Useful Info for Beginners

[Trugrit]

I did not mean to say it was dirt.

It is a very useful program for both the Allies and Japan.
It is just less necessary for the Allies.

You are going to want to use it someday you just don't need it right now.

[Kursk1943]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: LGKMAS
Hopefully I will finish the orders phase by the end of the weekend and be able to press "end of orders phase" and see what happens.

Before you push the 'end orders' button, please make sure you save the game first. Lots of tales of woe from players that didn't save their massive first turn orders before hitting 'end orders'.

If I push the "end orders" button in my games there is always automatically a socalled "preturnsave" done. I can always reload it, if I forgot something.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Kursk1943

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: LGKMAS
Hopefully I will finish the orders phase by the end of the weekend and be able to press "end of orders phase" and see what happens.

Before you push the 'end orders' button, please make sure you save the game first. Lots of tales of woe from players that didn't save their massive first turn orders before hitting 'end orders'.

If I push the "end orders" button in my games there is always automatically a socalled "preturnsave" done. I can always reload it, if I forgot something.

Yes, that is in one of the first three saved games slots that you should not erase or use for your own game save. Those three will be overwritten each turn so if you want to have your own saves that go back several turns, start with the fourth slot (003, if the first one is 000) for you own saves that you want to keep a while.
I put the game date on my own saves, and it takes hours to do a turn so I save several times during my input. This has paid off many times when I break for the night and Microsoft decides it needs to update Windows some more and restarts the computer. Sometimes I also like to go back and look at a turn done some time back to see what the overall situation looked like then, to get a sense of progress or regress as applicable! [:D]

[Kursk1943]

I put the game date on my own saves, and it takes hours to do a turn so I save several times during my input.

1+

[traskott]

Hello

I need advice of how to organize allied OOB from 1943 to the end of game. I'm played a PBEM against Dan (hello!!) an playing with stacking limits.

I don't have any clue of how to represent the organization of the troops I have in mind, in a way which can 'easily' transfered to the game.

How do you manage so large OOBs guys? Thanks in advance.

[BBfanboy]

Here's a China Chart that could help you if you are Allies:

[BBfanboy]

And another chart for China. I did not do these - one of our newer players produced these about a year ago, but only for China.

[traskott]

Thanks[&o]

They will be very useful! [:)]

[LGKMAS]

Sorry, I did not mean to say it was worthless. Perhaps I came over a bit bitter but I have had occasion in the past to regret rushing out to get a program others have claimed was the best thing since sliced bread only to find it was not all they claimed it to be. Or it needed superior computer skills that they had in abundance but which are greatly lacking on my side.
I will have another look at it shortly. But can someone explain in simple laymens terms what it does and how it does it? And what are the advantages of using it? Remember this is the beginners forum.
regards

[Kull]

In simple layman's terms, for the brand new Allied player - still learning - it will overwhelm you with even more information. Tracker is a GREAT program, but it's not necessary for the Allied player, especially somebody playing against AI Japan. There's plenty of time to add Tracker expertise to your repertoire, but the very first "Turn 2" of your very first Grand Campaign? That's not the time.

[LGKMAS]

Thanks Kull. That's the sort of commonsense answer I need at turn 2.
I ran the first turn yesterday and I am still digesting the results. Looks generally positive, well as positive as you can expect on 8 Dec. Good exchange rate in aircraft. Shooting down about 3 times what I am losing and most of my losses are on the ground. Ships fleeing have been spotted and some attacked. Bad weather seems to be the go in the Pacific at the moment as none of my cruisers can launch patrol planes, which is a nuisance.
It appears I overlooked some things, such as conversions. I didn't realise you had to actually hit the button to ensure the conversion go ahead. I lost Arizona and Oklahoma but the other BBs look as though they can be readied to return to the west coast shipyards. What level of flotation should I aim for to ensure they can get back to Seattle et al without sinking?

A bit confused on some of the notices. I am getting all the movements hex by hex, including the rail movements. Is this normal or can I toggle this off? Or should I leave it on?

