How much time do you spend each turn?

[Grotius]

I'm curious how much time you guys spend on your turns. I'm taking 1-2 hours a turn, and I haven't even tackled the grand campaign yet -- I'm still working on "Breakout and Pursuit," which is the 12-turn scenario from Normandy to Paris. I'm wondering whether I'm micromanaging too much stuff. Here are some of the things I do; am I over-doing it?

1. I read through the Shift-E logistics summary. This alone takes five minutes.
2. I check every air group for low morale and fatigue, and I rest those with low levels. I rest more groups if it's raining. This is a 10 minute exercise, at least.
3. I check the weather, scheduled reinforcements, victory levels, casualty counts, etc.
4. I check and adjust every Air Directive. I usually adjust target hex, area, staging base, days of week flown (especially if there's a change in weather), path to target (using Shift-O to check for flak). Increasingly I also do manual selection of air groups to include. I haven't tinkered much with altitude (yet). With about a dozen Air Directives in my current scenario, this all takes me 15 minutes or more.
5. I execute Air Directives, these days using Message Level 1 to speed things up.
6. I check Shift-U for interdiction results, then Shift-T for recon results. Pretty quick.
7. I check depots, railroads, use the 8 key to check on delivery paths, check supply details of key units. I also try to remember to cycle through all 8 soft factors to check for anything way out of whack, like units without attached support units. If I get caught up in logistics, I can easily spend 20 minutes doing all this!
8. I use Shift-R to make sure I didn't miss reinforcements. Move these forward unless there's a reason to wait. 2-3 minutes.
9. At last I move units and fight. I suppose this is the bulk of the time played -- the better part of an hour. Maybe this is where I could save some time! But the "undo" function is limited, and I don't reload saved games, so I'm careful.
10. I do rail repair toward the end of the turn. 5 minutes of fussing.
11. I tend to move my HQs at the end, too, to ensure everyone is within range etc. 5 minutes.
12. Fly air-resupply missions. I increasingly use manual selection of groups. And I like to double-check to make sure the receiving airfield/unit/depot in fact shows increased levels of supply/freight. Probably too fussy with this. 5-10 minutes.
13. At last hit end turn!

Maybe I should just the Force and do everything faster? I'm sort of surprised that I'm spending so much time on turns. Not dismayed, necessarily; I love the detail. But I'm curious whether others are playing faster. What do you guys do, and how much time to you spend doing it?

[Helpless]

2. I check every air group for low morale and fatigue, and I rest those with low levels. I rest more groups if it's raining. This is a 10 minute exercise, at least.

You probably know that you can use CR to do it. There is no way to filer groups bases on morale or fatigue. But you can sort and then set to some in the list which doesn't look too good. Depending on criteria it can be fast enough.

[Erik Rutins]

I'd guess for something like Breakout and Pursuit 30 minutes for the first turn, about 15 minutes per turn after that, with semi-manual air directives. There are definitely some habits that can speed things up which just come with practice and knowing what's important and what is not. The CR is definitely recommended. I also have my move animation speed set to 0 and I often use the space bar to jump the moving unit to the end of its path if I don't want to watch it move.

Regards,

- Erik

[MisterBoats]

In general, I don't think your process is unreasonable at all. I think we buy GG's games largely to have the opportunity to micromanage everything, or most of everything. That's what makes his games so addicting. For now I'm leaving most of the air work to the AI, as I learn the ground game thoroughly. I have noticed that the hours fly by as I manage the campaigns. It's wonderful to be engrossed by it.

[ratprince]

With auto air directives, about 15 minutes max. Most of my time playing is spent waiting on the computer to do its turn...hehe

[zombiewarrior07]

I think this sort of "here's what you do every turn" list is enormously helpful for new players, such as myself, as it gives us a series of specific steps to complete, and helps avoid the sense of being overwhelmed by the complexity of it all.

Thankyou very much for posting this, it's exactly what I was looking for.

[:)]

[Grotius]

Glad I could help! It does sound like I'm micromanaging more than most people; I suspect I'll take more shortcuts as I grow more familiar with the game.

Yep, I use the Commanders Report (hotkey C) for sorting airgroups by morale/fatigue, and I change their assignments (from Rest to Day Only, or vice versa, for example) using the same screen. Very handy. Still takes me 10 minutes, though! If I left group selection on auto, would the AI rest low-morale/high-fatigue squadrons for me?

[Helpless]

If I left group selection on auto, would the AI rest low-morale/high-fatigue squadrons for me?

It may rest them in peace

Seriously, morale directly affects how many miles you can cover, so your low morale air units should fly less.

Fatigue is affecting pilot skill level. Game tries to pick more skilled and with less mission count pilots first. So highly fatigued pilots should fly less.

There is no doctrinal settings to set low limits. Not sure if we will be adding some soon, but adding CR filters for the fatigue, morale can be done relatively easily.

[Grotius]

Thanks for your reply. It sounds like I should chill out and use "auto airgroup selection" more. Is that what you do? And yes, it's not that hard to use the CR to set tired/demoralized squadrons to rest. I can live with it as is.

Still, there will be times I will want to micro-manage, and right now it's a bit time-consuming to go through a list of 200 squadrons and click on 40 to change to rest and another 40 to change back to fly. It's a lot of mouse clicks!

