Matrix Games Forums

I had War In The West about 10 years and played it for a few months. I got quite accustomed to the interface, but it's been so long since I that played I've forgotten most of it.

Anyway I have had some trouble lately with bombing missions. I have been using RAF Bomber Command and 8th Air Force to do the usual bombing of western Germany and Holland. I create about 3 strategic bombing missions per turn for Bomber Command and the 8th Air Force. Usually I can get two successful missions per HQ.

However recently I have changed my bombing strategy to hit the V weapons in northern France. I order Bomber Command and 8th to do bombing missions on the V weapon sites in northern France. But I haven't any bombing missions flown. Even after 6 turns, nothing And it's not to do with the weather, I'm in August and the weather is clear. It says I have hundreds of bombers selected for the missions, but not a single one ends up flying.

So I'm confused as to why I can't bomb France. It's much closer, just across the Channel! Any ideas what is wrong?

EDIT - the problem seems to be about the V Weapon sites. I can hit other targets in norther France. But not V weapons. They have two asterisks beside their name in the target list . But I don't know that those asterisks mean

Hi, just checking are you in 1943 or 1944/45 because the v-weapons sites only become active once you reach 1944 and you can't bomb them before they activate.

I'm in December 1943 now and the asterisks have disappeared for the Cherbourg V weapons. Presumably two asterisks means a target is not yet in production. I can bomb them now. I couldn't find anything about it in the manual about asterisks though.

The asterisks for Factories are explained on page 214 of the living manual. But yeah I can totally understand that the information is hard to find.

26.3.28. CITY DETAIL WINDOW
This window can be accessed from the General Information and City box (5.1.5). The window normally displays the following information: ...

Factories: List of factory types in the town, city or urban hex in three columns as follows:
NUM – Number of that type of factory in the hex (factory points)
DAM – Percentage of damage currently sustained by that type of factory
Name of factory type, with ‘**’ indicating a factory not yet in production

The manual is waaaaaaay too long for the information actually inside it. It could explain the game adequately in 100 pages, with maybe 30 more pages for strategy tips, developers notes and historical commentary