New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Empires in Arms is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. Empires in Arms is a seven player game of grand strategy set during the Napoleonic period of 1805-1815. The unit scale is corps level with full diplomatic options

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Erik Rutins
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New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Erik Rutins »

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay on this, it was caught up in a bit of a backlog here behind the scenes, but I hope you will find it useful now that it's done.

The new Empires in Arms Tutorial Guide is now available from our Members Club (click on the MEMBERS link in the top navigation bar).

Please let us know if it helps you, we're especially interested to hear feedback from those who have not played the boardgame before and may have had trouble learning how to play the computer adaptation from the main game manual. The tutorial manual was designed by a veteran player and a novice player together to hopefully give sound advice on how to start playing without making any assumptions about prior knowledge.

Regards,

- Erik
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Titan
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Titan »

Great,
Grognot
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Grognot »

Browsing through it.   Skimming, so maybe missing details.

On page 11, there appears to be no garrison in St. Malo in the picture.   This contradicts the "You will notice some cities have their name in red; these are either minor countries' or provincial capitals.  for each of these, we'll place one infantry factor" bit.

There also should be a space in "Hyvand", as in "Click on the 1 Hvyand then select" on page 11.  (Should be "I Hvy and".  Next page, "II Hvyand".

3.2.3 -- "gamehowever" needs a space.

3.3 -- Diplomatic reactions -- the screen shows all the 'Accept control' boxes checked.  The default is that they're blank, at least in 1.02g.  The tutorial does not include double-clicking on them to check them all.

4.0 -- The wording of the 'winterland movement' description iindicates that if you want to be able to move *at all* on land, during winter, you need to enable it as an option.  This is incorrect.  Option ON means land movement = 2x movement point cost; option OFF means still able to move at normal cost.

"thenbreak" needs a space.

4.1.2 -- An informal peace does NOT result in an enforced peace of any kind.

4.1.2 -- PP losses are incorrect.  They are 5 and 8 PP for cond/uncond, not 3 and 5.




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Grognot
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Grognot »

Continuing.

4.1.2 page 18. "theoption"

4.2 "phaseand"

4.3 "Maloand".  Needs a "so" before "we're going to leave them alone for now" -- run-on.

4.4 continues incorrect interpretation of "winter land movement" option.

5.2 "VIcorps"

5.2 "We are going to bring in a leader for the VIcorps... select Ney and click on the V corps".  This should probably be VI corps in both cases, and in 5.4, as the VI corps is referred to in 3.2.2 but the V corps does not get placed AFAICT.

1st -- VI -- Le Havre
2nd -- Gds -- Paris
3rd -- IV -- Brussels
4th -- II -- Lombardy
5th -- III, Holland -- east of Zurich


5.2 Bit on "tactical" is incorrect -- tactical rating helps even if # corps exceeds TMR.  It's just reduced -- but in the case of France, often still useful.

5.4.1, referring to British from French POV, says "In general, we can expect them to have less men than us and slightly lower morale".  Lower morale is incorrect; British regulars have the highest morale of *any* regular infantry in the game, even exeeding that of French cavalry.  And the British don't start with any militia or minor factors.

7.0 -- Unit Report shows corps previously unplaced (incl. I corps for instance), and more factors than France can have at this point if he's been following instructions (if he put 25I in Paris, he can have at most 110 remaining regulars; total of I-VI corps shows 123).  Also, they're in different places -- e.g. fleets are listed in Brest, not St. Malo.






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icecreamsoldier
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by icecreamsoldier »

The Tut is done - oh yea!  Thanks!!

Thanks for the corrections too Grognot!

ics
Halsey
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Halsey »

Can we make this permanent, and sticky this thread?
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Things mising in tutorial

Post by Dave_T »

How to move fleets
How to intercept with fleets
How to initiate combat with fleets
How to blockade enemy fleets
How to convoy corps
How innsurections work
How feudals work
How Cossacks work
How to conquer a minor
How to create supply chains
How to play a country that's not France
How/why to influence
Who to DoW with & why
Who to ally with & why
 
Apart from that & the attrocious spelling, top marks.
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Jimmer
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Jimmer »

Matrix:
 
Do you guys want comments on the document? (Typos, errors, omissions, etc.) I know you asked for them from new players, but do you want them from us oldsters, too?
At LAST! The greatest campaign board game of all time is finally available for the PC. Can my old heart stand the strain?
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Ralegh »

YES (although I'm not really matrix).  I want to know about:
(a) things that people still can get to work after reading the tutorial - ie. which we need to describe more
(b) other tips for beginers that were left out and should consider including (regardless of whether it is an omission or a new idea)
(c) other topics we should consider covering in a similiar way, bearing in mind that this is all at the very basics level

I don't know if they will produce a second edition of this guide, but I can certainly provide an unauthorised supplement if they don't want to.

BTW, although I can't get at the published version of the Guide at the moment - and am surprised by some of the things Grognot says are in (or not in) there - I agree with all Grognot's comments.


[Postscript] I think Matrix are mainly interested in knowing if their investment in doing this guide was "worth it" - does it actually help the people who were saying that the game needed a guide? Bear in mind that while it does help with using the UI, it is actually targetted at people who haven't played the boardgame.
HTH
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Erik Rutins
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Erik Rutins »

ORIGINAL: Dave_T
Apart from that & the attrocious spelling, top marks.

