Very Basic Questions

[Phanatikk]

Just downloaded AE last Saturday. Woweee. I never played WitP so my learning curve looks like the reverse of the Marianas Trench.
1. How do you attack something with land troops? I'm in combat mode. Do I just set the destination hex as the enemy's hex? The manual seems to leave out that little detail.
2. Can you attack Hong Kong from the coast? Or is it an amphib job?
3. Why after the 7th does the computer keep wanting to redirect the KB back to port automatically, even if it's under Human control? I want to launch more strikes and go where I want w/o having to worry about cancelling it's orders. It does it for subs as well.
4. How many ground troops can you rob from the Homeland before the game freaks? Can you even do it? I'm not concerned about invasion in '41, after all.

Some wants:
1. I want a drag and drop editor for adjusting the scenarios. Now it looks like hexadecimal. No thanks.
2. I want a button that brings up where all of my aircraft/engines are being built, instead of using an out-of-game program and manually searching.
3. I want hex-based weather, not one size fits all. If it's overcast over Pearl, it's overcast everywhere!

[rockmedic109]

1.  You have to be in combat mode and issue combat orders {Deliberate attack, etc}
2.  Yes you can.  You are better off not having an amphib attack on HK.
3.  Because that is the orders that it has.  Look at the "remain on station/return to base" button.  If set to return to base and the task force reaches or is already at the destination hex, it will return to base.
4.  I don't know, I've never played Japan.  You might not have the PP to pull much in 41.
 
Wants
1.  Out of my experience.
2.  Out of my experience.
3.  Weather is not map-wide and it is hex based to a point.  As I understand it, the map is divided up into regions and the weather in that region sets the percentages for the weather in a hex. 

[Terminus]

There's 9 weather regions.

[Terminus]

BTW, don't dismiss the AE editor. It's one of the finest editors I've ever seen and used.

Oh, and drag-and-drop editors just put a fancy user interface over the same functionality.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: Phanatik

Just downloaded AE last Saturday. Woweee. I never played WitP so my learning curve looks like the reverse of the Marianas Trench.
1. How do you attack something with land troops? I'm in combat mode. Do I just set the destination hex as the enemy's hex? The manual seems to leave out that little detail.

The two units have to be in the same hex. When enemy units are in a hex, the combat orders selections will become active.

2. Can you attack Hong Kong from the coast? Or is it an amphib job?
3. Why after the 7th does the computer keep wanting to redirect the KB back to port automatically, even if it's under Human control? I want to launch more strikes and go where I want w/o having to worry about cancelling it's orders. It does it for subs as well.
4. How many ground troops can you rob from the Homeland before the game freaks? Can you even do it? I'm not concerned about invasion in '41, after all.
Some wants:
1. I want a drag and drop editor for adjusting the scenarios. Now it looks like hexadecimal. No thanks.

The editor uses no hexadecimal numbers. In a game like this, there is a tremendous amount of data. Considering how much data needs to be tracked in the editor, and drag and drop functionality would likely break more things than it helps.

2. I want a button that brings up where all of my aircraft/engines are being built, instead of using an out-of-game program and manually searching.

I'm currently working on something for patch 2 that will make this easier to deal with.

3. I want hex-based weather, not one size fits all. If it's overcast over Pearl, it's overcast everywhere!

Actually it isn't. There are something like 9 different types of weather, but only 4 cloud icon types (I think it's 4, I'd need to look it up to be sure). Clear weather is not all that common except in desert areas. The tropics have all that lush foliage because of the almost daily rain storms. Frequent clouds of various densities are very common in most areas of the game map in the real world.

There have been some weaknesses in the weather model (for example there was no yearly monsoon season) which are being addressed for patch 2. Nobody on the development team loves the current weather model, but what we have in AE now is pretty similar to what we had in the original game.

Bill

[rockmedic109]

Working on Monsoon  for Patch II?  I think I made the right decision in putting off my campaign till it's release. 

[ADB123]

ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

Working on Monsoon  for Patch II?  I think I made the right decision in putting off my campaign till it's release. 

Monsoon season???????????????????????????????

