all Ops that I am running, and the forces allocated to the specific operations.