I noticed one of the bases has a white exclamation mark beside it. I cannot find in the manual what this means.

Your initial spreadsheet has certainly helped me get started and I am feeling a bit more confident now. I think some areas I am assuming what happened in UV also happens here. I need to watch that and confirm I do understand the new game Anyway, thank you for your help.
regards

[Blackhorse]

I lost Arizona and Oklahoma but the other BBs look as though they can be readied to return to the west coast shipyards. What level of flotation should I aim for to ensure they can get back to Seattle et al without sinking?

Get SYS down to zero; flotation damage below 50 on any BB before you send it the West Coast for repairs. This often takes months. Have ASW-capable ships in an 'Escort' TF to take her home, and have the TF follow an ASW TF to avoid eating a Japanese torpedo halfway between Pearl and SF.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: LGKMAS

Thanks Kull. That's the sort of commonsense answer I need at turn 2.
I ran the first turn yesterday and I am still digesting the results. Looks generally positive, well as positive as you can expect on 8 Dec. Good exchange rate in aircraft. Shooting down about 3 times what I am losing and most of my losses are on the ground. Ships fleeing have been spotted and some attacked. Bad weather seems to be the go in the Pacific at the moment as none of my cruisers can launch patrol planes, which is a nuisance.

Variability. It aids unpredictability, which is a GOOD thing. And don't worry about loss ratios. The Allies have a nearly unlimited supply of stuff....your opponent does not.

It appears I overlooked some things, such as conversions. I didn't realise you had to actually hit the button to ensure the conversion go ahead.

Live and learn. Only lost a day, but now you know.

I lost Arizona and Oklahoma but the other BBs look as though they can be readied to return to the west coast shipyards. What level of flotation should I aim for to ensure they can get back to Seattle et al without sinking?

There's a nest of submarines circling Pearl like sharks, praying for a limping BB. There's no hurry. But as to a specific number, it varies from one player to the next. Typically I like float below 40, but if there's too many BBs clogging the shipyard, i might risk a higher number. But that's just me.

A bit confused on some of the notices. I am getting all the movements hex by hex, including the rail movements. Is this normal or can I toggle this off? Or should I leave it on?

After spending a week or a few days setting up a turn, an hour of watching everything play through is actually something I look forward to. You can turn off a lot of the notifications (not land movement alone, though), but a new player should not do that. It helps you learn.

I noticed one of the bases has a white exclamation mark beside it. I cannot find in the manual what this means.

Probably yellow, probably a supply problem.

Your initial spreadsheet has certainly helped me get started and I am feeling a bit more confident now. I think some areas I am assuming what happened in UV also happens here. I need to watch that and confirm I do understand the new game Anyway, thank you for your help.

The great war machine is creaking and groaning as it slowly comes to life. There's less to do and more understanding of WHAT to do. It will all come together, as you'll see. And still, ten years from now somebody will mention some aspect of the game that was totally unknown to you....how cool is that?

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Blackhorse

I lost Arizona and Oklahoma but the other BBs look as though they can be readied to return to the west coast shipyards. What level of flotation should I aim for to ensure they can get back to Seattle et al without sinking?

Get SYS down to zero; flotation damage below 50 on any BB before you send it the West Coast for repairs. This often takes months. Have ASW-capable ships in an 'Escort' TF to take her home, and have the TF follow an ASW TF to avoid eating a Japanese torpedo halfway between Pearl and SF.

+1 on the SYS damage reduction and max float damage to take to sea.
Use evasive routing with waypoints to avoid sub concentrations. Monitor SIGINT hits near your route as these are likely subs.

Since the BBs are of limited use until you get control of the air and sea and they get much better AA, I send my damaged slow BBs to ECUSA for repair and upgrades. Once I have those done and enough escorts to allot for protection of the old BBs, I start thinking about where to use them. First in a low threat environment while they get some crew experience. This should be around fall of 1942, with KB's power cut by at least half. The Aleutians can use them to help defend bases and bombard any enemy base if no torpedo bombers are present. Have a CVE TF accompany them.

