Scenario timescales in Real-time versus We-Go

[BlackMoria]

Maybe I am not getting it. Why would a RT player need more time than WEGO player?

The WEGO player does his orders and moves and then runs the one minute turn.

The RT player can pause at any time and give orders and moves and then unpause.

Elapsed time IN GAME is the same. A minute of WEGO turn being run is still the same as a minute of RT being played out unpaused.

As I said, I don't get it...

[Sergei]

I think the reverse of what is being said here hold true. In WeGo you must plan ahead 60 seconds at a time and therefore are forced to take it a little easier, because if one of your units get ambushed 5 seconds into a turn, you can't order other units to put covering fire/smoke to save them until 55 seconds later. In RT you can pause the game at any moment, and due to this greater flexibility you don't have to spend a turn to just watch a scout team enter a building, you can immediately follow them when the coast is clear. It makes a huge difference to play times.

If you are unwilling to use the pause for your planning, that's your choice, but it's not necessarily the right way of playing. In CM you take the role of every NCO/XO/CO in the game, so some pausing is required because you can't be everywhere at once.

[BletchleyGeek]

If you are unwilling to use the pause for your planning, that's your choice, but it's not necessarily the right way of playing. In CM you take the role of every NCO/XO/CO in the game, so some pausing is required because you can't be everywhere at once.

That's the big difference and why I see that people playing RT might need more time. In WEGO one can wear the boots of each officer or non-com and issue orders in a simultaneous way, in RT this is just impossible.

You have two platoons assaulting a position and a third one in reserve. You notice that the enemy is maneuvering to flank the two platoons performing the attack.

In RT either you micro-manage the ongoing assault or you micro-manage the third platoon to counter the enemy move. In WEGO you can do both things.

Regarding the issue with time limits: it depends on the context the scenario designer has in mind for the action being modeled. If the action is part of greater operation which gives context to the scenario, time limits make a lot of sense. A recon in force, for instance, might be needed to be performed quickly, to allow for planning a Regiment level assault. Or once the assault is going on, a force on the flank might be tasked with taking out some AT guns from a elevated position with overwatch on the main force.

For both tasks, having a hard deadline is quite reasonable, in my opinion.

[Fredrock1957]

When putting a time frame on a scenario I usually wait for author and play tests to be completed, then I will set the time at what I feel is reasonable for a WEGO player. Then if it is 30 minutes or under I will add the +5 variable 30-60 minutes I do the +10 over and hour +15... They key is to have some good RT and WEGO play testers on your battle.

[BlackMoria]

That's the big difference and why I see that people playing RT might need more time. In WEGO one can wear the boots of each officer or non-com and issue orders in a simultaneous way, in RT this is just impossible.

You have two platoons assaulting a position and a third one in reserve. You notice that the enemy is maneuvering to flank the two platoons performing the attack.

In RT either you micro-manage the ongoing assault or you micro-manage the third platoon to counter the enemy move. In WEGO you can do both things.

Regarding the issue with time limits: it depends on the context the scenario designer has in mind for the action being modeled. If the action is part of greater operation which gives context to the scenario, time limits make a lot of sense. A recon in force, for instance, might be needed to be performed quickly, to allow for planning a Regiment level assault. Or once the assault is going on, a force on the flank might be tasked with taking out some AT guns from a elevated position with overwatch on the main force.

For both tasks, having a hard deadline is quite reasonable, in my opinion.

Once again, why?

In WEGO you can take as much time as you like to input your orders and then start the turn. The game runs for one minute until the next order phase.

In RT, you can pause and take as much time as you like to look around and do orders and then unpause to resume the game.

The time doing orders for WEGO doesn't count against your scenario run time. Likewise, the time spent paused in RT does NOT count against your scenario run time. The clock is suspended while paused. The scenario run time is exactly the same for both otherwise.

Where is this notion that RT takes more scenario run time to play than WEGO come from? 1 second of run time in WEGO = 1 second of run time in RT.

[sburke]

Once again, why?

In WEGO you can take as much time as you like to input your orders and then start the turn. The game runs for one minute until the next order phase.

In RT, you can pause and take as much time as you like to look around and do orders and then unpause to resume the game.

The time doing orders for WEGO doesn't count against your scenario run time. Likewise, the time spent paused in RT does NOT count against your scenario run time. The clock is suspended while paused. The scenario run time is exactly the same for both otherwise.

Where is this notion that RT takes more scenario run time to play than WEGO come from? 1 second of run time in WEGO = 1 second of run time in RT.

However 1 second of runtime in Wego is actually 60 seconds. You better have planned right or it can be a painful 60 seconds whereas 1 sec of runtime in RT is just 1 sec.

Live on the edge, play Wego.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Live on the edge, play Wego.

So true.

[BletchleyGeek]

Once again, why?

I was assuming H2H play. There's no RT pause in H2H, and the kind of finesse in the flanking maneuver above it's not really within CM:BN AI capabilities - or most AI's out there.

[Erwin]

I interpreted the statement as assuming that RT players pause a lot more than the "once per minute" WEGO "pause" and redo all their moves to take into account changing circumstances, and that is why it takes RT players more time.

However, it really depends on the size of the scenario. The smallest scenarios can probably be played a lot faster in RT. For large scenarios, I cannot imagine playing em RT as one misses so much.