RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (Full Version)

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Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 7:39:31 PM)

I am now only missing 3 sections for 3.4 Important Decisions:

3.4.1 Setting up units

3.4.9 Reorganization

3.4.10 International Relationships

Any one out there with quilll and ink?



Froonp -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 8:21:25 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I am now only missing 3 sections for 3.4 Important Decisions:

3.4.1 Setting up units

3.4.9 Reorganization

3.4.10 International Relationships

Any one out there with quilll and ink?

Reorganisation is already talked about in the section about the HQs, and in the sections I have writen where I talked about reorganizing air units & naval units. Isn't it possible to build a 3.4.9 from all this, and to make those parts refer to 3.4.9 ? Or simply to delete 3.4.9 ?

For 3.4.10, what is it supposed to talk about more precisely ?
Is this alignements, declarations of war, trade agreements ?



composer99 -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 8:50:56 PM)

quote:


Shore Bombardment
Assuming you deployed your battleships in sufficient number to a theater where you are campaigning along the coast, you should aim to spread your shore bombardment out for: (1) the initial invasions, and (2) attacks along the coast up 1 or 2 hexes inland. Initial invasions are usually the most important attacks for which both offensive and defensive shore bombardment must be committed. To press inland, the attacker has to successfully land in the first place, and the best way to fend off an invasion is for the invaders to all die on the beaches.


Apologies if this wasn't clear: I am well aware that shore bombardment only works on the coast, but what I am trying to say here is that you may want to have shore bombardment available to commit to attacks along the shore when you have only 1-2 hexes of land units attacking.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 10:10:28 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Froonp


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

I am now only missing 3 sections for 3.4 Important Decisions:

3.4.1 Setting up units

3.4.9 Reorganization

3.4.10 International Relationships

Any one out there with quilll and ink?

Reorganisation is already talked about in the section about the HQs, and in the sections I have writen where I talked about reorganizing air units & naval units. Isn't it possible to build a 3.4.9 from all this, and to make those parts refer to 3.4.9 ? Or simply to delete 3.4.9 ?

For 3.4.10, what is it supposed to talk about more precisely ?
Is this alignements, declarations of war, trade agreements ?

Good point about reorganization. What I might do is simply relocate the text that talks about reorganization from other sections and put it in 3.4.9. There should be eough of substance to complete that section (I'll reference 3.4.9 in the other sections from where I removed text).
---
International relations is actually 3.4.11 (3.4.10 is production and that is done).

What I was thinking of here was primarily declaring war and aligning minors. The section on production already has comments about lend leasing resources and build points. Lend leasing air units might deserve a paragraph or two though. I thought of including stuff about cooperation but that was mostly covered in the discussion of HQs and Action Choice. And then there is the whole bit about US Entry.

1 - when to declare war on major powers
2 - when to declare war on minor countries
3 - when to align minor countries
4 - which major power should align a minor country that is attacked
5 - when to request/grant lend lease of air units
6 - US Entry philosophy (broad brush strokes, not the nitty-gritty details).



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 10:11:50 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: composer99

quote:


Shore Bombardment
Assuming you deployed your battleships in sufficient number to a theater where you are campaigning along the coast, you should aim to spread your shore bombardment out for: (1) the initial invasions, and (2) attacks along the coast up 1 or 2 hexes inland. Initial invasions are usually the most important attacks for which both offensive and defensive shore bombardment must be committed. To press inland, the attacker has to successfully land in the first place, and the best way to fend off an invasion is for the invaders to all die on the beaches.


Apologies if this wasn't clear: I am well aware that shore bombardment only works on the coast, but what I am trying to say here is that you may want to have shore bombardment available to commit to attacks along the shore when you have only 1-2 hexes of land units attacking.

How would you like this text to read?



composer99 -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/29/2009 11:47:38 PM)

Perhaps replace "attacks along the coast [...] inland" with "supporting normal land combats taking place along the coast".



