Gary Grigsby's World at War Released Digital download

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Bea-Arthurs Hip

Ok, I cant take it anymore. I am downloading right now.

To anyone who has the game: I am new to any of Grigsbys games, can I play the tutorials and be ready to jump right in after running through them?

What is the learning curve?

Thanks

I also, am new to Gary's games and war sims as well. I have read the manual through once and played the tutorials. I have started up one game and got my ass handed to me by the AI. I will definitely take the the weekend and read the manual as you play . I have it download on the PC as a PDF and keep it open and as needed switch between it an dthe game to check on stuff. Great, great game.

[Buccaneer]

agree with Galaril. I'm almost done with the tutorial, having to learn about the Production Phase next. From what I can tell, WaW has a much less steeper learning curver than HOI. Don't mistake the streamlining and truly global scale as being "dumbed-down". Maybe to hardcore grognards who gets their panties in a bunch when the angle of deflection of a tank's upper hull is not quite right when a certain artillery shell hits it. As I said before, this game is very Civ-like. Here's what I mean:

These are the units attributes

Speed: This is the Movement Factor of the unit. The Movement Factor is the number

of regions a unit may move without using Strategic Movement (i.e., moving under its

own power and not being transported).

Transport Capacity (for Strategic Movement) / Load Cost (for other units) - For

Transport Fleets it is shown as two numbers separated by a slash, e.g. 25/3, where

the first number is the Transport Capacity and the second number is the amphibious

capacity (used for invasions).

Land Attack – This is the unit's Land Attack Value, used when engaging in combat

versus other land units and/or infrastructure, or when attacking air units on airfields.

Aircraft Attack – This is the unit's Air Attack Value, used when engaging in combat

versus air units. If the unit is a land unit, this is the land unit's anti-aircraft ability.

Ship Attack – This is the unit's Ship Attack Value, used when engaging in combat

versus ship units. Note that Artillery units can attack ships by using Op-Fire or when in

a region being bombarded by ships.

Anti-Sub Attack – This is the unit's Anti Sub Attack Value, used when engaging in

combat versus submarines.

Torpedo Attack – This is the unit's Torpedo Attack value, used when engaging in

combat versus ships.

Range – This value is used to determine at what combat range the unit can fire (e.g.,

Artillery with a Range of 2 gets to shoot before land units with a Range of only 1).

Evasion – This is the unit's first Defense Rating. Evasion is multiplied by Durability to

get the unit's Defense Rating.

Durability – This is the unit's second Defense Rating. Durability is multiplied by

Evasion to get the unit's Defense Rating.

Armor – This is the amount of protection the unit has; when the unit is attacked, it

reduces the number of dice rolled by the attacking unit.

Production Cost – This is the number of turns (and, number of Production Points)

that are required to build the unit.

As far as Production, you simply have Factories, Resources, Population and Transportation in each region. You decide what to build (and move out) each turn. In a region that is on the front lines (like in Europe), you could have

11 Infantry
2 Militia
7 Mechanized
3 Artillery
2 Figther Air
1 Transport Fleet
8 Supply

That's not too bad to manage. The key, though, is to know how to use the units properly - in the offense and defense (like sending in a tactical bomber prior to the infantry and make sure you have plently of armor units support them). The fact that, particularly playing as the Western Allies, you have fight a different kind of war in the Pacific and trying to balance supplies between the two theatres will be interesting.

[Galaril]

A new patch has been released he is the link and readme.Word is Gary is already working and done with AI improvements for the next patch :

Readme patch 1.16
Change History:

v1.016 – April 5th, 2005
(First Update Changes and Additions)

Please Note: Old save files (v1.005) should be able to be loaded with the updated version. However, if playing PBEM, once one player has loaded the game using the patch, all the next players to follow must also play the game using the patch. Not all fixes will work in games that continue from old saves.

1. Important New Feature - Users using systems with less than 640 MB of RAM or less than 100 MB of texture space will be set to Low Graphic Quality (16 bit) mode the first time the game loads with this version. It will mark the new graphics setting on the preferences screen. At this point if the user selects High Graphic Quality (32 bit) it will use that setting on future loads. Old preference files (v1.005 game release) will be ignored on the first run of this newer version. These settings are designed to reduce troubleshooting by setting the systems that should be using Low Graphic Quality for performance and compatibility to that setting for the first load, while allowing a change back to High Quality if the user desires. In most cases, the difference in visual Quality will be slight, but with a significant performance gain on slower systems.

