Newbie's First Time Experience

[geofighter]

Boy am I loving this.

I haven't ever owned anything from battlefront before but I'm getting into this. I may be repeat customer! Nothing to be disappointed about. Good job Hubert

Well, let me make a few comments on how it has been going. I got home and got my download email and license key. I downloaded the game and everything seemed to be going hunky-dori until I needed to put in my license key. Several tries and it didn't work. Soon, after reading posts and instructions that it might be my anti-spam/firewall doing a block. Sure enough, that was the problem.

I next decided to play the Allies and go after Hitler and his punks in the 1943 campaign. I'm perplexed and maybe someone can explain this to me. I want the Russians to go after Manchuko but they won't even cross the border. There doesn't seem to be an option for them to declare war on Japan. How do I get the Russians and Japanese to fight?

The tiles takes some getting used to. Practically all other wargames use hexes or large, linked provinces/sea zones to control the movement. One advantage, you can surround an enemy on 8 sides instead of the normal 6 with hexes. Cool.

I'm slowly and surely reading the manual as I go along and more questions will come up later.

Enjoy your battles.

[Bill101]

Hi Geofighter

I'm glad you're having a blast!!

For the USSR to declare war on Japan, go to the War Map, select the USSR's flag in the bottom left, and click on Japan on the actual map. It will now ask you if you are sure that you want the USSR to declare war on Japan.

If you get stuck this is also covered on pages 81-2 of the manual.

Good luck with your invasion of Japan!

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks Geofighter and definitely don't be shy about spreading the word

As an aside, this is probably our best release to date with David doing an excellent job of putting the original campaign together while Bill did a fantastic job of editing and fine tuning... all in all considering the scope and depth of playing WWII on a Global scale I am quite pleased with the quality of this release.

So enjoy!

Hubert

[geofighter]

Thanks for your Replies Hubert and Bill, I appreciate your game and your help.

I have decided to journal this learning experience for comment and shared enrichment for any other newbies out there.

It's 1943 scenario and I'm playing for the allies. We started out invading Italy. It was a bust. The allies took Sicily but can't get anywhere on the boot. Lost about 4-5 units trying to get at the boot but they were slaughtered. Germans in Naples held strong. The invasion is off for now.

Learning experience here. Unlike other wargames where air units are at an airbase and fly out to attack their targets, then fly back home with enemy planes flying in to intercept and escorts jumping in to defend. These units don't "physically fly" to the target hexes. Wow, that takes getting used to. I'll have to read up better on how air movement and attacks work. I was hoping I could fly all those British/American planes to Italy and blow the Axis out of the boot. Doesn't work, not enough air range. Also, It takes getting used to the planes "Attack first, stage airbase after." That seems to be the way they work.

[HardRock]

Thanks for your Replies Hubert and Bill, I appreciate your game and your help.

I have decided to journal this learning experience for comment and shared enrichment for any other newbies out there.

It's 1943 scenario and I'm playing for the allies. We started out invading Italy. It was a bust. The allies took Sicily but can't get anywhere on the boot. Lost about 4-5 units trying to get at the boot but they were slaughtered. Germans in Naples held strong. The invasion is off for now.

Learning experience here. Unlike other wargames where air units are at an airbase and fly out to attack their targets, then fly back home with enemy planes flying in to intercept and escorts jumping in to defend. These units don't "physically fly" to the target hexes. Wow, that takes getting used to. I'll have to read up better on how air movement and attacks work. I was hoping I could fly all those British/American planes to Italy and blow the Axis out of the boot. Doesn't work, not enough air range. Also, It takes getting used to the planes "Attack first, stage airbase after." That seems to be the way they work.

Lots of short cuts in this game like air attack. You can't attack and stage in same turn so it doesn't matter except by attacking with ground units first might give them room to vacate some hexes to stage the air in closer to the front. (thats kinda key here as like you said..air ranges are precious. At least till later in the game when you upgrade to longer ranges.

You'll probably like this game..with lots of things inherent (like flying air) it plays much faster with the same result.

One thing I noticed Hubert. Italy's units aren't on the board pre-war so no way of getting units to Africa in peace time.

[geofighter]

Oops I lost my post, twice and I'm getting sick of retyping it.

Basically Russians are pushing the Germans back, Pacific has made progress but I lost my destroyers and the Japanese have subs, yikes.

Carrier planes act like ground planes, attack first, move carrier afterward. Takes getting used to.

China is in jeopardy. Chinese can only hold them back.

Just read up to supply rules. Explains a lot.

[geofighter]

Hey Hubert,

I'm going to pass the word on this game to two of my out-of-state friends. Perhaps if we all buy it we can play together over the Internet.

Okay, day two. I've made it to Mid-June 1944 and D-Day is just a week longer than historical. Good progress in France. Brought two armored groups over and we have captured Nantes. City and port took a beating and are down to 1 supply each. I also brought over two HQ's. I'm eager to see how the supply looks next turn. Manage to bring lots of troops to France but I"m worried I need to capture Paris ASAP or be doomed to not have supply.:confused:

Russia still making progress in the east. Recaptured Leningrad and Sevastapol. Warsaw here we come. Manchuria isn't making any progress but troops are building up.

