OK sell me on this one guys!

World in Flames is the computer version of Australian Design Group classic board game. World In Flames is a highly detailed game covering the both Europe and Pacific Theaters of Operations during World War II. If you want grand strategy this game is for you.

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ETF
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OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by ETF »

Played the board game in the day. Best ever IMHO. HOWEVER when considering purchasing this puppy I wonder..... Would the Hearts of Iron III (IV soon?) not be a more comprehensive and complete package of replicating the grand strategic World War II using a CPU?

Or is this a transition product to bring in board wargamers that can no longer find enough players?
My Top Matrix Games 1) CMO MP?? 2) WITP/AE 3) SOW 4) Combat Mission 5) Armor Brigade

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Extraneous
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by Extraneous »

ORIGINAL: ETF
Played the board game in the day. Best ever IMHO. HOWEVER when considering purchasing this puppy I wonder..... Would the Hearts of Iron III (IV soon?) not be a more comprehensive and complete package of replicating the grand strategic World War II using a CPU?

Or is this a transition product to bring in board wargamers that can no longer find enough players?

I participated in the MWiF (Matrix computerized World in Flames) beta and as such cannot give an opinion on MWiF.

I have played HoI and found it very much less interesting than WiF.

I participated in the CWiF (Autralian Design Group computerized World in Flames) beta and even with the bugs found it much more interesting than HoI.



If the computer map screen shots, strategy discussions, naval aspects, production, and political aspects are not enough. It would be hard for me to sell you on the aspects of WiF vs. HoI.

CWiF had the same rules as in the WiF board game and requires less looking up the rules and maintaing paperwork.



Anyone who was on the MWiF beta is under a NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) which was distributed to anyone who wanted to be in the beta and so cannot be condidered confidential information.

MWiF beta testers are not supposed to give an opinion (good or bad) about the game until 9 months after it has been released.

It was released in Essen, Germany on October 25, 2013.
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by DSWargamer »

Unprintable comments regarding a real time farce.......

If you liked the board game, well, this IS the board game, just no lost room and no cat trouble.

If you want an interesting variation on experience though, I have seen some rather amazing WW2 setting creations for the Civilization program. It's still, Civ, but it sure beats any real time silliness.
I have too many too complicated wargames, and not enough sufficiently interested non wargamer friends.
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by bo »

Or is this a transition product to bring in board wargamers that can no longer find enough players [&:]

Coming out of the woodworks now. [:(]

Bo
Numdydar
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by Numdydar »

I have never played WiF but I have player HoI 3 a LOT. I really enjoy it. Especially with Their Finest Hour expansion. As a hard core turn based player, it was extreamely hard for me to accept the real time nature of the game. Just did not seem right like DSW said above.

However, one long time player said that HoI is turn based. It is just each turn is one hour at a time [:D]. So really no different that playing WitP and letting the turns run continously.

The continous nature of the game allows a much more realistic feel to air/naval battles and the act/react of land forces. Another strength of HoI III is you can actually use HQs. by this you can assign HQs objectives and then they use the troops to try and accomplish your order. So the amount of detail you want to have managing your forces is up to you. Plus you can start the game in 1936 and use diplomancy to change things prior to war. Something WiF will not allow you to do until much later, if ever.

Bottom line is HoI III is the second game I played the most behind WitP AE. But like AE, WiF, etc. It does take a bit of time to learn the game. There are tons of videos on the game so check them out. Just make sure the videos are showing Thier Finest Hour as that is the latest version.
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by composer99 »

ETF: If you found WiF to be the best boardgame of its genre, you may wish to ask yourself whether you would rather play a computer game version of WiF, especially one that does all the tedious work for you, or play Hearts of Iron.

I haven't played HoI in quite some time (not since HoI 2) so much of my perception of boardgame WiF vs. HoI might be out of date.

I would say that WiF the boardgame has the following advantages over HoI that I expect would translate to the computer game:

1 - Gameplay is more intuitive in WiF. In the real war, no single commander had to micromanage every single land, air, and naval combat to the level of detail that HoI uses, all while simultaneously tracking research projects, analysing individual intelligence reports, engage in trade and diplomacy, and keeping up on political events across the world. WiF the boardgame lets you micromanage, yes, but the higher level of abstraction keeps it from being overwhelming.

2 - The structure of WiF supports multiplayer, especially >2 player multiplayer, far better than HoI. Playing HoI single player, I would often pause for a very long time to work things through at the start of a scenario or at key times during play (like, say, when starting a massive offensive). I would not want to be rushed thinking through that by impatient players on the other end. If pauses are more stringently enforced against, players with "big" major powers (Germany, the US, and others) should find themselves in hot water because the multiplicity of fronts and situations to manage can get out of hand the less they can pause to take stock of things. The "IGO-UGO" structure of WiF means that each side takes it in turns to take time doing things, and I would expect in MWiF the non-phasing side can find ways to keep themselves occupied if things are dragging a bit.

3 - As clunkily as WiF the boardgame handled logistics, oil, and production, in my view it handled them better than HoI does, in the sense that when playing one would get the feeling that logistics, etc. actually had more impact on play - that is to say, when playing WiF I felt like I have to take such things into account, whereas in HoI as long as I have enough supplies, oil, etc. stockpiled, I don't notice them at all, whatever the military situation.

I'm sure I could think of others given time.
~ Composer99
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RE: OK sell me on this one guys!

Post by Numdydar »

Things have definately changed from your experience composer99 as you point out.

Supply/resources are hugely important in HoI III, even more so in TFH than the base HoI III. So neither of these are anything you can ignore even as the US as those supplies have to transported across the oceans. So definately NOT something you can ignore when you play.

There is some down time in MP with HoI (and all of Paradox's RT games). However if the game is paused by someone else, you can still do things things too. While you may not have needed to much of anything, it does give you a chance to review. NetPlay in WiF will have even more of that since while I am moving, you will not be able to do anything most of the time. So until PBEM comes along, I think WiF will be worse than HoI III is. Of course, since I have no idea how netplay will actually work and you do, I will take your opnion on this over mine [:D]
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