Matrix Games Forums

Hello, I play mostly Heart of Iron 4, Europa Universals 4, Crusader King 2 and most recently Operation Art of War 4. I heard this game can be brutal difficult. I am no chess grandmaster, if it is that hard I am too scared to get it!

The learning curve is not more difficult than the EU 3 one, to give you an example. A whole different thing is mastering the game, or knowing everything about it. Not even very old veterans can say they master every aspect or fully understand every aspect of the game. That said, once you have gotten used to the interface (which is worse than in EU games) the game is not difficult. It is about moving counters. The rest can be learnt “on the march”

I would compare this to Operational Art of War in the complexity level. In a full campaign, you will be managing thousands of units, much more than all but the most intense of ToaW scenarios, though.

EU IV is one of my most played games. I'd be embarrassed to reveal how much time I've sunk in to it. Great game.

I don't think WitE is necessarily harder or 'steeper', but it has little of the feedback like EU IV has. In EU IV everything you need to know is in a tooltip. Just move your mouse around and you know the rules and state of affairs.

WitE requires manual study and forum time

Honestly, given that list of good games in the OP, WitE will probably be right up your alley if you find the subject matter appealing.

Good talk.

Honestly, given that list of good games in the OP, WitE will probably be right up your alley if you find the subject matter appealing.

That's the key.
If WW2, particularly the Eastern Front, are something you're interested in I consider this game worthwhile just for the history lesson embedded in all the scenario starts (the OoB and layouts on the maps).
I've been playing GG Eastern Front games for a long, long time, so I realize I come at the subject matter and game/UI from the standpoint of having seen it evolve, and can't tell you much about how the UI compares to those other games.

I've played a lot of EU3, EU4 and WitE and I would say learning all of them enough to play, no matter how badly, has about the same amount of difficulty (Although WitE usually needs a lot of manual reading to do this unlike EU3, EU4) but like no idea said, mastering it is an entirely different story with only a tiny percentage of the players able to do so
I've got a lot of playtime in WitE and I can certainly say I am very, very far from mastering it

It's a really difficult game to 'master' but it's not all that hard to jump in and have fun. You can just boot up some scenarios vs the ai or vs players and have a good time. Be prepared to learn though [:)]