This game is still dreadful for beginners

[Oberst_Klink]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

Thanks to all of you who have posted help or sent me a pm.

I'll shut up now.



@Curtis - found those spreadsheets - thank you. Plenty to do at the smaller end. How you guys play the big ones beats me. 600 units - spend just one minute thinking about each unit and ten hours slip by.

Test the Tutorial '41 from the STALAG 13 crew is my advice.

Klink, Oberst

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

It's the e-book pdf manual on the disk that came with the game. 32 mb - so too large to pm you.I haven't checked to see if there's a downloadable copy.

I have the manual. I'm trying to understand what page you meant when you referenced a page 141. The manual only has 78 pages.

[altipueri]

Ok, let me guess. As my manual has 156 pages, 78 is half 156 therefore maybe the acrobat or pdf reader you are using is showing two pages of the small A5 approx manual per page. So, try looking at page 70 or 71 of your version.

Sudden flurry here on this forum. I've played Singapore scenario again since my previous post an hour or two ago and this time got a victory - hooray. First time I played on an old laptop with ACOW; second time on a slightly newer laptop with the recently purchased TOAW 3 updated - played on default settings.    

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

Ok, let me guess. As my manual has 156 pages, 78 is half 156 therefore maybe the acrobat or pdf reader you are using is showing two pages of the small A5 approx manual per page. So, try looking at page 70 or 71 of your version.

You seem to be using something I've never heard of. Can you look at the screenshot attached and see if that is the section you meant? Otherwise, can you list the section numbers instead (for example, in the view I've shown, "Game Notes" would be section 20.0).

[altipueri]

Yes that's it - section 20 - straight after seeing the elephant.

Page 141 on my pdf and on the printed booklet. So that's solved.

Thanks again to all of you who offered help.

[orchard]

I'd like to say thanks to all the Mod's and contributors to this forum and game. Nice one!
I've only just started playing TOAW (with only experience of SP2 variants and CCS's simulations from yonks ago), and whilst it is daunting,I read a lot of online contributions, looked over a fair few scenarios (playing a turn hot-seated max of each); I then jumped into the North Africa campaign as CW,and doing quite well. Once this is over,I'll have a better grounding of the mechanics and be able to use the manual and tutorials to flesh out my understanding and technique.
Great job thank you

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: altipueri

Yes that's it - section 20 - straight after seeing the elephant.

Page 141 on my pdf and on the printed booklet. So that's solved.

Well at least we're on the same page, finally. So, you found section 20 to be useless. Those are the immortal words of Norm Koger himself. I believe they are still just as valid as the day they were written, over 13 years ago. I would take them to heart.

[tcarusil]

The Kasserine scenario also has a text file that I found helpful. It walks you through the first turn, combat turn by combat turn, and provides guidance to handling your troops.

TomC

[orchard]

Not sure whether this was meant for me,but thanks anyway Tom,I'll check it out once I've been pasted by the PO and have some experience to hang all this info on! My defence has been good,but advancing, recce.,and the identification of core supply routes all need major work,never mind losing half my fleet and nearly all my 2lber a/t guns...

[Anchovy]

I think TOAW series should not be purchased by casual gamers. Something like the Panzer General series should be more accomodating. Having said that, my takes ...

1. TOAW seems to be just the right kind of application for those who are used to traditional turn- and hex-based operational-level board wargames looking for powerful editor and customizability (custom-made equipments, maps, and unit icons). I would not recommend TOAW if a prospective buyer is not interested in spending loads of hours building and experimenting with his own scenarios, since the editing feature is what makes TOAW one of its kind.

2. Perhaps the most complicated part of TOAW is how to program the Event Editor. In particular, tinkering around to get the Programmed Opponent to more or less behave in accordance with your expectations.

3. Need to spend some time going through scenario briefing and other text files (if any), since special events and reinforcement schedules will strongly affect future turns.

4. Perhaps the most straightforward way of getting used to the game mechanics is to build a very crude scenario involving no more than a few units and see how they perform. (For example, having an artillery unit to perform general support vs. assigning a specific bombardment target.)

5. I think turn managent is something that takes quite a while to get used to as it takes experience to know how to optimize unit movements.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: Anchovy

3. Need to spend some time going through scenario briefing and other text files (if any), since special events and reinforcement schedules will strongly affect future turns.

This is something designers need to be more aware of. Major events should be summarised in a single section, as should house rules, and other major considerations.