WWI: Centenial Edition

[Rayfer]

Guess the obvious question is, is it worth $10?

The absolute newbie thread may help answer that question for you: http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=6547.0

The game is significantly more complicated than what I cover there, which is generally a good thing; but I deal with a lot of the quirkiness in my newbie tutorial.

Can't believe I haven't seen these.  Thanks.

As for the "Is it worth $10" question:  I'll readily admit to being a big fan of the game, but with that disclaimer, now that CE provides a version of Gold that actually works for me, I'm confident I'll play it at least as much as I'll ever play EAW, which I was happy to buy at four times the price.  Both are equally good, but different, games.   

I suspect both EAW and WWI:CE are complex, complicated and have steep learning curves, but is either one less so and by what subjective degree, i.e. is one a lot easier to learn than the other?

[jomni]

WWI CE leads to trench warfare. EAW doesn't.  'Nuff said...

CE is based on a board game so rules are more concrete. Combat is based on numbers and tables. EAW is a bit harder to grasp based on previous Ageod games as more elements are considered in the simulation.

[Queeg]

I suspect both EAW and WWI:CE are complex, complicated and have steep learning curves, but is either one less so and by what subjective degree, i.e. is one a lot easier to learn than the other?

I've played most of the AGEOD games, so I'm already very familiar with their mechanics.  But I still find WWI Gold/CE to be a bit more accessible.  Like jomni  says, it benefits from having a concrete set of rules - and the manual is very good.  And since it's a mix of grand strategy and war game elements, much of what you do - like diplomacy - isn't based on tables and numbers but more on historical knowledge and common sense.  Since you also fight the battles yourself, you get an idea pretty quickly of what works and why - there's more Pavlovian feedback in the gameplay.

EAW is focused almost exclusively on warfare, with heavy emphasis on army formation and operation.  Combat is a hands-off affair, and while the game generates reams of post-battle data to sift through, it's not always clear why things turned out as they did.  There's just a lot more going on in EAW that is concealed under the hood than there is in Gold/CE.  And, for me at least, undestanding the outcomes in EAW usually requires an understanding of the game system; the results in CE are more often understandable with resort just to common sense.

Bottom line is that Gold/CE does a broader range of things to a complexity level of 7, while EAW does mostly one thing to a complexity level of 10. 

[tgb]

I must have some deficiency because I find the documentation for Gold/CE very hard to get through.  I don't think it's well-written at all.  I plan to check out the tutorials JasonPratt wrote to see if they help.

[mikeck]

I think Queeg pretty much nailed it

[Queeg]

I must have some deficiency because I find the documentation for Gold/CE very hard to get through.  I don't think it's well-written at all.  I plan to check out the tutorials JasonPratt wrote to see if they help.

I'm going through the tutorials now and they're great. 

As for the CE manual, it's definitely a matter of taste.  I like all the discussion about the various historical variables - it's the kind of detailed discussion about not just the what, but the why, that you just don't see much in manuals anymore. 

[Kushan]

I bought it. For a week mind like mine $10 was hard to pass up. Gaming plate is a bit full but I'm going to try and fit it in somewhere. At the very least I'll make an effort to go through JasonPratts tutorials.

Edit: Just tried playing on my surface pro, mainly to see if it would run. Starts up ok but the game doesn't recognize the touchscreen or the MS pen that comes with the surface.

[tgb]

I must have some deficiency because I find the documentation for Gold/CE very hard to get through.  I don't think it's well-written at all.  I plan to check out the tutorials JasonPratt wrote to see if they help.

I'm going through the tutorials now and they're great. 

As for the CE manual, it's definitely a matter of taste.  I like all the discussion about the various historical variables - it's the kind of detailed discussion about not just the what, but the why, that you just don't see much in manuals anymore.

It's not even the historical stuff.  It's obvious that it was written by someone whose native language isn't English, and some of the phraseology and sentence structure is tough to follow.  I realize the writer's English is better than my French, but still.......

[TacticalWargames]

WW1Gold\Centenial is still the best Grand Strat WW1 wargame out there. The mechanics work perfectly and manages to do the whole war without to many issues. EAW sufefrs becasue the engine was  never designed for WW1 and so it has difficulty in doing static attritional warfare with grand offensives.

A shame because some aspects I really like like the reporting system and the combat and the large selection of modifiers etc etc.

[Nefaro]

I bought it. For a week mind like mine $10 was hard to pass up. Gaming plate is a bit full but I'm going to try and fit it in somewhere.

As did I.

The one lasting major complaint I had with WWI: Gold, even after the hordes of patches that put it into decent shape, was the sluggishness of the interface and load times.

Hearing that the file structure is the same helped too.  JMass' map mod is great, in case the map isn't bright enough for your tastes.  My sound mod also adjusts some of the more annoying sound files, so I'm glad that I don't have to repackage it (hopefully it's still hosted.. hrmm).

[jomni]

I actually liked WWI Gold if it weren't for a fatal crash that rendered the save game useless. Sometimes, loading the autosave worked but it didn't for me.  I never did restart another campaign.
I bought WWI CE yesterday.  Here's hoping I get to the end of the campaign.  O0

[TacticalWargames]

Must admit it is good to see them beat who ever it was (ahem) stopping them from publishing :)

[JasonPratt]

^^ Is it back up on Steam now? I mean visibly available?


Also, I really need to post an updated version of my absolute newbie tutorial, as reading through it yesterday I caught a number of composition goofs and several outright errors.

[Kushan]

^^ Is it back up on Steam now? I mean visibly available?

I checked last night and it still wasn't showing on steam.

[JasonPratt]

Updates to last year's tutorial now accomplished, appended to end of thread in 5 parts (instead of 13).