Matrix Games Forums

Hi everyboby,

I'm new to SPWAW (only played for the last two days), and I would like to share with you my first impressions about SPAW.

First of all, one word : GREAT !

Now, excuse me if the following points have already been talked about in this forum, or are already present or resolved in the game (in which case I would appreciate a hint ...) :

1) It would be great to have a visual clue of which units you have already moved or fired in a given turn, and which you have not. Or even better, have a button to browse units still not used in the curent turn.

2) Is it possible, and how, to deselect the current selected unit ? The problem is that sometimes, you try to select another unit, miss it, and then the previous starts moving. Very annoying when it is fired at ...

3) Any chance to have higher screen resolutions one day ?

4) Are the victory conditions explained or detailed somewhere ? For example, after playing the tutorial scenario for the first time, I ended with something like 4000 pts for me, and 1500 for the enemy, and it was considered to be a draw (?).

5) It seems (just an impression) that Opportunity fire happens too often. Anybody agrees with that ?

6) Idea : when you access the Encyclopedia from the battle screen, it would automatically show the current selected unit (friend or enemy, by the way, which means you should be able to "select" an enemy unit).

7) I thing it could be useful to have a general information about unit type (like light tank, heavy tank, normal infantry, and so on) in the unit information window (accessed by right clicking on the selected unit) : maybe it's just because I'm new to the game, but I have sometimes trouble to remember which unit is what.

Finally, is the Mega Campaign version only available at Matrix Game website, or can I expect to find it in stores ?

Anyway, hats off for people at Matrix Games. Keep up the good work.

Welcome, Skyfire! Discovering SPWAW - and this forum - is like discovering a whole new world!

Screen resolution - they can't go higher in SPWAW. Combat Leader, the new turn based game Matrix is working on, will hopefully have higher resolutions.

Op-fire too often? Hmmm. Well the AI gets more op-fire shots than you do, because the AI isn't as good as most human players. Other than that I don't think there's too many. There are also different types of op-fire, such as "special" and "point-blank".

The Mega-Campaign is only available through Matrix.

Play the tutorials, read the manual, but most of all play play play!

Hi,and welcome onboard,first of all!

I'll try to reply to some of yr questions, but first let me give you a general suggestion,unless you know already abt that:

right on the matrix games forum logo,there are few links,one of which is saying "search"; this is a very helpful one,which allows you make a search on the forum and see if what you want to know or talk abt has been already discussed/replied.

Now coming back to some of yr questions:

1)the only way i know is clicking on the clipboard icon on the right and see which units have an high movement rate left,these will be with high probability those not moved yet;

2)not that I know abt;this has been discussed for sure before,try a search.
You're right,is very annoying,i had a tank blowned up for the same reason,yesterday


3)actual screen resolution is 800x600 and I dont think there is anything different planned for near future on that;

4)I felt lost on that,too,at the beginning,and still a bit uncertain on that,but it should be something like:
against AI(the computer):up 3:1 difference=draw,between 3:1 and 6:1 marginal victory,above 6:1 decisive victory;
against an human opponent: up to 2:1 draw,between 2:1 and 3:1 marginal vic.,above 3:1 decisive.
This because is much more difficult to play against an human opponent than against AI.

5)You'll find tons of threads on that!
It depends on many things: personal feeling on the matter,version you're running (last patches has adjusted that),troops standing (if they're in a defend mode they have higher chances to op fire),distance between fire unit and target,if you're playing against AI or an human opponent,etc..

6)This looks like an interesting idea to me,too

7)you'll become accustomed to this soon and you wont feel the need for this feature anymore

MC: I think there are no plans for this to be sold on "physical" stores,for the moment.

hope this can help.

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Resisti ]

Op fire: Try lowering the setting in Preferences. Lots of things you can play with there.

Well, thanks everybody (and especially Resisti) for the answers.

See you soon, maybe online for a fierce SPWAW battle (hum, well, I think I'll wait that fees for Internet access are chepear than they are actually here in France ).

Originally posted by Skyfire76:
Hi everyboby,
[snip]
2) Is it possible, and how, to deselect the current selected unit ? The problem is that sometimes, you try to select another unit, miss it, and then the previous starts moving. Very annoying when it is fired at ...

Welcome. I too have trouble selecting a unit in a hex sometimes. I want to select an infantry unit put its at the bottom of the stack and I just can't find it to click on. I end up using the "N" key to try and find it. I'd like to see the ability to sort through units in a hex and possabilly have the currently selected unit on top.

