New player saying hello and looking for some advice at the same time.

[Yskonyn]

Hello everyone! [:)]

I've had WitP:AE for some time now (got it when the Matrix sale was going on), but it was always left on the 'I still need to sit down properly and take a good look at it'-pile. That has resulted in not touching it after a brief look right after I downloaded it.
However, I am now keen on taking some serious effort to try to get to terms with playing this beast.
I am no wargame expert by any means. I have no military experience whatsoever. I just enjoy wargames; have been playing them since high school and the WW2 era takes a special interest for me.

Armed with 'The World War 2 Desk Reference', some encyclopedias on aircraft, ships and weapons, the WitP:AE manual and these boards I should be set to start, should I not?

Here comes the first problem; The manual is an extensive listing of what each and every screen and button does, which makes it rather tough to get through trying to read it from cover to cover, not to mention in bed after a day's work!

From what I gather from these boards the mentioned tutorial in the manual was never finished and people generally suggest to read through some AAR's to get up to speed.
All fine and well, but even Sardaukar's Newbie tutorial expects you to know how to navigate around the game's many menu's already in advance.

Which chapters of the manual would you think would be 'need to know' (keep a starting player in mind) and which chapters would you label 'nice to know'?
The goal is to get me engaged in the game as quickly as possible, obviously.

[n01487477]

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn

Hello everyone! [:)]

I've had WitP:AE for some time now (got it when the Matrix sale was going on), but it was always left on the 'I still need to sit down properly and take a good look at it'-pile. That has resulted in not touching it after a brief look right after I downloaded it.
However, I am now keen on taking some serious effort to try to get to terms with playing this beast.
I am no wargame expert by any means. I have no military experience whatsoever. I just enjoy wargames; have been playing them since high school and the WW2 era takes a special interest for me.

Armed with 'The World War 2 Desk Reference', some encyclopedias on aircraft, ships and weapons, the WitP:AE manual and these boards I should be set to start, should I not?

Here comes the first problem; The manual is an extensive listing of what each and every screen and button does, which makes it rather tough to get through trying to read it from cover to cover, not to mention in bed after a day's work!

From what I gather from these boards the mentioned tutorial in the manual was never finished and people generally suggest to read through some AAR's to get up to speed.
All fine and well, but even Sardaukar's Newbie tutorial expects you to know how to navigate around the game's many menu's already in advance.

Which chapters of the manual would you think would be 'need to know' (keep a starting player in mind) and which chapters would you label 'nice to know'?
The goal is to get me engaged in the game as quickly as possible, obviously.

Welcome and you can try my rather hasty and fuzzy video tutorials
http://sites.google.com/site/n01487477/Home?pli=1

Cheers

[Yskonyn]

Hi Damian, thank you very much for the link and the effort you have put into making them!
Are they meant to be watched in order from top to bottom?

[GreyJoy]

Welcome!
I started couple of weeks ago, so i'm a noob too![:D]
I'd suggest you to read everything you can here of these boards and then simply start playing the guadacanal scenario vs Jap AI. this should help you to understand the basic mechanism of the game.
Then, playing, you should have the manual with you...try to move the Task forces already present around, set some air missions and see how it goes...

[jeffk3510]

Yskonyn - glad to have you aboard. Reading AARs and asking a lot of questions on the forums are a few of the ways I started. I read a lot of the AARs, which has helped me more than anything I would say. Don't be afraid to play the small scenarios as well. Ask and read away!

I didn't really read the manual front to back....I go to it when I am stuck on something during the game......

[anarchyintheuk]

Welcome aboard. I played through 1000 Mile War and Guadacanal. By the time I finished them I felt I had the ability to do everything that was needed to play, except Japanese production (which is kind of a science by itself).

As stated above, don't be afraid to ask questions.

[Rob Brennan UK]

which is kind of a science by itself

More like witchcraft imo. [;)]

[AW1Steve]

It's not so much that the manual was never finished, but that Matrix is constantly improving the game. I'd vastly prefer to have them continue their good work, then stop so they can keep the manual up to date. Think of the forum as an "Electronic interpersonal manual with a personality". [:D]

Welcome aboard, and keep coming back! [:)]

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for the welcome, guys.
I will start with Guadalcanal and go from there. Questions will certainly pop up as I go.

[sdhundt]

Welcome, but in this forum you better keep an eye on your SIX-O'CLOCK. I'll play any new player at least once, someone has to give new players a chance to get experience. So when you are ready for a pbem game PM me and we can play Coral Sea, it's only a few turns and it gets your feet very bloody very quickly.

