Enthousiastic (learning but getting there) about War in the Wast, pondering over "Pacific"

[FotoFreddy]

Very happy with the detail and realism of war in the west, learning, playing and "getting there".
But now I also see this game, looks even more down to the detail (one day/turn) and it's very appealing to me.
The only thing that is keeping me back is that it is "old" (2009)...
I don't care about graphics, but will this run fine o modern computers ?
I suppose so, since this forum is more active than "War in the West"... but need som confirmation...

Can you please help out a newbee ?

Looks like I found the kind of gameplay I really like, but afraid to spend about 80$ and finding that it does not work so good (I bougght War in teh Wast an "Command" on steam, loving them both)

Greetz, and thanks,

Freddy

[pbiggar]

Welcome!

This game works on modern machines, but you will need to try out a few switches as it will not run out of the box. I run an i5 with Win 10 and it runs well.

The switches I use are:
-cpu4 -f -px1920 –py1200 -deepColor

The switches are found in the read me and lots of posts about them in tech support as well.

Forums are helpful, if you run into problems post and people will help.

Game is very detailed and can take a long time to complete (years even depending on your time available)
If you want to direct the Pacific campaign from Grand strategy down to micromanaging pilots, this is the place for you! Graphics are crappy, interface is meh, but the enjoyment level is high for me.

[obvert]

This game has gotten a lot of support and modification over the years. It's till a great value. You have to beware though, you'll get hooked!! [:)]

The grand campaign can take years to complete, as you can imagine, with one day turns. Most players opt for that though, and love getting into the details. The ground model is not well developed, but the air and naval models and good and off lots of opportunities for both sides to get their kicks.

The one advantage of this game over many others is that the forum is very helpful and there is a lot of backlog of threads that are very helpful.

Hope to see you playing soon!

[FotoFreddy]

Thank you, This is what I wanted to hear.
The game certainly seems great, I don't care to much about graphics, but worry a bit if it will run on win10.
You took away my doubts (matrix putting it in the compatible list is one thing, people actually running it is another, we are not all computer wizards)
I think I will go for a buy, having a great time in War in the West, and a more slower pace is not putting me off, seems even more "real" that way
Thank you for the response !

greetings,

Freddy

[Leandros]

Hi, Freddy - I can only join in with the others here. I'm just about finishing my first "serious" campaign playing against the Japanese AI. One does get hooked, there are a lot of switches to adjust if you want it work "normally" on newer machines (which I have never managed) and it does take a L O T of time out of your life.....[;)]....

Enjoy!

Fred

P.S.: And great support from other members!

[adarbrauner]

Cannot rather than repeat Obvert's comment.

I'd like to stress only that this game is yes more detailed than war in the West. The user's interface though, unfortunately, is older and sensibly less good and agile than that of the "West" game. Honestly and objectively, a considerable pain and setback.

One other importan additional feature and advantage here in this game is that it's more "global" and comprehensive: more detailed production model, especially for Japan.

As mentioned by Obvert, unfortunately the land combat model, though comprising many very excellent and detailed features, is still pretty inadequate to the basic hexagon's scale (40 miles width) and sensibly underdeveloped in this respect.

Reason may be historical, having the game been originated from one covering much smaller scale and thetre - atolls or small islands - while the developers probably not having been able to keep the pace with resepct to land warfare, when they later much enlarged the scale or extent of the theatre.

Naval combat model is extremely detailed. Air model also, with some few noticable big gaps.

The logistic model, relative to land and air, is outstanding, marvelous.

Hopefully one day Matrix shall take on a sequel of the game.


BTW, close to the holidays there are big sales, with 50% off discounts.

[FotoFreddy]

Thanks everybody for the reactions ! This is indeed a very lively forum.

Your reactions are only confirming what I thought it would be from the YouTube vid's and reviews.

I bought the game, looking foreward to learning it and having a great time with it.

Thanks again!

greetings,

Freddy

[InfiniteMonkey]

ORIGINAL: FotoFreddy

Thanks everybody for the reactions ! This is indeed a very lively forum.

Your reactions are only confirming what I thought it would be from the YouTube vid's and reviews.

I bought the game, looking foreward to learning it and having a great time with it.

Thanks again!

greetings,

Freddy

Freddy,

This is a great game that will absorb your interest and your free time. I got the game in late 2016 and I still do not consider myself competent enough to play the campaign game in a PBEM vs a live opponent. Having played the games predecessors, Uncommon Valor and War in the Pacific, I even had a bit of a head start. The campaign game has an enormous number of things to keep track of and control. Start small with the Coral Sea and then Guadalcanal Scenarios to get your feet wet. There is an steep learning cliff if you try to jump right into the Campaign game.

Oh, and I also run Windows 10 on a 4k display. Witp:AE only handles about 3k x 1500 resolution before you start to see display bugs, but otherwise works fine once you get your switches figured out.

