From: pnatta@ix.netcom.com Subject: WS&IM impressions - if interested After reading a preview of WS&IM game last _November_, I waited very impatiently for this game. What finally arrived is a very mixed bag of good and mediocrity. The AI, most unfortunately and perhaps predictably, is not very good. It's not awful, as there's not that many demands placed on it in comparison to say... Talonsoft's Battleground series of wargames. Rather than saying the AI is bad, I'd rather say it's not very sensible in it's choices of which shot to use and where to aim it, and what type of sail to employ and when to use it. Actual AI ship manuevering is not bad, but it's not very smart when it comes to proper fighting tactics. It will concentrate on rigging shots long after the enemy ship is nearly crippled, that is to say you needn't totally disable a ship's rigging to defeat it. Instead of slowing an enemy ship to a crawl then going in for the kill, the AI most times just keeps pounding away at enemy rigging ad nasueum. I've seldom seen the AI apply a good dose of grape shot before grappling either, instead choosing to hammer away all game long with roundshot then pulling alongside for immediate boarding. What's pretty bad is when you set friendly ships to be controlled by the computer for both manuevering and firing. Again, the manuevering isn't too bad, but you see things like ships-of-the-line going straight in for boarding, hardly firing at all. Worse yet is that friendly computer controlled ships do NOT assign crewmen for boarding purposes when they are about to grapple. Neither does the computer assign men for repairs apparently. For example, I played the Trafalgar scenario as the French and her allied Spanish. I took manual control of all French ships, but gave all Spanish ships over to the computer to control. Even though all Spanish crews were POOR, the computer drove these ships straight into the British line with no intent other than to close and grapple with Brit SOLs who had large ELITE crews. After taking severe punishment on their way to successful grappling, I looked at the crew assignments of the Spanish ships. Not only had the poor crews taken severe punishment, the computer had assigned NO crewmen to boarding action. I could have changed that myself at this point, but shouldn't have had to, and I wanted to see how the AI would handle it's own affairs. Needless to say, these Spanish crews were easily repulsed, and many Spanish colors were struck...an utter waste of ships and men by the AI. Very disappointing. As to the campaign mode being restricted to just commanding large American frigates, what I did was to take a 14 gun tub, win the campaign, then take a 16 gun ship, win that campaign, then take a 20 gun ship, etc. In this way you can simulate getting better ships with each successful career. Warning though...if you don't get through the British blockade immediately on turn one, (a free turn 1 pass so to speak), meaning that on turn one if you have to face a 36 gun or better blockading British frigate who's cornered you right off the bat in your 16 gun or less sloop, it's best to try to nimbly sail away thumbing your nose at it. Your 600 yard short range carronades are simply no match for cannons with 2000 yard ranges. You'll run across more evenly matched duels soon afterward. What's very important to remember with Avalon Hill's "Wooden Ships & Iron Men" computer game is that it's a computerized turn-based _boardgame_. It is not a sailing simulation whatsoever. If you keep this in mind, and all the restrictions that it encompasses, it's not a bad game at all. It's a little thin yes, the proverbial "beer & pretzels" type of game. But it is not a demanding, time consuming, "figure the angles of fire" sort of affair. As a fan of the Age of Fighting Sail and computer games (and since the two have rarely been paired up successfully, if ever), it's a definate keeper for me. Still, the question haunts me...what was the 12+ month delay in release of this game used for? There's not that much steak, and even less sizzle. Phil Natta Virtual Wargamer Discussion Board Computer & PBEM Gaming COMP: Wooden Ships and Iron Men (AH) Jim Johnson - 07:25pm Oct 15, 1996 EST I just received my copy of WSIM in the mail and have mixed initial reviews. The first comment is that it doesnt allow you to proceed in a campaign as anything but an American in the War of 1812. Those of us who envisioned recreating the careers of Hornblower, Bolitho, or Aubrey will have to wait for another treatment, maybe Age of Sail by Talonsoft? Secondly, the strategic engine looks weak, with no stategic map to patrol, the computer determining when you fight, not your own skulking around a port off England, or Gibralter waiting for a fat Indiaman. Third, there is no way to integrate a paper, off the PC strategic game into the WSIm. For example you could play a strategic game using maps and umpires for hidden movement, and then transfer your ships to the computer for tactical play. You cannot modify the damage levels or crew sizes of ships to account for previous battles. The most greivous error is the inability to add land to the map to simulate offshore engagements or battles such as the Nile. This is the worst error due to the numerous raids and cutting out operations which occurred inshore during the period. Another complaint, as if I havent whined enough allready, is that Trafalgar is only 23 vessels (half). After all it is acomputer game, where are the other ships? If workload is the issue, let the computer control the other half. Despite all my kibbutzing, I will probably play WSIM until the CD croaks or Age of Sail is released. Jim Greg Nichols - 09:10am Oct 16, 1996 EST (#1 of 1) This is a game I've been waiting for for quite some time and from what I've heard so far it sounds mediocre at best. A couple of things have surprised me. 1) How limited the strategic elements seem to be and 2) That they didn't follow thru on the animation touchs. I hear that you don't get an animation of the enemy's ship sinking! All that work and they couldn't include a little gaming thrill for the victor?! Sigh. The following is some more input on the game that I grabbed off a newsgroup. -Greg The game, I feel, is very slick. I found it at an EB here in Alb, NM (along with Third Reich!) It feels like the board game with no hexes. The game is turn based, user plots each ship or leaves any combination under computer control. The AI looks OK so far, no enemy ships have done really stupid things. The interface is very mouse dependent but simple to learn and easy to use. When moving ships, the computer controls when you are allowed to turn within your move based on the ship's turn rate. At first I thought it was just a buggy delay in the system, then I remembered that 144 gun S'sOL don't turn on dimes!! There is one thing I have noticed and it may just be me, I didn't see any notice when an enemy ship stuck her colors. All I know was that my ship would no longer fire at it (it was drifting, so no big deal) The campaign game is a nice touch, you are an American captain in the revolution, you must break out of the British blockade, then prey on Brit shipping and lone warships. It is fun. You can select the ship you start out with too! The Scenario designer is capable, but two things annoyed me. (they don't affect game play at all, so these are gripes, not bugs!) 1. Only one ship name of each class, everything after that is given a number, i.e. You add a 100 gun SOL, computer puts in the Sussex, when you add the next 100 gun SOL, it is the Sussex 2, Sussex 3 and so on. Minor, very minor. 2. To change the crew quality you must select each ship then, hit a small region of the heading with your mouse and change it. Lame, should allow you to select multiple ships and change them all at once. For all I know, those two gripes are probably a case of RTFM on my part, this is a partial review based on 2.5 hours play time. Music is good, sounds are well done. One odd thing, as installed on my system, the music was turned up all the way and the speech was down about half way, end result was the music drowned out the crew speech?? go figger. One install note: I play under Win95 and it always aborted without running on MY system (your system may vary :). All I had to do was change the shortcut they provide to include the /m parameter to the game and it ran fine under win95. I checked in DOS and had the same result, I had to use the /m parameter. I have a P166 and an STB lightspeed 128 VidCard, this may be common or may be unique to the Tseng ET6000 chipset?? All in all, I give the game an A to A+, very good to see Avalon Hill doing something good! It whets my appetite for the unopened box of Third Reich to my right!! See ya in 97 after I whip the Nazis back into the stone age! Take it easy! Bill Castello