As if there isn't already enough rain and bad weather across all nine regions of the map?

Please, please, please - don't make a bad thing even worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: Phanatik
4. How many ground troops can you rob from the Homeland before the game freaks? Can you even do it? I'm not concerned about invasion in '41, after all.

Hi Phanatik,

You can take any units you like from the home islands of Japan if they are unrestricted HQ. The most common moveable HQ is "Southern Army". The HQ tag on the unit is marked with (R) for those restricted HQ. You can always pay political points to reassign the unit to another unrestricted HQ too. Paying PP for moving base forces (BF) is useful to get these units elsewhere for comparatively limited cost. Same for redistributing your AF away from the home islands.

The game won't 'freak' if you do these things, no matter how many units you move out.

Just a word of warning about realism. I recall a Chinese WiTP player that used Chinese units, transported on US ships in order to attack mainland Japan in 1942. In his AAR, he posted several pictures of Honshu replete with hundreds of Chinese infantry units. This outcome (stripping Chinese defense lines in order to risk an invasion of Japan so early in the war) is nuts, but CAN be accomplished against the AI.

You can do all sorts of things to 'break' the WiTP and AE AI, which will just degrade your play experience. So before you move all your infantry out of the home islands, I'd recommend asking yourself why the real life Japanese didn't do that and maybe sticking with more realism.

[Phanatikk]

Thanks for the replies!

By "freaking out the game" I meant I've noticed a highlighted number, 8000 I believe, which I suppose is some kind of limit. I've yet to have a unit move out of the theatre so I don't know how much unit withdrawals will drop this number. What happens if you go too far? Do hordes of Mongol armored divisions led by G. Khan LXVIII descend from the mountains?

As far as realism, I know that the Japanese had the wrong doctrine for the wrong war. (A quick victory and then hunker down until the peace talks worked a la The Russians in 1905) But that won't work against Americans, especially after a sneak attack. I could just follow history and go down to eventual defeat, which might be interesting once or twice while learning the game, but instinctually, and the ultimate purpose in playing, is to do a better job then the Japanese did with what they had. Does anyone wait until early June '42 to attack Midway for realism's sake? How many people go for the P.I. attack instead of Pearl, which seems a much better trade of material, but which is unrealistic?

I think adding "un-realism" to the game would be to hack the game to give yourself F-14s and Sidewinder missiles, for example. Or put 30mm cannons on Zeros (which would be great!). (Hm, would a Wildcat have enough of a heat signature for a sidewinder to lock on? I'll switch to guns...)

Thanks again, for the discussion.

- Jeff

[anarchyintheuk]

If you go under 8k, the Soviet Union has a chance to declare war.

[KenchiSulla]

ORIGINAL: Phanatik

As far as realism, I know that the Japanese had the wrong doctrine for the wrong war. (A quick victory and then hunker down until the peace talks worked a la The Russians in 1905) But that won't work against Americans, especially after a sneak attack. I could just follow history and go down to eventual defeat, which might be interesting once or twice while learning the game, but instinctually, and the ultimate purpose in playing, is to do a better job then the Japanese did with what they had. Does anyone wait until early June '42 to attack Midway for realism's sake? How many people go for the P.I. attack instead of Pearl, which seems a much better trade of material, but which is unrealistic?

I don't play the japanese but... here is my 2 cents. Basicly you can do what you want. Capturing midway wont win you the war though. After about 6 months ingame, japan will start to get weaker and the allies will get stronger. This is something you can not deny. Your best bet is to expand as far as possible, find a shovel and dig in to repulse the allied counter offensive.

[n01487477]

2. I want a button that brings up where all of my aircraft/engines are being built, instead of using an out-of-game program and manually searching.

Well you are missing out on some other good info these utils provide[;)] But each to his own.

[Flying Tiger]

Well you are missing out on some other good info these utils provide But each to his own.

Not biased are you Damian??

Dont worry mate - we all think you're a legend, and when Phanatik has got his head around the basics he too will be clamouring for tracker. You're not out of business just yet!

[Phanatikk]

Never fear, I'm a Tracker-er! I'd just like a 1-click screen in-game as well.