A Few Questions From A New Player

[philr1]

Hi there,

I got this game last week on the DS and was very surprised to find myself getting addicted to it in no space of time! I'm not that used to these kind of strategy games and initially found the game extremely daunting. I'm getting the hang of it now but there are a few things I'd liked clarified.

I'm currently on an Axis campaign starting in 1939.

1) What sort of tactics can any of you offer a totally new gamer like me to this game? Doesn't matter what scenario or Allies/Axis. I've played many strategy games on consoles but only games like Command & Conquer, Advance Wars, Tom Clancy's Endwar, Sid Meier's Civilization.

2) How exactly does research work? I chose random research and have now got 5 labs for each of infantry and armour and only 2 in aircraft yet I seem to be developing more technology quicker in aircraft? How can this be?

3) What scenario do you think would be the best to start of with if you're a new player? It's now 1943 and the Allies have got a staggering amount of ships and aircraft around Britain and I've also got Russia starting to make headways into my territory. All I seem to do is spend production points on healing units so I can never afford to buy new one's

4) How does manpower work? It says in the instrcution manual that after a while all the 18-35 year olds would be taken up and you would have to get younger or older men to fight for you thus giving you less effective units. How can you tell when this starts to happen? Is it by the end of the war or end of each turn when you use up all your PP?

5) I used a Italian Motorised Corp to attack Algeria when it got it's own independence and easily took Tunis. A ship docked into the other Algerian city and it made the unit stationed there more effective. was this a coinsidence or is it a good tactic to have a ship docked in port where you've got a unit adjacent to it?

6) I've noticed that whenever I use bombers they don't seem to do much damage even if there are no other enemy aircraft about. What is the best purpose for bombers? Same question applies to fighters as well.

7) I haven't played a campaign yet where oil matters. How does this change the game. Does it make it harder?

When Britain and Russia started to attack me I noticed there is alot of slowdown with the egg timer with so many units on the battlefield at once. Is there a way to do anything about this? Sometimes I can be waiting nearly 5 minutes just for a single unit to move.

9) I noticed on some of my units they have a white and black circle opposite the flag of the country. What does this mean?

10) Not a question about the game but will there be another game like this for the DS? I'd LOVE to see one. I'd like to see a game just based in one country such as France for example where there were many battles. Well anything like this would make me buy it!

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and apologies for so many questions. It just saves me from creating more topics and making this board a mess! And a big THANK YOU to Slitherine for creating an excellent game which is totally unique to the DS. You've got yourself a new fan!

[joerock22]

1. There are many posts discussing strategy and tactics, especially the hints & tips sticky thread. Just have a look around.

2. Random research can be very random, and it will frustrate you at times. The tradeoff is getting quick upgrades in an area where you have only purchased 1-2 labs. I don't know how many times I've had to threaten to "liquidate" some scientists to get research going

3. 1939 is probably the best place to start. You begin with a relatively small number of units and you slowly expand over the period of a couple years until you're ready to fight the great war in the east. Plus, almost all multiplayer games are played on 1939, so you want to know what you're doing.

4. You look at your starting manpower first (in 1939). When your manpower reaches 75% of that number, it goes to yellow and all units lose 1 quality. Down to 50% = orange, and you lose 1 quality and 1 surviveability. Down to 25% is another level lost, and if you go below 0 manpower (god forbit), you lose even more quality and effectiveness. By the end of the game, Germany will probably be in orange no matter what you do. That's why research for them is so important: upgrades help mitigate the inevitable manpower penalties.

5. It was probably a coincidence. The only thing ships do for ground units is give them low supply if they would otherwise be all out.

6. Bombers are best used against cities, especially if the enemy unit has high entrenchment (hold your mouse over the enemy unit and you will see it). Entrechment is built 1 per turn up to a maximum of 5 (city or fort) or 8 (capital), and can allow a single defending unit to inflict heavy losses on 5-6 attacking ground units. Bombers will lower entrenchment and the defender's effectiveness, which means more damage inflicted and fewer losses for your ground units.

7. Oil definitely changes the game. It forces the Axis player to be careful with his movements that use oil. The oil fields in Iraq and Persia become an important strategic objectives. You can win as the Germans without taking these oil fields, but you might run out of oil in Russia at some point. It also restricts what units the Axis can build. You can't realistically go with both 10 tanks and 10 bombers in the USSR. You have to choose one or the other, or a smaller number of each.

8. I don't know. It's been so long since I played against the AI...

9. This is the supply indicator. As your units lose supply, they will lose movement points. Units can get supply from connected capitals, cities, ports, and (in emergencies) from combat ships (not subs) on the coast.
No indicator = fully supply. Full movement points. This is what you usually see in the game.
Black/white = medium supply. I think you lose 1 movement point. This is what happens when you get too far away from one of your home capitals. The Germans will always get medium supply when they get far into the USSR, past Moscow and Gorki. There is nothing you can do about this.
Black = low supply. You lose lots of movement here. This is what happens when your only supply source is a ship.
Red = no supply. Only 1 movement point. Your unit will lose effectiveness every turn and it will not go back up until you reestablish supply. Try to avoid this.