I'd love it if there were a way to filter the CR to select only squads with morale under (for example) 60, and then hit one button that says "set all selected squadrons to rest." Or, conversely, a button that says "set all selected squadrons to Day Only (or Day/Night, or whatever)". WITP/AE does something like that. I don't know if that change would involve a lot of coding time, though. Not worth it if I'm the only one interested in the change.

[Helpless]

As wrote above adding such filters in CR wouldn't be too hard. We have empty spaces at the bottom reserved for that. The only question which one are required.

It sounds like I should chill out and use "auto airgroup selection" more. Is that what you do?

If you mean AD air group selection, then yes. 90% of time I do auto. It allows to share them between various ADs (means more sorties).

[Grotius]

I'll try using auto more, then. I don't think I'm getting enough sorties.

Do you also recommend letting the AI transfer air groups around? I do this manually because I find it fun, but sometimes I get lazy about it and aircraft sit out of range in the rear...

[Helpless]

Do you also recommend letting the AI transfer air groups around?

I never let AI to do it. It may work in some cases, but this is the part of micromanagement I like and it really pays off.

[HeinzHarald]

ORIGINAL: zombiewarrior07

I think this sort of "here's what you do every turn" list is enormously helpful for new players, such as myself, as it gives us a series of specific steps to complete, and helps avoid the sense of being overwhelmed by the complexity of it all.

Thankyou very much for posting this, it's exactly what I was looking for.

[:)]

I'm in the same situation and was thinking the same thing. I had actually started to create my own "flowchart" through trial and error and reading the manuals and the forum. This will make it A LOT easier to complete.

[GrumpyMel]

I jumped right in with the '43 Grand Campaign. I seem to be taking 2-3 hours per turn and I'm pretty sure I'm not even doing everything that I should be. The majority of my time is spent on Air Directives. I'm brand new, so I'm sure I'm not doing things nearly as efficiently as I could.

I don't really mind the turns taking that long. The one thing that bugs me is that even on message level 0 some of my night bombing strategic air directives are taking a crazy long time to execute... like 5+ minutes per mission.... all the other air missions seem to go at a pretty zippy pace. As a beginner there is definitely a VERY steep learning curve to the game....and some things are definitely not clear even with a 300+ page manual.... however, that's one of the things I've kinda gotten used to from playing war games. This is definitely one that I only play when I'm really feeling in grognard mood... not when I'm in a beer and pretzels mood.

P.S. Your list of what you do each turn is also much appreciated by me.

[Helpless]

The one thing that bugs me is that even on message level 0 some of my night bombing strategic air directives are taking a crazy long time to execute... like 5+ minutes per mission....

Looks like you have air execution details set to medium or high. Make sure it is set to none/low as it avoids the interception refresh bug, which is fixed in coming patch.

[carlkay58]

Grumpy - once you get things under control and understand what you are doing better you will get the normal turns down to about 15 to 30 minutes for the Allies. Invasion or strategic decision turns will take longer. My first Allied turn is typically two to three hours long (I have a written script that I follow to get everything 'just right') but I rarely spend more than an hour on any other turn.

[jnpoint]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I'm curious how much time you guys spend on your turns. I'm taking 1-2 hours a turn, and I haven't even tackled the grand campaign yet -- I'm still working on "Breakout and Pursuit," which is the 12-turn scenario from Normandy to Paris. I'm wondering whether I'm micromanaging too much stuff. Here are some of the things I do; am I over-doing it?

1. I read through the Shift-E logistics summary. This alone takes five minutes.
2. I check every air group for low morale and fatigue, and I rest those with low levels. I rest more groups if it's raining. This is a 10 minute exercise, at least.
3. I check the weather, scheduled reinforcements, victory levels, casualty counts, etc.
4. I check and adjust every Air Directive. I usually adjust target hex, area, staging base, days of week flown (especially if there's a change in weather), path to target (using Shift-O to check for flak). Increasingly I also do manual selection of air groups to include. I haven't tinkered much with altitude (yet). With about a dozen Air Directives in my current scenario, this all takes me 15 minutes or more.
5. I execute Air Directives, these days using Message Level 1 to speed things up.
6. I check Shift-U for interdiction results, then Shift-T for recon results. Pretty quick.
7. I check depots, railroads, use the 8 key to check on delivery paths, check supply details of key units. I also try to remember to cycle through all 8 soft factors to check for anything way out of whack, like units without attached support units. If I get caught up in logistics, I can easily spend 20 minutes doing all this!
8. I use Shift-R to make sure I didn't miss reinforcements. Move these forward unless there's a reason to wait. 2-3 minutes.
9. At last I move units and fight. I suppose this is the bulk of the time played -- the better part of an hour. Maybe this is where I could save some time! But the "undo" function is limited, and I don't reload saved games, so I'm careful.
10. I do rail repair toward the end of the turn. 5 minutes of fussing.
11. I tend to move my HQs at the end, too, to ensure everyone is within range etc. 5 minutes.
12. Fly air-resupply missions. I increasingly use manual selection of groups. And I like to double-check to make sure the receiving airfield/unit/depot in fact shows increased levels of supply/freight. Probably too fussy with this. 5-10 minutes.
13. At last hit end turn!

Maybe I should just the Force and do everything faster? I'm sort of surprised that I'm spending so much time on turns. Not dismayed, necessarily; I love the detail. But I'm curious whether others are playing faster. What do you guys do, and how much time to you spend doing it?

I am new to such a complex game like this, so naturally I use way more time than you do. I do not find it problematic though as I love micro-management. I must also admit that I love it more and more as I discover the depth it has to offer.