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/30/2009 3:14:01 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: composer99

Perhaps replace "attacks along the coast [...] inland" with "supporting normal land combats taking place along the coast".

Ok.



paulderynck -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/30/2009 10:23:56 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Here is the first of two writeups I received from Composer99 for the Player's Manual.[&o][&o] This looks real good to me.[:)]
=============
When to Call it Quits
Whether it is because you started at a disadvantage, or because the dice are weighted against you, you may feel compelled to abort completely from a combat. The circumstances in which you want to abort entirely are:

• If you have chased away or shot down all of an opponent's bombers (or had all your own bombers shot down or chased away). There is little point risking a fighter in these circumstances, and especially not when you are at a strategic disadvantage in the air.

• Once an air-to-air battle has turned against you. Generally, you should think about calling it quits when you are in a position of inferiority (-3 or worse) within an air-to-air battle, especially if by doing so you can prevent your strategic position from degrading. You should almost always pull the plug once your opponent has a +6 or better advantage, as half the time he will shoot down your aircraft with little chance of reciprocal devastation on your part.

• If you entered the combat as a feint. If you have managed to draw out a key enemy fighter, causing it to be disorganized in advance of some other, more crucial air mission, you want to stay in the air for one round only, and no more (unless you also want to accomplish the feinting air mission).

By contrast, particularly for massive carrier air battles at sea (and especially when playing with carrier planes), even if you find yourself at a disadvantage (either to begin with, due to surprise rolls, or over the course of time), you may want to grind it out longer than you would do normally, especially if the alternative is to have large amounts of your carrier air power get destroyed after aborting back to the CVs. After all, even at worst, your opponent has a 10% chance of clearing a bomber through. To emphasize this point a little more, naval air combats put very expensive naval units at risk, and losing a carrier often means that you are going to lose a carrier air unit too, since it will have no place to land. Therefore, continue fighting naval air combats longer than air missions over land.



Good job.

Not to be lazy but, the place to add something about aborting to the sea zone after one round is in the "When to call it quits" section of this write-up, IMO.



composer99 -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 12:21:45 AM)

So, what you're suggesting is changing some paragraphs like so (changes in bold blue text):

"[...] you may feel compelled to abort completely from an air combat, or to abort back to the box in a naval air combat."

...and add a bullet point stating the following:

"When you have a disadvantage in a naval air combat. After any round of naval air combat, your forces have the opportunity to abort - but not face-down to return to base. Rather, they abort back to the sea box(es) from which they came, at which point all of your opponent's remaining bombers get automatically cleared through. Subsequently there will be another set of search rolls to see if the combat continues. If you are not going to pay too heavily for such an action, it can certainly pay off either because you can bring in more planes or get a better search result split."



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 2:33:36 AM)

Here is section 3.4.9 which I assembled from pieces culled from the other sections.
===
3.4.9 Reorganization

This section brings together many comments from other sections of 3.4 Important Decisions. That commentary is gathered here as a central reference.

Reorganization is what enables units to “act” multiple times in a game turn. This is a very powerful ability. You should always try to have as many reorganization points in hand as possible, because they allow you to use your best units several times in a game turn. Sadly, there are always too few reorganization points available.

At various points during an impulse, your units may become disorganized. The reorganization capacity of 3 special types of units, (HQ, ATR, & TRS) can let disorganized units move and fight again. However, if you use any of these special units for reorganization, the special unit itself becomes disorganized.

Reorganization points during a game turn come from 3 sources :
• HQs, that have from 1 to 5 reorganization points.
• Air transport units (ATRs), that have 1 or 2 reorganization points (usually they have 1 point).
• TRS/AMPH and a special kind of SUB (Supply SUB), that have 1 reorganization point.

