Info for beginner - Automatic movements and orders for Air and Land units

[Capocha]

Dear all,
I just purchased WITP A.E. . I'm trying to start with full war controlling Jap. A quick question: as the game is very complex, I'd like to know if my air units and land units will move automatically and so I can controll just the Navy. Does the land units move by themselves? For example, will they complete automatically Singapore and Filippine invasion or do I have to give the orders? Is there any way to do it automatically?

Many thanks in advance. Regards.

[alimentary]

No, your land units will not move by themselves. You can and normally do give them movement orders for hexes that are some distance away. They will path-find by themselves.

In most cases they will also not enter into offensive combat without manual orders. Exceptions exist for auto-bombardments and mandatory auto-shock attacks when crossing rivers or amphibiously assaulting atolls.

At the start of a scenario, some land units already have movement orders plotted. For instance, in the grand campaign, the Japanese are already set to move into Hong Kong and certain allied units are already set to retreat to Bataan.

[KenchiSulla]

To get a feel for the game, I suggest you start with one of the smaller scenarios (Coral Sea is good one) with small unit counts.

Jumping in as the Japanese in the main campaign is very, very brave...

[dr.hal]

Much like WWII was total war, this is total commitment. You are in charge and will need to move all your units. The only exception is your sub fleet which you can leave to the computer but I believe the consensus is that even that is a horrible waste of assets as the computer does a very poor job. Hal

[LoBaron]

Welcome to THE game Capocha!

As others have already pointed out: Should you not be blessed with endless tolerance to frustration I suggest you try a couple of smaller scenarios first.

There are many reasons not to start with the grand campaign as Japan but the three most obvious are:

- The smaller scenarios will teach you the basics of how to cope with the GUI and how to issue orders, but most important how to operate efficiently and effectively on a tactical scale. This is much harder to learn in a grand campaign, as there will be so much going on that you will miss the finer details.
- The smaller scenarios are enjoyable and should not be left out for the sake of entering the "true war". They easily got as much content as many other complete games.
- The Japanese campaign lives and dies with maxing out the forces in the first couple of months, which will collide with your learning curve. The AI might not be hard to handle for somebody who knows the game for long, but it is strong enough to make the war short for an inexperienced player.

Have fun and the forum´s a great place if you got general or general questions on the game.

Might I finally point you to the best video tutorial guide made for WitP AE, produced by Damian, a long time forum contributor:
https://sites.google.com/site/n01487477/Home

[steverodgers801]

for air units once you give them an assignment; land, airfield, naval or so they will only do that assignment and they will decide what target to hit unless you specify.

[leehunt27@bloomberg.net]

Welcome to the game, it is great- but playing as the Allies at first, in a smaller scenario, is easiest. Managing the Japanese Empire is like "holding a wolf by the ears" even with experience.

[Amoral]

If you really want to play the main campaign you can focus on one operation, and let the rest of your army lie fallow. That is how I did it.

I played the first three weeks of the war, but all I worried about was the Malaya campaign. Then I restarted, and only worried about the Phillipines.

Only after several restarts was I ready to start a grand campaign where I tried to manage everything.

[Jorge_Stanbury]

ORIGINAL: Amoral

If you really want to play the main campaign you can focus on one operation, and let the rest of your army lie fallow. That is how I did it.

I played the first three weeks of the war, but all I worried about was the Malaya campaign. Then I restarted, and only worried about the Phillipines.

Only after several restarts was I ready to start a grand campaign where I tried to manage everything.

This is very good advice; I did something similar (I have never played anything other than Japan's great campaign). Just be patient and be ready to reload quite a lot

If you are doing a short term grand campaign, you can just go tactical, safely ignoring most of the logistics, R&D, conversions, pilot training, etc. You have plenty of everything for 6 months (your economy most likely crash afterwards)

[Treetop64]

It has been said numerous times before, and it will continue to be said: Start with a smaller scenario before trying do deal with a full campaign, especially a full campaign on the Japanese side. Alternatively, Amoral does offer some sound advice.

Out of the box, there is no way you're going to be able to properly handle a full campaign for either side. There is just too much information and details to figure out. Some of us have been playing some version of this game, since it's Uncommon Valor days, for a better part of a decade, and we are still learning important nuances about it. It's that deep.

Well worth it, however. Welcome to the community! [:)]