Matrix Games Forums

Hi.
I want to be a hardcore player and love very complex games. But although I love that I must admit that I'm something in between This game, as far as you can judge, is it hard to get into for a kind of casual player?
It costs a lot so I would save the money if it's too complex to get into for a semi-hardcore player.
Thanks.

ORIGINAL: jnpoint
...is it hard to get into for a kind of casual player?...

That ultimately depends on your will, your patience and your commitment...

It'll be worth it.

Smaller scenarios first.

you can pick your entry point and engagement.

the level of detail is incredible, you can fuss with plane loadouts, the precise location of a specialist unit with very particular weaponry .. or

a) hand the entire air war to an AI-assist. here you set relative priorities for plane allocation, whether you want your airforce to generally advance or retreat and which HQ you want them to be associated with. That will then handle allocation to combat, changing plane types, removal of badly damaged formations etc. In effect, its about 4 sets of decisions on T1 and you may want to revise your instructions as the game develops

b) hand over the bulk of the logistics systems to an AI-assist, that'll create depots and so on as you move. All you need to worry about is the location of your HQs in relation to the supply grid

c) hand over the allocation of the specialist support units to an AI-assist, again all you do is to set the priorities.

So at that stage you are left with essentially a divisional level ground war, with a lot of counters on a huge map. The smaller scenarios break all this down into manageable bits.

In effect, you can have a lot of fun, against a challenging AI using all the tools above. As you gain confidence you may (or may not) wish to start to do some of those tasks yourself

Roger

I'm definitely a casual player, playtested the game, and found it quite manageable and fun. Creep up on the campaign game with the tutorial scenarios and the One Page Guides that come with the game.

Be forewarned, if you jump at straight into GC 41, the first few turns are massive and the most systems heavy. You might find yourself looking at it in overwhelming shock if you have not grounded yourself in a smaller scenario or two.

As a side note to that, when you go multiplayer (and you really, really should - the new AI is capable of pushing even the best around when it’s cranked up, but the game shines between two humans) you may want to go PBEM rather than server. Loki introduced me to the idea back when I was just starting WitW and asked to play him, and it works like a charm when I’ve played other new people in the beta : you can agree to replay a mulligan or two (particularly the opening turn where the Germans are under intense pressure to get it right) and you can keep all of the files for test and comparison later, to see how things you learned by T45 might have been useful on T5. And if you’re really lucky, the other guy will give you his PW when it’s all over and you can review HIS files to learn stuff. (Which to previous Loki reference, is how I learned more about strategic bombing in WitW than a dozen forum threads and a full campaign against the AI).

All those automations Loki mentioned also serve to help limit the “advantage by system knowledge” of other players too, (you can get around the SU lock, but still), and maybe let you play against someone you might think of as out of your weight class.

If you try to min max everything you need to bring a lot of time & patience & frustration tolerance.

However it works pretty well as a casual game if you don't lock HQ Support and automate the air war.

If you love hardcore games and WW2 then this is the ultimate choice. You kind of have to own it

The great thing is that the AI does a competent job overall if you handover Air and Depot building. The Soviet defensive AI is also greatly improved from WitE1.

You can play without micro-managing and get a great deal of satisfaction from the game, then slowly get into the details.

Agreeing with what everybody is advising.

For a casual, and just getting into it experience.

You can up lower several difficulty aspects. Don't be too hard on yourself when learning or wanting a more casual experience. Give yourself a little extra morale. The great thing with this is you can change up or down during the game.

Definitely start with a smaller scenario !!! Bear with it for a few turns, watching the tutorials. The smaller tutorials are fun and engaging.

I suppose it also has to do with how interested you are in the Eastern Front. If you are only casually interested in the Eastern Front, then this might be overload. But if you are curious/into it, this will feed your interest greatly

I haven't bought wite2 yet due to being in a tight financial position currently but i will at some point though.

i do have wite and witw though. i remember when i first bought wite though i dont think i properly dived into it until months after buying it simply due to the complexity you described.

just to reiterate what others have said, i started of with the road to leningrad scenario which was a great entry point to learning the game before trying the full campaign.

Thanks for taking the time to answer this.
Yes, I have always been fascinated with ww2 and especially the east front and that is why I'm asking for advice. What also frightens me is that I control the whole front - wow that is a lot of units
I will watch some more tutorial videos on youtube and then decide.
Thanks again.