Try reading my tactics guide at [url="http://www.tankheadcentral.com,"]www.tankheadcentral.com,[/url] go to the main page.

Get 6.1 & enjoy!

Greetings and salutations SkyFire,

I too am relatively new to SPWaW (only been playing for a month or so), but I have discovered something that may help you out. One of your questions was regarding keeping track of which units have already moved/fired and which ones have not yet. While you can use the clipboard feature to do this, IMHO you end up doing a lot of "Prev" or "Next" when flipping between units.

What I have found that helps a lot is to create a sort of checklist for each of your units (by this I mean each letter group...i.e. C0-C4: 1st Tank Platoon or something to that effect). When each unit is done for the turn, simply place a checkmark next to them. I actually use 1/4 inch graph paper for this, so my checkmarks are all lined up nice and neet. I guess this setup just suits my meticulous nature .

At the end of each turn, you simply give a little scan of your checklist to make certain that each unit is "done" for the turn.

Just a little piece of advice that may help. It means a little extra work, but if you're like me then you absolutely hate the idea of having a unit sit idle for a turn just because you forgot about them.

Does anyone else do something like this?

Originally posted by DataKing:
What I have found that helps a lot is to create a sort of checklist for each of your units (by this I mean each letter group...i.e. C0-C4: 1st Tank Platoon or something to that effect). When each unit is done for the turn, simply place a checkmark next to them. I actually use 1/4 inch graph paper for this, so my checkmarks are all lined up nice and neet.

You have got to be some type of engineer, right? Either that or a Capricorn.

P.S. Anybody that quotes Snake Pliskin is OK in my book... even if they are an engineer!

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Warrior ]

"well, I think I'll wait that fees for internet access are chepear than they are actually here in France"

Play-by-Email will offer you a way to play human opponents without extended online sessions.

Just find an opponent, agree to the sort of game you'll play, start it up and exchange turns by email..

If you compress your turn, it should only take a minute or two to send and then you can get offline and save connection costs...

You do have to wait for your opponent to turn his/her turn around though...every other day or so seems to be realistic for people with job, kids, girlfriend or other real-life distractions

You can probably do a turn every day if you can find an opponent with no life outside SPWAW!!


I suspect you'll enjoy SPWAW no matter what you end up doing...

Originally posted by darroch:
You can probably do a turn every day if you can find an opponent with no life outside SPWAW!!

darroch must be talking about me! But I can do a lot more than one turn a day!!

warrior - I envy you...

for now I can only dream of such bliss

Oops, back to work...boss is looking...

Hey i had 15 PBEM games going at one point and for a while i was getting everybody back the same day .. and i had a life before SPWAW .. i think anybody that pleads having a life and SPWAW is probably either fibbing or not posting here
and folks wonder why i am on the Tiger team and taking a break from PBEM

Originally posted by Warrior:


You have got to be some type of engineer, right? Either that or a Capricorn.

P.S. Anybody that quotes Snake Pliskin is OK in my book... even if they are an engineer!

[ July 09, 2001: Message edited by: Warrior ]

Actually I am a Gemini with a degree in English (specialization in Creative Writing)



Go figure.

But I do work with computers all day. And I've had one since I was 8 (that was 1981...a pretty big deal to have a computer back then).

Snake is my favorite anti-hero.

Thanks, guys, for your comments.

To Larry Holt : Already read your guide, thanks Very nice indeed. About selecting stacked units, I didn't have this problem, but for the moment, I never ended with more than 3 units stacked in a single hex (remember, I'm a rookie ...) : just click up, middle or bottom of hex to select each of these 3 units. If you have more, well, I'll try this ...

To DataKing : nice tip, but a little pushed to the extreme, don't you think ? The clipboard is indeed useful for this, as long as you don't have too many units.

To darroch : in fact, I'm not really motivated by PBEM games, but thanks for the idea : maybe I'll try it one day with SPWAW.

To: Skyfire76 and Resisti

as far as i can remember some guy at Matrix was talking about finding a Germany based distributor in Europe for their products.
Anyone at matrix can confirm this?
bye

Yes we are working on that, we'll let you know if it coes together.

Another technique for keeping track of units beside using paper. I have a tactical plan for my battles. I fight in small combined arms groups that are deployed across the map. I start by moving my recon then from bottom to top (or top to bottom) I move and fire each group. As each is only 10 or 15 units, its not too much to keep track of at one time. That way I don't have to go through my whole core & supporting units to find the one that I have not yet moved. HOWEVER, its a good idea to review the troop list at the end of your turn to see if you have any units with all their shots and MPs still left as a reminder of any units that you might have missed.