[sdhundt]

And just a few early tips. the game is GREAT but the manual can be very vague on some important aspects of the game. When and if you don't understand something just ask in here and most veteran players will gladly help. But there a few so called Matrix Veterans who would rather attack you instead of answering a question. They think they own this forum. You will be able to figure out who the jerks are very quickly. Also the search for the forum is awful. You can try searching by using the yahoo searcher but instead just ask myself or another player who won't give you shit. Most important is have fun with it and I'll answer any question you have no matter how "newbie" it might be, BANZAI !

[Yskonyn]

Thanks, that's reassuring. Most forum search functions are crap.

On thing question right away:
Is it normal that you sometimes have almost no orders to give units after one turn cycle (Turn Cycle set to 1 day)? Or are there always things you need to check up on every day? For example in the Guadalcanal scenario it'll take my TF from the East a few days to get into position with not much left to do in the mean time other than setup air patrols. But it gives me the feeling I should have taken advantage of my Orders phase better when I cant find any orders to give. I must have missed something, I think then.

[sdhundt]

Yes, after you give orders to every unit that needs orders then it might be several turns before you need to do anything of great substance.  Having said that "I" always go back over most units every turn to make sure I didn't miss anything.  This is easy to do in a short game but in a GC I just usually make sure my TF's are still headed to the correct locations and to make sure they aren't headed into dangerous waters that might not have been dangerous the last turn.

[ny59giants]

Waypoints are your friend. Against the AI, you will get away with not setting them. In a PBEM game, you will learn a hard lesson. [:-]

CV TF get checked every day. They are way to valuable to ignore and you can have months of prep go down the drain if they get caught by surprise.

Once you get comfortable with the game system, you can check on your pilot training once or twice per month to harvest pilots. Some players hate this micro-management, but if you don't do it, then you will have trouble in the air war.

[jeffk3510]

Yskonyn - I don't know what sdhunts problem is but:

1. You won't be attacked by forum members for simply asking for help or anything else. Veteran or not
2. The search function DOES actually work

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

Yskonyn - I don't know what sdhunts problem is but:

1. You won't be attacked by forum members for simply asking for help or anything else. Veteran or not
2. The search function DOES actually work

Were all just a big group of war gamers trying to fully understand this game, as for every group
there always is one person like sdhunt that's a nuisance. They do have a little green circle next to "buddy" thats used to ignore someone, sadly I have actually had to use it on this board for the first time.

[sdhundt]

Yskonyn, here is a perfect example of forum members making attacks.  You will have to decide for yourself on what advice to take from some members.
 

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: Yskonyn

Thanks, that's reassuring. Most forum search functions are crap.

On thing question right away:
Is it normal that you sometimes have almost no orders to give units after one turn cycle (Turn Cycle set to 1 day)? Or are there always things you need to check up on every day? For example in the Guadalcanal scenario it'll take my TF from the East a few days to get into position with not much left to do in the mean time other than setup air patrols. But it gives me the feeling I should have taken advantage of my Orders phase better when I cant find any orders to give. I must have missed something, I think then.

Its possible and it does happen to have no orders in a small scenario and even in some large scenarios. There are times when I have no orders to give for an entire week (6-7 turns), you simply have to check the map and make sure everybody is where they should be going, for example your most important thing to watch is carriers and intel, last thing you want is to be moving units around (Ships, planes) and have the KB show up unexpectedly while you believe they are elsewhere.

A quick review like checking to see if your carriers are going where they are suppose to go, submarines and other units I tend to not watch over so much as we already have enough to watch over in this game (submarines are simple in a sense you tell them to patrol for X amount of days then they return home) or I don't even use patrols because they tend to come back with a full load of torpedoes, so you basically send them to a hex where the supply lanes are and when they use up their torpedoes they come home on their own.

[Yskonyn]

Thanks for the input everyone!
I would appreciate that everyone keeps personal attacks out of this thread, please and keep things on topic. It prevents nastyness which seems to have begun rearing its head here right now. Please digress.

I think part of the 'problem' with my so-called 'uneasyness', if you will, in playing this game is all the expectations you have from it. It has a tendency to trigger some paranoid feelings in my head, making sure I did check up on everything I know for now given a certain turn.
Its reassuring to know that I can give it some more room though.

More questions will no doubt follow.

[jeffk3510]

You will eventually have a mental checklist that you will go through and it will all workout...mine is mental/paper