2. Bug Fix – The sound handling on the production screen was improved, which may help some systems that were experiencing issues with overlapping sounds.

3. New Feature – Added the ability to interrupt the game during an AI turn. Press ctrl-p to pause the AI and gain control over the top toolbar. Press ctrl-r to resume the AI’s turn.


4. Bug fix – When Combat Animations are turned on, the game may crash during a battle involving 64 or more units (combined total of both sides’ units). This has been fixed so that it will work with up to 256 units (when more than 256 units are in a battle, some will be left out of the combat animation but the game should no longer crash).

5. Bug fix – A crash reported during AI movement was determined to be caused by bad unit data. A fix was made to self correct this kind of data problem and more safeguards were inserted to protect the system from initially generating bad data. This crash was reported by one user in the German AI movement phase of the Winter 1945 turn.

6. Bug Fix – Combat modifiers for attacks on frozen zones are not taking effect. Now the surprise rule modifiers will function properly and no die roll modifiers are allowed in combat in frozen zones as per the manual.

7. Bug Fix - When Germans invade Russia in winter, the first winter rules are in affect on the turn of invasion. They will no longer take affect until the following winter turn.

8. Bug Fix - There were some instances where units that should have been able to retreat were destroyed as if they had no legal area to retreat to. One example was Soviet Units in Vladivostock being destroyed as being unable to retreat after a battle even though they had a retreat route. Units will now retreat properly.

9. Bug fix – In some cases Carrier Air units on a Carrier Fleet in a battle were being destroyed as unable to retreat even though the Carrier Fleet successfully retreated. Now, the Carrier Air unit will retreat with the Carrier Fleet.

10. Bug Fix – Units on factories that are scrapped upon capture were providing extra resources to the capturing player. Now, when units are scrapped when the factory they are on is captured, no resources will be generated for either player.

11. Bug Fix – A few instances of crashes while using the turn replay were reported. Changes were made to better prevent these crashes from occurring.

12. Bug fix – Sometimes the last line of the message listing what has been produced at the end of the production phase is truncated. This display bug has been fixed.

13. Bug fix – There have been several reports of AI ground units remaining in sea regions without transports at the end of their turn. Changes were made to the AI to eliminate possible illegal moves that might explain these reports.

14. AI improvement – Improved the AI’s ability to team up on Germany late in games when Germany is reduced to just a few areas and Western Germany is controlled by an especially large German army.

15. AI improvement – Improved the Western Allied AI’s ability to resist a German invasion of England. The Allies should be more aggressive with their fleets in trying to disrupt a German invasion.

16. AI improvement – Improved naval AI so that fleets will do a better job avoiding making poor odds attacks.

17. AI improvement – Improved naval AI so that the Russian fleet in the Black Sea will be more aggressive at attacking German transports in the Black Sea.

18. AI improvement – Improved Japanese AI to avoid weak attacks against areas where militia will be generated.


v1.005
(First Release Changes and Additions)

1. (Addition) After a game is completed, both major alliances (Axis and Allies) will receive a victory point score. This is in addition to the basic victory level (Total, Decisive, Marginal, Draw). This score takes into account the victory level, difficulty level, number of turns played, the build cost of units damaged and destroyed (both friendly and enemy), and the factories, resource centers and regions owned at the end of the game. The higher the number, the better the score.

2. (Change) In reference to section 3.2.6, political garrison requirements are not only checked at the end of friendly player turns. All political garrison requirements (for all players) are checked after each battle is resolved and also at the end of each player’s turn.

3. (Addition) Just below the save date on the Load Game screen, during PBEM games you will find the text message Console: 0. This indicates the number of times that the data in the game has been altered by the players. This should always be 0, as players should never attempt to alter game data. If you see a value greater than 0, your opponent has tampered with the game data.

4. (Addition) The game now keeps track of how many times each player has loaded a saved game during the current turn when playing in a PBEM game. Some PBEM players prefer that player’s not be able to replay all or part of their turns. We’ve added this loaded count feature for those players. The loaded count appears just after the Console message on the Load Game screen. The game will track the number of times the game has been loaded during a player’s turn.

