W@W to AWD, a few questions

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farflamex
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Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:23 pm

W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by farflamex »

Finally managed to sort out my download and am playing AWD. I'd played W@W to death to the point where I'd virtually perfected the game as the Axis (i.e, I could win [:D] ), but having some teething problems with AWD.

1) I love the combat animations on the old game and really miss them here. Not that they looked great or anything, but they gave me a really good idea of which of my units were performing and which weren't. Now I have to use the after-combat report to try to work out why my units aren't doing their job but it doesn't make much sense to me. Is there a detailed write-up of how the combat works anywhere?

2) Specifically, my airforce no longer seem able to damage ground units. Has this changed? In W@W I'd always use my airforce to soften up an opponent before attacking but now they always seem to do no damage. Particularly as the Japanese, I'd bomb the Chinese for many turns before commiting to a ground assault. Does this no longer work? Looking at the combat reports, my bombers often do more damage than the infantry, but their high rolls never seem to score a 'hit'.

3) The production screen is confusing me now because of the units 'on hold'. I think W@W did this too but simply didn't tell you which ones were being held in the queue. Is there some way to work out which units will be held back, and why are they being held back?

Any help would be appreciated [:)]
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Uncle_Joe
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by Uncle_Joe »

1) The old battle animation is gone, unfortunately. I think they took too much flak from people complaining about how 'lame' it looked. Personally I enjoyed it and miss it in AWD, but its not a game-breaker once you get used to the new system.
 
2) Air unit attacking ground units now use 'bombardement' attacks. This means they are much less lethal but they do add suppression which makes it easier for your ground units to kill 'em as well as reducing the firepower that they return vs your units. You can still bomb the bejeebus out of the Chinese, but it isnt quite as effective in that capacity as it was in the first WaW (which is for the better IMO)
 
3) All units in the queue at the start of the game start out 'on hold'. They have a red number on the production spiral. Units which are moving along the track have a black number. You can easily switch back and forth by R-clicking on a unit.
 
Hope it helps. :)
farflamex
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Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:23 pm

RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by farflamex »

I find it really tricky working out what's going on in my battles without the animations. Sure they were a tad lame, but they provided a useful at-a-glance idea of how your units were doing. You could see by watching the battles just how far away from hits your units were and whether or not tech advances were crucial or not. With the new system, I have no idea which of my units has been effective and which hasn't without trawling through the combat-text afterwards. Hopefully I'll get used to it but I find it far less satisfying at the moment. And as I said, I don't even understand the combat now - my air unit rolls 24, they have 12 defence, but I don't score a hit? Then my infantry rolls a 19, they have 12 defence, but I do? 19 is better than 24? Huh?
 
I kinda of understand and agree with the idea of not having air units devastate enemy armies. It did get a bit dumb that you could almost completely destroy the Russian armies with dive-bombers alone. So am I right in saying that air power needs to be used 'correctly' now, i.e as support for ground offensives?
 
The new production does look a bit better, I just need to get used to it. In my first game, I didn't notice that my Panzers weren't rolling along so I never had enough to even strike at France. Doh!
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Uncle_Joe
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by Uncle_Joe »

Bombardment attacks are displayed by having the defense number in yellow. Normal attacks display it in white.

When a unit uses a bombardment attack, it rolls it's dice and sums them and adds 2x any modifier (ie modifiers are doubled in bombardments). Then the target rolls a number from 1 to its' Evasion rating (so if you have a 5 EV, it generates a number between 1 and 5). The attacker's total is divided by that defense number and that equals the number of Suppression points added to the target. If the Suppression points are higher than 5x EV, the unit takes a hit. Otherwise it carries the suppression through the battle. Suppression points add a negative modifier when they unit attacks and give attacking units a better chance to hit the suppressed unit.

Examples of Bombardment attacks would be air strikes vs ground units (not vs ships where air units still use 'normal' attacks), AA fire, arty fire, Op fire, and ship bombardment of land units. All of these attacks use the above procedure. In general, bombardment attacks are carried out before normal attacks (because air and arty tend to strike first) and thus can enhance your other units' chances of scoring hits or reduce casualties you take by reducing the enemy's chance to hit before he fires.

For standard combat, its more like it was in WaW1 - you roll the dice, add your modifiers and try and hit the target's defense number (which is derived as Evasion x Durability). If you equal or exceed the defense you score a hit. If you double the defense or higher you score 2 hits and destroy the unit rather than damage it.

So to answer you question:

Yes, airpower is now support for the land units, it can no longer replace ground units. You CAN still cause full casualties with air units, but its far more rare than in WaW1.

As for your production, all units that start in the queue when a scenario begins are set to 'on hold'. You can manually re-enable them by r-clicking on them in the production spiral. In the Total War scenario, it's often wise to leave some of the units 'paused' at the beginning to conserve points for research while your econ is severely limited.
farflamex
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by farflamex »

Thanks again, I'm kind of getting the hang of it now. Finding it much harder now that I can't bomb the Chinese and Russians to death, but I do really like most of the changes.
 
Another question, is there any way to get potential allies to join me? I'm having problems especially with Rumania, who don't join me until after I attack Russia, but this leaves them wide open to attack. The Russians attack them, I can take Rumania back next turn but by that time the factories are all smashed. Is there a way around this?
Torplexed
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by Torplexed »

That's odd. I've never seen Russia unilaterally go to war with Rumania. As Germany are you keeping western Poland fully garrisoned to keep Russia's War Readiness Level from increasing?
farflamex
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by farflamex »

It's not that Russia attacks Romania unilaterally, but if Romania doesn't join me, I have to launch all of my attacks against Russia from Western Poland meaning a Panzer strike into Kiev after taking Eastern Poland with infantry/artillery. It still works that way but I find it much easier if I can base my units in Romania to start with and strike from there. In my first game I didn't take Kiev on the first turn, just Eastern Poland, so the Ruskies swept into Romania and wrecked everything. Didn't really do them many favours as I then surrounded and destroyed their units, but it did mean I'd lost 7 handy garrison units and had to repair the whole country.
 
It's no big deal now, but I find myself waiting for Romania to join me and if they don't, the attack into Kiev is a tad riskier.
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Uncle_Joe
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by Uncle_Joe »

If Yugoslavia has it's coup or in any other way Pro-Allied, if you attack it you have a chance to activate your minor friends and I believe Romania is 100% chance of activation. So make sure you dont touch Yugoslavia until they are Pro-Allied (not sure if Allied Leaning is sufficient), but once they turn, attack and crush them immediately. That should give you most of your Southern Front. :)
xianing
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RE: W@W to AWD, a few questions

Post by xianing »

I confirm Yugo Allied Leaning is sufficient. This rule is general for other countries too.
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