Starting my first game - how do I not ruin it for myself?

[moose1999]

I'm starting my first game game this week.
I've played lots of WitP:AE so I'm no stranger to big and complicated wargames, but its my first attempt at WitE.
I'm playing against the AI.

I was thinking about starting right out with a full campaign as the Russians.
I love jumping into the deep end!
I really don't have any patience for smaller scenarios and my thought was, that my inexperience with the game would mimic the russian helpnesness in the first year of the war quite nicely.
Right?

But I'd really like some advice on how to set up a great game.
I don't want to play untill 1943 just to find out that I set the difficulty too low to make it fun when the russians start moving or that I missed some other thing that will completely ruin the game for me half way through.

I don't mind having a hard time and having to learn from my mistakes (I love it, actually), but if I could be spared a restart after 6 months of real playing time by a few pieces of good advice from more experienced players - I would be very happy...

[Joel Billings]

Here's an important thing to know about WitE. When playing against the AI, you can always change the play levels during the game. So if you find the game is too hard or too easy after you get going, you can always adjust the settings. My suggestion is to play a smaller scenario at Normal (something that lasts 10-20 turns, a Road to ... scenario is a good choice). If you win, try another one at Challenging level (or 110 settings for the AI, 100 for you if full Challenging sounds like too big of a jump). If that feels good, then go with that in the full campaign. Of course, if you want to jump into the campaign without playing anything else first, you can always start at Normal and after a few turns crank up the AI help level a bit once you feel like you have some idea of what's going. This is all assuming that you have a decent amount of experience with hex based IGOUGO wargames (which you probably do if you've played WitP AE).

[Klydon]

Sounds like you want to play the Russians, so I think it is much easier to set up a good game as them. I also think the game is more forgiving of Russian mistakes.

Playing the Germans without experience is difficult, especially in the campaign in 1941. Mistakes there will absolutely have longer term effects.

I do agree with Joel in that the "Road" scenarios are a good place to learn about the mechanics of the game as far as learning the interface, etc.

[parusski]

Starting my first game - how do I not ruin it for myself?

Stop playing now. [:D][:D][:D]

[buchand]

Always use as close to normal as possible. It seems a shame to modify levels after the countless hours they spent gettign supply/TOE etc correct.
On both sides it will seem 'easy' at some points and horrendous at others e.g. an easy Axis 41 will become a fading memory by 43 unless you totally decimate Soviet manpower and armament.
WITE is much more a simulation than a 'game' - buy TOF for the latter it lets your brain cool down a bit after too much WITE [;)]

[gradenko2k]

I would say just start a game on Normal and go from there - the Soviets are very resilient to mistakes.

[janh]

ORIGINAL: briny_norman
I'm starting my first game game this week.

Soviet side is certainly more forgiving in the long run, but you can suffer also badly from errors made in the early game (<42) all the way to the end, just like Axis does.

I would recommend playing Axis 41 scenarios or the first 8-10 turns of the Axis GC as intro, or playing a later war Russian scenario. Playing Axis 1941 is not as frustrating, and as a Soviet player you will not learn that much in the first couple of turns except to be overrrun. It requires much skill to get something out of the 41 Red Army. Within the 8-10 turns of the GC you will probably have met every important rule and feature and stepped in most of the bad traps (like gettting your Panzer Div.s cut off or outrunning supply at the wrong moments). You can also compare nicely to the progress in many of the recent AARs to see how you are doing.

[moose1999]

Great advice everybody - thanks for chiming in!
Okay, I will consider trying out a smaller scenario first, then - although a big part of me really wants to experience the shock of it all by taking the German assault head-on as a complete rookie.
Really good to hear about the dynamic difficulty levels - that's very single-player friendly, I like that.
Good idea also, to take a handful of turns as the Germans as a learning exprience.
I probably don't have the patience for it though

Well, think I will take a (brief) look at a smaller scenario and then start a Russian GC on normal and then just see where that takes me.
No matter what, I'm sure its gonna be a great ride!

[jimh009]

As a big WiTP: AE player myself - and one who normally avoids "short scenarios" - I'd encourage you to start out with one of the "Road To..." scenarios. This game is way different than AE. Plus, these shorter scenarios are rather fun - I'm glad I played them. Absolutely turn up the AI level, though. The difference between when the AI is "100" and "110" is absolutely huge. At "100", the AI is very conservative and easily stymied by a wall of weak defenders. At "110", the AI gets much more aggressive without doing any major stupid things.

The Soviets are definitely the side to start learning with, in my opinion. If you don't do the first two turns of the Germans correctly, you really can set yourself up for problems way later down the line. The Soviets are a much more forgiving side to play - at least at the beginning of the war or any of the shorter scenarios.

[Farfarer61]

Once you get the mechanics, particularly command and control and how SU's work, go with you at 100, and the AI at 119. Closest I've found to avoiding magical AI abilities, but emulating a human opponent to a small degree. It keeps you honest in your attacks for example.

As for ruining it, if you hear "I lit the candles dear", don't reply with " I'm just about to take Leningrad."

[jomni]

Soviet at Normal is a good learning step.&nbsp; But it&nbsp;becomes a one-sided steamroller&nbsp;after the first winter if you have preserved your forces nicely.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[Fänrik Stål]

I'd actually suggest upping the difficulty for your first Soviet GC. It will give you a better chance to experience some of the disasters they had to deal with IRL.