Each time a saved game is loaded, the save, and all other saves by this player this turn will have that player’s load count increased by one. Whenever a new save is made, the load count only for this save will be decreased by one. Whenever a PBEM game is saved, the game will automatically exit to the main menu. As long as a player always loads the most recent save (and only loads each save once), the final load count for the player’s save that they pass to the next player will be 0. So when you load a saved game, if the value is ever greater than 0 for any of your opponents, you know that that opponent has loaded a save more than once (allowing them to retry a portion of their turn). The loads are listed for each of the 5 World Powers: Ge, Ja, So, Ch, We (although nothing is listed for a player if their load count is 0). Whenever the German or Soviet player loads a saved game, the load counts of the previous players are zeroed out.

Example: Soviet Union is played by player #3 and China and the Western Allies is played by player #4. The Soviet player loads the save received from the Japanese player and starts playing. They then save the game, exiting to the main menu after the save. The Soviet player then loads his save, finishes the turn, saves the game and emails the save to player #4. When player #4 loads the save, he will see no load count as the Soviet player did not make any extra loads. Player #4 moves for the Chinese and then during the Western Allies turn they save the game. Player #4 loads this new save, continues the turn, but exits to the main menu. They then reload their save. Since this is an extra load, the Western Allies load count will be increased. If player #4 completes the turn, saves the game and sends it to the German player, the German player will see We: 1 on the Load Game screen for this save, and will know that during the Western Allies turn an extra load was made.

5. (Clarification) In section 8.5.7, the combat modifier that begins with “+1 Firing Unit is German…” should be changed to read: +1 Unit in Defending Force and the Firing Unit is German in a cold weather Soviet Nationality region during the first winter turn following a German declaration of war with the Soviet Union.

6. (Addition) Section 8.5.8 Combat Animation - When a unit is fired at, two small boxes will appear near the target unit. The first number that is displayed in one of these boxes is the modified defense factor of the target unit. The next number displayed is displayed in red, and is the modified Attack Factor of the firing unit.


link

[JPhillips]

How well do allies work together in WaW? My major problem with HOI2 right now is that allies never seem to attack together. Of course amphibious landings almost never happen at all in HOI2.

[Buccaneer]

Galaril, have you started a game playing as the Western Allies?

[HerRealName]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

How well do allies work together in WaW? My major problem with HOI2 right now is that allies never seem to attack together. Of course amphibious landings almost never happen at all in HOI2.

I've only played 2 games so far, both as the Soviet Union. The Western Allies did provide a lot of supply to me in both my games. The US, UK, Australia, and Canada are all the same entity in the game so the player could coordinate attacks. Amphibious landings are very possible in GGWaW.

[Eaglesfan27]

Digital download is such a good business move. Tonight, I'm in the mood to play a grand scope war game. As a result, I've just purchased this and am downloading it now.

[Pumpy Tudors]

I'm about to give this game a shot, too. Still on the fence about it, and I've never been terribly good at turn-based strategy games (although I love them), but I should be happy as long as I have fun.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

I'm about to give this game a shot, too. Still on the fence about it, and I've never been terribly good at turn-based strategy games (although I love them), but I should be happy as long as I have fun.

...and being able to manage your first turn.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

...and being able to manage your first turn.

Now you've frightened me. Maybe I'll purchase tomorrow.

[DaddyTorgo]

i've resisted shilling this other game, but if anyone is into Space combat sims a la Wing Commander or that type of genre, Matrix has another game called "Starshatter" that has a playable demo and is a really easy-to-learn and fun-to-play game.

everything from single space-fighter combat to massive capital ships in huge formation battles. i havn't gotten that deep into it, but i'm very satisfied with the 30 bucks i spent on it.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

Now you've frightened me. Maybe I'll purchase tomorrow.

I don't think I'm going to play much tonight. I could easily spend a few hours tonight just reading this manual (and most likely will.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

i've resisted shilling this other game, but if anyone is into Space combat sims a la Wing Commander or that type of genre, Matrix has another game called "Starshatter" that has a playable demo and is a really easy-to-learn and fun-to-play game.

everything from single space-fighter combat to massive capital ships in huge formation battles. i havn't gotten that deep into it, but i'm very satisfied with the 30 bucks i spent on it.

