Getting started

[Dorky8]

This is probably the beginning of a series of newbie questions.

I don't see a tutorial just the tutorial manual. Is there an interactive tutorial?

Is the 41-45 scenario the main PBEM game played? Wondering if I need the add ons but prefer to save the $$$.

Thanks

[Telemecus]

The Velkie Luki scenario is sort of the tutorial scenario - but there is no interactive teaching in it.

The DLC does include some things like the sudden death scenario - but very few use it so have not found a good reason for DLC yet.

Beware also the official manual is out of date - but there is a fan created manual on these forums which is more up to date.

[Chris21wen]

Yoy can get the ubdated manual here. tm.asp?m=4529371

I found it easier to play the Soviets when I first played it, despite getting beaten up in 41 & 42, all you have to do is defend. Play the smaller road to scenarios.

If it helps here's a guide I used, and still do as the memories not too could. I claim no credit for it, good or bad as 90% of it is other's work but it does contain the gist of how to play. Also it's old so some may have change due to patches, i've just not bothered to update it

https://btcloud.bt.com/web/app/share/invite/K57E55havN

[Dorky8]

Thank you.

Hopefully soon I'll be up to speed to get clobbered at multiplayer but eventually be a worthy opponent.

[Beria]

Never found a good reason for the DLC yet!

[nukkxx5058]

ORIGINAL: Dorky8


Is the 41-45 scenario the main PBEM game played? Wondering if I need the add ons but prefer to save the $$$.

Thanks

As far as I'm concerned, I only play GC41-45 (in both solo and PBEM) so I decided not to purchase the DLC as it doesn't bring new mechanics to the core game. I'm saving my buck$$$ for WITE 2

[Russell Osterlund]

Hi!

From one newbie to another [;)]

How to start learning WitE - it depends upon your ultimate objective. I am going solo for now, trying to learn as much as I can before venturing out...

One suggestion has been to start with the Soviets, get clobbered, and learn how to defend - nothing wrong with that if that is your style. I would recommend starting with the "Road to" scenarios as the Germans and building up from there, e.g., Road to Minsk, Road to Smolensk, Road to Moscow. I have the feeling that playing the Soviets effectively requires a very deep understanding of the game mechanics and is therefore advanced knowledge. The first "Road to" teaches one the power of the German units; the second teaches their limits; and the third teaches how difficult it can be to actually get favorable results. Along the "road" you should start to realize how valuable movement factors are and how vast the scale of the game covers - the lesson here is to optimize movement against time - anything that costs MP's is BAD.

There are links to some of the AAR's that I have found helpful for teaching some of the mechanics. There are also guides, scripts if you will, on how to approach all of the tasks during one's movement phase. Look at the first few topics in the forum for these.

One habit one could develop is to approach starting movement from the rearmost units, while saving the vanguard until the end. Infantry at the end of a scenario could make or break the outcome, so one should be aware of how far they can move in a turn. But they are generally trying to hustle to catch up to the more mobile units. This may be hard to visualize and more exhausting (searching for the next most rearmost unit), but it will prevent you from "running out of units" at the end of your move.

Finally, I would add a few "short-cut" keys that I wish I had known about at the start, e.g.:

q - Quick Save for creating incremental snapshots where one can try something, see if it works out, and then backtrack.
b - Breakdown/build up for creating or restoring "temporary additional units' when trying to create a pocket or establish a front-line.
~ - Show supply (and keeping track of corps and divisions) for avoiding the torture of searching for the proper colored outlines [:'(]

My $0.02 and YMMV. Enjoy!

[Zug]

I'm also a noob in WitE. I installed the game October 30, so exactly one month today, and I believe I have played, or spent an evening studying, this game every day since.

