Playing time?

[jmlima]

ORIGINAL: Mike McCreery

... Some need to check every unit every turn and some people set things up and forget them.

....

I'm confused by this, unless I'm misunderstanding. Is there any way to automate anything in the game? I thought every single nitty-gritty bitty thing needed to be done by the player. Or do you mean something different when you say 'set things up'?

[oaltinyay]

ORIGINAL: Marco70

I need help deciding if this game is for me. From what I understand, it's more of a passion than a game.
But how many hours do you need to invest in the WITP campaign? I've seen some videos, the first turn took 9 hours to do all the settings for the allies. In this one he was clicking every single unit / base and explains a lot, but many others were in the 3-4 hour range. Is this effort reduced in the following turns?
If a turn is a day, then the campaign lasted a decade of my time.

What do you think?

run away if you can - this is a "time vampire of a game". You will be mumbling about lost ships and unsupplied island bases, strikes failing to locate target and more... You will spend a small fortune on Pac War books in amazon.

Once you enter the domain, there is no exit.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: jmlima

ORIGINAL: Mike McCreery

... Some need to check every unit every turn and some people set things up and forget them.

....

I'm confused by this, unless I'm misunderstanding. Is there any way to automate anything in the game? I thought every single nitty-gritty bitty thing needed to be done by the player. Or do you mean something different when you say 'set things up'?

There are some convoys for supplies and resources that once they are set up, you can set to a "CS" convoy. The convoy will continue to operate hauling things back and forth. When you are looking at the convoy screen at the port where it starts, after you have set the destination, click on "Human control" go past "computer control" and you will get the "CS convoy" which is the one that you want You can set it up with a return cargo or not. Very useful for the Japanese between Fusan and Japan, as well as Hokkaido and Honshu, among other places.

Once you set up your Operational Training Units to further train your pilots, you don't need to check them every day. Once yous see how fast they train, you might only need to check them every month to either switch to a new skill or bring promote some to the Reserves while brining in new pilots.

[jmlima]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: jmlima

ORIGINAL: Mike McCreery

... Some need to check every unit every turn and some people set things up and forget them.

....

I'm confused by this, unless I'm misunderstanding. Is there any way to automate anything in the game? I thought every single nitty-gritty bitty thing needed to be done by the player. Or do you mean something different when you say 'set things up'?

There are some convoys for supplies and resources that once they are set up, you can set to a "CS" convoy. The convoy will continue to operate hauling things back and forth. When you are looking at the convoy screen at the port where it starts, after you have set the destination, click on "Human control" go past "computer control" and you will get the "CS convoy" which is the one that you want You can set it up with a return cargo or not. Very useful for the Japanese between Fusan and Japan, as well as Hokkaido and Honshu, among other places.

Once you set up your Operational Training Units to further train your pilots, you don't need to check them every day. Once yous see how fast they train, you might only need to check them every month to either switch to a new skill or bring promote some to the Reserves while brining in new pilots.

Ah, ok, that is more in line with I thought, which was that it's not like you can say to the engine, 'you fight the war in China, I'll focus on to Solomons campaign'.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: jmlima

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

ORIGINAL: jmlima




I'm confused by this, unless I'm misunderstanding. Is there any way to automate anything in the game? I thought every single nitty-gritty bitty thing needed to be done by the player. Or do you mean something different when you say 'set things up'?

There are some convoys for supplies and resources that once they are set up, you can set to a "CS" convoy. The convoy will continue to operate hauling things back and forth. When you are looking at the convoy screen at the port where it starts, after you have set the destination, click on "Human control" go past "computer control" and you will get the "CS convoy" which is the one that you want You can set it up with a return cargo or not. Very useful for the Japanese between Fusan and Japan, as well as Hokkaido and Honshu, among other places.

Once you set up your Operational Training Units to further train your pilots, you don't need to check them every day. Once yous see how fast they train, you might only need to check them every month to either switch to a new skill or bring promote some to the Reserves while brining in new pilots.

Ah, ok, that is more in line with I thought, which was that it's not like you can say to the engine, 'you fight the war in China, I'll focus on to Solomons campaign'.

As I understand it, the AI doesn't have a lot more ground to take in China (in the scripts written for it) so if the Chinese can break contact and put a vacant hex or two between them and the enemy, the AI tends not to pursue. At least that is the way it was many years ago when I did not want to play the war in China.

OTOH, you can't get a real flavour of the interconnected pieces of this puzzle of a game unless you work China as best you can. It wasn't a big part of the war for the Western Allies but it was for the Japanese and Chinese. You can learn a lot about the ground war game as you try and build defensive positions and get supply to troops in China. You need to make hard choices between building bases/forts and taking reinforcements or not. You need to decide if any of the Chinese units are worthy of the PP required to fix them up with a good leader (look at AV and experience levels). Most of things you learn from making these decisions can be used elsewhere in the game. And the consequences of making a mistake in China are usually less serious than making the same mistake in a critical battle.

[RangerJoe]

Best best way to reinforce the Chinese units is to get them supply and take support squads. Those two things will help get the disabled squads whole. Later is the time to take squad replacements, when there is enough supply. Or quit taking replacements in China while filling out any units in India where you might end up needing them and where there should be enough supply available.