Is the purchaseable version downloadable as well? If so, I'll likely check it out at some point. I really wish all companies would go to digital distribution.

[DaddyTorgo]

yeah the purchaseable version is downloadable too. and the demo isn't time-limited like some other companies, it's just limited to I guess you'd say the "first campaign." I gotta say it only took me like...an hour with the demo TOPS before I bought the game. And I played it for a good...3-4 hours the first night. I still havn't played World at War for that long (but that's more b/c i feel I need to really read the manuel to be any good at that)

[gstelmack]

I checked out the Starshatter demo a while back and it definitely looked cool. It's on my list to pick up soon...

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

I checked out the Starshatter demo a while back and it definitely looked cool. It's on my list to pick up soon...

Do you need a joystick to play it or not?

[DaddyTorgo]

nope. i play it on a keyboard and it's fine. it's like a flight sim though. if you think you'd prefer a joystick for a flight sim then you would probably for starshatter too.

[Buccaneer]

As a matter of verification, can someone share with me what would be the typical turn 1 movements or movement strategies for the Allies?

[Galaril]

Yeah, I too would like a kick start turn one. This is atough game to get started with.

[JPhillips]

Buc: What I do is take Italian Africa with the two troop next to it while also moving a BB into the Red Sea for support. I move CLs where needed to eliminate the Nazi sub threat. I land in Morocco to begin my capture of N. Africa. I move my troops into Egypt to stop the Nazis from advancing.

Those are my offensive moves. I may bomb Paris if there are no planes stationed there.

I'm just now playing my thrid game as the Allies. Its summer of 1941 and I took all of N. Africa and Italy before the US entered the war. The Nazis are already pulling troops from the Eastern front to stop the British advance. Now the US is ready to enter the fray. I'm hoping for the surrender of Germany before 1943.

[Buccaneer]

What about all those units around UK and the North Sea? Also, do you keep the navy where they are along the Atlantic Coast? If you want to defend an area of sea, what would be a good mix of units? My hesistancy, besides not being very experienced in WW2 games like this, is spending quite a bit of time doing something totally stupid.

[JPhillips]

I keep a couple BBs around the UK, but the Nazis seem very reluctant to force a naval confrontation in the North Atlantic. I generally strip the UK of troops and throw them into Africa and then Italy. Once you take either half of Italy the Nazis lose their ships in the Med. and that allows me to send those carriers to the Pacific.

I like BBs around the coast of Europe for bombard value and CLs spaced around the atlantic for antisub duty. Carriers can also pick off subs, but I want them to meet up with the US carriers in the Pacific as soon as they enter the war. I have found BBs to be of very little value except for bombarding on assaults. As in real life, carriers eat up BBs.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Is the sound in Dubly? I would never play a game without Dubly sound.

It's not in Dubly, but you can offset that with the new Soundblaster PC amps that go to 11.

[Peregrine]

I'm not sure I get the naval reference, why would Germany have ships in the Med? Wouldn't it be primarily Italian ships instead?

[JPhillips]

Peregrine: Yeah, but Italy and Germany are controlled by the same player in the same turn, so for game purposes they are all given the German designation.

[Wolfpack]

Think of it like Axis & Allies. At such a scale, giving the Italians their own troops makes no sense because the Italians didn't make a dent, comparatively speaking, in the war. Germany had to bail them out in Greece and in North Africa, after all.

[Buccaneer]

BBs and CLs?

[Wolfpack]

If you're asking abbreviations, I belive it's battleships and light cruisers (though I suppose it's just cruisers in the game).

[Buccaneer]

Actually neither terminology. We have Heavy Fleet and Light Fleet. I'm just not experienced in this type of game to know better.

[JPhillips]

Sorry Buc. Think BBs for Heavy fleets and CLs for Light fleets.

I achieved a total Allied victory in Winter of 1945. The Nazis held out well in Europe. I had Italy by Spring of 1942, but didn't get all of France until late 1943. Western Germany took three attacks from my combined armies and two attacks from the Soviets before finally falling in spring of 1945.

