Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Two more pages - less controversial I hope.

Clearly there is more to say, but all I am trying to do here is give the players a sense of what the icons mean and a taste of their role during game play.

Hope is always good [:D].

Nit picking : Shouldn't "Iced in" be written "Iced-in" ?

Spelling : End of second Paragraph : "When a major port is damged (...)"

Rules :
- Iced-in also prevent supplying and resource transporting.
- Stacking : Minor ports can have 2 Planes, Major ports can have 3 Planes (not 2).

WiFZen that may be sympathic to explain :
Red Factories represent the global production capacity of a whole Country / Region / Area, not of the single city in which they are represented. That's why they are treated differently in the regards of destruction and usability.

You could also mention here that each functionning factory Produces 1 Production Point (abbreviated PP), and that each Major Power has a production multiple (PM) that simulate the country economy's war involvement, and that the PM is multiplied with the PP to obtain the Built Points (BP) available. And finally that all units to be built have a BP cost to be paid when they are built, in the Production Phase.

I prefer the black shadow for the major power names. It has more gravitas. The new border colour probably makes sense and looks pretty good.

Cheers, Neilster

ORIGINAL: Froonp

About the Zuider Zee.
- Rob need to redraw it as a Lake.
- I need to code this area as a Lake too in the CSV files, this is easy to change.
- I also need to code the "crossing" (the Dam (Afsluitdijk as it seems to be called)) as a canal in the CSV files too, as it is not done.

Yes. But that task for Rob is way down my priority list for him.

Please add the name "Afsluitdijk" to the canal. I assume that "dijk" means dike, so neither the word canal nor dam should be added. I'll discuss it by name in the tutorial page about canals.

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Two more pages - less controversial I hope.

Clearly there is more to say, but all I am trying to do here is give the players a sense of what the icons mean and a taste of their role during game play.

Hope is always good [:D].

Nit picking : Shouldn't "Iced in" be written "Iced-in" ?

Spelling : End of second Paragraph : "When a major port is damged (...)"

Rules :
- Iced-in also prevent supplying and resource transporting.
- Stacking : Minor ports can have 2 Planes, Major ports can have 3 Planes (not 2).

WiFZen that may be sympathic to explain :
Red Factories represent the global production capacity of a whole Country / Region / Area, not of the single city in which they are represented. That's why they are treated differently in the regards of destruction and usability.

You could also mention here that each functionning factory Produces 1 Production Point (abbreviated PP), and that each Major Power has a production multiple (PM) that simulate the country economy's war involvement, and that the PM is multiplied with the PP to obtain the Built Points (BP) available. And finally that all units to be built have a BP cost to be paid when they are built, in the Production Phase.

So the word damage was damaged?

I'll fix the stacking information.

Room for text is a major constraint.

I am intentionally only providing partial information on some complex topics. Each of them will be discussed in more detail later (160 more pages remain in the tutorials!). Part of a good teaching style is to give the student some information on a topic without trying to shove every fact into his head all at once. I am trying to establish some important facts, hopefully related to a picture and build on them later.

In the process I will purposefully repeat information, such as I have already done with the types of cities and the definition of an all sea hexside. This is not inefficient, but rather a strategic plan to provide the reader with pieces of information that he can assimilate into preexisting knowledge. I then reinforce that knowledge and provide more detail that he can attach to earlier information/knowledge presented previously.

The WIF FE rule book has a totally different design, intended to present information only once and minimze any necessary repetition.

Well, this thread hasn't seen the light of day recently. I am using it for showing the next page of the first tutorial. Only one more page remains for this tutorial.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I don't see an example of a port with a diagonal line through it to indicate damaged...

word 'dmaged' for 'damaged', second paragraph.

ORIGINAL: Zorachus99

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I don't see an example of a port with a diagonal line through it to indicate damaged...

word 'dmaged' for 'damaged', second paragraph.

Check the date on that post (Oct. 2006).

I have since moved the 3rd tutorial to its own thread. They now all have their own threads except for the first - which is why I ressurected this one.

My current count on the Introductory Tutorial pages is 111, with 82 done and 29 remaining to be completed.

