Matrix Games Forums

I've never played this game. What will it be like? Will it be relatively simplistic like GGs World @ War, Axis & Allies, or Hearts of Iron? Or will it be relatively complex like a War in the Pacific or Korsun Pocket? Will it have detailed unit counters like Korsun Pocket or will it have little soldiers on the screen like Axis and Allies? Will you be able to create task forces like in War in the Pacific or will you just have little ship icons representing a destroyer squadron or something like Hearts of Iron? Will it have a production and economic system like World @ war or Hearts of Iron? Will the map be divided into hexes or will it be divided into regions like Hearts of Iron or World @ War?

Personally I'd like to see detailed unit counters instead of little toy soldiers. I'd like to see each class of warship represented individually instead of "this is a battleship", "this is a cruiser" etc. I'd like to see hexes instead of arbitrarily drawn out regions. And I'd like a detailed economic and production system. In short I'd like to see a lot of classic war game detail and not so much of the bugs bunny, Axis and Allies, approach.

I don't know if it is possible or not for a game which is supposed to cover the entire world during World War II but we already have Axis and Allies, GG's World @ War and Hearts of Iron. I don't see the need for yet another addition to this family. I'd like to see something like War in the Pacific or Korsun Pocket extended to the grand level of strategy where the gamer also manages the economics and production of his respective country.

I'd like the ability for PBEM whereby a player could play one or several countries either by himself against an opponent or with other allied players against a number of opponents. Anyway, that's my one and 1/2 cents on what I'd like to see in the game.

[:)]

Gary

WiF is not simplistic.
WiF has nothing in common with Axis & Allies or GG's World at War, except that it is based on WWII.

It **is** something like War in the Pacific or Korsun Pocket extended to the grand level of strategy where the gamer also manages the economics and production of his respective country.

No arbitrarily drawn out regions but hexes, except for sea where the naval systems uses Sea Areas.

No little soldiers, but classic wargame land unit types, representing Corps and some specialized Divisions.

No abstract representation of the ships, but each capital ship down to the CLs have their own counter, for each major power and each minor country, representing it plus a squad of DDs.

It's a blast ! [:D]

PS : You can look in http://perso.wanadoo.fr/froon/WiF/PartieXV.zip and http://perso.wanadoo.fr/froon/WiF/wif.htm (Game Reports heading) to see shots of a game,

WiF (World in Flames) is a strategic (I go You go) level game and has over 70 optional rules.

The following is from the RaW (Rules as Written)

Units

A land unit represents an army, corps, or division (devisions are an actual division or smaller unit).

A naval unit represents:
.....1 Aircraft Carrier (CV, CVL, CVE), or
.....1 Battleships (BB) or
.....1 Battle Cruiser (BC), or
.....1 Heavy Cruiser (CA), or
.....1 Light Cruiser (CL), or
.....1 destroyer flotilla

There are also submarines and convoys.

An aircraft unit represents 250 aircraft in 1939 gradually increasing to 500 aircraft by 1945. Carrier aircraft units represent a significantly smaller amount of aircraft, which is reflected in the rules. Each counter consists of a variety of types, but with the predominant aircraft being that depicted on the counter. Not all of them would be flying in each mission.

The Turn

Each game turn represents two months.

The Map

Each map hex represents approximately 100km on the map.

I might add to what has already been said ...

The map is 360 by 195 hexes (70,200) with over 5000 of them coastline. It includes 13 types of hex terrain, 7 types of hexside terrain, 238 countries, over 3100 units, over 60 distinct unit types, and 8 major powers (i.e., can be played by up 8 players, each with their own country). There are 6 weather zones whose weather changes with each turn and every other impulse.

The time scale starts with the German invasion of Poland and runs to the Japanese surrender with each turn covering a 2 month period and a varying number of impulses within each turn. For each impulse, the player decides whether to focus primarily on land, sea, air, or a combination of all three for which units to move. The number of impulses during the summer typically run to 7 or 8 and during the winter to 3 or 4, with variations in the fall and spring. Mud and snow play an important part in the movement, combat, and supply systems.

Politics and production are subsystems of the game. The politics primarily focuses on when the US enters the war. Production is based on control of natural resources and factory capacities with the combination of the two providing the player with the means to build whichever unit types he likes. There are restrictions on production to make it more realistic (gearing limits and time to build) and to allow for national differences (unit diversty).

If you look up WIF (World in Flames) Discussion group on Google you will find there have been over 70,000 posts to the site. Dis game got some followers.

I have a very old demo of this computer game that was being developed some years ago. While I am glad to see it being further developed by Matrix, I do hope that it retains some of the original feel of the board version. The only thing I never did like was the color graphics used to represent the terrain. I think (or hope) that better graphics be used for the computer, those original graphics might be hard on the eyes.