WiS: the manual

[mathefff]

Could we get the manual before the game release so that we can start preparing for the launch?

Cheers
m

[SuluSea]

That would be a good idea. I wouldn't even mind it as a bonus for paying for the game in advance. If they'd so choose.:

[RangerJoe]

I do believe that the manual will only come with the game.

[jwilkerson]

Could we get the manual before the game release so that we can start preparing for the launch?

Cheers
m

That would be a Matrix/Slitherine question. I think they are back in the office on the 4th.

[samspackman]

Would it be too much to ask for a hyperlinked manual?

[MaximKI]

Would it be too much to ask for a hyperlinked manual?

The manual is available through the game's store page here: https://www.matrixgames.com/game/war-in-spain-1936-39

Scroll down to the middle of the screen - you should see a button for 'Manual'.

[samspackman]

Yes it is just a PDF. I was asking if it can have links inside it so you can jump from the contents to the relevant chapter.

[potski]

Yes it is just a PDF. I was asking if it can have links inside it so you can jump from the contents to the relevant chapter.

It's a proper ebook format - the contents do link to the sections, and I get a panel in my browser to display Document Outline or Page thumbnails to navigate.

War in Spain eBook Manual

[Mobeer]

Had a quick browse of the manual...

For example, having UK dictating a peace to Romania will
prevent the Germans from receiving any further support
(including the ability to use Romanian airfields and ports)

what??

[devoncop]

Had a quick browse of the manual...

For example, having UK dictating a peace to Romania will
prevent the Germans from receiving any further support
(including the ability to use Romanian airfields and ports)

what??

Under the section on anti invasion forces it specifically talks about Italians as well so it seems evident the manual is serving for the general game engine for future games in the series

[Piteas]

Had a quick browse of the manual...

For example, having UK dictating a peace to Romania will
prevent the Germans from receiving any further support
(including the ability to use Romanian airfields and ports)

what??

Under the section on anti invasion forces it specifically talks about Italians as well so it seems evident the manual is serving for the general game engine for future games in the series

You're perceptive, Devoncop.
There will be surprises in the future

[nanni]

I just finished struggling through the 440+-page WIS Manual after a 2-day penance. Unsat! First of all, vocabulary and syntax are extremely shaky. Sentence structure is tortured and full of needless use of the passive voice. Then also, what are "devices", exactly? Personnel, weapons, equipment, motor vehicles, aircraft, vessels? Whatever they are, specify it. Somewhere I read about certain aircraft being "indigenous" to CVs. Papyrus is indigenous to the Nile Valley and the Maori to New Zealand, but Navy aircraft are either embarked or shore-based, for heaven's sake. Secondly, the whole thing, longer than my college textbook on the history of political theory, is bursting with useless padding. A manual must be a short booklet where the reader is given clear instructions on how to make something work. Period. To attack an enemy-held hex you do this, this, and that in that order. Here, instead, you have to wade through dozens of pages, often repetitive, only sometimes to find hazy indications, even for something as crucial as setting the Preferences screen to your taste.
The developers say that WIS uses algoritms derived from WITP-AE, but WITP-AE came with an admirable, slim and succinct manual I still cherish.
So please, take this WIS "Encyclopedia Britannica", remove 5/6 of the content, rewrite and proofread it properly to extract the necessary instructions, and with all the other stuff you can produce a background material book, with serious information on the Spanish Civil War, political causes, foreign intervention, weapons, strategy of both sides, developing tactics, etc.
Finally, avoid the justification that what I'm asking I can find in videos and tutorials. Videos are often read by people with strong accents who mispronounce foreign words, and tutorials mean that if you get stuck in a game, you have to save it, close it down, choose the right tutorial, run it through and probably only get a partial answer, anyway.
Gary Grisby's WITE2 has a massive 500-page manual, but wisely Matrix added a 9-page guide for everyone's peace of mind.

[RangerJoe]