No progress in the the mediterrean. Still hold Sicily and Sardinia. Moving aircraft in the region near enough to target Naples when the time comes. The allied fleet in the western hemisphere is all concentrating on supporting the invasion of France.

China is in bad shape. The allies need to make progress in the Pacific quick or it may fall. progress being made in Burma but it likely won't be enough to save China.

Pacific war is on a turn around had to stop the assault on Tarawa as the allied navy had no destroyers to defend against 3 Japanese subs in the region. pulled back, but now 5 destroyers have arrived from the force pool and are escorting a large fleet back that way. New Guinea has been liberated.

Questions about game play.

Production: I notice that the Russian's can't build anymore tanks. It seems the game limits nations on how many kinds of units they can have. I saw the unlimited soft units option but what about hard units? Can I change this so I can build as much of what I want that I can afford? I'm reading the manual too, just haven't got to the production details yet.

Bug? I notice that if I click on a tile to see the details of the terrain/location it only shows me if it is a resource (city, port, etc...). However, if I click on a forest, clear, etc... several times it minimizes the game. Is that just the way the game is made or is that a flaw?:confused:

Good hunting fellow warriors.

[Hubert Cater]

Thanks Geofighter and yes if you select to play with Soft Build Limits then you can purchase beyond the hard limit setting albeit at an increased cost for each unit beyond the hard limit.

For the window minimization I can't seem to repeat this, are you running Windows 7 and are you running full screen or windowed. Also is this from right clicking or left clicking?

Hubert

[geofighter]

Hi Hubert,

Thank you for your attention. I am running Windows 7. The game takes up the entire screen and when I intentionally want to minimize it I have to press "ESC."

Let me be more clear on the terrain issue. If I just hover my mouse over a tile the terrain type shows in the top red/brown info bar (either the right or left hand side, I can't say as I don't have the game right now).

However, when I intentionally right/left click on a tile that is not a resource I don't see anything in the lower right info window. If I do it several times the game minimizes.

Now, if it is a resource an icon shows in a portion of the lower, right in the information window in a box where I see the resource icon with a some info about the source (also some sound effect will go off to like "The Marseillese (spelling?)" if Paris or a "Call to Prayer" if Tehren, etc.)

This glitch (if it in fact is one) doesn't spoil the game for me.

Cheers.

Geofighter:)

[geofighter]

Let me be clear on the soft builds option. I don't have the game with me but if the button next to soft builds is green then I should be able to build hard builds w/o limit but at extra cost. However, if it is not green than than I shouldn't be able to build beyond preset limits. Correct?

[Hubert Cater]

Not seeing the terrain info in the lower boxes is normal, never came up before to be honest!, and I wonder if double clicking on the window is a part of the new Windows 7 functionality, i.e. the game itself runs inside a Windows 'window' and perhaps that is just how it handles it. If you tried to do the same on another windows window, i.e. double clicked an area that would otherwise have no response to that type of mouse input, does it do the same thing?

[Hubert Cater]

Let me be clear on the soft builds option. I don't have the game with me but if the button next to soft builds is green then I should be able to build hard builds w/o limit but at extra cost. However, if it is not green than than I shouldn't be able to build beyond preset limits. Correct?

This is correct

[geofighter]

Hmmm. I'll have to double check that when I get home. I don't think my game is behaving like that. When I go to the builds and a color is "grayed" out I don't think I can build it even if have the MPP's. I'll find out for you later.

[geofighter]

Question: In the production window there are two columns # and Pd. What is the difference between these two columns?

[Hubert Cater]

It is greyed out after you start the game because the setting is locked in, all this means is it was green when you selected the option otherwise it would not be gray. In AI games you can select 'Allow Changes' so it will allow you to toggle this option after you start a game but in Multiplayer games this is not an option.

# simply means the hard build limit for this unit and PD means the production delay

[geofighter]

I took a break from the game on Tuesday to catch up on sleep and other chores. Need to keep the wife happy by not being "vididioted "to the game. She enjoys my time, too.

Allies have resisted the German counter attacks in France and the allies are pouring in. Mexican army just captured Marseille (librated it but they like to think they are avenging the invasion of their country by France under Napoleon the 3rd back in the 1860's. Take that France!). The Brazillians hold the Mine field east of Paris.

British fleet is concentrating in the Med to build up for another invasion of Italy.

Russian's are making great progress. Germans can't push em back.

Far East has made a turn for the better. The Russians are making progress in Manchuria attacking Japanese fighters there and are firing Katushka artillery at their troops.

Learned that the best way for the Chinese to beat the Japanese is to let the Japanese throw their army at theirs and destroy themselves on us. Not exactly repelling them but no longer being slaughtered either.

British have liberated Burma. Americans have taken Tarawa and are now going after Rabul. I don't give the access much more time. Lessons learning the came cost us time however. It is winter 1944. We are not near taking Germany yet.

Cheers,

Geofighter:)