I am a complete noob and recent convert to the WIF series of games and I have found reading these tutorials EXTREMELY helpful. They have cleared up tons of questions and misunderstandings about the game mechanics for me. They've made the game much more approachable.

Keep up the excellent work!

ORIGINAL: GordianKnot

I am a complete noob and recent convert to the WIF series of games and I have found reading these tutorials EXTREMELY helpful. They have cleared up tons of questions and misunderstandings about the game mechanics for me. They've made the game much more approachable.

Keep up the excellent work!

Thanks.[:)] We'll certainly try. And critical reviews help to keep the quality of the work high.

Even veterans can benefit from concise summaries of the rules. In our game, I know of something that we've been doing wrong for ages until now and something we're still doing wrong that isn't important enough to correct this game. There have been a couple of posts elsewhere where other people who have played for many years have admitted to running into similar sorts of problems.

I'm thinking of churning out a set of "quick reference cards" that allow for rapid answering of simple rules questions without flipping through pages of rulebook.

Hi Steve,
only a little misspelling in your tutorial 3 page 7: the right spelling for the "Leghorn" italian port is Livorno.

ORIGINAL: kram

Hi Steve,
only a little misspelling in your tutorial 3 page 7: the right spelling for the "Leghorn" italian port is Livorno.

Thanks, but we are using the names that appear on the WIF FE paper version of the game - plus our own (mostly Patrice's) additions.

Leghorn is what WIF FE uses for the port.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: kram

Hi Steve,
only a little misspelling in your tutorial 3 page 7: the right spelling for the "Leghorn" italian port is Livorno.

Thanks, but we are using the names that appear on the WIF FE paper version of the game - plus our own (mostly Patrice's) additions.

Leghorn is what WIF FE uses for the port.

Apparently, when it was very misty and all the ships were sounding their hooters to let the others know where they were, it was known as "Foghorn Leghorn" [:'(] A little cartoon joke there...

Cheers, Neilster

ORIGINAL: Neilster

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: kram

Hi Steve,
only a little misspelling in your tutorial 3 page 7: the right spelling for the "Leghorn" italian port is Livorno.

Thanks, but we are using the names that appear on the WIF FE paper version of the game - plus our own (mostly Patrice's) additions.

Leghorn is what WIF FE uses for the port.

Apparently, when it was very misty and all the ships were sounding their hooters to let the others know where they were, it was known as "Foghorn Leghorn" [:'(] A little cartoon joke there...

Cheers, Neilster

"I keep all my feathers numbered for just such emergencies."

Footnote: The inland sea was called Zuiderzee before the afsluitdijk was completed, after that the name was changed to IJsselmeer.

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
Is there a name for the Zuider Zee canal? Amsterdam canal? I would like to clearly label it as a canal rather than depend on the visual image (or someone having read Harry's adjudication).

I don't know if there is a name, and I don't know if it is really a "canal" in reality.
Reality, is that the Zuider Zee is a lake closed from the Sea by a Dam. The Dam was built in 1927-1932.
I'm not even sure that there are locks to allow shipping inside. But, even if there are, invasions and other war-things are impossible.
There is a road on the dam, allowing crossing, a-la river crossing, thus the "Canal" hexside. Representing the "crossing" as a river would not feel right neither, as real geography is not like a river here, so I guess that a canal is the best finally.

It is called the Afsluitdijk (Closure-dike).
See here for details, and a picture : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afsluitdijk
Also, there was a battle fought for it in 1940, mentionned in the article, without details.
Also, it mentions a system of locks for the ships to enter it. So making the hexes of Zuider Zee available for debarking units (not invading) and providing supply from the North Sea for the troops who control the Afsluitdijk seems to have a sense, but I do not believe that WiF would have the game mechanic to support this antagonism (not invadable, not bombarbadle, but debarkable and suppliable from the sea).

Patrice has been working on some summary pages for the what all the numbers mean on the units. Here are 4 of the 5 pages - I need to make some corrections to the code (dirty corners) before the naval page will be presentable in public.

These will go into the players manual and I am going to add them as summary pages at the end of their respective tutorials (i.e., air, land, and naval unit tutorials).

Yes, there are that many different land unit types. And typically special code for each one of them for movement and combat.

4th and last in the series. When we have the naval one polished, I'll post that too.