brian brian
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I guess customer requests, especially multiple requests, are worth fulfilling, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around this one. If you don't want to set up several hundred pieces to start the game, I'm not sure how much interest you will have in moving several thousand pieces each turn in the middle of the game and later. Can't someone just move the D-Day assault units into position for me?
Also, it should be repeated … the best way to learn the combat systems are to play the two introductory scenarios, Barbarossa and Guadalcanal, which have the lowest amount of units. Guadalcanal in particular has pretty few setup decisions to make. If you haven't tried combat in the simple scenarios you will quickly be in over your head after starting the Global War scenario with some pre-determined set-up. Perhaps the Barbarossa scenario would be best suited to using a default set-up, but even in that one, there aren't all that many set-up decisions to make as there are rules on where the units go, and then the same circular question in this post appears …. if you don't want to pick a hex for a unit to start in, do you want to pick which units attack the other units on the first go? You have to start making decisions somewhere.
Not a lot happens at the start of Global War, most of the time, due to the weather. Germany conquers Poland (quite easily). Then all powers maneuver their units around to get ready for the main event which gets going when the good weather appears in the spring of 1940. So you could use a default set-up in Sep/Oct 1939 but you would then most likely end up moving all the pieces to where you really want them later.
And … World in Flames is a strategic level game, and less so an operational one. This means that the Germans don't win by taking that ridge on the other side of the map from where they start, so your options are a frontal assault or overloading a flank. The decisions on what to do are much, much deeper than that. You end up making operational decisions for each country in different parts of the map, sure, but those are subset of the strategy decisions you make.
Using a default set-up for many countries would then mean you are picking someone else's strategy. If you don't want to decide a country's strategy and just want to mash the pieces together to see what happens, you will never be very successful playing this game.
Let's look at each Major Power's initial decisions at set-up for Global War:
USA - actually nothing to decide. Dump everything into two big stacks in Washington D.C. and San Diego. Done.
USSR - huge decisions to make. They can operate in their areas allowed by the Nazi-Soviet Pact (Rumania, Finland) right from the get-go. They can just simply sit in Poland conservatively applying pressure on the Germans while they campaign in France. The Russians can set up in an offensive or defensive posture in Manchuria. They can consider campaigning in the Middle East. It is your Red Army, you decide.
Italy - a few minor decisions, as they have an option of attacking Yugoslavia I guess. But the Italian forces almost all start in Italy, and the Axis naturally want them to conquer things outside Italy. So after they set up, you have to decide where they will be going anyway. I guess it would help to note that La Spezia is their best fleet base, but if you have played the Guadalcanal scenario you would recognize that immediately.
China - probably the most difficult one to set up, with a new map now, and the basic problem of this is still being a solitaire game. Perhaps a default set-up would help the most here. There is no grand strategy decision to make, only operational land combat decisions to consider. You have to set up before you see which axis of advance the Japanese select, and they have excellent sea mobility to work with … anything can happen. Experience with retreating the Russians in the Barbarossa scenario would be critical to running the Chinese in a first game of Global War.
France - some basic tactical decisions to make. If this is your first game, you probably won't have to worry about the Germans blitzkrieging into Belgium in mid-September 1939. It is easy to forget that you will be adding four Reserve units to the set-up on the first Allied impulse, that is a key reminder. Otherwise, your units probably won't see combat for several turns and then you have to be in charge of which one goes where anyway.
CW - the land units are simple. They should be in a port, so they can move somewhere, again at your decision. The main set-up decisions they make are for the Royal Navy, which is so huge it matters little which exact ships you assign to Force H and which go to Home Fleet. Over time you will learn the nuances of the factors on the counters and how that influences where you send them (hint: put the good AA factors in the Med), but to start you just give each main force some Battleships and some Carriers and things will work out fine. The Asian fleet can start in Aden so it can instantly join the Mediterranean fleet. The Indian and Pacific oceans will of course be quiet for the Royal Navy until sometime in 1941.
Japan - a main strategic decision to make is to consider an early war with Russia, but that is a complex undertaking a new player will pass on most likely. Then you have to set up in China. China has tropical weather in the south (you can campaign there during the winter months), and more classical European type weather in the north (war grinds to a halt in the winter). There are resources to approach in each area, and you can choose to hammer on only one of the two Chinese factions. It would gain the Japanese army little to have a pre-ordained set-up which couldn't possibly be based on where the Chinese have focused their defense. It would quite likely be a detriment to use a default set-up. The IJN will have little to do for several years and it matters little where they start.
Germany - somewhat tricky to set up. For a first game, you simply need to conquer Poland on the first turn. You have overwhelming force to do it with, and the Rhine river, the neutral Benelux countries, and US public opinion to shelter you from any Allied adventures in the west. You don't want the French to get four corps across the Rhine to activate Yugoslavia, but in a newbie game it is unlikely the Allies would reach that conclusion anyway. The Poles actually set up after you, but as long as you have a bit of good stuff in East Prussia and Czechoslovakia both, there is nothing their set-up can do to hurt you.
I agree that setting up that many pieces is a bit of a daunting task. But things only get more challenging as you go into the game. The old tag-line on the box of many a war-game applies massively: You are the Commander. YOU decide.
< Message edited by brian brian -- 10/8/2014 4:42:08 PM >
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Global war setup - 
Different setups would be nice IMO, the only problem I might have with that is the two different die options, I know that is minor, some players might like to play with the one die some with the 2 die, I think that would lead us to make up too many fast starts, could be confusing with 20 fast starts in your MWIF library, 
just an opinion. 
this game has so many options that exploring them is the heart of this game. 
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