[Alfred]

LGKMAS,
 
AE is quite playable and provides all the relevant information required by a player, straight out of the box.  There is absolutely no need to install any third party software, as none of them provide any additional information which is not provided ingame already.  The better third party software merely presents the game information in a different visual setup which may, or may not be, more easily spotted by individual players.
 
The correct way of looking at these third party software is to consider them to be the equivalent of an auto transmission in an automobile compared to AE which uses a manual (or stick for our American cousins).  For example, IntelMonkey automatically processes the saved intel to produce it's reports.  A player without it can generate the same report by manually comparing the saved intel and then with the use of pen and paper (or if more technically advanced using something like the Windows system "Notepad"), recording the differences.
 
Tracker reads the complete saved files to provide the same information as does AE in its various information screens.  The only real difference is that because it obtains its data directly from the saved files, there is no Fog of War ("FOW") present in Tracker and therefore it's information is 100% accurate.  If a player sets up AE to play with FOW turned off, then he too would receive 100% accurate information.  It is remarkable how almost every player chooses to play AE with FOW turned on but then sees no inconsistency with using a third party program which completely negates the point of selecting FOW on in the first place.
 
Then there is the difficulty which many people have in both installing and then running correctly these third party programs.  Not everyone, and that includes very experienced players and computer users, successfully install these programs.  Even if properly installed, it is not uncommon to find Microsoft releasing a new update which mucks up the installation and the process of trouble shooting begins all ove4r again.  All for no real extra functional ability (other than the subjective visual aspect) which is not already present in the base AE setup.
 
For new players who are trying to learn the game mechanics, these third party programs do not make the game mechanics any easier to understand.  How does the new player reconcile the screenshot found in the manual with what appears on his monitor after installing a mod.  A recent thread on the main AE forum has dealt with navigable rivers.  Page 37 of the manual has a screenshot of all the terrain types (also found on map, top right hand corner), including how a navigable river is depicted.  Are all the map mods using the same visual identifier, and then how easy is it for a new player to associate the page 37 depiction with whatever is present in that particular map mod.
 
Driven correctly, both an auto transmission vehicle and a manual transmission vehicle will get one from "A" to "B".  But my life experience is that manual transmission drivers tend to understand their vehicle better and wring out better performance (whether it be fuel economy or Formula 1 standard) than do auto transmission drivers.  I have never met an individual who learnt to drive and pass their manual drivers licence test who was incapable of driving an auto transmission car.  Whereas I have met many who only learnt on an auto transmission car and possess only an auto transmission drivers licence who have no idea how to drive a manual transmission car.  Some of these auto drivers can't even do a kangaroo hop at the traffic lights.
 
All new players should just get on top of the standard game mechanics first before even contemplating any additional complexity.  Learn the various relationships first manually before using any third party software which by being automated, tends to obscure the relationships.
 
Alfred

[LGKMAS]

Thanks Alfred.
I am trying to read the various Combat reports, Op reports and Sigint reports. They do continue on for a few pages. It seemed to me that Tracker or whatever might enable me to do a printout of all the report. Is there any way they can be printed off? Other than "prt sc" and pasting to Word?
regards

[Alfred]

They are all simple .txt files found in the sub-folder "archive" which is within your "save" folder.
 
When clicked on, they are automatically opened by Windows "Notepad" program and can be edited and printed from that program.
 
Alfred 

[LGKMAS]

Alfred
this is perhaps the best news I have had all week. I am a user of computers, not a programmer. I had no idea these things existed. Thank you again for this. It will make my job of understanding what happened so much easier.

regards

[fcooke]

I hate automatics. It is getting harder and harder in the US to buy a manual/stick, though the wife scored a six speed Mini Cooper earlier this year after I trashed my SAAB 900 convertible on a tree. And don't get me started on people who do not know how to change a tire.....or jump a battery.

[traskott]

I love manuals, but afer 20 years, I bought an automatic. It makes the driving more confortable (and boring).


I never used tracker or such. I agree with alfred: game itself gives all the info you needed. Other thing is what you do with that info, which is I use to be in trouble... [:o]