Potential buyer with questions about the game

[ftgcritt2]

I recently downloaded the demo for CEAW and so far, I like what I see. There are just a few questions that I have about the full game that I would like answered before I shell out 50 bucks.

First of all, is the AI any better with the full game? Because it is absolutely horrible on the demo. On the hardest setting for the allies in 1944, I was able to land my army in Holland and capture Berlin before the hour time limit expired.

Also, is there a reasonably large community of gamers who utilize the PBEM option. Judging by this forum, it looks like there are. But I dont know anyone who has the game and I would need to be able to pretty easily set up matches with people on the internet.

Do you need to be a computer guru to make mods? I've noticed that there are a lot of mods that people have made for this game, and I was wondering if there is an intuitive option built into the game that allowes for easy moding without having to jump through any hoops.

Is taking the capital of a country always the end-all be-all of knocking out that country? It seems like the only way to beat a country is to take their capital. And if you take their capital, they surrender no matter what, even if they still have a large and viable army. I know that if Hitler had taken Moscow, that wouldnt have meant the end of the red army. It certainly didnt work for Napoleon.

Finally, IF THERE ARE ANY OLD BOOKCASE BOARDGAMERS OUT THERE, SPEAK UP!!! I want your opinion of the value of this game, since I'm used to playing games like Avalon Hill's Fortress Europa and that is what I will always compare WW2 strategy games to.

[firepowerjohan]

The AI is the same in the final version. 1944 Scenasrio is purposedly heavily biased towards Allies, try being Axis instead and see if you can stand a chance of saving France.

Some countries have 2 Capitals so mean you need to take both to make them surrender.

Modding is quite hard for any game if you want the mod to be any good yes, but there already exist good mods for the game. There is an editor for the game which you can download from the modders forum.

[Happycat]

Finally, IF THERE ARE ANY OLD BOOKCASE BOARDGAMERS OUT THERE, SPEAK UP!!! I want your opinion of the value of this game, since I'm used to playing games like Avalon Hill's Fortress Europa and that is what I will always compare WW2 strategy games to.

Old bookcase gamer here, emphasis on the old! For PBEM this game will definitely resurrect memories of dark winter nights spent over a paper map replete with cardboard counters (except your stacks won't fall over with CEAW).

I agree that the AI is a bit dim, and in the mod that Stauffenberg, RKR1958 and I have finally released (after over a year of tweaking and testing), it doesn't get any better. But with all due modesty, I think our mod took an already very good game and made it even better. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I almost guarantee you that YOU, as an old bookcase gamer, will love the mod.

So I will guarantee you this---if you buy the game, and install our mod, you will have three people at least willing to play you PBEM games for as long as you want. In addition, even if you don't want to try the mod, you will still find lots of opponents here willing to play against.

At the risk of being repetitious---this is a great game, I have owned it since its initial release, and it still gets more play-time from me than anything else that I own.



EDIT: by the way, with the mod we made, there are five pages of house rules, so that too will take you back in time LOL. Seriously though, the rules are not difficult to absorb and remember, and mostly reinforce common sense.

[ftgcritt2]

Thankyou Happycat. One question about the mod though... if I install the mod, can i still play the original game and play against people with the original game? What all did you change? Did you improve the AI? I guess that was more than one question.

[ftgcritt2]

What version should I get, and whats the difference?

[Redpossum]

Hey, another old grognard here.

CEAW definitely will remind you of the old Avalon Hill games like Afrika Korps. I like it very much, and I am currently playing an email game. We started in 1939, and are currently on turn 72, which puts us in very late summer of 1943.

I personally prefer the stock game, without any house rules, but that's just individual taste.

In my experience, (YMMV), you won't be able to play stock games with any mod installed. But all you need to do is copy the stock directory to one with a different name before you install the mod. Then just add another shortcut to wherever you like, pointing at the second directory. It's another 250M, but so what?

Yes, the AI leaves a bit to be desired, but...

All in all, a very good game. One that will definitely lead to that "Honey, it's 3 o'clock in the morning! Are you still playing that damned game down there?" experience. Be warned

As far as PBEM opponents, just ask here. There's always someone up for one more game, although the mods do unfortunately divide the community and complicate that aspect of things.