Please note that this was not intended to replace the manual. This was intended to try to introduce the concepts and get a total novice over the first part of the learning curve so that the manual actually would make more sense as far as taking them the rest of the way.
Erik Rutins
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Rodler
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Rodler »

I get an error when I try download anything from the member section including the tutorial. Does anyone else have a problem?

/Flemming
Grognot
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Grognot »

As somebody who has played the original board game (but not often)... one thing I don't remember seeing was a guide to strategy -- nation-specific or otherwise.  This is one place where a smaller scenario than the Grand Campaign would be useful.

Perhaps some short play examples showing different situations, what was done (or not done!), and rather importantly --why-- would be useful.  For instance, showing a hypothetical Prussian setup that's dispersed for taking many minors, and explaining that this can be rather dangerous in light of (a) France setting up after Prussia, (b) France being able to move first in land phase, if it likes, (c) French / Holland infantry corps moving 4; (d) France being hungry for battles.  Or showing a hypothetical supply chain feeding an invasion of Russia, explaining why there are forces along its length (noting, for instance, the ability of Russian reinforcements to appear at the various cities the supply chain has passed, if those provinces are ignored... or the speed of Cossacks, or how a single interruption can be bad...).

It's obviously impossible to describe even generally the bulk of situations to be encountered, but some case studies (or pointers to such) would be good.  Ditto for national tips -- things to consider for each nation.   Some ideas are simple to explain but not necessarily obvious to novices, like "it's not necessarily a good idea to place all your feudal corps during setup".
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Dave_T »

ORIGINAL: Grognot

As somebody who has played the original board game (but not often)... one thing I don't remember seeing was a guide to strategy -- nation-specific or otherwise.  This is one place where a smaller scenario than the Grand Campaign would be useful.

Perhaps some short play examples showing different situations, what was done (or not done!), and rather importantly --why-- would be useful.  For instance, showing a hypothetical Prussian setup that's dispersed for taking many minors, and explaining that this can be rather dangerous in light of (a) France setting up after Prussia, (b) France being able to move first in land phase, if it likes, (c) French / Holland infantry corps moving 4; (d) France being hungry for battles.  Or showing a hypothetical supply chain feeding an invasion of Russia, explaining why there are forces along its length (noting, for instance, the ability of Russian reinforcements to appear at the various cities the supply chain has passed, if those provinces are ignored... or the speed of Cossacks, or how a single interruption can be bad...).

It's obviously impossible to describe even generally the bulk of situations to be encountered, but some case studies (or pointers to such) would be good.  Ditto for national tips -- things to consider for each nation.   Some ideas are simple to explain but not necessarily obvious to novices, like "it's not necessarily a good idea to place all your feudal corps during setup".

http://www.empires-in-arms.tk/ has accumulated some of the previous strategy musings of various players, a lot of the time it's personal how you play a country, but the over all golas are always similar.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah ... h20030801a is an old post from The General by Bruce Milligan, a general guide of how to play.

There used to be country by country guides somewhere, I think Pat Harvert may have them or Todd (Thresh). After 4 or 5 years playing you tend to discard them.

Teaching someone how to move counters around the board & the interface is, basically, pointless unless they understand the country dynamics & special unit nuances, someone who has no idea of how cossacks work is going to get stuffed big time the first time someone uses cossacks against them properly.

Downloadable saved game files with exampling situations, like prompting innsurections or building/disrupting supply lines are far more useful than a pdf file with more style than substance.
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by nukkxx5058 »

I don't have access to the "member club". My usr name/pw do not work ...
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by thistlebarrow »

Hi Erik

I logged in to Members but could find no mention of a tutorial. I then clicked "official patches and updates" but could only find Empire in Arms update v1.01. Is this the tutorial, or is it somewhere else?
Grognot
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RE: Things mising in tutorial

Post by Grognot »

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

I don't have access to the "member club". My usr name/pw do not work ...

It's a separate registration.

To quote the page -- http://www.matrixgames.com/members/ --

Please note: The Members Club is separate from the Matrix Games Forums.
You will need a separate account to login to the Members Club.
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Grognot
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by Grognot »

ORIGINAL: thistlebarrow

Hi Erik

I logged in to Members but could find no mention of a tutorial. I then clicked "official patches and updates" but could only find Empire in Arms update v1.01. Is this the tutorial, or is it somewhere else?

Registered games / private downloads. Same place where you find beta patches.
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thistlebarrow
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by thistlebarrow »

Thanks Grognot, found it. It looks like it will be just what I want. Will post again when I have had a chance to read and play.
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by JanSorensen »

Thanks for making the effort.
 
Its a shame though that you allowed so many rather glaring mistakes in it - and that you let the reader believe something interesting will happen in March then go on to have the French do absolutely nothing. In particular the lack of a DoW and conquest of a minor seems very odd as thats key to the game as well as common during the first 3 months so its very much something a new player needs to know how to do to get started.
 
So, nice first draft but please actually fill in the tutorial.
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RE: New EIA Tutorial Guide Now Available!

Post by nukkxx5058 »

Just got the tutorial. Didn't read it so far but it has 32 pages and a nice layout. Looks like a good job. I appreciate the effort even if I think it should have come with the game release.

I will give the game a second (and last) chance. I'll keep you updated.
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