Action choice
Your action choice has an important effect on reorganization. In particular, reorganization is cheaper for units that match the action type. For instance, it costs the normal amount of reorganization points to reorganize air units if you chose an air action, otherwise it is twice the normal cost. Maybe more importantly, expending an offensive chit during a land/naval/air action allows for cheaper (halved) reorganization costs for units reorganized by the HQ designated to receive the offensive chit’s benefits.

Offensive chits
You cannot reorganize an HQ itself during the turn unless you expend an offensive chit (only possible during the Action Choice phase and when you are on the phasing side). But by expending an offensive chit, you can perform a massive reorganization of your forces by: (1) using all your HQs to reorganize other units, and then (2) reorganizing all your HQs on your next impulse with the use of an offensive chit. This is a fearsome capability and allows a dozen or more of your best land, air, or naval units to move and fight a second time in a turn while simultaneously keeping your HQs organized for future employment in the turn.

Reorganizing units may provide little benefit in poor weather or late in a turn. Weather is unpredictable, but the weather report can give you an idea of probability of poor weather. Poor weather usually shortens the turn while simultaneously reducing the ability of units to move and attack. If the turn is about to end, the reorganization will have been wasted and it might cost you oil to reorganize the HQ, ATR, or TRS.

Tips for each branch of service

• Land Most often, you reorganize land units after a failed land attack, so that your offensive can continue. You can also reorganize key reinforcements that have arrived by rail or units that have been disorganized by enemy action.

• Air You usually only reorganize air units after a series of ground strikes or strategic air raids, in order to be able to continue to launch those sorts of air missions later in the turn. You might need to reorganize fighters to maintain or contest control of the skies. Seriously consider reorganizing your best fighters, because fighters are cheaper to reorganize that other air units (you reorganize 2 fighters for the same reorganization cost as 1 multi-engined bomber).

• Naval Naval units are reorganized much less often due to the mechanics by which naval units operate at sea. However, if you have spare reorganization capacity, you can reorganize: (1) combat ships, submarines, and carriers that have been aborted from sea, so they can return to the fight, (2) sea-lift units after they have unloaded cargo in a port, so they can be used to carry units again (including to invade with), or (3) convoys, when you have just suffered a major blow to your convoy lines or are undertaking a massive re-adjustment. Having reorganization power near the port to which you return aborted ships can help reinforce sea areas weakened by enemy attacks. If your goal is to conduct a major naval action, then there is no point in reorganizing only 1 or 2 ships. What is greatly beneficial is to reorganize whole fleets or to reorganize ships while they are at sea, but those actions are only possible with the old version of the Naval Offensive Chit (an optional rule in MWIF).



Greyshaft -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 8:35:52 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
...
What is greatly beneficial is to reorganize whole fleets or to reorganize ships while they are at sea, but those actions are only possible with the old version of the Naval Offensive Chit (an optional rule in MWIF).


Is it worth quoting the appropriate Optional Rule reference number here? If someone is learning about this ability for the first time then they may very well want to read more about this ability.



composer99 -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 12:39:38 PM)

quote:

Air You usually only reorganize air units after a series of ground strikes or strategic air raids, in order to be able to continue to launch those sorts of air missions later in the turn. You might need to reorganize fighters to maintain or contest control of the skies. Seriously consider reorganizing your best fighters, because fighters are cheaper to reorganize that other air units (you reorganize 2 fighters for the same reorganization cost as 1 multi-engined bomber).


I would start off the last sentence with: "When playing with variable reorganization, seriously [...]" since that is an optional rule. If you don't play with variable reorg, those 4-engine bombers are as easy to reorganize as the fighters/Stukas.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 7:44:40 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft


quote:

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
...
What is greatly beneficial is to reorganize whole fleets or to reorganize ships while they are at sea, but those actions are only possible with the old version of the Naval Offensive Chit (an optional rule in MWIF).


Is it worth quoting the appropriate Optional Rule reference number here? If someone is learning about this ability for the first time then they may very well want to read more about this ability.


