The Operational Art of War 4

[Huw the Poo]

I've got £23 burning a hole in my Steam wallet thanks to a refund, and I'm seriously considering this.  I need someone to sell me on it!

One caveat: I note it uses Slitherine's PBEM service, which after playing FoG:E I am less than impressed with.  Honest comments on the service when playing TOAW 4 please.

[Barthheart]

I've bought just about every version of this game, including the latest, and still don't like it. The time control on turn duration just makes no sense to me.

[bbmike]

I've bought just about every version of this game, including the latest (and will by the next version), and still don't like it. The time control on turn duration just makes no sense to me.

ftfy 

[BanzaiCat]

Gee...what about the manual for TOAW III? I hear a really talented guy wrote it 

[Barthheart]

I've bought just about every version of this game, including the latest (and will by the next version), and still don't like it. The time control on turn duration just makes no sense to me.

ftfy 

No damn it! Probably not.

[bbmike]

 

[Huw the Poo]

Well this thread has been no use at all so far! 

The time control on turn duration just makes no sense to me.

'splain

[bob48]

Gee...what about the manual for TOAW III? I hear a really talented guy wrote it 

Oh. I thought you did it.

[Barthheart]

Well this thread has been no use at all so far! 

The time control on turn duration just makes no sense to me.

'splain

Well, to explain it, it would first have to make sense to me. 

Here goes:
Movement and attack all take place in the same phase. Each action phase has set number of segments. Some thing you can do with your units, move, attack, etc.,  take differing  amounts of segments. So if you move slow moving units and attack with them it will take more segments than faster units doing the same thing. Large battles take more segments than small. Moving far take more than not so far.
You move stuff and setup attacks then hit execute. The game calculates how many segments are used up based on what your orders were. If you have left over segments, then you can do some more orders etc.
To me, it's a colossal PITA to try and work all that out ahead of time. And sometime you're just guessing because there's a random element in there that can make battles longer or shorter so you're never sure.

Just not my cup of tea.

Oh and it's kind of ugly considering how much time went into "updating" to the latest version.

Lots of people love though so they must see something that I don't.....

[bob48]

I remember playing (or trying to) the first version of this way back. I'm going with Vance on this one - not my cup of tea.

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks Bart, I get you.  It doesn't sound like something that would bother me.  I'd drive myself mad if I tried to crunch every number, and I think I'd play more "organically" (ugh), in other words just do stuff that makes sense rather than what would be numerically the most efficient.  If you see what I mean.

[Barthheart]

Thanks Bart, I get you.  It doesn't sound like something that would bother me.  I'd drive myself mad if I tried to crunch every number, and I think I'd play more "organically" (ugh), in other words just do stuff that makes sense rather than what would be numerically the most efficient.  If you see what I mean.

"Organically", good word, is exactly how I end up trying to play it and find it completely frustrating.

[Sir Slash]

I couldn't get my head around the first version either which is why I can say the current version, 4, has much improved the whole Time Control thing. It is much less intrusive now and you can almost always get all your moves in without running out of time in the turn. Fighting battles takes a little more thought, 'Do I attack now to save time, a Hasty Attack, or wait until more forces can take part, a Planned Attack that uses more time'? It still takes getting used to but it's much improved now. The Naval Battle part is still an oddity though and unpredictable to me. Lots of scenarios, small, medium, large and Monster sized as well, though the ones from earlier versions of the game don't play as well as Version 4 scenarios do. Good game but shows it's age at times. My 2 cents.

[Huw the Poo]

Thanks Slash, I appreciate it.

Fighting battles takes a little more thought, 'Do I attack now to save time, a Hasty Attack, or wait until more forces can take part, a Planned Attack that uses more time'?

See, that sounds really cool to me.  Exactly the kind of decisions you should be making in a game like this.

[bayonetbrant]

Gee...what about the manual for TOAW III? I hear a really talented guy wrote it 

Oh. I thought you did it.

Zing