[rkr1958]

I'm an old Avalon Hill wargamer from the mid 70's to the mid 80's. I still have quite a collection of AH war games none of which I've played since the mid 1980's. WWII was/is my favorite era. My AH WWII collection consist of 3rd Reich, Victory in the Pacific, War at Sea, Squad Leader & Cross of Iron, The Russian Campaign, Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz, Fortress Europa, France 1940, Hitler's War & Tobruk. I also own 1776, Guns of August, Richthofen's war and Arab/Israeli war. And I also have the computer version of AH's 3rd, which I've played solo a few times a few years ago. But without a doubt my favorite is CEaW. I also purchases Strategic Command 2 and have tried to play it a few times but I usually quite after a few turns and come back to CEaW. While not perfect I'd say that CEaW is one of the best corps level WWII games out there. And I'm going to be so bold to say that CEaW with the BJR mod is the best corps level simulation of WW II in Europe out there that's fun to play. I have gotten many many hours of enjoyment from both the vanilla version and our modded version of CEaW. So I'd highly recommend this game. The only downside is that the AI in my opinion is not very good. I learned to play the game against the AI but found that tactics and strategies that work against the AI are garbage against an human opponent. I got my clock cleaned in my first round of PBEM games against human opponents (Happycat and Staffenbergy). Fortunately they were very patience with me and took the time to teach me the correct (or better) tactics/strategies.

For me CEaW vanilla or BJR mod version played against a human opponent is a highly rich and rewarding gaming experience. Hotseat play is fun too.

[Happycat]

Thankyou Happycat. One question about the mod though... if I install the mod, can i still play the original game and play against people with the original game? What all did you change? Did you improve the AI? I guess that was more than one question.

You can have side by side installations, one with the mod and one without. The way that Possum describes it sounds about right.

There is no improvement to the AI, but the changes are huge. Following is a link to a zip file with all the docs and the mod itself. I think the docs will answer all of your questions, and leave you salivating But this mod really is only suitable as a pbem experience (or a hotseat).

http://www.slitherine.com/files/ceaw/ce ... _v1.06.zip

[Happycat]

What version should I get, and whats the difference?

Beats the hell out of me, I don't know what difference there is between the version I have and the "gold". But I am sure one of the Slitherine guys will jump in here and tell you

[dooya]

What version should I get, and whats the difference?

Beats the hell out of me, I don't know what difference there is between the version I have and the "gold". But I am sure one of the Slitherine guys will jump in here and tell you

The enhancements are:

Enhanced PC Features
• Addition of six quick play scenarios for multiplayer. Those cover the same time periods
as the original maps but can be played quicker
• Frame rate has been increased
• Updates to the moddable script file system to be more friendly to windows Vista and XP
• Improved AI reacts quickly to players decisions

[Redpossum]

IMO, modding isn't that hard if you just want to make basic scenario mods. There are a few basic rules of thumb, all laid out in the editor docs, and if you follow those you should be fine.

As I say, this is for scenario mods, (e.g. adding back in that "Canadian Fighter" from the earlier version of the game that no longer exists).

If you want to mod the map itself, things get rather more sticky, and if you're not careful you can break all the stock scenarios. Then again, if you're working in a separate mod directory as you should be, who cares about the stock scenarios?

There are a few things the game cannot do (maybe Gold will change this?). For example, you cannot set reinforcements for a given turn; there is no reinforcement mechanism, per se.

One of the nice possibilities with the editor is that you can mod the basic scenarios for your own play against the AI. For example, by giving the USSR more off-map production, in order to set up a more challenging scenario for yourself as Axis against an Allied AI. I prefer this over using the extreme difficulty ratings because the extreme difficulty ratings hamper research so badly on the disadvantaged side.

All in all, CEAW is definitely an excellent game, and I would recommend it unreservedly. As for which version, at this point it's a toss-up; there are arguments for buying now, and there are arguments for waiting for Gold. Perhaps you should consult the sacred chickens

[ftgcritt2]

Ok so I take back what I said about the AI. I just played the grand campaign as the allies for the first time with a heavy axis advantage and absolutely got my clocks cleaned.