Matrix Games Forums

Are there any short, limited scenarios with this game that would allow a new player to learn the play mechanics without being overwhelmed with 100's of units?

Try the Leningrad scenarion. There is also an excellent tutorial for it that you can find in the War Room. It explains what's going on a lot better than the in game tutorial

Yes. The smallest scenario is Minsk, only 3 turns and probably 50-70 units. It can probably be played in about two hours or so. You will get tired of it quickly, but it is a good way to practice and get to know the system.

After that, there are the "Road to X" scenarios, which are typically around 10 turns and less than 100 units. They probably take about 10 hours to play, and I certainly don't play very quickly.

If you are wondering whether to buy but are intimidated by the massive campaign, I would say take the plunge. First, the system is complex but you can learn the sub-systems (air units, supply, leadership, etc) little by little as you play. The night I downloaded WITE, without reading the manual, I dove into the Minsk scenario and managed a Minor Defeat on the German side. Not amazing, but it shows that you can pick up the game and not totally embarass yourself. It is surprisingly accessible that way. Second, even if you never play the full campaign, there is enough entertainment in the smaller scenarios to be worth the money. I am not a hard-core wargamer (only played maybe 3 titles before this) and initially thought, "this is only for the truly dedicated." I may never play the full campaign, but I've played Minsk twice, Smolensk once and Kiev once. I'm now in the middle of the Road to Moscow scenario. I've gotten 30-40 good hours of entertainment out of these. They are tense and challenging. And, I still have the Leningrad and Typhoon scenarios that are not too big.

Thanks!!!

I haven't played the Leningrad scenario, so that might be a good one. But I thought Kiev was a good starter scenario (well, after Minsk). The only bad thing is that you have a multinational force with Romanians, Hungarians, Slovaks, etc. It sort of clutters the order of battle, and the non-German units are either weak or frozen in place anyway. Still, I found it easier to capture Kiev than Smolensk, so I would go there after Minsk.

The tutorial in the War Room is certainly detailed, but I found it slow. It steps you through everything very clearly, but there are lots of steps before you actually get to do much. I preferred the "learn as you go" strategy. Whenever I sat down to play a game, I would flip open the manual to a random section and skim it if it looked interesting, avoiding stuff that was over my head. That way, I didn't feel like I had to plow through pages of tutorial before having any fun. Like I said, you can pick up the game without any instruction and do ok.

The first tips to learn are:

1) Supply and support: keep fighting units within 5 hexes of their next higher up HQ for max effectiveness
2) Look up the rules for HQ buildup - it's a useful trick to pull now and then
3) Learn that some air missions must be done at the start of each turn (dropping air supplies, bombing most stuff)
4) Learn how to air drop supplies and fuel to lead panzer units
5) Be sure to bomb Russian air bases at the very start of turn 1. You will be glad you did.

FYI, I did none of those things in my first game when I got the minor defeat. But I would say these are the 5 simple things that get you from beginner to competent player. If you learn one of these at the start of each gaming session, you will be having a blast in no time.