The Japanese fell fairly quickly once I started sending enough transports and troops that direction. My best work was sinking the Japanese fleet without losing a single carrier! It took over three years to get the last of the Jap carriers, but in the five major carrier engagements I lost planes and escorts but never a carrier.

[Buccaneer]

Thanks, that helps.

[DaddyTorgo]

playing as the allies intimidates me in this game. There's...so much. I havn't even begun to get the hang of the whole naval-combat thing. I'm still working on getting the hang of land combat (admittedly havn't played enough cuz of MVP 2005 sucking all of my time)

[JPhillips]

Once you get comfortable enough with movement and combat besure and do production yourself. That made a huge difference in my early conquest of Italy. I made some mistakes and never did quite get the hang of manpower, but building troops that could go right into N. Africa and then Italy freed up my Med. naval forces to go to the Pacific.

I never built a heavy fleet and only three extra carries. I built several transports, but only a couple of subs. In general I built much more land/air power than the auto build with a corresponding lack of naval build.

[DaddyTorgo]

yeah. i've already taken over production cuz I feel that's pretty vital to the overall strategies that i might produce. I also got frustrated with the AI's naval building (is there a slider I didn't see for that?) As Germany it was concentrating on building me subs and boats early on, which was making it difficult for me to prosecute the war in the East after conquering the rest of Europe blitzkrieg-style.

[Bea-Arthurs Hip]

and the demo isn't time-limited like some other companies, it's just limited to I guess you'd say the "first campaign." I gotta say it only took me like...an hour with the demo TOPS before I bought the game

Is there a demo out? I could not find anything on the Matrix site.

[Galaril]

No demo.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

playing as the allies intimidates me in this game. There's...so much. I havn't even begun to get the hang of the whole naval-combat thing. I'm still working on getting the hang of land combat (admittedly havn't played enough cuz of MVP 2005 sucking all of my time)

Try playing a few rounds as the Russians. It's a bit simpler introduction to the game (no real Naval worries) and helps you figure out how production works.

[sachmo71]

Not sure if anyone saw this, but it's a quick and dirty strategy guide for the game. Enjoy.


http://waw.wargamer.com/mark.html

[gstelmack]

So, anyone up for getting a PBEM game started?

[JPhillips]

I'd be in. Although after a play as Germany and a couple times watching the computer play everyone I think the Allies are far superior in this game setup.

[judicial clerk]

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

I don't have time to play this game.

PBEM would be so badass!

Does Russia play as kind of a thrid party, not strictly alligned with the Allies?

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by judicial clerk

Does Russia play as kind of a thrid party, not strictly alligned with the Allies?

Well, they can't attack them or anything, but they are played separately.

[sachmo71]

The game is on sale at gogamer.com for 27.90 for the next 48 hours. A copy is winging it's way to my house as we speak!

[judicial clerk]

I have high hopes for this game. I am excited to have a good WWII strategy game that I can pop into the computer and play without too much fuss. Of course, first I must invest the time in learning how the game works. I do not think that it is too complicated, but it is a little intimidating at first.

I have played through the tutorials and I have decided to jump in as Germany. I am playing with normal rules and I think i have simple supply selected. I know that I am going to make some mistakes (especially regarding supply, production, and repair) that will probably result in a ass-kicking from the AI, but I figure that this is the best way to learn the game.

So gremany, I attacked and won in Beglium/Holland with about 5? infantry and 1 artillery followed by western France with my 6? tanks (wich triggered the Vichy event). I next took Denmark which was unprotected.

Per the tutorial. i then repaired the infrastructure of Denmark (so that i could use its strategic movement in my amphibous assault) and invaded Norway by amphibous and airborne assault.

Next I attacked the British navy in the med with the Italian navy and maybe a bomber? and won.

For non combat movement I moved artillery into denmark to take advantage of opportunity fire against any allies lokking to sail into the Baltic and flak into western france to hopefully deter strategic bombing. i moved my subs into the port in western france so that they can later use their two movement points to hit at british shipping and return to base in the same turn. I also moved some infantry towards yugoslavia and I will invite them to join the thrd reich soon.

[lighthousekeeper]

Game available for $3.90 at GoGamer

All PC Games - World at War for PC


I couldn't tell from rereading this thread whether this game was worth the time investment. Any comments from those who played?