Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: DBeves

So I will likely buy this - but have never played the boardgame.
Is it any good ? - I understand most think it is - but what makes it good - what abstractions are there ?
How is the strat bombing campaign modelled, how is the war in the atlantic modelled ? Anyone with insights to the game ?

Given there is going to be no way to see the manuals or the game before purchase - I am wondering what makes the boardgame so good I would buy this ?
I have always wanted a definitive WWII game so will buy just for that if the board game does what people say it does ...

quote:

ORIGINAL: DBeves

So I will likely buy this - but have never played the boardgame.
Is it any good ? - I understand most think it is - but what makes it good - what abstractions are there ?
How is the strat bombing campaign modelled, how is the war in the atlantic modelled ? Anyone with insights to the game ?

Given there is going to be no way to see the manuals or the game before purchase - I am wondering what makes the boardgame so good I would buy this ?
I have always wanted a definitive WWII game so will buy just for that if the board game does what people say it does ...

quote:

ORIGINAL: Centuur

In most board games, the playing system is you go, I go, turn ends. This means that you know you only get to move your units once during the turn and that's it.

WiF however, don't give the players this certainty. You, nor your opponent, knows in advance the number of impulses he gets for moving units during that turn. You don't know if the first turn of war against the USSR as Germany will give you a long turn or a short one. You can statistically guess...

Turns end is caused by rolling a D10. The higher the impulse number, the higher the chance is that the turn may end. Also, bad weather means the impulse number progresses faster (from 1 to 4 to 7) as compared to good weather (when it goes 1,2,3,...). The weather itself is also an uncertainty which influences the effectivity of your war machine. If it storms, your planes are grounded and your fleet has it harder to find the enemy. If it rains, ground units move sluggish and supply is a lot harder to get for your units than if the weather is fine. All major things which influences game play, which you can predict a little bit (due to statistic you can put unto the tables), but don't know for sure. Summer turns give you generally better weather than winter ones...

Also, every impulse a player has to decide if he wants to take a pass (do nothing and get a modifier to get the turn to end. Pray it does, because when you take it, you are quite desperate if you are on defense...), naval, air, land or combined impulse. This limits the player in what he can do during that impulse. A combined means that a player can only do a limited number of air, land and naval actions (moves, attacks, missions, etc.). If the weather in summer stays fine, this means that Germany can take for example five land impulses in summer and every land impulse move it's units, attack the enemy, etc. etc., unless his units are exhausted (disorganised) due to failed attacks or enemy actions against them. However, if the roll of 1 comes after the third Axis impulse the turn suddenly ends and time is progressing...

Apart from this, there is the uncertainty of when the United States enters the war. Actions by the Axis or Alliesmay or may not upset US public opinion driving towards war. Actions take by the US to support the countries on the same side before the war, also might result in reaction to the US moving towards war.
Only the US knows the exact possibility on declaring war on either Japan or Germany/Italy. The Axis and also other Allies are unaware of those. The US may or may not disclose this information. They only know that there are a number of chits in there, not the values of these. A devilish US mind can cause the Axis to declare war on the United States far before the US itself is allowed do the opposite, just to make sure they don't suffer the surprise of suddenly being in a war with the US which can than pound on the poor unsuspecting Japanese convoys and fleet out of Manila, sending them to the bottom of the China Sea and strangle the Japanese economically. Now, lets put a nice large fleet in Manila with a lot of subs. Are you going to DoW the United States when you see a whole load of chits sitting around which might mean they are ready for war or is it bluf and are those chits all lousy ones...
And there is always the odd change that the US politicians refuse the US to go to war, even if it looks assured (bad die roll...). Better luck next time...

Another thing is the production system. In it's simplicity it reveals the mind of a genius. On the map there are resources and there are factories. You have to move a resource by rail and/of overseas to a factory to get a production point which you need to build units.
Unfortunately, the CW and Japanese resources are overseas. So they have to make convoy chains consisting of convoy points to get those resources to the factories. There comes the enemy submarines, surface raiders and air. The convoys need to be protected (either by ASW units, which is an optional, or by allocating ships to sea area's as escorts). Will the enemy find my convoy, or will he roll to high. Thank god, no combat... or blast: he's found me. Let's hope I roll low to, as to keep surprise effects as low as possible. Surprise at sea can be quite disastrous for a naval battle. If the enemy finds your fleet or convoy with escorts with their pants down, you suffer huge losses. Otherway around is the same. If your escorts stumble across a submarine who gets surprised, that one is in big trouble.
If your convoy pipeline hasn't got the capacity to transport the number of resources you want to go to the UK, than production is hurt.

Same with strategic bombing. You can bomb enemy factories and oil resources (normal resources can't be strat bombed) to reduce the enemies production capacity (or even destroy the factories if you get lucky), however, beware of the enemies fighters. They might shoot your precious expensive long range flying fortressess out of the skies...

I'll stop now, if you don't mind... There is lots and lots more.