World War II: Time of Wrath - A Preview After Action Report

[dooya]

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World War II: Time of Wrath
A Preview After Action Report[/center]

The forthcoming "World War II: Time of Wrath" is a revised version of the game "world War II: Road to Victory" that was published by Matrixgames about one year ago. This preview report will present the main features of the game and a report from a short scenario.

Time of Wrath is concerned with World War II at the European Theater. The game is played on a hex-field map at the level of divisions and corps. Many aspects of warfare (naval warfare, aerial warfare) and administration (economy, research, diplomacy) are handled at a very abstract level.

Since I did not play Road to Victory, I do not know which features are already known and which are not. Thus, please pardon me for writing things everybody already knows.

Comments, questions and criticism are welcome.



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@Admin/Moderators: I did started this thread in the main forum rather than the AAR forum because it is more of a preview. If you think that this thread fits better into the AAR forum, I would be happy if you move the thread to it.

Thanks,
dooya

[dooya]

[center](1) Preferences[/center]

After starting the game, you should visit the preference menu first.




The game supports a large variety of screen resolutions, which, however, are not detected automatically. After changing the screen resolution, you have to restart the game to adopt the changes. Note that the list of resolutions include netbook screens.



The "Map skin" menu gives the opportunity to choose between the normal (i.e.,     naturalistic textures, first figure) and the classic style (board game geek style, second figure)
.




With the menu "Units skins" an old wargamer discussion will come up again: sprites or counter? Actually there are 5 options available, which are displayed in the next figure. The panels are from left to right:

- Counter: all units are represented by counters
- Counter 2: all units are represented by counters. Yellow dots on the counter indicate the tech-level of the unit.
- Mix: land units are reprented by counters; air and naval units are represented by sprites.
- Mix 2: same as "Mix", but with those yellow dots again
- Sprites: all Units are indicated by sprites.

There are separate sprites for each major nation in the game (USA, Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Poland). Poland? Yes, Poland! By the way, did I mention that the developer Wastelands Interactive is from Poland? [:D]

Moreover, the sprites for land and air units are different for each of the five tech levels that are in the game. The naval sprites do not change with tech level.




"Border color" lets you pick the color of the borders (there are about 50 colors and for most of them I did not knew that they do exist [:D]).

The next point is important. "Visibility range" determines how many hexes you can see, before the fog of war starts. Thus, the fog of war does not change with respect to unit stats or weather.

The right side of the panel in the first figure of this post is pretty self explanatory.


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[lomyrin]

No 1920 x 1200 screen resolution ?
 
Lars

[doomtrader]

lomyrin, are you really using such display resolution?

[Zakhal]

Is there a full hd resolution? 1920x1080. 

[Magpius]

I have an eee pc, and there are now many netnooks that run 1024x600 as standard.
I'd like to put in a request for that resolution.
thanks

[lomyrin]

Computer monitors 24 inch and larger have 1920 x 1200 resolution.
 
Lars

[dooya]

[center](2) Scenarios[/center]
The game comes with 6 scenarios/campaigns.

Two short scenarios are included:
- Poland 1939 - Fall Weiss (10 turns)
- France 1944 - Operation Overlord (25 turns)

Both are played on smaller maps.

The following campaigns are available:

- Europe 1939 - 8 years campaign, ending in December 1948 (450 turns)
- Europe 1940 - starts with "Fall Gelb", ending in December 1948 (418 turns)
- Europe 1941 - Operation Barbarossa, ending in December 1948 (361 turns)
- Europe 1944 - from Overlord (April 1944) to December 1948 (226 turns)

After picking the scenario, players can choose the nation to control.



For each scenario, a different list of available nations is displayed. Each nation can be either controlled by AI or by a player and for each nation the difficulty (in terms of available production points) can be chosen individually.

If you pick more than one nation for human control, the nations are played sequentially. This makes joint operations nearly impossible. However, this mode offers the possibility to play hotseat games. However, what seems like limitation first, allows for a really great feature of this game:



PBEM-multiplayer with up to 6 players! This smells like a lot of fun, me thinks...


For easy browsing through the country selection list, three different filters are available:




For the ease of demonstration we pick the short Poland scenario, choose human control for Germany. Poland gets maximum advantage (+50% production points), although this might not really have an effect in such a short scenario.

