Current State Playability?

[msinnot1]

I purchased WiF a couple of Christmas sales ago but never got around to playing it until now. Before delving head first into it and reading through the hundreds of pages of rules (which I really appreciate the effort the developer put into the documentation), is the game in its current state playable?

I know it does not have an AI and I don't mind playing solo against myself as I do that all the time with various hex & counter games on Vassal. What I would prefer not to do is to spend days reading the manual only to find game breaking bugs once I jump in and start playing.

Thanks
Mike

[paulderynck]

It is definitely playable. There are some minor bugs and there are complaints about the convoy system not always giving full production, but you should not encounter any game-breaking bugs. If you run into trouble, there are plenty of people on the forum willing to assist.

[Centuur]

Solitair and netplay are pretty good. However, I would advise you to make gamesaves after each naval battle (before going to the next sea area) because you don't want to redo things if the game bugs there (not that it happens often, but it's a lot of work to redo things).
One advise I will give you. Never use the "undo all" button. Bugs do appear if using that button more often than not.

[msinnot1]

Thank you Centuur and paulderynck for your quick and detailed replies. No reason now to not jump into the deep end of the pool. I managed to snag a copy of the hardbound rule books so plan to read those over the holiday weekend and then see how badly I can muck up Operation Barbarossa next week. I'm sure I'll be posting here often with questions...

[Orm]

If one is used to boardgames it might be easier to learn from reading RAC (Rules as Coded).

Also, there are some instruction videos made that are helpful.

[Joseignacio]

Thank you Centuur and paulderynck for your quick and detailed replies. No reason now to not jump into the deep end of the pool. I managed to snag a copy of the hardbound rule books so plan to read those over the holiday weekend and then see how badly I can muck up Operation Barbarossa next week. I'm sure I'll be posting here often with questions...

There is a rules PDF inside the game itself that you can download.

Both of the board game RAW (rules as written) and RAC (rules as coded) with the usually scarce and small changes Steven did for playability in a computer game and considering that the game is all european scale as well.

Plus more documentation.

However, you may be misguided by both RAW and RAC in the sense that many optionals have not been implemented (for me as a Japanese player and an American one, not being able to use Offensive Chits in naval warfare was frustrating).

Also, some features have been reduced in range because of technical reasons, for example units that can trace to a supply source an unlimited path in a game where you have selected the apropiate optional, should reorganise at the end of the turn, but they dont if they are more than 10 hexes away, this change was made after RAC (and RAW of course) so you may be surprised and need to edit the game.

However, if you can do with the bugs of the game and are ready to learn to edit them, I recommend you to join our community, in spite of all this.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=301200