How do you all make notes?

[russkly]

I'm interested in hearing how other players make notes given the complexity of the game and the large number of units in play.

What I mean is this: personally I find it challenging to remember (especially if days elapse between turns) what my intentions were for given units or groups of units, e.g. 56th army to advance along axis x-y-z in support of 66th army's assault on point a, or construction unit b to move to vicinity of c to work on railway repair between points x & y.

it seems a silly point perhaps, but I don't believe that there is a mechanism for making notes on the map or in game, or placing map markers, etc. so how does everyone make aides memoires to avoid the moments of, "Ah, so what was this army tasked with?", or, "Oh dear, I forgot to transfer that unit from the reserves", and so on?

Word, Notepad, or good old pen & paper?

Just curious, because I'm going to have to start doing it, and I haven't even tried one of the the two large campaigns yet, let alone the Grand Campaign.

[Tom_]

I'd love to know the answer to this!
I often play a game for a few hours then for several days have other commitments IRL. When I return I struggle to remember what I was going!
Appreciate I could get a pen and paper out but would love something 'native' to the game. Arrows, map markers, or time laps viewer of the front line..

[loki100]

I do a mix.

Esp HtH as its easy to forget between turns.

So if its a quick thing, I just jot it on a scrap of paper. Some stuff takes some more organising, so if playing the Soviets i make a list of the low TOE Soviet army HQs in a spreadsheet. Over time i gradually swap these to/from the national reserve till they all have a decent TOE (low TOE really cripples the already poor Soviet leadership values). I guess my distinction is this is a multi-turn reworking and demands some care re leaders/SUs and so on.

For planning, I tend to write AARs and thats a great way of organising your own thinking. Even if I don't include long term plans in the actual text I sometimes add them in a personal footnote. Generally i find it a really useful tool to organise my thinking, also for looking for feedback loops (even across patches and across HtH and AI games its interesting to do comparisons) and to get into routines.

Broadly with the Axis I plan at the army level and with the Soviets at the Front level. At the start I have an idea where the various axis forces will go and some view as to their relative importance. Some gets repetitive - 16A--Valdai region etc, some is opportunistic (say the spread between 9, 2 and 4 A).

I allocate reinforcements to a Front/Army on arrival, esp if they will take more than one turn to deploy to the front - that helps remind what I originally was looking to do and also acts as a double check I'm not overloading an assualt command (thus negating the advantages).

I know others, esp with the Soviets, set up spreadsheets to track SU etc (M60 does this - have a look at his Soviet AARs for the payback). I've had a few goes at using the export csv, but struggle to get more out of that than I can from manipulating the Commander's Report directly.

[Zovs]

My thoughts and post probably won’t be helpful, but I don’t make any notes at all. When I start a game I just make my plan in my mind, sometimes I may sit there for a couple of hours planning out my moves and directions and then I just implement it. I might have a slight bit of photographic memory with maps my counters at least and the situation at hand. Usually after I get a turn back I review the turn summary, the various logistics reports and the a mix of the CR and Show battles sites. I spend 30 or so minutes reviewing and ask myself mental what was thinking and usually it comes back an then I begin to adjust my plan based on the previous turns outcome and spend 1-2 hours implementing my new plan.

I don’t write or record a thing. This may go back to the 1970s and 80s when I used to play board war games. I don’t know.

[Zovs]

My thoughts and post probably won’t be helpful, but I don’t make any notes at all. When I start a game I just make my plan in my mind, sometimes I may sit there for a couple of hours planning out my moves and directions and then I just implement it. I might have a slight bit of photographic memory with maps my counters at least and the situation at hand. Usually after I get a turn back I review the turn summary, the various logistics reports and the a mix of the CR and Show battles sites. I spend 30 or so minutes reviewing and ask myself mental what was thinking and usually it comes back an then I begin to adjust my plan based on the previous turns outcome and spend 1-2 hours implementing my new plan.

I don’t write or record a thing. This may go back to the 1970s and 80s when I used to play board war games. I don’t know.

[russkly]

Interesting and contrasting approaches from loki and Zovs. Thanks for those.

So, as I suspected, there is no in-game mechanism for note taking or placing markers/arrows, etc. on the map or or for making notes relevant to specific units (kind of like making comments in an Excel cell)?

Looks like I'll have to play around with Word or Notepad, or, Heaven forbid, dig out some paper and a pen!

Cheers all.

[Zovs]

Loki suggestion of AARs may help, writing out your thoughts and using screenshots is helpful.

[russkly]

Loki suggestion of AARs may help, writing out your thoughts and using screenshots is helpful.

Indeed, I can see how that would be useful, Zovs.

May just be a step too far for me however in terms of process and time!

Would be lovely to be able to do something along these lines in-game, but I appreciate that it's not a big deal.

I might try Notepad, Word or Wordpad and see how I get on; perhaps some screenshots on which I can put my own notes, arrows, etc.