Let me add that you should make sure you are patched up to the latest release. When you download, the version you get is not the latest version and you will run into a variety of issues if you run the old versions. And everything we tell you will be for naught, since many of the fixes we propose are not in the old version. I spent several days with the out of the box version trying all kinds of switches until I figured out I did not have the latest version. I updated and all the stuff that people referred to in posts suddenly worked/appeared. I run 1.7.11.24. IIRC, the latest beta is 1.7.11.26b. I'd recommend one of those versions.

[rustysi]

I got the game in late 2016 and I still do not consider myself competent enough to play the campaign game in a PBEM vs a live opponent.

I go back quite a bit further than that, but then again I don't learn too good.[:D]

Seriously though great game. Tons of fun, and hours lost. Keep in mind when patching up the game you'll need the latest 'official' patch, and only add the 'beta' after that. Also I use the term 'beta' loosely. It was actually one of the devs putting in his own time to fix and tweak things. Unfortunately he's been unable to continue of late due to work load. His help was a great plus, hugely appreciated, and very missed.

One other thing. Even though the graphics are so-so, there are those here who modified the look of the map. They do look much nicer. I however don't use them, but only because I think I'm too used to the existing display.

[FotoFreddy]

Thanks fot the tips.
Running without problems on windows 10 now

Studying, learning.
If you guys have any tips were to start (I got some YouTube vids to get through), please share.
A link to some sort of checklist with "thing to do every turn" would be great

I will get there eventually, War in the West went ok, so this one will allso go ok, good thing the interfaces are not to similar, to avoid confusion

I found these links on the forum, I'll start working through these
It's in the thread "Tutorial?" ... can't seem to post inks for now ...

Thanks again !

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: FotoFreddy

It's in the thread "Tutorial?" ... can't seem to post inks for now ...

The forum software or moderator restricts new members from posting links and images until they have proven they are not trolls by posting maturely.
It seems a good policy - we don't get the nasty people that plague some other sites.

[anarchyintheuk]

"Posting maturely" may not apply to all aars.

[Korvar]

ORIGINAL: FotoFreddy

If you guys have any tips were to start (I got some YouTube vids to get through), please share.
A link to some sort of checklist with "thing to do every turn" would be great

Jonboym's Useful Info for Beginners thread is a great place to find lots of resources to help you learn the game.

What you're looking for are Kull's spreadsheets - they do exactly that: tell you exactly what to do on the 1st turn. I played the Coral Sea scenario a couple times, then I found Kull's Allied spreadsheet and dove right into the grand campaign and haven't looked back.

Play as the Allies to start - you won't need to worry about production (the Japanese have a more complicated production system in the game where you can control it - the Allies get reinforcements on a historical or as an alternative, +/- X days variation schedule).

Be aware that even though Kull's spreadsheets only cover the 1st turn, they are very thorough and it will take you a long time to go through them. I want to say it took me 10 hours or more spread over several days. I would just pick a region (for instance, the Philippines) and go through it hex by hex until all the regions were completed.

A big advantage of it is you're freed from trying to figure out what to do, and you can focus on learning the interface of WitPAE. The 1st turn is also a big hurdle for experienced players, just because there is so much to do to overcome the inertia of the initial game state. If you follow the spreadsheet, it will get the "ball rolling" so that by the end of it 1) you'll know the interface well enough to continue on your own and 2) you'll see the "game plan" emerge for the Allies, and smaller tasks that you can accomplish in subsequent turns will become apparent. The following turns also become easier because you're only dealing with a portion of your units - such as: ships that reach port, new unit arrivals, or units that need to react to enemy actions. The rest are on "autopilot" completing their assigned tasks until something happens which requires your input.

[FotoFreddy]

Thank You !
That's a great help !

greetings,

Freddy

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: FotoFreddy

... can't seem to post inks for now ...

I think there is a 10 posts limit before you can post links. And a time delay. I think the time delay was one week after your first post.

[Timotheus]

Was the biggest difference between the WITE/WITW and WITPAE mentioned?
No?

Well then.....

WITPAE THE TURN IS SIMULTANEOUS. BOTH SIDES FLY THEIR PLANES, SAIL THEIR SHIPS, MOVE THEIR TANKS AND RIFLEMEN AT SAME TIME.

It is up to the computer to calculate when one side detects the other as they sail/move/fly to where you told them to, and up to computer local force commander on how they react.

This is the glorious WEGO system, probably impossible to achieve in board games (but computer games can do so - witness WITPAE, the Combat Mission franchise, AGEOD system, Hearts of Iron 3).

After playing WEGO, I REFUSE to play a computer game which has the old boardgame "IGOUGO" mechanic which is garbage. In WITE first one side (Axis) move for this week, their tanks travelling hundreds of kilometers, and then.... the Soviets move AFTER the Axis move.

Ridiculous.