Difficulty/complexity: how would you rate it ?

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results.

The critically and fan-acclaimed Eastern Front mega-game Gary Grigsby’s War in the East just got bigger and better with Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: Don to the Danube! This expansion to the award-winning War in the East comes with a wide array of later war scenarios ranging from short but intense 6 turn bouts like the Battle for Kharkov (1942) to immense 37-turn engagements taking place across multiple nations like Drama on the Danube (Summer 1944 – Spring 1945).

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nukkxx5058
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Difficulty/complexity: how would you rate it ?

Post by nukkxx5058 »

Just curious, question is in the title ... :-)
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Tzar007
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Tzar007 »

Advanced, for sure. The learning curve is steep, and frankly, I found out I'm going to have to read the manual cover to cover. This game is so deep I would be missing on too many features or it would takes ages guessing how some functions work if you don't refer to the manual.
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jhdeerslayer
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by jhdeerslayer »

Yes I have found reading the manual is essential. Obvious from the number of repeat questions on the forum too which are in the manual. i.e. RR Repair
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Krec
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Krec »

I would say 8/10 with 10 being the hardest. But its a easy eight.
WITE is real easy to play and soft on the eyes.
Great Map, GUI is very easy to use, Clear Graphics. The game is the best ive seen for this scope. This game will be the turnbase wargame of the year.
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country." Patton

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Lützow
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Lützow »

My opinion after three days and while still learning the ropes:

- complexity: ruleset seems to be in the ball park of original WitP.
- comprehension: manageable amount of counters and turns, yet massive enough. I like the idea of container units and a PBEM with 224 turns is rather feasible than the ungodly 700 in BtR or 1500+ in WitP.
- level of detail: ground combat and unit structure are satisfying, however the air model should be revised in terms of detail and strategic bombing.
- book keeping: Albeit the map is big, it doesn't need an extern tool anymore to keep track on everything. The former divided op/combat/intelligence report (WitP) got combined in the Event Log and Commander's Report shows everything worth knowing.

I would rate it advanced to grognard.
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hgilmer3
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by hgilmer3 »

I find it to be hard.  10/10.  I don't know how others pick it up so easy.
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roflbinflood
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by roflbinflood »

I found it to be rather easy actually. The only thing that i had to check from the manual was how to make planned attacks.
I think it helps to have played a lot of similar games like pzcampaigns, toaw etc.
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Swayin
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Swayin »

It's brilliant in that it's easy to get into and there is SO much there to keep drilling down into. As a huge WitP fan, I would say that this game is easier to start to play than that one, but with the same kind of ludicrous depth.
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hgilmer3
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by hgilmer3 »

Let me revise what I said.  I'm finding it hard to win.  I have no problem figuring out the moves.
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The Gnome
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by The Gnome »

Hard and easy at the same time.

Easy in the sense that the UI is friendly and you can intuitively get in and start doing things within minutes of install. Hard in the sense that there are so many details, that if you want to maintain the cohesion of your army and keep it supplied there is a lot of detail to understand.

I'm finding that playing the shortest scenarios first and answering questions on the fly is my personal easiest path.

Also, having a dual monitor setup is working well. I keep the game on the 27" monitor, and the manual on the 24".

Good luck, hope that helps!

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Hertston
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Hertston »

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

Hard and easy at the same time.

Easy in the sense that the UI is friendly and you can intuitively get in and start doing things within minutes of install. Hard in the sense that there are so many details, that if you want to maintain the cohesion of your army and keep it supplied there is a lot of detail to understand.

Totally agree. Surprisingly easy to get into, but huge complexities hidden within that eventually I'll have to get to grips with - and enjoy every minute of it. I suppose you would have to call it 'Advanced', but I think a wide range of strategy game players would be able to enjoy it even without too much wargames experience.
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SgtKachalin
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by SgtKachalin »

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

Hard and easy at the same time.

Second, or third, that. Mechanics are easy, playing well seems more difficult. [:)]

How the automated vs. manual functions work out (which at this point I have no idea about), may tell the tale as to how truly "easy" it is. If working manually reaps rewards - assuming one gets through the breaking-that-which-is-not-broken phase most complex management tasks have inherent in them - then it will really be an excellent game. Knowledge and Work = More Reward makes for a classic game. They can also make the game very "hard", and exacerbate the difference between Grognard and Scrub. But that's a good thing in wargames. [:D]
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Redmarkus5
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RE: Difficulty: how would you rate it ?

Post by Redmarkus5 »

If you have played advanced war games before (table-top FiTE or Computer WiTP/TOAW/RGW/AGW) you'll probably get the hang of this after about 2-3 test turns. The game has a great deal in common with RGW (Russo-German War) but looks better and has a better AI.

If you are a strategy gamer, but not a serious WW2 war gamer, it will probably feel 'hard' and you'll need to read the manual.

If you are new to this kind of game it will feel 'very hard' and you will probably need to re-start your test scenarios several times before you get the hang of it. You'd also want to have read a history of the war in Russia, IMHO, to understand what's going on.

I am a long-time serious war gamer and I've been playing WiTE for 3 days now (evenings). It feels like it's going to be my favourite title for a long time to come. Excellent game.
WitE2 tester, WitW, WitP, CMMO, CM2, GTOS, GTMF, WP & WPP, TOAW4, BA2
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