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[Anraz]

1920x1200
1920x1080
1024x600

[/align]So let it be... but as it is a last minute player request in the case of any issues connected with those resolutions I hope you will have a heart and “help” us with those ones. My other hope is that it hasn't been an act of opening a can of worms and we will not　be pined down under an avalanche of various requests, at least not before the premiere

[Mike Parker]

Anraz,
 
I understand your concern, but having those resolutions available will be a good thing.  Not so sure about the 1024x600 that sounds kinda oddball to me, but it shouldn't be hard to do.
 

[James Ward]

I play on a 72" screen. Will I be able to see the moustache hairs on the counters with leaders attached?[:)]

[dooya]

ORIGINAL: James Ward

I play on a 72" screen. Will I be able to see the moustache hairs on the counters with leaders attached?[:)]

If you buy the boxed version of the game, you will even find a razor inside, because the counters need to get a shave twice a day. [8D]

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: dooya

ORIGINAL: James Ward

I play on a 72" screen. Will I be able to see the moustache hairs on the counters with leaders attached?[:)]

If you buy the boxed version of the game, you will even find a razor inside, because the counters need to get a shave twice a day. [8D]

Cool. I hope it's one of those new 15 blade models that vibrates and soothes as it cuts![8D]

[Magpius]

I know 1024x600 sounds oddball, but here are some examples
specs and comparsions
All these 10inch screens run 1024x600 as standard.
I can run in a compressed 1024x768, but ww2:rtv does not run in it. (advanced tactics does).
Guns of August has a 1024x600 option. It's playable!
I'm not saying netbooks are the best way of playing, but it makes portable playing a little easier.
If I'm on my Dell portable work station then 1900x1200 is fine.
It will just be nice to have a game such as this not running in just one old retro resolution.
thanks
-just look at all the grief, commander europe at war attracted over the resolution issue.

[Zakhal]

The most important is the support for big HDTV screens or projectors. They all use the same HD resolutions (mostly 1080p, older smaller ones 720p).

Every wargame is best played on big hunking board and thers no better than say 52" TV screen acting as one. 52 inches of hexes = [&o].

[Mike Parker]

ORIGINAL: Agent S

I know 1024x600 sounds oddball, but here are some examples
specs and comparsions
All these 10inch screens run 1024x600 as standard.
I can run in a compressed 1024x768, but ww2:rtv does not run in it. (advanced tactics does).
Guns of August has a 1024x600 option. It's playable!
I'm not saying netbooks are the best way of playing, but it makes portable playing a little easier.
If I'm on my Dell portable work station then 1900x1200 is fine.
It will just be nice to have a game such as this not running in just one old retro resolution.
thanks
-just look at all the grief, commander europe at war attracted over the resolution issue.

Thanks for the Info Agent S. I haven't had any experience with a netbook before so I didn't realize it was using that resolution natively.

[dooya]

[center](3) The Game Interface[/center]

After starting the game we directly hit the main screen




(1) Amount of Production Points
- used for buying, repairing, and upgrading units and for research

(2) Amount of Diplomatic Points
- used for political actions

(3) Amount of Strategic Movement Points
- used for strategic movements of land and air units
- cannot be accumulated from turn to turn!

(4) Amount of See Transport points
- used for transporting land units from port to port

(5) Vorrat an Amphibic Movement Points
- are used to perform amphibic landings
- cannot be accumulated from turn to turn!

(6) Number of Nukes
- BOOM!

(7) Minimap with buttons for toggeling border mode and political map painting
- for both 4 modes are available: no painting/borders, mark countries, mark current frontlines, mark countries and current frontlinesmode

(8) Terrain information
- with buttons for strategic bombing, recon mission, amphibic landing and airborne landing
- buttons are not displayed now because no hex is selected.

(9) Unit information
- displays stats of selected unit or battle odds if an attack is planned.


At the center of the screen you also see a counter:



The information displayed on the counter are as follows:

(1) Unit type


from left to right: infantry, airborne, motorized infantry, tanks, air unit

(2) Tech level
(3) a blinking dot indicates whether a unit has already taken part in a coordinated attack in this turn
(4) indicates that a leader is attached to this unit
(5) nationality
(6) Tech level
(7) left number: effective strength (current unit strength multiplied by its current effectiveness); right number: Action points left
(8) "XX" means division, "XXX" means corps
(9) three dots to at the right border:
- Top one: unit has got some AP to spend
- Middle one: unit has got low supply level
- Bottom one: unit is under strengthen


This concludes the technical prelude. In the next post we already might smell some battlefield smoke...



