Is the manual available to download for evaluation?

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Is the manual available to download for evaluation?

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Uncommon Valor - Campaign for the South Pacific >> Is the manual available to download for evaluation?

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Is the manual available to download for evaluation? - 9/11/2002 7:48:21 AM

AndrewN

Posts: 17
Joined: 9/11/2002
From: Geelong, Australia
Status: offline

Hello from a recent lurker.

I'm trying to evaluate whether I want to purchase UV or not and am finding the lack of a demo constraining. Obviously there are lots of fans of the game here I've quickly observed reading through this forum, but I need something a little more than that.

What sort of games will I have liked in the past if I'm to have a good chance of enjoying myself with UV? And would having a go at the Matrix Edition of Pacific War be helpful? Or are the games too different to compare?

Besides Panzer General and its subsequent incarnations, I've also been a keen boardgamer... Squad Leader, Breakout: Normandy, and a number of other Avalon Hill titles.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Post #: 1

- 9/11/2002 7:56:15 AM

Raverdave

Posts: 6520
Joined: 2/8/2002
From: Melb. Australia
Status: offline

If you have in the past been a keen boardgamer, then this is a game for you. Solong as you have an interest in naval, air and land warfare then this should fit the bill.

Go and have a read of the AARs thread. They give a good account of what the game is like.

_____________________________

Never argue with an idiot, he will only drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

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Post #: 2

Yeah, what Raverdave said - 9/11/2002 8:29:18 AM

pasternakski

Posts: 6565
Joined: 6/29/2002
Status: offline

(even if he does quote Greeks in Latin translation).

Yep, this is the real deal. UV is a combination test of your ability to plan a large campaign in a crucial WWII theater, to adapt in the face of changing circumstances, and to manage the logistics and force positioning in support of your effort.

The game is very responsive to your operational-level directives, but sometimes has a "mind of its own" (that is, the minds of your subordinates) in the execution. Much of the discussion you see in these forums calling into question the design accuracy of the game or its technical execution (everything's a "bug," it seems, if things don't go according to the Admiral's expectations). It is rewarding and frustrating at the same time, which tells me that it does a good job of recreating the experience real commanders must have felt during the real events.

Above all, once you start ascending the learning curve (which is a fairly steep one, and need not have been quite so challenging if a lot of the information we players have found out by trial-and-error and through reading the erudite comments of our colleagues in these threads had been included in players' and designers' notes and more complete explication of game mechanics in the manual - not a big b****, but a b****, nonetheless) THIS IS A TREMENDOUSLY ENTERTAINING GAME TO PLAY! The rewards from having defeated a competent enemy (my most recent victim was an Aussie, by the way, who considered the Allies invincible in the campaign scenario and learned otherwise - BANZAI!) are nearly as great as having lost narrowly and -as far as you are concerned - merely because of the wiles of fate (this same Australian beat me on points three times in a row before I finally hunkered down and got my s*** together).

The AI? Better than in most games, but still candy once you get the hang of things. Good for practice, though.

And just think - in six or seven months, Matrix/2by3 will be publishing War in the Pacific, which I believe is going to be like UV on acid. Get ready, friend, 'cause it's coming...

_____________________________

Put my faith in the people
And the people let me down.
So, I turned the other way,
And I carry on anyhow.

(in reply to AndrewN)

Post #: 3

Not to worry... - 9/11/2002 8:58:45 AM

RevRick

Posts: 2617
Joined: 9/16/2000
From: Thomasville, GA
Status: offline

If you came out of the AH tradition (I played AH games from France '40 and D-Day (got it when I was 12, over 40 years ago) and Squad Leader (with three modules), WSIM, Bismarck, PB and PL, Fortress Europa, SPI's War in the Pacific (never got to play - couldn't find any victi..er, opponents) etc., I would say this game is for you. If you are a grognard and like digging into what makes each unit tick and handling the heart of warfare, logistics, this is your game. I haven't tried to set it on automatic or even tried seven day turns yet - I'm having too much fun getting into the nuts and bolts of the campaign and reacting like the CinC would when he gets a message about low morale in a squadron commander undermining the air defense of Port Moresby and since he's not under my direct command I can't fire the Sweet Old Boy; and the nitwits who can't manage to get their deckloads launched because of weather when virtually everyone else in the theater is aloft and in action; and jump up and cheer when some wild and wooly PT commander slips a fish into the hide of the Kirishima and slows her down enough to make her continued participation in a Tokyo Express a doubtful proposition, and take a long breath and shuddering sigh when the Big E gets blasted by type 93's... If that's your game, this is your game.

_____________________________

"Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.� ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(in reply to AndrewN)

Post #: 4

Is the manual available? - 9/11/2002 11:30:11 AM

AndrewN

Posts: 17
Joined: 9/11/2002
From: Geelong, Australia
Status: offline

Thanks for all your help to date.

Is it possible, or can it be made possible, to download a copy of the manual to help evaluate purchasing UV? (I'm presuming the manual isn't a copyrighted secret)

(in reply to AndrewN)

Post #: 5

UV manual - 9/11/2002 11:16:41 PM

pasternakski

Posts: 6565
Joined: 6/29/2002
Status: offline

The manual is included on the CD-ROM, and the game has to be installed before you can access it.

Give me your e-mail address by private message, and I'll send you the PDF.

_____________________________

Put my faith in the people
And the people let me down.
So, I turned the other way,
And I carry on anyhow.

(in reply to AndrewN)

Post #: 6

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Uncommon Valor - Campaign for the South Pacific >> Is the manual available to download for evaluation?

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