Firstly some praise. Fernando Torres thank you so much for putting togther this mod. I can't express how much I have enjoyed playing this mod and how superior it is to vanilla Hoi2.
Since there is no WiF "manual" I thought I would post some of the tips I have picked up ( the HARD way ).
I am by no means an expert, please keep that in mind.
*spoiler alert*
- I mention some events which I recommend you find about first hand. So if you haven't played a game of WiF before do yourself a favour and quickly lose...Ahem...play a game.
This is by no means comprehensive ( I assume you are already well versed in Hoi2 so I only mention major differences).
So in no particular order ( For a German GC normal/normal).
36 - 39
Build up is not too different from vanilla. I would recommend building up infrastructure along borders and factories. Infra is always your friend. As you will soon learn mobile defenses are the differnce between holding and folding. A unit turning up 1 hour late to stop a breakthrough is heartbreaking thing to watch.
Force selection: Make your personal goals ealry and then stick to them regardless.
Army
75% foot troops is an agreed on compromise between attacking ability and "bums on borders". Keep in mind that you will be up against vastly more numerous enemies ( USSR has around 400 divisions in 41 ) so if you go for too many "hard hitting" units like armour and motor inf you will get swamped and slowly chewed up.
Also don't go crazy with brigades for your foot troops, especially movement hindering ones. All you need maybe is a few arty units for hard defensive lines etc. Any more and you are dipping too much into your TC and Manpower.
Airforce
CAS and TAC ofcourse. Manpower shortages is a serious problem you will be facing so increasing the airforce is one of the best things you can do if in doubt. Do not forget your inteceptors either or when you start seeing the US patroling the channel with 30 fighters you will never get off the ground.
Navy
You are going to need every IC devoted to the previous two if you want a shot at Russia in 41. Anything more ambitious than a few subs and you will really feel the pinch later on. Personally I forgo navy altogther until 42.
Diplomacy
I'll leave this up to you but I wouldn't recommend leaving the WW2 timeline unless you are feeling very strong. Events punish a warmongering germany ( An early sealion 1940 will bring america into the war two years sooner...not fun as you prepare for russia )
Trade
Grab oil and rares, lots of...you'll miss them when they are gone.
1939 >
Poland
This is the time to train generals! It is messy but break your men up so as to train them all. ( Still leave ranked guys to keep command limits )
Tip:This goes especially for your future fighter aces ( air combat gives very small xp). Give each bomber a fighter ace to level them up. Don't let them get past skill level 5-6 before promoting. By Frances end you will have 2-3 8 units of interceptors tearing up the english channel )
Tip:Your units on the french border should all be split up as well since you know they will be attacking and you won't be. Always something to remeber if you find yourselvf in a static defense position
Tip:Never be afraid of reallocating generals instead of moving troops i.e. After a small attack you decide to hold a new defense line there and attack elsewhere. Swap your "attacky" general for a "defensive' general. This has the added bonus of keeping all your units in the fight instead of having one very tired and run down elite xp army and the rest fresh newbs.
Tip: When running a static defense against a numerically superior opponent ( USSR ) avoid running the same units back and forth. Only move 100% org units. So while rushing your motor inf with SPArt around to plug holes works wonders, in the long run you are better adjusting your boring inf units to try keep uniform org levels.
Combat
The penalties are huge for ignoring rivers, terrain and weather. These are all concepts you know from vanilla but ignore even one of these and your men will attacking with an efficiency of 1% faster than you can say "retreat".
The longer combat means only the most overpowered attacks have a chance of blitzing through before reinforcements arrive. You NEED to attack the adjacent provinces BEFORE attacking your main target. This plus diversion attacks elsewhere will greatly improve your breakthroughs.
ITALY and Africa
I ignore them. It takes too many of your precious few units to turn that tide and you need every bum on the USSR border for 41.
USSR
This is the german game killer.
At wars start you have only one goal. Trap russian units...not kill them or get VP's. Once you have made a pocket, wave to the ruskies and with the exception of a couple ( just in case ) units walk around them and form a new front line. This might seem daunting at first, leaving those 87 russian units nigh unopposed but out of supply units take months to move in the winter. If he does attack out, let him, he is just draining his org levels faster.
Then, ignore them or use them as target practice for your new up and comming air generals. While they have organisation avoid land fights ( they will still chew you up too much). Keep pushing new pockets, never ever stop.
Most importantly try to keep pockets 2 provinces from being able to link up with supply. If they manage to supply that pocket of 87 russian divisions behind your front lines you are in serious poo.
Tip:Never attack cities unless surronded and starving. You will just draw more and more russians into the perfect defensive battle which you will lose org and then the battle...to be greeted by hordes of angry fresh russians on the counterattack.