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[dooya]

[center](4) Poland - Turn 1[/center]

At the following screen you see the situation at the beginning of Turn 1.



The German forces are more or less divided in three groups: Heeresgruppe Nord (HG Nord), Heeresgruppe Mitte (HG Mitte) and Heeresgruppe Süd (HG Süd). (Heeresgruppe is German for Army Group).


The heart of HG Nord are 3 tank divisions and 1 motorized corps; the rest is infantry and one Air wing. There are also naval units in the Baltic Sea which can perform costal bombardment to soften Danzig.



HG Mitte is the strongest group with 5 tank divisions and 1 motorized division. Additionally there are plenty of infantry divisions and two air wings at Breslau. Another air wing is at Berlin.



HG Süd includes only one tank division and some infantry.



The tech level of the German troops is 2, whereas Polish units only have tech level 1.

And here is the operation plan.

Phase 1 (red arrows)
- Air wings will fly a recon mission to Lodz.

HG Nord:
- Tank and motorized units will cut cut a breach in the Polish front
- infantry will move to the frontline but will not attack
- Naval bombardment at Danzig

HG Mitte:
- Air wings will soften the Polish units in the west of Lodz
- Tank units and motorized units will take out the two Polish infantry in the west of Lodz and then bypass Lodz in the North
- Infantry will follow as quickly as possible to save the tank spearhead from encirclement

HG Süd:
- The tank unit will go north, one or two infantry will save its back.

Phase 2 (blue arrows)

HG Nord:
- the tanks and the motorized units will advance toward Warzaw
- some of the infantry will advance through the breach and move in the back of the polish front towards Poznan

HG Mitte:
- advances towards Warzaw with all that can move
- air wings take softens Warzaw and all units nearby


HG Süd:
- tank advances towards Warzaw and unites with HG Mitte





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[dooya]

[center](5) Poland - Turn 1 (continued)[/center]

In the wee hours of the morning of September, 1st, 1939, multiple German airwings take off and head toward Lodz. One recon mission to the north of Lodz reveals a garrison in the city, one infantry to the east, and a motorized corps to the North of the city.




Other air wings attack a infantry divisions to the west of Lodz.



Although being intercepted by Polish fighters, the German wreaked havoc within the Polish soldiers, whiping out a whole division.



A second attack aimed at the second infantry division which blocked the path of HG Mitte to Warzaw.



This attack also caused high casualities.



Directly after the air attack, a motorized division and an infantry division crossed the border and attacked. In the next picture it is demonstrated how attacking from multiple directions effect the attack odds.



Once again a Polish unit is shattered.



This clears the way for the German tank spear head.



In the south, a lonely tank division starts its march to Warshaw.



In the North, tanks are rushing south.



One infantry division near to Danzig is attacked by another air wing and takes medium damage.



Afterwards a combinded assault of a motorized and a tank division take it out.



A recon mission to Danzig revealed a garrision in the city. Since strong naval forces are within range, a coastal bombardement is conducted.



This attack resulted in a decrease in effectivity.




One air wing in the North has action points left, which are spent to fly some naval attacks against Polish ships in the Baltic sea.



One ship sunken, the other damaged.



This concludes our actions in the first turn.

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[dooya]

[center](6) Poland - Turn 2 [/center]
At the beginning of the second turn, a lot of information windows pop up.

The production points



The unit upkeep



The research report



Poland had an event. Unfortunately, no further information was given (maybe I had to hover the mouse over the message box? Will try it later...)



The convoy screen. This convoy was set up per default at the beginning of the scenario. Since we our troops made a land connection to Königsberg in the first turn, the convoy wasn't carried out - units were supplied via normal supply.



A battle occurred in the Baltic Sea.



The naval battle system cannot be influenced by the player, all you can do is pressing the next turn button. The hits are represented graphically and additionally a text message is given at the bottom of the screen.



After 4 battle turns, one Polish ship was sunk.


Finally we will have a look at the map at the beginning of the second turn. The Polish troops did no single attack, which could be a wise decision, given the German technical advantage. However, the AI moved the troops quite smart, trying to build a frontline between the German forces and Warzaw. Furthermore the flanks of the German spear head are under pressure.



By the way, did you spot the three units without flags* near to Stettin? These are 3 Slovakian units (our allies) which were strategically redeployed to Germany by the Slovakian AI! I am curious what they going to do in the next turn – summer holidays at the Baltic beach?

(*In the real game all units have the correct flags, but I am playing with a beta build.)


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