Ok.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (1/31/2009 7:45:10 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: composer99

quote:

Air You usually only reorganize air units after a series of ground strikes or strategic air raids, in order to be able to continue to launch those sorts of air missions later in the turn. You might need to reorganize fighters to maintain or contest control of the skies. Seriously consider reorganizing your best fighters, because fighters are cheaper to reorganize that other air units (you reorganize 2 fighters for the same reorganization cost as 1 multi-engined bomber).


I would start off the last sentence with: "When playing with variable reorganization, seriously [...]" since that is an optional rule. If you don't play with variable reorg, those 4-engine bombers are as easy to reorganize as the fighters/Stukas.

Oops! I'll fix this. Thanks.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/6/2009 9:00:08 AM)

I've been meaning to make this post for the past week:

If anyone would like to review the full section 8 (Sequence of Play) of the Player's Manual, just send me an email (SHokanson@HawaiianTel.net). I'll email you a PDF of it back.

Over the past month I have posted in this thread the whole of section 8 - in bits and pieces. And the current version reflects many changes based on feedback from forum members. But in my opinion, it wouldn't hurt to subject this section to more review.

EDIT: Sequence of Play is actually section #7 (not 8).



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/15/2009 11:31:16 PM)

I am starting work on section 8 of the Players Manual. This is the biggie: it covers how to use the 90+ forms in MWIF.

Greyshaft (Graham) is helping copy text from the RAC document for this section and Patrice is taking screen shots of each of the different forms.

I then write the text about how to use the form.

Here is an example of Patrice's screen shots and my text. I'll modify this once Graham sends me excepts from RAC.

Getting this all assembled is going to take some time.
============


[image]local://upfiles/16701/64E71C11D294437382F4757FB8D84A50.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/16/2009 12:12:27 AM)

Here is another piece of Section 8. This one is complete.
====

[image]local://upfiles/16701/0546B17FA3F944F59F7A95FC60ABCFF1.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/16/2009 12:24:50 AM)

Page 2 of 2. I had to split the picture to show all the text.

[image]local://upfiles/16701/62CBD39ABF514E84845625872BB9BCD7.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/20/2009 12:05:07 AM)

Here's another new page from the Players Manual. Screen shots by Patrice.


[image]local://upfiles/16701/80E018C1FC1F4D3BB1E0F0E21872A6BC.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/21/2009 1:41:11 AM)

Another 2 pages from my on-going effort to document this sucker (i.e., the Players Manual). Figures by Patrice.
===

[image]local://upfiles/16701/25292275443E49D5AEBF0E98F95E4029.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/21/2009 1:42:44 AM)

Page 2 of 2. The Matrix Games editor will add the figure numbers below each figure.
===

[image]local://upfiles/16701/ADE5F3B2CD0543A2A8E0FC5589E0A86C.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (2/24/2009 9:02:01 PM)

I have completed a draft of Section 2 of the Player's Manual (Introduction to Matrix Games World in Flames) and have it available as a PDF it anyone is interested. It is only 6 pages long. Email me at SHokanson#HawaiianTel.net to request a copy to review and comment on.

Here is its table of contents:

===
2.0 Introduction to Matrix Games World in Flames (MWIF)
2.1 Background on World in Flames Games
2.2 Differences between Matrix Games World in Flames and the Board Game World in Flames
2.2.1 Rules as Coded (RAC)
2.2.2 World in Flames Add-ons from Australian Design Group
2.2.3 Optional Rules
2.3 Opening Screen
2.3.1 How To Play
2.3.2 Starting a New Game
2.3.3 Restoring a Saved Game



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/5/2009 10:18:09 PM)

2 more pages from the long section on land combat resolution. There will be 5 more figures and lot more text for section 8.7.2.23 once it is all done.
==========


[image]local://upfiles/16701/B5424EEC59EC4B72AA8A39DC28314F64.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/5/2009 10:19:43 PM)

The 2D10 charts.
========

[image]local://upfiles/16701/BE8E0312DCEB4952AC5F8F93DDCC5D87.jpg[/image]



sajbalk -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/5/2009 11:35:00 PM)

I understand the concern about color blindness, and I am familiar with the game. However, replacing the squiggles and paragraph symbols with colors might be quite useful as it is easier to understand at a glance and easier to read.