10. Dunno. Maybe someone at Slitherine could weigh in on this.

When you get comfortable with the game, join the pbem community and start playing against human opponents. It is a completely new experience

[IainMcNeil]

As for other DS games we responded to that in this thread - viewtopic.php?t=9893

The simple answer is yes, lots of them

[philr1]

Wow thank you very much to both of you for answering all my questions, I really appreciate it! JoeRock22 I know what you mean about research and those pesky scientists! Think I might warn them they will have a trip to the Eastern Front if they don't start playing by my rules! Well I am in charge I have actually took a couple of my Romanian units who managed to make a complete mess of invading Spain to the Eastern Front for punishment

Thats very kind of you JoeRock22 for inviting me to join in some multiplayer games. when I leanr more about the game and get better at it I shall certainly consider it. At the moment I would only embarrass myself and you with my poor tactics and I wouldn't like to be a laughing stock!

Just one more question about the campaign I'm on. I'm Axis starting in 1939. I managed to take France, Norway and a few other countries fine but when England and USSR decided to attack me I knew I couldn't win the war on two fronts (how realistic is this game!). I've seriously considered giving up France to the Allies and bring all my units from there to join the battle in Russia. Do you think this would be a good tactic? England and America have got ships on virtually all the hexes between France and England and I know there is no point in even attempting to try and invade. I think I could take Russia if I just concentrated on that. The russian troops aren't that good compared to my experienced one's especially my maxed out tanks and motorised corps I've got which when they attack make any units effectiveness go down to red.

Also are leaders worth the PP? I've got Rommel in a motorised corp and he does well in battle but 110 points was a big ask. I've given alot of thought to buying alot of leaders early in the war when PP isn't a problem to help me out in 1944-5, is this a good idea?

Many thanks again for being so patient with me, really appreciate it.

[joerock22]

Just one more question about the campaign I'm on. I'm Axis starting in 1939. I managed to take France, Norway and a few other countries fine but when England and USSR decided to attack me I knew I couldn't win the war on two fronts (how realistic is this game!). I've seriously considered giving up France to the Allies and bring all my units from there to join the battle in Russia. Do you think this would be a good tactic? England and America have got ships on virtually all the hexes between France and England and I know there is no point in even attempting to try and invade. I think I could take Russia if I just concentrated on that. The russian troops aren't that good compared to my experienced one's especially my maxed out tanks and motorised corps I've got which when they attack make any units effectiveness go down to red.

I don't know a lot about your situation, but my advice would be to focus on Russia. The problem is that you have to defend France well enough to slow the Western Allies down or they could be in Germany before you know it. Though I don't know how effective the AI is at making invasions by sea.

Commanders are definitely worth it. However, you want to stick them in units that you aren't going to fight with. The point of commanders isn't to strengthen one unit so you can get a small combat bonus on that one unit. The point of commanders is that they increase the effectiveness of all units within 8 hexes of their position. This means your units recover more quickly from combat and movement, and it also means that a unit's max effectiveness is higher. Leave a unit inactive for a few turns in Mainstein's or Rommel's presence, and you will see its effectiveness get up to 90 or higher! This is why I try to sit Mainstein in Poland before I start building up my army to invade Russia. Mainstein continually raises the effectiveness of new units as they reach the front. So by the time I invade Russia, I've got an army made up entirely of units with effectivness in the 80s and 90s. You can really pound on Russia with that kind of army. Your commanders will really come in handy right after winter hits by helping your weakened units recover from the effects of that damn Russian snow. Early in the war, I usually go with a cheaper commander like List. The one thing to note about commanders is that they only increase effectiveness based on nationality. Germans commanders only help Germans. Italians only help Italians. And no general will help the Romanians, Bulgarians, or Hungarians.

[philr1]

I don't know a lot about your situation, but my advice would be to focus on Russia. The problem is that you have to defend France well enough to slow the Western Allies down or they could be in Germany before you know it. Though I don't know how effective the AI is at making invasions by sea.

Commanders are definitely worth it. However, you want to stick them in units that you aren't going to fight with. The point of commanders isn't to strengthen one unit so you can get a small combat bonus on that one unit. The point of commanders is that they increase the effectiveness of all units within 8 hexes of their position. This means your units recover more quickly from combat and movement, and it also means that a unit's max effectiveness is higher. Leave a unit inactive for a few turns in Mainstein's or Rommel's presence, and you will see its effectiveness get up to 90 or higher! This is why I try to sit Mainstein in Poland before I start building up my army to invade Russia. Mainstein continually raises the effectiveness of new units as they reach the front. So by the time I invade Russia, I've got an army made up entirely of units with effectivness in the 80s and 90s. You can really pound on Russia with that kind of army. Your commanders will really come in handy right after winter hits by helping your weakened units recover from the effects of that damn Russian snow. Early in the war, I usually go with a cheaper commander like List. The one thing to note about commanders is that they only increase effectiveness based on nationality. Germans commanders only help Germans. Italians only help Italians. And no general will help the Romanians, Bulgarians, or Hungarians.

That does sound like very good tactics, I think I will try them in my next scenario. So If I played as the Allies in Operation Barbarossa and bought some commanders it will make the effectiveness of my units on the frontline alot better!

As for the situation I'm in at the moment, the allies have got a huge amount of ships covering virtually all the hexes around England. They only seem to invade France where they did in World War II. I took over Spain with some Italian and Romanian troops and have bought them up to France to help out yet the allies never bother to land troops in Western France or Spain? They could easily destroy me if they tried that tactic. I was playing this game last night and used my bombers in the way you suggested and it works a treat, thank you very much! You have have been a big help to me JoeRock22.