How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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warspite1
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How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by warspite1 »

I have never played one of these games before so am a total noob. But I am going to give this a go by diving in all the same and we'll see what happens....

I await the hardback manual so I don't expect the game to really take-off until this arrives (depending upon how intuitive it is I guess) but will push on as much as real life, work etc allow.

I plan to be the Allies and I want the most complete game possible - which looks like that means The Road To Warsaw.

If anyone has any tips, hints, or anything to throw at me along the way that would be good [:)]
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by loki100 »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

...
If anyone has any tips, hints, or anything to throw at me along the way that would be good [:)]

other than to express my gratitude you'll do this and thus make it easier for me to learn [;)]
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by warspite1 »

First things first then, and First Impressions.

By way of background my first love is World In Flames (finest game ever [&o]). This game therefore has a lot to live up to aesthetically! Although I trust will prove stronger on the stability and bugs front....[:(]

First off I select the Campaign to be played. I am only interested in the whole war in Europe.

Darkness descends over Europe as the continent is plunge into conflict. Can the Allies muster enough strength and courage to stop the Axis? - with this bozo in charge, I suspect not.....
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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Always handy to know what one is supposed to be doing....

So basically as the Allied player I need to hang on to Washington DC. Well that should be easy. Oh damn, I also have to hold onto London, Moscow, Paris, Warsaw and take Berlin and Rome.....

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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I am asked to choose a side. As said I want to play the Allies.

According to 3.2.1 Choose Side - I can play some of them only and have the AI control others. I think for now I will play all Allies as I want to see what is what. I may then change that for the USA and/or USSR later on until they join the war.

So I have control of the UK, France, USA, USSR and Poland

I will keep the Difficulty and Computer Bonuses to the pre-set levels. These look to be neutral in effect.

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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Options next.

I have the choice of 3-D or NATO-style. No choice for me, it has to be NATO. I must say though that I like World In Flames treatment better. There, land units are NATO and air and ships are silhouettes. That said, the ships are nice looking (with BB, CV etc) to denote the ship type.

National Colours. I will keep this on - I think the map looks a little bland otherwise.

Fog of War. Maybe not wise for a first game, but I will keep FOW on as this is something I will need to get used to if I am to play this game again.

All other options and preferences I will keep as per the default setting. This includes playing with weather effects, being able to undo moves and displaying in-game messages.

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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There are a load of Advanced Options and Scripts.

The Advanced Options are mostly ticked on. I do not think there are any overriding reasons to change these at this stage. One of the more intriguing advanced options is soft build limits. This allows more ahistorical builds apparently. I will keep this ticked off in order to try and keep this relatively vanilla.

There are a trillion scripts. It makes no sense in this sort of AAR to go piling into those and choosing some and discarding others. I will leave these as is.
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by Orm »

The long, dark, Autumn evenings are saved. [:)]

Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often students, for heaven's sake. - Terry Pratchett
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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[&:]

That's a bit annoying. As soon as I clicked to move away from options the game started!

No chance to set up Poles (must be set starting positions) no chance to review my units - I am instead greeted with a vision of my Poles being smacked up by the beastly hun.....

The sound effects are quite good [:)]

When that is over I get assaulted with a load of messages on all sorts of topics. I don't know if I can freeze these or call them up again. A quick check of the manual does not reveal anything. I will move on for now - hopefully this will become clear [EDIT - See Post 13]

I caught some of the messages. Poland have taken a morale hit, the British and French have declared war on Germany and there was also some reports on Polish losses (although as said I never had a chance to see what I started with).[EDIT - See Post 13]

In trying to get up the reports that have come and gone I seem to have lost two more messages. Hopefully I can get these back too. In the meantime the British have a decision to make.[EDIT - See Post 13]

I am asked if I want to deploy a British Expeditionary Force to assist the French. Looks like a no brainer as per below:

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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The Soviets also have a decision. Does Stalin want to invoke the secret protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Pact and invade Eastern Poland?

Apparently if we say yes the Germans may not honour their side of the NS Pact.

Well I think I will risk that. If Adolf wants a war on two fronts good luck to him....
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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I need some answers to a couple of questions so in the meantime, a look at First Impressions of the map, interface, units etc.

UNITS

The map has only three zoom levels, although for the information displayed this seems perfectly good. The information displayed is not too small (see below) although is perhaps borderline for many of us oldies in our frail dotage. As can be seen, I have highlighted the Western Desert Force. The numbers are all readable and the information is nicely displayed.

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by kirk23 »

Hi Robert Imagine seeing you here! Advice the standard game naval combat is brutal,keep HMS Warspite well away from enemy forces,not just other ships,bombers will do serious damage to your fav ship.[:D]
Make it so!
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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Right, thanks to the assistance of one of the forumites I have the answer to the missing reports. I should have thought of Hotkeys....

By calling up 'L' I can bring up the summaries for last turn.

Firstly we have the combat losses. I shall come back to this later, but I suspect Smigly-Rydz is after a new job....
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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I also get the other missing reports. The detail seems to be missing but the message gets across [:)]

There was one about the Mediterranean but that I cannot seem to locate. On the basis that Mussolini is quiet at the moment perhaps it wasn't important.
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by n0kn0k »

Play defensive with Poland and France, you won't be able to do much on the attack.
Keep a good eye on the garrison popup. If you don't you might end up with diplomatic consequences.
Have fun with the Royal Navy. [:D]
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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UNITS (Continued).

Right, before I look anymore at the boring land stuff, what does this game provide in terms of proper fighting units? Yes, the Royal Navy. Let's have a look....

I've counted 5 BB (Nelson, Rodney, Warspite, Valiant, Malaya, Valiant(?))
1 CC (Hood)
3 CV (Ark Royal, Glorious, Courageous)

So there must be some reduction in the number of units. I'll be interested to see if that reduction is relatively equal for Germany and Italy.

Scapa Flow appears to be in Scotland? What is that about?

Anyway, that aside, like the land units the information seems readily accessible and readable. The aircraft carriers have an extra factor for their air component.

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: Orm

The long, dark, Autumn evenings are saved. [:)]

warspite1

Long? It could be a very quick game [;)]
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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ORIGINAL: kirk23

Hi Robert Imagine seeing you here! Advice the standard game naval combat is brutal,keep HMS Warspite well away from enemy forces,not just other ships,bombers will do serious damage to your fav ship.[:D]
warspite1

kirk23! Good to see you again. They've pared back the RN and put Scapa in Scotland!
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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: n0kn0k

Play defensive with Poland and France, you won't be able to do much on the attack.
Keep a good eye on the garrison popup. If you don't you might end up with diplomatic consequences.
Have fun with the Royal Navy. [:D]
warspite1

Merci beacoup - will do [:)]
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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RE: How the Axis could have won. Allied AAR RTW

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So here is Poland after the first German turn. As said, I don't really know what I had to start with but have lost three armies and the cavalry group. From the remaining armies, this looks like a realistic set up was used.

The Polish corridor no longer exists - its sort of become a spacious hallway leading from Germany Central to East Prussia, complete with chandeliers and ornate pictures lining each wall. The Poznan Army is not quite cut off in the extreme west - hurrah! I've got the Modlin Army (quite strong) guarding the northern approaches to Warsaw, Karpaty army are still in the south and the Prusy Army Group guards the southwestern approaches to the capital. Two weak Corps are in the west guarding against a flanking attack from eastern East Prussia.

The Polish airforce still has a few aircraft....


The map is functional - it is not garish to look and and is not messy. The units are easily distinguishable on the map. But I get the feeling they could have done more with this. A solid 7/10.
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