Here is a link to a Free Download from Matrix games. That a revamped version is due out shortly entitled, War in the Pacific - Admiral's Edition.
Tgb wrote:I have WitP. About once a year I re-install it, load a scenario, and then my eyes glaze over. Way too much micro management for my tastes. The full-campaign scenario, done PBEM style, can take more time than the actual, historical Pacific war itself. I've spent time with shorter scenarios, like Guadalcanal, and they're plenty fun. You can tell that there's a huge amount of data and modeling going into the results, and that's very gratifying in a grog-geek kind of way.
I hope the AE will include more shorter scenarios. If you want shorter scenarios, then WITP or AE is not for you, try Uncommon Valor. WITP is about fighting the pacific war from the west coast of the US to the east coast of India, China to New Zealand. AE will require even more micro management, a rule set that makes the US tax code seem easy to understand and even more detail.
AE is the super die hard grognard edition, WITP is just the tutorial and trainer for AE Just something simple like a destroyer can be converted in 4 or 5 different classes (destroyer minelayer, destroyer transport, destroyer AV support, destroyer tender, etc.) each one with it's own ship graphic. I don't think any war gamer has gone into this level of detail before. I've played WITP from it's release 5 years ago and I don't know what some of the ship classes are in AE, even I wonder if the developers went too far with AE. I still play WITP, I like the detail and looking forward to AE. No other wargame ever made lets you fight a war covering over half the world with this level of detail.
Some of the New Features in AE: - New Fog of War, if you don't recon it, you won't see it! - Search arcs for patrol aircraft. - Completely new AI. - New land combat model. - Ability to swap and edit AI files for each new game (have Japan invade New Zealand, Australia, India, a second Pearl Harbor raid, carrier raids on the West Coast of the US, invade Alaska, etc.). - Tons of new units(aircraft, ship classes, ships, land units) like midget subs with sub carriers. - Way points to keep ships/taskforces away from enemy air power and setup sub/ASW patrols on the map.
If you spend the time to learn how to play WITP, there's nothing else like it and you sure get your moneys worth! Pad152 wrote:I still play WITP, I like the detail and looking forward to AE. No other wargame ever made lets you fight a war covering over half the world with this level of detail. Some of the New Features in AE: - New Fog of War, if you don't recon it, you won't see it! - Search arcs for patrol aircraft. - Completely new AI.
- New land combat model. - Ability to swap and edit AI files for each new game (have Japan invade New Zealand, Australia, India, a second Pearl Harbor raid, carrier raids on the West Coast of the US, invade Alaska, etc.). - Tons of new units(aircraft, ship classes, ships, land units) like midget subs with sub carriers. - Way points to keep ships/taskforces away from enemy air power and setup sub/ASW patrols on the map. If you spend the time to learn how to play WITP, there's nothing else like it and you sure get your moneys worth!
I'm definitely looking forward to it. I doubt that I'll ever play a full-war campaign, but the mechanics and sheer data involved in the game make even the smaller scenarios very interesting. As I understand it, many people play for limited spans of the war.
There are scenarios starting at various turning points, so you might just choose to play (for instance) the first year after Pearl Harbor, the first six months after Midway, the final months of the war as Japan, etc etc. Plus there are scenarios that use only a portion of the map (the Solomon Islands campaign, for instance). Tgb wrote:It looks like the manual is much improved over the original, but for my WW II micro-management fix,I'm waiting for Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich. Same level of complexity, but covering the European air war. It's supposed to be out in the next couple of weeks. I still fondly remember a computer game that was all about the bombing of the Reich, back in the 1980's I think. I believe it was called USAAF.
That was alot of fun. If this game that you mention is like that then I will have to look into it. Tgb wrote:It looks like the manual is much improved over the original, but for my WW II micro-management fix,I'm waiting for Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich. Same level of complexity, but covering the European air war. It's supposed to be out in the next couple of weeks. I still fondly remember a computer game that was all about the bombing of the Reich, back in the 1980's I think. I believe it was called USAAF.
That was alot of fun. If this game that you mention is like that then I will have to look into it. Bombing of the Reich is a remake of USAFF, both by Gary Grigsby.