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I already play almost 300 hours of CMO and I can safely say that I know about 60-70% of the game excluded the very tiny details and how Ballistic Missile works. Compared to this game, how steep is learning curve of GG WitE2?? I'm planning to buy this game ever since I joined the Wargaming community about 3 years ago, the only thing that holds me is the huge learning curve, but I've "successfully" learned CMO with the help of both Manual and Youtube videos. So maybe.. any comparison? how long it takes do you actually know the basics and some advance mechanics?

You can download the manual from the store page.

That would be the best way to make a determination. I think it is more complex. But the real question is fun and intellectually challenging or complex just for sake of claiming to have mechanics and modeling?

A number of the sub-systems, you can put on auto-pilot like:

- air war

- supply depots

- other theaters which are not on the map, but tangentially have an impact

- SU (support units). It is primarily a divisional game and up.

Further there are scenarios which could take days or a few weeks to play which are not as grand (complex and time consuming) as the grand campaigns which cover years.

Also, look on YouTube for these tutorials to answer your question:

https://www.youtube.com/@fraulens/playlists

https://www.youtube.com/@seanblambert

Thank you for the answer, already download the manual, I can say that WitE2 has a LOT of mechanics and buttons while CMO challenge lies on understanding how modern weaponries work.

Also, I found many tutorials on YouTube (fortunately) and so I hope I could understand it easily. Welp, it's time to learn and play.

I always tell people WWITE2 is the most complex wargame I've ever played, but also the easiest to learn (among the proper games anyway). As Markshot says, the secret is set the air and supply to AI and just have a go. I recommend the Road to Leningrad as German against the AI, its a great scenario and you can gauge your progress - as you learn the game you will get closer and closer to victory.

If anybody wants tips, after getting used to the basics IMO the first thing to master is the command radius and limits rules, then doing your own supply, then support units.

TallBlondJohn wrote: Sat Sep 27, 2025 4:35 pm I always tell people WWITE2 is the most complex wargame I've ever played, but also the easiest to learn (among the proper games anyway). As Markshot says, the secret is set the air and supply to AI and just have a go. I recommend the Road to Leningrad as German against the AI, its a great scenario and you can gauge your progress - as you learn the game you will get closer and closer to victory.

If anybody wants tips, after getting used to the basics IMO the first thing to master is the command radius and limits rules, then doing your own supply, then support units.

Going through the learning process now on Road to Leningrad. Over several days have sort of figured out how to manually control the air phase. The struggle now is proper understanding of the ground units. Have studied HardLuckYetAgain's AARs and his turn 1 Rovno pocket, realize that is for the grand campaign, and some mechanics no longer possible due to map changes. The struggle is not having the understanding of how units rout, and the hexes you need to flip in order to form a proper pocket.

That will come with practice. Personally I never bother with the Air, I dont like the system or UI (its inherited from WITW, a very different situation). But I can get the computer to do it and not worry!

But if you play a human, you at least need to control the air game to cut off Riga or Odessa (depends where you send the flying boat unit) and to concentrate the Stukas on Leningrad when you storm it.

Routing- very simply:

• If a unit in supply is forced to retreat and the final combat odds ratio is higher than the morale of the unit, it will rout. (So it the units morale is 40, the attackers adjusted CV must be 40 times its adjusted CV)

• If it was out of supply it will surrender.

• If a unit has nowhere to retreat to, it will always rout on defeat.

In fact its a bit more complex, if a unit has a retreat path it will not rout if it passes another morale check

Remember your armour is for flipping hexes as much as combat. In 1941 Soviet morale and CVs are low and on turn one they get an extra nerf, so lots of routs. The Germans don't start to rout until 1942, and then only in dire circumstances. German allies start ok, decline quickly. Note that in WITE pockets were essential to really hurt your opponent. In WITE2 you can do a lot of damage in the open - if you hit a unit and it retreats, then hasty attack with a mech/armour unit it will usually disintegrate with huge losses as disrupted elements will not take part in the second combat, making the odds very bad.

Yes under the hood there is lots of complexity, so just practice and play on feel- like a general would in reality. Enjoy!