help me decided if I should buy the game!

[Iamstrategygame]

I love world war 2 strategy games and I heard this is the best game out there. But going on steam and reading some of the negative reviews I am a bit worried. Many of the negative reviews says the "AIR WAR" does not work! If that is the case then should I still buy this game? Please help me!

[Wiedrock]

Many of the negative reviews says the "AIR WAR" does not work!

The game has 2 Phases during your turn.
1.Air Phase
You can do Ground Attack Missions against Units (so before combat).
You can do Naval Patrol missions to isolate Ports.
You can do Recon missions to "spot" enemy Divisions.
You can set up Air Superiority missions, intended to contest enemy planes and increase your overall defensive Fighter cover.
2.Ground Phase
You can have Ground Support during combat.
You can transport freight by air transport.

All those missions work and are effective.
Now, there are many more missions/tricks and stuff you can do, but the impact of them is rather limited OR/AND their effects are too hard to measure/spot. Some missions may have been more impactful in previous GG Games I assume (I do not own the other ones) so people want them to be more effective again I suppose.
Another thing is the (especially early) asymmetrical balance of the air war. The Game tries to simulate historical losses, which leads to people thinking that something is wrong.

I don't have many games of this type/scale, but usually the ones I know have Air System, as in getting [+X% bonus in ground combat + some damage] or getting [X amount of Ground attacks per Turn] to execute. While here if you manage your Fighters/Bombers the right way (move them to the right air fields) you will have them join things like Ground Support (for attacks/defences during ground phase) together in all battles happening in their area (when their mission is properly set up). So if you like managing Air Groups this is something you can do a lot here (once you know how the UI works).

Generally, the Air War in WW2 was not as effective as one may want the actions in a game to be to be fun/to not be in vain. This may also contribute to some peoples frustration, since other games may rather take the path of "fun" rather than that of creating historical numbers/realism.

[Zovs]

No game is perfect, but WITE2 is bar far one of the best operational east front wargames out there. Don't let the AI run your air war or manage your supply depots.

[budd]

Holiday sale will be starting soon, wait for now. Think it should be starting this Friday if memory serves. There's also WITE1 with different air mechanics.

[Iamstrategygame]

Thank you all for the kind reply! I love world war 2 history!

[MarkShot]

No game is perfect, but WITE2 is bar far one of the best operational east front wargames out there. Don't let the AI run your air war or manage your supply depots.

I am not letting the AI doing anything and I am on my first GC. How many depots do you need? (I mean how many hexes between depots along a double rail line?) I assume from time to time I should prune depots as too many will tie up all your trucks?

Thanks.

[Wiedrock]

No game is perfect, but WITE2 is bar far one of the best operational east front wargames out there. Don't let the AI run your air war or manage your supply depots.

I am not letting the AI doing anything and I am on my first GC. How many depots do you need? (I mean how many hexes between depots along a double rail line?) I assume from time to time I should prune depots as too many will tie up all your trucks?

Thanks.

The Depots on MAP do not tie up Trucks just because they can. Usually the numbers in Depots are in some way adjusted towards the amount of Units which need supply from the depot (or something like this). How many Trucks your MAP Depots have is shown if you check CR → Location-Tab → Depot-Tab. If you sum those up you may get 10k, while the numbers in other parts of the UI are showing 37k "Vehicles in Depots", I think most of those are not actually Trucks "in Depots" (on MAP) but for a large part they are Trucks in TBs. At least that's how far I think I understand it ...or better... tried to make sense of those large (probably missleading) numbers presented.
If someone has other Info on that I am eager to learn.
See K62's Guide concerning the Depots.

[MarkShot]

...
If someone has other Info on that I am eager to learn.
See K62's Guide concerning the Depots.

Wiedrock,

Thank you again for your time. I appreciate it.

[TallBlondJohn]

I don't like the airwar. I find it clunky, unintuitive and frustrating.

But I love War in the East 2. Its not just my favourite strategy game, its in my top ten favourite computer games in any genre, in the last 40 years.

The secret is the AI assistance. I disagree with the poster above who says turn it off - its your game and if you can't be bothered with the air system, just turn the AI on. You can still influence it simply by setting various air HQs to assist particular armies and not others. Meanwhile get on with the operational war, just like a ground commander would. Ok the AI is nowhere near as good as a human, but against the opponent AI or in the shorter scenarios it doesn't spoil the fun.

The supply system is the same - you can take it or leave it, the AI isn't great but good enough. I enjoy it, so I'm not afraid of micro-managing the details.

I just think the air system was inherited from War in the West (wasn't keen on it there either, but it was a necessary evil) and needed more re-design than it got.

Glad you bought the game, I have many hundreds of hours in it and return every few months. The opponent AI has its limits and especially sucks at offence, but given the complexity of the tasks involved WITE2's AIs are considerable achievements.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

The game is 40% off at the moment in the sale. At that price I'd fully recommend it.

At full price I still think it is a brilliant game and good value but would caution that it is a bit of a monster and recommend maybe watching some YouTube videos to get an idea of it's scale before committing. Personally I got WITP:AE when it was heavily discounted and am glad that I waited for that discount as whilst I know lots of people swear by it and I love reading the AARs I've just never been able to get my head round the scale of it myself and haven't got a lot of play out of it.

[MarkShot]

Yes, discounted when you compare to a HOI4 is an order of magnitude in terms of value. (Yes, HOI4 you can play any country and paint the map ... it is a fantasy game and not problem solving challenge. If you like map painting, it is an over priced rich map painter. I own the full thing, and I know.)

WITP-AE ... I own it and looked into it, but under the hood it is a lot less dynamic than this game. For me to spend hours learning, there must be hours of replay. WITP-AE is just too scripted for my taste. Also, the logistic setup of WITP-AE makes this game look like a walk in the park.