Critique of G.G. War in the West

[rocket7407]

Hard to know where to begin: Try to imagine World War II, Western Front, where the British Navy doesn't bother to show up and you get an inkling of what's wrong with this game. While much time and effort were expended to increase player involvement in the Air war (some would say unnecessarily difficult), the Naval aspect of the western front action is completely ignored.
Began the D-Day scenario as the Allied player against AI. All went well for a few turns, until my Amphibious Headquarters disappeared from the map, along with the temporary ports they supported, leaving the invasion force isolated and surrounded by German troops. I knew the Amphibious HQs were under attack by German bombers, but battle results indicated zero damage to cargo and troop ships. Turns out that battle reports only include ground and air losses; again, as if ships don't even exist. I assume this is the case since I'm unable to see the full battle report, which refuses to scroll down. You can tell, however, that German U boats exist, because of the damage to troop ships attempting to cross the English channel. Where are British destroyers; where are the battleships, where are the aircraft carriers? They just don't exist.
At one point, while reloading previous turns to see what happened to my amphibious HQs, the top menu bar completely disappeared from the screen. I literally had to turn the computer off to get out of the game.
I decided to restart the scenario to see if I could protect the HQs from being removed. When I loaded it, I noticed fog of war was not working; every German unit was visible, even though fog of war was turned on. Further investigation revealed that fog of war would no longer work for any scenario.
After enjoying G.G. War in the East so much, this follow up is a disappointment. Not well thought out, with glaring omissions, and many bugs, even after it's been out for quite some time. You can't even delete saved games; every single turn of every single scenario you've ever played is saved and can't be deleted.
Any player expecting a realistic simulation of the western front won't get it with this game. Not what we've come to expect from a Gary Grigsby game.

[Zovs]

Never had the odd issues your seeing I’d reinstall the game sounds corrupted.

I can’t speak to the naval aspect.

I do enjoy WITW however.

[rocket7407]

Reinstalled War in the West, and the latest upgrade. Fog of War still doesn't work.

[rocket7407]

Uninstalled game and reinstalled a second time; fog of war still not operational in any scenario. I have noticed that with fog of war turned off, all units appear on the jump map in addition to the main map. With fog of war on, units do not appear on the jump map, but are still visible on the main map. How about a little help, huh? Lack of fog of war makes this game not worth playing.

[Zovs]

Uninstalled game and reinstalled a second time; fog of war still not operational in any scenario. I have noticed that with fog of war turned off, all units appear on the jump map in addition to the main map. With fog of war on, units do not appear on the jump map, but are still visible on the main map. How about a little help, huh? Lack of fog of war makes this game not worth playing.

Sorry I am just not following you or seeing what your seeing.

This is from the most current version and as you can see with FOW on I don't see things in the jump map I am not supposed to see, nor on the physical map either.



My settings:



So I don't how to help you?

[Zovs]

Just started up a new scenario and the Axis go first and I am the Allies and its the Air Phase.

As you an see FOW is working just fine:



Here its my ground phase and FOW is working just fine:

[rocket7407]

Obviously it's not working like that on my computer or there wouldn't be a problem. Turning fow on and off works as intended on the jump map, but on the main map all units are visible, as if fow was always off. The question is why? It's no help at all to just blame the user's computer. I've always wondered, for example, what is actually done when a player agrees to allow an app to change windows? How do I know that it's not the app itself that is corrupting windows for that particular game? You should make some kind of effort beyond saying, well, it's your computer, bye.

[Zovs]

I never said that. I said I never seen that on my end and I just posted some screenshots.

I’d suggest you post your issues in the tech support thread. I can’t help you, everything seems fine here.

[loki100]

...

Began the D-Day scenario as the Allied player against AI. All went well for a few turns, until my Amphibious Headquarters disappeared from the map, along with the temporary ports they supported, leaving the invasion force isolated and surrounded by German troops. I knew the Amphibious HQs were under attack by German bombers, but battle results indicated zero damage to cargo and troop ships. Turns out that battle reports only include ground and air losses; again, as if ships don't even exist. I assume this is the case since I'm unable to see the full battle report, which refuses to scroll down. You can tell, however, that German U boats exist, because of the damage to troop ships attempting to cross the English channel. Where are British destroyers; where are the battleships, where are the aircraft carriers? They just don't exist.
At one point, while reloading previous turns to see what happened to my amphibious HQs, the top menu bar completely disappeared from the screen. I literally had to turn the computer off to get out of the game.
I decided to restart the scenario to see if I could protect the HQs from being removed. When I loaded it, I noticed fog of war was not working; every German unit was visible, even though fog of war was turned on. Further investigation revealed that fog of war would no longer work for any scenario.
After enjoying G.G. War in the East so much, this follow up is a disappointment. Not well thought out, with glaring omissions, and many bugs, even after it's been out for quite some time. You can't even delete saved games; every single turn of every single scenario you've ever played is saved and can't be deleted.
Any player expecting a realistic simulation of the western front won't get it with this game. ....

well to be fair that is a very singular view

I've only ever lost TF in a 1943 game where the air war around italy was, to put it mildly, intense. In 1944 you should be able to stick so many fighters over the Channel that the LW has no chance. So practice using AS, or basing air groups to do auto-intercept.

Make sure the TF is not adjacent to an enemy port (essential) or enemy units (important) at the end of the turn - this is all in the manual

Have a look at the TF, you will find they have different TOE, some with much heavier artillery than others - that is where the BB are.

No idea as to the UI issues you report, as Zovs above it all works fine. So maybe best to provide a dx and do a bug report, there may be something to your set up

it is the realistic simulation of the Western Front will full integration of the Allied strategic airwar with ground operations. Indeed you can adjust the targets of your strategic bombers precisely to degrade key aspects of the German ground forces

[rocket7407]

I take your point about protecting amphibious HQs, and came to the same conclusion myself. It was when I attempted to start the scenario over that I realized fog of war was no longer operational, nor was it in any other scenario. Only those turns and scenarios that were saved prior to that time still had a functional fow. I'd like to get this resolved since who wants to play a war simulation without fow? I'm not hopeful; I had the same kinds of issues with the original War in the East. No other games, just the 2 G.G. games. So, what is a dx? Please describe what I need to do.

[Zovs]

DxDialog it should be installed somewhere on your system, it’s a Microsoft tool for Direct X and lists out your h/w and video stuff.

Again something is off with your system, I have had no issues in years with WITE/WITW/WITE2 with FOW or a host of other games. Hopefully Tech Support folks can help you with your system issues. No one I know of over the years has had your issue.

[rocket7407]

Ran dx diagnostics; report stated that corrupted files were found and repaired; restarted computer and loaded WitW; Fow still not working. Since I actually had the game open when this occurred, I have to conclude that the game itself caused corruption to my system.