Advice on gameplay...

[Nutrino]

[font="Times New Roman"][/font]Hello, TOAW'ers!

I just picked up TOAW a couple of weeks ago and I'm working my way through the manual, tutorials, noobie strategy and tactics guides, etc. What a terrific game! And good news about a TOAW IV!

I have a question for some of you experienced folks, however: When you're playing a scenario with 200+ counters, what methodology are you using to issue orders? Are you cycling through your OOB to make sure that you don't miss a unit? Are you issuing orders by (mini) map area? I've read where some might be using spreadsheets to track their forces. If you're doing that, how do you do it?

As you might guess, the sheer complexity and size of the game is a bit daunting to a rookie. Thanks for any advice that you can offer on turn mechanics. And thanks to any of you who've invested the time to create community scenarios. I can only marvel at the time and effort that must go into researching and developing some of these things!

~Nutrino

[SMK-at-work]

I usually cycle through units using the "next unit" button.

Then I'll check to make sure any reinforcements have had some action, and then finally I will look at the map and try to see if there's units there I have missed.

Maybe IV will include a better confidence check!

[ncc1701e]

Welcome to the forum. [:)]

Basically, I am going from North to South of the frontline to move / attack with my units.
I am not using the mini map.

Now, what is important to understand is the turn resolution and the time spent by units during a turn. If you move one unit from far away to perform an attack, there is a pretty good chance that you are burning your turn because TOAW will count the time spent by the unit to move to the attack location. That's what I like in TOAW.

Thus, my advice is to first perform all the attacks that do not need much movement from your units.
Then, move your units. And, perform final attack round(s) if needed.

[golden delicious]

ORIGINAL: ncc1701e

Thus, my advice is to first perform all the attacks that do not need much movement from your units.
Then, move your units. And, perform final attack round(s) if needed.

This is good- but remember the previous steps:

Look at the situation.
Figure out what your options are.
Choose one.
Figure out how best to execute it.

Then you can start setting up attacks and moving units.

[Falcon1]

What I do is poke around moving units as I see fit in no particular order.
Then, when I am done with that, I go back to the beginning of the OOB and go through each unit in order to make sure I didn't forget anyone.
I just keep my eye on the available movement points to see which units can still move.
I know that sometimes you don't want to move every unit, but still this is a good quick way to see who has moved and who still has movement points left.
Then, I go back to the main map and plan all my attacks.

[Nutrino]

Thank you all for your sound advice. There's a golden nugget to be mined from each of your play styles and rest assured that I'll put those nuggets in my pocket.

I'm also guessing that there'll be plenty of refining of my game based upon blunders. What's the old axiom? You learn more from your mistakes than you do your successes?

Thanks again for taking the time to help a rookie.

~Nutrino