[PeteJC]

I play against the Soviet AI and only do the Campaign Game with the option of a quick ending based on VP.

To make life easier I have scripted the entire first turn down to each division and the order of their attack. Just in a simple Word document. I also keep a SET-UP file that has my first turn air attacks and re-arrangement of SUs already done. That way when I start a new game, I can just start with that set-up file and jump right into the turn.

I have been playing up to the turn 16 VP checkpoint. I am trying to figure out the best possible way of achieving a turn 16 win. I got it last game but I save scummed a little bit in regard to Odessa as I tried some various advice on how to take it from the forum. So it was not an honest win. Without Odessa I would not have triggered a victory.

I am currently on turn 13 and it does not look good for me so I will be going back to my last game saves and jotting down the advancement of each Army by turn to guide my direction. I think a went a little astray with 4th & 9th armies around turn 8 or 9 this game....

Note taking is really up to the individual . I personally enjoy the added detail but I certainly understand where others would find it tedious and even may ruin the spontaneity of taking things as they come.

[EwaldvonKleist]

I'm interested in hearing how other players make notes given the complexity of the game and the large number of units in play.

What I mean is this: personally I find it challenging to remember (especially if days elapse between turns) what my intentions were for given units or groups of units, e.g. 56th army to advance along axis x-y-z in support of 66th army's assault on point a, or construction unit b to move to vicinity of c to work on railway repair between points x & y.

it seems a silly point perhaps, but I don't believe that there is a mechanism for making notes on the map or in game, or placing map markers, etc. so how does everyone make aides memoires to avoid the moments of, "Ah, so what was this army tasked with?", or, "Oh dear, I forgot to transfer that unit from the reserves", and so on?

Word, Notepad, or good old pen & paper?

Just curious, because I'm going to have to start doing it, and I haven't even tried one of the the two large campaigns yet, let alone the Grand Campaign.

1. Take notes in text editor.
2. Use checklists to structure turns and remember routine stuff.
3. Plan operations on screenshotted maps, calculate retreat paths and MP costs. Here are some examples:

The notes mostly cover admin stuff. Operational plans are in my head since they are interesting and therefore easy to remember.

[56ajax]

I play against the Soviet AI and only do the Campaign Game with the option of a quick ending based on VP.

To make life easier I have scripted the entire first turn down to each division and the order of their attack. Just in a simple Word document. I also keep a SET-UP file that has my first turn air attacks and re-arrangement of SUs already done. That way when I start a new game, I can just start with that set-up file and jump right into the turn.

I have been playing up to the turn 16 VP checkpoint. I am trying to figure out the best possible way of achieving a turn 16 win. I got it last game but I save scummed a little bit in regard to Odessa as I tried some various advice on how to take it from the forum. So it was not an honest win. Without Odessa I would not have triggered a victory.

I am currently on turn 13 and it does not look good for me so I will be going back to my last game saves and jotting down the advancement of each Army by turn to guide my direction. I think a went a little astray with 4th & 9th armies around turn 8 or 9 this game....

Note taking is really up to the individual . I personally enjoy the added detail but I certainly understand where others would find it tedious and even may ruin the spontaneity of taking things as they come.

I assume your set up file slowly gets out of sync with the latest releases in terms of oob, equipement, maps etc??

If ever a game needed a scratchpad at the unit level down to brigade it is this game. And an air directive import utility would be great.

Sometimes i write on a sticky not which is usually so cryptic I cant remember what it means. And the cat typically makes off with the pen.

[tyronec]

Doing an AAR really helps because you have screenshots of the previous turn. An example where this is helpful is if you have pocketed some units one turn and then the when you get the next turn back you want to know what was in the pocket if they are no longer visible. If am not doing an AAR then have occasionally taken a screenshot or two.

I often change the colour of units, so the as Axis the Corps with the best leaders get to be a darker shade than the other Corps in that army.
As Soviets sometimes I would make a list of which armies have the better leaders as there are too many to keep track of by colour coding.

I do have a written check list for each turn to make sure I don't forget any of the admin stuff.

As to a strategic plan; definitely not. The broad idea is in my head but it is adapted turn to turn according to what the opponent does.

[russkly]

1. Take notes in text editor.

Which "text editor" are you referring to?

[russkly]

I often change the colour of units, so the as Axis the Corps with the best leaders get to be a darker shade than the other Corps in that army.

I like the idea of re-colouring the units into groups, e.g. all greens advancing along axis x-y-z.

Good call, thanks.

[EwaldvonKleist]

The default text editor of windows (i.e. simple text field where you can type). Type "editor" in the windows search bar

[russkly]

The default text editor of windows (i.e. simple text field where you can type). Type "editor" in the windows search bar

Thanks, EwaldvonKleist.

That brings up Notepad for me, and it's a useful tool indeed.

[PeteJC]

"I assume your set up file slowly gets out of sync with the latest releases in terms of oob, equipement, maps etc??"

Ugh, that is a great point. Oh well so much for saving time on each set-up....