Tip:3 paratroopers will save your game. Firstly for taking out Gibralter and other hard to get to locations and secondly as the finishing blow in closing pockets.
1941 August! Winter warning alert. Firstly rains will turn your elite tank divisions into mud submarines, then snow and the "russian winter" event will cripple the rest.
Don't worry though, it is still august.
The whole summer you should be considering where to "draw the line" for winter. Make use of your logistics and terrain maps to find natural lines ( Rivers are the obvious choice). Don't be greedy, set a realistic goal you can achieve safely ( If you leave just one opening in your line when the snow starts you will be paying for it all winter). When one you units hits this line..STAY and start building infra 3 -4 lots. Infa not only helps move your elastic defences around but by summer you will have a jump start off your lovely german roads.
TIP: Winter generals. Since you know you are going no where soon, swap out your generals for winter specialists. This goes double for any oil using units. The difference to attrition is huge.
TIP: If you can do it pull your mobile forces off the front altogther ( strat deploy). My last game say my 33 mobile units wintering in konisberg eating waffles and drinking beer while my poor foot soldiers froze and died in the thousands on the front line. Comes to summer they waltzed back to the front lines all happy and fresh and asked if they had missed anything - Warning. only do this if you KNOW you are safe.
TIP: Winter is when your airforce shines. With all ground attacks at 1% eff your airforce is the only way you can attack russian org levels. Keep them bombing day and night any likely attack points( within reason ).
Keep an eye on moscow and lenningrad. They both can get supplies with events which will screw you if you think it is a safe pocket.
Keep your oil units away from the frozen north and the mountains and deserts of the south. Let your inf slog through the crap then strat deploy to the front ( It takes months for armour to get to the pacific the whole time burning org and fuel )
The first winter will see your manpower hit zero unless you want to forgo replacements for extra units ( More weak units > fewer strong ones).
Obvious tip that always catches me out: Never base airplanes in unprotected enemy provinces ( unless you don't mind abusing save games).
By winter 42 you need to have the Russians atleast on par with you numerically. ( If you have done well they should be shattered with only the long cleanup ahead )
By 43 you will start having the Americans popping in for beer and bratwurst and as a good host you need to be there to greet them.
Hope this was some help to a newbie from a newbie.
P.S. Please post further suggestions ( or correct my glaring mistakes)
Since there is no WiF "manual" I thought I would post some of the tips I have picked up ( the HARD way ).
I am by no means an expert, please keep that in mind.
*spoiler alert*
- I mention some events which I recommend you find about first hand. So if you haven't played a game of WiF before do yourself a favour and quickly lose...Ahem...play a game.
This is by no means comprehensive ( I assume you are already well versed in Hoi2 so I only mention major differences).
So in no particular order ( For a German GC normal/normal).
36 - 39
Build up is not too different from vanilla. I would recommend building up infrastructure along borders and factories. Infra is always your friend. As you will soon learn mobile defenses are the differnce between holding and folding. A unit turning up 1 hour late to stop a breakthrough is heartbreaking thing to watch.
Force selection: Make your personal goals ealry and then stick to them regardless.
Army
75% foot troops is an agreed on compromise between attacking ability and "bums on borders". Keep in mind that you will be up against vastly more numerous enemies ( USSR has around 400 divisions in 41 ) so if you go for too many "hard hitting" units like armour and motor inf you will get swamped and slowly chewed up.
Also don't go crazy with brigades for your foot troops, especially movement hindering ones. All you need maybe is a few arty units for hard defensive lines etc. Any more and you are dipping too much into your TC and Manpower.
Airforce
CAS and TAC ofcourse. Manpower shortages is a serious problem you will be facing so increasing the airforce is one of the best things you can do if in doubt. Do not forget your inteceptors either or when you start seeing the US patroling the channel with 30 fighters you will never get off the ground.
Navy
You are going to need every IC devoted to the previous two if you want a shot at Russia in 41. Anything more ambitious than a few subs and you will really feel the pinch later on. Personally I forgo navy altogther until 42.
Diplomacy
I'll leave this up to you but I wouldn't recommend leaving the WW2 timeline unless you are feeling very strong. Events punish a warmongering germany ( An early sealion 1940 will bring america into the war two years sooner...not fun as you prepare for russia )
Trade
Grab oil and rares, lots of...you'll miss them when they are gone.