I just finished struggling through the 440+-page WIS Manual after a 2-day penance. Unsat! First of all, vocabulary and syntax are extremely shaky. Sentence structure is tortured and full of needless use of the passive voice. Then also, what are "devices", exactly? Personnel, weapons, equipment, motor vehicles, aircraft, vessels? Whatever they are, specify it. Somewhere I read about certain aircraft being "indigenous" to CVs. Papyrus is indigenous to the Nile Valley and the Maori to New Zealand, but Navy aircraft are either embarked or shore-based, for heaven's sake. Secondly, the whole thing, longer than my college textbook on the history of political theory, is bursting with useless padding. A manual must be a short booklet where the reader is given clear instructions on how to make something work. Period. To attack an enemy-held hex you do this, this, and that in that order. Here, instead, you have to wade through dozens of pages, often repetitive, only sometimes to find hazy indications, even for something as crucial as setting the Preferences screen to your taste.
The developers say that WIS uses algoritms derived from WITP-AE, but WITP-AE came with an admirable, slim and succinct manual I still cherish.
So please, take this WIS "Encyclopedia Britannica", remove 5/6 of the content, rewrite and proofread it properly to extract the necessary instructions, and with all the other stuff you can produce a background material book, with serious information on the Spanish Civil War, political causes, foreign intervention, weapons, strategy of both sides, developing tactics, etc.
Finally, avoid the justification that what I'm asking I can find in videos and tutorials. Videos are often read by people with strong accents who mispronounce foreign words, and tutorials mean that if you get stuck in a game, you have to save it, close it down, choose the right tutorial, run it through and probably only get a partial answer, anyway.
Gary Grisby's WITE2 has a massive 500-page manual, but wisely Matrix added a 9-page guide for everyone's peace of mind.

Please define "Unsat!" since I have never heard of that word.

What does Papyrus and the Nile Valley have to do with this complaint?

What does Maori and New Zealand have to do with complaint?

How do you know that these people doing the videos have "strong accents" since maybe you have an accent.

How do you know those people are mispronouncing foreign words since may words have different pronunciations with the same spelling ? Yet other words with different spelling have the same pronunciation with different meanings and how do you do that the words are foreign?

What does thus manual have anything to do with a college textbook? Especially with the history of political theory?

Who does a manual have to be a short booklet? If it was a short booklet, then people might make entirely useless complaints that it didn't explain everything in detail, isn't that true?

How do you wade through dozens of pages unless they are in a pool? I thought that a person waded through water, not paper.

What does this game have in common with WITE2 other than the Matrix company?

[bradfordkay]

EDIT: I found what I was looking for. I can't believe that I missed it the first time I scanned through the manual. What I don't see is the movement cost along road and railroads.

[RangerJoe]

EDIT: I found what I was looking for. I can't believe that I missed it the first time I scanned through the manual. What I don't see is the movement cost along road and railroads.

Section 8.4.1 (page 259) has a chart on the movement costs. I haven't really read the manual either since I started with the game system and no real manual! Or at least, not everything had been included in the game yet.

Once you see the movement chart for the mountainous terrain, then you can understand why I converted a regular infantry unit into a "mountain" unit by getting rid of the wheeled vehicle devices.

[bradfordkay]

Yes, I found that in the second search thorough the manual. What I still can't find is an indication of by how much do roads and railroads alter those movement costs.

[RangerJoe]

Alessandro posted this picture before:

WIS unit Travel cost.png (86.86 KiB) Viewed 329 times

So you might want to pay attention to what he posts.

Now, you might be able to claim that you can walk faster than the foot units but since that is the speed over 24 hours, do you walk for 24 hours strait? Especially in combat mode? The best way to get an idea of how long it will take to move one hex is to look at the unit and see how far they have traveled the distance in movement points required. I will put some of this in my AAR of which the first part is more of a tutorial. Right now, I am busy answering questions since the design team actually has real jobs to perform while at this time I am just the house staff for two cats!

[jwilkerson]

... The best way to get an idea of how long it will take to move one hex ...

I found the best idea was to go outside and walk, drive, etc off road on my land in KS and LEARN how fast I could go !

And that experience was the basis of the numbers in the table.

==

On any wargame map, where I was in KS would be called "clear terrain". But for example, the creeks and gullies often have steep banks due to erosion. And wheeled vehicles can't cross except where the banks are low. So you have to move along the creek bank and find a "ford" ... or bring a tractor with a bucket and cut the bank down. Etc. etc. All those ideas are factored in.

[bradfordkay]

Guys, in a scenario where you are constrained by time it helps to have a reasonable idea of how best to move your troops. No one is asking for concrete, unchangeable numbers but it would be nice if the manual gave some indication of what the road and railroad movement rates are. You may note that in that chart there is no mention of paved roads or railroads. I think that mine is a reasonable request. Yes, if I were to have started with the full campaign the "learn by trying" wouldn't be so frustrating. I decided to start with the limited time "tutorial" scenario and so have asked for a little more information than what was given in the 440 page manual.

[RangerJoe]

Okay, use move mode in the tutorial since going into strategic mode take 3 days to get into and 3 days to get out of strategic mode. If you units are not moving when they are attacked or attack but are in move mode, they will act as if they are in combat mode which includes digging field fortifications. Only engineers work in bases and at a base that you don't control, your units don't dig field fortifications. Also, if your units are going through rough or mountainous terrain and you see an awful 1000+ movement points needed, use "Dump" on the unit screen to send the vehicles into a "Vehicle Dump" RSV unit which will speed up that unit. The movement cost of going from one hex to another is the average of the movements costs of each hex.