On the common 2D10 charts, attacker all unflipped retains the "*", but is colored green. This is Assault 23 and Blitz 21-23.
Similarily, the half-unflipped is yellow, and the extra loss is orange.

This seems easier to understand.

Perhaps show the results tables with colors like this, and show the possible die roll results on the blue column?




Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/6/2009 12:15:14 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: sajbalk

I understand the concern about color blindness, and I am familiar with the game. However, replacing the squiggles and paragraph symbols with colors might be quite useful as it is easier to understand at a glance and easier to read.

On the common 2D10 charts, attacker all unflipped retains the "*", but is colored green. This is Assault 23 and Blitz 21-23.
Similarily, the half-unflipped is yellow, and the extra loss is orange.

This seems easier to understand.

Perhaps show the results tables with colors like this, and show the possible die roll results on the blue column?



The text in the post above refers to the last 2 pages of RAC for a better illustration of the 2D10 CRT. Here is part of one of those 2 pages. I expect the RAC page to be the one more commonly used. But I didn't want to discard the one from RAW completely.
==========


[image]local://upfiles/16701/9B54FCAC5B3B40F2AECD356E45BEA2EE.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/11/2009 6:49:16 PM)

I have completed a couple more sections of the Players Manual (3 and 4) and they are available for review and comment by anyone who sends me an email requesting them (SHokanson@HawaiianTel.net).

The list of completed sections is:
2 - Introduction to Matrix Games World in Flames (6 pages)
3 - How To Play (42 pages)
4 - Starting a New Game (8 pages)
5 - Restoring a Saved Game (1 page)
7 - Sequence of Play (41 pages)

Any and all of these are available for review and comment - let me know which you would like to pass judgment on.

I am going to submit these to Jim (who will be editing the manual) as 'Final' in the next week or so. If you want to put in your 2 cents worth, now is the time.
---
I completed section 9, Optional Rules, last spring but I want to reread through it to make sure some of the rules changes from last summer have been incorprated into it. When that is ready for general review, I'll let you know via a post in this thread.
---
I am deep into the creation of section 8, Player Interface, which is 89 pages as of today and is likely to run to around 140 pages when done. It is more likely that I'll complete sections 6, Modes of Play, and 10 Rules as Coded (an introduction) first.
---
Rules as Coded, the actual document, is now finalized (version 20). It is 156 pages. I have not made this generally available for review, though the beta testers have been using earlier versions of it for the past 9 months. I'll talk with Dave and Erik at Matrix to see if they want to make this generally available in advance of the product release. Earlier I had had concerns that it contained references to changes to the rules from Harry Rowland which had not been finalized by him. But that occurrred last fall, and he has published them for everyone to read. So there should be no problems in that regard.



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/12/2009 11:03:11 PM)

Here is one of today's new sections for the Player Interface section of the Players Manual:

[image]local://upfiles/16701/A099230CB296472A9BC208328B8A6223.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/15/2009 3:09:00 AM)

Some of today's progress on the Players Manual. Page 1 of 2.

Section 8.3.5 is not written because I am still making adjustments based on feedback from the beta testers. For example, there was a discussion earlier this week about enabling player to specify some phases that they might want to skip.
===


[image]local://upfiles/16701/B90B285EB53F4BEE8BD8A20E856F1C91.jpg[/image]



Shannon V. OKeets -> RE: What kind of manual(s) should we ask for? (3/15/2009 3:09:55 AM)

Page 2 of 2.
===

[image]local://upfiles/16701/8E540E42BB9440CA8C4A2F45BBCBB0F0.jpg[/image]



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