1939 >
Poland
This is the time to train generals! It is messy but break your men up so as to train them all. ( Still leave ranked guys to keep command limits )
Tip:This goes especially for your future fighter aces ( air combat gives very small xp). Give each bomber a fighter ace to level them up. Don't let them get past skill level 5-6 before promoting. By Frances end you will have 2-3 8 units of interceptors tearing up the english channel )
Tip:Your units on the french border should all be split up as well since you know they will be attacking and you won't be. Always something to remeber if you find yourselvf in a static defense position
Tip:Never be afraid of reallocating generals instead of moving troops i.e. After a small attack you decide to hold a new defense line there and attack elsewhere. Swap your "attacky" general for a "defensive' general. This has the added bonus of keeping all your units in the fight instead of having one very tired and run down elite xp army and the rest fresh newbs.
Tip: When running a static defense against a numerically superior opponent ( USSR ) avoid running the same units back and forth. Only move 100% org units. So while rushing your motor inf with SPArt around to plug holes works wonders, in the long run you are better adjusting your boring inf units to try keep uniform org levels.
Combat
The penalties are huge for ignoring rivers, terrain and weather. These are all concepts you know from vanilla but ignore even one of these and your men will attacking with an efficiency of 1% faster than you can say "retreat".
The longer combat means only the most overpowered attacks have a chance of blitzing through before reinforcements arrive. You NEED to attack the adjacent provinces BEFORE attacking your main target. This plus diversion attacks elsewhere will greatly improve your breakthroughs.
ITALY and Africa
I ignore them. It takes too many of your precious few units to turn that tide and you need every bum on the USSR border for 41.
USSR
This is the german game killer.
At wars start you have only one goal. Trap russian units...not kill them or get VP's. Once you have made a pocket, wave to the ruskies and with the exception of a couple ( just in case ) units walk around them and form a new front line. This might seem daunting at first, leaving those 87 russian units nigh unopposed but out of supply units take months to move in the winter. If he does attack out, let him, he is just draining his org levels faster.
Then, ignore them or use them as target practice for your new up and comming air generals. While they have organisation avoid land fights ( they will still chew you up too much). Keep pushing new pockets, never ever stop.
Most importantly try to keep pockets 2 provinces from being able to link up with supply. If they manage to supply that pocket of 87 russian divisions behind your front lines you are in serious poo.
Tip:Never attack cities unless surronded and starving. You will just draw more and more russians into the perfect defensive battle which you will lose org and then the battle...to be greeted by hordes of angry fresh russians on the counterattack.
Tip:3 paratroopers will save your game. Firstly for taking out Gibralter and other hard to get to locations and secondly as the finishing blow in closing pockets.
1941 August! Winter warning alert. Firstly rains will turn your elite tank divisions into mud submarines, then snow and the "russian winter" event will cripple the rest.
Don't worry though, it is still august.
The whole summer you should be considering where to "draw the line" for winter. Make use of your logistics and terrain maps to find natural lines ( Rivers are the obvious choice). Don't be greedy, set a realistic goal you can achieve safely ( If you leave just one opening in your line when the snow starts you will be paying for it all winter). When one you units hits this line..STAY and start building infra 3 -4 lots. Infa not only helps move your elastic defences around but by summer you will have a jump start off your lovely german roads.
TIP: Winter generals. Since you know you are going no where soon, swap out your generals for winter specialists. This goes double for any oil using units. The difference to attrition is huge.
TIP: If you can do it pull your mobile forces off the front altogther ( strat deploy). My last game say my 33 mobile units wintering in konisberg eating waffles and drinking beer while my poor foot soldiers froze and died in the thousands on the front line. Comes to summer they waltzed back to the front lines all happy and fresh and asked if they had missed anything - Warning. only do this if you KNOW you are safe.
TIP: Winter is when your airforce shines. With all ground attacks at 1% eff your airforce is the only way you can attack russian org levels. Keep them bombing day and night any likely attack points( within reason ).
Keep an eye on moscow and lenningrad. They both can get supplies with events which will screw you if you think it is a safe pocket.
Keep your oil units away from the frozen north and the mountains and deserts of the south. Let your inf slog through the crap then strat deploy to the front ( It takes months for armour to get to the pacific the whole time burning org and fuel )
The first winter will see your manpower hit zero unless you want to forgo replacements for extra units ( More weak units > fewer strong ones).
Obvious tip that always catches me out: Never base airplanes in unprotected enemy provinces ( unless you don't mind abusing save games).
By winter 42 you need to have the Russians atleast on par with you numerically. ( If you have done well they should be shattered with only the long cleanup ahead )
By 43 you will start having the Americans popping in for beer and bratwurst and as a good host you need to be there to greet them.
Hope this was some help to a newbie from a newbie.
P.S. Please post further suggestions ( or correct my glaring mistakes)