It's an epic game, and lots to learn. I think the advice about playing the Road To scenarios is probably best. But in my case I decided not to do them all. I began by playing the Road to Minsk scenario. Managed a minor victory. Then I played it another four times, five in all, and each time got a little better at it, and began scoring Major victories on the third try, but never did manage to capture Mogilev to nab a Decisive victory. Anyway, each run gave me a little more understanding, a little more insight in to the mechanics. At just three turns, it's perfect for learning, and seeing where you went wrong, or different strategies become evident, and you can quickly give it another run. A perfect example is the unleashing of Guderian near Brest-Litovsk. The first time I played Road to Minsk I blew a hole in the line north of the city, and then sent my armor through and they made it halfway to Minsk. pretty good! Not really. The failure to capture Brest, and only opening a two-hex wide breach ate up lots of MPs when the Panzer Corps were sent through. On the second try 2nd Panzer got almost to Minsk on the first turn. On the third try they made it beyond Minsk. So in just nine turns I had learned a lot about how to conduct and exploit breakthroughs by having three cracks at it.

Coming from more of a tactical wargaming background rather than grand operational like WitE, I at first focused on destroying the enemy, but soon saw that capturing objectives was the key to a good score, and destroying the enemy was just a means to that end. In the grand campaign I'd say that maybe this is reversed, but in the shorter scenarios, Victory Locations are key if the score matters.

But all I really wanted to do was to play the grand campaign. I decided that having played Road to Minsk five times I was minimally prepared to jump in and give the big show a go. I reasoned that the Germans didn't have the chance to practice these operations over and over before doing it for real. That might sound silly when we are talking about a game, but I think it was good, because when I did start the grand campaign it was all waiting to be discovered, and for me at least has made for a better campaign I think.

So while I wasn't really prepared to do it, as the turns ticked by I got a much better handle on how to play. Each Road To scenario teaches you things, but the grand campaign is a master class. That's not to say all of the primer scenarios shouldn't be done first, just my take that the experience of the first grand campaign could be better if you hadn't done it already. Certainly not the best way to 'prepare', but in my case anyway, I feel it's resulted in a better campaign experience. As someone remarked in my AAR thread, this will be my most 'honest' campaign.

We have a million quarters and can play any of the scenarios over and over, but just something about discovering the game in the grand campaign appeals to me. I'm looking forward to my second go at it, since I made mistakes and would like another go after having one (almost) under my belt. In case it might be interesting, and to see if I qualify now to post links on this board....

...nope, not yet...

I usually pick up DLC for any game that I really get in to, and WitE certainly has it's hooks in. But honestly, I'm not too keen on smaller scenarios, as interesting and fun as they may be. The grand campaigns are all I'm really interested in. I hadn't considered that MP games might be limited by DLC content. Based on Telemecus' reply the answer is that aside from the sudden death campaign, this isn't an issue, at least if the grand campaigns are what's being played?

[nukkxx5058]

Finally, I would add a few "short-cut" keys that I wish I had known about at the start, e.g.:

~ - Show supply (and keeping track of corps and divisions) for avoiding the torture of searching for the proper colored outlines

huh ?! I don't have this one ...

[Russell Osterlund]

I have a Windows systems - look at the row of numbers, the top one, and the first key on the left. The tilde key is above the apostrophe. I found this tip in one of the "War in the East sequence of play" docs - it does not appear to show in the hot-key display. It is a toggle and the lines will disappear when you reload the scenario.

[nukkxx5058]

The tilde key is above the apostrophe

ok I understand why it's not working with me. It's because shift-tilde activates the Discord messaging Will try to deactivate this ...

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

The tilde key is above the apostrophe

ok I understand why it's not working with me. It's because shift-tilde activates the Discord messaging Will try to deactivate this ...

Otherwise known as shift-z which is in the list of shortcut keys.

[nukkxx5058]

ORIGINAL: Chris21wen

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

The tilde key is above the apostrophe

ok I understand why it's not working with me. It's because shift-tilde activates the Discord messaging Will try to deactivate this ...

Otherwise known as shift-z which is in the list of shortcut keys.

Ahh ! Sure I have shift-Z, very useful !
Thanks for this precision.