Matrix Games Forums

Would it be possible to show the Surprise Points one would get when choosing which boxes to involve in a Naval Combat?

It shows them once a Box (or more) have been selected - but not beforehand. Would save some time to do some math each Naval Combat with a choice.

This is a "quality of life" suggestion, which I do not think it would be too hard to implement since it's pratically present already when the boxes are selected. It would just do good to know how many surprise points one would have, before you engage something and you miscalculated your Surprise, and you end up with 3 points instead than the required 4 to select how to fight... (Yes it happened a few times to me and my pal already).

The other suggestion is a bit on the long term - more likely an Optional Rule not listed.
It is still about the Naval Combat / Port Attack - the "Random Target Selection" belonging to a class (CV, SCS, Transport, Convoy pratically) which is there for the tabletop game (Probably added in an Annual though).

To put it in simple terms, whoever can choose what to lose - will always pick the very worst (or the very best in case of the attacker selecting with planes) target of the class they want to hit. On the long run it looks a bit silly in any major clash between BBs, only the worst of the CLs are hit (until they eventually finish!)!

The first one is a good suggestion. Never thought about it.

The second one I think is really a good addition, as an optional rule. But it isn't part of Steve's workload, since it is an optional rule which was introduced after Steve started working in MWIF...

Technically the second is "manually" implementable if a random number generator is inserted in the game. The players though would have to count the ships (like 12 SCS - the players can opt to pick a random number /roll a D12, or a DiceX if X are the SCS) and then select the specific ship (Without recurring to an external program to roll dices for).

The players could have an Hotkey for that - specify the tally of the number generator and get their number. It is some more workload but for the best I dare say.

You could do this now using Random.org

https://www.random.org/sequences/

Or if you need verification directed to the participants, there are any number of online PBEM die rollers. Here's a summary:

https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/5304 ... ce-servers

Sounds gamey to me, I like to play with my gut and depend on strategy. I don't want to know all the odds infinitum, In other words I can usually tell if its a bad or good move with broad based game mechanics, but that's me.

I certainly see the value in all the odds calculations that some people dive into prior to each move but I seem to spend my time (lots of time) looking at least once impulse ahead to make sure I don't leave holes that can be exploited instead of looking at single attack odds, to a degree of course.

As you keep playing the game you just get very used to Surprise Point calculations:

Your Surprise Points = (Your best box + Their search roll) - Their Surprise Points

Their Surprise Points = (Your search roll + Their best box) - Your Surprise Points

after a while it gets quite simple to pick which box to fight



Randomised Naval Combat Losses is a much better way to play World in Flames. It makes you really focus on which missions you use your Battleships for. The idea of doing it has made it as far as being an Optional Rule published in the last Annual. But it doesn't look like it will be included in the game permanently, due to lack of player interest. The majority of players are most interested in the ARMor units and the ships are just there to figure out where the tanks can be deployed. Not all players, but a majority, and thus giving up a little more time to increase naval realism is rejected as the game already takes a long time to play.

These same players are also more interested in the pretty plane counters and the results of dogfighting one model of plane vs another is still more interesting than naval combat, so the very time-consuming Bounce Combat optional rule is accepted by a majority of players too.

Admittely I quite like the Bounce Fight optional, albeit I've read a better rule in my eyes on a webpage of some WiF Fan. Alas that is truly a House Rule though. (Pratically there is always a queue for Bombers, but fighters are paired first 1:1 and then any leftover queues behind the various fights).

And ships play their role as well - no less than planes and armour. I just find silly that in each naval combat the very best or very worst naval units are the ones going kaboom.

Actually there is an even easier way to figure out surprise points:

Your Surprise Points = (Difference in Box #s) + (Difference in Search Dice) -- with positives or negatives applied as needed

so the dreaded 1/10 split with you rolling a 1 from the 4 box and the other guy rolling a 10 from the 0 box = (10-1) + (4-0) = 13 surprise points for your lucky Task Force

All true, however for new players, things are not so clear at that time. So the suggestion is a good one. It only remains if it will (or can) be coded.