Matrix Games Forums

So I slogged through the manual and the tutorials. Any recommendation for a first-time player? And should I start on easy or normal?

I take you haven't previously played WAW, if you have played it, it's a lot easier to understand this game.

The first time I played WAW, the predecessor, to try to figure out how it worked I played with all powers at the same time, there was no need for fow, I had advanvce supply on, and autosupply as well. Once you learn how it works I recomend turning autosupply off, and also fow must be on.

I did not finished the whole game once I grabed more or less how it worked, and started playing as the Axis. i think playing the Germans is the easiest way to learn, if you want, leave Japan to the AI since it is a bit harder to deal with the fleets and how they are supplied, it took me a while to understand it.

Even though I'm refering to WAW, I think you can fully applied what I've said to AWD, also you will probably have to reread the manual several times, I must do that myself too.

Hope it has helped

Forgot to tell: I would start at Normal and you will probably beat the AI[:)], change to challenging and you will have a far more interesting game[;)], in a Hard level you will probably meet your match [:(]and on Impossible, well...[:@]

Hope you enjoy the game as much as I do. [8D]

I might suggest playing Russia for your first game letting the AI play everything else.
 
Settings: Normal difficulty, Fog of War off (you want to see whats going on), advanced supply off (you can worry about that later)
 
The advantages are:
- No need to worry about naval combat / units / invasions
- No need to worry about the entire world. Basically you worry about Russia and Eastern Europe
- No major strategic decisions as you dont have to decide who or where to attack
- No need to worry about advanced supply
The disadvantage is
- You do not have much to do in the early stages (but atleast those are quickly over when playing the AI).
 
My suggestion would also be to
- Ignore Spies/SigInt (sure, they might be interesting - but for now you want to learn the basics)
- Ignore the WarReadiness rules (you cannot do all that much anyway as Russia - so just go with the flow for the first couple of games)
- Tech up and build Inf, Armor, Art and FTR mostly. Maybe add in a few AA and bombers.
This should keep things even simpler without losing out of too much.
 
Enjoy.  
 

I agree with Jan. My first game of vanilla WAW was as Russia in the '41 scenario. That way you don't have to wait to get going. You might try a later scenario here as well. Or you could do the total war campaign and learn while watching the other AI's play until Germany declares war on you.....