Eagle Day to Bombing of the Reich is a improved and enhanced edition of Talonsoft's older Battle of Britain and Bombing the Reich. This updated version represents the best simulation of the air war over Britain and the strategic bombing campaign over Europe that has ever been made.
I have been reading the few reviews that I found on the net and the main concern I have is the interface. How bad is it really? I am a frekvent WITPAE player so Im quite used to really bad interfaces .It can´t be worse then WITP? Right?
Also, the reviews I found all seem to assume you played the old talonsoft games. I havn´t. How long does it take to play the big campaign? Can you change resolution in the game? I am on a 22 inch monitor and WITP really is a strain on the eyes after a few turn.
I think its OK, the aircraft production screens are horrible, otherwise I've played games with worse UIs. Buttons are small, but theres a hotkey for everything.
Theres a patch coming (we hope) that will massively improve the production interface. As it stands though its useable if a bit unwieldy. and as a fellow AE enthusiast (read addict) its no worse than AE ,, far fewer buttons to worry about.
As for how long it takes ? its shorter than AE (but what isnt) , that said a full 43-45 campaign as 1 day a turn will take a long time. I consider that value for money while others see it as a minus , there are ofc shorter campaigns. But i do like the big event personally.
As for 22inch support ?? no idea sorry. play it happily on a 19" here.
If i were you i'd get the game as its differant enough from AE to be some variety but do remember its an OLD game revamp. a very very good revamp however. and as per usual the manula omits a lot of useful info eg plane altitudes etc. however if you search here most is available in the warroom ive found.
sorry for the spelling . English is my main language , I just can't type . and i'm too lazy to edit
How time-consuming is a turn usually? I'm really tempted to get it, but seems like directing an entire airforce each day is a mammoth task. Then again, I play WITP:AE so I know something about that maddening scale of details...
Playing as the Krauts I typically use 1,5-2h per turn, depending on how much plans for the next day you have to do, were any aircraft industry related factories bombed(ie. does industry need any reassigning), does the Bomber Command show its ugly face(if it does and you want to know 100% of what happens, prepare to read a LOT of "XX has been sighted by YY radar station), bombing reports and whatnot. Paying some less attention you can do a day in about an hour.
As the Allies, it depends a lot on weather and what has happened during the last few days. If you're doing a full effort on all fronts and want to plan the sorties carefully to not lose half a hundred bombers when weather/enemy ruins your plans, it can take hours.
I have considered getting WitP:AE myself, but I dont think GGEDBTR(a very easy-to-pronounce abbreviation [:D] ) is at least any more time consuming per turn. Probably somewhat less.
I dont think the interface is bad... some areas need some improvement but overall is fine with me.
As for play time... that would really depend on your immersion level. If you want to sit around sucking on a beer and watch your E-Forces carry out the war for you, you have the option of setting preferences and strategies and just let em loose. You have the option of commanding none, some or all of your forces and let the AI run anything you dont wish to deal with. You could spend as little as an hour or two up to several days or weeks building each days missions and managing your forces. So basically as detailed as you want to be will dictate how long each turn takes.....
There are 700 turns in the Long 1943 Campaign.
Later,
KayBay
It's all Mind Over Matter....
If you dont mind... It dont matter
How is the industrial management? I hear that the UI is horrible (that's something I usually don't have a problem with once I get used to it) but I want to know how much options one has, especially as the Axis, as far as production and industry goes? Is there any R&D, industrial expansion and so on? I'm just finishing Speer's Inside the Third Reich and it's one of the reasons why I want to get this game, as the bombardment of German industrial capacity plays a big role in the book (and the potential it had for forcing the Germans to capitulate prior to 1945, had the Allies directed it better) and it got me interested in this aspect of WW2. [:D]
Basically, the only industry the Axis player gets his hand upon is the aviation industry. Other industries are related to how well the aviation industry works and how much gas is produced to supply your air units, but only control you have over them is trying to keep them below a certain level of damage, after which you will start getting negative results, presumably the more damage above "critical level" the worse.
Aviation industry has assembly, engine and part factories(this is where the UI fails, assemblies dont put parts and engine together but produce "assemblies", with enough parts to produce a plane you automagically get a plane in a pool, but the number of these "assemblies" is shown nowhere). You can retool factories, and the bigger the factory the longer it takes. A good part of the factories actually have multiple "sub factories" that might produce parts and assemblies of different kinds, but if bombed, they get all damaged.
By producing a plane not yet available, you do research in order to try to get the wanted plane earlier than historical date.
Of course, you also get to produce and especially place AAA units... ....however it is still uncertain if bombing AAA factories has effect on the number of them produced, or if retooling artillery and vehicle factories to AAA has any negative, or positive, effects on anything. Manual stays silent and I personally haven't done any tests.
Ah yeah - what is the influence of your actions on the war as a whole? Can you prolong the war significantly as the Germans, if you're doing a good job in the air?
.It can´t be worse then WITP? Right?
