Population Nightmare?

[abulbulian]

I've only played a game, read most of manual, and gone through both tutorials, so forgive me if I missed this answer somewhere. I seem to be having a hard time since late 41 on in not getting to a season with a negative(-) population on my production screen(as Germans so far). Is there some place that is warning me that I'm queing up units that will exceed my future population, thus avoiding removing them cause of a popultion burden on the season they get produced? I'm aware and love the production showing you going negative and I don't ever leave a production screen with that negative. The reason I ask is that I'll have to disband units in the current season or it will stay negative. What would happen if I didn't disband units and left it at negative population, only some would get produced and others delayed? I think it's killing my strategy when I have to disband units that took serveral seasons to produce? Hope there is some formula or view that can assisit me with my population issue.

Thanks!

[paullus99]

If you right click on the unit in the production screen, it will delay it until you are ready to have it produced. That way, you avoid having to disband units in production.

[abulbulian]

Thanks that will help a bit, but is there a way to avoid getting to a season with a negative population given you haven't lost any territory? I'd like to project what I can build given the population quickly.

Thanks

[paullus99]

It takes a bit of trial & error, since you don't know if you are going to suffer strategic bombing (which could damage the factories), or lose resources due to offensive actions. I've found that putting a load of units in the quey, then picking & choosing what gets produced based on my current situation (delaying certain units, like tanks when I don't need them, or producing more infantry, when I do need them) helps quite a bit.

[Reinhardt]

Your population problem is probably resulting from having units damaged over the course of the turn. Damaged units come back then next turn at a cost of 1 pop each. Short of correctly predicting how many units you will have damaged wach turn, you will not be able to prospectively "perfectly" plan your pop expenditure.

[abulbulian]

Excellent point, I never really thought about that aspect or didn't realize damaged units suck more population and they should too. Makes perfect sense now why it's not easy to predict and shouldn't be to some extend. Just one of those many problems in war, have to be flexible and adapt. Fell better already, thinking I was really messing up by having all this negative population and disbaning units. Now I know better to delay units and about the damaged factor.

Thanks for all your help!

[simone.donnini]

Anyway I think the management of the population pool is really unfriendly, people not experienced with wargames will surely find trouble here.
The production rules are right but the user interface is very poor, I hope Matrix/2by3 can find a better solution

[gottoman]

I don't think the population issue is unfriendly, it's just a "commodity" along with Factories and Resource points. Just like a real-time strategy game where you gather food - wood - stone for example, you need population to build new and replace losses. Makes sense and is not overly complex once you learn the system. This game is very simple while being complex at the same time, like other great games (Poker, Go, etc.)

[Dalwin]

Germany will have populatin problems in the mid and late war. based on history, I think they should have such problems.

This is one advantage of WaW over HOI2. In HOI2, population rarely ends up being a problem except in extreme situations.

The best you can do is to right click to put some on hold and do a bit of looking ahead to see if building a tank or bomber that won't come in for a few turns makes sense.