Learning curve is prohibitive

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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56ajax
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Location: Cairns, Australia

RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by 56ajax »

ORIGINAL: DadeCariaga

Perhaps, but you're approach is more to my style. I don't like moving counters around without knowing what I'm doing. I know how to execute a pocket. I know how to complete a deliberate vs. hasty attack. I know how to blow a hole in the line with infantry and run my panzers through the line.

What I don't know is why I want to cashier a general. Or how to set my air doctrine. Or why some planes can't be assigned to some airbases. Or when to buildup HQ. Or what to do if the number of trucks gets depleted. Or when/how to combine brigades into divisions. Or when to swap out one type of tanks for another.

And does any of the above matter?
You are going the right way about it by asking questions. Please read the manual, release notes etc and search the forums.

But in the mean time

Cashier a General - you want your best generals at the front. When you click on an HQ it has the leaders name with a number eg Korobkov (3.2) The number is an average of the leaders skills. The higher the number the better. It costs Admin points to change leaders so watch out.

Air Doctrine. Info Screens tab, the button with 3 planes on it. Some of the missions happen automatically and some require manual intervention

Planes on bases - Soviets you can assign any planes you like to any base but they will not fly if thy are on night missions and it is daytime, out of target range, already travelled 100%, there are 9 squadrons on the base and I think the system can only fly 8 (might be crazy about this one) AXIS - not my strong point; I think you can only assign recon and supply to Army bases

HQ Buildup - build up supplies for an offensive; can be really gamey

Trucks = supply. try and keep your units in supply. Too be honest I do not survive in this game long enough for this to be an issue.

Combining brigades into Divisions - only allowed 3 units in a hex regardless of their size or strength so the bigger the units the better; if you have lots of units but running low on manpower

Tanks - you can't swap tanks unfortunately

By the way I am still learning, after 7 years.....
Molotov : This we did not deserve.

Foch : This is not peace. This is a 20 year armistice.

C'est la guerre aérienne
MarauderPL
Posts: 134
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RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by MarauderPL »

ORIGINAL: 56ajax

Planes on bases - Soviets you can assign any planes you like to any base but they will not fly if thy are on night missions and it is daytime


That is super misleading for new players, plz dont ;)
There is no daytime or nighttime, the turns are a week long abstract. There is just a button toggle to carry out day missions or night missions. Obviously planes set to night cant fly the daylight missions and vice versa.
Also dont put your airbases on urban, heavy woods and swamps, because then they dont work. There are also limitations on particular types of missions, like recon (2 times per hex), airbase bombing (2 times per hex, less than x% of miles flown for the squadron - dont remember the x) and probably some more.
Dont give up man! All these rules are not really important unless you challenge the best players around, you can win vs the AI without the airforce at all ;)
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topeverest
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RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by topeverest »

+1

The fun is in playing and learning. Get a PBEM or solitaire game going. There is only so much you can learn from the manual.

In my experience this title is an outstanding, complex simulation that has been thoroughly thought through and tested. The best $80 I ever spent! That said, this kind of simulation may not be your cup of tea, and only you can tell.

I am playing my first full PBEM game and learning every turn. I couldn't hope to be a seasoned expert in just one playthrough.



ORIGINAL: Telemecus

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

Why trying to get everything before playing ?

Start a game right now and have fun. You can even start a multiplayer game with another newbie and see what is happening (and learning during the process).
Let a lot of things managed automaticaly (such as the air force and support units) for now.

You will also discover that while there are tons of parameters managed in the game, not all of them are equally important.


+1

I played my first game just pushing units around as I thought they should be and had tons of fun before really getting in to the innards of the game. And learning the details is much easier when you have the desire to want to - and understand the consequences of doing so.
Andy M
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RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by Capitaine »

I don't know if it's been said yet but you do not need to know and understand *all* the rules to start playing this and having fun. The better you wish to be at the game, the more you will need to know and grasp. But learning by doing is the best approach -- unless you're a savant who can digest everything at once lol.

Play the tutorial, then play the Heeresgruppe Nord scenario until you can win it. Then go to the Heeresgruppe Sud scenario and play till you win it. Then Heeresgruppe Mitte and so on. These are good games all by themselves. If you bite off more than you can chew, you have only yourself to blame. Eventually, by playing and investigating things that come up during play, you will become more fluent with the rules and concepts, and things will become much more uncomplicated. It's a process.
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BeirutDude
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RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by BeirutDude »

No you're not the only one, I also gave up on this and War in the West. I even bought the War in the West Manual, but it's like reading a college textbook.
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem."
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985

I was Navy, but Assigned TAD to the 24th MAU Hq in Beirut. By far the finest period of my service!
mouse707
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:23 pm

RE: Learning curve is prohibitive

Post by mouse707 »

My first game, some years ago, was a solo game with germany and normal difficulty. Loving wargames from a long time, I've enjoyed this solo game a lot. The German OOB is very detailed, units and the map are nice, you can have a grand strategy plan and you can build some tactical operations without knowing too much about the game. You have the pleasure to use very powerful mobile divisions.

You only have to know that you have 2 types of attack (Hasty and prepaired), that a chain of command exists (with the max distance to HQ to have bonuses), the rules about cutting supply (first cutting supply lines with Hex control, and then attacking units). Other points are very intuitive (like choosing the best commanders). With only that, I've enjoyed a great barbarossa campaign and won in 1942. You don't really need to master many micro-things, that's the advantage of a computer game over a board game. You can play the whole game without knowing anything at the air game (excepted making recons and moving airbases). I've even let the AI bomb the russian airbases on the 1st turn of barbarossa and the result was quite correct, and not so bad compared to what i would do now.

Compared to WITW, you can really have a fun game with only standard notions of wargaming.
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