Matrix Games Forums

So ive been following Kulls spreadsheet, which i love so thanks for the help but i was just curious, is this how the veterens of the game set up first turn every new game? surely you cant remember all of the info, unless you are a superhuman. If so how long does it take to set up on average? Ive invested hours upon hours already and ive barely made a dent. I could just be exceedingly slow though. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

After playing this game for years I can set up the Allied side first turn in about 12 hours of screen time (I don't need to refer to Kull's spreadsheet because I have my own ideas on what to do at each location). I am fairly detailed but there are some things I leave until subsequent turns. For example if I have nearly maxed out the dock space at a port loading troops and supplies, I don't go looking for more ships to cram into the remaining dock space. Not worth the effort.
Starting your first Grand Campaign is a big task and if you have not had practice using the interface to give orders it slows you up even more. I played all the small scenarios first to get comfortable with the "how to do" tasks before launching into the GC.

BBfanboy wrote: Fri Mar 31, 2023 11:42 pm After playing this game for years I can set up the Allied side first turn in about 12 hours of screen time (I don't need to refer to Kull's spreadsheet because I have my own ideas on what to do at each location). I am fairly detailed but there are some things I leave until subsequent turns. For example if I have nearly maxed out the dock space at a port loading troops and supplies, I don't go looking for more ships to cram into the remaining dock space. Not worth the effort.
Starting your first Grand Campaign is a big task and if you have not had practice using the interface to give orders it slows you up even more. I played all the small scenarios first to get comfortable with the "how to do" tasks before launching into the GC.

12 hours? jeez, its lucky im a sucker for these sort of games, ill probably sink a few hrs a day until i get through the first grand campaign turn 1. Thanks for thr quick reply mate!

Just think of what you have to do right away, which is to get your units in harm's way repositioned. You don't have to start training air units in the USA the first day if you don't want to do so but when you do, you might want to grab a few fighter pilots who, while they aren't anywhere close to being trained for front line combat, you might have to use defensively in combat. But you should decide if you want to redirect the 18th UK Infantry division so it does not get destroyed either on the way to Malaya nor in Malaya. The same thing for units being shipped to Rangoon.

On the second day, you will still have a lot of work to do simply by looking at your reinforcements and deciding what ships you will need to have where those units to come in so you can load them up right away. But you will have to buy some of those units out with your prestige points yet if you want to pull some units or parts thereof in the Western Pacific, DEI, and/or Malaya, then you will need to use prestige points there. Not to mention changing some of your leaders to better ones will also cost prestige points but unless they are in combat, then those can wait as well.

For China, you have to decide where to fight, and where to pull back plus what gets pulled back. HQs help other units in bases but not as much outside of them.

There are a number of strategic and tactical considerations to keep in mind in the early days as an allied player. I think they can be summed up as 1) avoid contact unless you can hit with odds in your favor, 2) consolidate forces, especially fragments in order to achieve point 1, 3) TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN.... this is vital for your pilots especially. You can't afford to lose them early on. Don't engage unless you absolutely have to until you get some time in. Trade hexes for time. One of your best assets is your recon air. This will help you avoid the Jap strengths and hit where he is weakest. This will help in your training aspect as nothing trains better than actual combat experience. You will quickly learn that some of the allied aircraft are not nearly so bad as history might suggest. They just have to be handled correctly.

In my current game against the AI I spent about 8+ hours setting up as the Japanese. And I did not do a great job.

I have a 80 page Word document (8p Times New Roman). It is my first turn checklist (with variants) for the Allies. It takes me 35-40 hours set up the first turn.

It takes me about 6 to 8 hours now. Years ago it took 24 hours. As mentioned earlier try the smaller scenarios. Also, if you have any time read some AAR's....GP

Depends on how meticulous you are, but personally as the allies it usually takes around 10h and as japan more since rearrenging the TFs is a pain.

Playing as Japan, it takes me about a week, or about 40 hours to set everything up. I could spend another 40 hours to make things even better, but I think I am past the point of marginal diminishing returns at about 40 hours. I use Kull's sheet as a guide. I also keep a save of my set up that I can reuse adjust it for new strategies without having to re-enter a million clicks to gather up my xAKs.